Books we like to mark

One thing your scrapblog editor likes even better than newspapers is (are?) books. As you've seen, I've already crowed several times about my old pal Laurie Hertzel's 2010 memoir "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist." Here are two other recent books I've had the privilege to have a small hand in:

"Manhood From the Hood" is a self-published memoir by Bill Roddy, who operates a Twin Cities nonprofit that helps young people from poorer neighborhoods learn how to be entrepreneurs. I did some editing on Bill's book, which chronicles his hardscrabble childhood in Chicago and the values he learned from his grandfather that helped him forge his path in life.

I took this photo of Bill and his wife, Gail Roddy, at their recent book launch party in Eden Prairie. They are lovely and gracious friends.

Here's another recent book whose author I'm proud to know. Jamie Lorentzen, along with his wife, Jane, are dear friends who live in Old Frontenac, Minn. Jamie, in addition to being a delightful and humorous person (relatives may remember him as the eloquent eulogist at Mom's funeral), is a Kierkegaard scholar. Jamie thanks me in this book's acknowledgments, but I really didn't have anything to do with it other than to tell him over a beer at Bronk's in Lake City that it was an awesome idea and that he's an awesome dude.

Here's a Red Wing Republican Eagle photo of Jamie before his commencement address to the Class of '10 at Red Wing (Minn.) High School, where he teaches English and is extremely popular. That Jamie! He's brilliant and hilarious, an excellent combination.