Books by Garrison Keillor
Good Poems
A selection of meaningful and enjoyable poems to inspire and be enjoyed by everyone
Here is an anthology of poems, chosen by Garrison Keillor for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m."
Good Poems includes verse organized by theme about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.
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Good Poems
Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by the narrator for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m."
The title Good Poems comes from common literary parlance. For writers, it's enough to refer to somebody having written a good poem. Somebody else can worry about greatness. Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" is a good poem, and so is James Wright's "A Blessing." Regular people love those poems. People read them aloud at weddings, people send them by e-mail.
Good Poems includes poems about lovers, children, failure, everyday life, death, and transcendance. It features the work of classic poets, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost, as well as the work of contemporary greats such as Howard Nemerov, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Billy Collins, Robert Bly, and Sharon Olds. It's a book of poems for anybody who loves poetry whether they know it or not.
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The Book of Guys
"Guys are in trouble these days," says Garrison Keillor. "Years ago, manhood was an opportunity for achievement and now it's just a problem to be overcome. Guys who once might have painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling are now just trying to be Mr. O.K. All-Rite, the man who can bake a cherry pie, be passionate in a skillful way, and yet also lift them bales and tote that barge."
This brilliant collection confirms Keillor’s reputation as an ingenious storyteller and a very funny guy.
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Love Me
In this charming departure from Lake Wobegon, bestselling author Garrison Keillor tells a hilarious and heartwarming tale of ambition, success and failure, and the virtues of real love. Aspiring writer Larry Wyler leads a quiet, decent life with his do-gooder wife, Iris, in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he wants more. When his literary debut becomes a hit, he departs for a Manhattan apartment, a job at the New Yorker, and three- martini lunches with the great editor, William Shawn.
But when his second novel bombs and he finds himself in the grip of writer's block, Wyler discovers that success—and the New York publishing scene—is a fickle mistress, indeed. Creatively barren, nearly destitute, and longing for Iris, he accepts a job writing "Ask Mr. Blue," a column doling out advice to the lovelorn. It may not be glamorous work, but through it Wyler discovers what's really important and sets out to win back the woman he left behind.
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Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
In a deeply personal celebration of liberalism, the popular humorist and radio host examines the "politics of kindness," offering a series of nostalgic reminiscences, meditations, and observations on the core values--the defense of the powerless, the protection of the social compact, and maintain government as a force for good--of the democratic ideal. 100,000 first printing.
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Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
In this thoughtful, deeply personal work, one of the nation's best-loved voices takes the plunge into politics and comes up with a book that has had all of America talking. Here, with great heart, supple wit, and a dash of anger, Garrison Keillor describes the simple democratic values-the Golden Rule, the obligation to defend the weak against the powerful, and others-that define his hard-working Midwestern neighbors and that today's Republicans seem determined to subvert. A reminiscence, a political tract, and a humorous meditation, Homegrown Democrat is an entertaining, refreshing addition to today's rancorous political debate.
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Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America
In this thoughtful, deeply personal work, one of the nation's best-loved voices takes the plunge into politics and comes up with a book that has had all of America talking. Here, with great heart, supple wit, and a dash of anger, Garrison Keillor describes the simple democratic values-the Golden Rule, the obligation to defend the weak against the powerful, and others- that define his hard-working Midwestern neighbors and that today's Republicans seem determined to subvert. A reminiscence, a political tract, and a humorous meditation, Homegrown Democrat is an entertaining, refreshing addition to today's rancorous political debate.
* A New York Times bestseller
* Updated and revised with a new introduction for the 2006 midterm elections
* A Featured Alternate Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club
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Good Poems for Hard Times
An eclectic anthology of poetic works, selected for their uplifting and honest themes, includes pieces by such writers as Raymond Carver, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost. Collected by the author of Homegrown Democrat. 100,000 first printing.
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Good Poems for Hard Times
"The book is full of strong, memorable poems that stick with readers like a friend during a long, hard night. " - The Christian Science Monitor
Here, readers will find solace in works that are bracing and courageous, organized into such resonant headings as "Such As It Is More or Less" and "Let It Spill." From William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman to R. S. Gwynn and Mary Oliver, the voices gathered in this collection will be more than welcome to those who've been struck by bad news, who are burdened by stress, or who simply appreciate the power of good poetry.
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Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline, Garrison Keillor, Breena Jacobs
Oh, baby, won't you dance with me? Little baby, bouncing on my knee, Wave your hands and shake your feet. Ooohh, baby, you're so sweet. . . .The sweetness between a daddy and his little girl is all here-the walks, the favorite foods, the dancing, the diaper changing. With his signature warmth and wit, Garrison Keillor turns ordinary daily events into celebrations.
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Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline, Garrison Keillor, Breena Jacobs
Natalie Greco loves being a law professor, even though she can't keep her students from cruising sex.com during class and secretly feels like Faculty Comic Relief. She loves her family, too, but as a bookworm, doesn't quite fit into the cult of Greco football, headed by her father, the team captain. The one person she feels most connected to is her colleague, Angus Holt, a guy with a brilliant mind, a great sense of humor, a gorgeous facade, and a penchant for helping those less fortunate. When he talks Nat into teaching a class at a local prison, her comfortably imperfect world turns upside down.
A violent prison riot breaks out during the class, and in the chaos, Nat rushes to help a grievously injured prison guard. Before he dies, he asks her to deliver a cryptic message with his last words: "Tell my wife it's under the floor."
The dying declaration plunges Nat into a nightmare. Suddenly, the girl who has always followed the letter of the law finds herself suspected of a brutal murder and encounters threats to her life around every curve. Now not only are the cops after her, but ruthless killers are desperate to keep her from exposing their secret. In the meantime, she gets dangerously close to Angus, whose warmth, strength, and ponytail shake her dedication to her safe boyfriend.
With her love life in jeopardy, her career in the balance, and her life on the line, Nat must rely on her resources, her intelligence, and her courage. Forced into hiding to stay alive, she sets out to save herself by deciphering the puzzle behind the dead guard's last words . . . and learns the secret to the greatest puzzle of all—herself.
Filled with the ingenious twists, pulse-pounding narrative drive, and dynamic, flesh-and-blood characters that are the hallmarks of her bestsellers, Daddy's Girl is another wild, entertaining ride about love, family, and justice from the addictively readable Lisa Scottoline.
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Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline, Garrison Keillor, Breena Jacobs
From the New York Times bestselling author of Dirty Blonde comes a fast-paced thriller in which a young law professor must unravel a conspiracy to see justice done
Law professor Natalie Greco’s life is going according to plan, with a boyfriend handpicked by her father and tenure status only a review board away. Then, during a visit to a prison with her colleague Angus, a riot explodes. Rushing to the aid of a fatally wounded prison guard, Nat is privy to his last words—words that, unknown to Nat, can unlock the key to a dangerous conspiracy.
Suddenly Nat, A Girl Who Always Plays By The Rules, finds threats around every curve: ruthless killers desperate to keep her from exposing their secret; police who are convinced she is responsible for a cold-blooded murder; and sexy Angus, whose mere presence makes her question her dedication to her long-term boyfriend.
With her life on the line, her career in the balance, and her boyfriend on hold, Nat has to go into hiding to buy enough time to figure out the hidden secrets behind one man’s last words.
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Daddy's Girl
by Lisa Scottoline, Garrison Keillor, Breena Jacobs
Illuminating the special relationship between fathers and daughters, this rhyming storybook contains colorful illustrations that capture the intimate moments of a day in the life of a father and daughterfrom helping each other prepare for the day and commuting to school to bonding over dinner and getting ready for bed. The child-parent theme of family connection makes this a perfect story for adults to read to toddlers or for young readers to enjoy on their own.
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More News from Lake Wobegon
Successor to the best-selling News from Lake Wobegon, this collection of Garrison Keillor monologues includes 16 stories, grouped by theme: Love, Faith, Hope, and Humor. All are from original live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion.Contents: Rotten Apples; O Death; The Wise Men; A Trip to Grand Rapids; Truckstop; Smokes; The Perils of Spring; Let Us Pray; Alaska; Uncle Al's Gift; Skinny Dip; Homecoming; Pontoon Boat; Author; Freedom of the Press; Vicks
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News from Lake Wobegon
One of the best-selling spoken audio of all time, this is the original collection of Garrison Keillor monologues. Funny and touching, these 20 stories from original live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion follow the seasons in Lake Wobegon.Contents:Spring: Me and Choir; A Day in the Life of Clarence Bunsen; Letter from Jim; FictionSummer: The Living Flag; The Tollefson Boy Goes to College; Tomato Butt; Chamber of Commerce; Dog Days of August; Mrs. Berge and the Schubert Carillon PianoFall: Giant Decoys; Darryl Tollerud's Long Day; Hog Slaughter; Thanksgiving; The Royal FamilyWinter: Guys on Ice; James Lundeen's Christmas; The Christmas Story Re-told; New Year's from new York; Storm Home
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A Prairie Home Companion 25th Anniversary Collection
This anniversary release features highlights from 25 years on the air, including favorite monologues like "Truckstop," "Gospel Birds" and "Pontoon Boat," plus brand-new stories never before available on audio. Also includes a special bonus collection of 25 toe-tapping tunes with down-home music from long-time show regulars, including Butch Thompson, the Powdermilk Biscuit Band, Greg Brown, the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, Robin and Linda Williams, and many more. Contents:Truckstop; The Way You Look Tonight; The Trip to Norway; Cowpies; Kristina's Double Date; Won't You be My Ginger?; Gospel Birds; The Living Flag; Green Summertime; A Summer Night; Berena: A Concert Waltz; Nearer My God to Thee; Pontoon Boat; How Long, How Long Blues; Hog Slaughter; Giant Decoys; The Secret Lutherans; Deep Creek; A Rich Full Life; Guys On Ice; Clarence Cleans His Roof; Confessional; Our Team; Turn Your Radio On; Cripple Creek; Blue Train; Oh Sister, Ain't That Hot?; Chapel of Love; Oh Baby; Minneapolis Blues; Back in the City; Mandy Make Up Your Mind; Air Mail Special; Little Red Hen; Walk Over God's Heaven; That's All Right Mama; The Stars & Stripes Forever March; Hula Lou; Jingle Medley; Nashville Pickin'; Cold, Cold Heart; Down the Line; Just Rockin'; Goodnight Baby; Nobody Knows When Your Down & Out; Road to Kingdom Come; Stride by Stride; Let's Have A Party
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Pretty Good Joke Book 4th edition
A treasury of hilarity from one of America’s favorite radio shows.
A guy walks into a bar. Eight Canada Geese walk into a bar. A termite jumps up on the bar and asks, “Where is the bar tender?” Drum roll.
The Fifth Edition of the perennially popular Pretty Good Joke Book is everything the first four were and more. More puns, one-liners, light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, and third-grader jokes (have you heard the one about Elvis Parsley?). More religion jokes, political jokes, lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, and jokes in questionable taste (Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers). More jokes about chickens, relationships, and senior moments (The nice thing about Alzheimer’s is you can enjoy the same jokes again and again).
It all started back in 1996, when A Prairie Home Companion fans laughed themselves silly during the first Joke Show. The broadcast was such a hit that it became an almost-annual gagfest. Then fans wanted to read the jokes, share them, and pass them around, and the first Pretty Good Joke Book was born. With 362 new jokes (more or less), the latest edition promises countless giggles, chortles, and guffaws anyonefans of the radio show or notwill enjoy.
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Pretty Good Joke Book: 3rd Edition
A treasury of hilarity from one of America’s favorite radio shows.
A guy walks into a bar. Eight Canada Geese walk into a bar. A termite jumps up on the bar and asks, “Where is the bar tender?” Drum roll.
The Fifth Edition of the perennially popular Pretty Good Joke Book is everything the first four were and more. More puns, one-liners, light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, and third-grader jokes (have you heard the one about Elvis Parsley?). More religion jokes, political jokes, lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, and jokes in questionable taste (Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers). More jokes about chickens, relationships, and senior moments (The nice thing about Alzheimer’s is you can enjoy the same jokes again and again).
It all started back in 1996, when A Prairie Home Companion fans laughed themselves silly during the first Joke Show. The broadcast was such a hit that it became an almost-annual gagfest. Then fans wanted to read the jokes, share them, and pass them around, and the first Pretty Good Joke Book was born. With 362 new jokes (more or less), the latest edition promises countless giggles, chortles, and guffaws anyonefans of the radio show or notwill enjoy.
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A Life in Comedy: An Evening of Favorites from a Writer's Life
In April 2002, Garrison Keillor gave three live performances at the Yale Repertory Theatre, reading from a variety of his published and unpublished stories, novels, and essays. The award-winning radio personality and man behind the Lake Wobegon phenomenon presented his original musings on the life and times in which we live. Presenting one man, one mike, and a captive audience of fans both old and new, this audio recording captures the intimacy and the hilarity of those special performances.
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Plenty of Pretty Good Jokes
Includes the complete Pretty Good Jokes, Few More Pretty Good Jokes, and New and Not Bad Pretty Good Jokes.
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Prairie Home Comedy: Radio Songs and Sketches
Thirty-four of the best-loved, most-requested songs and sketches from the original radio broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion.Contents:Freelance Writer; American Artistic Association; I Am a Tenor; Car Trip; Memories of Pain; The Management Assumes No Responsibility; Second Methodist Church; Moodism; Reaching Out; Sex; Washing Your Hands; The In and Out Cat Song; The Story of Thanksgiving; My Grandmother's Cat; Animals of Other Lands; Winter Madrigal; The Francis S. Key Story; The Ballad of Peanut Butter; Winged Motivational Products; Twelfth Street Tag; The Old Shower Stall; Am I Boring?; Adversity; Bob Wilson Month; Mavis & Marvin Smiley; American Music Association; Losing Your Job; Vanilla; How Does Our Brain Work?; Dad Angel; Old Folks at Home Cottage Cheese; Swanee Tag; The Announcer; Tuna the Food of My Soul
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Definitely Above Average: Stories & Comedy for You & Your Poor Old Parents
From live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion.After the birth of Garrison Keillor's daughter, the stories, songs, and sketches on A Prairie Home Companion took on a distinctly parental bent. This new collection gathers the warmest, funniest, most affectionate examples: dance tunes and comedy with sound effects; songs featuring Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, Beaussoleil, and other guests; Ian Frazier's much-requested "Lamentations of the Father"; and Garrison's version of "The Princess and the Pea." Garrison says, "I test-played this album for my daughter, who is three, and she jumped around a lot."Filled with stories, sketches, and songs recorded from live broadcasts, Definitely Above Average will delight parents and children everywhere.Contents:Oh BabyBananasChildren Go Where I Send TheeThe True Sad Story of Mr. FroggieBaby DanceKnock Knock Who's ThereEl HamboHush Little BabyThe Baby Says HaEstrellitaCount Your BlessingsBrownie and PeteThe Horses Stood Around/Powdermilk Biscuit ThemeTell My MaHappy One StepOh Susanna FantasyWheels On the BusSongs That I Love BestBaby BluesTell Me WhyThe Chord That Jack PlayedA Game of ChessThe Princess and the PeaThe Sound Effects Man Part OneThe Snow QueenThe Sound Effects Man Part Two
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Garrison Keillor's Comedy Theater: More Songs & Sketches From A Prairie Home Companion
1997 Grammy® Award nominee1996 Listen Up Award-Best HumorEnjoy the best of Garrison Keillor's comic fables from A Prairie Home Companion, all about true love and other tribulations, brought to life by a cast of brilliant radio actors. Contents:This Man This Woman; Taking a Chance on Love; Bertha's Kitty Boutique: Cat Box Video; Greenwich Village Days; Cafe Boeuf: Secrets of the Kitchen; Beebopareebop: The Operation; Cowboys: The Second Lefty; Famous Celebrities: New Years Eve; Just One of Those Things; Chicken Little-Starring Tom Keith; Beebopareebop: The Dream; Adventures in Ethics; Guy Noir, Private Eye: Tony Rigatoni; Fred Farrell Animal Calls; How I Met George Gershwin; Little House on the Desert; Silver Lining: Cold Weather; Mel's Big Boy Buffet; Newt; La Influenza; Lutheran's On-Line; Silver Lining: Getting Older; The Ketchup Advisory Board; Bemidji Fishing Opener Song; Beebopareebop: The Contest Plus a bonus joke collection.
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The Adventures of Guy Noir
Grammy Award Nominee! A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets . . . But on the twelfth Floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions: Guy Noir, Private eye. This all-new collection of Guy Noir episodes follows the intrepid detective as he solves cases no other gumshoe would touch. Garrison Keillor's private eye spoof thrills audiences every week on live public radio broadcasts of a A Prairie Home Companion. Now take Guy Noir home and enjoy an intelligent, unusual-but always funny-spin on the classic detective genre.
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The Christmas Companion: Stories, Songs, and Sketches
The first new Prairie Home Christmas collection in ten years is a warm and wonderful celebration of storytelling, music, and the holiday spirit. It's Christmas in Lake Wobegon, Christmas at the old radio show, Christmas at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Christmas wherever friends and families gather to rejoice, reminisce, and share the holiday spirit.
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A Prairie Home Companion 20th Anniversary: Four Compact Discs
This retrospective collection of A Prairie Home Companion features complete monologues drawn from 20 years of radio broadcasts Filled with gentle humor, down-home truths, and amazing depths of tenderness and meaning, these tales of "the little town that time forgot and the decades could not improve" are classics of American storytelling.Contents:Hello Love; O Captain, My Captain; I Will; Tomato Butt; Barnyard Dance; Casey at the Bat; Rhubarb; Life Is a Ballgame; Revival Tent; Calling My Children Home; The Perfect Day; The Warm Welcome; Regina; Carl's Dog Story; Vincent; Pontoon Boat; Goin' Home; The Lake Superior Canyon Project; Cotton; Emily Dickinson's Birthday Pizza; Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam; Troublesome Ivories; The Little Match Girl; The Elegance of Winter; Answering Machine; A Kohler Thanksgiving; Not the Cheapest Kind; Homecoming; You Drive Me Crazy; Six Minute Hamlet; The Living Flag; Stars and Stripes; Pioneer Waltz; Buddy Holly and the Pharaohs of Rhythm; My Life; Cherry Picker; Graduation Day; Julia; Raccoons; Lover's Waltz
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Lake Wobegon U.S.A.
Lake Wobegon U.S.A. is the eagerly anticipated successor to News From Lake Wobegon (one of the bestselling spoken-word audio ever) and More News From Lake Wobegon. This collection contains 17 touching, exquisitely funny monologues from Garrison Keillor recorded during American Radio Company broadcasts from tour stops all over the country. The tales, says Keillor, are about "the luxury of rhubarb pie, the perils of prophecy, Florian and Myrtle's thrifty vacation, the vapor lights of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. . . ." They are also about joy, grief, dreams, luck, and mysteries-about the extraordinary moments of wonder that illuminate our ordinary lives. Contents:Fertility: The Kresbach's Vacation; Prophet; The Six Labors of Father Wilmer; FertilityPatience: Aunt Ellie; Duke's 25th; Jobhunting; You're Not the Only OneYouth: Blue Devils; Nostalgia; O Christmas Tree; Pageant; Messy ShoesRhubarb: Rhubarb; Sweet Corn; The Sun's Gonna Shine Someday; Yellow Ribbon
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The Family Radio
A sampler of crowd-pleasers from A Prairie Home Companion: four "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues, "commercials" for Bertha's Kitty Boutique and the Fearmonger's Shoppe, and great music. All selections are from original live radio broadcasts.Contents: ·World Theater, Here We Come! ·Powdermilk Biscuits ·The Family Radio ·Bertha's Kitty Boutique ·Lifestyle Waltz ·Fearmonger's Shoppe ·As We Get Older ·Jason's Song ·Dave's Harmonica ·Porch Song ·News from Lake Wobegon ·Ballad of The Autoharp Man ·Origins of Lake Wobegon ·Meatballs ·News from Lake Wobegon ·The Song of the Exiles (The Lake Wobegon Anthem) ·News from Lake Wobegon ·Why Must the Show Go On? ·Hotel Minnesota ·O Father Dear Why Did You Roam? ·Obedience ·The Whippets Rag ·News from Lake Wobegon ·Ajua!
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New and Not Bad Pretty Good Jokes
What better way to spend an hour than with some audience-tested and certified Not Bad jokes? Join guest Paula Poundstone, Garrison Keillor, and the cast of A Prairie Home Companion as they share more puns, one-liners, and light bulb jokes than you can shake a rubber chicken at. You get bar jokes, political jokes, Ole and Lena jokes, grade school jokes, and even some email jokes. Originally the bonus CD in the Plenty of Pretty Good Jokes compendium, this collection from Joke Shows 7-8 is now available separately.
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Home on the Prairie: Stories from Lake Wobegon
The latest in a line of bestselling collections that began with News from Lake Wobegon, this set selects monologues from four years (1999-2002) of live radio programs. Some were broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theatre, the show's St. Paul home. Others were recorded on the road in Dublin, Pasadena, Grand Forks, and other exotic places.
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Gospel Birds: And Other Stories of Lake Wobegon
Gospel Birds is a collection of nine classic and very funny monologues from the early years of A Prairie Home Companion. In addition to the title story (about Irma and Ernie Lundeen's traveling flock of acrobatic, bible-reciting birds), contents include:Pastor Ingquist's Trip to OrlandoMammoth Concert Tickets Bruno, the Fishing DogGospel BirdsMeeting Donny Hart at the Bus StopA Day at the Circus with MazumboThe Tollerud's Korean BabySylvester Krueger's DeskBabe Ruth visits Lake WobegonGospel Birds is Garrison Keillor at his very best-endearing insights, gentle humor and warm affection for the human foibles we all share.
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Local Man Moves to the City: Loose Talk from American Radio Company
"New York is a hard place to visit, but a pretty good place to live," says Garrison Keillor, and on this humorous and insightful audio collection he explains why. This Grammy Award-nominated collection comprises 10 monologues in which Keillor reflects on New York City life through the eyes of a transplanted Minnesotan. These stories are among Keillor's very best work.
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It's Only a Show: A Prairie Home Companion
It's Only a Show offers the best of the best of Guy Noir, Dusty and Lefty, ads from the show's commercial sponsors, and-of course-the News from Lake Wobegon. With laughter, stories, songs, and special guests, It's Only a Show has everything fans know and love about A Prairie Home Companion.
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Dusty and Lefty: The Lives of the Cowboys
Lefty: Haven't you read about the dangers of drinking? Dusty: I have. And it led me to give up reading. Like the News from Lake Wobegon and Guy Noir, Private Eye, The Lives of the Cowboys sketch has become a signature part of A Prairie Home Companion. Each week, radio listeners can't wait to hear Lefty's latest poem and Dusty's latest rant. In six complete sketches drawn from the radio show, the two pardners cope with hangovers and citrusy aftershave, try to get in the Christmas mood (not much luck there), meet a vampire, drive a herd of 10,000 free range chickens, tangle with a territorial poet named Big Messer, pay a visit to the New York Public Library, and wind up in the San Luis Obispo County Jail for mistaking a cocker spaniel for a coyote. Each is a glimpse into daily life in and mostly out of the saddle. Includes four songs. Garrison Keillor stars as Lefty; Tim Russell as Dusty; with Sue Scott, Tom Keith, and Danielle De Vecchio, and Julie Boyd.
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Lake Wobegon Days
“Lake Wobegon Days is about the way our beliefs, desires and fears tail off into abstractions--and get renewed from time to time. . . this book, unfolding Mr. Keillor's full design, is a genuine work of American history.” The New York Times
“A comic anatomy of what is small and ordinary and therefore potentially profound and universal in American life…Keillor’s strength as a writer is to make the ordinary extraordinary.” Chicago Tribune
“Keillor’s laughs come dear, not cheap, emerging from shared virtue and good character, from reassuring us of our neighborliness and strength….His true subject is how daily life is shot with grace. Keillor writes a prose that can be turned to laughter, to tears…to compassion or satire, to a hundred effects. He is a brilliant parodist.” San Francisco Chronicle
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Lake Wobegon Summer 1956
Meet fourteen-year-old Gary. A self-described "tree-toad,"a sly and endearing geek, Gary has many unwieldy passions, chief among them his cousin Kate, his Underwood typewriter and the soft-porn masterpiece, High School Orgies. The folks of Lake Wobegon don't have much patience for a kid's ungodly obsessions, and so Gary manages to filter the hormonal earthquake that is puberty and his hopeless devotion to glamorous, rebellious Kate through his fantastic yarns. With every marvellous story he moves a few steps closer to becoming a writer. And when Kate gets herself into trouble with the local baseball star, Gary also experiences the first pangs of a broken heart.
With his trademark gift for treading "a line delicate as a cobweb between satire and sentiment"(Cleveland Plain Dealer), Garrison Keillor brilliantly captures a newly minted post-war America and delivers an unforgettable comedy about a writer coming of age in the rural Midwest.
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A Christmas Blizzard: A Novel
The inimitable Garrison Keillor spins "a Christmas tale that makes Dickens seem unimaginative by comparison" (Charlotte Creative Loafing)
Snow is falling all across the Midwest as James Sparrow, a country- bumpkin-turned-energy-drink-tycoon, and his wife awaken in their sky- rise apartment overlooking Chicago. Even down with the stomach bug, Mrs. Sparrow yearns to see The Nutcracker while James yearns only to escape-the faux-cheer, the bitter cold, the whole Christmas season. An urgent phone call from his hometown of Looseleaf, North Dakota, sends James into the midst of his lunatic relatives and a historic blizzard. As he hunkers weather the storm, the electricity goes out and James is visited by a parade of figures who deliver him an epiphany worthy of the season, just in time to receive Mrs. Sparrow's wonderful Christmas gift. Garrison Keillor's holiday farce is the perfect gift for the millions of fans who tune into A Prairie Home Companion every week.
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Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny
Famous radio private eye Guy Noir leaps from A Prairie Home Companion to the page
On the 12th floor of the Acme Building, on a cold February day in St. Paul, Guy Noir looks down the barrel of a loaded revolver in the hands of geezer gangster Joey Roast Beef who is demanding to hear what lucrative scheme Guy is cooking up with stripper-turned-women's-studies-professor Naomi Fallopian. Everyone wants to know-Joey, Lieutenant McCafferty, reporter Gene Williker, Guy’s ex-girlfriend Sugar O'Toole, the despicable Larry B. Larry, the dreamboat Scarlett Anderson, Mr. Kress of the FDA–and Guy faces them one by one, as he and Naomi pursue a dream of earning gazillions by selling a surefire method of dramatic weight loss. In this whirlwind caper Guy faces danger, falls in love, and faces off with the capo del capo del grande primo capo Johnny Banana.
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The Keillor Reader: Looking Back at Forty Years of Stories: Where Did They All Come From?
Stories, monologues, and essays by Garrison Keillor, founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion
The first retrospective from New York Times bestselling author Garrison Keillor celebrates the humor and wisdom of this master storyteller. With an introduction and headnotes by the author, along with accompanying photographs and memorabilia, The Keillor Reader brings together a full range of Keillor’s work. Included are the “Pontoon” monologue, in which twenty-four Lutheran pastors capsize a boat as a parasail and hot-air balloon maneuver above; the Alaska adventures of professional wrestler Jimmy “Big Boy” Valenti; a new version of “Casey at the Bat”; an imaginative memoir of life at the New Yorker; and a set of precepts for life, “What Have We Learned So Far?”
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77 Love Sonnets
“When I was 16, Helen Fleischman assigned me to memorize Shakespeareâ€s Sonnet No. 29, ‘When in disgrace with fortune and menâ€s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state†for English class, and fifty years later, that poem is still in my head. Algebra got washed away, and geometry and most of biology, but those lines about the redemptive power of love in the face of shame are still here behind my eyeballs, more permanent than my own teeth. The sonnet is a durable good. These 77 of mine include sonnets of praise, some erotic, some lamentations, some street sonnets and a 12-sonnet cycle of months. If anything here offends, I beg your pardon. I come in peace, I depart in gratitude.â€â€”Garrison KeillorFeatures music by Rich Dworsky.Please note content contains adult themes.
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Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon (Lake Wobegon Novels)
Garrison Keillor makes his long- awaited return to Lake Wobegon with this New York Times bestseller
The first new Lake Wobegon novel in seven years is a cause for celebration. And Pontoon is nothing less than a spectacular return to form-replete with a bowling ball-urn, a hot-air balloon, giant duck decoys, a flying Elvis, and, most importantly, Wally's pontoon boat. As the wedding of the decade approaches (accompanied by wheels of imported cheese and giant shrimp shish kebabs), the good-loving people of Lake Wobegon do what they do best: drive each other slightly crazy.
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Liberty: A Novel of Lake Wobegon
Just in time for the Fourth of July, a firecracker of a Lake Wobegon novel from bestselling author and radio storyteller Garrison Keillor
Published to wide and enthusiastic acclaim, Liberty is Garrison Keillor?s most ribald Lake Wobegon novel yet, set in a spectacular Fourth of July celebration amid marching bands and circus wagons drawn by teams of Percherons. The Chairman of the Fourth, Clint Bunsen, is in the midst of an identity crisis brought on by a DNA test just as he turns sixty, and he finds solace in the arms of Angelica Pflame, the young beauty who marched as Liberty in last year?s parade. Should he remain in Lake Wobegon with his stoical wife Irene or fly to California with Angelica? Liberty is Keillor at his knowing, deadpan, raconteur best.
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Pilgrims: A Lake Wobegon Romance
Lake Wobegon goes to Italy in Garrison Keillor's latest
Twelve Wobegonians fly to Rome to decorate a war hero's grave, led by Marjorie Krebsbach, with radio host Gary Keillor along for the ride. The pilgrimage is inspired by a phone call from an Italian woman seeking her Lake Wobegon roots and by a memoir O Paradiso by a farm wife who found the secret of life and love in Italy. And by marjorie's longing to win back the love of her husband Carl. Far from home, sitting in the rain in the Piazza Navona, the pilgrims talks about themselves, as they never could do in the Chatterbox Café.
"You're not going to write about this, I hope," says Irene Bunsen. "Of course I am. I invented this town," says Mr. Keillor. "Oh my, aren't you something," she replies.
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Good Poems, American Places
Another wonderful poetry anthology from Garrison Keillor-rooted in the American landscape.
Greatness comes in many forms, and as Garrison Keillor demonstrates daily on The Writer's Almanac, the most affecting poems in the canon are in plain English. Third in Keillor's series of anthologies, Good Poems, American Places brings together poems that celebrate the geography and culture that bind us together as a nation. Think of these poems as postcards from the road, by poets who've gotten carried away by a particular place-a town in Kansas, a kitchen window in Nantucket, a Manhattan street, a farm in western Minnesota. Featuring famous poets and brash unknowns alike, the verses in this exhilarating collection prove that the heart can be exalted anywhere in America.
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Good Poems, American Places
Another bestselling anthology from Garison Keillor-beautiful verses rooted in the American landscape.
Garrison Keillor, the editor of Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times, host of The Writer's Almanac, and all-around arbiter of fine American poetry, introduces another inspiring collection by a range of poets, some beloved favorites and others brash unknowns, organized by regions of America.
From Nantucket to Knoxville, Manhattan to Minnesota, the heart can be exalted anywhere. Think of these poems as postcards-from Billy Collins, Nikki Giovanni, William Carlos Williams, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, and many more.
Like the previous Good Poems collections, this volume celebrates the high-spirited, the witty and antic and jazzy voice that in many ways defines the land of the free. Choosing poems full of humor, sharp insight, and warmth, Garrison Keillor once again makes good poetry accessible and immensely enjoyable.
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Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon
Garrison Keillor makes his long- awaited return to Lake Wobegon with this New York Times bestseller
The first new Lake Wobegon novel in seven years is a cause for celebration. And Pontoon is nothing less than a spectacular return to form?replete with a bowling ball-urn, a hot-air balloon, giant duck decoys, a flying Elvis, and, most importantly, Wally?s pontoon boat. As the wedding of the decade approaches (accompanied by wheels of imported cheese and giant shrimp shish kebabs), the good-loving people of Lake Wobegon do what they do best: drive each other slightly crazy.
Copies
No copies available.
Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance (Lake Wobegon)
Lake Wobegon goes to Italy in Garrison Keillor's latest
Twelve Wobegonians fly to Rome to decorate a war hero's grave, led by Marjorie Krebsbach, with radio host Gary Keillor along for the ride. The pilgrimage is inspired by a phone call from an Italian woman seeking her Lake Wobegon roots and by a memoir O Paradiso by a farm wife who found the secret of life and love in Italy. And by marjorie's longing to win back the love of her husband Carl. Far from home, sitting in the rain in the Piazza Navona, the pilgrims talks about themselves, as they never could do in the Chatterbox Café.
"You're not going to write about this, I hope," says Irene Bunsen. "Of course I am. I invented this town," says Mr. Keillor. "Oh my, aren't you something," she replies.
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A Christmas Blizzard
Snow is falling all across the Midwest as James and Joyce Sparrow awaken in their 55th floor ten-room apartment overlooking Chicago - he dreading Christmas, and she, adoring it but down sick with stomach flu. He dreams of spending it at their vacation home in Kuhikuhikapapa'u'maumau, H.I. But a phone call from his hometown of Looseleaf, North Dakota, sends him flying into the teeth of a major blizzard to see dying Uncle Earl. And there in Looseleaf, home of the Lucifers, he's confronted by old, dark memories in every corner. Stranded by the storm, he lives in a fishing shack on the ice of Lake Winnesissebigosh where he meets a wolf, the Big-Hair Lady, and a Chinese wise man from the Inner Sunset, each attempting to teach him the great mystery of life. And there, in the middle of the night, taking a sauna with cousin Liz, he conquers fear just in time to receive Mrs. Sparrow's wonderful Christmas gift.
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The Keillor Reader
When, at thirteen, he caught on as a sportswriter for the Anoka Herald, Garrison Keillor set out to become a professional writer, and so he has done—a storyteller, sometime comedian, essayist, newspaper columnist, screenwriter, poet. Now a single volume brings together the full range of his work: monologues from A Prairie Home Companion, stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic, excerpts from novels, newspaper columns. With an extensive introduction and headnotes, photographs, and memorabilia, The Keillor Reader also presents pieces never before published, including the essays “Cheerfulness” and “What We Have Learned So Far.” Keillor is the founder and host of A Prairie Home Companion, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2014. He is the author of nineteen books of fiction and humor, the editor of the Good Poems collections, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound
O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound is the first poetry collection written by Garrison Keillor, the celebrated radio host of A Prairie Home Companion. Although he has edited several anthologies of his favorite poems, this collection of his very own poems astounds us with its breadth and variety, its wit and wisdom. He is a master of light verse, writing on love, marriage, modernity, nostalgia, perversity, publicity, politics, religion, birthdays, fatherhood, and other facets of daily life; his subjects range from highbrow to lowbrow: Michigan to Kansas, Sunset Boulevard to Times Square, Beethoven to Elvis, chocolate bacon cake to onion soup. His voice is utterly American, his scope entirely universal. These charming, playful verses find sublime song within the humdrum of being human.
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O, What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound
O What a Luxury: Verses Lyrical, Vulgar, Pathetic & Profound is the first poetry collection written by Garrison Keillor, the celebrated radio host of A Prairie Home Companion. Although he has edited several anthologies of his favorite poems, this volume forges a new path for him, as a poet of light verse. He writeswith his characteristic combination of humor and insighton love, modernity, nostalgia, politics, religion, and other facets of daily life. Keillor’s verses are charming and playful, locating sublime song within the humdrum of being human.
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A Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book 6th Edition
Over 2,200 Jokes from America’s favorite live radio show A treasury of hilarity from Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion. A guy walks into a bar. Eight Canada Geese walk into a bar. A termite jumps up on the bar and asks, “Where is the bar tender?” Drum roll. The Sixth Edition of the perennially popular Pretty Good Joke Book is everything the first five were and more. More puns, one-liners, light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, and third-grader jokes (have you heard the one about Elvis Parsley?). More religion jokes, political jokes, lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, and jokes in questionable taste (Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers). More jokes about chickens, relationships, and senior moments (The nice thing about Alzheimer’s is you can enjoy the same jokes again and again). It all started back in 1996, when A Prairie Home Companion fans laughed themselves silly during the first Joke Show. The broadcast was such a hit that it became an almost-annual gagfest. Then fans wanted to read the jokes, share them, and pass them around, and the first Pretty Good Joke Book was born. With over 200 new and updated jokes, the latest edition promises countless giggles, chortles, and guffaws anyone―fans of the radio show or not―will enjoy.
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Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep On Getting Older
A book from Garrison Keillor, a man nearing age 80, on leaning into the beauty of getting old. “My life is so good at 79 I wonder why I waited this long to get here,” he writes. You learn that Less Is More, the great lesson of Jesus and also Buddha. Each day becomes important after you pass the point of life expectancy. Big problems vanish, small things make you happy. And the worst is behind you because you lack the energy to be as foolish as you might otherwise be. Including 23 rules for aging, including “Enumerate your benefits,” “Enjoy inertia,” “Get out of the way,” “Don’t fight with younger people; they will be writing your obituary,” and finally, “Ignore rules you read in a book. Do what you were going to do anyway.” Readers are sure to chuckle at the wisdom and humor contained in this short, full-color volume, which includes as supplementary material both photos from Garrison’s life as well as fine art.
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$17.99
Living with Limericks
Radio personality and author Garrison Keillor delights and astounds in this hybrid memoir/poetry collection that combines anecdotes from his childhood and his "A Prairie Home Companion" years with literary limericks, darkly humorous limericks, extended limericks (aka limericks with porches), and so much more.
Limericks are the poems that can be written in the empty spaces between life, Keillor posits, and this compact book illustrates the full range of the form's utility: thank-you notes to doctors, odes to "Prairie Home" performers, postcard greetings from exotic places, succinct biographies of favorite writers, and scribbles in the margins of Sunday church programs. Readers who have always pined for the perfect limerick hinging on the place name "Schenectady" will at long last be placated. Meanwhile, longtime Keillor fans will gain insight into a whole new side of the bestselling author, whose obsession with limericks goes all the way back to when the bespectacled, lanky youth wearing hand-me-down jeans (from his sister) recited to his Anoka High School class:
There was a young man of Anoka
Who tried to write a great limerick.
He tried and he tried
And some were not bad,
But something seemed to be missing.
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$17.99
Boom Town: A Lake Wobegon Novel
Bestselling author Garrison Keillor takes you back to Lake Wobegon, America's most beloved fictional hometown.
Lake Wobegon is having a boom year thanks to millennial entrepreneurship--AuntMildred's.com Gourmet Meatloaf, for example, or Universal Fire, makers of artisanal firewood seasoned with sea salt. Meanwhile, the author flies in to give eulogies at the funerals of five classmates, including a couple whom he disliked, and he finds a wave of narcissism crashing on the rocks of Lutheran stoicism. He is restored by the humor and grace of his old girlfriend Arlene and a visit from his wife, Giselle, who arrives from New York for a big love scene in an old lake cabin.
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Pretty Good Joke Book : 6th Edition
Over 2,200 Jokes from America's favorite live radio show
A treasury of hilarity from Garrison Keillor and the cast of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion.
A guy walks into a bar. Eight Canada Geese walk into a bar. A termite jumps up on the bar and asks, ''Where is the bar tender?'' Drum roll.
The Sixth Edition of the perennially popular Pretty Good Joke Book is everything the first five were and more. More puns, one-liners, light bulb jokes, knock-knock jokes, and third-grader jokes (have you heard the one about Elvis Parsley?). More religion jokes, political jokes, lawyer jokes, blonde jokes, and jokes in questionable taste (Why did the urologist lose his license? He got in trouble with his peers). More jokes about chickens, relationships, and senior moments (the nice thing about Alzheimer's is you can enjoy the same jokes again and again).
It all started back in 1996, when A Prairie Home Companion fans laughed themselves silly during the first Joke Show. The broadcast was such a hit that it became an almost-annual gagfest. Then fans wanted to read the jokes, share them, and pass them around, and the first Pretty Good Joke Book was born. With over 200 new and updated jokes, the latest edition promises countless giggles, chortles, and guffaws anyone -- fans of the radio show or not -- will enjoy.
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$15.95
That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life
With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story.
In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation.
He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”
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The Lake Wobegon Virus: A Novel
Bestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor.
A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin’ motorway and amusement park, estimated to draw 2.2 million visitors a year. Clint Bunsen and Elena the hometown epidemiologist to the rescue, with a Fourth of July Living Flag and sweet corn feast for a finale.
In his newest Lake Wobegon novel, Garrison Keillor takes us back to the small prairie town where for so long American readers and listeners have found laughter as well as the wry airing of our foibles and most familiar desires and fears—a town where, as we know, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
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