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It's officially summer, and "up north" is a destination for many of us. Mille Lacs-based photographer Doug Bennington offers 91 black-and-white and color photos in "Mille Lacs" (self-published, $35).
In his introduction, Bennington says he has "endeavored to make this book of photos an indelible memoir of the lake, its people, its wildlife and its amazing showcase of water and sky." Among the "Lake Facts" he includes: Mille Lacs straddles three counties, and winter ice forms as thick as four feet over the entire surface. His photos range from close-ups of textures on the outsides of buildings, old window frames, boats and winter fish houses on the huge lake and resorts and casinos. Bennington's close-up photo of huge, red bolts shows his talent for seeing art in details. (For ordering information, visit doug bennington.com.)
From the famous aerial lift bridge to beautiful 19th-century mansions, the spirit of Duluth is captured by Dennis O'Hara in "Picture Duluth: Photographs of the Zenith City" (X-communication, $19.95). This paperback is a documentary, showing scenes of the city and lake. O'Hara began his photography career while operating a variety of cameras from the back seat of a RF-4C reconnaissance jet with the Duluth-based 148th Fighter Wing of the Minnesota National Guard. His work has appeared in many publications. Some of his most beautiful images in the book are
Minnesota Twins fans can turn nostalgic when they read "Carew" (University of Minnesota Press, $18.95). This paperback is a new edition of Rod Carew's autobiography, first published in 1979. A new afterword by Carew covers the end of his baseball career and his post-baseball life.
Carew, who retired in 1985, played for the Twins for 12 seasons and seven for the California Angels and amassed seven batting titles, more than 3,000 hits and 18 All-Star selections. He was a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection in 1991. This candid autobiography, written with Pulitzer Prize-winning sports reporter/columnist Ira Berkow, tells of Carew's childhood in a segregated barrio in Panama and his move to Harlem, N.Y., at 14. He deals with his early poverty, his relationship with his abusive father and racial discrimination, as well as the loss of his daughter to leukemia. He is a member of the Minnesota Twins' executive committee and an executive representative for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
It's not surprising that Carew gets 33 mentions in the index of "Minnesota Twins: The Complete Illustrated History" (MVP Books, $30) by Star Tribune reporters Dennis Brackin and Patrick Reusse. Their book is packed with black-and-white and color photos and information. Chapters are: Twins Prehistory; the 1960s: A Franchise Comes of Age; The 1970s: Tough Times in Twinsville; the 1980s; Reaching the Top; the 1990s: Worst to First, and Back Again; and the 2000s: New Hope and New Home. An appendix offers the "Minnesota Twins Alltime Record Book." Running through the book are sidebars about the careers of the authors' picks of Top 50 Twins.
If you hang with fans who love to show off their baseball knowledge, invest in a copy of "Minnesota Twins Trivia" by Jim Hoey (Nodin Press, $19.95), subtitled "1,061 Questions (and answers, too!)." Hoey, a social studies teacher with a passion for baseball, also includes lists of such important stuff as statistical categories (1961-2009), Twins year-by-year records and complete player rosters (1961-2009).
It isn't often you find a book with drawings of the subject's brain, lungs, fingers and knees. Brett Favre's body parts that were injured when he played for the Green Bay Packers are the centerfold of "Legendary," made up of pictures and text from 10 newspapers in the Gannett Wisconsin Group, including the Green Bay Press-Gazette (Pediment Publishing, $34.95).
There's a different kind of nostalgia in "Minnesota's Golden Age of Wrestling: From Verne Gagne to the Road Warriors" by George Schire (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $27.95). Schire knows what he's talking about. He has written for national wrestling publications, been a ring announcer and co-hosts "Torch Nostalgia" on the Internet.
Schire points out that "wrestling was an athletic contest, but it was more than that: It had to have a story. During those early years, the 'heels,' or bad guys, and the 'babyfaces,' or good guys, would enter auditoriums through separate doors, never ride or drive the same car, and use different locker rooms at the auditoriums."
He writes that "wrestling in Minnesota began its most exciting era in the Twin Cities when Tony Stecher presented his first professional card at the Minneapolis Auditorium on February 21, 1933." He dates the end of the era to the mid-1980s, with the arrival of the Road Warriors, Minnesota boys Joe Laurinaitis (Animal) and Mike Hegstrand (Hawk). In between are men with such familiar names as Hard Boiled Haggerty, the Incredible Hulk Hogan, Baron "the Claw" Von Raschke and Jesse Ventura.
Book critic Mary Ann Grossmann can be reached at mgrossmann@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5574.
