Book reviews

Summer 2005

By Gayla Marty

From M, summer 2005

Churches of Minnesota: An Illustrated Guide

By Alan K. Lathrop; photography by Bob Firth

From a tiny, white Orthodox church in rural Koochiching County to Portland Prairie Methodist Episcopal near the Iowa border, houses of worship are one of the most recognizable and enduring features of Minnesota's landscape. More than a hundred churches and synagogues--small and large but all significant--are presented in this volume. Several color photos, a glossary, architect biographies, and a list of more than 200 other sites of interest add value to this welcome companion for any summer traveler. Lathrop is a professor and curator of the Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries.

University of Minnesota Press, 2003; ISBN 0-8166-2909-9; $29.95 pb

Poetic Healing

By Mark E. Huglen and Basil B. Clark

An ambush in Vietnam left Basil Clark with tinnitus, a constant ringing in his ears that drove him to despair. Years later, teaching theater and communications at a college in Kentucky, Clark revealed to a colleague the poems, plays, and essays that had helped him survive and make meaning of his trauma and disability. Here Clark's poetry and raw emotion are presented with Huglen's critical commentary on the five phases of poetic healing, creating a timely testimony to the courage of the spirit and the human need to hear and be heard. Huglen teaches communications at the University's Crookston campus.

Parlor Press, revised and expanded edition, 2005; ISBN 1-932559-53-1; $24 pb

Things I Can't Tell You

By Michael Dennis Browne

If there's one book you take to the cabin or beach this year, make it this one. Browne illuminates daily life and the natural world in a way that opens the door to the poetry of common language. Brimming with images of growing children, dreams, plants, and water, the poems transform the pain and tenderness of loss into a reverence for life and beauty. Browne is an award-winning professor of creative writing at the Twin Cities campus.

Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2005; ISBN 0887484298; $13.95 pb

MORE INFO: Contact University of Minnesota Bookstores, located in Coffman Memorial Union and the St. Paul Student Center, at 612-626-0559 or generalbooks@umn.edu. Look for faculty authors at www.bookstore.umn.edu/genref/faculty.html.