Girl Detective

I’ve lived in many places over my life: Columbus OH, CT, Akron OH, Bethesda MD, Guam, Richmond VA, Worthington OH, Granville OH, Washington DC, Philadelphia. I’m coming up on my 12 year anniversary of moving to Minnesota; I’ve never lived so many consecutive years in one place.

My husband and I still have family and friends in OH and PA. But we’ve made Minneapolis our adopted home. And lately, it seems we’re getting all sorts of reminders of why we do.

The most recent news is that local chef Alex Roberts, of Restaurant Alma and Brasa, was just named Best Chef Midwest by the James Beard Foundation. Last year it was Tim McKee of La Belle Vie.

Local food writer and wine author Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl was nominated for Beard awards for a food and a wine article; she won for Best Wine Writing in the Country.

Andrew Zimmern (who I used to watch on a local morning show before work) won a Beard for best television personality.

Local pastry chef Michelle Gayer (who baked my birthday cake this year) of The Salty Tart was a finalist for best pastry chef in the country, though she didn’t win. This year.

The Trylon was just named one of the country’s 10 coolest movie theaters cinemas.

My neighborhood was picked as the best of the Twin Cities this year, and the neighborhood Thai place got the nod as well.

Local author Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal last year for The Graveyard Book. Kate DiCamillo won it in 2004 for The Tale of Despereaux.

I feel like I’m forgetting some other kudos, but you can see it’s a good place for food, writing and movies. So it’s really no mystery why this feels like home.

I was upstairs in the bathroom, my two boys, 4 and 6yo, were downstairs playing, when I heard a man’s voice saying something to them about donuts.

I raced down the stairs to see my dear friend John K handing a bag of Sarah Jane’s donuts to my younger, Guppy.

So, a friend, and we’d left the front door unlocked.

“What would you have done if it had been a stranger?” I asked the boys.

“Ignored him?” asked 6yo Drake.

“I don’t know,” whispered Guppy, with his hand aside his mouth, even though I was across the room.

“Not quite,” I said. “Try again.”

“Kung Fu skills?” asked Drake.

I bent over laughing. The kid really enjoyed Kung Fu Panda recently.

“Not quite,” I said again once I recovered. “How about yelling, ‘Mom! Help! Strange man! Or you could call 911.”

“Or press the button on the alarm box,” said Drake.

“Exactly,” I said.

Then a friend of mine linked to this article on teaching kids about strangers. I’ll do a follow-up lesson later today.

I’m not sure how to break it to Drake that he doesn’t really know kung fu, though.

I did it! I finished 15 books in 15 days! Woot! And for those of you attempting this folly with me, thank you. For those of you reading along, thank you. For my family, who were even more neglected than usual, thank you.

I encourage everyone who participated in this project to comment. By everyone, I mean those who read 15, those who tried, those who considered it, and those who just read the reviews. What was your favorite, or least favorite? How many books did you move off your TBR shelves? What’s the biggest insight you take away?

And now, last but definitely not least, #15: Asterios Polyp. David Mazzuchelli was the artist/collaborator with Frank Miller on two of my favorite superhero graphic novels, Daredevil: Born Again, and Batman: Year One. Both are classics, and good examples of superhero books for those who dismiss superheroes. Asterios Polyp is Mazzuchelli’s first solo work, and it’s a masterful one. Having just finished it, I look forward to reading it again. It also made me want to read The Odyssey; few books have that power.

Asterios of the title is an Updike-ish architect. Recently divorced, his apartment building is struck by lightning. He grabs three items and his wallet, and takes a bus to the middle of nowhere. The story alternates between the present, where he works as a mechanic in a small town, and the past, his marriage to the artist Hana. Throughout, the art and story focus on duality, yet together they achieve something that transcends either/or.

The art is highly stylized (formalistic, the reviews call it) as is the use of color, playing with variations on cyan, magenta and yellow. Each character has their own font, as well as their own art style. The many layers of artistic variation are dizzying but exhilarating.

Asterios Polyp was just awarded the first-ever LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels. For more reviews, check out those from

New York Times
Scott McCloud
Entertainment Weekly
The Comics Journal

And, to sum up my 15/15/15 reading: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders; Shakespeare Wrote for Money; Eats, Shoots and Leaves; Mercury; Chocolate War; Unwritten; Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks; Buffy: Retreat; This is Water; Desperate Characters; Borrowed Finery; The Slave Dancer; Stitches; The Catnappers; Asterios Polyp.

favorite book read: can’t pick just one! Asterios Polyp, Stitches, Catnappers, Slave Dancer, Chocolate War
least favorite books read: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Retreat and Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks
# of books out of 15 moved off TPR shelves: 14, 5 of which had been there over a year
lesson learned: do this in winter next time–late December or early January
next book: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
book on deck: Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
next book project: Baroque Summer