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Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller
Catharine Richert and Samantha Matsumoto

Summer reading with Minnesota’s beloved booksellers

Milkweed Authors on the shelves.
Authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rebecca Solnit and Jim Harrison line the shelves of Milkweed Books, alongside their own writers at the store in Minneapolis.
Evan Frost | MPR News 2016

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When guest host Catharine Richert thinks back to her childhood summers, an image that comes to mind immediately is sitting on her front porch in North Carolina reading. She devoured everything from “The Babysitters Club” and Nancy Drew books, to “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Clan of the Cavebear” (which she borrowed from her mom’s shelves.) 

That lazy feeling of reading without an agenda or a timeline is something she’s trying to bring back into her chaotic life. And weirdly enough, the pandemic has allowed her to make space for this. 

Richert channeled that vibe on Friday during the show. And for her, this summer, it was “Ask Again, Yes” by Mary Beth Keane that she just adored and has been recommending to everyone. 

Guests:                                                                                                              

  • Dionne Sims is the store owner of Black Garnet Books.

  • Claire Laine is the publicist at Milkweed Editions.

  • Anthony Ceballos is a bookseller and events coordinator at Birchbark Books & Native Arts. He is also a writer and performance poet.

  • Halee Kirkwood is a writer, teaching artist and manager at Birchbark Books & Native Arts.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.