ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>brenna</title> <meta name="books" content="" /> <meta name="description" content="" /> <link href="default.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <div id="wrapper"> <!-- start header --> <div id="header"> <table bgcolor="black" width="600" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td > <div align="center"><img src="title.jpg" width="735" height="45" alt=""><br><br> <span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana;"> <font color="#f5f19e"> &#80;oetry, &#70;iction, and &#77;emoirs<br>by &#76;eading &#87;riters<br> from throughout the &#87;orld</font></span></div> <font color="#f5f19e"></font></td> <td ><br><img src="booklogo2.JPG" width="169" height="225" alt=""> </td> </tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td > <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#f2e928>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #f5f19e" href="index.html">Home </td> <td ><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#f2e928>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #f5f19e" href="about.html">About </td> <td ><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#f2e928>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #f5f19e" href="authors.html">Our Authors </td> <td ><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#f2e928>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #f5f19e" href="books.html">Our Books </td> <td ><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#f2e928>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="text-decoration: none; color: #f5f19e" href="news.html">News &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!-- end header --> <table width="80%" border="0" cellspacing="10" cellpadding="10"> <tr valign="top"> <td > <table width="150" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="10"> <tr><table bgcolor="#f5f19e"> <td > <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"> <br> <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #000000" <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="index.html"><h3>Home</h3></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br> </table> </td> <td > <table width="70%" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td ><br><br> <h4><h4><span style="font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000>Duff Brenna</h4></h4><p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000>Duff Brenna's <i>Minnesota Memoirs</i> is available in print on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Minnesota-Memoirs-Duff-Brenna/dp/0983828954/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334926902&sr=1-1"> Amazon.com</a>. E-book versions made be found for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Minnesota-Memoirs-ebook/dp/B007ZIRCTW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336229819&sr=1-1"> Kindle</a> and <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/minnesota-memoirs-duff-brenna/1110295852?ean=2940014480239">Nook</a>.<p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <!-- Row 1 Column 1 --> <td > <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000>Mesmerizing: In 17 riveting stories set in the author s native Minnesota, Duff Brenna s edgy tales journey from the mid-19th century to our current 21st century. While capturing the history centered in and around the cities of Medicine Lake, Golden Valley, Anoka, Minneapolis and Mankato, Minnesota Memoirs unfurl a series of unique narratives revealing a transfiguring perception of what it means to be alive in a world that never explains its quiet indifference to all things human. Called  a spectacular talent at crafting complex, believable characters (<i>Wall Street Journal</i>),  a honed intelligence, unfaltering, unflinching, piercing (<i>New York Times</i>) and  a master at capturing the helplessness of humans & with tough written all over them (<i>Los Angeles Times</i>), Brenna s insights into human nature show us who we are as a species and what we are capable of our capacities for love and hate, intense desire, sanity, insanity, magnanimity, generosity of spirit and, above all, compassion. <p> </td> <!-- Row 1 Column 2 --> <td > <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<valign="top"><img style="border-width: 0px;" src="MM_frontcover2.jpg" width="140" height="206" /> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <h4>Praise</h4><p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> It s out of vogue to suggest we learn things in aid of our survival by reading literature. But with this new story collection you ll learn many things, starting with 19 *more *ways of looking at a blackbird, how to hotwire a car (and start an affair); and what  all good Americans who love God and their country are up to in their passionate, sodden nights and regretful days that follow.<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> These pages swarm with humanity: Unofficial and unpaid caregivers the ones who sing to cows, take in unwanted children, and bear witness and give comfort when no one else can be bothered braggarts, cheats, thieves, failures, mad word-drunk egotists, dope-smoking seniors, and the habitués of a rollicking gay bar. Many of the stories are linked by recurring characters; more importantly, they continually remind us of our essential interconnectedness. Here you ll find wisdom ( Stay warm. Bless your reveries, in one of many deft comic touches), cunning, love, frailty, murderousness, and compassion so surprising it takes even the compassionate by surprise.<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> Duff Brenna s prose rolls along at a profound pace, unhurried and seeming to touch everything, like a river through a dark landscape.  What I d like to know is what s the point? a character says wonderingly of life. This collection, as with the best art, bears its own answer.<p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> &#151;John Griswold</i>. <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> Duff Brenna s one of those storytellers who gets it right in every sentence. A master craftsman s master craftsman. He s got miles to go before he s done building his cabinet of books, but I ve already bronzed him in my 99th percentile. And what unforgettable characters. If he d closed up shop after just his first three novels, we d have close to a dozen Hall-of-Fame candidates on the ballot. Mamie Beaver, John Beaver, Christian Foggy, Shepard, Jasper John, Henry Hank, Godot, Didi Godunov, Fat Stanley, Triple E, and my personal favorite, Helga. The stories that make up <i>Minnesota Memoirs</i> are quintessential Duff. If you know his novels, you ll recognize scenes and characters. If not, you re in for a treat of another kind, the best kind, stories that will stay with you because they re shaped by the best of the best. Remember that when Vernon, twine in hand, sinks his arm to the elbow in Cristobell. Ain t nobody can birth a calf like Duff Brenna, American treasure. <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> &#151;Steve Davenport <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> There is not a better writer of America than Duff Brenna. He understands things about the country that no one else could know without reading his books <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> &#151;Thomas E. Kennedy <p> <br> <br> <h4>Information about the Author</h4> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td > <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000>Duff Brenna is the author of nine books, including <i>The Book of Mamie</i>, which won the AWP Award for Best Novel; <i>The Holy Book of the Beard</i>, named  an underground classic by <i>The New York Times</i>; <i>Too Cool</i>, a <i>New York Times</i> Noteworthy Book; <i>The Altar of the Body</i>, given the Editors Prize Favorite Book of the Year Award, <i>South Florida Sun-Sentinel</i>, and also received a San Diego Writers Association Award for Best Novel 2002. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award, <i>Milwaukee Magazine</i> s Best Short Story of the Year Award, and a Pushcart Prize Honorable Mention. His work has been translated into six languages. His memoir, <i>Murdering the Mom</i>, is forthcoming from Wordcraft of Oregon, June 2012. <br> <p> <p> </td> <!-- Row 1 Column 2 --> <td > <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;<valign="top"> <img style="border-width: 0px;" src="duff1.jpg" usemap="#myImageMap" width="100" height="139 " /> <map name="myImageMap"> <area shape="rect" coords="10,10,110,110" href=""/> </map> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <br><br><br> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: verdana;"><font color=#000000> <i>Logo art by Barry Lereng Wilmont</i> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"><table bgcolor="black"> <tr> <td > <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Comic Sans MS;"><font color=#f5f19e>Copyright &copy; 2011 Serving House Books &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <!-- end footer --> </div> </body> </html>