Kate T Parker celebrates boyhood, Chris Perondi and Kathleen Dunn celebrate doghood, Samantha Downing shares thrills with Nick Petrie, Alice Waters signing, Elizabeth Minchilli ICC dinner, special Easter hours

Boswell events for the week of April 15. Happy Easter and Passover - note special Easter Sunday hours of 10 am to 5 pm.


Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 pm, at Boswell:
Kate T Parker, author of The Heart of a Boy: Celebrating the Strength and Spirit of Boyhood

Kate T Parker, bestselling author and photographer of Strong Is the New Pretty, visits Boswell with her new book, a photographic celebration of what makes a boy, with portraits and quotations from today's boys, from ages five to eighteen. Boys can be wild. But they can also be gentle. Bursting with confidence, but not afraid to be vulnerable. Ready to run fearlessly downfield or reach out to a friend in need. This event is cosponsored by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee.

The Heart of a Boy is a deeply felt celebration of boyhood. There’s the pensive look of a skateboarder caught in a moment between rides. The years of dedication in a ballet dancer’s poise. The love of a younger brother hugging his older brother. The intensity in a football huddle. There are guitarists, fencers, wrestlers, star-gazers, a pilot - it’s the world of our sons, in all their amazing variety and difference.

Kate T Parker is a former collegiate soccer player, Ironman, and professional photographer. Her Strong Is the New Pretty photo series has led to collaborations with brands like Athleta, Oxygen, and Girls on the Run. The project inspired Kate to launch a philanthropic arm of Strong Is the New Pretty, partnering with organizations that invest in girls' health and education.

Wednesday, April 17, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Chris Perondi, coauthor of The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever: A Step-by-Step Guide to 118 Amazing Tricks and Stunts

Chris Perondi, creator of The Stunt Dog Show, visits Boswell to chat with former WPR host Kathleen Dunn about The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever. This event is cosponsored by Pets Helping People, an organization whose mission is to improve the lives of others, many with special needs, through the practice of animal assisted interventions.

Chris Perondi, with his family, created and runs Stunt Dog Productions. Now, he, along with Larry Kay, also coauthor of Training the Best Dog Ever, offers up a step-by-step guide to more than 100 dog tricks specially designed for effective training, pure fun, and even for turning your dog into a YouTube star. Using the secrets of professional dog trainers, Perondi’s tricks run the gamut from the kinds of things any well-behaved dog should know - fetch, shake, roll over - to stunts that are guaranteed showstoppers.

Chris Perondi runs Stunt Dog Productions and the Stunt Dog Academy with his wife, Suhey, and their team of canine performers, putting on more than 1,000 shows every year across the country. Please note that while Perondi will be at the store with his canine companion, attendees are asked to please leave their furry friends at home.

Thursday, April 18, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Samantha Downing, author of My Lovely Wife

Samantha Downing visits Boswell for a chat with Milwaukee’s own Nick Petrie about her dark mystery debut - it’s Dexter meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this thriller about a couple whose fifteen-year marriage has finally gotten a little bit too interesting. Note that My Lovely Wife is a hit in Milwaukee, showing up on the top fiction bestsellers of Bookscan for two weeks running.

New Orleans-based Downing’s debut is the book Entertainment Weekly calls, “the thriller we're most excited to stay up with all night." A corpse is discovered in an abandoned Florida motel, and soon police identify the body of Lindsay, a young woman who went missing a year earlier. This revelation shocks the narrator, since he and his wife, Millicent, were the ones who abducted Lindsay as part of a ploy to spice up their marriage.

Publishers Weekly calls My Lovely Wife, a "taut thriller," noting "Downing's tale unfolds slowly and sinuously, building tension about the couples' fate while revealing the origins of their homicidal hobby. The first-person, present-tense narration makes readers feel uncomfortably complicit in all that transpires, underscoring the plot's grim and twisted nature. Readers will eagerly await Downing's next." The Washington Post seconds that, calling Downing's debut a “dark, disturbing exploration of family, marriage and murderous compulsions.”

Saturday, April 20, 11:00 am, at Boswell:
A Ticketed Signing with Alice Waters, author of Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, cosponsored by Groundwork Milwaukee

Boswell hosts a book signing with chef, restaurateur, activist, and author Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, a pioneering restaurant of California cuisine. Please note, this is a book signing only – Waters will not be speaking at this event. To get in the signing line, attendees must purchase a ticket-plus-book at watersmke.bpt.me. Each attendee can buy a ticket bundled with one of the following books to get in the signing line: Coming to My Senses, The Art of Simple Food, The Art of Simple Food II, or Chez Panisse Café Cookbook. Additional titles will be for sale at the event or attendees can bring up to 3 books from home.

Three dollars from each ticket purchased will be donated to Groundwork Milwaukee, a nonprofit and land trust whose mission is to bring about the sustained regeneration, improvement and management of the physical environment.

At the same time, we’ll be hosting a signing with Andrew R. Ruis, Researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and Fellow at Department of Surgery. His book, Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat: The Origins of School Lunch in the United States, explores the origins of American school meal initiatives to explain why it has been so difficult to establish meal programs that satisfy the often competing interests of children, parents, schools, health authorities, politicians, and the food industry.

Waters is coming as part of a special event at NŌ Studios at the Pabst Brewery Complex, starting at 4 pm on Saturday, April 20. Looks like the NO Studios event is at capacity.

Tuesday, April 23, 6:30 pm, at The Italian Community Center:
Bartolotta Catering and Events Present a ticketed Cookbook Dinner with Elizabeth Minchilli, author of The Italian Table: Creating Festive Meals for Family and Friends

We're including our Elizabeth Minchilli event in this week's blog because registrations will likely close out before next Sunday.

Bartolotta Restaurants and Boswell Books Company present an author dinner with Elizabeth Minchilli, founder of the Eat Italy App and author of The Italian Table. Tickets cost $85, $75 for Italian Community Center members, and include a four-course meal and a copy of The Italian Table. More information and tickets can be found on the Bartolotta events page.

Elizabeth Minchilli has lived in Rome for over 30 years and written 9 books, including Eating Rome: Living the Good Life in the Eternal City. Her culinary writing online has won the Saveur Award, the Italy Magazine Award, and she created the Eat Italy App. The Italian Community Center is located at 631 E Chicago St in the Third Ward.

In The Italian Table, Minchilli delivers both the fantasy and reality of Italian meals as they would be eaten on location with her unique approach to a beloved cuisine. Combining menus and recipes with visual experience and inspiration, as well as insight into the traditions of the food and celebrations, she gives home cooks and hosts step-by-step guidance on how to re-create these fabulous meals at their own tables.

Read this profile with Elizabeth Minchilli in the Journal Sentinel.

More upcoming events on our upcoming events page.

Photography credits:
--Kate T. Parker: Kate T. Parker Photography
--Samantha Downing: Jacqueline Dallimore

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 13, 2019

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 13, 2019

We've got a busy day the Milwaukee Anthology event at Boswell and we're also selling books at NO Studios for Kim Suhr and the ICC for Jessie Holland's DMEF luncheon. It should be fun day, what with the snow!

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
2. Tiamrat's Wrath V8 The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey
3. There There, by Tommy Orange
4. Kaddish.com, by Nathan Englander
5. Metropolis V14 Bernie Gunther, by Philip Kerr
6. Diary of a Dead Man on Leave, by Lauren Groff
7. Florida, by Lauren Groff
8. The Parisian, by Isabella Hammad
9. Kingdom of Copper V2 Daevabad Trilogy, By S.A. Chakraborty
10. Lost and Wanted, by Nell Freudenberger

I was having lunch at The Soup House with my friend John, who was enjoying Kaddish.com. "Tell me you still like it when you finish the book," I requested, and it turns out he still did. Tova Mirvis also did. Writing for The New York Times, calls Englander's latest a "tender, wry and entertaining novel" and creates "an endearing hero who stumbles through a world in which the holy and profane are intertwined."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Chief, by Joan Biskupic
2. First the Jews, by Evan Moffic
3. The Fall of Wisconsin, by Dan Kaufman
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. Weaving Modernism, by K.L.H. Wells
6. Treating OCD in Children in Adolescents, by Martin Franklin
7. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
8. Islamophobia and Psychiatry, edited by Steven H Moffic, John Peteet, Ahmed Zakaria Hankir, and Rania Awaad
9. The Elegant Defense, by Matt Richtel
10. An American Summer, by Alex Kotlowitz

Did I mention the story of how I came to read An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives? I was at a book conference in Albuquerque and couldn't find a good way to the airport. I wound up sharing a ride with someone at the hotel, who turned out to be the author. I've wound up recommending the book to a number of people and have a staff rec posted. Kirkus Reviews agreed in their starred review: "Richtel illuminates a complex subject so well that even physicians will learn."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
2. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
3. The Careless Seamstress, by Tjawangwa Dema
4. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
5. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (event May 15 - tickets here)
6. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
7. Killer Thriller V2, Ian Ludlow, by Lee Goldberg
8. Persuasion, by Jane Austen
9. The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea (event Mon May 6, 7 pm)
10. Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje

It's the first week on our bestseller list for The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, but we don't expect it to be our last. We've had five great reads on this book. It's still a little early for trade reviews, but take it from Boswell bookseller Jane, who says "This well researched historical fiction is so compassionately drawn that every reader’s heart will be touched by the indomitable spirit that fires Cussy’s inner life."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. All Our Relations, by Winona LaDuke
2. Recovering the Sacred, by Winona LaDuke
3. The Winona LaDuke Chronicles, from Winona LaDuke
4. The Militarization of Indian Country, by Winona LaDuke
5. The Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern (event today, 4/14, 3 pm)
6. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
7. Barking to the Choir, by Gregory Boyle
8. Milwaukee County's Oak Leaf Trail, by Jill Rothenbueler Maher
9. The Big Book of Dog Tricks for the Best Dog Ever, by Larry Kay and Chris Perondi (event Wed 4/17, 7 pm)
10. White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo

UWM had a very successful event with Winona LaDuke, and we wound up running out of many of her books. When you're one step reomoved from the event, you don't always know which book the author will focus on. The biggest hit at the program was her 2016 book from Haymarket, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. 

 Books for Kids:
1. The Size of the Truth, by Andrew Smith
2. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, illustrated by Aaron Boyd
3. How to Make Friends with the Dark, by Kathleen Glasgow
4. Guitar Genius, by Kim Tomsic
5. Girl in Pieces, by Kathleen Glasgow
6. Hello, by Liza Wiemer
7. Illegal, by Eoin Colfe, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano
8. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, by Jeff Kinney
9. The Happy Book, by Andy Rash
10. We Thought You Were a Platypus, by Nick Aster

Andrew Smith visited area schools for his middle grade novel, The Size of the Truth. Readers and educators probably know him better for his YA titles. His next novel, Exile from Eden, is back to his best-known age group. It's the sequel to the Printz-honor book Grasshopper Jungle and it's targeted to readers 14 and up. His current novel is a 11-year-old kid whose life has been shaped by being stuck in a well when he was 4. Booklist writes: "As he wades through these middle-school agonies, memories from his three days in the well - a blank until now - begin coming back. In a story threaded with humor and surreal touches, Sam faces some big truths about himself and his life that will give readers something to chew on between the laughs."

Emily Gray Tedrow's review (originally from USA Today) of Miriam Toews's Women Talking says her new book is riveting: "Toews takes as her inspiration the true case of the Bolivian 'ghost rapes,' perpetrated by the men of a remote Mennonite colony in the mid-2000s, who drugged and raped women and children and then blamed the attacks on Satan as punishment for their sins. After two men were caught in the act, they confessed and named several other community members who had perpetrated these atrocities for years." Toews's All My Puny Sorrows has been a fixture on my rec shelf for several years.

From the Journal Sentinel, Lisa See's latest is reviewed by Associated Press's John Rogers. His take: "Ten years ago, Lisa See was sitting in a doctor’s office leafing through magazines when she came across a brief article about a place she’d never known existed - the Island of Jeju - where the breadwinners were once a hearty band of women who eked out modest livings free-diving into the Pacific Ocean for seafood while husbands stayed home and raised children. It was a discovery that has led to The Island of Sea Women, one of the most compelling — and heartstrings-tugging — tales to spring from the mind of the best-selling author of The Tea Girl From Hummingbird Lane and nearly a dozen other novels."

Lincee Ray (also of Associated Press) critiques Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View, the new book from journalist Ramin Setoodeh. The verdict?: "Ladies Who Punch is an exciting read that proves there’s always a little soap opera even if a show presents itself as hard news."

Boswell presents Lee Goldberg with Jon Jordan, Evan and Steven Moffic, Dan Kaufman at UWM, Kathleen Glasgow, Martin E Franklin, KLH Wells, Aaron Boyd, Justin Kerns with contributors James Causey, Todd Lazarski, Robert Earl Thomas, and Paige Towers, plus Kim Suhr and Friends at NO Studios

Pick a day, any day, and we've got a great author (or authors) for you to check out.

Monday, April 8, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Lee Goldberg, author of Killer Thriller

Two-time Edgar and Shamus award nominee and writer/producer of television shows like Monk and Diagnosis Murder, Lee Goldberg chats with Crimespree Magazine’s Jon Jordan about Killer Thriller, the action-packed story of hapless Ian Ludlow, a writer drawn into a treacherous plot.

Booklist loves Goldberg’s fictional fun, and says, “The pleasure here is watching Goldberg mock the thriller form while creating a first-rate one, boiling with chases, fights, sweaty-palm tension, snappy dialogue, and glamorous, exotic locations - this time, post-Maugham Hong Kong and its stunning outdoor escalators. It's really a sophisticated exercise in metafiction: commenting on narrative while creating it.”

Lee Goldberg is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including True Fiction, fifteen Monk mysteries, and Fox and O'Hare series, cowritten with Janet Evanovich. He has also written and produced television series, including SeaQuest, Monk, and The Glades, and has advised television networks and studios around the world.

Jon Jordan, with his wife Ruth Jordan, founded Crimespree Magazine. He helps organize Milwaukee’s annual Murder and Mayhem crime fiction conference.

Tuesday, April 9, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Evan Moffic, author of First the Jews: Combating the World’s Longest-Running Hate Campaign and Steven Moffic, editor of Islamophobia and Psychiatry: Recognition, Prevention, and Treatment

Evan Moffic is a Rabbi, author, and speaker whose work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post. Steven Moffic, MD, retired from Medical College of Wisconsin, received an Administrative Psychiatry Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

Together they offer ‘Son and Father, Rabbi and Psychiatrist: The Moffics Look at the Overlap of Religion and Psychiatry,’ in which they’ll consider the challenges of our time through the lens of religion and psychiatry, as part of the Harry and Rose Samson Family JCC’s Tapestry series. Their conversation will be moderated by Laura Reizner Emir, who serves on the board of the Milwaukee Jewish Community Relations Council.

First the Jews offers new insights and unparalleled perspectives on some of the most recent, pressing developments in the contemporary world. Evan Moffic considers anti-Semitism and the historical pattern of discrimination to other groups that often follows new waves of discrimination against Jewish communities. With a hopeful and collaborative tone, he suggests actions for all people of faith to combat words and actions of hate while lifting up practical ways Christians and Jews can work together.

With Islamophobia and Psychiatry, Steven Moffic helps to offer a vital resource for all clinicians and clinicians in training who may encounter patients struggling with these issues, addressing three related but distinct areas of interest: Islamophobia as a destructive force, Islam as a religion that is threatened by stigma and misinformation, and the novel intersection of these forces with the field of psychiatry.

Wednesday, April 10, 6:00 pm, at UWM Golda Meir Library Conference Center, 2311 E Hartford Ave:
Dan Kaufman, author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics

The UWM College of Letters and Science Center for 21st Century Studies presents a special talk from journalist Dan Kaufman titled 'The Fall of Wisconsin: The Legacy of Divide-and-Conquer Politics and the Aftermath of the 2018 Elections.'

In his talk, journalist Dan Kaufman will examine this attempt to transform Wisconsin’s political culture, which culminated in Donald Trump’s Wisconsin victory in the 2016 election. Kaufman will focus special attention on the citizen activists who fought these efforts, as well as national Democratic Party leaders who largely ignored them.

He will also delve into the history of Wisconsin’s progressive tradition and that legacy’s profound influence on the nation. The first workman’s compensation program, the first unemployment insurance program, the first progressive income tax all came from Wisconsin, while much of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, including the Social Security Act, was drafted by Wisconsinites loyal to the Wisconsin Idea, an ethos that placed a moral obligation on the University of Wisconsin to improve the lives of the state’s citizens.

Registration is not required for this event. Paid parking is available at the UWM Union garage at a surface lot just north of the Library.

Wednesday, April 10, 6:30 pm, at Boswell:
YA Boswell!, with Kathleen Glasgow, author of How to Make Friends with the Dark

Meet the author of the breakout New-York-Times-bestselling novel Girl in Pieces as she chats with Boswellian Jenny Chou about How to Make Friends with the Dark, her new novel.

Here's Jenny Chou's take on How to Make Friends with the Dark: "My heart ached for protagonist Tiger Tolliver on every page, but I was so caught up in the lives of the engaging characters that I could not put this book down. Tiger and her mom have only each other, and that’s their family. While their bond is tight, they argue one morning about a dress, the same sort of trivial argument that plays out in homes across the country on any given day. But Tiger’s mother dies suddenly that evening, leaving Tiger broken and guilty. Her grief is all-consuming, and her journey into the foster care system frightening. Scattered throughout the book are little flickers of grace and moments of compassion that I clung to as a reader, even as Tiger was too bereft to even dream of life without her mom.

"This isn’t a hopeful novel that asks readers to make peace with death. Instead, it’s a book about survival that asks us to recognize that small moments of joy, such as the soft touch of a horse’s mane, are still possible. Yes, your heart will break, but read How to Make Friends With the Dark for the gorgeous prose and the characters you’ll be glad you met."

Karen M McManus, author of One of Us is Lying, calls Glasgow’s latest, “A rare and powerful novel… dives deep into the heart of grief and healing with honesty, empathy, and grace.” And Kirkus Reviews says, “a first-person experience of the void left behind when the most important person in a young woman’s life is suddenly gone. It’s visceral and traumatic, pulsing with ache. A gritty, raw account of surviving tragedy one minute at a time.”

Thursday, April 11, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Martin E Franklin, author of Treating OCD in Children and Adolescents: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach

Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine offers a glimpse into methods and practices for helping children overcome Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Cosponsored by Rogers Behavioral Health.

One of the foremost experts, Franklin offers a framework for helping children overcome obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) using proven techniques of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Since the 1990s, Franklin has conducted research on psychopathology and treatment response in individuals with anxiety and related conditions across the developmental spectrum.

With knowledge and tools to engage 6- to 18-year-olds and their parents and implement individualized interventions, Treating OCD in Chidlren and Adolescents focuses on exposure and response prevention. Franklin helps provide real-world clinical guidance illustrated with vivid case examples.

Martin E Franklin is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Child and Adolescent Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Tic, Trichotillomania, and Anxiety Group. Franklin is also Clinical Director of Rogers Behavioral Health - Philadelphia, where he oversees partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs for anxiety/OCD and depression in youth.

Friday, April 12, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
KLH Wells, author of Weaving Modernism: Postwar Tapestry Between Paris and New York

KLH (Kay) Wells, Assistant Professor of Art History at UWM, presents an unprecedented study that reveals tapestry’s role as a modernist medium and a model for the movement’s discourse on both sides of the Atlantic in the decades following World War II. Cosponsored by the Portrait Society Gallery.

With a revelatory analysis of how the postwar French tapestry revival provided a medium for modern art and a model for its discourse and marketing on both sides of the Atlantic, Weaving Modernism presents a fascinating reexamination of modernism’s relationship to decoration, reproducibility, and politics.

Wells situates tapestry as part of a broader “marketplace modernism” in which artists participated, conjuring a lived experience of visual culture in corporate lobbies, churches, and even airplanes, as well as in galleries and private homes. This extensively researched study features previously unpublished illustrations and little-known works by such major artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Henri Matisse, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, and Frank Stella.

Saturday, April 13, 3:00 pm, at Boswell:
Aaron Boyd, illustrator of The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis

Boswell is thrilled to host Milwaukee illustrator and Boswellian Aaron Boyd with his most recent book, a new entry in the innovative Story chapter-book biographies about a living legend of American history, John Lewis.

The son of an Alabama sharecropper, John Lewis experienced the injustice of segregation early in life. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis joined with civil rights leaders who believed in fighting segregation peacefully and persevered with dignity and a devotion to nonviolence at the forefront of major civil rights protests. In 1986, Lewis was elected to represent Georgia in the United States Congress, where he continues to serve today.

Lewis's passionate belief in justice is a beacon for all who wish to make our country a better place. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis celebrates the life of a living legend of American history.

Aaron Boyd has illustrated numerous picture books, including Calling the Water Drum, Luigi and the Barefoot Races, and Melena’s Jubilee, and his work has been recognized by the Children's Africana Book Award and the International Literacy Association. He lives in Milwaukee.

Sunday, April 14, 3:00 pm, at Boswell:
Boswell Celebrates Milwaukee Day with Justin Kern, editor of The Milwaukee Anthologywith Anthology contributors James Causey, Todd Lazarski, Robert Earl Thomas, and Paige Towers

Boswell celebrates Milwaukee Day with The Milwaukee Anthology, featuring anthology editor Kern and readings by anthology contributors. Kern, whose work has been published in previous Belt anthologies, now edits one celebrating the Cream City and environs.

The Milwaukee Anthology is a book on hope and hurt in one of America's toughest ZIP codes. In these pages are the stories of a Grecian basketball superstar in the making, of Sikh temple services that carry on after one of America's most notorious mass shootings, and of an astronaut's wish for kids in the same school halls where he formed a dream of space.

It’s about Riverwest, Sherman Park, and the South Side, Hmong New Year's shows, the 7 Mile Fair, and the Rolling Mill commemoration, a book about a place on the lake that can make you say "yes" and wonder "why" in the same thought.

Read more about The Milwaukee Anthology in Jim Higgins's Journal Sentinel feature.

also on Sunday, April 14, 3:00 pm, at NO Studios, 1037 W McKinley Ave
Kim Suhr moderating 'The Stories Behind the Stories,' with Liam Callanan, Dasha Kelly, Jessie Garcia, and Jennifer (Rupp) Trethewey

Share an afternoon with five of Milwaukee's literary illuminati. Laugh, ask questions, listen to excerpts, and find out more about their different paths to publication. Books will be available for purchase and signing. All proceeds from this event will go towards the Financial Aid Fund for youth Creative Writing Camps and Red Oak Writing.

Admission is $10 or free for NO Studios members. Register at the NO Studios website for this event.

The Not-Quite-So-Annotated Boswell Bestsellers for the Week Ending April 6, 2019

Boswell's Not-Quite-So-Annotated Boswell Bestsellers for the Week Ending April 6, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
2. American Agent V15, by Jacqueline Windspear
3. The Old Drift, by Namwali Serpell
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. My Lovely Wife, by Samantha Downing (event Thu April 18, 7 pm, with Nick Petrie)
6. Tear It Down V4, by Nick Petrie
7. The Parade, by Dave Eggers
8. The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon
9. Tiamat's Wrath V8, by James S.A. Corey
10. Damascus Road, by Jay Parini

I just learned that the Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing, wrote, with her husband, teh book Cry of the Kalahari, which we sold for years. Needless to say, this novel has migrated from bestsellerdom to phenomenon-dom.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Real Estate Titans, by Ezra Cohen
2. Educated, by Tara Westover
3. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics, by Leah Daughtry
4. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
5. The Rise of Yiddish Theater, by Alyssa Quint
6. Matriarch, by Susan Page (Barbara Rinella's Barbara Bush tribute is May 8 - tickets here)
7. Stony the Road, by Henry Louis Gates
8. Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
9. I Miss You When I Blink, by Mary Philpott
10. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda

Michael Schaub wrote about Henry Louis Gates's Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow on the NPR website: "Gates' book is a fascinating social and intellectual history of the time between Reconstruction and the rise of the Jim Crow period of American history. It's an absorbing and necessary look at an era in which the hard-fought gains of African-Americans were rolled back by embittered Southern whites — an era that, in some ways, has never really ended."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
2. The Tinderbox, by Beverly Lewis
3. The Careless Seamstress, by Tjawangwa Dema
4. The Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles
5. Grand Hotel, by Vicki Baum
6. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
7. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
8. The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea (event Mon May 6, 7 pm)
9. Persuasion, by Jane Austen (the latest Literary Journeys focus title)
10. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, by Amy E Reichert

Fresh Air just re-aired Luis Alberto Urrea's interview with Terry Gross for The House of Broken Angels. The story is partly inspired by his brother Juan, "who was dying of cancer when Urrea's mother died"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. On Heaven and Earth, by Jorge Mario Borgoglio (Pope Francis) and Rabbi Abram Skorka
2. Making All Black Lives Matter, by Barbara Ransby
3. The Dangerous Book of Girls, by Maya Rodale
4. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
5. Story Genius, by Lisa Cron
6. Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron
7. The Emotion Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
8. Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern (event Sun April 14, 3 pm)
9. The Negative Trait Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
10. The Positive Trait Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

As you can see, we sold books at the Write Right conference at the Hyatt on Saturday. We also had fiction works by the presenters and attendees but the how-to guides were the biggest hit. Maya Rodale's The Dangerous Book for Girls sold the most copies - the sales terms don't normally allow us to stock the title, but at least for the near future, we'll have some copies available for purchase.

Books for Kids:
1. The Easter Elf, by Rochelle Ann Groskreutz
2. God Awful Rebel V3, by S Acevedo
3. We Are Grateful, by Traci Sorell
4. Song for a Whale, by Lynne Kelly
5. Carl and the Meaning of Life, by Deborah Freedman
6. Perfect Horse, by Elizabeth Letts
7. Samantha Spinner and the Spectacular Specs V2, by Russell Ginns
8. Absolute Expert: Dinosaurs, by National Geographic
9. Max and the Midknights, by Lincoln Peirce
10. Then Everything Went Wrong V5, by Judd Winick

I still fondly remember our day with Lincoln Pierce, visiting schools and then appearing at a packed event at the Greenfield Public Library. Max and the Midknights is his new hit, and his fans are legion. Here's Booklist: "With tough, spunky female heroes and loads of derring-do, the concept is already a winner, but Peirce's cartooning—comics sequences intercut with occasional blocks of text á la Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid—is top notch. The charming characters, smooth visual flow. and snappy gags prove irresistible."

From the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins talks about The Milwaukee Anthology: "First, my disclaimers: I’m not a Milwaukee native, although I’ve lived here for more than 40 years now. Also, I’m skeptical about attempts to generalize or characterize a place this big. Happily, anthology editor Justin Kern and his contributors don’t offer a unifying theory of Milwaukee. Kern describes this collection of prose and a few poems aptly in his introduction as 'the lesser-heard, silent, and necessary stories from our city.'"

From Kendal Weaver, originally appearing in Associated Press: "A deadly school shooting serves as a pivotal event in Jennifer duBois’ The Spectators, a novel that revisits American cultural wars and crises in the last decades of the 20th century." Weaver notes that the story "often thrums with vibrancy and echoes divisive current events as it covers a timeline from the late 1960s to the early 1990s."

Matt McCarthy offers this take of An Elegant Defense (which I really enjoyed), originally from USA Today: "I was speaking with Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the provocative new book An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives. Richtel is not a doctor (nor does he pretend to be), but that hasn’t stopped him from tackling one of the most complicated and vexing topics in modern medicine: the human immune system."

I guess I annotated it after all.