Schneider novel set during coming RNC.

Kameron Merritt

06 August 2008

You can't help but love the opening line of Bart Schneider's new novel, "The Person in the Blizzard" ; the last word is so surprising. Here it is : I'm not sure when I 1st discovered that Investigator Bobby Sabbatini, of the Saint Paul Police Dep. , had a photographic memory for poetry.

The book, maybe best described as an ironic thriller, is set in St Paul in the approaching Republican Countrywide Convention, and is encrusted with familiar names ( Jesse Ventura, Al Franken, Norm Coleman ) and familiar places ( Dunn Siblings , W.A. Schneider, the writer of 3 other books, lives in St Paul. Bull ; I am not very sure how so many folk can just up and move to another country -- and then write a book about it. They pull together a mess of dosh and purchase a crumbling old house to refurbish, I think. Or, like Polly Grose of Minneapolis, they follow their heart. Grose's new book A London Scrapbook, ( Beaver's Pool Press, $16.95, 172 pages ), is a memoir of her twenty years in London with her hubby, David. Bull ; Anthony Bukoski has released his 5th collection of short fiction. The twelve stories in North of the Port ( Southern Methodist School Press, 192 pages, $22.50 ) are set in Bukoski's hometown of Superior, Wis, and in Louisiana. His stories have been featured on State Public Radio. Twelve Long Months, ( Scholastic Press, 320 pages ) is about a Minnesota teen who falls for her gay best mate. Malloy also teaches at Hamline and the College of Minnesota. Bull ; Bill Watkins of Minneapolis has written a 2nd memoir.

The Once and Future Celt ( Scarletta Press, 344 pages, $16.95 ) is the follow up to A Celtic Childhood. Bull ; Laurel Means of Chaska will read from her new book, The Long Journey Home ( Academy Chicago Publishers, 250 pages, $16.95 ), a novel set in the 1860s in Minnesota and the Dakotas, at two p.m. Today at Common Good Books in St Paul, and at 7:30 p.m. Bull ; Signet Classics has outlined an updated edition of Sinclair Lewis' novel, Main Street, with a new introduction by George Killough of Duluth. Bull ; Submissions are being accepted thru August fifteen for the 2009 edition of Dust and Fire : Ladies's Stories, made public by Bemidji State School . Win tickets to the VimLab Boat Party on the Mississippi Stream on Aug twenty-two at 9:30 p.m, featuring live DJ's and instrumental performances by DJ Spur, Nate Laurence, Jeff Kash & Patrick James.