Dreams - sometimes they change the world, sometimes they just plain fall through. Over the course of a weekend at grandpa's farm near Luverne, Minnesota, 14-year-old Josh Lindstrom gets in touch with his dreams as they spend their time inventing, and grandpa relates the stories of some of the great Minnesota inventors. Success, however, does not come easily. So, is there anything to be learned from the inventors that preceded them, especially those of the aptly named Greatest Generation? Josh and his grandpa discover together that when it comes to dreams of inventing, failure is okay. As Minnesota inventor Earl Bakken had said, "Failure is closer to success than inaction." Some surprises are revealed along the way, and the unexpected ending soars with a heartfelt and compelling, once-in-a-lifetime, encounter. An appendix featuring profiles of the Minnesota 80 serves as a resource of the state's key inventors.

Winner of a Spur Award, presented by the Western Writers of America (WWA), for the Best Western Nonfiction Historical Book. Renowned historian Annette Atkins presents a fresh understanding of how a complex and modern Minnesota came into being in Creating Minnesota. Each chapter of this innovative state history focuses on a telling detail, a revealing incident, or a meaningful issue that illuminates a larger event, social trends, or politics during a period in our past. A three-act play about Minnesota's statehood vividly depicts the competing interests of Natives, traders, and politicians who lived in the same territory but moved in different worlds. Oranges are the focal point of a chapter about railroads and transportation: how did a St. Paul family manage to celebrate their 1898 Christmas with fruit that grew no closer than 1,500 miles from their home? A photo essay brings to life three communities of the 1920s, seen through the lenses of local and itinerant photographers. The much-sought state fish helps to explain the new Minnesota, where pan-fried walleye and walleye quesadillas coexist on the same north woods menu. In Creating Minnesota Atkins invites readers to experience the texture of people's lives through the decades, offering a fascinating and unparalleled approach to the history of our state.

Through a chronological and thematical approach, this book examines the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and the effect on what President George W. Bush recognized as the 9/11 Generation. By providing cultural and generational context to 9/11 and its impact on the U.S., this book is the first study to ensure that the voices of this young generation are put at the forefront of analysis. Creating and Failing the 9/11 Generation answers “what happened” and “why” but, more importantly, it reveals the importance of broader themes and ideas such as foreign policy, security, patriotism, the U.S. military, and American democracy. The final chapter, "9/11 and the World," places the events in America on a global scale and demonstrates how 9/11 has remained, and will remain, significant to understanding how different places and cultures interact with each other in the modern world. Creating and Failing the 9/11 Generation is useful for all students who study U.S. foreign relations, terrorism, warfare, memory studies, and the history of modern America.

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.”

Three experts from the worlds of magic and business strategy share the secrets to conjuring innovation and shattering expectations. Your organization may employ hundreds, even thousands. You may be experiencing growth and hitting your revenue targets. But unless you are creating magic for your customers—like Disney, Apple, and Amazon—you are not the innovation leader you need to be in today’s marketplace. In Creating Business Magic, a corporate strategist, a former acting CIA director, and a world-renowned magician share their secrets to success. Each chapter opens with a legendary magic act—from Harry Houdini to Pen and Teller—and explores how the same principles and techniques can be deployed to create a fertile environment for disruptive innovation and propel a company light years ahead of the competition. "The authors illuminate the power of perception, ways to innovate, to think out of the box, break down conceptual barriers, and finally bring out the magician inside all of us.” —from the introduction by David Copperfied