Boswell events for this week - Shady Hollow with Juneau Black, Jonathan Evison, and Isabel Allende (ticketed), all virtual, plus Marc Brackett at USM for REDgen

Here are Boswell events for the week.

Juneau Black, author of Shady Hollow
A Virtual Event at Boswell Book Company
Tuesday, January 25, 6:30 pm
Register for this free virtual event here.

Boswell presents an evening with Juneau Black, the pen name of writing duo Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Cole, the creators of Shady Hollow, a woodland mystery series conceived at Boswell. Read more in the Journal Sentinel story. Signed copies of Shady Hollow are available.

In the first book in the Shady Hollow series we are introduced to the eponymous village, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony - until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case! Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy.

New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley calls Shady Hollow, "Watership Down meets Mickey Spillane. A mystery of rare and sinister charm." And Wisconsinite Amy E Reichert, author of novels such as The Kindred Spirits Supper Club, says, “Get ready to fall in love with Shady Hollow and its quirky cast of animal characters. Charming and clever, Juneau Black will take readers on a delightful ride as the mystery unfolds. I can’t wait to read more!”

As noted above, Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel. They share a love of excellent bookshops, fine cheeses, and good murders (in fictional form only).

Wednesday, January 26, 7 pm
Jonathan Evison, author of Small World
in conversation with Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin for a virtual event
Register for this free virtual event here.

Join the January edition of Readings from Oconomowaukee, the virtual event series that puts authors in conversation with booksellers, brought to you by Boswell and our friends of Books & Company. This month’s edition features author Jonathan Evison, the author of novels like Lawn Boy and Legends of the North Cascades, with his latest book, Small World, an epic set in multiple time periods, in which the characters interconnect in the most intriguing and meaningful ways.

Small World is a sprawling chronicle of a hundred-and-seventy years of American nation-building from numerous points-of-view across place and time. The result is a historical epic with a Dickensian flair, a grand entertainment set against such iconic backdrops as the California gold rush, the development of the Continental Railroad, and a speeding train of strangers who don’t realize the history they have brought together in one place. Small World explores the Great American Experiment from its formative days to the present moment and asks whether or not our nation has made good on its promises.

Small World has already earned a trio of starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, and BookPage, the latter of which writes, “Piece by piece, Evison successfully corrals this sprawling history into a cohesive whole, coalescing it into a vivid mosaic.” And Jason Mott, the National Book Award-winning author of Hell of a Book, calls Small World, “A creative, insightful work of fiction. Evison pulls off a wonderful high-wire act of storytelling that few would attempt, and even fewer could achieve so sharply!”

Jonathan Evison's other novels include All About Lulu, West of Here, and This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! Oh, and The Refined Fundamentals of Caregiving became the film The Fundamentals of Caregiving. Small World is available from both stores at 20% off the list price. Boswell offers $5 media mail shipping within the continental United States. 

Boswell cosponsorship!
Wednesday, January 26, 7 pm
Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel
at University School of Milwaukee
Viriginia Heines Theater
2100 W Fairy Chasm Rd
Register for this free event here.

Marc Brackett, founder of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, will discuss the themes of his newest book, Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-Being and Success, laying a framework for what adults need to learn in order to support children - and themselves - in achieving academic and life success.

In his 25 years as an emotion scientist, he has developed a remarkably effective plan to improve the lives of children and adults - a blueprint for understanding our emotions and using them wisely so that they help, rather than hinder, our success and well-being. His prescription for healthy children (and their parents, teachers, and schools) is a system called RULER, a high-impact and fast-effect approach to understanding and mastering emotions that has already transformed the thousands of schools that have adopted it. RULER has been proven to reduce stress and burnout, improve school climate, and enhance academic achievement. This book is the culmination of Marc’s development of RULER and his way to share the strategies and skills with readers around the world. It is tested, and it works.

Marc Brackett, PhD is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. REDgen stands for Resilience through EDucation for a new GENeration. REDgen advocates for the mental health and well-being of youth through the lens of resilience.

Saturday, January 29, 6 pm 
Isabel Allende, author of Violeta 

In conversation with Victoria Alonso for a virtual ticketed event.

Tickets for this virtual event here.

Isabel Allende, author of many bestselling favorite novels, from The House of the Spirits to A Long Petal of the Sea, celebrates the release of her latest with a special virtual ticket event coordinated by Books & Books and cosponsored by 14 other independent bookstores from across the United States - including us! Allende's new novel is a sweeping novel that tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

Tickets cost $28 and include the book. Ticketholders will receive a Zoom link for one device to watch the program on the day of the event. To avoid any missed communication, please make sure that Eventbrite is not blocked by your email system. Stated ticket price includes sales tax but not Eventbrite ticketing fee. Violeta goes on sale on January 25 and we will allow folks to pick up their copy in advance of the event, but please note, tickets are not refundable. Boswell does not ship outside the continental United States. Media mail orders can take up to four weeks to arrive outside the state of Wisconsin.

Allende's Violeta tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately, not one, but two pandemics.

From Booklist: "Allende has long been renowned as an enchanting storyteller, and this emotionally perceptive epic ranks among her best."

Born in Peru and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende's other books include Of Love and Shadows, Eva Luna, and Paula. Her books have been translated into more than 42 languages and have sold more than 74 million copies worldwide. Victoria Alonso is the President of Production for Marvel Studios.She was named one of People en Español magazine’s top Poderosa, Most Influential Hispanic Women in 2019 and 2020. 

More on the Boswell Upcoming Events page.

Photo credits

Jonathan Evison by Keith Brofsky

Marc Brackett by Horatio Marquinez

What's selling at Boswell? Week ending January 22, 2022

Here's what's selling at Boswell this week:

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Runaway, by Nick Petrie (register for February 9 virtual MPL event here)
2. The Good Son, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. To Paradise, by Hanya Yanagihara
5. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
6. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
7. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
8. How High We Go in the Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu
9. Joan Is Okay, by Weike Wang
10. The Maid, by Nita Prose

Last week, I was speaking to an author who mentioned Kirkus's tradition of more negative reviews than the other advance trade notices (Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and so forth). I think they've actually changed a lot, but every so often, their legacy resurfaces. For example, Sequoia Nagamatsu's new collection, How High We Go in the Dark, has gotten nothing but raves and positive reviews on Book Marks (and actually, it's almost all raves) except for that negative Kirkus. This collection, connected by the theme of how climate change unleashes an ancient virus when archeologists discover the an ancient frozen victim. From Lincoln Michel in The New York Times: "If you’re a short-story lover - as I am - you’ll be impressed with Nagamatsu’s meticulous craft. If you crave sustained character and plot arcs, well, you’ll have to settle for admiring the well-honed prose, poignant meditations and unique concepts. Hardly small pleasures."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
2. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
3. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
4. The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
5. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
6. The Privatization of Everything, by Donald Cohen
7. Blood in the Garden, by Chris Herring
8. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
9. Unthinkable, by Jamie Raskin
10. How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F Walter

We first heard about Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks  when Chris Herring mentioned his upcoming book as the interview conversation partner for Mirin Fader, the author of Giannis. January seemed so far away then, but now it's out, and I'm happy to see a top 10 sales pop, which isn't always easy for a sports book focused on a non-Milwaukee team. From Andrew R Graybill in The Wall Street Journal: "Readers need not love the Knicks - or even possess deep knowledge of professional basketball - to enjoy this book. It throbs with an insider’s perspective, giving the audience a courtside seat as the Knicks, deploying sharp elbows, stout picks and painful hip checks, took on all comers... Besides the vivid writing, what makes Blood in the Garden so successful is the depth of Mr. Herring’s research, which rests on extensive interviews with more than 200 individuals, ranging from players and coaches to front-office staff and fellow journalists, and even an 'unnamed Knicks dancer.'"

Paperback Fiction:
1. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
4. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
5. How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig
6. The Drifter (both editions), by Nick Petrie
7. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
8. Dune, by Frank Herbert
9. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
10. Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nothing new this week in the top 10. Taylor Jenkins Reid continues to BookTok her way to the top, with both #1 (Daisy Jones and the Six) and #2 (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) slots. And I also find it interesting that four other titles are previous books from current bestsellers. Our buyer Jason was noting that our new and notable paperback table has more notable titles and fewer new ones - and much of that is driven by social media.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
4. Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World, by Matt Kracht
5. New York Times Cooking No Recipe Recipes, by Sam Sifton
6. Short History of Canada, by Desmond Morton
7. History Lover's Guide to Milwaukee, by James Nelson
8. Milwaukee Bronzeville, by Paul Geenen
9. Civil Rights Activism in Milwaukee, by Paul Geenen
10. The Best of Me, by David Sedaris

James Nelson's A History Lover's Guide to Milwaukee has been a steady seller since it came out in October. Nelson visited Milwaukee for his Educating Milwaukee book several years ago. From Dave Luhrssen's recent write up in The Shepherd Express: "As an aside, he correctly points out that many of our 75 official neighborhoods (as proclaimed by the City of Milwaukee in 1995) are little recognized, even by their residents. Fernwood anyone?" Fernwood is actually a part of Bay View. But when I looked it up, I learned that it's south of Oklahoma, east of 794 - I thought it was both sides. Many people don't know that Boswell is in the Murray Hill sub-neighborhood of the East Side.

Books for Kids:
1. The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
2. Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
3. Anatomy: A Love Story, by Dana Schwartz
4. We Are Okay, by Nina Lacour
5. Chez Bob, by Bob Shea
6. Five Worlds V5: The Emerald Gate
7. Tales of Fearless Girls, by Isabel Otter
8. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo, illustrations by Sophie Blackall
9. Here's to Us, by Becky Albertalli
10. Ain't Burned All the Bright, by Jason Reynolds, illustrations by Jason Griffin

At the Nick Petrie event, I helped Friend-of-Boswell Raya find Anatomy: A Love Story, which is new (always nice this time of year) and selling in the YA section. If we're selling it and it's not local, it's sure to be NYT bestseller bound this week, especially because it's the Reese's YA Book Club selection. Anatomy: A Love Story is set in 19th century Scotland and is, per the publisher, about "a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry." From the starred Booklist: "Schwartz's magical novel is at once gripping and tender, and the intricate plot is engrossing as the reader tries to solve the mystery. She doesn't miss a beat in either the characterization or action, scattering clues with a delicate, precise hand. This is, in the end, the story of the anatomy of the human heart."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins profiles Juneau Black, the writing team that is Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Cole. I have a bit part*: "'As we were putting prices on these adorable little finger puppets, we gave all of these little animal characters names, and occupations, like you do,' Koehler said. With no one stopping them, the two women kept going, imagining the woodland village life of their critters. And then came murder."

Join us for a virtual launch on Tuesday, January 25, 7 pm. Register at juneaublackmke.eventbrite.com

*I play the cruel boss.

Selections from the Book Club Table

The new Winter 2022 Indie Next for Reading Groups flier arrived this week. Like the Boswell selection list, the focus is on paperbacks. I enjoyed seeing their selections and had many titles to add to my to-be-read list. You can access it here or pick one up at Boswell. 

It's also time for us to update our Reading Group flier and table. One of the books on the Indie Next flier that we're also promoting is We Keep the Dead Close. We've done very well with the true crime/history hybrids in the past - notably Killers of the Flower Moon (David Grann) and Say Nothing (Patrick Radden Keefe) - that I thought we'd keep the trend going. We already convinced one of our larger groups to read We Keep the Dead Close, the story of an unsolved killing in the Harvard anthropology department.

Though we know that many book clubs now pick their selections in hardcover, especially if most of the members use ebooks, audio downloads, or the library, we try to focus on paperback titles. Several extra-long-in-hardcover book club favorites have imminent paperback releases. One of them is Tara Westover's Educated, and for that one, we're part of a multi-store launch event with Natalie Portman on February 8. Admission is the cost of the book ($20, including tax), media shipping or store pickup is available, and if you already have a copy and don't wish to give one away, you can donate yours to the National Council of Teachers of English. Ticket fee is extra. More here.

The other long-timer is Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, one of our favorite books of 2020, and being it was ten-best on The New York Times, we can say that the editors of that publication share the sentiment. Bennett's second novel hits the sweet spot of critical acclaim, timely subject matter, and a plotline that won't let you put the book down. It's one of our new picks.

If your book club has already read The Vanishing Half, why don't you try Nancy Johnson's The Kindest Lie, a Boswell 2021 pick that was one of Jane's top three books of last year, and it might have been said to be her favorite. So many of you worked with Jane on book club selection that I still drop her name regularly when a book is one of her picks. It's also got recommendations from Christina Clancy and Jodi Picoult - we talked about the book at Picoult's event in Oconomowoc in December. I expect all of the book clubs that followed Jane's lead to pick The Kindest Lie in 2022!

Speaking of favorites, both Jen and I named The Five Wounds one of our top picks of 2021, and now that it's 2022 and the paperback is imminent, it's time to start talking it up to reading groups. This is another book that our large book club picked for discussion. It also was just named The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner. I'm not doing plots on this post - you can read more about each book by clicking the link to our order page, which has our staff recs.

I always like to note cover trends. The Five Wounds kept its distinctive jacket but changed out the orange of the hardcover for a teal background. I'm a big fan of this. The other book on this list that did something similar was We Ride Upon Sticks, which went from green to magenta. Lauren Fox's Send for Me did a cover change I haven't seen as much, but was quite effective - the image stayed the same, but the photograph went from an artsy black and white for the hardcover to a technicolor paperback.\

I should note that The Five Wounds and The Kindest Lie traded background covers, as The Kindest Lie, went from a teal/aqua to an orange background. It also has different, but not that different artwork. I would say the cover is more tweaked than overhauled. 

Quan Barry's third novel, When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East, releases February 22. We're doing a virtual event with her that evening. Register here.

Send for Me unofficially went on our book club table in late fall - coded for the table but not yet in the flier. This is Fox's first historical and will definitely please fans in the genre - yet with its contemporary framing, it still has ties to Fox's other novels in tone. It's one of two books that was a Read with Jenna Today Show pick. The other is Writers and Lovers, by Lily King.

Two of our additions pretty much kept their hardcover treatments - The Cold Millions, which like Send for Me, got unofficially added to the table in late fall, and Raft of Stars, which just came out. I pride myself on reading every book on our book club table (there are occasional exceptions) so while up until now, I was using Tim's enthusiastic read to sell Andrew J Graff's debut, I now can speak about it with more authority - though I should note that before finishing it, we hosted or cosponsored three events with the author. It's been a huge success with our readers - the big non-Milwaukee-area Wisconsin novel of 2021.

One book that got a complete cover revamp from its hardcover jacket was The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue. I recently noted that the book was a resounding success with our In-Store Lit Group, so I thought I'd be remiss in not adding it to this checklist. The book had a great publicity bounce in hardcover, being that it was a Great Flu novel released only months after the rise of COVID. But the hype was real - great historical fiction that really plays off the themes that run through Donoghue's work.

Another major cover change from Hachette was for The King of Confidence, the rollicking slice of history from Miles Harvey, who did a great virtual event with us for the hardcover. In this case, I preferred the bright jacketing of the cloth edition. No reflection on the book though - fascinating history and so much to talk about. 

I don't know what it is about these muddy brown and gray covers, that to be popular paperback treatment pivots. I was not a fan of the paperback jacket of Everywhere You Don't Belong, by Gabriel Bump, and I thought it affected sales. It was also hard to make at the chain link fence on the jacket. Looking forward to novel #2!

We did add one paperback original to the list - Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly, which was a big success for us during the holidays, with Jason leading the charge. He got me to read it, and there's so much to talk about that I couldn't help but add it. We're hoping to work with Alliance Française to host a virtual event with the author. If you like a book that's packed with existential questions, you've got it right here. 

Some years it seems like half the books published in the first half of the prior year are January and February releases, but this year, the deluge is in April. I'm actually a little overwhelmed by how much is coming out, both in hardcover and for paperback release. I hope to have this list updated again in June. 

Here is my updated list of recommended reading group titles.

Boswell events - VIrtual Events with Nick Petrie (in person at capacity), Jacquelyn Mitchard, Bob Shea

Boswell events for the week!

Tuesday, January 18, 6:30 pm
Nick Petrie, author of The Runaway
In conversation with Margret Petrie
Register for the virtual component event here.

The in-store component of this event is at capacity. We are no longer taking reservations. Signed copies available. Books are 20% off through at least January 24. $5 media mail shipping available in the continental United States.

It’s a thrill to welcome hometown hero Nick Petrie back to Boswell for the release day celebration of his latest Peter Ash thriller, The Runway. In his latest, Ash rescues a woman who’s stranded in Nebraska only to find that both of them are soon in far deeper trouble than he ever imagined. And how cool is that for Petrie to be in conversation with someone who knows him better than just about anybody else.

Jim Higgins reviews The Runaway in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Even in a tense thriller about a serial killer roaming the northern Great Plains, Whitefish Bay novelist Nick Petrie infuses touches of humor...Petrie also gives a bad guy named Wiley the perfect wingmen: a pack of vicious coyotes. But Ash, a creative fighter himself, has a canine card to play, too."

From Booklist: "Petrie creates fully fleshed, likable people only to blow them away in explosions of blood and bone, and the book itself seems to vibrate from the shock. This is a lava-flow of action, and a rich reading experience as well."

Publishers Weekly calls the novel "gripping" and "nail biting." Plus: "Shifting points of view serve to heighten the suspense. This adrenaline-fueled ride will keep readers turning the pages."

From Sarah Weinman in The New York Times: "Of all the characters vying for Jack Reacher’s thriller throne...my current favorite is Peter Ash, the itinerant, PTSD-afflicted war veteran of Nick Petrie’s seven-book-strong series."

And Kirkus: "Readers might guess the story's outcome, but the trip is violent and downright frightening fun. And they will admire Helene, who will do anything to protect herself and the baby in her belly. She believes that 'fortune favors the bold.' Roy is obsessed with her and the mistaken thought that she's having twins, but if he ever finds out the truth, she's dead. The monster is a bottomless wellspring of shootings and neck snappings, and the story's survivors tie up the plot in a neat bow. This is one hellacious ride for crime fiction fans."

If you haven't read Nick Petrie, what are you waiting for?

Milwaukee-area native Nick Petrie is the author of six novels in the Peter Ash series, most recently The Breaker. His debut, The Drifter, won both the ITW Thriller award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was a finalist for the Edgar and the Hammett Awards. Margret Petrie is a visual artist and creativity podcaster.

Wednesday, January 19, 7 pm
Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Good Son
in conversation with Karen Dionne for a virtual event
Register for this virtual event here.

Join us for a special virtual evening with Jacquelyn Mitchard, the beloved author of The Deep End of the Ocean (the very first Oprah Book Club pick!) and Cage of Stars, and former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist. In conversation with Karen Dionne, author of The Marsh King's Daughter and The Wicked Sister.

Books are 20% off through at least January 24. $5 media mail shipping available in the continental United States. This event is cohosted by Books & Company - you can buy copies from them here.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes the gripping, emotionally charged novel of a mother who must help her son after he is convicted of a devastating crime. What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.

Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play than just community outrage. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover about the night Belinda died?

From Library Journal: "Mitchard's emotional yet precise writing sets readers firmly in the story, amid the Wisconsin weather and the characters, from Thea's calm football coach husband to her not-so-sympathetic colleagues at the university where she teaches."

From Booklist: "Mitchard devotes more time to the mystery of Esme and Thea's over-protectiveness of her son than she does to exploring guilt and punishment, but this is a compassionate tale with a gripping, ripped-from-the-headlines premise."

From Christina Baker Kline: "This novel, about a family and a community wracked by grief, regret, and rage over the murder of a teenage girl, is gripping, heart-rending, and quietly devastating."

From Karin Slaughter: "Not since The Deep End of the Ocean has Mitchard so profoundly examined the layered motherhood narrative. The Good Son is timely, gripping, suspenseful, and resonant. Mitchard's best yet by far."

Plus more from Kristin Hannah, Jodi Picoult, Scott Turow, Lisa Genova.

Jacquelyn Mitchard is author of twelve novels for adults, seven novels for teenagers, and five children's books. Her short stories, articles, essays and book reviews have been widely published. Mitchard is a frequent lecturer and a professor of fiction and creative nonfiction at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

Thursday, January 20, 9:30 am
Bob Shea, author of Chez Bob
Virtual School Event – Open to the Public
Register for this Elmbrook Schools event here.

We're glad to invite you to join a special, open to the public school visit from the Eisner Award-nominated author/illustrator Bob Shea, who'll offer up a special presentation on Chez Bob, one of our favorite newer picture books that asks that oh-so-important question: can a hungry alligator learn to be a good friend? This special event is hosted by Elmbrook School District.

This virtual school visit program will be broadcast via On24, so click this sentence and register for it right now! This event is great for parents, kids, and homeschoolers, plus it's a great opportunity for teachers who might not otherwise be able to set up virtual events for their classrooms to present a wonderful author to your students. You can (and should!) also order your copy of Chez Bob now, too, at 20% off and $5 media mail shipping in the continental United States. Schools can place orders through our school events coordinator Jenny.

Welcome to Chez Bob, which seems like a real restaurant, until you realize... it's located on an alligator's NOSE! Bob's got a hidden plan for his customers: "Birds will come to eat, but I will eat the birds!" As they fly in from all over the world to dine on Bob's face, something starts to happen that takes the lazy, hungry reptile by surprise - the birds stay. "More yummy birds!" he rejoices - he'll want for nothing! But when the time is right, will Bob make the right choice?

Boswellian Jen Steele gives Chez Bob her seal of approval, saying, "What starts out as a devious plan by a lazy but hungry alligator soon turns into a story of friendship and trust. Bob Shea's latest is sure to be a family favorite."

From Kirkus: "Readers will laugh at this funny story, told mostly via Bob's hilariously self-centered, dryly witty dialogue. He's a riotous hoot whose nature is shown to develop subtly, and kids will cheer for the heartwarming ending. Appropriately droll illustrations perfectly match the lively shenanigans and depict Bob with a toothy, expressive mug. This is one to devour."

Bob Shea is author of Who Wet My Pants?, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, the Dinosaur Vs series, and many more hilarious books for young people.

Photo credits!

Nick Petrie by Troy Fox

Karen Dionne by Robert Bruce

Bob Shea by Colleen Shea

More on our upcoming events page.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending January 15, 2022

Here's what's selling at Boswell for the week ending January 15, 2022.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
2. To Paradise, by Hanya Yanagihara
3. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
4. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
6. Honor, by Thrity Umrigar
7. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
8. Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead
9. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
10. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

It should be noted that the high-profile release of Hanya Yanagihara's To Paradise has a mixed profile on Book Marks, but notably, that includes a lot of raves and a good amount of pans too. Chris was noting that the conversation continues on social media. Here's one of the raves, from Alex Clark in The Guardian: "Where the suffering and hopelessness of A Little Life created an overwhelming experience that left readers divided around the issue of how much they could take, this is a far subtler delineation of those who feel hamstrung, beleaguered, inadequate to the task ahead. In many ways – not least the questions of political and social responsibility it poses, especially in the face of global catastrophe – it is a darker work, and yet a more fruitfully puzzling, multifaceted one."

The new Hello Sunshine Book Club pick, Honor, by Thrity Umrigar, is also in our top 10 this week. Several Midwest bookstores are hosting an event with Umrigar speaking to Rebecca Makkai on Tuesday. More information on the Left Bank Books website.   

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown
2. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
3. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
4. Aftermath, by Harald Jähner
5. The Steal, by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague
6. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
7. North American Maps for Curious Minds, by Matthew Buckla and Victor Cizek
8. Best in Travel 2022, from Lonely Planet
9. Righteous Troublemakers, by Al Sharpton
10. How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F Walter

Our top new release in sales for this week in hardcover nonfiction is Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955, by Harald Jahner, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside. I know it can drive folks crazy to link to reviews that are for subscribers only, but here's hoping that this quote from Andrew Stuttaford's Wall Street Journal review is enticing on its own: "The national psyche is the principal protagonist in Harald Jähner’s subtle, perceptive and beautifully written Aftermath. Mr. Jähner, like Mr. Ullrich a German journalist and author, describes Germany’s first postwar decade, with more of an emphasis on its social and cultural landscape (particularly in its western segment) than the usual early Cold War tussles."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. Raft of Stars, by Andrew J Graff
3. The Searcher, by Tana French
4. When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut
5. Sanatorium, by Sarah Pearse
6. Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate
7. Conversations with Friends, by Sally Rooney
8. It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover
9. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
10. Into the Drowning Deep, by Mira Grant

It may have been a Reese Witherspoon Hello Sunshine Book Club pick in hardcover, but I don't remember The Sanatorium, by Sarah Pearse hitting our top 10 on its initial run. Pause. I checked, and it did not - got into the teens. From the starred Booklist: "Le Sommet, the prestigious hotel fashioned from a former TB sanatorium, is more than just the setting for this atmospheric debut mystery: the building's history ultimately propels the plot." One concern - the book only has three reviews listed on Bookmarks - the pan from Kirkus is not present, even though Bookmarks is supposed to count Kirkus. Is somebody pulling bad reviews? Now that's a mystery!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. A Short History of Canada, by Desmond Morton
3. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
4. The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
5. All About Love, by bell hooks
6. Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World, by Matt Kracht
7. Baseball Road Trips, by Timothy Malcolm
8. Field Guide to Birds of Wisconsin, by ABA/Chuck Hagner
9. The Best of Me, by David Sedaris
10. Until We Reckon, by Danielle Sered

It's the second week in our top 10 for A Short History of Canada, which is being used for a program for Osher Lifelong Learning. I'm pretty sure that my friend John set up a short-lived Canadian section when he was working at Schwartz, but I can't remember whether it was at the Shorewood or Downer locations. Desmond Morton, per the publisher, is the former director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada in Montreal, Desmond Morton was appointed a professor of history at the University of Toronto in 1969 and became Principal of its Erindale campus. He is the author of 35 other books on Canada. The book comes from McClelland and Stewart, a storied Canadian publisher which is now an imprint of Penguin Random House. Another weird detail - both our #1 and #2 titles repeat from the week previous, each selling the exact same amount as they did for the last roundup.

Books for Kids:
1. Milo Imagines the World, by Matt de la Peña/Christian Robinson
2. Carmela Full of Wishes, by Matt de la Peña/Christian Robinson
3. Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña/Christian Robinson
4. Chez Bob, by Bob Shea (Register for January 20 virtual school visit, open to the public)
5. Love, by Matt de la Peña, illustrations by Loren Long
6. Ain't Buried All the Bright, by Jason Reynolds, illustrations by Jason Griffin
7. The Year We Learned to Fly, by Jacqueline Woodson
8. Superman: Dawnbreaker, by Matt de la Peña
9. The Gilded Ones, by Namina Forna
10. Cat Kid Comic V1: Perspectives, by Dav Pilkey

South Milwaukee is hosting an event with Matt de la Peña, but I should note that it was just moved to spring from winter. Not coming, but still brand new is the latest from Jason Reynolds, a collaboration with Jason Griffin called Ain't Burned All the Bright, which has a rec from Tim. Read it by clickingthe title, which will take you to our website. From Kirkus Reviews: "A profound visual testimony to how much changed while we all had to stay inside and how much - painfully, mournfully - stayed the same. Reynolds' poetry and Griffin's art perform a captivating dance on pages of mixed-media collage and emotive reflection on the pronounced threats facing a contemporary Black family." Now that's a rave.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins gives a shout for the new Nick Petrie. In regards to The Runaway, Higgins notes "Everyone Ash encounters during this rural escapade is more resourceful and dangerous than they appear, including the pregnant Helene. 'There is no feeling in the world like somebody shooting at you,' Ash thinks. 'Not a good feeling, not exactly. But it sure made the world sparkle more brightly while it was happening.'"

Just a reminder that The Runaway also got the first New York Times write-up for the Peter Ash series. She wrote: "Petrie has a preternatural talent for ratcheting up suspense, even as he ensures readers continue to care not only about Ash, but about the people he’s trying to save as well as the ones he must defend against." The book is out on Tuesday - join us for the launch. The in-person component is sold out, but you can register for the virtual broadcast here.

A year in reading - the Boswell In-Store Lit Group

What did the book club think?

It’s been a while since I highlighted the books in our In-Store Lit Group, partly because of COVID (the in-store component of the name has not been appropriate for almost two years!) and partly because the days go so quickly that I never get around to writing it. January seemed like a good time to recap. Here are our 2021 selections and some thoughts on each. There wasn't a single book that I thought was a bad book club read - it's just that not every book is for every book club. Some folks want an intense discussion and others are just happy to have everyone show up and for most of the attendees to have read it.

January: Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stewart. I always prioritize the big prize winners in our selections, particularly if I haven’t read them, in my hopes that we are furthering the cultural conversation. Last year’s Man Booker Prize winner took off in a big way, and momentum was furthered by BookTok. Most folks liked the book. It was long, so not everyone finished. And it was sad. And some people just don’t like sad books. It’s been a huge success for indies in general. I should also note that addiction is a rich topic for writers and the alcoholic dependency of Shuggie’s mom is heartbreaking. Stewart’s next novel, Young Mungo, comes out in April 

February: Feast Your Eyes, by Myla Goldberg. Here’s a book that was shortlisted for the National Book Award, but at least for us, had been relatively quiet (which translates to under 5 copies). It was an event with the Jewish Community Center that turned me onto this book, which took the form of an art catalog for a New York street photographer. I hadn’t read something from Goldberg since The Bee Season, her debut. We tend to do well with novels about the art world. Conversation focused a lot on the alternate structure and the artist’s burden of juggling career and family (she’s a single mom) without support. It was also interesting to explore the women who shaped Goldberg’s fictional character. I wound up placing this on our book club table for a season, as there was a very enthusiastic reaction to this novel.

March: Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu. Another prizewinner, Yu’s novel received the National Book Award for Fiction. Based on his previous book, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, I thought this book would have a stronger speculative component than it does. I’d place it more in the realm of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West – a speculative element to the premise, but a relatively realistic follow-through. It’s set in a complex where they are shooting a police procedural on the first floor (think Law and Order) while Asian actors live upstairs. Since reading this book, I’ve read several others that explored the prejudice that Asian actors have been faced with in the performing arts – interchangeable identities, forced accents, and the lack of rolls. For more about this, read Kal Penn’s You Can’t Be Serious or Don Lee’s upcoming collection, The Partition. Yu has written for Westworld – you can see that influence too.

April: The Confessions of Frannie Langton, by Sarah Collins. This book won the Costa Prize for Best First Novel, which is one of many prizes I pay attention to. It was also on the radar of now-retired colleague Jane, which I consider a book club plus. It’s a historical novel, set on a Jamaican plantation and then in London, about a woman who lives under a cruel master, and then, despite being anti-slavery laws in the books, is given to a London family. I should note that Collins mentioned that she was inspired by the story of Francis Barber, the servant of Samuel Johnson and an important source for James Boswell. We’d had some success doing spoiler virtual interviews in conjunction with our book discussions, but Collins was already hard at work on her next book, though I checked, and it’s not yet scheduled.

May: The Shadow King, by Maaza Mengiste. One thing I found interesting about my research is why some books take off and others don’t. Mengiste also had a major award nom, a finalist for the Booker Prize, but an Edelweiss check showed that her novel had much stronger sales at indies than the Collins book did. It was also a historical novel, set in Ethiopia during Mussolini’s invasion of the country during 1935. The result is an Afro-centric war epic, which also celebrates the achievements of women. Another nice thing about historical fiction is that one can also focus on the story’s true elements. Some book clubs chafe at books that are longer than 400 pages, but for every group who wants longer books, there’s another that wants to know when they can read another book like A Little Life, which is over 800 pages. The answer? Hanya Yanighara’s follow-up, To Paradise, released this week.

June: A Children’s Bible, by Lyida Millet. Millet’s novel was shortlisted for the National Book Award, and even more importantly for sales, was named one of The New York Times’s ten best books of 2020. We tend to have strong sales on these books, which are featured through the holidays. The only problem? Macmillan ran out of copies – they experimented with a print-on-demand hardcover that got mixed reviews. It’s about a group of children left alone by their drinking and carousing parents, who fall prey to just about every bad thing that can happen – definitely filed under apocalypse fiction. To me, there’s a style of writing that’s very popular with critics, with Millet alongside writers like Jenny Offill and Patricia Lockwood. For me, they make great book club picks because I feel the need to read them, but I probably need support from fellow readers to get through them. But they are not for every group - though I'm almost definitely going to include No One Is Talking About This on my In-Store Lit Group selections.

July: Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. Sometimes it’s important to give the group a sure thing, especially when the regulars grumble. I also usually pick one book a year where I’ve already read it. And so I picked Hamnet, a novel akin to Geraldine Brooks, which focuses on Shakespeare’s family, and the notation of O'Farrell's that Shakespeare never wrote directly about the Plague, but named a play Hamlet several years after the death of his son (Hamnet). I also was reminded of Maureen Corrigan’s comment that her book club, on discussing the title, asked if they could just read Hamnet over and over. Apparently I like Corrgan’s picks – more than half of them have either been features on our book club table and/or the In-Store Lit Group. Still a huge seller for us!

August: Sharks in the Time of Saviors, by Kawaii Strong Washburn. Lots of great reviews for this one, which sold okay for us in hardcover (that translates to 5-10 copies). There was also a special Independent Bookstore Day edition that put it on my radar. Plus I got to chat with him for 30 seconds at the 2020 Winter Institute, something that I wasn’t able to do in 2021 and now 2022, both virtual. But it was my nephew Adam who convinced me to read it – I sent him a lot of books, and he gave me some feedback – it’s a story about Hawaii, when you’re not a tourist and the islands are not a paradise for you, just life. The eldest son in the family performs what is perceived as a series of miracles, leaving both him and his miracle-less siblings scrambling for meaning, not just in their youth, but in early adulthood.

September: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong. This is one of those books where I thought I would read it before publication (once again, I got to say hello to the author back at the 2019 Winter Institute), but after a certain point, I thought it would be perfect for book club. And what a pedigree - longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal in Fiction, the 2019 Aspen Words Literacy Prize, and the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel Award, shortlisted for the 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and winner of the 2019 New England Book Award for Fiction. It’s a poetic (the author’s prior work is poetry collections) memoir-like novel of a queer Vietnamese-American kid growing up in Hartford and the legacy of trauma in his family. This is one of those books that took an extra year for paperback, as hardcover sales were so good.

October: The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich. Apparently I lost interest for a few months in sleepers. This was one of our big books of 2020’s COVID spring, and that was before the Pulitzer Prize win, which exploded sales. We’d last read Erdrich’s The Round House, which was structured like a thriller, though with Erdrich’s trademark multi-voice structure. This one might be more classified as historical fiction with a contemporary frame, another popular bookstore genre, focusing on a historic attempt to decertify an indigenous tribe, which Erdrich’s own grandfather was active in fighting back. It also hinted at Erdrich’s sense of humor, which really comes to the fore in her latest novel, The Sentence. Like Hamnet, it’s been very, very popular with book clubs, and unlike with the sleeper novels, it’s hard to determine the effect we’ve had on sales.

November: The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America's Forgotten Capital of Vice, by David Hill. I was hoping to discover another Killers of the Flower Moon or Say Nothing, but in the end, it reminded me a little more of Rich Cohen’s Sweet and Low, a combination memoir/history that I think was my favorite of the Rich Cohen books back when I was reading one after the other. It’s about the rise at fall of Hot Springs, Arkansas, which at one time competed with Las Vegas, and before that, Havana, as the gambling capital of the United States, only with one caveat – the gambling there was never legal. His voice alternates between the kingmakers and a poor croupier, who turns out to be his grandmother. I also found it interesting as Kirk’s parents live just outside Hot Springs, so I have visited the village, which still has the legacy of the baths, but not really the casinos.

December: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara. Djinn Patrol is told through the eyes of a young boy in an Indian slum as children go missing and he and his friends try to solve the crime. It wound up being longlisted for the Women’s Prize (we’ve read a number of winners and shortlisted titles over the years) and winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel. I’m not sure it would satisfy the tastes of traditional mystery readers, but I think it’s a good book club book, though we had a less-than-usual number of readers finish it. I think they got caught up in the Hindi words spread throughout. My advice is to not worry about them so much or let them slow you down – come back to them later. Being that the writer is a journalist, this story is inspired by a true incident in India.

January: The Pull of the Stars, by Emma Donoghue. I figured out a really strange stat – I have now read one novel of Donoghue’s every decade – Stir Fry in 2004, Life Mask in 2004, Room in 2011 (also for the book club), and now her latest. Donoghue, a relatively prolific writer, certainly for literary fiction, already has her next novel scheduled: Haven, for next August. The book had lots of press, published in the midst of COVID, but was a little quiet in paperback, at least for us. Hoping to help change that. This novel, the story of a nurse in a maternity ward in Dublin during the Great Flu of 1918, won almost universal praise from the 16 attendees, plus everybody finished it, a rare achievement. I don’t normally mention the naysayers, but I loved this comment by our one member who didn’t like it – she thought it read like a medical manual. Like Room, all the pivotal scenes take place in closed quarters, and like many of Donoghue’s books, there is an interest in exploring questions of motherhood. It will definitely move to our book club table.

More about the Boswell-run book clubs, what we’re reading next, and how to join. For now, they are still virtual. And yes, we have a new book club starting soon.