Rachael Hanel's name was inscribed on a gravestone when she was eleven years old. Yet this wasn't at all unusual in her world: her father was a gravedigger in the small Minnesota town of Waseca, and death was her family's business. Her parents were forty-two years old and in good health when they erected their gravestone—Rachael's name was simply a branch on the sprawling family tree etched on the back of the stone. As she puts it: I

...

Government officials and missionaries wanted all Sioux men to become self-sufficient farmers, wear pants, and cut their hair. The Indians, confronted by a land-hungry white population and a loss of hunting grounds, sought to exchange title to their homeland for annuities of cash and food, schools and teachers, and farms and agricultural knowledge. By 1862 the Sioux realized that their extensive kinship network and religion were in jeopardy and that...

Sid Hartman has been at the center of Minnesota sports for more than 60 years, getting the inside scoop from players, coaches, owners, and his many "close personal friends." This fascinating tell-all reveals Sid's life and career, from his days as a newspaper boy in Minneapolis and his first scoops as a cub reporter with the Minneapolis Tribune, to his place as a true Minnesota legend. From his controversial role as de facto general manager of the...

Long before he was considered a top prospective presidential candidate for 2012-even before he landed on John McCain's short list of potential running mates in 2008-Governor Tim Pawlenty had already earned legendary status in conservative circles. In his hard-left-leaning home state of Minnesota, the man known as "T-Paw" somehow erased a $4.8-billion budget deficit while simultaneously reforming health care, creating jobs, improving education, and...

What do you do when you love your farm . . . but it doesn't love you? After fifteen years of farming, Catherine Friend is tired. After all, while shepherding is one of the oldest professions, it's not getting any easier. The number of sheep in America has fallen by 90 percent in the last ninety years. But just as Catherine thinks it's time to hang up her shepherd's crook, she discovers that sheep might be too valuable to give up. What ensues is a...

Minnesotans are a tough lot, capable of pulling a house six miles by muscle alone or giving birth to a sixteen-pound boy. In 1921, young Phoebe Fairgrave set a parachute world record, stepping off the wing of a biplane 15,200 feet above the Twin Cities. In 1962, the last powerhouse Gophers football team brought home the Rose Bowl trophy. A year later, thirteen-year-old Jean Webb of Minneapolis risked arrest and refused to leave a segregated restaurant....

Laura Sobiech tells the amazing story of how God used her son's battle with cancer to touch the lives of millions. "Okay, Lord, you can have him. But if he must die, I want it to be for something big. I want someone's life to be changed forever." This is what Laura Sobeich prayed when she found out her seventeen-year-old son had only one year to live. With this desperate prayer, she released her son to God's will. At that point, Zach Sobiech was just...

"The first ever memoir from the greatest female ski racer of all time, revealing never before told stories of her life in the fast lane, and the bold decisions that helped her break down barriers for athletes around the world" --

"When Gary Goodman wandered into a run-down, used-book shop that was going out of business in East St. Paul in 1982, he had no idea the visit would change his life. In The Last Bookseller Goodman describes his sometimes desperate, sometimes hilarious career as a used and rare book dealer in Minnesota-the early struggles, the travels to estate sales and book fairs, the remarkable finds, and the bibliophiles, forgers, book thieves, and book hoarders...

One thing I can say with certainty is that I have not had a dull life. I have been shot twice, stabbed, blown up, bitten by a rattlesnake and by a scorpion, plus had numerous car and motorcycle accidents... I've even been married twice. Here is the true-life story of Richard "Deadeye" Hayes in all its bad-ass, balls-to-the-wall glory. This is a man who stole a machine gun before he was seven and lost his left eye when a good friend shot him in the...