J. Otis Powell, musician/writer

I’m reading The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan; it was published in 2007 to mark the 45th anniversary of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. I recently met the author who was interviewed as part of the Archie Givens Foundation for African American Literature’s Nommo Series at the University of Minnesota. I’ve fallen in love with Randall’s literary voice and I am engaged by how he followed one of the major works of nonfiction in the last century without getting lost in its shadow. I went out yesterday and bought several copies to give to friends so that they can dig what Randall’s putting down. Now your readers may decide to do the same.

Dave Paulson, manager, Cedar Cultural Center

The Road by Cormac McCarthy; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz; The Dog Says How by Kevin Kling. Varying takes on dealing with adversity—makes winter in Minne seem manageable. That, and wearing two pairs of socks at once.

Don Shelby, news anchor and talk-radio host, WCCO

On my nightstand are three books. Based on my mood after the news, I pick the one that suits it. Three rereads: Joseph Mitchell’s McSorleys’ Wonderful Saloon; George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. There is a big fat book I thumb through nights called The Complete Art of Modern Cookery by Escoffier. I’m trying to figure out what French cooking should taste like and why everyone thinks organ meat is to die for. Just finished Charlie Wilson’s War By George Crile, the 60 Minutes producer who discovered the role Wilson played in Afghanistan. The movie was good, the book is the record.

Stacy Schwartz, photographer/writer

Beyond my Family Law and Real Estate Law books, I've been reading Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion by Paul Grushkin & Dennis King. It's a ridiculously awesome book I just got, and it actually has descriptions of the artists and their style and so on. Really interesting history and beautiful, explosive artwork. Also has Minneapolis artists like Aesthetic Apparatus inside! It's like 500 pages or something.

I also love the magazine The Big Takeover (one of the BEST sections of CD reviews ever written down—it's HUGE). I try to read it all, but there's so much information in it I barely get all of this quarterly mag read before the next one comes. It's also an independent and needs my support, so I feel good about paying for my subscription.

Frank Lee Drennen, musician, Dead Rock West

The book I am reading is The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell. It's a historical novel, book one of the Grail Quest series. My band Dead Rock West has just returned form a three week tour of England, Scotland and Wales, so images of olde are thick in my imagination and I've had the book sitting around for some time and needed something to read, so I thought I might give it a read.

The story takes place in mid-1300s Europe with the English armies invading France. Mr. Cornwell is a master storyteller who writes with grit and no fanfare, fleshing his characters out to seem like real people might have been back then. This book in particular ( I have read a number of his books) is very evenly paced with no dull moments nor crazy-stupid dramatic events. There is plenty of bloodshed and sex and paganism and scheming to keep me reading till my eyes are useless. I love it and can't seem to stop.

Kieran Folliard, owner Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Local, and The Liffey

I'm reading The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle, his first book of short stories. A fantastic read and for musicians and lovers of the book and movie The Commitments, he revives the band in a modern Celtic Tiger Ireland. The dialog takes me out of our Minnesota winter weather and his Dublin wit makes me dream of building a wall (VERY HIGH) between the U.S. and Canada and not on the Mexican border.

Dayna Kurtz, singer/songwriter

Dayna Kurtz - Photo by Deirdre McGaw

Jim Meyer, twice-semi-retired music reviewer, Farmington, MN

The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders, DK Publishers; Mosby's Comprehensive Review of Practical Nursing, Mary O. Eyles; Understanding Medical Surgical Nursing, 2nd Edition, Linda S. Williams, Paula D. Hopper.

Last Friday I booked my Nursing Board Practical Nurse exam (NCLEX-PN) for March 28, so I am singularly immersed in a world of anatomy/physio guides, medical-surgical textbooks, pharmacology tables and child development milestones like never before—including during my actual school coursework last spring, which seemed to take much of the fun out. I needed the deadline for focus, but I'm also enjoying the freedom of independent study to guide me where I feel I need to go.

It's taken years to outgrow my other passions (pop music, pro sports, BDSM) enough to face my deficient scientific knowledge and surrender myself to the miracles of the human body. Though I regret the lost time, I think the adult re-learner may have a deeper appreciation for both the minute delicacy AND the towering strength of the body at work: the cellular transport, vital gas exchanges, the life-giving blood flow and life-saving clotting factors, and the breathtaking natural science of neurosensory capability....You've got to be kidding me. I've never tripped, but to stand outside your own body with a heightened sense of awe is one of the greatest highs I can imagine.

Do you enjoy listening to music? Thank your local tympanic membranes. But please rock responsibly when you expose yourself to ear-splitting volume or the toxic fluids of your local neighborhood music club like I did for 20 years. Curse the smoking ban if you wish, but somewhere in my thoracic cavity, 300 million alveoli are dancing with glee.

Russell Rathbun, pastor, House Of Mercy Church

I have been staying inside with a couple of the ladies—Helen Dewitt and Debbie Blue, both of them brilliant and crazy in the they-know-something-I-really-need-to-find-out-about way and both of them writing about books and language. Dewitt's novel The Last Samurai I had recommended to me for a long time but I thought it must be the novel that Tom Cruse movie was made from, and I had seen the movie. But this has absolutely nothing to do with that.

It is a super-compelling narrative, structured unconventionally. It is about language and the knowledge and love and meaning and art. Blue's new book From Stone to Living Word, is about The book, the Bible. It is all about how people treat it like a sacred set of rules carved in stone that needs to be bowed down to, but it is really an alive document about the possibility that God is in the world and how that looks sometimes insane, sometimes utterly frightening, sometimes overwhelmingly beautiful and improbable. Which is a pretty good place to have your head on a desolate, sub-zero night.