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Minnesotans are a highly skilled bunch, whether pursuing traditional activities like wild ricing and pickling, or tastefully displaying taxidermy, or selecting the right fishing bait. Skills particularly appropriate to Minnesota— such as creating seed art or baking a Bundt cake—may be fully on display at the state fair, a prime opportunity to join with neighbors in celebrating our many talents.

Best of all, Minnesotans are eager to share their skills with newcomers or the newly inspired, and for The Minnesota Book of Skills many freely offered their expertise in conversations with author Chris Niskanen. Get the inside scoop from Joe Hautman, who has won four federal duck stamp contests. Learn to sing like a voyageur from Francois Fouquerel, dean of the French Voyageur program at the Concordia Language Village. Grow and harvest your own wheat with Dave and Florence Minar.

The Minnesota Book of Skills brings to life the basic know-how that makes us uniquely Minnesotan. Seasonal tips like how to gracefully exit a ski lift mingle with skills your grandparents knew well, such as what to forage for while on a hike. How soon is too soon to bring a child to the Boundary Waters or set her up on hockey skates? The answers are here. Maybe you’ll never carve an ice sculpture or build your own coffin—but isn’t it comforting to know that one handy book offers just the guidance you’ll need?

Chris Niskanen is communications director for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and former longtime outdoors reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He is the author of Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota’s State Parks.

Insight Guide Canada is a comprehensive, inspirational guide to getting the most out of one the world’s largest and most beautiful countries. Engaging and lively History and Culture chapters explain the country’s tumultuous past caught between European powers and the USA, and the factors influencing its identity; from ancient Inuit settlements, through to the arrival of the British, to the influx of immigrants from all over the world. The burgeoning arts scene, local cuisine and the vast expanses of wild landscape are fully explored so that visitors can gain a sense of how Canada’s character and culture have been shaped. To help with planning a trip, the Places chapters encompass all of Canada’s provinces, cover the vibrant cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal in detail, and suggest where to visit and what to do in Canada’s great outdoors. Full-color photographs throughout illustrate the beauty of the Canadian landscape more than any other guide to the country on the market and give a true flavor of Canadian life today. Detailed maps throughout the book help visitors get around the different areas, with all major sites cross-referenced with the text, and the Travel Tips offer practical advice and selective, independent reviews of the best and most authentic places to stay and eat.