Ron Schara's Minnesota Fishing Guide

These collected columns from Grit magazine by the book review editor of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune are short, homey slice-of-life pieces set in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The people who inhabit Wood's memories share some of the traits of Garrison Keillor's fictional Lake Wobegon charactersan unhurried, simple existence and a strong sense of communityand Wood, like Keillor, reveals humor in mundanities. Arranged by ""sources of inspiration'' such as childhood, friends, letters from Grit readers and Ruth, the author's wife, the essays serve up church suppers, adventures along a paper route, hot summer nights spent sleeping under the elm trees on the lawn, swimming lessons down at the ``swimmin' hole'' and hot baths in the kitchen washtub. Passionate about food, the author recalls Spam, bread heels dipped in bacon grease and drizzled with Karo syrup, blood sausages and restaurants called ``Eats.'' A sincerely felt but sentimental and nostalgic look at small-town living, this book suffers from an awkward prose style and a surfeit of details waiting to be molded into stories. Some 100 skillful line drawings are witty and charming. (May)