Recent content from Chris Hewitt
Need a quick fix of joy? These books and movies will make you smile.
These five books and five movies are perfect for cold, dark times.
Minneapolis fraudster (and Prince pal) sells memoir for movie starring Janelle Monáe
Tanya Smith's memoir, "Never Saw Me Coming," will be adapted by Universal Pictures.
Minneapolis writer Curtis Sittenfeld offers new short stories about 'women who are wrong'
Local fiction: "Romantic Comedy" author, who's writing her first novel set in Minnesota, offers 12 new short stories in "Show Don't Tell."
Five books we can't wait to read in March
From sleuths in Minnesota and San Francisco to a real-life Indiana Jones.
With Oscars on the way, dishy novel offers insider look at fictional actors
Fiction: "The Talent," by a show biz reporter, goes behind the scenes of awards season.
Not all the romance in bookstores is in the books
These two couples took the next step, relationship-wise, at Red Balloon and Tropes & Trifles.
Rick Steves' life-changing memoir recalls his days 'On the Hippie Trail'
Nonfiction: The TV host and author will talk about it Feb. 17 in Hopkins.
Jane Austen fans, get ready to be turned on to the books she loved
Nonfiction: "Jane Austen's Bookshelf" introduces eight female writers who helped shape her work.
David Housewright, Sujata Massey and more authors coming to local libraries
A few big names, including Ann Napolitano and Jesse Q. Sutanto, will appear at virtual events.
Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and friends solve a real mystery
Fiction: A nurse's unsolved murder gives them a chance to prove their skills.
Who are the authors Twin Cities area readers can't get enough of?
Whether your library is in St. Paul, Minneapolis or Chaska, there's a pretty good chance you were reading Kristin Hannah's latest.
Review: Brothers take on a dangerous mission in adventure novel 'Beartooth'
Fiction: Callan Wink's spare, Montana-set book earns comparison to "A Simple Plan."
Minnesota booksellers are thrilled about the title bringing 'Harry Potter' readers back
Rebecca Yarros' "Onyx Storm" has only been out a couple of weeks but it's already a blockbuster.
Inspiration struck novelist Nickolas Butler while he did a puzzle in a Wisconsin bar
Local fiction: Did you hear the one about the guy who was sipping a beverage when he overheard an idea for his new novel, "A Forty Year Kiss"?
Review: Woman on Minnesota beet farm may be turning into a beet in new novel
Local fiction: Wild "Beta Vulgaris" features a character losing her grip on reality while toiling at a numbing job.
Golden Valley mystery writer is living his childhood dream
Local fiction: Joshua Moehling, whose new novel is "A Long Time Gone," just gave up his day job.
Five books we can't wait to read in February
From lumberjacks to mystery writers to NSYNC, these are the titles we're eager to get a hold of.
Review: Latest Elinor Lipman comic novel is here to brighten your mood
Fiction: "Every Tom, Dick and Harry" is about a woman conducting an estate sale. At a bordello.
A Victorian con woman schemes for money and love in zesty novel. She's not the only one.
Fiction: Ladies who swindle are all over the place in a batch of recent novels about Victorians' fascination with spiritualism and the women who capitalized on it.
St. Paul kicks off yearlong celebration of 100 years of 'The Great Gatsby'
F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece will be performed, read in its entirety, placed in context and more in a year of events.
St. Paul writer Heather Bouwman's 'Scattergood' hits shelves, two decades after she started it
Local fiction: Set in 1940s Iowa, it's about two girls dealing with the ramifications of war and a tragedy closer to home.
Writer Lee Hawkins connects abusive childhood in Maplewood to the Jim Crow South and slavery
Local nonfiction: The Pulitzer Prize finalist looked to the past to find a way forward.
Review: Sequel to 'Presumed Innocent' is more like Harrison Ford film than Jake Gyllenhaal series
Fiction: Scott Turow's new legal thriller sticks with his own timeline.
If you want to know what Black men think, head to the barbershop, says Plymouth writer's book
Local fiction: Keenan Jones used his childhood shop, as well as his current one in Brooklyn Park, for inspiration.
Review: A woman realizes her late mother is a mystery to her in tantalizing 'Rosarita'
Fiction: The latest from three-time Booker Prize nominee Anita Desai sends its narrator on a quest.
Five of the hottest books we can't wait to read in January
A centuries-old unsolved murder, the return of Zora Neale Hurston and one really big truffle top our list.
Our Artist of the Year wrote four books this year (and found time to root for the Wolves)
St. Paul writer Kao Kalia Yang has won four Minnesota Book Awards and was recognized by the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.
Our books editor, who reads 150 of 'em a year, has some thoughts on getting more reading in your life.
The best tip if you want to up your reading game: ABR. Always Be Reading.
Love both trees and poetry? Has south Minneapolis got a place for you!
Passers-by can leave their thoughts and take off with someone else's at the Little Free Poet Tree.
Review: In new collection, a book store attracts the wrong kind of customers — the murdering kind
Fiction: Jeffrey Deaver, Laura Lippman and others contribute 12 tales of holiday mayhem.
Review: Timothee Chalamet's performance as Bob Dylan in 'A Complete Unknown' sings, but movie hits some flat notes
Inspired by Elijah Wald's book, "Dylan Goes Electric," the Dec. 25 release feels too much like other biopics.
Meet the St. Louis Park widower who wrote a picture book to tell his grandchildren about their late grandma
"Christmas Sun" suggests a way to remember loved ones who are no longer with us at the holidays.
So you say you're bummed there was no new Ann Patchett novel this year? We have ideas...
We think these are recent books a Patchett fan will love.
This fall's book-to-movie adaptations range from great to Tom Hanks
"Conclave," "The Wild Robot" and "Nickel Boys" prove fine books can inspire terrific films. But that's not always the case.
Timothée Chalamet came to Minnesota to study Bob Dylan and 'loved, loved' it
The Oscar-nominated actor returned to appear at a Minneapolis screening Thursday, promoting the Dec. 25 release of "A Complete Unknown."
It's Taylor Swift's world and we're just living in it
Nonfiction: The essays in "Heartbreak Is the National Anthem" make a case for her excellence, not just as artist but as a person.
Hamline University Prof. John Brandon whisks readers to sunny Florida for a noir caper
Local fiction: The Hugo resident says he doesn't fret too much about reviews, or about how his books are going to end.
Review: 'Time of the Child,' set in Ireland, is one of the year's finest novels
Fiction: An abandoned infant drives the beguiling story of a doctor and his adult daughter.
Minneapolis' Danez Smith looks to Langston Hughes and Andre 3000 in trying to write one great poem
Local poetry: Smith will discuss their collection "Bluff" and a new compilation of Hughes' work in St. Paul.
The latest from 'Braiding Sweetgrass' writer Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds us we owe nature a lot
Nonfiction: "The Serviceberry" is about nurturing, and giving back to, our world.
40 must-reads from staffers at Red Balloon, as it throws itself (and you) a 40th birthday party
Employees went beyond time-honored classics to suggest more recent titles you may have missed.
'Pony Confidential' is 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' with a horse instead of an octopus
Fiction: The novel is narrated by a pony, trying to reunite with a beloved former owner.
What should kids know about George Floyd's murder? Minneapolis author answers with moving picture book.
Local nonfiction: Shannon Gibney hopes "We Miss You" will start conversations.
Will 'Bosch' and 'The Lincoln Lawyer' writer Michael Connelly kill off his detective hero?
Fiction: In his new "The Waiting," Bosch and Renee Ballard take on a big, real-life mystery, the Black Dahlia murder.
Meet the professor who measures her life against 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show'
The author of "The Mary Years" will discuss her book in December in Minneapolis.
Five of the hottest books we can't wait to read in November
A novel with "movie adaptation" written all over it, Ben Franklin, polyamory and cookies top our list.
The pandemic made writer Kate DiCamillo realize, 'I'm not going to get through this unless I have a fairy tale to write'
LOCAL FICTION: Featuring stories within stories, she'll discuss the book at Talking Volumes on Tuesday.
Meet dozens of Minnesota's top authors at Twin Cities Book Festival
Look for David Housewright, Kao Kalia Yang and many more at the annual celebration of books.
Whatever your taste, let the Star Tribune match you up with the perfect new book about spies.
From Paris to Botswana, these fiction and nonfiction books feature secret agents who include a child and Julia Child.
Paula Hawkins, who wrote blockbuster 'The Girl on the Train,' can't wait to meet readers in Edina
She'll discuss her eerie new novel, "The Blue Hour," at Southdale Public Library Oct. 29.
Mounds View writer/lawyer/activist/student/mom talks about her searing, witty new book
Local fiction: Many characters in Mubanga Kalimamukwento's "Obligations to the Wounded" are in pain but humor and curiosity help them envision a way forward.
3 times you'll spot Minnesota's Al Franken in new movie about 'Saturday Night Live'
"Saturday Night" is an entertaining but not strictly accurate account of the series' 1975 premiere.
Bumping into things is good, photos don't help much and more lessons from "DeafBlind" St. Paul writer John Lee Clark.
Local nonfiction: The St. Paul writer's revolutionary book "Touch the Future" outlines a whole new way to navigate and understand the world.
Senior sleuths are the hottest thing in mysteries. Here are 5 who take a page from 'Murder, She Wrote.'
Fiction: But they take their clues from old favorites like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and a few aging others.
Review: Golden Valley's Pete Hautman goes to the dogs in new young adult book
Local fiction: Walks with his pups, Gaston and Baudelaire, were a great way to research the novel, which is sometimes told from a pooch's perspective.
Louise Erdrich's new novel is about 'ridiculous, awkward, magical' love
The Pulitzer Prize winner will discuss "The Mighty Red" with Kerri Miller on Tuesday at a Talking Volumes event
From a boy and his dog to a detective in St. Paul, these are the books we can't wait to read in October.
New books by Minnesota authors Pete Hautman and Larry Millett are among this month's most eagerly awaited titles.
Review: Minneapolis writer Kate DiCamillo is back with 'The Hotel Balzaar,' and it may be her best book yet
Local fiction: It's about a lonely girl, an elderly countess and the power of stories.
Twin Cities Film Festival features Oscar contenders plus a movie shot in the metro
Stars Daisy Ridley and Josh Duhamel will be in attendance at the mid-October event in St. Louis Park.
Duluth podcaster and "America's government teacher" Sharon McMahon highlights unsung heroes in new book.
Local nonfiction: "The Small and the Mighty" shines spotlight on the folks who make history, but not history books.
Much like Dolly Parton, St. Louis Park's Abby Cooper is on a mission to give kids free books to enjoy
St. Louis Park author's goal? To make Minnesota kids love reading.
Musician Peter Himmelman takes a turn for the literary with book about faith and wonder
LOCAL NONFICTION: He'll discuss "Suspended by No String" Sept. 25.
'My roommate shot me in the head,' St. Thomas student recounts in new memoir
LOCAL NONFICTION: This excerpt from "Friendly Fire" counts down the minutes after he was shot in the head.
Welcome to 'Olive Kitteridge' writer Elizabeth Strout's fictional Maine-iverse
FICTION: Literary titans unite their powers for the first time, much like the Avengers, in her new book.
One of the world's first serial killers struck Minneapolis more than a century ago
"The Mesmerist" is a new novel about the killer who stalked Hennepin Avenue in the 1880s.
What these 5 Minnesota-set movies teach the world about Minnesotans
If you want to know what Minnesotans are really like, take what Hollywood says about us with a grain of salt.
![Marcie Rendon poses for a portrait Thursday, Sep. 22, 2022 in the Star Tribune portrait studio in Minneapolis. ]](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/4JHFU7GTOCDIFZVAJSCCGFYJVM.jpg?h=120&w=180&fit=crop&bg=999&crop=faces)
Minnesota writer Marcie R. Rendon would like to keep readers up at night and spotlight murdered and missing Indigenous women.
LOCAL FICTION: Set up north, Marcie R. Rendon's page-turner "Where They Last Saw Her" balances sadness with the joyful camaraderie of three Ojibwe women.
Sleuth Jackson Brodie is back in Kate Atkinson's hilarious 'Death at the Sign of the Rook'
FICTION: The "Case Histories" detective is investigating art thievery when murder intrudes.
8 top writers announced to this year's Club Book events
Jayne Anne Phillips, Matt Goldman and Yangsze Choo will take part (either live or on Facebook) in the Friends of the St. Paul Library series.
Writers like Louise Erdrich and Stephen King use chapters cleverly. What do they tell us?
For starters, how long they are is a great clue to what a book wants to accomplish.
What do you do when someone in your book club has to go?
Before you boot an obnoxious member, experts (and, yes, there are book club experts) advise other options.
A Duluth writer's salute to American heroes we've never heard of and lots of spies highlight the five books we can't wait to read in September.
Two books about spies and a Minnesota writer's look at forgotten American heroes hit stores as we start thinking about autumn.
Need something to read on the popular new trains from St. Paul? A new book store will have you covered
Story Line Books plans to open at Union Depot in September.
Need to supplement your reasons not to like Aaron Rodgers? Read upcoming bio "Out of the Darkness."
NONFICTION: The former Green Bay quarterback granted an interview in which he addresses his biggest controversies. Sort of.
Two Minnesota poets picked to receive shares of $1.1 million in grants
Heid E. Erdrich and Jean Prokott, the poets laureate of Minneapolis and Rochester, are the honorees.
