Ordinary Grace

By William Kent Krueger,

Book cover of Ordinary Grace

Book description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2014 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
WINNER OF THE 2014 DILYS AWARD
A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2013

From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger, a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in…

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Why read it?

4 authors picked Ordinary Grace as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a gentle, tender, yet gripping story of a family, its faith, and their reckoning with a murder in their small Minnesota town.

It is a mystery whose solution is completely unexpected and, yet, well prepared for, a tribute to a deft and accomplished writerIt was amazing how everything got resolved in a way I couldn’t imagine—so well done.

I also loved the fact that it was set in a small town in Minnesota, a place that means a great deal to me, and Krueger does it justice; the gentle way of life disrupted by a…

I remember as a boy weeping at the end of Where the Red Fern Grows, not because the dogs died, but because Billy Colman returned decades later to find the rusted axe from that fateful night still stuck in the tree. Great books show us time isn’t linear; it’s like an accordion folding over on itself, so a pivotal moment from our past can, in some mysterious way, always feel present. Here. Somehow on the tip of time’s tongue. It makes you ache with the fullness of your story, your life. The ending of Ordinary Grace did that…

This story takes place over the summer of 1961 written in the voice of the narrator reflecting back 30 years to when he was 13 years old. I loved the way it took me back to that era, a time when summers as a child were spent outdoors with minimal adult supervision. Adventure, discovery, and imagination were at one’s fingertips. A tragedy occurs that summer and the family struggles to make sense of it. I was struck by how well the contrasting characters of this family and small town were portrayed. There was the minister father, a rebellious mother, a…

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

Book cover of Let Evening Come

Yvonne Osborne Author Of Let Evening Come

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up on a family farm surrounded by larger vegetable and dairy operations that used migrant labor. From an early age, my siblings and I were acquainted with the children of these workers, children whom we shared a school desk with one day and were gone the next. On summer vacations, our parents hauled us around in a station wagon with a popup camper, which they parked in out-of-the-way hayfields and on mountainous plateaus, shunning, much to our chagrin, normal campgrounds, and swimming pools. Thus, I grew up exposed to different cultures and environments. My writing reflects my parents’ curiosity, love of books and travel, and devotion to the natural world. 

Yvonne's book list on immersive coming-of-age fiction with characters struggling to find themselves amidst the isolation and bigotry in Indigenous, rural, and minority communities

What is my book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through young adulthood. Miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are displaced from their land by multinational energy companies. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie’s aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.

Stefan promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his story, has grown sympathetic to his cause and complicit in his pushback against prejudiced accusations. Their mutual attraction is stymied when Stefan’s older brother, Joachim, who stayed behind, becomes embroiled in the resistance, and Stefan is compelled to return to Canada. Sadie, concerned for his safety, impulsively follows on a trajectory doomed by cultural misunderstanding and oncoming winter.

Let Evening Come

By Yvonne Osborne,

What is this book about?

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through the pitfalls of young adulthood.
Hundreds of miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are forced off their land by multinational energy companies and flawed treaties. They are taken in temporarily by Sadie's aunt, a human rights activist who heads a cultural exchange program.
Stefan, whose own father died in prison while on a hunger strike, promptly runs afoul of local authority, but Sadie, intrigued by him and captivated by his…


Sometimes words are little more than broken eggshell, lifeless shards from where a chick once hatched. But then there are sweet notes like this which are golden for far more reasons than the sweetness of the tune. Somewhere in this story, William Kent Krueger’s words showed me what it might be like to have the wings to fly.

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