Book reviews

Summer 2006

By Gayla Marty

M, summer 2006

Minnesota Weather Almanac

By Mark Seeley

Popular U climatologist, meteorologist, and public radio weather commentator Seeley has created a fun-to-read guide full of facts and fables explained. It's packed with maps, historical photos, a quiz, and information by weather station, counties, and selected communities. From blizzards to droughts, from Luverne to Pigeon River, from paleo-records to three major climate trends, Seeley tells Minnesota's weather story with wise insight and humor.

Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006; ISBN 978-0-87351-554-2; $22.95 pb

Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson

By William Swanson

Carol Thompson was killed at her St. Paul home in March 1963. Her husband, criminal attorney T. Eugene Thompson, told police he called home at 8:25 that morning to confirm evening plans. He was later convicted of her murder. Through police records, court transcripts, family papers, and in-depth interviews, this account joins the best of the true-crime genre to recreate a middle American crime that made world headlines. But Swanson goes beyond the crime to track its impact on the four Thompson children. U alum Swanson, '68, is a Twin Cities writer and editor and a frequent guest lecturer in U journalism classes.

Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006; ISBN 0-87351-560-9; $19.95 hc

Consideration of the Guitar

By Ray Gonzalez

"When you listen, you are closer to love, which is that red canyon in the earth," writes Gonzalez in "Over the Shoulder." Gonzalez has been listening, and these new and collected poems are two decades of evidence. They bring to life not only the shape and weight and vibration of guitars but of rock, rivers, rattlesnakes, borders, hawks, and beloved families. His words make an opening to the canyon for us, too. Gonzalez is a professor in the creative writing program at the Twin Cities campus.

BOA Editions, Ltd., 2005; ISBN 1-929918-70-4; $19.95 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.bookstores.umn.edu/genref.