The Minnesota Book Award Finalists were announced earlier this month, so I would like to highlight a few of them that will be available at the library. The Minnesota Book Awards are annual awards presented for the best books by Minnesota authors that honor Minnesota stories. You can be sure all of them are worthy of a look even if they don’t win the top prize.

In the General Nonfiction category is “100 Cookies: The Baking Book for Every Kitchen, with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars and More” by Sarah Kiefer (641.8654 Kieffer). This beautiful cookbook was also nominated for a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Cookbooks! If you love baking cookies, you will want to take a look at this one, you can never have enough cookie recipes!

Another finalist for General Nonfiction is “The Language Warrior’s Manifesto: How to Keep Our Languages Alive No Matter the Odds” by Anton Treuer. (306.44 Treuer). Anton Treuer presents the case for revitalizing indigenous languages and cultures. He is also the author of “Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask.”

In the category of Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, we have “Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir” by Kao Kalia Yang (305.9069 Yang). Yang, a Hmong refugee herself, tells the inspiring stories of some of the many refugees that make their home in the Twin Cities. Kao Kalia Yang is also the award winning author of the “Song Poet: A Memoir of my Father.”

Jeffrey Zuckerman writes of his experiences as a caregiver following his wife’s diagnosis of Late-Onset Bipolar Disorder in “Unglued: A Bipolar Love Story”. His story is heartbreaking at times, funny, but also hopeful.

“Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify” by Carolyn Holbrook (921 Holbroo) is also a Memoir & Creative Nonfiction finalist. It is an essay collection that shares her struggles and triumphs from being a teenager, pregnant and incarcerated, to founding an organization that champions writers and artists of color.

In other book award news; the 2021 winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction is… “Fathoms: The World in the Whale” by Rebecca Giggs. The author takes you on a journey into the world of whales after discovering a stranded whale on an Australian beach. She explores the possibility that whales can help us study the condition of the world’s oceans.

Place your holds today! Go to our online catalog (newulmlibrary.org), stop in, or give us a call at 359-8331. Hope to see you soon at the library!