Category: Books

Paul Gilje (BSJ59, MSJ60)

The book highlights the half-century history of the drama in Minnesota’s property tax-base sharing law–more popularly known as the metropolitan fiscal disparities law– that began in 1968 with extensive controversy, and extends to the present day. The drama began in a Citizens League committee where the possibility of tax-base sharing first surfaced. It continued in a three-year battle in the Minnesota Legislature, followed by three lengthy, but ultimately unsuccessful, challenges in the Minnesota state courts.

The drama then shifted to efforts to weaken the law’s provisions, which with one notable exception involving the Mall of America, were unsuccessful. In the 1990s drama extended to Minnesota’s Iron Range, where similar tax-base sharing was enacted. Discussion, with more drama possible, has continued in Minnesota and in other states to the present day. The book contains meticulous documentation, with more than 300 footnotes.

The Center for Policy Design(CPD) is publishing the book to help illustrate the importance of highlighting system change in public policy, as advocated by Walter McClure, founder and president of the CPD. McClure’s objective, as quoted in a foreword to the book: “Systems and organizations tend to behave the way they’re structured and rewarded to behave. If you don’t like the way they’re behaving, you probably ought to change the way they’re structured and rewarded.”

Tax-base sharing adjusts the system within which municipalities compete with one another for tax base. Traditionally “winner-take-all,” the system enacted in 1971 still favors the winners, but not by quite as much. Without the law a 13-to-1 ratio in per capita commercial-industrial value would prevail today between the wealthiest and poorest municipalities over 9,000 population in the Twin Cities metro area. With the law the difference is reduced to 6-to-1.

Nancy Johnson (BSJ93 – CAS93)

It’s 2008, and the rise of Barack Obama ushers in a new kind of hope. In Chicago, Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy-League educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but Ruth is uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to—and was forced to give up—when she was a teenager.

She had promised her family she’d never look back, but Ruth knows that to move forward, she must make peace with the past. Returning home, Ruth discovers the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism, and despair. While her family is happy to see her, they remind her of the painful sacrifices they made to give her a shot at a better future—like the comfortable middle-class life she now enjoys.

Determined, Ruth begins digging into the past. As she uncovers burning secrets her family desperately wants to hide, she unexpectedly befriends Midnight, a young white boy who is also adrift and looking for connection. When a traumatic incident strains the town’s already scorching racial tensions, Ruth and Midnight find themselves on a collision course that could upend both their lives.

The Kindest Lie examines the heartbreaking divide between Black and white communities and plumbs the emotional depths of the struggles faced by ordinary Americans in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Capturing the profound racial injustices and class inequalities roiling society, Nancy Johnson’s debut novel offers an unflinching view of motherhood in contemporary America and the never-ending quest to achieve the American Dream.

Purchase on Amazon.

Mark Sullivan (MSJ84)

The bestselling author of BENEATH A SCARLET SKY (and many other bestselling and award-winning novels) returns with THE LAST GREEN VALLEY (May 4, 2021; Lake Union), a compelling and immersive historical novel inspired by one family’s incredible true story of daring, survival and triumph during the dark days of World War II.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).

Danielle Svetkov (BSJ95)

Jeanne Ann is smart, stubborn, living in an orange van, and determined to find a permanent address before the start of seventh grade. Cal is tall, sensitive, living in a humongous house across the street, and determined to save her. Jeanne Ann is roughly as enthusiastic about his help as she is about living in a van. As the two form an unlikely friendship in this Middle-Grade debut, they’re buoyed by a cast of complex, oddball characters, who let them down, lift them up, and leave you cheering.

Margaret Littman (MSJ94)

For more than 200 years Memphis has captured America’s imagination. It is the home to the Blues and the center of the civil rights movement. It is called the Bluff City thanks to its location along the mighty Mississippi River, and today the river banks provide recreation, opportunity, and a connection to history, not to mention great views. This guidebook, authored by Tennessean Margaret Littman, delves into all Memphis has to offer, including, the best barbeque and hot wings, immersive museums, late-night dance spots, and, of course, all things Elvis. This inclusive, yet selective, guide features itineraries with side trips to Little Rock and Hot Springs, Ark., plus the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Ian Zack (BSJ93, MSJ93)

The first full-length biography of Odetta Holmes, “Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest” (Beacon Press, April 14, 2020) narrates the life of the legendary singer and “Voice of the Civil Rights Movement,” who combatted racism and prejudice through her music. Starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist.

Cynthia Beebe (MSJ83)

“Boots in the Ashes” is a riveting memoir from one of the country’s first female ATF special agents. Cynthia Beebe writes of her fascinating journey as she grows up from a polite suburban girl into an expert criminal investigator. She became the first woman to earn the coveted “Top Gun” award at the ATF Academy, and learns to thrive in the ultramasculine world of guns, bombs and violent crime.

Beebe provides firsthand knowledge of life inside ATF and shows us how she made her most important cases, including murders, bombings and investigations into outlaw motorcycle gangs. She includes gripping trial testimony from victims, witnesses, judges and outlaws. Her cases were chronicled in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Ladies Home Journal, and were covered by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and 48 Hours.

Dawn Church (MSJ78)

Heiress Calypso Swale was about to join the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team when a car crash involving drunken Grieg Washburn, heir to the Washburn Exploration (WashEx) empire, killed her parents. At the time, Larch Swale, Calypso’s father, was COO of WashEx. Her father’s last word to her was “Run,” and Calypso obligingly disappeared with a chunk of his money and a precious patent for a new kind of engine. Five years later, Grieg’s father is dead and it looks like someone’s trying to kill Grieg too. WashEx’s board is offering a reward for Calypso’s return, and no one wants her found more than Grieg.