While some might consider this book a little hokey and/or predictable, I really enjoyed reading it. It felt very familiar to me as someone who grew up in the Midwest, and the recipes look fantastic! You could even consider it a cookbook with a bonus story.

Although the author apparently has a number of books out, I was unfamiliar with her work. I can definitely see myself looking for others now.

I was provided with an advance copy thanks to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect from Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes). The first thing things went through my mind when I saw this book were, 1) this cover is GORGEOUS and 2) what does with recipes even mean?!
To answer my #2, there ARE actual recipes in this books. That alone is pretty neat and I'm hoping to revisit most of them for future parties!

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) is set up in a very interesting way; it's basically a story within a story. 50 years prior to the start of the book, Haze Evans takes over as a writer for a column at the Granite Creek Gazette and becomes an instant hit! People love her columns and the honestly and current issue they addressed. Haze suffers a massive stroke in present day and the Granite Creek Gazette publisher, Susan McGrath makes the decision to republish the Haze's columns and reader response as a way to honor her.

The novel bounces back between Haze's columns and the present day on-goings. I found it a bit hard to distinguish between the two, but that might be because I had a ebook copy and the only different was a slight change in the font size. I'd imagine in fully published copy there would be something more obvious. I instantly took a liking to Haze's columns! Like the readers of the Granite Creek Gazette I wanted more! The columns were much more interesting that the actual plot of the book itself, which is why I gave the book a 3 star rating. I didn't feel a connection with any of the novel's characters. At times they annoyed me and I just wanted to get back to reading Haze's columns. However, I did find it interesting with how the content in Haze's columns connected with the characters, specifically Susan McGrath. There was a small twist I wasn't expecting, but it didn't really changed the book too much for me.

I felt that a lot of Haze's columns were relevant to what is going on in current day society and I'm assuming that was Lorna Landvik's intent. Haze takes a more liberal stance on a lot of topics she writes about and it is great to see a woman, even though fictional, writing about real things like taking a man's last name, miscarriages, politics, etc. I definitely got a feminism vibe from the whole thing, which is why I loved reading the columns so much!

I'm definitely interested in what Lorna Landvik comes up with next!

I’ve been reading a lot of psychological thrillers lately, and wanted something a bit lighter for a change. This book looked and sounded intriguing, so I thought it would be a pleasant change of pace.

The book is a story within a story. We learn about the main character, Haze, through her past newspaper columns which are heartwarming for the most part. The other people in the book are ones who knew her, were friends with her or are looking after her at the hospital. The author did a nice job of pulling this together into a interesting look at the everyday lives of so many. Besides the opinionated Haze, the other important people in this book are a teenager who is somewhat surly in the beginning and his mom who is dealing with a separation from a cheating, currently somewhat nasty ex. There is growth for the characters as they interact with each other during the time Haze is hospitalized and her columns are published again.

The book wasn’t as amusing as I thought it would be, but overall it was ok. It did cover some controversial topics such as abortion, had cheating spouses and a lesbian couple.

Haze Evans, columnist for the Granite Creek Gazette suffers a massive stroke at the beginning of Chronicles of a Radical Hag but the book is filled with her words and opinions on life. Haze has been writing columns for as long as anyone can remember. Sometimes her columns are lighthearted in nature, but most often with her strong opinions about social issues of the day. She takes on topics that others might shy away from, and gives her own personal take on everything from abortion to assassinations while making each topic even more personal by sharing her life stories bits and pieces at a time.

Susan, the editor of the paper decides to run Haze’s columns while her favorite columnist is hospitalized. Susan’s high school age son Sam is enlisted to work for his mom by reading through Haze’s columns to see which ones would be appropriate to run as well as the responses Haze received on the topics. He is an introverted teen with a lot on his mind, mainly the recent affair his father has had which lead to his parents separation.

Sam soon becomes engrossed in Haze’s columns, advice and the people who love and hate her opinions. The Gazette readers are finding a new side of their favorite columnist by reading Haze’s opinions from years ago. This interest has encouraged the local high school kids to really discuss issues in their English class instead of the usual disinterest in the meaning of text. Some of the kids have even begun writing – pen to paper – writing down their opinions and thoughts.

While Haze seems to have opened her life to her readers, Sam uncovers some things that she has never shared. The further he digs he realizes that one of the secrets could have an impact on his family. But honestly, we cannot know everything about a person, each of us has something we don’t share with others that might surprise even the best of friends.Ms. Ladvik creates a town of engaging characters, old and young. As the reader gets to know each of them, it is easy to see why they behave like they do. Watching them grow and learn is a gift to the reader. It gives us hope for the change that true dialog with others whether written or conversing can initiate.

This is the first book that I have read by Ms. Ladvik, but not the first she has written. When I popped over to her website, I found that this is her 15th book. How I could have missed her engaging writing style reminiscent of Fanny Flagg is beyond me. I will be adding the other 14 to my reading list.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.Copyright © 2019 Laura Hartman

What a story! Haze has been a columnist for a small-town newspaper for more than fifty years -- beloved and opinionated and given free rein to choose her subject and story length. She has lived a full and fascinating life filled with tragedies and joys -- now that she is comatose after a stroke, her story is revealed through her columns and responses, covering extremely personal as well as historical events. What I particularly enjoyed was the interwoven stories with the newspaper's editor, her 14 year old son, and other characters who are all changed that summer through Haze's stories. Brilliant, wonderfully done -- I did not want to finish this story. I did not want to leave the fully-dimensional characters, this wonderful town in Minnesota, the flawless prose and dialogue, so believable and a wonderful transport to another place, another time and also firmly grounded in the here and now. Terrific read.

This is my first Lorna Landvik novel after having various others on my TBR for most of my adult life. I liked getting to know Haze through her old newspaper columns. It was predictable storywise but I enjoyed the development of relationships, especially Susan and her son, Sam. It got unnecessarily heavy handed with politics near the end, which was a shame as the rest of the book was firmly rooted in the excitement of several characters for being able to vote for Hilary in the presidential election.

Thanks to NetGalley for the uncorrected proof for review. There are instances where it seemed like the novel had been dictated into a voice recognition software rather than written. “What when on” and “inevitably of death” and “egg yoke” with other glaring line editing problems like spelling the country as “Columbia.” Granted, I expected the proof to be a wreck with the formatting because the story goes between conversations, written newspaper columns, fake texts messages, and old love letters in the same chapter. I’m sure all of these will be resolved in the final version.

Rated 3.65, rounded to 4 out of 5

I've always loved Lorna Landvik's books and writing style. I especially love when she writes about the Minnesota Lutheran Norwegians (my Dad was from Minnesota and yes, we were Lutheran Norwegians). This book didn't focus much on the Norwegian aspect of the people or the town but the characters were interesting and complex. Of course Haze was the star of the show. I loved her columns - it was a clever way for Landvik to write this book as using Haze's past columns. It was fun to see how those old columns were received by the town and how people were changed by them. I was disappointed, however, that Landvik (and her main character, Haze) resorted to political rants and one-sided opinions. For me, it tainted the feelings I had about Haze and the book. And it brought what had been a five-star book down to a four-star. Just my opinion.

I was absolutely drawn into this book by it’s fantastic title, and it did not disappoint. I tore through this uniquely written book and enjoyed getting to know the characters of this small town — and reading the yummy recipes!!
The book uses Hazel’s newspaper columns from over 50 years to structure the story of Hazel, the people in her life, and the people who’s lives were touched by her columns. It seems like this might be confusing, but it isn’t because it’s handled really well.
I love Hazel and her no nonsense point of view. She is not shy on giving her opinion and has the courage to say things that might be unpopular — with the understanding that at least she will be engaging people in important discussions.
This book gives strong opinions on a lot of hot social and political topics — everything from feminism, to gay rights, to war, and beyond. I imagine that the author was hoping to be like Hazel, to put her thoughts out there and inspire some discussion. I did find that near the end, it felt like a lot of issues were being thrown at the reader in a bit of a rush.
One of my favourite characters was Sam, the struggling teenager who learns to find his way, largely through reading through Hazel’s columns. He’s absolutely adorable and it was nice to see the growth in this teen and how he learned to inspire others.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me a review copy of this book.

Thank you so much University of Minnesota Press for allowing me to review Chronicals Of A Radical Hag (With Recipes). A unique and fun read!
Chronicals Of A Radical Hag (With Recipes) is really the story of Haze, a reporter with a cherished column in a small town paper. When she suffers a stroke, the paper’s editor and friend decides to run some of her old columns and the some of the responses she got. The result is a look at the town’s history, secrets that Haze kept about her own past and the reaction of a small town on her liberal viewpoint.

This was a fun read after a slow start to the book and ended up taking me by surprise. I like stories placed in small towns and this was placed in small town Minnesota. The characterizations are outstanding of small town people. .
Chronicles of a Radical Hag was a departure from anything you may expect from this books. Its about a long time newspaper columnist for a local hometown paper. She is eighty and as such she suffers a stroke. The paper runs her old columns and soon gossip abounds and lives are affected by past brought to life. In the end the community rallies together as small towns do and they embrace their beloved columnist. What a joy to read this was and so endearing. Its small town America at its best.
Thank you for the ARC. My opinion is my own. I highly recommend this book for your reading enjoyment.
Very well done to the author.
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Life is what happens while you plan your life...a fit description of Haze's life in Granite Cove. Read how one spunky columnist at a small town newspaper affected so many people.

This novel about a small town newspaper columnist, Haze, and the lives she touches/affects through her columns was sweet and charming. It definitely emphasizes characters over plot, and while entertaining, I thought it would have been stronger had it focused on less of them. In covering Haze's decades of columns, it seems to "boil the ocean." It brings up topic after topic (some controversial and some not) without doing a great job of weaving them together. It was an easy, entertaining read (yes, there are a few laughs), and I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

What caught my attention first about this book is the cover! It's beautiful and the title is great! As a small town girl, I really enjoyed the down-home feel of this small town tale. It got off to a slow start but then BAM it picked up quickly and I couldn't put it down. I especially love that it took place in Minnesota as I'm a Minnesotan myself. Haze lovable and the townspeople were delightful. I especially liked Sam. I liked the political messages Haze wrote about in her column. I especially enjoyed her excitement over the prospect of voting for the first woman president in the 2016 election. Unfortunately, Haze fell into a coma shortly before the election. Overall this is an amazing and enjoyable story. I definitely recommend this one to other readers.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with recipes) features a beautiful cover that immediately caught my attention. It's not exactly what I was expecting but in a good way. A long time newspaper columnist for a local hometown paper suffers a stroke. She is eighty years old, so imagine how many columns she has written. In her absence, the paper decides to rerun some of her old columns. I love this premise because my local paper reruns old articles, and they ran one of me from 1996 when I was a pageant queen. It's such a bittersweet thing to see now. It's interesting and entertaining to see the reactions of the people in town. What if a column painted someone in a bad light? What if a present day terrible person was painted in a good light? Do people ever really change? The story shows how, regardless of past feelings, the community still stands strong. It's eye opening and informative for some, maybe embarrising for others. Still, the past is done, and the future holds promise. History in these columns proves that people are fundamentally survivors. It's a warm hearted read that is both sad yet inspiring. A joy to read! Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This one ranged between 3 and 5 stars for me throughout the book, so I'm settling on 4. As a Minnesotan, I'm a long-time fan of Lorna Landvik and her heartwarming Minnesota stories. This one was great, but it started out VERY slow for me. The first half of this book was nice, but for some reason didn't especially engage me, but somewhere around the halfway mark I got really invested in the story and it gave me a ton of feels.

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) is the story of small-town Minnesota newspaper columnist Haze Evans, who is in a coma in the present day sections of the book. The newspaper decides to rerun some of her 50+ years of columns, and we get to read her columns as we see how they affect the lives of people in the town. There are also some flashbacks to earlier periods in Haze's life at some of its most pivotal moments.

Haze was a lovable character, and the people of the town were a delightful cast of characters, especially Sam. This was heartwarming without crossing the line into schmaltzy and I would recommend it to anyone who likes life-affirming small town tales. The book is bittersweet in multiple ways, and I loved the political messages Haze expressed in her column as well--she falls into a coma shortly before the 2016 election, and the excitement she felt over the prospect of voting for the first woman president is poignant and painful in light of the current state of affairs

I picked up Chronicles of a Radical Hag for the cover but I stayed for the recipes (even if my Aunt Alma’s Goodwill Crescent Cookies didn’t turn out very crescent like). I loved the formatting of the story, with the present narrative mixed in with past newspaper articles and responses. I appreciated the growth of Sam, the son of the editor of the newspaper who is spending his summer working at the paper, over the course of the book and I loved him in the end.

I did find the book a little predictable (there weren’t really any surprises) but I found I didn’t really mind, there’s a reason some book formulas just work. I do think Haze’s newspaper articles were funny and cute but I’m not sure I believe that her more political ones would have actually been published in a small town in the 60’s/70’s (but I would be happy to be wrong about this assumption). I also think it’s very clear where Landvik stands on the political spectrum, which again didn’t bother me at all.

I loved that this book focused on community, appreciation for our societies elders/octogenarians, and writing as a way to work through your feelings. I’m excited to try a few more of Haze’s recipes and I’m looking forward to picking up another book by Landvik when I need a feel good book that isn’t just fluff.

Thanks to University of Minnesota Press for my free review copy!

Heartwarming and heartbreaking, with a message
When 81-year-old Haze Evans suffers a massive stroke that puts her into a coma, the readers and staff of the Granite Creek Gazette in Granite Creek MN are devastated. Haze has been a regular columnist for the paper since 1964, and her years of reporting chronicle her life, the town’s life, and the events that shook the nation and the world during those years. As a tribute to Haze and because the townsfolk would miss their regular dose of Haze, publisher Susan McGrath decides to republish selected columns from her years at the paper. Susan’s 14-year-old son Sam has just come to work at the paper for the summer, and Susan assigns him to go through the 52 years of Haze’s writing.
It was obvious why Haze became a beloved figure to the people of Granite Creek from the opening paragraph of the book, an excerpt from her column: “July 15, 2016 Minus what that vicious lying mirror tells me, and the knees that crackle the kindling every time I take the stairs, and the ear canals that have muddled with silt of late, eighty-one feels an awful lot like twenty-nine. Okay, maybe fifty-three.” I was quite upset when she had her stroke, and I had only known her for 2 pages! The person of Haze typifies the kind of writing that I have come to expect of Landvik; she portrays characters that are memorable, believable, and (mostly) likable.
Given her stroke on page 2, we do not get to know Haze through a standard story line. The book alternates between Haze’s columns, as republished in the 2016-2017 Gazette, and narrative of the present-days lives of the paper’s staff. There are also a few throwbacks to Haze’s earlier career that fill in some information about her life. The transitions made the book a little less smooth than a more traditional structure would have, but the columns are the raison d’etre of the story.
If Haze is the star of the book, young Sam deserves the title of co-star, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about his coming-of-age socially and intellectually. It was great fun to read his journalism class’s discussions of Haze’s columns, especially as they reacted to events that to them were “history”. There were fun cameo roles as well, such as Susan’s curmudgeonly neighbor, who had been commenting on Haze’s columns about as long as she had been writing them!
I am old enough to have lived through all of the years covered by Haze’s columns, and Landvik did an excellent job of writing up the times as I remember them and selecting events to portray.
Haze wrote about all aspects of life, but since she had been labeled a “radical hag” by a disgruntled reader, it is not surprising that the emphasis in the columns that were reprinted was on major news stories, especially those with a political bent. And, since Haze has her stroke in the summer of 2016, it is perhaps not surprising that the end of the book puts what the people who knew and read Haze learned from her into the context of today’s political climate. This will, I think, lead to some major differences of opinion within book groups who read this book! In today’s climate, I very often use my fiction reads as an escape from the news of the day, and Landvik is just the kind of author I would be inclined to turn to on such occasions because of her witty writing and well-done characters. The last thing I want to be reminded of is the civil discord of society today. If you are looking for the same kind of escape, you might want to defer reading about the Radical Hag to another time. If, on the other hand, you are willing to let a small-town paper and people in Minnesota help you feel that we can move through this time, as we have through other difficult eras, then Landvik and Haze may have something to say to you.
PS The book really does include some of Haze’s recipes. I MUST try those crescent cookies!
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I really loved this one! I requested Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) by Lorna Landvik on a whim from @netgalley without knowing much about it but it was really great! Landvik has a really fun whimsical writing style -- the story doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite being a book that encourages the reader to think about big, serious thoughts. The story is presented in part as old newspaper columns, juxtaposed with modern day considerations and reactions, so the storytelling was really innovative and unexpected to me! It’s also a book that has a really fun slew of inter-connected characters, all focused around one woman who manages to inspire them all, despite their various issues.

Haze Evans has been writing a column in her local paper for almost fifty years. When she suffers a stroke and ends up unconscious in the hospital, the newspaper publisher, Susan McGrath, and other members of the newspaper staff rally together to continue Haze’s voice and presence at the paper -- by publishing her old columns again along with both old and new reader responses. Even McGrath’s fourteen year old son, Sam, begrudgingly gets involved in sorting through decades worth of old columns. However, Sam (who is still reeling from his parents' recent separation) quickly learns that Haze’s columns might just be exactly what he needs.

Slight spoiler alert: There is some political hashing outs in the book, and I full on cried at Haze’s column about the 2016 election. It was as if someone had snuck into my head and wrote down everything that’s been running around my head for the past few years. Still, the book strikes a really hopeful note, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny -- I love being pleasantly surprised by books and Chronicles of a Radical Hag definitely exceeded my expectations!

Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with recipes) is the story of small town Minnesota life over the past fifty years seen through the eyes of a local journalist. The title refers to the name one of her readers called her, a “radical hag”, plus she felt that if she added recipes it would encourage people to read her column.

A homespun Minnesotan newspaper columnist (think Garrison Keillor) suffers a stroke and is in a coma. While hospitalized, her newspaper begins to publish reprints of her prior articles along with the audience’s response.

I really wanted to like this story. However, it seemed extremely slow and nothing much happened that you didn’t see pages before it occurred. It is possible that I have just read too many thrillers to appreciate a literary fiction book that so heavily emphasizes characters over plot. Therefore, I’ll give Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with recipes) 3 stars for fans of that genre.

Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a wonderful read. The author tells the story through the columns of Haze Evans, a small town newspaper columnist. Haze has a stroke at the beginning of the story and her publisher decides to publish columns from her 50 years of columns treasure trove.

We get a little bit of a history lesson as events from the 60's to the current day are featured. The characters are wonderfully full formed, especially Haze even though we only hear her voice through her columns.

The tone of this book reminds me of Fannie Flagg's in that you feel like you're a member of this small Minnesota town. Very heartwarming and a little hear breaking too.