The Lager Queen of Minnesota: A Novel

This is a truly delightful novel. My book club loved it! The member who picked it brought along samples of beers for us to try and that added to our enjoyment.!There is strong character portrayal int he book and a deep understanding of the culture and values of the Twin City area of Minnesota. We see the middle class values of hard work and stoic acceptance of the difficulties of life, but we also get the definite theme that the wealthy have no conception of what it is like to struggle for even the most basic necessities of modern life, like dependable transportation. We get some moral quandaries to make us ask ourselves how we would react to inability to provide for those you love.At the same time, there is much humor in this book and a genuine affection for the toughness and spirit of old ladies! Clearly, it is wrong to pan this book because the plot strains credulity! That's not the point. Yes, there are some real problems explored in the book, but in the end, the solution to those problems seems pretty unlikely! That's not the point. This is not a book written to suggest solutions to pressing social problems. Rather, it is a partly humorous, partly serious book that was written to engage and entertain the reader! At that objective, it is highly successful!To illustrate my point about realism, it is not realistic that a bunch of inexperienced old ladies could quickly learn to brew marketable beers! But to judge the book on this basis is unfair. The author is not attempting to write a realistic treatment of how beer is brewed. It is the relationships, work ethic, and quirky behaviors of the characters that make this a great read.You will greatly enjoy this book. Having spent a lot of time in Minneapolis, where our youngest son is raising his family, we found a lot of very keen observations in the book. But, you don't have to have even set foot in Minnesota to enjoy this book. Don't miss this one!

This was an enjoyable read especially if you, or someone in your life, is a beer fan. It’s a good family saga with strong, determined women at the center.

Kudos for J. Ryan Stadal for following up the wonderful "Kitchens of the great Midwest" with "The Lager Queen of Minnesota".I picked this book up because of my appreciation for the earlier novel and for an intriguing title.This is a novel that is a wonderful intertwining about a bit of modern American family life, communities and, of course, beer making. It all hangs together very nicely and is well plotted and well paced.I think Mr. Stradal was very thoughtful in his portrayal of how difficult it is for some families and individuals to make it in America - even if they are "trying". I think that any one who has asked themselves about the social safety net should read this book - it is not preachy but an effective reminder of why we have certain social programs. I also find that Mr. Stradal writes particularly compelling, strong female characters (men are a bit of side show in this book).At the end of the book I reconsidered the title and thought that each reader must themselves decided just WHO, the title lager queen of Minnesota is referring to.I highly recommend this book for both its thoughtfulness and its entertainment value.

Fittingly, this story started and ended with the two sisters, Edith and Helen. But about halfway through, we lost track of Helen, and Edith became a minor character, replaced by Diana. I was okay with the new focus on Diana until she blundered into a career path (trying to avoid a spoiler here) that was simply too coincidental to be plausible. The plot became even more unlikely a bit later when the author suddenly added several new characters--all supposedly cute grandmothers--and way too much detail about beer. At this point, I began to count the pages until the end.The character of Diana was inconsistent. For example, after she struggled for years to have a baby, the actual birth was skipped over, and the long-wanted child (and its father) were barely mentioned the rest of the book. And after having been assiduously coached in the careful brewing of craft beer (pages and pages of this!), Diana suddenly started bottling and selling products brewed by first-time amateurs. I found myself confusing Diana with the young Helen, but I don't know if the similarity was intentional or not.By the time old Helen came back into the picture, I had forgotten her backstory. I'm surprised an editor didn't point out to the author that there would have been several more-believable ways to get these three women together and into the same industry.The poignant ending did bring a tear or two, but the story could have been better.

After reading too many heavy, dark novels I needed a light-hearted summer read and this book didn't disappoint me. On occasion it made me smile and even laugh out loud. But the story isn't frivolous; the characters are selfless, warm, mid-westerners and serious themes flow through this story. I'm looking forward to reading more by J. Ryan Stradal.

I do not really like beer but I loved this book. I heard about this book on the #amwriting podcast, a recommendation from @kjda and it did not disappoint.This book was fun to read, and hard to put down. The characters are very well developed and you feel their joys and pains as they do. They become real, not just words on a page. My only complaint is that the book ended. I want to know what happens to these characters next.What a fun, endearing and interesting book that attests to the Midwest ethics. In a nutshell it is a family saga with microbrews and rhubarb pie.Very entertaining by J. Ryan Stradal. I definitely look forward to more books from Mr. Stradal and will order his previous „Kitchens of the Midwest“ now.

What a fantastic story, just made me want to brew beer and understand more about its creation. I loved the passionate and driven characters.

I like the way the entire story was pulled together at the end with some level of predictability but also some twists.

I'm not sure at what point the author sat down and thought "I've got an idea for a really engaging story." There's just no emotion in this. There's no danger, no jeopardy, no philosophical pondering, no love, no humor, no plot twists, nothing. It's just boring. It's inoffensive and "nice" but it runs like a sort of fictional memoir for a story that's not very interesting from start to end. The characters feel like miscast actors playing roles they're not comfortable with. The chronology jumps around far too much to give any real consistency. There's something about this book, as a package, which appealed to me. I like the synopsis and the overall vibe, and I'm supportive of these "marginalized" stories being told (or at least - stories of a kind which are hard to find elsewhere). Subsequently I didn't "strongly dislike" this book but I can't give it any more than a second star because I've already forgotten practically all of it, it's not memorable or impacting enough.