| It's much more than a whodunit. |
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| The Thread's Must Read |
“Maggie Terry” by Sarah Schulman
I'm back on my kick of looking for the oddballs — the fictional women characters so compelling and complicated and vital that they should not be ignored.
And for this week, I've found a disgraced detective, fresh out of rehab, with a new case that will take her backstage and into Broadway’s gritty underbelly.
We meet Maggie on her first sober day of work after a decade of drinking and drugging both on the job and off as a former NYPD detective. She’ll never get her badge back, but she’s been hired by a law firm as an in-house investigator.
She still has powerful observational skills — honed from her days as a cop — and she instantly recognizes her new colleagues as friends or foes.
Listen to her stinging assessment of an actress whose case she’ll soon be pursuing: “She used lines from plays as part of everyday banter. In other words, there was always a script.”
Author Sarah Schulman writes screenplays, nonfiction, academic books and novels, and she says “Maggie Terry” started out as a television pilot.
I’m glad that’s not where it ended up.
-Kerri Miller |
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| | Talking Volumes 2019 season guide |
MPR and the Star Tribune are proud to announce the 20th season of Talking Volumes. This season will feature interviews with Alice Hoffman, Saeed Jones, Tim O’Brien, Karen Armstrong, Lindy West and Tracy K. Smith.
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| | Our language is evolving, 'Because Internet' | | "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language" by Gretchen McCulloch |
| Buy this book
Whether you're extremely online or still confused by how a simple period can be interpreted as passive-aggressive, linguist Gretchen McCulloch has a guide to how our on-screen speech is morphing.
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| | 'Marilou is Everywhere,' and also a miracle | | "Marilou Is Everywhere: A Novel" by Sarah Elaine Smith |
| Buy this book
Sarah Elaine Smith's debut novel, about a girl from an impoverished, broken family who impersonates a missing neighbor in order to get motherly attention, is otherworldly in its beauty and power.
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