"In 1910 Minnesota, Nilda Carlson's dreams are coming true. Though her first few months in America were difficult, her life now resembles the images that filled her daydreams in Norway. She and her younger brother Ivar live in their own house, just a short distance from her older brother and his family. Together they work the farm and fell trees for lumber. They plan to grow a dairy herd, weave rugs out of their own wool, and make skis to sell. Everything...

As December turns Lake Eden into the North Pole, the heat is on in Hannah Swensen's kitchen to honor two Christmas promises: baking irresistible holiday cupcakes and preventing a person who attempted murder from succeeding the second time around. While Hannah speeds through a lengthy holiday checklist, drama in town grows like Santa's waistline on Christmas Eve. Her sister Andrea wants to stave off the blues by helping out at The Cookie Jar, Michele's...

Hannah's up to her ears with Easter orders rushing in at The Cookie Jar, plus a festive meal to prepare for a dinner party at her mother's  penthouse. But everything comes crashing to a halt when Hannah receives a panicked call from her sister Andrea--Mayor Richard Bascomb has been murdered and she's the prime suspect. Even with his reputation for being a bully, Mayor Bascomb--or Ricky Ticky, as Hannah's mother likes to call him--had been unusually...

Painted into a corner after stumbling upon the body of a visiting curator, librarian Kathleen Paulson, her detective boyfriend, Marcus and her magical cats, Owen and Hercules, must track down a murderous art thief before someone else has a brush with death.

A boy searches for his fugitive brother in 1960s Minnesota in this New York Times bestseller-"a stunning debut novel [of] faith, miracles, and family" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). An eleven-year-old asthmatic boy, Reuben Land has reason to believe in miracles. But he will soon learn that life, even when touched by the divine, is never easy. Along with his father and poetically inclined sister, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search...

"The acclaimed author of Ordinary Grace crafts a powerful novel about an orphan's life-changing adventure traveling down America's great rivers during the Great Depression, seeking both a place to call home and a sense of purpose in a world sinking into despair"-- 1932, Minnesota. The Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an...

Discusses the geographical, historical, and cultural aspects of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

"Class reunions: a time for memories--good, bad, and, as Virgil Flowers is about to find out, deadly. Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt - and as it turned out, homicidal - local school board, and now the town's back in view with more alarming news: A woman's been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There's a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class...

The Tri-County Summer Solstice Celebration has come to town, and even among local artisans, athletes, and marching bands, Hannah attracts fans of her own while serving lip-smacking pink lemonade desserts. But the mood sours when a body turns up, leading revelers to wonder if the festivities mark both the longest day of the year and the deadliest. A retired professional MLB player has met a terrifying end and, considering the rumors swirling about...