Boswell and Books

Sedaris Yes, But Also Harilyn Rousso, Barry Wightman, Douglas Foster, Ru Freeman, and at the Weyenberg Library, Michael Perry.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:59:00 +0000

Monday May 20, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Harilyn Rousso, author of Don’t Call Me Inspirational: A Disabled Feminist Talks Back
This event is co-sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy of Southeastern Wisconsin, IndependenceFirst, and Disability Rights Wisconsin.

Daniel's take: Thanks to Ellen Bravo for helping put this event together. We are very proud to say that our store is (aside from getting the door open sometimes) a very accessible place for folks in wheelchairs. And who knew that would be an inadvertent bonus of having more lower cases in the center of the store?

Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, and co-editor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female, and Proud!.

In her empowering, and at times confrontational memoir, Rousso, who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability—not overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family—as well as her own prejudice toward her disabled body—and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humor and measures her personal growth as she goes from “passing” to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion.

“I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even rarer: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness and so helps us to discover our own. Don’t Call Me Inspirational is irresistible to read, honest, insightful, and universal.”—Gloria Steinem

also on Monday, May 20, 6:30 pm, at the Frank L. Weyenberg Library, 11345 N. Cedarburg Road, Mequon 53092:
Michael Perry, author of Visiting Tom and more.

Say hi to us in Mequon, where we'll be selling books for Michael Perry and our friends at the Weyenberg Public Library (and also our friends at the Friends of the Weyenberg Library). Perhaps you missed our event last fall or the one at Next Chapter. This is part of Mequon's Communities Read program. I don't have to say it sounds like a blast; I know it will be a blast!

Tuesday, May 21, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Barry Wightman, author of Pepperland.

Daniel's take: This should be a fun event! We'll have music accompaniment and some light refreshments. And if you can't make tonight's event,you can see Wightman at the Brookfield Public Library on Tuesday, June 18, 7 pm.

Local favorite Barry Wightman is fiction editor for Hunger Mountain, a journal for the arts based in Vermont. He is an award-winning essayist who has contributed work to WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio and reviews books for publications in Chicago, Milwaukee and Washington D.C., including the Washington Independent Review of Books. Wightman is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and plays in a rock ‘n’ roll band, The Outta State Plates.

Regarding his new novel, Pepper Porter is on an improbable journey to rock stardom when his long-gone girlfriend reappears. Sooz, a subversively brilliant computer whiz, has crafted an algorithm that “will forever change the direction of all human communications,” fuel the birth of the personal computer and the Internet. But there’s trouble looming as Sooz is on the lam from the FBI—she’s ex-Weather Underground—radical and revolutionary. Falling in love with Pepper, she asks—do you want to play your little rock 'n’ roll songs or change the world? He says—both.

A 70s rock-and-roll race through the heartland of America and a love letter to the power of new-fangled computers and the importance of a guitar pick: Pepperland is about missing information, missing people, missing guitars, paranoia, brothers, revolution, Agents of the Federal Government, IBM, Hugh Hefner, a Dark Stranger, love, death and the search for it amidst the wreckage of recession-wracked, entropically rundown mid-seventies America.

Wednesday, May 22, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Douglas Foster, author of After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Douglas Foster, an associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, is a contributor to The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and Smithsonian.

Daniel's take: Both Anne Lamott and Michael Pollan have sung the praises of Douglas Foster and his work to me. I occasionally get gripes from customers that we don't do enough serious nonfiction. Here's your second event in a week. Show up and make us proud of our strong turnout for serious subjects so that we can the publishers that the new nickname for Milwaukee is Smartypants City (or alternately Brainiburg).

A brutally honest expose, After Mandela provides a sobering portrait of a country caught between a democratic future and a political meltdown.

Recent works have focused primarily on Nelson Mandela's transcendent story. But Douglas Foster, a leading South Africa authority with early, unprecedented access to President Zuma and to the next generation in the Mandela family, traces the nation's entire post-apartheid arc, from its celebrated beginnings under "Madiba" to Thabo Mbeki's tumultuous rule to the ferocious battle between Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Foster tells this story not only from the point of view of the emerging black elite but also, drawing on hundreds of rare interviews over a six-year period, from the perspectives of ordinary citizens, including an HIV-infected teenager living outside Johannesburg and a homeless orphan in Cape Town. This is the long-awaited, revisionist account of a country whose recent history has been not just neglected but largely ignored by the West.

“What a pleasant surprise to encounter a book that actually looks beyond the surface... Foster gives us a portrait of a vibrant nation, full of contrasts and contradictions."—Martin Rubin, Los Angeles Times.

Thursday, May 23, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane.

Daniel's take: Both Stacie (pictured with Freeman) and I have spent time with Ru Freeman at Winter Institute and AWP and we both were cativated. This is a great event for fiction fans, but also for folks interested in world affairs. Freeman takes the war in Sri Lanka and makes it come to life as fiction, using one of my favorite literary devices--reducing the conflict to folks on one block.

Ru Freeman is the author of A Disobedient Girl, which was a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and has been translated into seven languages. She is an activist and journalist whose work appears internationally.

For those who loved Kiran Desai’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss, and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, a novel that Cheryl Strayed calls “Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound… a riveting, important, beauty of a book.”

The Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) claimed tens of thousands of lives and pitted friends, neighbors, colleagues, and lovers against one another: Tamils and Sinhalese, Buddhist and Catholic and Hindu, rich and poor. In Ru Freeman’s stunning new novel, On Sal Mal Lane, we are transported to a quiet street in Colombo in the years leading up to the deadliest conflict in Sri Lankan history. The children growing up on Sal Mal Lane fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all. In a heart-rending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children—a beloved sister and her over-protective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers—contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman’s masterful hands, On Sal Mal Lane, a story of what was lost to a country and her people, becomes a resounding cry for reconciliation.

Sunday, May 26, 2 pm, at Boswell:
David Sedaris, author of Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.
Doors open at 10 am for this event.

Daniel's take: This is a free event however some restrictions/guidelines may be put into place. We expect to fill up early, but will arrange for an overflow signing line outside. As per our previous blog post, there are no holdsies on this event. You cannot come to the store, hold your place, and leave. Once you're here, you must stay here to make sure we do not close the door when we reach capacity. We will have hall passes for folks needing to use the facilities are get refreshments from the Starbucks next door.

1. We will not cut off the line. Mr. Sedaris will make sure that everyone's book is signed. I don't usually say this, but if you can't make it early, I think you could probably show up at 4 pm and we'd still be here. Also 6 pm. Maybe 8 pm. Who knows? Call the store to double check.

2. There are no photos or video allowed for this event. That's pretty much the only restriction. Folks that hear the presentation will get a line letter, but you are not required to buy the book from us to get the letter.

Oh, and a bit about the book. From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new book of essays taking his readers on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Not going to be in town or looking for a more civilized experience? David Sedaris will be back in Milwaukee on Friday, November 1, for a show at the Pabst Theater. Books will be for sale from our friends at Rainy Day Books. Buy your tickets here.

What an exciting week! Please say hi when you're in the store.

Boswell's Sunday Bestsellers, Week Ending 5/18/13. Dan Brown, Books from the Grad Table, Plus Links to the Journal Sentinel Reviews.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:51:00 +0000

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Inferno, by Dan Brown
2. Red Moon, by Benjamin Percy
3. A Delicate Truth, by John Le Carre
4. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
5. Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
7. The Conditions of Love, by Dale Kushner
8. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
9. Leaving Everything Most Loved, by Jacqueline Winspear
10. Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende

Well, Mother's Day season officially ended last Sunday, but the strong female fiction still dominated in positions held, with seven of the top ten slots held by women. Regarding Americanah, the new novel from the author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Maureen Corrigan raved on Fresh Air: "Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting meanings of skin color; but, as Adichie has said in interviews, she also knows that black women's hair can speak volumes about racial politics."

I can't exactly say whether Inferno, Dan Brown's new release, drove other folks into the store, or whether it was folks in town for graduations from UWM and Marquette, but whatever it was, our bestseller numbers were quite good this week for hardcover fiction. Regarding Brown's newest, Molly Driscoll at the Christian Science Monitor has done the grunt work of collecting reviewers responses. It varies from best book yet, to worst book. I have to say, mixed reviews of a groundbreakingly successful thriller series like this is a triumph--when someone's this big on the commercial level, expectations are high and there is always someone who wants to knock you down a peg.

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris (nonticketed event is 5/26, 2 pm)
2. Gulp, by Mary Roach
3. The Guns at Last Night, by Rick Atkinson
4. Cooked, by Michael Pollan
5. Letters to a Young Scientist, by E.O. Wilson
6. Country Girl, by Edna O'Brien
7. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
8. Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown
9. Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
10. Mom and Me and Mom, by Maya Angelou

Definitely the hit of the inspirational picks on the graduation table (and there seem to be more of these every year) is E.O. Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist, which I know has been what our young scientist, Halley, has been recommending. We're also doing particularly well with Mary Roach's Gulp, having more than tripled our sales of 2010's Packing for Mars (and doubled Bonk sales for Schwartz on Downer in 2008). Here's an interview with Roach from Busines Insider. How much food can you eat before your stomach bursts?

Papeback fiction:
1. This Most Amazing, by Jenny Benjamin
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. Jail Coach, by Hillary Bell Locke
4. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
5. The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
6. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
7. The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
8. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple

I met with several book clubs this week. One came with their list prepared, but we wound up tweaking it a bit. Another was working at our book club table, and knowing one of the participants, we started chatting about suggestions. But my favorite was a young couple who simply wanted to read the same book and talk about it--a mini book club of two. I gave them a few suggestions, expecting they'd tell me which direction to go to from there, but they wound up gravitating to Peter Heller's The Dog Stars. Anyhoo, that's partly how Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic wound up on the list this week. It's great for an intense club that wants to have the rich experience they demand in a month where they are time crunched.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
2. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
3. I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar, by Sharon Nichols
4. Bits and Pieces, by Barry Blackwell (event is July 10, 7 pm)
5. A Merry Memoir of Love, Sex, and Religion, by Daniel Maguire

I have to check with Jason as to whether I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar was a group purchase to one person or really popped that successfully off our graduation table. The book is actually from 2009. It's actually a variation of the popular Lonely Planet book Signspotting, with photos of bad grammar that were originally posted to a Facebook page. I looked at Ingram and saw they have a mess on order at the Indiana warehouse, so it appears this book might be quite the sleeper. Look at you, St. Martin's Griffin, acting like you're Chronicle or Workman or something.

Books for Kids:
1. The Lovable Dragon, by Barbara Joosse with illustrations by Randy Cecil
2. The Hollow Earth, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
3. Eggs 1-2-3, Who Will the Babies Be?, by Janet Halfmann, with illustrations by Betsy Thompson
4. Mice, by Lois Ehlert
5. One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake
6. Squirrel's World, by Lisa Moser, with illustrations by Valeri Gorbachev
7. Railroad Hank, by Lisa Moser, with illustrations by Benji Davies
8. Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King Jr's Final Hours, by Ann Bausum
9. Kisses on the Wind, by Lisa Moser, with illustraions by Kathryn Brown
10. Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss

I should note that nine of our top ten bestselling books on this list came from our Women's Club of Wisconsin event featuring area children's book authors. I was chatting with Ms. Joosse about the success of The Lovabye Dragon (we've sold way more of this title than any of her others since we've been open) and how there will be at least one more title that follows the friendship of this princess and her dragon.

Carole E. Barrowman is #2 on our kids' list this week, but she's also featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Paging Through Mysteries" column for four new releases. His Majesty's Hope features a female spying in training in World War II. Barrowman says "To write with energy and suspense about a period of history where many trod before can be a challenge, demanding a fresh perspective and an intimacy among characters so readers care about them as much as the world they inhabit." Her mom also recommends this one.

Ace Atkins, who was just in town at Mystery One promoting his new Spenser novel, Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, has a recommendation from Barrowman for The Broken Places, the newest in a series featuring Quinn Colson. She calls this "evocative tale of revenge and redemption plays out in Biblical proportions near a town called Jericho."

In Owen Laukkanen's Criminal Enterprise, a once-successful businessman turns to robbing backs to pay the bills and finds he likes it, in that sort of "Breaking Bad" kind of way. Barrowman's take? " This book may be a chilling allegory for our disturbing economic times, but it's also a slick cinematic thriller that kept me reading long into the wee hours."

Finally, Barrowman gives a shout out to the popular spy thriller, Chris Pavone's The Expats, now in paper. "With every stunning reveal, readers are drawn deeper into a tangled web."

I mentioned earlier that Jason really loved the new Adichie novel, Americanah. Mike Fischer in the Journal Sentinel is a bit mixed, feeling the story has a bit of an identity crisis. However, "despite this novel's identity crisis, Adichie's willingness to try something different — and her insistence on posing questions that matter — is bracing. Discussing race, this novel takes real risks — and challenges us to do the same with each other."

And also in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins' this week explores an offbeat book that nonetheless fascinates me as well. It's The World's Strongest Librarian, the memoir of a Salt Lake City, well, librarian of course. From Higgins: "If Hanagarne had published his memoir a year earlier, Mitt Romney could have handed copies out on the campaign trail to demystify public anxieties about Mormonism. Hanagarne experiences both the high and lows of belonging to a church that prizes close-knit community and also stresses obedience. A low point comes when the LDS Family Services turns down Hanagarne and his wife, Janette, for a possible adoption, based on a pair of short interviews with a 23-year-old intern. Hanagarne's Tourette's, late-blooming work history and passion for Mark Twain (not the Mormon world's favorite American writer) are all possible reasons for the denial."

I'm so glad Mr. Higgins brought up this book, as I really wanted a place to link to the NPR "Teenage Diaries Revisited" series the one that featured Josh Cutler, a once teen, now adult, who is living with Tourette's Syndrome, and is currently on leave from teaching because another teacher felt threatened by his behavior. It's a really powerful segment. I think you should listen to it right now.

The Zelda Table, Which May be Late for The Opening of "The Great Gatsby", but is Just in Time for Our Event with R. Clifton Spargo, on Monday, June 10.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

We've been juggling displays around the store, and realized we'd been remiss at putting up our F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald titles together. Now that The Great Gatsby has been released and is a hit, it's probably good for a couple more months. That's good, as our Fitzgerald event isn't until June 10 It's for former Marquette prof R. Clifton Spargo, whose novel, Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald been showing up in the various Fitzgerald roundups. Boswellian Jane has become quite the fan, talking it up to lots of folks.

Ruth Scurr's column, "The Legend of Zelda" (of course), profiles several of the titles in The Wall Street Journal. Scurr noted what we have seen, that the book, at least Z, fall into The Paris Wife and Loving Frank trend of writing autobiographal "wife of" novels. She notes: "Zelda is a compelling, but problematic, candidate for a "wife of" novel. Soon after Hemingway met the Fitzgeralds for the first time in Paris in 1925, he noticed two kinds of jealousy in their marriage: Zelda was jealous of Scott's work, but Scott was also jealous of Zelda's vitality and charisma."

Olivia Barker's review in USA Today makes the point that "Z is at its best as a parallel picture of not just a pioneering woman but a groundbreaking era. Popular culture tends to forget that for women, the '20s were nearly as epochal as the '60s."You can hear more about Therese Anne Fowler's take on Zelda in this interview on NPR.

One of the other titles profiled, Call me Zelda, is the follow up to Hemingway's Girl. I wonder how Hemingway and Fitzgerald would have felt about being forever linked by book clubs.Publishers Weekly wrote that Erica Robuck's novel "effectively captures the Fitzgeralds' turbulent marriage, as well as their inability to function personally or professionally beyond their jazz age heyday and into the Depression era.

Regarding Spargo's novel, Julia Klein the Boston Globe says Beautiful Fools (the title derives from a Fitzgerald quote) is more narrowly focused, but almost as engrossing. Its narrative recreates a less than idyllic vacation that the couple took in Cuba in 1939, near the end of Fitzgerald’s life. Writing in third person, and alternating between Scott’s and Zelda’s perspectives, Spargo describes the imperfect communion of two troubled souls who can’t quite let go of their past or each other.

One book that hasn't made it into all the roundups is Superzelda, a graphic novel from One Peace Books. Jeff Nilsson in The Saturday Evening Post (that exists?) reviewed the book, observing "author Tiziana Lo Porto and illustrator Daniele Marotta offer a view of Zelda that is not quite either of these pictures. They show a Zelda who knows her own mind, and is determined to live with as little compromising as possible. But their Zelda also desperately seeks her own artistic outlet as a writer, dancer, and painter, without ever quite succeeding. The book tries to separate Zelda the natural-born eccentric from the Zelda who spent the last decade of her life in and out of mental hospitals"

And if you want a biography instead of a novel, both Jane and Anne recommend Nancy Milford's Zelda.

But Spargo's our man, because he's the one coming to Boswell. Mark your calendar for Monday, June 10, 7 pm, at Boswell. And perhaps you'll want to wear something from the new Gatsby collection at Brooks Brothers.

Lauren Conrad is Coming for a Signing at Boswell. Yes, Boswell! Mark Your Calendars for Wednesday, June 12, 7 pm.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

We've still got plenty of spring events to go, but I'm already booking summer and fall. For summer, the touring authors are in place, and we're filling things in with locals, and folks heading over from Chicago, Milwaukee, and sometimes Minneapolis and St. Paul. But we're particularly excited about some of the folks who are leaving us a bit starry eyed. I've already written about David Sedaris (coming Sunday, May 26, 2 pm) and I'll be writing shortly about Jim Gaffigan (Saturday, June 15, 7 pm, the best Father's Day present ever), but today I'm writing for the gals. Yes, Lauren Conrad is coming to Boswell for a signing on Wednesday, June 12, at 7 pm for her novel Infamous, which goes on sale June 11.

Let's get to all the details you want to know. The $20 ticket includes a copy of her new novel Infamous.. That's the price with tax for Wisconsin residents, so the ticket will be listed online at $18.94.

You can buy your ticket here.

We are co-sponsoring this event with Kohls, who features Lauren Conrad's "LC Lauren Conrad for Kohls" collection at their stores.Here's what the folks at Kohls have to say about the line.

"LC Lauren Conrad for Kohl’s delivers a contemporary, feminine collection of clothing, shoes and accessories for the fashion-conscious young woman. LC Lauren Conrad clothing is inspired by both breezy, beach looks and style staples. The collection incorporates delicate details like lace and ruffles with tailored, updated classics to offer you an entire wardrobe of fun and flirty pieces for any occasion."

Though a lot of readers outside the Milwaukee market don't know this, Kohl's is based in metro Milwaukee, headquarted in nearby Menomonee Falls.

In addition, we are donating $2 of every ticket to a charity that is dear to both Kohl's and Boswell's heart, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Here's a little more about Infamous:
"Filming for season two of The Fame Game has begun, and star Madison Parker is doing something she never thought she’d do: avoiding the PopTV cameras. She knows Trevor will come groveling, and that she’ll go back to the show eventually—but on her terms. Fame can turn a girl into a pawn, and Madison knows that’s not the life she wants. Fame can turn a girl into a target, too, something her Fame Game costars are quickly learning. Up-and-coming actress Carmen is trying to figure out who’s feeding gossip about her to the press, and all signs point to someone from her inner circle.

"Meanwhile, the tabloids have dubbed Kate 'The Boring One,' but if she’s so boring, why is she the one with the boyfriend and a stalker? Help comes from an unexpected place as Madison gives Kate pointers about how to work the reality-TV system. But will Kate take the advice too far? As the girls’ careers heat up, so do their love lives, and they each discover that chasing their dreams almost always comes at a price."

And here is some more information about Lauren Conrad:

Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in the MTV hit series The Hills. She is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including the L.A. Candy series as well as Lauren Conrad Style and Lauren Conrad Beauty, her fashion and beauty guides. She has been featured on the covers of Elle, Glamour, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, Shape, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. She lives in Los Angeles.

We're very excited about (and honestly, honored to be part of) the event and hope you are too. Please help spread the word.

Happy National Children's Book Week in Three Parts. The Tote! The Events! The Books from Our Boswell's Best Case!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:37:00 +0000

Welcome to our three-part blog post, celebrating National Children's Book Week.

a. Tonight we're selling books at the Women's Club of Wisconsin, 813 E. Kilbourn Avenue. The program, Wisconsin Women Write for Children features seven wonderful local authors: Carole Barrowman, Ann Bausum, Lois Ehlert, Janet Halfmann, Barbara Joosse,, JoAnn Early Macken, and Lisa Moser.

Starting time is 6:30 and admission is $15 ($5 for students), with registration available at the door.We'll have National Children's Book Week posters for all attendees and a free bag to the first 25 people to spend $15 or more.

b. On Thursday, April 16, 6:30 pm, we're co-hosting Amy Timbelake at the St. Francis Public Library, 4230 S. Nicholson Ave, 53235. She'll be there for her novel One Came Home. Random House originally added a school and public event mini-tour (she's also at Books and Company on Wednesday, at 4:30 pm) due to the strength of his review in Journal Sentinel.

"Timberlake set her story in 1871 in Placid, a fictionalized version of Wisconsin Dells. That year, the largest nesting of passenger pigeons ever recorded took place in the state: It might have taken up as many as 850 square miles in south-central Wisconsin. (Unfortunately, passenger pigeons have been extinct since 1914.)" Read the rest of the story here.

Once again, the first people to buy One Came Home at the library will get a National Children's Book Week book bag.

c. And of course we should highlight a few kids' books! One book on this week's Boswell's Best is The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle (Walden Pond), by Christopher Healy. It's the follow up to Healy's The Hero's Gide to Saving Your Kingdom, and features the Princes Charming--Duncan, Liam, Gustav, and Frederic, stepping out of the shadows of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose, to defeat an evil witch bent on destroying all their kingdoms. Susan Carpenter in The Los Angeles Times called this series "one of the more clever, hilariously successful incarnations of the current literary rage to rip apart and rewrite fairy tales."

The new book from Crystal Allen, whose How Lamar's Bad Prank won a Bubba-Sized Trophy received a Florida Sunshine State Award (it was raining the day of the ceremony, rumor has it) is The Laura Line. It's about 13-year-old Laura Dyson, who will do anything to prevent her class from making a field trip to the slave shack on her grandmother's property, but what if "anything" winds up putting the slave shack in jeopardy?

Here's a bit from book blogger Valeria Espinoza. "As soon as I saw this novel, I began reading it, right there in the bookstore. I was quickly fascinated with Laura and her life struggling in middle school. It took me back when I was in middle school simultaneously trying to fit in and be myself, or better yet, trying to figure out who I was. I loved Laura from the get go because we are all her in a fraction of our lives; not accepting who we are, or being afraid of who we want to be. The only obstacle in our lives is ourselves and that is evident in The Laura Line. Getting rid of that obstacle, of our own fears, is the hardest part and seeing this fight within the character herself, made it even more realistic and captivating."

Hey, a bookstore mentioned in a book blogger's review! That warms my heart.

Amie, Stacie, and Jane have all been anxiously awaiting The Mighty Lalouche (Schwartz and Wade) from Matthew Olshan and Sophie Blackall, whose illustrations you probably know from the Ivy and Bean series. It's about a humble postman in Paris, who, sacked from his job at the post office, turns to boxing to support himself and his pet finch, Genevieve. I should note that he doesn't seem cut out for the career, but he turns out to be a worthy opponent.

Amie told me that even the review copy she got was immaculately packaged, and there was no tape to seal it, as they tried to be true to the tools of the time in delivering The Mighty Lalouche to booksellers. Sophie Blackall has a fascinating blog post on how she put the artwork together. Wow!

And finally, another book that made the rounds of booksellers, but hasn't yet made it into the blog is Mo Willems's That is Not a Good Idea (Balzer and Bray) It's also a period place, but takes the format of a silent movie. A hungry fox (his name is Hungry Fox) meets a blushing goose (That's Plump Goose, to you) and asks her to go for a stroll, and then asks her for dinner, as the audience (baby geese, or are they goslings) looks on in horror and tries to warn the participants, "that is not a good idea!"

Want to know more? You can watch this trailer:

The four titles reviewed in part C of this post are all Boswell's Best through at least May 20. Happy National Children's Book Week!

Monday Event Post! Benjamin Percy, May Robinette Kowal, Amy Timberlake (at the St. Francis Libary), Dale Kush and Andrea Lochen together, Michael Bowen, Plus a Preview of Next Week.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Monday, May 13, 7 pm, at Boswell
Mary Robinette Kowal, author of Without a Summer.

Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo winner for her story “For Want of a Nail.” Mary serves on the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. A professional puppeteer and voice actor, she spent five years touring nationally with puppet theaters. She is also a member of JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America.

Pairing a Regency love affair with fantasy and intrigue, Without a Summer is Hugo winner Kowal’s third book in the Glamourist Histories series. Kirkus Reviews calls it a “creative, elegantly crafted novel” that offers “both a broad and an intimate canvas of human weakness and virtue.” When Jane and
Vincent Ellsworth, talented painters who are commissioned to create magical works of art, begin to take an interest in the romantic life of Jane’s younger sister, Melody, the timing simply isn’t perfect. Weather manipulators have forced a cold snap to linger for a long time, affecting not only the crops that finance Melody’s dowry, but also political intrigue that will involve the Ellsworths’ particular skills if an international crisis is to be averted.

Here's the beloved fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss on Kowals' Glamour in Glass: “Kowal does a startlingly good job of presenting a mindset that is very alien to me.... The language was delightfully in keeping with the time period, while not being needlessly cumbersome and opaque. The story and characterization were lovely, and I enjoyed the world-building, too.”

Tuesday, May 14, 7 pm, at Boswell
Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon.

Set primarily in the Pacific Northwest, Red Moon considers what would happen if Lycans (werewolves) lived openly among us. Claire Forrester isn’t just another teenage girl. But when government agents kick down Claire Forrester’s front door and murder her parents, Claire realizes just how different she is. Patrick Gamble was nothing special until the da
y he got on a plane and hours later stepped off the only passenger left alive, a hero. Chase Williams has sworn to protect the people of the United States from the menace in their midst, but is becoming the very thing he has promised to destroy. So far, the threat has been controlled by laws and violence and drugs. But the night of the red moon is coming, when an unrecognizable world will emerge, and the battle for humanity will begin.

From Stacie:
A phenomenal writer at a cellular level, Benjamin Percy continues to develop into a beastly literary force. In his latest, he tears up the epic horror novel, transforming it into a war novel, a political novel, a novel of judgment and of revolution. When werewolves, who have lived side by side with humans through history, feel oppressed to the point of breaking, a faction rises up against the U.S. government using terrorist tactics, forcing everyone—lycan and human—to decide which side they stand on, and which lines they are willing to cross. Red Moon is terrifyingly good, with sharp claws, sexy rumbles, and plenty of blood and guts.

Carol Memmott in USA Today declares "While some writers of paranormal novels wrap their creatures in romance and comic subplots, Percy has chosen a darker, more literary path. Red Moon is a morality tale cloaked in fur, fangs and social injustice. Werewolves are the monsters in the story, but the bête noire is humanity's moral decline." Read the whole review here.

Here's the exciting trailer for Red Moon!

Benjamin Percy is also the author of the novel The Wilding, as well as the story collections, The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh. The title story of that collection is also in development as a film

Wednesday, May 15, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Michael Bowen, writing as Hillary Bell Locke, athor of Jail Coach.

Meet Jay Davidovich, a 6’ 4” blond-haired Jewish loss prevention specialist who served in the National Guard in the nineties. When one of his company’s insurance policies on an actor are put on the line, he’ll have to take unusual steps to keep the cash in the bank, and it could kill him.
His job at Trans/Oxana is to prevent losses that Trans/Oxana has insured against – especially losses that unpleasant people want to happen. When Hollywood pretty boy Kent Trowbridge plays late-night bumper-car in his Ferrari with two palm trees and a median and has to serve jail time, the studio holding his performance contract (insured with an eight-figure Trans/Oxana policy) may end up having to cash out if he can’t perform. To keep him in shape to perform, Jay will have to find Trowbridge a “jail coach.”

Enter Katrina Thomspon whose past includes jail, the Marines, a daughter, and a hustler named Stan Chaladian. The first will help Jay, the second will impress him, the third will charm him, and the fourth with almost kill him – that’s life in the Loss Prevention business.

Hillary Bell Locke graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, worked for a prominent New York law firm, and now practices law in a city far from New York but not under that name. Fine, you cleverly tricked me into revealing his secret identity--it's Michael Bowen, and the law firm is Foley and Lardner. Being that Jail Coach came out some months ago, we hoped to have a launch earlier, but were delayed, due to his caseload. I think Jay would have respected that decision.

Thursday, May 16, 6:30 pm, at St. Francis Public Library
4230, S. Nicholson Avenue, St. Francis, 53235:
Amy Timberlake, author of One Came Home

Amy Timberlake won the Golden Kite Award for her picture book The Dirty Cowboy. Her first novel for children, That Girl Lucy Moon, was named a Bank Street Best Children's Book, an Amelia Bloomer Book, and the winner of the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. Timberlake has also worked as a book reviewer, columnist, and children's bookseller.

Straight from Boswellian Hannah:
"13-year-old Georgie is convinced that the unrecognizable body being buried and mourned as her older sister, Agatha, who ran off, is not actually her sister. She sneaks away with Agatha's old beau to learn the truth. What follows is a mystery adventure that feels like the wild, wild West, when Wisconsin was the frontier. Georgie is feisty, stubborn, and never misses her shot. One Came Home is like a middle grade True Grit!

Timberlake's tour of Southeastern Wisconsin was in part spurred by Jim Higgins's fine review of One Came Home in the Journal Sentinel, where he wrote:

"Timberlake, who grew up in Hudson and lives in Chicago, has set her richly atmospheric story in 1871 in Placid, Wis., her analogue for Wisconsin Dells (before all the touristy hoo-ha). She makes striking use of a great natural event that year: the largest nesting of passenger pigeons ever recorded, which might have taken up as many as 850 square miles in south-central Wisconsin. The wild birds become a nearly overwhelming presence in parts of Georgie's year; readers who know that passenger pigeons have been extinct since 1914 may find this either piquant or poignant."

In addition to our event, Timberlake will also appear at Oconomowoc's Books and Company on Wednesday, May 15, at 4:30 pm. Tell Lisa I sent you!

Thursday, May 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Andrea Lochen, author of The Repeat Year
and Dale Kushner, author of The Conditions of Love.

Everyone has days, weeks, even months they wish they could do over--but what about an entire year? After living through the worst twelve months of her life, intensive care nurse Olive Watson is given a second chance to relive her past and attempt to discover where she went wrong in The Repeat Year, the new novel from Wauwatosa writer Andrea Lochen.

After a year of hardships, including a messy breakup with her longtime boyfriend Phil, the prospect of her mother's remarriage, and heartbreaking patient losses at the hospital, Olive is ready to start fresh. But when she wakes up in her ex-boyfriend's bed on New Year's Day 2011—a day she has already lived—Olive's world is turned upside down. Shouldering a year of memories that no one else can recall, even Olive begins to question herself--until she discovers that she is not alone. Upon crossing paths with Sherry Witan, an experienced "repeater," Olive learns that she has the chance to rewrite her future. Given the opportunity of a lifetime, Olive has to decide what she really wants. Should she make different choices, or accept her life as she knows it, flaws and all?

In Madisonian Dale Kushner's novel, it's 1953 and ten-year-old Eunice lives in the backwaters of Wisconsin with her outrageously narcissistic mother, a "manicureeste" and movie star worshipper. Abandoned by her father as an infant, Eunice worries that she will become a misfit like her mother. When her mother's lover, the devoted Sam, moves in, Eunice imagines her life will finally become normal. But her hope dissolves when Sam gets kicked out, and she is again alone with her mother. A freak storm sends Eunice away from all things familiar, and rescued by the shaman-like Rose, Eunice's odyssey continues with a stay in a hermit's shack and ends with a passionate love affair with an older man. Through her capacity to redefine herself, reject bitterness and keep her heart open, she survives and flourishes.

At once fable and realistic story, The Conditions of Love is a book about emotional and physical survival, tracing the journey of a girl from childhood to adulthood as she reckons with her parents' abandonment, her need to break from society's limitations, and her overwhelming desire for spiritual and erotic love.

Join us for a spirited reading from two Wisconsin first-time novelists. For more about Andrea Lochen and The Repeat Year, listen to her recent interview on WUWM's "Lake Effect." And regarding The Conditions of Love, Kirkus called it "A fine exploration of growing up, weathering heartbreak and picking oneself up over and over."

For Friday, May 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jenny Benjamin, author of This Most Amazing.

This Most Amazing wonders what would happen if you could live the life of another person, while you sleep. When Dahlia, a poetry teacher in present day Italy, begins to dream about the life of Vincenzo, an Italian soldier in 1797 who deserts Napoleon’s army, she slowly discovers the ways in which her life could still be connected to his fate.

It's not often that I know someone whose book is published in Cyprus, but that's the case for Jenny Benjamin, whose novel is published by Armida Publications of Nicosia, Cyrprus.freelance writer whose poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines in addition to educational curriculum for classrooms. In 2011 she won the Wisconsin Regional Writers' Association First Chapters Contest and was selected as a semifinalist for the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Big Read Award. You might also know her as a former Schwartz bookseller, whose home base was the Iron Block store on Water and Wisconsin.

Here's a little more about the book from poet Angela Sorby:
"In Jenny Benjamin’s This Most Amazing the dramatic tale of a Napoleonic warrior entwines with the dreamscape of a contemporary American expat, producing a double love story set in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Benjamin’s intensely physical prose style evokes the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries with equal conviction. Readers will be absorbed in the story, but they will also be intrigued by its central question: how does the past endure, not just in history but in our own bodies?" --Angela Sorby, author of Distance Learning, Bird Skin Coat, and The Sleeve Waves, forthcoming with the University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.

Watch this trailer for This Most Amazing from Benjamin's publisher, Armida Books.

Monday, May 20, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Harilyn Rousso, author of Don't Call me Inspirational; A Disabled Feminist Talks Back.

This event is co-sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy of Southeast Wisconsin, Disabilities Rights Wisconsin, and Independence First.

Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, and co-editor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female, and Proud.

In her empowering, and at times confrontational memoir, Rousso, who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability—not overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family—as well as her own prejudice toward her disabled body—and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humor and measures her personal growth as she goes from “passing” to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion.

Wow, that's quite a week and a day.

Sunday Bestseller Post--New Releases and The Best Reviewed and Events and Upcoming Events and Movie Pops and an Author's Favorite Backlist Book All Hit This Week.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day! Here are the Boswell Books bestsellers for this past week, plus a good deal of asides.

Hardcover fiction:
1. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
2. A Delicate Truth, by John Le Carré
3. The Humanity Project, by Jean Thompson
4. Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende
5. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
6. Red Moon, by Benjamin Percy (event 5/14, at Boswell)
7. NOS4A2, by Joe Hill
8. Best Kept Secret, by Jeffrey Archer
9. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
10. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, by Mohsin Hamid

Oops! We ran out of The Woman Upstairs for the weekend--on Friday afternoon, our two remaining copies were on hold. It wouldn't have raised her ranking, but still. The front page New York Times Book Review slot continues to be very important, but there are plenty of titles that get the coveted space that don't pop at all. And not all popular thriller writers sell well at Boswell, but John Le Carré generally does. Colin Fleming in The Washington Post calls A Delicate Truth "a popcorn thriller that defies expectation."

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris (event 5/26 at Boswell)
2. Mamoulian, by David Luhrssen
3. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola
4. Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
5. Cooked, by Michael Pollan

The hullaballoo raised by Zach Braff financing his movie (and Amanda Palmer financing her music tour and then originally not paying her guest musicians, and then paying them, and so forth) on Kickstarter is all over the internet. Here's a piece on Salon addressing the subject. I hadn't really paid attention to how many books are being financed, or hopefully financed on Kickstarter. For example, it turns out that Wisconsin Supper Clubs used this resource.

Paperback fiction:
1. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
2. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. We Live in Water, by Jess Walter
4. Fit for a Frankenstein, by Paul McComas and Greg Starrett
5. Broken Harbor, by Tana French
6. Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
7. Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal (event 5/13)
8. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
9. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson (Pulitzer winner)
10. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain (NBCC winner)

So what is Breakfast of Champions doing on this list? Well, in addition to Jess Walter getting two titles in the two ten (and The Financial Lives of Poets was a strong #14 for the week), Vonnegut was cited as his biggest inspiration and Breakfast of Champions was the Vonnegut book he loved first. We're reading Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk for next month's in-store book club, so that accounts for another pop. And that Baz Luhrman Great Gatsby opened. Here's Richard Brody's take in The New Yorker. I Should also note that We Live in Water is currently available as a Kobo ebook for $1.99 from us

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Mary Nohl: Inside and Out, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith
2. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen
3. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
4. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
5. How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You, by The Oatmeal

Manger and Smith top one list with their adult Mary Nohl title and come in second with their kids bio, also called Mary Nohl, but with a different subtitle. Our event at the North Shore Library proved very popular, only not with the target age range--40 attendees, all of them able to vote, drink, and buy cigarettes. Oh, and happy Mother's Day. I can see all our selections being great choices, with The Oatmeal perfect for that paranoid mom.

Books for kids:
1. Doll Bones, by Holly Black (available copies available)
2. Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith
3. Reboot, by Amy Tintera (autographed copies available)
4. Dark Shore: Atlanteans #2, by Kevin Emerson
5. Life After Theft, by Aprilynne Pike (autographed copies available)
6. The Elite #2, by Kiera Cass (and again, autographed copies available)
7. The Fellowship for Alien Detection, by Kevin Emerson
8. Unraveling #1, by Elizabeth Norris
9. Lost Code: Atlanteans #1, by Kevin Emerson
10. Unbreakable #2, by Elizabeth Norris (guess what? We've got autographed copies)

Events completely cover our top ten this week. Kevin Emerson was a school visit only, nothing public. For the May 12, New York Times bestseller list, The Elite is the #1 young adult novel, but they do that weird thing where they separate out series and put them together. May I weigh in here that I think this is a sillly practice and makes the comparative sales really hard to determine.

Like several Boswellians, the Journal Sentinel's Carole E. Barrowman is also a fan of Red Moon, which is #6 on our hardcover fiction bestseller list. In her review she notes "I charged into the lycan world of Benjamin Percy's Red Moon with wild abandon, and I was rewarded with a remarkably rendered speculative history of America as well as a gripping grisly horror story."

And did I mention Jim Higgins' review of Mary Robinette Kowal's Without a Summer on Thursday? He explains that "Without a Summer takes its basic situation from Austen's Emma: A smart woman turns out to be so wrongheaded about some important things. In Kowal's case, that's Jane, whose mistaken assumptions cause significant heartache for her sister Melody. Kowal is coming to Boswell tomorrow, Monday, May 13.

And there are also wire service reviews of Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers and Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook. The latter has already hit our bestseller list; the latter has made the lower end of our list the last two weeks.

Halley and Daniel Offer Their Congraulations on Your Graduation...by Talking About Cards.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Halley: The first thing I would like to say is that this is a mix of cards specifically for graduation, as well as the more generic congratulations cards, which could be for any number of things.

Daniel: Some card lines group wedding cards under congratulations, only the ones for weddings usually have a big cake on them. Graduation cards seem obliged to feature a cap, gown, diploma, or, or...

Halley: That's it!

Daniel: No, an owl!

Halley:I only picked one card with an owl on it, this newsprint graphic from The Found. I like this line. They're unique, and have those nice brown envelopes.

Daniel: And since they put them in plastic sleeves, they aren't stolen as much. We're having a problem with our Artists to Watch cards. Can you believe that people steal envelopes? Anne told me this has always been a problem. We thought at first that it was someone taking the better envelope for a card that doesn't belong with it, but no, we're coming out short. I am off topic. It is proper etiquette to take the envelope that comes with your card.

Halley: WTF?

Daniel: I have heard you like this smart cookie card from Sanctuary Spring

Halley: That's my favorite. I gave him to my sister last year. You want to eat him up; he's that cute.

Daniel: What's another of your favorites?

Halley: I love the pig card. I am hoping that folks know that this is the appropriate card to give me when I graduate.

Daniel: It's from Hello Lucky. They are moving distribution to Egg Press, a line that I've never bought before, but they are pretty excited about the whole thing. So many of our card lines seem to come out of very small operations, and lots are not consolidated, but you are seing more folks going to places like Artists to Watch and Madison Park. I guess once you start dealing with bigger vendors, who demand credit and then don't pay you on time (we do most of our smaller lines on credit card), you have to consolidate, just like the publishers do.

Halley: I thought you would like the Fresh Frances card as it's done with a grid paper effect. It should appeal to your mathy background.

Daniel: I suspect that a math person nowadays probably doesn't even touch paper. Oh for the days of lots and lots of notebooks. They are wearing those graduation caps. Do they have a special name?

Halley: Graduation caps. They told me to pick up my cap and gown. And last semester I did my calculus problems on paper, not on a computer. I might just be an old fart about it, though.

Daniel: Here's an image you don't expect to see on a congratulations card.

Halley: It's called Little Otsu. I'm not sure. Congratulations, you like cats! It's just so weird. I see it as a subtle rebellion against congratulations of all forms.

Daniel: Congratulations, but really, I don't believe in congratulations?

Halley: That sounds about right.

Daniel: Little Otsu is from Portland.

Halley: That makes sense.

Daniel: Oh, look! A Maginating cad.

Halley: I picked it out for you. You like them.

Daniel: I do. They have nice colors and everything is smiles. The cloud is happy. The flag is happy. The mountain isn't happy, but we may be looking at the back of its anthromorphized head.

Halley: I would give you this card.

Daniel: I worry that some folks don't like letterpress cards because they have no inside message. The heart is on the sleeve, so to speak.

Halley: But it's so pretty! You just have to be more creative. Write your own message, ok?

Daniel: Ok.

Halley: I am predicting my mother will give this to me.

Daniel: How exciting for you! But you know the punch line.

Halley: Yeah, but it's still good, and it screams her. She doesn't like sentimental.

Daniel: Something for everyone.

Halley: We've saved the best for last. It's from Bald Guy. They are sassy cards. We like sassy cards.

A Horror Checklist, Befitting the Release of Benjamin Percy's "Red Moon." Percy is Coming to Boswell on Tuesday, May 14, 7 pm.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:13:00 +0000

So we're very excited about Benjamin Percy's appearance for his novel of lycans (werewolves), Red Moon. Hes coming Tuesday, May 14, 7 pm (note the date). We've had several reads on the book and Stacie and Sharon were gracious enough to write something up for me to use.

From Sharon:
"Ben Percy’s new novel is about werewolves. Not a single misunderstood monster wandering the countryside, but lots of them. They are living openly and considered part of society. This opens up some fascinating political questions. Do Lycans have the same rights as humans? Can they run for office? Clear your schedule and get ready to become lost in Red Moon."

From Stacie:
"A phenomenal writer at a cellular level, Benjamin Percy continues to develop into a beastly literary force. In his latest, he tears up the epic horror novel, transforming it into a war novel, a political novel, a novel of judgment and of revolution. When werewolves, who have lived side by side with humans through history, feel oppressed to the point of breaking, a faction rises up against the U.S. government using terrorist tactics, forcing everyone—lycan and human—to decide which side they stand on, and which lines they are willing to cross. Red Moon is terrifyingly good, with sharp claws, sexy rumbles, and plenty of blood and guts."

Benjamin Percy was just on the new book club segment of Wisconsin Public Radio's show "45 North" with Anne Strainchamps, talking about Red Moon. You can listen to it here. Anne and her producer Rhonda asked if I would mention a few other titles that fall into the category of literary horror, a what to read next, so to speak.

As I often note, I am a bit of a delicate flower regarding violence. I can read a bit of it, but when the body count piles up and it gets very graphic and torture-y, I have to bow out. But the great thing about Benjamin Percy is that you can read one of his other books, which while spooky, aren't quite as graphic. I am a big fan of both The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh. Both have film project possibilities. Percy is working with Guillermo Arriaga on The Wilding, while the title story of Refresh, Refresh is in development with James Ponsoldt.

Our buyer Jason immediately suggested Victor Lavalle's The Devil in Silver. He's sometimes listed as La Valle, by the way. Names are a complicated thing, aren't they? His latest novel is set in a psychiatric ward, the setting for many a creepy tale. Jason called it a "spooky and wonderful book that looks at how hiding from our problems doesn't make them go away."

Another author we thought of was Christopher Buehlman. His first novel, Those Across the River, is a cross between horror and Southern gothic. A fellow moves back to his hometown in Georgia and bad things start happening at the cemetery. Jason is my go-to man once again, noting "Buehlman’s vision is beautiful and creepy, and nothing good will come of it." I know that Wisconsin Public Radio is always looking for local roots--Buehlman entertains each summer at Renassance Faire as an insult comic. Strainchamps wondered if that came into play in the story, but that is not the case.

One book that has a similar setup to Red Moon, but has several major differences at its core, is Justin Cronin's The Passage, the book that sort of led the charge for literary writers to take up blockbuster writing. In his world, a virus has turned humans into vampric creatures called "virals." The difference is that these are straight-ahead adrenaline reads; there isn't the underlying social commentary that Red Moon has.

Another werewolf series that has won fans with Boswellians is The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. Mel's rec said "The prose is exquisite and the content will transport you to a parallel contemporary reality where werewolves live among people." It's a very different take on the werewolf story, with the implication that it might be a bit more carnal.

So many of these books are trilogies. I wondered about this, as at one time I heard that Percy's book was imagined as a trilogy, but the publisher decided to push for an all-encompassing one-volume read. I wonder if that's because some of the adult series books have lagged. The kids' series seem to go on forever.

And that's when Anne asked me where the women writers were, and I started contemplating the same. It strikes me that women writers who are playing off of horror are being pushed to write teen novels. After reading about Amy Tintera's Reboot, it struck me that this could have easily been an adult novel if the protagonist had moved from teen to early twenties. The books are about a virus that kills people, and the government brings them back for a sort of special ops, only the longer you are dead, the more soulless you are. Hannah called the book "action packed" and I've heard Stephen Kingian (Daddy Horror, at least for his first 20 or so novels) thrown about.

One woman writer who seemingly beat out the virus that turns women who want to write for adults and are instead transformed into those for teens (a LOT of teen novels are submitted initially as general trade fiction) is Juliana Baggott, whose novel Pure is classic post-apocalypse creepiness, with folks fused to animals, other people, the earth, whatever, after a nuclear blast. I guess our protagonist has a doll hand. Baggott was a noted poet and a novelist, whose first novel, Girl Talk, shows how much of a 180 she tried to do with her new series.

Finally, a female novelist conquering the adult horror world! But wait, Jason noted that the paperback came out at $9.99. That's teen pricing, as the book is not rack size. Similar titles from other horror authors are either trade priced at $15-17 or rack priced from $8-10. I think much the way a type cover turns to a woman cut off at the head, Baggott has been repositioned.

Stacie noted to me that Percy and Baggott have been on panels together and he's quite the fan of her work.

We return to this idea of using the horror genre without the violence, in the wonderful novel Await Your Reply, by Dan Chaon. I've mentioned this book before, and most recently saw it on Jean Thompson's recommendation page, which I was browsing in advance of her recent visit for The Humanity Project. What I should also note is that Chaon's book makes a sly wink to The Other, Thomas Tryon's novel which many consider one of the best horror novels ever. Since Chaon visited Boswell (or rather a bar nearby), NYRB Classics has reissued the Tryon.

And finally, another book that Stacie and Greg tout as one of the greatest horror masterpieces ever, The Watcher, by Charles Maclean. A guy wakes up, does something unthinkable, and is on the run, trying to make sense of what's happening to him. The Guardian called it the #1 horror novel of all time. I don't know where Greg and Stacie rank it, but it's apparently high.

Don't forget to creep out with us next Tuesday, May 14, 7 pm, for our event with Benjamin Percy and Red Moon. Hear the voice for real, in person!

How Did the Book Club Go for Jess Walter's "Beautiful Ruins"? Spoiler Warning!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Fri, 10 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000

As you might have guessed, I go to a lot of author events. I have my strong feelings on what works and doesn't. I have mentioned that unless an author is an amazing reader, which usually comes with a theater background, it is better to talk more and read a lot less. I've noticed that talking about inspiration and how it ties into the story seems to resonate with a lot of attendees, and make them more interested in buying the book afterwards. But I never quite realized what it difference it makes to a Q&A to have a group where everyone has already finished the book.

In a traditional question and answer period, there are so many roadblocks. You can't talk about the ending. A question about a plot point or charcter or theme running through the story will be lost on many of the attendees. Someone will ask the old favorites "when and how do you write?", "do you outline?" and "what do you read?" So I was rather fascinated to be present for two Jess Walter question sessions, one with our in-store book club, and another for our traditional event that followed.

I've already gone on a bit about how much I liked Beautiful Ruins. It's the kind of book that resonates with me--several storylines and timelines, structured a bit like a puzzle, genres bashing against each other, a good dose of humor, themes that play out over different scenarios, and so forth.

You should also know the two basic plotlines: in 1962, a young woman (Dee Moray) arrives at a dying fishing village to stay at its only hotel (the innkeeper is Pasquale Tursi), well off the beaten path of tourists. She's an actress with a part in Cleopatra, she's dying of cancer, and she's waiting to meet someone. At the same time, in contemporary Hollywood, fifty years later, a production company has an open pitch day, and junior exec is filling in for a legendary producer, whose biggest success is now a reality dating show. Arriving at the office is Pasquale, searching for the producer, hoping to find the actress.

The story not only jumps back and forth, but to other times as well, and the storytelling devices include an unfinished novel, a play, and a movie pitch. It's not as outrageous a construction as fellow Washingtonian Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, but its interesting that there are similarities about the book regarding the creative narrative devices. Interestingly enough, both authors have eperience in other mediums. But Walter's device is actually more intrinsic to the story, where one of the themes is about how we tell our stories.

So what did we learn in our Q & A? And just one more warning, that there are some small spoilers here. And also that I'm paraphrasing and I'm hoping I got all the details right, but that I might have made a flub or two. (below left is Walter with Stacie-with-help-from-Nick-and-Hannah's diorama).

For one thing, the Hollywood themes that run throughout both storylines were not originally in he novel. One has to be aware that Walter took fifteen years to write Beautiful Ruins, and as he always says, it may seem like a success now, but for probably fourteen of those years, he considered it a failure. The story was inspired by traveling to Italy with his wife, who is Italian. The fishing village was there, and the young woman's arrival, but she wasn't an actress. It was only when Walter was researching the time period and place that he realized that "Cleopatra" was shooting at the time he was writing the novel, and not only was that a good story, but a good backstory as well.

I love the genre smashing in the story, the romantic historical piece playing out against the jarring contemporary comedy, which almost borders on satire. And I love the Michael Deane character, whose face grows younger as his body grows older. I think he was somewhat inspired by a well-known producer who did turn to reality shows at one point. Walter's talked about the need for a villain in the story, but as he wrote him, the guy grew more appealing. Interestingly enough, this is sort of the thesis for Chuck Klosterman's new book, I Wear the Black Hat, which I recently read. The book comes out July 9, and we're hosting him at Boswell on Thursday, July 18. I can't resist an asside like that.

We learned that the working title for the book for many years was The Hotel Adequate View.

Being that we're from Wisconsin, we asked about Walter's connection to Madison, as that is where writer Alvis Bender hailed from. Bender was the other American who visited Pasquale's hotel, where he tried to work on his novel, inspired by his war experiences. Our group noted that all the details were right, but Walter confessed his only previous visit to Wisconsin was to attend the wedding of a friend outside of Madison. He was taken by the geographic layout of Madison and had a framed shot of the isthmus in his home. And that's it. So he did a good job with that.

Walter talked about the various creative forms the novel took. In partidcular, we were fascinated with the pitch for Donner!, the film about the man who survived the Donner Party with a team of strong-willed women. Walter said he would write these pieces (and the unifinished novel of Alvis Bender, and the rejected first chapter of Michael Deane's memoir, and the play by Lydia Parker, the girlfriend of Pat Bender) a bit flippantly at first, but then would really get into them. And Walter, though he lives in the town of Spokane where he was raised, has a lot of experience in Hollywood. He is adapting both Beautiful Ruins (for director Todd Field) and The Financial Lives of Poets (starring Jack Black) for the screen.

Another attendee asked about the Richard Burton scenes, which seemed to be a bit polarizing with our group. Walter noted that he had a lot of fun writing for Burton, and once he started, it was hard to actually get him out of the book, considering he was not a major character. When our friend John was selling The Richard Burton Diaries, every other bookseller would say to him, "You know what you have to read? Beautiful Ruins!" And he did, by the way. One of the exciting discoveries that Walter made was that there was a gap in Burton's diaries from 1960 to 1964, leaving him room to be more creative with Burton's character, as the novel takes place in 1962.

That's on of the things I really loved about Walter. His enthusiasm for the writing process. He would positively glow when he really got into the details of writing. And this, in spit of the fact that he's been touring on and off for a year for Beautiful Ruins, with another tour in between for his short story collection, We Live in Water. It's no wonder that several authors we had in the month leading up to our visit with Walter positively sighed about his upcoming appearance. One bought a copy of Beautiful Ruins for the Fill the Shelves promotion for the Milwaukee Public Library, and another author bought a copy of the book for her mom. So sweet! (The Fill the Shelves promotion continues through the end of May at Boswell).

Above is another Beautiful Ruins cover that shows how Harper Perennial could have gone wrong with a paperback jacket. Placing this woman in the picture destroys everything that is wonderful about the story. It pigeonholes the book in a way that drives me crazy and chases away lots of potential readers. Stacie showed me this Huffington Post piece on de-gendering covers, which I guess has been quite popular. It certainly pushes a lot of my buttons!

I'm going to be honest and note that not everyone in the book club loved Beautiful Ruins as much as me and S., who had read the book twice (not that that's unusual for her, but it did impress Walter). Maybe it was the humor, that sometimes has readers downplay a novel's power. Or maybe it was the structure--at least a couple of folks found it slow going. Or maybe they just thought didn't like it. Eh, can't please everyone. This is one of the lessons of bookselling--somebody doesn't like everything.

C., who can sometimes be tough on a book, really liked the characters, and that's the most important thing for her. G., on the other hand, thought the characters were a bit cartoonish (I'm assuming she's referring to the contemporary story, which ad more of a satrical edge.) M and J both enjoyed it, and found it very funny, while S2 said it's her favorite book she's read since she started with group.

But perhaps the best response was from N. who couldn't attend, but sent me a note that was so eloquently written that I'm reprinting it here.

"I love Beautifiul Ruins; it's lively, engaging, and brilliantly put together, So many phrases stand out and ring true. One of them, "the random nature of disaster." That's what much of the book is about, I think. Some of the disaster truly is random, but much of it is not, only seems random. I started thinking about art, about creative enterprises, and how they start out being one thing and end up another, particularly when capitalism enters. But not just capitalism; people's own flawed selves enter as well. So many creative endeavors in this novel: theater, movies, books. All of them shaped by forces other than the person creating them. Well, I'd be more articulate if I had more time. And the characters--sharply drawn, so that we care about them."

She had sent me the first note with 65 pages left to go. Here's her take after finishing: “I like the way that he tied everything together. Even if that's a conservative approach, it's still very satisfying for a reader to know how everything came out, and that everything more or less came out well. Do you know the Truman Capote story, "Master Misery"? In it, a psychiatrist purchases people's dreams--there's even a sliding scale--for about $5.00 each. I was reminded of this when the Hollywood producter wanted to purchase "life rights"--in effect, purchasing the stories of their lives. (I also thought this was perhaps a wry commentary on memoir, the genre. Human emotions sold for capitalistic gain.) Everything about this novel was so fine: characters, language, plot, genre-jumping, everything."

For me , it was a magic combination. In some ways, it was like a mashup of two of my very favorite novels, Day for Night, by Frederick Reiken, and Wrack and Ruin, by Don Lee, combining the structure and connections of the former, with the themes about storytelling and identity of the latter and the humor of both. Not that Beautiful Ruins isn't a hundred other things; it is. But I really have to do an "if you like, try" display for this one.

Oh, and we had the traditional event too, and we had a regular question period. Walter talked up Kurt Vonnegut a lot, the author that first inspired him, and Don Delillo, who recently replaced another author in his triumvirate of writer heroes. Of course I can't remember the third.

Next up, we're back to our regularly scheduled 7 pm start time for book club. Only two folks showed up late, and at least they got to hear Mr. Walter talk.

Monday, June 3, 7 pm, at Boswell:
A discussion of Ben Fountain's novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Monday, July 1, 7 pm, at Boswell:
A discussion of The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine.
Schine will be visiting Boswell for her new novel, Fin and Lady, on Monday, July 22, 7 pm. Perhaps we'll be able to take a moment with her to discuss Weismanns beforehand. I'll keep you posted.

Browsing New Boswell's Best Nonfiction--Terry Eagleton, Paul Theroux, Jeremy Scahill, Thomas Fleming, and Robert Edsel,

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I've been running around a bit this week, what with two events a day, and a chase around town to find a missing title at area retailers for one of our events, but I've calmed down enough to look at the Boswell's Best case and explore some of our new nonfiction releases. All books are 20% off at least through next Monday.

Thomas Fleming's new book, A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War (Da Capo) ponders why the United States was the only nation in the world to fight a war to end slavery. He claims a hatred by the northerners of southerners predated the their objections to slavery, feeling usurped in the running of the United States. J. W. Nicklaus in The New York Journal of Books writes "A Disease in the Public Mind is not simply a thoughtful read, it is another call never to forget our sordid past, to face and conquer our fears—for if we can’t see past our fears then we can no longer move forward. Moving forward lets us more closely inspect each dot in the painting." While I know Mr. Fleming has been writing history books for many years, I always immediately think of the piles of mass markets I had of The Officer's Wives when I first started my job at Warner. PS--I don't think that author photo on the book jacket looks like someone who is 85 years old.

Terry Eagleton has only written forty books to Fleming's fifty, but I think comparing the two is a bit unfair, especially because most of us are currently at zero. His new How to Read Literature (Yale) is a primer for anyone interested in "deepening and enriching their reading experience," analyzing "tone, rhythm, texture, syntax, allusion, ambiguity and other formal aspects of of literary works." Because I quoted from the jacket copy, I left off the series comma in that list; I think the result makes the sentence look a bit naked, but that is just the English style. So far I have learned that many words beginning with the letter V have negative connotations. This is simply an unfair burden that the Victorias and Vincents of the world must bear. I like the jacket, don't you? And I should note that we actually have a better price on this book than Walmart.com. The website suggests I can also pick up the book in West Milwaukee, though I suspect they do not have it in stock at the moment.

Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater, has a new book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield (Nation Books). Scahill was recently on Kathleen Dunn's show on Wisconsin Public Radio, and the tie-in documentary is opening at the Downer Theatre soon. Scahill's book looks at the new covert wars, run by special forces who have "orders from the White House to hunt down, capture, or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies." Scahill's book has more than 100 pages of notes and indexes and is a very good value for the price. He is the national security correspondent for The Nation and has been twice awarded the George Polk Award. As you all know, he grew up in the Milwaukee area.

Another author with documentary ties is Robert M. Edsel, who was co-producer of the award-winning film, "The Rape of Europea" and he is also author of The Monuments Men. In the somewhat-recently-released Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis (W.W. Norton), he looks at the Nazi occupation of Italy and the race to save millions of dollars of art that were being shipped back to Germany, including the collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace. The two folks running the "save the art" initiative were artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt. The author calls this "the treasure hunt of a lifetime." Edsel's story is rather interesting--he sold his Texas oil and gas exploration business for $37 million and moved his family to Florence where he became an art historian. I think I now know who funded the documentary. More in USA Today.

From Italy to Africa, we take to the road with Paul Theroux with The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). By ultimate, I think Mr. Theroux means "last", as he relives his first journey at 22 as a Peace Corps volunteer. This trip takes hime through South Africa, Namibia, and into Angola. Marie Arana in The Washington Post calls the new book "thoroughly engrossing" The Africa he once knew has been transformed, sometimes for better, others for worse. But Arana notes that Theroux's distinctive "inimitable, delightfully grouchy and incisive" voice still shines. Read the rest of her review here. I should note I'm a little puzzled by the new HMH colophon. Can anyone tell me what it means?

Today's selections are all from boys. I'm not going to run around looking for a female author to diversify the post, but I do want you to know that I'm well aware of it. If it makes any difference, 11 of our 12 participants in our best of the undergraduate writers series are women. Part one was a great program and part two (Friday, May 10, 7 pm) with students from UWM, Carroll, and Mount Mary, should be equally inspiring.

To Me, Minneapolis Has it Over Milwaukee in at Least One Major Way--Revisiting "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (On Sale Today, Coming to Boswell on Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm).

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

One of the most amusing things about moving to Milwaukee many years ago is that most people I left behind in New York were convinced I was moving to Minneapolis. I even remember my first year here when a dateline for an article in Billboard magazine listed Minneapolis for an article that was actually about one of our local radio stations. But I had decided that I'd like Milwaukee better. I loved the fact that Milwaukee was such an underdog that people couldn't even rememember it. I liked the accessibility to but distance from Chicago and while I really like winter, I was scared off a little by the car heater stories.

But there was one way that I thought Minneapolis had it all over Milwaukee. When it comes to television afilliation, I am absolutely a "Mary Tyler Moore" show man over "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley." When one of the latter shows come on rerun, I drift away after a couple of minutes. If I spot the former, I hope for a marathon.

It's hard to believe that there was a time when Saturday night was appointment television. That period with "All in the Family", "The Bob Newhart Show", "The Carol Burnett Show" and whatever that fifth show was that rotated in and out of the slot unsuccessfully are some of my happiest tv memories. And honestly, not as much Archie Bunker, but someday I'll wax a few hours about Bob Newhart, perhaps in conversation with my sister Merrill.

Just an aside about the opening theme, which features not one but two department store images. A shot of Donaldson's disappeared after season one (I think the store might have moved to an ugly downtown mall structure) and after a few seasons, the Daytons image also vanished, but if you're watching the inaugural sesason (where Mary is wearing a wig to change her image from Laura Petrie), you can still spot both of them. Oh, me and my department store rambles. I still kick myself for walking by the Powers Dry Goods going out of business sale and listening to my friend Eric who told me, "Oh, there's nothing left. You don't need to go in there." Oh, the regret.

But back to amazing television. I was so thrilled when Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted was announced. The title is a take on an inconic television history, Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel, by Bart Andrews, which I think I read many, many years ago. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong not only did much research putting together this history of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," she interviewed many of the women writers, Grant Tinker, and the beloved Valerie Harper.

I loved this book! Here's my staff rec that I wrote up after I devoured it.

"Fact: Mary Richards was originally going to be the assistant to a gossip columnist.

"Fact: the initial audience reaction to Rhoda Morgenstern was virulently negative. (And one of the writers made a tiny fix to the first episode that changed that hate to love.)

"Fact: CBS had so little faith in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that they planned to bury it in a bad time slot between “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Hee Haw.”

"Fact: whether you have memories of staying home every Saturday night to catch the greatest lineup in television history, or spent hours watching marathons in the decades following, any fan of Mary Tyler Moore and her eponymous show would adore this new pop culture history.

"Pop culture writer Armstrong went well beyond regurgitating TV Guide stories to go straight to the folks who made the show what it is—from creators James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to writers like Treva Silverman and Gloria Banta, to execs Grant Tinker, Fred Silverman and even the show’s original naysayer, Allan Dann. (And yes, Armstrong also interviewed Valerie Harper.) So much fun, so many stories, and lots more drama than you can imagine—Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted is just about as entertaining and informative as a book like this can be."

So I sent in my rec to Simon, nominated it for the Indie Next List, and moved on. This was one of those books that I really read for myself. I didn't expect there would be a budget for a tour, and I wasn't even sure if my rec would drive sales. Folks would probably find this book due to good reviews and interviews, and Armstrong is decently connected in the media world. There was already an excellent preview of the book in Entertainment Weekly.

And sadly, we've all heard about Valerie Harper's cancer diagnosis, revealed just after the publication of her memoir, I, Rhoda. Sigh.

It turns out that my rec made its way to Armstrong, who let me know that she in fact was going to be staying with folks in Chicago for a few days and had room in the schedule to come up for an event with us on Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm.

Because Armstrong had another book coming out this spring called Sexy Feminism, which she wrote with Heather Wood Rudulph, we decided to call this evening's presentation "Mary Tyler Moore and the Modern Woman." And to add to the fun, Mel read Sexy Feminism and liked that too. Here's her rec.

"Sexy Feminism is an excellent primer for anyone uninitiated in, curious about, or wanting to reconnect with feminism. Fourth wave feminism is complex--this book can help you make sense of the history, current struggles, and possible future of the Feminist Movement. What does being feminist mean at this exact moment in time? Sexy Feminism answers this question with educational and entertaining prose."

Jess Walter Tonight! Holly Black Tomorrow! Dave Luhrssen and Paul McComas also Tomorrow! Plus Jean Thompson, The Dark Days Tour (Elizabeth Norris, Kiera Cass, Aprilynn Pike and Amy Tintera), Barbara Manger and Janine Smith, Best of the Undergrads Part II, Plus Next Week Preview, Locations and Times in the Blog.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:56:00 +0000

Monday, May 6, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins.

Jess Walter is the author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, and the New York Times Notable Book Over Tumbled Graves. Beautiful Ruins has been named best novel of the year by Esquire and Fresh Air, and is the #1 trade paperback fiction bestseller in America, according to The New York Times.

National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award winning author Jess Walter returns with his funniest and most romantic novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers, Beautiful Ruins is at once an elegiac romance, a comedy of human foibles, and an incisive meditation on our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture. Spanning fifty years, Walter’s expertly orchestrated narrative takes readers to a tiny coastal village in Italy in 1962 and to modern-day Hollywood, to London, Edinburgh, and the Pacific Northwest—as an endearingly flawed parade of intertwined characters navigate the realities of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Inspired by his wife’s Italian family and the small hillside villages in the Cinque Terre region, Walter imagined a village in its early 1960s La Dolce Vita glory, a place that “would make a great frame for a story about fame and how we all endeavor now to live our lives like movie stars, like celebrities, each of us an eager inner publicist managing our careers and our romances and our fragile self-images.

More about Jess Walter and Beautiful Ruins on an earlier post.

Tuesday, May 7, 6:30 pm, at Cudahy Family Library, 3500 Library Drive, 53110:
Holly Black, author of Doll Bones.

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, The Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy (with Ted Naifeh), and the Curse Workers series. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award.

Doll Bones is a delightfully spooky novel about a group of friends who take playing with dolls to a ghostly degree. For as long as they’ve been friends, Zach, Poppy, and Alice been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach's father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she's been having dreams about the Queen--and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen's ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?

More from me on Holly Black and Doll Bones on an earlier post.

Tuesday, May 7, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Forties Film Night, featuring David Luhrssen, author of Mamoulian
and Paul McComas, author of Fit for a Frankenstein.

David Luhrssen is the arts and entertainment editor and film critic for the Shepherd Express and cofounder and director of the Milwaukee International Film Festival. He is the author of Hammer of the Gods: Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism and Elvis Presley: Reluctant Rebel.

Paul McComas is the award-winning author of four critically acclaimed books and the editor of two more. Fit for a Frankenstein is his first collaborative novella—and the literary debut of his co-author and longtime friend Greg Starrett.

In Mamoulian, Luhrssen not only reveals the fascinating personal story of an important yet neglected figure, but he also offers a tantalizing glimpse into the extraordinarily vibrant American film and theater industries during the twenties, thirties, and forties. Mamoulian direct the debut Broadway productions of three of the most popular shows in the history of American musical theater: Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), and Carousel (1945), and then moved into film, eventually was awarded him the prestigious D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983 by the Directors Guild of America.

In Fit for a Frankenstein, a body snatcher and hanging survivor, Ygor stops in the village of Kotstadt to obtain a gigantic custom-made suit for his friend, the ever-menacing Frankenstein Monster. The unholy duo’s visit endangers fastidious town tailor Klaus Hauptschmidt and his effervescent teenage daughter, Gretl … and prompts hijinks of monstrous proportions!

Wednesday, May 8, 6:30 pm, at the Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N. Murray Avenue, 53211:
The Dark Days tour.

Prepare to experience romance, suspense, and a touch of darkness when publicist Alison Lisnow moderates a discussion between four of the hottest authors in paranormal teen fiction.

Elizabeth Norris, author of Unbreakable: The sequel to Elizabeth Norris’s Unraveling blends science fiction, mystery, and romance into a thrilling story YA readers won’t be able to put down. Norris briefly taught high school English and history before moving from San Diego to Manhattan. Unbreakable is her second novel.

Kiera Cass, author of The Elite: A must-read for fans of dystopian fiction, fairy tales, and reality TV. This sequel to The Selection will enchant teens who love Divergent and "The Bachelor." Kiera Cass is a graduate of Radford University and currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with her family. In addition to The Selection, which was a New York Times bestseller, Cass also self-published her fantasy novel, The Siren.

Aprilynne Pike, author of Life After Theft: A hauntingly clever twist on The Scarlet Pimpernel, this stand-alone novel that offers a humorous twist on ghosts and is perfect for fans of Ally Carter, Rachel Hawkins, and Kiersten White. Aprilynne Pike received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College at the age of 20. She lives in Utah with her family and works with pregnant mothers as a childbirth educator and doula.

And introducing Amy Tintera, author of Reboot: In this fast-paced dystopian thrill ride ideal for fans of The Hunger Games, a seventeen-year-old girl rises from the dead as a “Reboot” and is trained as an elite crime-fighting soldier . . . until she is given an order she refuses to obey. Amy Tintera has degrees in journalism and film. Raised in Texas, she now lives in Los Angeles.

Wednesday, May 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jean Thompson, author of The Humanity Project
with opening reading Wendy Wimmer.

After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father, Art, who doesn't quite understand how he has suddenly become responsible for raising a sullen adolescent girl. Art's neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Just as mysteriously, no one seems to know where Conner, the Fosters' handyman, goes after work, but he has become the one person Linnea can confide in, perhaps because his own home life is a war zone: his father has suffered an injury and become addicted to painkillers. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?

Jean Thompson is author of The Year We Left Home and City Boy, a National Book Award finalist, as well as five short story collections. Her work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions.”

Opening for Thompson will be Wendy Wimmer is a 2008 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's Creative Writing master's program. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, AWP Intro to Journals and Best New American Voices. Her recent fiction publications include Blackbird, Per Contra, Paper Darts and Drunken Boat literary journals. She is currently refining a short story collection and a novel for publication by fall 2015.

Thursday, May 9, 6:30 pm, at the North Shore Library, 6800 N. Port Washington Road, 53217:
Barbara Manger and Janine Smith, author of Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art.

A prolific and fanciful maker who worked in a variety of media, Milwaukee-born Mary Nohl was both a mysterious figure and an iconic "outsider" artist. Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art, a new addition to the kid-friendly Badger Biographies series, captures her life and will capture the imagination of readers, and artists, of all ages.

Nohl, who made her home on the shores of Lake Michigan, decorated the interior of her cottage with bright colors and eye-catching figures in driftwood and glass. During her later years, her home became known as the "Witch's House" — a place of local legend known far beyond Fox Point. Though she died in 2001, Mary's legacy continues. Her art is held at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, and her home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Barbara Manger is an artist who has taught printmaking and drawing for many years. She also founded Artists Working in Education, a nonprofit Milwaukee-based organization that provides art experience for at-risk children.

Janine Smith is an award-winning book designer who owns and operates Designsmith, a graphic design company in Fox Point, Wisconsin.

Friday May 10, at 7:00 pm
Best of the Undergraduate Creative Writers, Part Two: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Mount Mary College, and Carroll University

Come hear some of the up-and-coming writers currently blooming within our own communities; featuring two undergraduate student readers from each university, as selected by their creative writing professors.

From Carroll University, our readers are Jenna Villanova and Karie Vlazny.
From Mount Mary, our readers are Barb Kolb and Megan Mattson.
And from UWM, our readers are Mary Franzen and Sam Pakarske.

And coming up next week,
Monday, May 13, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Mary Robinette Kowal, author of Without a Summer.

Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo winner for her story “For Want of a Nail.” Mary serves on the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. A professional puppeteer and voice actor, she spent five years touring nationally with puppet theaters. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and nine manual typewriters.

Pairing a Regency love affair with fantasy and intrigue, Without a Summer is Hugo winner Kowal’s third book in the Glamourist Histories series. Kirkus Reviews calls it a “creative, elegantly crafted novel” that offers “both a broad and an intimate canvas of human weakness and virtue.” When Jane and Vincent Ellsworth, talented painters who are commissioned to create magical works of art, begin to take an interest in the romantic life of Jane’s younger sister, Melody, the timing simply isn’t perfect. Weather manipulators have forced a cold snap to linger for a long time, affecting not only the crops that finance Melody’s dowry, but also political intrigue that will involve the Ellsworths’ particular skills if an international crisis is to be averted.

The second novel in the series, Glamour in Glass, was recently nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel, and about the first novel, the Jane Austen Center writes “Shades of Milk and Honey could easily fit into Austen’s canon, except of course for the inclusion of magic. Kowal has captured both the style and content of an Austen novel, adding her own speculative fiction twist…hits all the high points of Austen’s dialogue and plotting while still having its own identity.” Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo winner for her story “For Want of a Nail.” Mary serves on the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. A professional puppeteer and voice actor, she spent five years touring nationally with puppet theaters. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and nine manual typewriters.

Boswell Bestsellers for Week Ending May 4--Dueling Royalty Princess Leia and Catherine the Great Come Out Swinging, Claire Messud Has a Big Sales Pop, Maria Semple's Big Event.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:45:00 +0000

Hardcover fiction:
1. Vader's Little Princess, by Jeffrey Brown
2. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
3. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
4. Life Afer Life, by Kate Atkinson
5. Z, by Therese Anne Fowler

I admit it. If impulse stuff took over our bestseller lists, I would also segregate it into another category, but I just don't think that's going to happen in the near future. So congrats to Jeffrey Brown, who not only topped our fiction bestseller list with Vader's Little Princess, but whose backlist title also had a nice sales increase.

Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs turned out to be the high-profile fiction release of the week for us. Liesl Schillinger covered the book in The New York Times Book Review. She writes "It’s exhilarating to encounter such unrestrained vehemence in a work by this controlled, intellectual author. Messud’s previous novels, albeit extraordinarily intelligent and well-crafted, are characterized by rationed or distant emotion. The Woman Upstairs is utterly different — its language urgent, its conflicts outsize and unmooring, its mood incendiary."

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Cooked, by Michael Pollan
2. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola
3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris (event is 5/26)
4. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, by Daniel Dennett
5. The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart

Philosopher Dennett offers some mind-stretching thought experiments in his new book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. Troy Jollimore in the Boston Globe argues with Dennett in his review, still noting that the author "can still be read profitably both as a synthesizer of research and as a provocateur. His intellectual curiosity is deep and wide-ranging."

Paperback fiction:
1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitgerald
4. This One is Mine, by Maria Semple
5. The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman

Aside from selling copies of Semple's first novel, in both jacket designs, all four of our other entries in this list are also at the top of the national bestseller lists, which is actually a bit unusual. What a great event Semple's appearance was, and we particularly thank her for her afternoon visit to Riverside University High School. I realized that the new jacket for This One is Mine has been gender neutralized, which I assume happened after the publisher (or agent, or author) noticed that Semple has developed a strong male following for Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, which you could see in the event's attendance.

One of the interesting things we learned at Semple's event is that she had a one-book deal for This One is Mine. The advance was large and the book didn't work, and it became much tougher to sell the second book and she lost her agent. Her new agent (who got the book, and its international potential) said, "all things being equal, stay with the same publisher," and so the book got sold, but for less than the first one. And then Little, Brown and Hachette fell in love with Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (signed copies available) and the novel's momentum began."

I hope it's ok that we reprinted the Where'd You Go Bernadette? action figure (looking suspiciously like a dolled up American Girl) from Semple's website.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
2. Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
4. A Merry Memoir of Love, Sex, and Religion, by Daniel Maguire
5. Catherine the Great, by Robert K. Massie

I might have mentioned we hosted an event with Michael Pollan this week. We also sold books at the annual lunch for Ozaukee Family Services, with Barbara Rinella presenting Catherine the Great, based on Robert K. Massie's acclaimed biography. She also does programs on Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Isabella Stewart Gardner and The Art Forger, and "From Einstein to Steve Jobs, based on Walter Isaacson's biographies. The only one I'm confused about is "Nora Ephron and the Panama Canal." I assume that was two different programs, but no, The Northbrook Park District is presenting the two together on May 22. Here's a list of her programs and recommended reading list; her recommendation of Caroline Kennedy's poems helped pop it to #1 below.

Books for Kids:
1. Poems to Learn by Heart, edited by Caroline Kennedy and Jon J. Muth
2. Crash, by Lisa McMann
3. The Unwanteds #2: Island of Silence, by Lisa McMann (signed copies available)
4. Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, with illustrations by Carson Ellis
5. A Beach Day for Hannah, by Linda Bunch

No brand new titles released, but Lisa McMann was back in town to do some school evnts in the Milwauke area. I was poking around and saw that two new Lisa McMann titles are scheduled for fall. Island of Fire is #3 in The Unwanteds series, while Bang is the sequel to Crash. While I was at it, I poked around to see if the third title in the Wildwood series was coming soon. No, but Under Wildwood is due for paperback by fall.

From the Journal Sentinel book pages, Mike Fischer reviews the new Claire Messud novel, The Woman Upstairs, which we've already noted has had a big sales pop. He calls the story a "spellbinding, psychologically acute and deliberately claustrophobic new novel"

From the NYRB Classics series, Journal Sentinel arts editor Jim Higgins imagines that "In some other parallel world, Kingsley Amis' alternate-history novel The Alteration (1976) may already have the wide readership it deserves." It's "a terrific novel that blends the fantasy pleasure of alternate history with Amis' brand of literary satire."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Marquette's Philip C. Naylor reviews Algerian Chronicles, a new collection of Albert Camus writings. He notes "Critics of Camus claim that the Nobel Prize winner ironically misperceived or underestimated that in his own land, colonized Muslims faced severe metaphysical consequences resulting from an oppressive colonialism. Given the publication of Algerian Chronicles, a chronological collection of Camus' essays from the 1930s to the 1950s, this criticism needs re-examination and reinterpretation."

Daniel and Halley Talk Moms..or Specifically Mother's Day Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sat, 04 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Halley: There is all this pressure on us to have a good blog.

Daniel: Don't worry. We can all fail, and it's fine. It's not like anyone is paying to read this. When you're selling your essay collection, then ou can worry. Tell me about a card.

Halley: This penguin one is so cute! And you're helping folks somewhere, either Africa or Asia. (Goes look at card). It's the Philippines.

Daniel: One L or two?

Mel: One L, two P's, one N.

Daniel: And the K's are silent. My rep tried to talk me out of penguin pencil toppers because they are out of season in the summer.

Halley: Penguins are cute year round. Except for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Daniel: And I should also note that she tried to talk me into bunnies post Easter.

Halley: The babushkas are also part of the Sanctuary Spring line. And who doesn't love babushkas? We have a thing for babushkas?

Daniel: Who doesn't? But I think these babushkas are actually matryoshkas. They are babushka matryoshkas. Were you here when we had the matryoshkas for Christmas?

Halley: No, I wish. I heard they were cool. What's your favorite Mother's Day card?

Daniel: Aside from giraffe card from Hello Lucky, I really love this kauai style card from Maginating.

Halley: They have great cards for all reasons and seasons. And such pretty colors.

Daniel: It's kauai style, or "Japanese cute", which means you put faces on everything.

Halley: Cute!

Daniel: At left is a card from Fugu Fugu, another card line with Japanese influences. Doesn't the artwork remind you of Bob Staake, author of the lovely new book Bluebird? Ken and Shino named their line after a puffer fish, both cute and dangerous.

Halley: Very accurate! I like the card from Ghost Academy. They also have it for lovers, without "Happy Mother's Day" on it.

Daniel: These cards are block prints.

Halley: It's from your black sheep child. Not anyone can give this card. They have good designs.

Daniel: And it's another tiny little operation too. But I guess you only need one creative person and one business person to make these things work.

Halley: I like the seventies vibe of this one.

Daniel: Seventies? I thought it was fifties.

Halley: I was referring to the color palette.

Daniel: This is from Hammerpress, the line we brought in from Kansas City. I had hoped to visit their operations at Winter Institute, but we left early to beat a blizzard.

Halley: Their cards are gorgeous!

Daniel: Just one more.

Halley: This is the only funny card we have left, from Fresh Frances. Why did you let the Bald Guy card sell out so quickly?

Daniel: I wasn't thinking.

Halley: You've lost your edge.

Daniel: In my defense, we didn't have very good sell through on the edgy Mother's Day cards. Can you imagine cracking wise to your Mom? No dessert for you?

Halley: My mom demands sassy. No heartfelt cards.

Daniel: Something for everyone.

Let's Spend Memorial Day Weekend with David Sedaris.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:22:00 +0000

When I was in college, I spent one Christmas break working in the sub-basement of the Macy's in New York's Herald Square packing hard goods (that means anything but clothing, the workers were segregated by gender, to minimize the hanky panky). It was a strictly regimented environment, where we punched in and out to use our allotted restroom break. The environment was late 1970s hip hop; by the end of December, I too had memorized the lyrics to "Rapper's Delight" from the Sugar Hill Gang.

It was a number of years later that I first heard "The Santaland Diaries" on NPR, and thought back to that strange subculture. And when I first read Barrel Fever, I was almost breathless, as was much of the rest of this country. Who is this man who holds a mirror to us, not only blinding us, but making us laugh through the pain?

The new collection, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, is a mix of personal essays that mix with autobiographical with the humorous. In "I Break for Traditional Marriage", Randolph Denny explains why New York State's decision to allow gay men and lesbians to marry rendered their marriage meaningless, and what the craziness that that led to. "Just a Quick Email" is a note to Robin thanking her for the free pizza certificate that she got for her wedding.

But those pieces are palate cleansers. The meat of the new collection are the personal essays of course, some that reflect on Sedaris's childhood when his father forced him to take part on the country club's swim team, or when he decided to date a poor, heavyset, and rather slow African American female classmate ("Memory Laps" and "A Friend in the Ghetto") for what turned out to be fairly complicated reasons. Other essays cover both the early struggling adult years in Raleigh, New York, and Chicago ("Standing Still") and his current life in West Sussex with Hugh.

The thing that's wonderful about David Sedaris is that we as readers can find them both outrageously different from our own situations and surprisingly identifiable. Perhaps you also didn't have an African American girlfriend at a very young age (I did. Her name was Patricia, but unlike David's friend Delicia, I thought she was smart and beautiful and was a bit taller than me) or get forced to compete on a swim team (my father pushed me into all sorts of athletics against my will, but he was about as different as a father could be from Lou, against competition at all costs) but I think everyone sort of sees their own craziness in the Sedaris world.

And while I don't live in an English cottage, I have had the dubious distinction of being known in my neighborhood as the person who picks up the litter. In fact, I got to know Mike, who once owned Bella's Fat Cat and now sells retail credit card services for Swipeworks (I am plugging him here) because he caught me outside his store picking up garbage while waiting for the bus. "Who wouldn't do this?" I thought. Well, it turns out that I have found a correlation between people who smoke tutti-frutti cigars and littering, because there cannot be so many people smoking grape-and-banana-flavored cigars, can there? If there is, it's a much bigger industry than previously acknowledged. Listen to Mr. Sedaris talk about his similar role in West Sussex with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. If you haven't heard this interview yet, you absolutley must. Gross replayed an interview with Sedaris and asked him why exactly he had to write at night and he replied "because that's when I drank, of course." I'm slightly paraphrasing, but just slightly.

So maybe you aren't picking up litter (though you should be). But you probably have your own weird bond with Sedaris. Perhaps you also obsessively learn a language before traveling there (like my friend Mark) or perhaps you have an aversion to trough bathrooms in places like China (like all my friends aside from Mark). But there's something that connects you, right? If it was just all craziness, his fans would simply have a different kind of bond.

One thing Sedaris notes in Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls is that (and I'm sure he's said this before, but I can't remember it in the five or so Sedaris books that I've read) is that he's been obsessively journaling since he was twenty. This explains how he can still be telling childhood stories in volume eight.

David Sedaris now tours theaters, including regularly scheduled appearances for the Pabst/Riverside folks. It's said he'll have a date there in early November. But he likes his bookstore events as well, and still tours the country for each release. Due to his speaking contract, the events must be at the bookstore itself--no library or theater visits for this. He also likes a free event, and while we probably could have ticketed, there's nothing like a free, open-to-the-public program. That's what our friend Marlena thought he'd like best, and that's what we'd like to do.

Sedaris is coming to Boswell for Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls on Sunday, May 26, 2 pm. We'll have pretty strict guidelines for attendance, ones that seem fair for the most number of people. There are no advance tickets, but we will be giving out line letters starting at 10 am on Sunday. We are not requiring you to buy the book from us, but don't forget that our sales determine if Sedaris and other authors will come back again for an intimate bookstore event. Just saying.

The big thing to note here is that there are no "holdsies." If we close the doors when we hit capacity and you have left the store to eat lunch, you will not be able to come back in if we've hit capacity. So come when you're ready to stay for the show, not to reserve seats for later. And I should also note that there are no photos or video allowed at this event.

That said, Mr. Sedaris will make sure he signs every book, even folks who did not make it into the store for the presentation. We'll have a line waiting outside and we'll stay as long as it takes. What I said to Jason was, "Please schedule someone with me to stay until forever." Thanks, Jason!

So mark your calendar, come early, and let's all have a great time. See you then (unless you don't like craziness, and then you should wait for the theater tickets to go on sale).

Selections From the 2013 Mother's Day Table

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:11:00 +0000

Halley came to me last week with a reminder that we have to do our Mother's Day card post. I'm hoping that my increased card buy will leave us with a bit of a section the weekend of the holiday (May 12). I have bought my card and am sending it off. It features giraffes. That post will be on Saturday. If you like carefully, you can see that I left the "L" off my name when I signed it. This is the shoddy workmanship you get when you rush.

Being that it really is almost time for Day of Moms, I thought it would be nice to mention a few titles that were on our Mother's Day table. I think I've already brought up Mom and Me and Mom (Random House, coding makes ampersands a pain when blogging, by the way), by Maya Angelou. Though Angelou has chronicled her life in many volumes, this new book focuses on her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter. Did you know there is a Vivian Baxter Park in Stockton, California?

Several titles were selected from the ABA's Celebrate Indies Mother's Day promotoin. One is Mom Candy: 1000 Quotes of Inspiration for Mothers (Random House Reference), edited by J. Pincott. In it are gems from Agatha Christie ("A mother's love for her child is like nothing in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path") and music artist Jody Watley* ("Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was a about bearing witness to its life.") Something for everyone, I guess. I feel this is the gift you give to a mom figure that doesn't quite know how to do the job. "Here's a little help with that mothering stuff," it whispers.

Here's a recommendation I can get behind. It's Jeannette Walls' Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel (Scribner). Based on Walls's grandmother Lily, this gal could literally do anything. It's this amazing story of overcoming adversity with wry humor and grace. The publisher called it a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel for adults. And you know of course that the new Walls novel, The Silver Star, is coming June 11 and we'll be hosting Jeannette Walls for visit on Thursday, June 20, 7 pm. Why not make your gift a night out together, dinner and an author?

Another novel that I was less familiar with is The House at the End of Hope Street (Pamela Dorman Books), by Menna van Praag. In it, a young grad student suffers "the worst event of her life" and finds herself on the doorstep of 11 Hope Street, where she has 99 days to turn her life around. She learns that past residents have included Dorothy Parker and Virginia Woolf, and the current guests seem to be just as interesting. This is the kind of book where it's hard to get traditional reviews, but it's got lots and lots and lots of blogger reviews. Mandy at Literary R&R said "it's a wonderful read that will be enjoyed by millions." And Jen at Miss Book Lovers wrote "The house was my favorite character in the book. I loved reading about the pictures coming to life and talking. I loved reading about the other famous women who stayed at the house. I wish the house was real so I could visit."

And finally Workman is repromoting the Melissa and Harry H. Harrison books, Mother to Daughter and Mother to Son (Workman), each both subtitled "shared wisdom from the heart." These are also quote books, but they are actually quoted not from famous (or not famous people) but from the authors themselves. So these really are advice books. One page says "explain that if she ever loans money to a friend, she could wind up losing both" and the other offers "make sure he knows that boys can do anything girls can do." So far we've come! Twenty years ago, this would be taken for granted.

If you ask me, I'd still give a book that acknowledges whom you're giving the book to instead of slotting it to the role that person fills. But as I've learned from the past, sometimest the giver knows very, very little about the givee, and that's where these books come in.

*I'm looking for a new love baby, a new love, yeah, yeah, yeah.

A Day Late and At Least A Dollar Off--New Boswell's Best Titles That Went on Sale Yesterday, Plus Recommendations from Sharon, Mel, Stacie, and Paul, All at 20% Off.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This week's roundup has a little more testosterone than the last few. We've got several new titles on Boswell's best, plus a couple that I overlooked on first release, both with staff recommendations. Don't forget that all five books are 20% off at least through next Monday, May 6.

Claire Messud follows up The Emperor's Children with The Woman Upstairs (Knopf), a psychological thriller about a Cambridge elementary school teacher who becomes involved in the lives of one of her new students and her family. Joe Klein in the Boston Globe wrote that "this is not just a novel of real psychological insight. It is also a supremely well-crafted page-turner with a shocker of an ending. Messud lays down hints of tragedy like a trail of bread crumbs — but the place she leads us is a House of Horrors.

Another new release is Peter Lovesey's The Tooth Tattoo (Soho), the latest Peter Diamond mystery, which this time involves our detective from Bath finding a body in a canal, with the only clue to her identity being a musical tattoo on her tooth, hence the title. If you're thinking rock and roll here, you're barking up the wrong genre. In his enthusiastic review, Patrick Anderson in The Washington Post notes "Lovesey has won many prizes for his crime fiction; we expect fine writing and devilish plots from him. But the wonder of this novel is how deep he carries us into the world of a string quartet. He knows the music, and he makes clear its beauty, its challenges and the passions it arouses in both musicians and their audiences." And just a special shout out to Lovesey folks--we came VERY close to hosting him for this tour, and if we sell a lot of copies of the new book, we might get him next time. That's right--you can make a difference.

Stephen King's son Joe is homaging his dad in this horrifying new novel, NOS4A2 (Morrow), and I mean that in a good way. Charlie Manx drives kids away in his vintage Rolls to a place called Christmasland, and the only one to ever escape was Victoria McQueen (doesn't this remind you a bit of a Pinocchio subplot? So now Victoria is grown up and he's after her son. We've got a rec on this one from our own Sharon. She writes: "Strap yourself in and get ready for a wild ride to Christmasland with Charlie Manx and some distinctly unpleasant children. Joe Hill has outdone himself with his latest offering. Vic McQueen must take on Charlie Manx to get her son back. An epic battle of good versus evil is played out in this mesmerizing story."

I am remiss! I don't think I've et written up Austin Grossman's You (Mulholland), despite gobs of enthusiasm from Boswellians, particularly Mel. The newest from the author of Soon I Will be Invincible is about a videogamer, Russell, who joins a company called Black Arts, and finds that a software glitch has implications that goes back years, traversing, to quote the publisher "real and virtual worlds, corporate boardrooms and high school computer camp, to a secret that changed a friendship and the history of gaming." Mel says "Take a step behind the curtain and meet the Great and Powerful Video Game Designer! See what a wizard does in his free time! Go on a date with the most powerful woman in the multiverse! Bike across town in the sunshine, fantasizing about your latest Commodore 64 coding triumph! YOU get to be the hero, designer, and the spectator in his fun new novel by video game designer Austin. This is a fun, insightful read that takes on the importance of video games in our lives and culture, and the outcome of the quest for the ULTIMATE GAME."

We thought we had an outside chance of hosting Peter Rock too, being that he does have family in Shorewood. Both Paul and Stacie loved his new novel, The Shelter Cycle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Here's what Stacie had to say: "In the 1980s, bunkers were built in Montana that would offer shelter for up to seven years, in case of nuclear war (believed to be imminent). As they prepared, the members of the Church Universal and Triumphant lived their lives in a way they hoped might keep such destruction at bay. Twenty years later, Francine, who grew up in the Church, is preparing to bring her own child into a still-dangerous world. But when a childhood friend—one who understands her strange past—appears on her doorstep, the clear divides between that past, and Francine's present and future, will sharply converge. Anyone who has moved on from a deeply religious upbringing, and yet still felt surprisingly drawn to its flame will recognize the characters in Rock's new novel, which manages to be both brutally compelling and quietly gentle."

Hope to see you tonight at Maria Semple's event, co-sponsored by Local First Milwaukee (May 1, 7 pm).

Five Questions About The Jess Walter/Beautiful Ruins Phenomenon, a Timely Post as Walter is Coming to Boswell on Monday, May 6, 7 pm.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

A. What is Beautiful Ruins anyway?

While Jess Walter's novel jumps all over the last fifty years, there are two basic plotlines. In 1962 in a dying fishing village, Pasquale, a struggling hotelier takes in an actress who has a small part in Cleopatra. She's dying of cancer, and has set up a rondezvous with someone else on the set. Dee is Pasquale's only guest, and perhaps only one of two foreigners ever to visit the hotel. The other is a writer, Alvin Bender, who comes every year to not finish his novel (and to drink a lot).

The second timeline is contemporary. A young assistant has been tasked with taking pitches while her boss, Michael Deane, a famous producer who hasn't been able to have a hit movie in years but might be onto a great idea for a trashy multi-platform dating show, stays home. Interrupting her last pitch of the day is Pasquale, who fifty years later, has taken it upon himself to find Dee, with Michael Deane's card in his hand. The story is how their tales and over a dozen other characters, including Richard Burton, intersect. Oh, and we get to read excerpts from a screenplay, a novel, a memoir, and a stage play, among other things. Funny that the Maria Semple employs a similar concept of found narrative, as I call it. She's coming May 1, by the way, 7 pm.

B. How did I first hear about Beautiful Ruins?

Interestingly enough, I think the first person who told me to read Jess Walter's novel was Dave, the former buyer at Next Chapter. Our tastes overlapped a lot, which we knew from back when we both worked at Schwartz. He was over the moon about the book and got a whole bunch of people to get on board.

We wound up selling the book pretty well, but I knew that they had blown us away, numbers wise. I think the high numbers got Milwaukee onto the paperback tour. I consider our event a sort of gift from Next Chapter, a thank-you gift for taking over a lot of their events at the last minute when they closed.

C. Where did Jess Walter come from and why does everyone seem to love him?

This is Jess Walter's seventh book and sixth novel (it was followed by a book of short stories). He's been shortlist for the National Book Award, been a New York Times notable book of the year, and taken home an Edgar for best novel. One of his novels was Time magazine's number two book of the year (which I think just means that Lev Grossman really loved it). The Thing that's amazing is that all this is for something like four different novels, although previous to Beautiful Ruins, it was The Zero that got the most acclaim.

Our sales on The Financial Lives of Poets (2009 hardcover, 2010 paperback) were slightly better than what the Downer Schwartz did for The Zero (2006 hardcover, 2007 paperback), but that has generally been the case for literary authors as our sales have increased. They were respectable, 8-10 copies each in paperback, but nothing like this. I held onto hardcover copies of each, without actually reading them. I was convinced I would one day get around to it. I knew the author was important, and I knew I'd like him, but there's this problem--I can't read fast enough!

That midcareer breakout is so sweet, and justifies old fashioned publishing models. One of the great things about publishing literary work as opposed to commercial properties is that good reviews and word of mouth can turn around a bad track record. And there's no question that Harper put their hearts behind this.

As Walter tells it, he lives in Spokane, the city of his birth. He's got three kids. He came out of journalism. He writes in the mornings. Here's a few more questions answered from an interview with Noah Charney in The Daily Beast.

D. What exactly broke out this book to become the #1 bestseller in the country?

Honestly, I'm still trying to get the story about that. I'm hoping it will show up in the New York Times any minute. I know that the indies positioned it, but I just don't think we can get a book like this to #1 without another channel jumping on board. This used to happen all the time with Borders, which loved to break out trade paperback literary fiction. So who has taken up the mantle?

The thing that's so amazing to me is that it's everything I love in a novel--multiple plotlines and timelines, humor, sadness, big characters, moral gray areas, big questions. Reading the book, I was reminded of some of my favorite authors--Don Lee, Frederick Reiken, Peter Cameron. It's Jennifer Egan without sweeping all the major awards.

I came to the book late. I was telling people all last fall "this is my favorite book of the year I haven't read." I'm glad it lived up to my own hype.

The cover has certainly not hurt the book. Cheers to Harper for being smart enough to keep it for the paperback. Jeers to Random House for that paperback cover of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by the way. The entire staff of Boswell's is in agreement that the paperback jacket just doesn't work.

E. When a book is this popular, it's time to do a window, right? Stacie, what were you thinking?

"When you asked for volunteers to make a window for Beautiful Ruins to promote the event, mentioning how nice it would be to somehow recreate the gorgeous cover, I got really excited. I love dioramas and have had so much fun doing similar things for window displays in the past (baseball stadium, pirate ship, Wind in the Willows Christmas, Ian Rankin). I asked Hannah, who loved the book, for any thoughts on scenes or characters she thought would lend a nice touch. So, she is behind the idea of recreating not only the cliffside village with its colorful architecture, but also the writer's hotel room with his typewriter, libations of an alcoholic nature, cigarettes and an exquisite view of said village (even though the hotel's name might imply otherwise).

"For any of these displays, I generally just wander around the store and the storage room to look for inspiration. For the pirate ship, it was this oddly shaped box liner with 3-D squared edging. For this, it was the brown packing paper that shows up with boxes of books. They would be perfect for the rocky cliffs! From there, it just sort of came out organically as I stumbled across bits and pieces: a red wood table, wood podium top, and bag of fake snow helped make the bed; loads of colored paper, sharpies and Scotch tape made the buildings; brown tissue paper stands in as the winding dirt/gravel roads throughout the village and down to the water; and --oh, the water!-- the water is four shades of blue crepe streamers so I could vary the shade from lighter in the shallow, coastal edges, out to darker for where it gets deeper, overlapping the colors to guide the transition. I can't believe I get paid to do this kind of stuff, I love it!"

We love it too! I'm so thrilled to be hosting this event with Jess Walter. Join us on Monday, May 6 at our now-classic starting time of 7 pm.

This Week's Events--Rebecca Kanner, Joshua Henkin, Maria Semple, Ron Faiola, Jerry Pohlen, Michael Pollan (tonight) and Six Hand-Picked Undergraduate Creative Writing Wunderkinds from Marquette, Alverno, and Cardinal Stritch.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:07:00 +0000

So much to do today! Here is Stacie's upcoming event listings for this week, plus a sneak preview at Jess Walter's event next Monday. More about that in a post later this week.

Monday April 29, 7:30 pm, at the Oriental Theatre.
Michael Pollan, author of Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, at the Oriental Theater

The Oriental Theater is located at 2230 N. Farwell Ave. Doors open at 7 pm. This event is $30 and includes a copy of Cooked, or on the night of the event only, a $20 Boswell gift card. This event may sell out. Tickets are still available at the time of posting.

From the bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma comes a kitchen-focused exploration of the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture.

Starting with the theory that “Cooking, above all, connects us,” Pollan ventures into the kitchens of others: a North Carolina barbecue pit master; a Chez Panisse-trained cook; a celebrated baker; and finally, several mad-genius "fermentos" (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers). Arguing that by giving over this practice to corporations means we weaken not only the sustainability of our communities, but also our most social relationships—the ones we have with family and friends. By reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, and learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, we can open the door to a more nourishing life.

About the Author: Michael Pollan’s books include The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, all New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to The New York Times Magazine, he is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

Tuesday April 30, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Joshua Henkin, author of The World Without You
Appearing with Rebecca Kanner, author of Sinners and the Sea.

Labeled “A keenly observed and compassionate novel” by Entertainment Weekly and “Insightful… Poignant… Elegant,” by The New York Times Book Review, Henkin’s newest novel, The World Without You, is a moving, mesmerizing new novel about love, loss, and the aftermath of a family tragedy.

It's July 4, 2005, and the Frankel family is descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq.

The parents, Marilyn and David, are adrift in grief. Their forty-year marriage is falling apart. Clarissa, the eldest sibling and a former cello prodigy, has settled into an ambivalent domesticity and is struggling at age thirty-nine to become pregnant. Lily, a fiery-tempered lawyer and the family contrarian, is angry at everyone. And Noelle, whose teenage years were shadowed by promiscuity and school expulsions, has moved to Jerusalem and become a born-again Orthodox Jew. The last person to see Leo alive, Noelle has flown back for the memorial with her husband and four children, but she feels entirely out of place. And Thisbe —Leo's widow and mother of their three-year-old son—has come from California bearing her own secret.

About the Author: Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Swimming Across the Hudson (a Los Angeles Times Notable Book) and Matrimony (a New York Times Notable Book). His stories have been published widely, cited for distinction in Best American Short Stories, and broadcast on NPR's “Selected Shorts.” He directs the MFA Program in Fiction Writing at Brooklyn College.

Daniel's rec: "On one July 4th weekend in the Berkshires, a family gathers together to remember the youngest sibling, Leo Frankel, a journalist killed in the line of duty. What they don’t know is that the parents are separating, the eldest daughter is having trouble conceiving, the widowed daughter-in-law is dating, and the two younger children, one proudly agnostic and childless, the other an Orthodox Jew in Israel with four sons, have a pile of resentment issues. The result is spirited family dysfunction writ large, albeit gentler than a Franzen, and served with a half sour pickle spear."

Tuesday April 30, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Rebecca Kanner, author of Sinners and the Sea: The Untold Story of Noah’s Wife
Appearing with Joshua Henkin, author of The World Without You.

The Bible neglects to give her a name, but in Sinners and the Sea, Rebecca Kanner gives her a voice. The woman is the wife of Noah, a woman who struggles to define herself in a drowning world as she seeks purpose and identity. Kanner weaves a tale that breathes an intricate and dynamic life into one of the Bible’s voiceless characters. Through Noah’s wife’s eyes we view a complex world where the lines between right and wrong, righteousness and wickedness blur. And we are left wondering would I have been considered virtuous enough to save?

Desperate to keep her safe, her father gives his virtuous daughter to the ancient and righteous Noah who weds her and takes her to the town of Sorum, a land of out outcasts and pariahs. The 600-year old Noah prospers in Sorum; his wife gives him three sons, and, as he is the most righteous person in the land, has a town full of sinners in which to preach. Alone in her new life, Noah’s wife is faced with the hardships of living with an aloof husband who speaks more to God than with her, trying to make friends with the violent and sexual sinners of Sourm, and raising three sons who despite their righteous upbringing have developed some sinful tendencies themselves. When God tells Noah he will destroy the world by flood and to build an ark so that he, his wife, three sons, and their three wives can repopulate the earth, Noah’s wife’s trials only multiply.

About the Author: Rebecca Kanner holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. Her writing has won an Associated Writing Programs Award and a Loft Mentorship Award. Her stories have been published in numerous journals including The Kenyon Review and the Cincinnati Review. Her personal essay, “Safety,” is listed as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2011. She is a freelance-writer and teaches writing at The Loft in Minneapolis.

Wednesday May 1, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
This event is being co-sponsored by Local First Milwaukee

A fast-paced, clever, erudite, laugh-out-loud hilarious, yet affectionate look at what it means to really find a home– with your city, your family, and yourself, this debut novel from T.V. comedy writer Semple, whose work includes Arrested Development, has more holds on it at the Seattle Public Library than Fifty Shades of Grey. “Think The Royal Tenebaums in Seattle.” —Time, Lev Grossman

Who is Bernadette? Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect; and to fifteen-year-old Bee, she’s simply Mom. When our story opens, Bernadette has disappeared and Bee begins a quest to find her.

Named a Best Book of 2012 by over a dozen magazines and newspapers including People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times and with feature film rights secured, this novel has had the greatest authors on the contemporary literary scene raving. We’ll simply leave you with this quote:

“The characters in Where’d You Go, Bernadette may be in real emotional pain, but Semple has the wit and perspective and imagination to make their story hilarious. I tore through this book with heedless pleasure.” —Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom

About the Author: Maria Semple is the author of This One Is Mine. Before turning to fiction, she wrote for Mad About You, Ellen, and Arrested Development. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker. Semple lives in Seattle, where she teaches fiction, studies poetry, and tries to stay off the Internet.

Daniel's rec: "The craziness of a Los Angeles family moving to Seattle and taking over a girls’ reform school is not lost on the locals, who have lived in the Emerald City since, well, since it was called the Queen City. Bernadette, whose previous career as a talented architect self-destructed, writes in her shed, half-heartedly feuding with her neighbor Audrey, while her husband Elgin works on a secret Microsoft project that will out-Suri Apple, and his new admin, by the way, is friends with Audrey and everyone’s children go to the same school, which is getting ready to raise money to move out of their rather unglamorous industrial park setting. Bernadette and Elgin’s daughter Bee is soon headed for boarding school (very un-Seattle), but before she goes, there’s nothing she wants more than a family cruise to Antarctica. I’m not usually one for epistolary novels, but Where’d You Go, Bernadette is more of a mashup of traditional narrative with emails, newsletters, and diaries. Add to this set up some pent up anger, lots of misunderstandings, off-the-wall characters, a little lust, and Bernadette’s disappearance, and you have a spirited romp (with a bit of heart too) worthy of one of the writers of “Arrested Development,” which in fact is what Semple once did."

Thursday May 2, at 7:00 pm
Jerome Pohlen, author of Oddball Wisconsin, 2nd edition
Appearing with Ron Faiola, author of Wisconsin Supper Clubs.

With twice as many abnormal attractions than the first edition, Oddball Wisconsin: A Guide to 400 Really Strange Places boasts destinations for road trippers that are found off the beaten path. Including bizarre locations and events—such as Chainsaw Gordy’s Garden of Saws, the UFO festival in Elmwood, a confiscated submachine gun that once belonged to John Dillinger and the Partying Pink Elephant in DeForest—Oddball Wisconsin offers off-beat travel destinations and little-known historical tidbits to road trippers looking for a different sort of trip. Where was Liberace born? What is a hodag and how do you catch one? Where can you find Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and hear of its bloody history? What’s the deal with the house they call “Top Secret?” This newly updated guide for readers and travelers to the real Wisconsin—the birthplace of the snowmobile, the ice cream sundae and Orson Welles—answers all of these questions and more.

About the Author: Jerome Pohlen is an editor and travel writer whose travel writing has appeared in the Chicago Reader, Readers Digest, and TimeOut Chicago. He is the author of the Oddball series and Progressive Nation. He has been a regular contributor on travel and culture for Eight Forty-Eight on WBEZ, Chicago's NPR affiliate. He lives in Chicago.

Thursday May 2, at 7:00 pm
Ron Faiola, author of Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old-Fashioned Experience
Appearing with Jerome Pohlen, author of Oddball Wisconsin.

As more and more people seek out regional culinary experiences, Wisconsin Supper Clubs offers a celebration of this distinctly Midwestern tradition that also serves as a practical guide. Profiling more than 50 establishments that are found throughout the state, and threading throughout interviews with proprietors and loyal customers as well as color photographs, author Ron Faiola takes readers deep into the world of this authentic upper Midwestern experience.

Each chapter—organized geographically, which makes for easy browsing for those planning a trip—focuses on one supper club, detailing its history and the family or families involved in running it. Faiola describes the customs and traditions of each, details its particular culinary specialties, which include a variety of specialties, ranging from popovers in the northern part of the state to shrimp de Jonghe in the south. One supper club in the Northwoods even serves fry bread, a traditional Native American dish not often found on restaurant menus. With personal reflections of his own experiences capping each section, Faiola provides a broad, yet intimate, look at an establishment that strives to celebrate generations of home-style food and good company.

About the Author: Ron Faiola is a filmmaker and author who has produced and directed numerous critically acclaimed documentaries, such as Wisconsin Supper Clubs and Fish Fry Night Milwaukee. He is the president and founder of Push Button Gadget, Inc., which has been specializing in audiovisual and business theater production for nearly 20 years.

Friday May 3, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Best of the Undergraduate Creative Writers, Part One: Marquette University, Alverno College, and Cardinal Stritch.

Join us for a lovely evening of promising student readers--the best from three great Milwaukee-area instutions. Next week we'll be featuring UWM, Mount Mary, and Carroll University.

Our Marquette readers are Bobby Elliott and Jahnavi Acharya.

Our Alverno readers are Kali Stevens and Terri Ward.

And from Cardinal Strich, our readers are Robyn White and Daniel Townsend.

Monday May 6, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins.

“Why mince words? Beautiful Ruins is an absolute masterpiece.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls

National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award winning author Jess Walter returns with his funniest and most romantic novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers, Beautiful Ruins is at once an elegiac romance, a comedy of human foibles, and an incisive meditation on our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture. Spanning fifty years, Walter’s expertly orchestrated narrative takes readers to a tiny coastal village in Italy in 1962 and to modern-day Hollywood, to London, Edinburgh, and the Pacific Northwest—as an endearingly flawed parade of intertwined characters navigate the realities of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Inspired by his wife’s Italian family and the small hillside villages in the Cinque Terre region, Walter imagined a village in its early 1960s La Dolce Vita glory, a place that “would make a great frame for a story about fame and how we all endeavor now to live our lives like movie stars, like celebrities, each of us an eager inner publicist managing our careers and our romances and our fragile self-images (our Facebook pages and Linked-In profiles)."

About the Author: Jess Walter is the author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, and the New York Times Notable Book Over Tumbled Graves. He lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.

Visit our website for more info, to purchase a signed copy, or to figure out why so many of our book jackets don't update correctly on the Indie Next module.

Sunday Bestsellers--Interesting Tidbit on The Interestings, Paris Trumps New York, Beautiful Ruins Sales are Beautiful, and Elinor Lipman Hits Four Different Bestseller Lists. Why Hasn't She Written a Board Book?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:43:00 +0000

Hardcover fiction:
1. The View from Penthouse B, by Elinor Lipman (signed copies available)
2. Snapper, by Brian Kimberling (also)
3. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson (also, but not for long)
4. Paris, by Edward Rutherfurd
5. Woke Up Lonely, by Fiona Maazel (also)
6. Vader's Little Princess, by Jeffrey Brown
7. Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende
8. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
9. Leaving Everything Most Loved, by Jacqueline Winspear
10. A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R. Martin

Jason asked me if I knew what was up with Edward Rutherfurd's Paris? In one week, we outsold the complete run of his previous novel, New York. "Well, I thought, our traffic is up, the make up of our customers is a bit different, what with other stores having closed, and then there was that review in the Montreal Gazette." As Jeff Heinrich notes, "Rutherfurd’s prose is so clean and unembellished, the dialogue so fluid and true to the era it’s spoken in, that 'l’appétit vient en mangeant,' as the French say: the more you read, you more you want. The characters are memorable and 'attachant,' even the crooks and low-lifes (and there are a few)."

And then of course it's Paris.

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Out with It, by Katherine Preston
2. I Can't Complain, by Elinor Lipman
3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
4. The Third Coast, by Thomas Dyja
5. Cooked, by Michael Pollan
6. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
7. Gulp, by Mary Roach
8. Clean, by David Sheff
9. Limping through Life, by Jerry Apps
10. Mom and Me and Mom, by Maya Angelou

"Oh, did you know David Sedaris is coming for Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls?"

"Shut up. Can I get a ticket?"

"There are no tickets. It's Sunday, May 26, 2 pm."

"When should I come?

"Early."

Everybody's talking about the Sedaris interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Listen to this now--I dare to call it "soul baring."

Paperback fiction:
1. Farmer's Almanac, by Chris Fink
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson
5. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
6. Child of God, by Cormac McCarthy
7. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
8. Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
9. The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin
10. The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman

There's no question about it. Paul blew away from the competition with his St. George pick, Child of God. It's very unlikely that anyone will overtake him, so congratulate him now on his success. And speaking of blowing up competition, Beautiful Ruins is closing in on 100 paperback copies sold before our event on May 6. I'm hoping to write a piece on the book this week, featuring our lovely window that Stacie and Hannah dreamed up--perhaps someone at Harper will tell me what exactly exploded the book in paperback beyond word of mouth.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Historic Milwaukee Public Schoolhouses, by Robert Tanzilo
2. Tweet Land of Liberty, by Elinor Lipman
3. More Than They Bargained For, by Jason Stein and Patrick Marley
4. The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblat
5. Why Does the World Exist, by Jim Holt

Until her kids' book comes out, Elinor Lipman will have to be happy hitting only four of our bestseller lists post her successful literary lunch event. Her essays, I Can't Complain, was #2 in hardcover nonfiction while her tweets, Tweet Land of Liberty, were #2 in paperback nonfiction. In addition, one of her backlist novels also broke the top 10 fiction, despite strong competition.

Books for kids:
1. Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea
2. Mr. Terupt Falls Again, by Rob Buyea
3. Ghoulish Song, by William Alexander
4. Goblin Secrets, by William Alexander
5. Mary Nohl: A lifetime in Art, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith

Manger and Smith will be appearing to talk about their kids' Mary Nohl book at the North Shore Library on Thrusday, May 9, 6:30 pm. And for those interested in what's next for Mr. Alexander, his two stories will come together and a third novel that unites the characters of his first two books, or so I'm told. Very exciting!

What's on the shortlist for next week's bestsellers? We turn to the Journal Sentinel, where Mike Fischer reviews Edna O'Brien's memoir, Country Girl. He notes that "the first and best of this book's four parts vividly resurrects the Ireland of her childhood--that vanished country of the past which, she tells us, has provided her with 'the richest material of all.'"

There's also a memorial to Norbert Blei (oops! typo--I call this writing without a net), a Wisconsin writer, who per writer Jan Uebelherr, started a feud with the local newspaper over the blue tubes they installed for their shopping supplement. He also penned a column on shutting the bridge into Door County so nobody could mess with his beloved adopted home. He was working on a biography of Al Johnson, the famous proprietor of the Swedish restaurant in Sister Bay.

And Colette Bancroft riffs on David Sedaris and his new Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls in a review originally published int he Tampa Bay Times. While "laughing her head off", she wonders how he does it. She particularly likes the pieces about his relationship with his father.

From the Miami Herald, Hannah Sampson reviews The Interestings, calling it "a story that feels real and true andmore than fulills the promise of the title. It is interesting, yes, but also moving, compelling, fascinating and rewarding." No wonder it's our biggest Meg Wolitzer bestseller to date. (In fact, our sales at this location have increased in hardcover for each of her last three novels).

Saturday Gift Post--Mom Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 22:17:00 +0000

After several months of basically restocking fixtures, I finally have a few interesting things to display on the blog. That said, there's still a lot of reordering, like those Retro Pets magnets that sold through so well. I love having Halley receive these, as she gets positively giddy on seeing "Wigglebutt Biscuits" and "Determined German Shepherd's Stout." Anne also received orders from several card vendors, but no new lines, alas.

And while there are plenty of dog lovers among Mom's out there, it's hard not to focus on the flowers of spring for a motif, particularly as so many people, me among them, choose to get an arrangement as a gift for this holiday. We think, as an alternative, that you might want to get your Mom a floral pencil topper. These come from Winding Road, a fair trade importer from Nepal. Last year I spotted Marla's products at a temp stand at the Chicago gift show. They sat for a while, but picked up when we started putting pencils (we get no end of promotional pencils from publishers) in the pencil toppers to show what they are.

Marla told me her main market is museum stores, where they have been moving quite nicely. If your Mom is not a flower kind of gal, we're also carrying an assortment of animals, including lions, tigers, owls, penguins, and wildebeests. I was going to have an assortment of bunnies for Easter, but the best laid plans of mice and Daniels meant that this was not the case for 2013.

One day I should probably go to a museum show, assuming I am allowed in. Being that we were recently invited to a college bookstore show and get no end of invitations to shows for toy retailers and card retailers, it seems that they are pretty enhusiastic about just getting someone who might buy something, and tend not to close these things off to members.

Another floral option are the Sunflower leather bracelets, a new item for us from a vendor I first came across at the Atlanta gift show. At first I was showing them around to booksellers and folks were not particularly enhusiastic. I started worrying that I had bought a dud. Fortunately Halley turned out to be very gung ho and immediately bought one and started talking them up to everybody. Anne had brought in the perfect jewelry stand to display them too. Pretty, huh?

Somewhere between coin pouches and our animal purses are these new wristlets. I love the design, featuring a ladybug, caterpillar, or praying mantis on a leaf. Because I figured ladybug would be the most popular, I also bought a design that is simply one big ladybug. I think they are adoarable, and quite well priced.

Next week Halley and I have agreed to have a discussion about Mother's Day cards. I was a little worried because by a week before Mother's Day, our selection starts running low. I think we might move up our post by a few days and do a book post next Saturday instead. You've got to be flexible about these things.

The Fill the Shelves Promotion Continues at Boswell.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:41:00 +0000

We launched the Milwaukee Public Library Fill-the-Shelves promotion at Kate Atkinson's reading for Life After Life at the Milwaukee Public Market, and continued at the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Literary Lunch with Elinor Lipman at the Pfister, but it continues through the end of May in store at Boswell.

Want to help the Milwaukee Public Library? Purchase one of these listed titles from Boswell and it will go to the Milwaukee Public Library’s permanent collection.

Donate a book and you will get proof of donation, plus a bookplate with your name on it will go in the circulating copy. This program is co-sponsored by the Katie Gingrass Gallery.

We've got the complete list of titles here.

Spring Rep Night at Boswell--Selections from Anne, John, Terribeth, and Cathy.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:09:00 +0000

Last Sunday, several of our sales reps presented spring titles to the booksellers at Boswell and Books and Company (editor's note--I inadvertently wrote Next Chapter here, with whom we used to co-host rep nights. My apologies!) We've been doing this in Milwaukee since, well, since before I was a bookseller, but I think this is only the third time we've done this in the spring. It's a nice way to emphasize Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, and summer reading, and the reps also get to highlight a fall title they're excited about too. We apologies for the blurry picture. One of my camera settings is off.

Cathy at HarperCollins gave us twelve great books to keep in our arsenal. I've mentioned how Mother's Day brings out the fiction releases. One that Sharon's already recommending at Boswell is Reconstructing Amelia, by Kimberly McCreight, which is a what-to-read-when-you've-finished-Gone-Girl kind of book. But I've already written this one up on our recently published posts, but don't forget that this mystery about a woman's daughter who may have beeen murdered "never bogs down and comes to a seamless and unanticipated conclusion," per Kirkus.

But why stick to the obvious for Moms? Why not try The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Ingrigue in the Italian Renaissance, 1427-1527, by Leonie Frieda? Frieda, a British popular historian whose last book, Catherine de Medici, her new book has a faster pace than you might expect from what looks like it might be dense and serious. The London Sunday Times wrote: "A torrent of poisoned daggers, ruthless politics and sexual intrigue...An interesting introduction to the turbulent back story to all those serenely smiling portraits."

Just in time for Father's Day (releasing May 28), Philipp Meyer's The Son is coming. Author of the acclaimed novel, American Rust, this new book is already winning accolades from visiting author Kate Atkinson, who singled it out as perhaps the best thing she's read this spring. It's a multi-generational saga, tracing one Texas family from the Comanche raids to the oil boom. Jason's already read this one and is tossing about adjectives like "phenomenal" to describe it. We're very excited!

And here's a graduation gift from Neil Gaiman. His Make Good Art is coming May 14. It actually seems a little late for graduation for me, considering that we already have our table up, but who am I to judge? Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane is coming June 18, but alas, not to Milwaukee. But you can still get to Chicago, Minneapolis, or Ann Arbor pretty easily. I like the way each stop has a subtitle. The new book, by the way, is based on a commencement address.

Next up was Anne from Macmillan. One Mother's Day pick was Gail Godwin's Flora, a novel set in the 1940s, chronicling a ten-year-old left in the care of her guardian while her father does his secret work at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Library Journal called the new novel "a superbly crafted, stunning novel" and "an unforgettable, heartbreaking tale of disappointment, love, and tragedy." I've read a lot of Godwin over the years and this sounds very good.

If you're dad's baseball fan and also likes those Alex Kotlowitz-y kind of stories, it seems like Jonathan Schuppe's A Chance to Win: Boyhood, Baseball , and the Struggle for Redemption in the Inner City might be just the ticket. Schuppe, a Pulitzer Prize winner, follows a Little League team in Newark for one season, reminding me a bit of the format of education book narratives, like Sarah Carr's recent Hope Against Hope. The starred Booklist said "it may be peculiar to describe a book that looks unflinchingly at urban poverty as wonderful, but in the sense that this account will open eyes and maybe a few minds, wonderful just might apply."

A graduation gift might be How to Change the World by John-Paul Flintoff. From Picador's School of Life series, the newest is a recommended by Publishers Weekly with caveats, but "a first push toward directing one's energies outward, this is an encouraging primer." Another new title in the series is How to Find Fulfilling Work. Who doesn't need that?

A kid's pick was Sara Varon and Cecil Castelluci's Odd Duck, the charming tale of two unlikely friends. Theodora is prissy, while Chad, her new neighbor, is a hipster. Theodora is thoroughly organized to his slovenliness. When the two are together, they make an interesting pair. Kirkus notes that "this clever celebration of individuality delights" and we all agreed.

Terribeth of Scholastic may not have the hot novel or history book for the spring celbrations of parenthood, but there's a lot of great summer reading on her list. Among the picture books, there was The Three Little Pigs and the Somwhat Bad Wolf, by Mark Teague. In this version of the classic fairytale, the farmer moves to Florida and leaves the pigs to build their own homes, but two of the pigs choose cheap materials so he has money for junk food and the second, while their sister builds a strong house and saves money with a vegetable garden! Publishers Weekly calls this twist " fit for the era of Michael Pollan." (May I note that Pollan tickets are still available for Monday, April 29th's event a the Oriental Theatre?)

Amie's already a fan of The Highway Rat, from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, but I hadn't yet mentioned it on the blog, so I'm glad it was on Terribeth's recommended list. This rat plunders food from all the countryside, but then he meets a duck who sets him off to search for a stash hidden in a cave by his sister. Kirkus thought the story more akin to Robin Hood and the Three Billy Goats Gruff rather than Alfred Noyes's poem, and School Library Journal observed that this "well-paced, rollicking tale is a guaranteed storytime treat."

For older readers, Jeffrey Salane's Lawless might be the ticket. M Freeman has been homeschooled all her life, so she doesn't know what to expect when her family enrolls her in the Lawless School. It turns out that her new teachers are preparing her for a life on the wrong side of the law. But when she attracts the interest of The Masters, the school's most secretive clique, she's in for yet another surprise. This is ages ten and up.

For ages 13 and up, Paul Rudnick's forthcoming Gorgeous might just be the thing. Becky Randall has been plucked from a trailer park after her mom dies and she is whisked to New York to be made over into a fashion icon by a mysterious designer. Filled with Rudnick's trademark caustic humor (in addition to his New Yorker columns, he's the voice of Libby Gelman-Waxner in Entertainment Weekly), David Sedaris says Mr. Rudnick is"a champion of truth and love and great wicked humor, whom we ignore at our peril."

And finally John came to talk about books from Consortium, Chronicle, Candlewick, and even some other publishers and distributors that don't start with a C. His picks ran a little more to the kids' side this time, so no mom/dad/grad business for him. But we did get John read us the story of The Black Rabbit, by Philippa Leathers. As the publisher notes, Leathers introduces us to a plucky rabbit and a friend he can't shake. I think you can guess who that is.

With all the Great Gatsby madness out there, John wanted to give a shout out to Superzelda: The Graphic Life of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Tirziana Lo Porto and Deniele Marotta. The beautiful two-color illustrations complement the life of this writer whose success was overshadowed by her famous husband.

We'll be talking more about Bennett Sims's A Questionable Shape, a very different kidnd of zombie novel from Two Dollar Radio. Jason loved it, the recommendations from other writesr are piling up, and Stacie noted that Sims is appearing with Fiona Maazel, who just appeared at Boswell yesterday for Woke up Lonely. That seems like an inspired pairing!

And finally we've already got piles on our impulse table of the new book from Jeffrey Brown, Vader's Little Princess. Leia starts out as a sweet little girl, but in this sequel to Darth Vader and Son, she grows up into a rather trying teen, with the Sith Lord facing all the tribulations of any father, even one who doesn't lead the Galactic Empire.

So those are our some of our reps' suggestions for spring. Did I mention dinner was catered by Beans and Barley? Black bean enchilada casserole, turkey pot pie, spinach cous cous, vegetable tart, plus we also had pie pops, courtesy of an upcoming cookbook that Anne is selling in the fall called Easy as Pie Pops, from Andrea Smetona. They were good!

We're hoping the books all get a little more attention, and are on the tips of our tongues when folks come in looking for suggestions.

The Poster, The Poser.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Goldin) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:38:00 +0000

A. Nick and I have been talking about doing an event poster for some time now. A talented artist, you've seen his illustrations gracing his rec cards, and he also recently did a cover for Alcoholmanac magazine. After our first attempt with Jasper Fforde (the best laid plans...), Nick struck event poster gold with his second, a beautiful rendition of Peter Heller's The Dog Stars.

The Dog Stars was one of our favorite novels of 2012, and we're just thrilled to be hosting the author for his paperback tour on Wednesday, June 19, 7 pm. Our friend Kate laid it out for us--we bettter do a good job, or else. I wonder why more publicists don't use that sort of argument?

We started off by giving Heller an opening author in Ethan Rutherford, whose new collection, The Peripatetic Coffin, has several booksellers in ecstasy. Now we've got several folks helping out in Team Heller (and what do you know, Kate and Ethan once worked together, and that was totally not on purpose).

And then Nick and I started brainstorming again about a poster. We really want to put posters up in alternate venues, but we wanted something that was not our run-of-the-mill event poster. Don't get me wrong, I love our posters! It's just that this is a work of art. More on this as the date draws near.

B. After a lovely day driving around with Elinor Lipman for The View from Penthouse B, I'm feeling like everything should be downhill from here, but it wasn't exactly, as tonight's event with Fiona Maazel was lovely, and at Stacie's suggestion, we presented her with cheese curds as a thank you for visiting on her Woke Up Lonely book tour.

The Lipman lunch was lovely, by the way. So many devoted readers, and at the end of the day, we went to dinner at Wolf Peach with our old friend Nancy, who ran around the hall handselling copies of Lipman's essays, I Can't Complain.

I was asked to introduce the author, and being that this wasn't just an evening at the store and my two sentences, I actually wrote something out, but of course there was also a bit of improv too. My thought was that so often what we remember most about authors is not their work but our relationship to it, how we came to read it, what affect it had on us. This theory was borne out with several discussions that Lipman had with her fans.

For me, I remembered how our colleauge Jeanne was obsessed with Then She Found Me and called into a radio show to ask Lipman a question, after the other authors started hogging the airwaves. I remembered that I met Lipman at a pub party for The Way Men Act, and she first came to Milwaukee for Isabel's Bed, and I should note, returned for every novel since.

A few weeks ago my friend John posted a twenty-year-old picture of me reading The Way Men Act, which I always thought was a funny photo, as I have never really figured gotten a handle on that statement. But I also thought it would be nice to revisit the novel, and while I always tell folks that we never have time to read at work, I should note that it was the end of a long day and I was off the clock.

I tried to remember what book matched up with which adventure. The bookseller dinner at Mader's. Another at Bartolotta's with Anita Shreve. The Bacchus lunch. Events at the Shorewood, Brookfield, and Mequon Schwartz stores. But after that first visit, I only remembered our ribbon cutting with Shreve and Mameve Medwed, after which the three authors went out to dinner with my celebrating family. But I'm counting on someone to chime in and much up the other visits.