YA, Boswell!: Hank Green with Dessa, Epic Reads (Kendare Blake, Mackenzi Lee, Elana K. Arnold, Claire Legrand, Anna Godbersen) Meet-Up, Laini Taylor at West Allis Public Library, and Marissa Meyer at Boswell

This fall brings the best YA lineup to Milwaukee in memory* with four amazing events at Boswell and our partner locations. Please note that two events are free with registration and two are ticketed, but on of the ticketed events has a free signing following. And also note that while our first event is a novel published as an trade adult title, we know that Hank Green, who along with brother John Green, has a large YA following.

Event #1: Hank Green with Dessa
When: Monday, October 1, 7 pm
Where: UWM Student Union, 2200 E Kenmore Blvd
Cost: $30, includes signed book
Ticket info (general public): hankgreenmke.bpt.me
Featured title: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

"Join Hank Green and special guest Dessa on tour in support of Hanks debut novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. In this multimedia event, Hank and Dessa will talk about their books, answer audience questions, and more. Of the book, Kirkus writes:"A young graphic artist inspires worldwide hysteria when she accidentally makes first contact with an alien.Famous multimedia wunderkind Green is brother to that John Green, so no pressure or anything on his debut novel."

What Boswellian Tim McCarthy said about the book: "I love Green's sharp, natural dialog, his clever but nonthreatening use of math and science and music, and how April talks to us directly about her steep, deeply human learning curve. She's openly confused about the allure and cost of instant fame, and about hateful divisions growing from fear. She's equally clear about the ultimate beauty of people who unite against ugliness. This will be a fast, fun, thought provoking read for adults of any age."

What you get: A signed book and an amazing show. Alas, the VIP meet-and-greet is sold out. There is no public signing for this book, so no personalizations and no backlist signed. Please note there are specially priced tickets for UWM students, faculty, and staff, available at the UWM Student Union Box Office. Signed copies of Dessa's new memoir, My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love, will also be available for sale at this event.

Event #2: Epic Reads Meetup, with Kendare Blake, Mackenzi Lee, Elana K. Arnold, Claire Legrand, and Anna Godbersen When: Wednesday, October 3, 6:30 pm
Where: Boswell Book Company, 2559 N Downer Ave
Cost: $21, including your choice of five featured titles. And yes, there will be swag!
Ticket info: epicreadsmke.bpt.me
Featured titles: Five altogether! Check out the linked titles below.

So many YA books, so little time. Epic Reads invites readers of all ages to join a round-table where you'll get to strike up conversation with authors who will gab about their books and other fan favorites. It's like every attendee is a VIP. And because we'll be rotating the authors, you'll get quality time with all five of our YA stars.

Kendare Blake's Two Dark Reigns is the third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns series, which Kirkus called "Tragic, devastating, horrifying, enthralling. In Blake's latest installment, a queen that has long been dead makes a chilling return to Fennbirn Island. Of Three Dark Crowns and its sequels, Boswellian Jen Steele says that "Kendare Blake's series is a dark, creepy fantasy that will keep you spellbound to the very last moment."

Boswell welcomes back Mackenzi Lee for The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. In this highly anticipated sequel to the bestselling The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor, even if she has to turn to a life of crime to do it. From Boswell's Jenny Chou: "Don’t miss this delightful return to the 18th century world of siblings Felicity and Monty Montague. The banter between Felicity and her roguish brother is just as hilarious, but this time around it’s clear that as much as they provoke each other, beneath it all is affection."

Also returning to Boswell is National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold, whose latest novel is Damsel, a stunning new YA fairy tale turned askew. A prince slays a dragon and takes his princess, but when Ama wakes up in the arms of Prince Emory, it's not going to be happily ever after, not with this prince. Jenny Chou writes: "My favorite part about Damsel was the very last page, but don’t even think of reading that first! Enjoy every word of this this fiercely feminist novel."

Claire Legrand's new nail-biter is Sawkill Girls, a frightening standalone contemporary teen horror novel about three girls who take on an insidious monster that preys upon young women. Legrand's Some Kind of Happiness was an Edgar Award finalist. From Booklist's starred review: "Through this dank, atmospheric, and genuinely frightening narrative, Legrand weaves powerful threads about the dangerous journey of growing up female. In a world where monsters linger at the edges, this is an intensely character-driven story about girls who support each other, girls who betray each other, and girls who love each other in many complicated ways. Strange, eerie, and unforgettable."

When We Caught Fire, by Anna Godbersen, is set during Chicago's Great Fire of 1871 and features a young woman swept up in high society and a lady's maid, her childhood friend, who are both in love with the same young man. Godbersen is author of the popular Luxe series. School Library Journal writes calls this "a steamy romance set amid the tragic Chicago fire of 1871 that will intrigue fans of dramatic, swoony historical fiction."

Authors will personalize and take photos. Yes, you can bring additional books from home. And yes, if you don't want to be part o the Meet-Up but still want to get books signed, Boswell reopens to the general public at 8 pm and all are welcome to join the signing line.

Event #3: Laini Tylor When: Tuesday, October 9, 6:30 pm
Where: West Allis Public Library, 7421 W National Ave
Cost: Free!
Registration here for this event.
Featured title: Muse of Nightmares

National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the hugely popular Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, comes to West Allis Public Library with Muse of Nightmares, the highly anticipated sequel to her novel Strange the Dreamer. Strange the Dreamer was named a Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association.

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation clash in Muse of Nightmares, which is, according to Kirkus Reviews, “a sequel that surpasses the original." And Boswell's Jenny Chou exclaims: "In Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor pulled me back into the ingeniously-built world of Strange the Dreamer and didn’t let me go for 500 riveting pages. Set aside a weekend (or one intense all-nighter), and prepare to be emotionally drained but exhilarated by this novel."

From Jonathan Hunt in Horn Book Magazine: "Taylor's prodigious imagination is on full display: marvelous world-building, suspenseful plotting, complex characterization, finely crafted prose, and grand thematic flourishes make her one of the most formidable contemporary writers in the YA fantasy genre."

Boswell will be at this event selling books. Yes, you bring Taylor's backlist from home to be signed. And yes, Taylor will personalize and pose for photos.

Event #4: Marissa Meyer
When: Thursday, November 8, 7 pm
Where: Boswell Book Company, 2559 N Downer Ave
Register for free or upgrade to include a copy of for signing line priority at marissamke.bpt.me
Featured title: Archenemies

Boswell is thrilled to be hosting an appearance from #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer. Fans of Renegades will be eagerly awaiting Archenemies, the long-awaited second installment after Renegades.

Our event will include a talk, a question-and-answer period, and a signing. While Meyer will sign all copies brought to the event, she will only personalize copies of Archenemies, as well as one other title of the attendee's choice. She will sign memorabilia and pose for photos.

Publishers Weekly writes: ""In a vividly dark and fully imagined universe where special abilities are feared unless they can be strictly controlled and labeled, Meyer celebrates and subverts popular superhero tropes while mining the gray area between malevolence and virtue...Beyond the capes and masks is a strikingly grounded story of star-crossed would-be lovers, deception, and the recognition that most of humanity exists between the extremes of good and evil."

Are you as excited about these events as we are and would you like to help spread the word so that we can get more great YA authors to the Milwaukee area? Make sure your friends get this info. And if you have a place to post this info, we've got 11x17 posters featuring all four events. Stop by Boswell and ask for one - while supplies last.

To summarize (click to registration or ticket link):
Monday, October 1: Hank Green with Dessa at UWM
Wednesday, October 3: Epic Reads Meetup at Boswell, with Kendare Blake, Mackenzi Lee, Elana K. Arnold, Claire Legrand, and Anna Godbersen
Tuesday, October 9: Laini Taylor at West Allis Public Library
Thursday, November 8: Marissa Meyer at Boswell

*That said, my memory can be a mess. But I don't think we've ever had more than two YA events in a season and certainly not one with five authors.

The Author Offer: Boswell presents Ben Austen on Cabrini-Green, Dylan Thuras's Atlas Obscura at Greenfield Library, Nathaniel Stern on art and environment, Jonathan Gillard Daly on Carl Sandburg, poetry from DeWitt Clinton, Jessica Hopper with Justin Barney, Kelly O'Connor McNees at the Lynden, and Robert Shellow in conversation with Dean Strang

Monday, September 17, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
The Rose Petranech Lecture featuring Ben Austen, author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing.

Boswell is pleased to host the inaugural edition of the Rose Petranech Lecture, which presents acclaimed journalist Ben Austen speaking about his book High-Risers, which braids personal narratives, city politics, and national history to tell the timely and epic story of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, America’s most iconic public housing project. This event is cosposnored by Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity,

Built in the 1940s atop an infamous Italian slum, Cabrini-Green grew to twenty-three towers and a population of 20,000, packed onto just seventy acres a few blocks from Chicago’s ritzy Gold Coast. Cabrini-Green became synonymous with crime, squalor, and the failure of government. For the many who lived there, it was also a much-needed resource - it was home. By 2011, every high-rise had been razed and the families dispersed.

In this eye-opening narrative, Austen tells the story of America’s public housing experiment and the changing fortunes of American cities. It is an account told though the lives of residents who struggled to make a home for their families as powerful forces converged to accelerate the housing complex’s demise. High-Risers is a sweeping exploration of race, class, popular culture, and politics in modern America that brilliantly considers what went wrong in our nation’s effort to provide affordable housing to the poor and what we can learn from those mistakes.

About the Rose Petranech Lecture: When Rose Petranech died unexpectedly earlier this year, the family wanted to create a lasting memorial in her name. An annual lecture would honor her love of learning, advance knowledge about subjects of interest to her, such as social justice, and contribute to the already rich intellectual life in her beloved hometown..

Tuesday, September 18, 6:30 PM, at Greenfield Public Library, 5310 W Layton Ave:
Dylan Thuras, author of The Atlas Obscura Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid

Greenfield Public Library and Boswell present Dylan Thuras, Cofounder and Creative Director of Atlas Obscura, the definitive guide to the world's most wondrous places, and cocreator of the bestselling Atlas Obscura book, with a kid's illustrated guide to 100 of the world's most mesmerizing, mysterious wonders on earth.

Not only has Greenfield Public Library created an eye-catching globe display in anticipation of the event, but starting August 27 and running until the date of the event, the library will host an Atlas Obscura themed scavenger hunt that’s fun for everyone! Registration information available at greenfieldlibrary.org.

Thuras takes readers on an imaginative expedition to 100 weird-but-true places on earth. And just as compelling is the way the book is structured, hopscotching from country to country not by location but by type of attraction. Illustrated in gorgeous and appropriately evocative full-color art, this book is a passport to a world of hidden possibilities.

Dylan Thuras is the cofounder and creative director of Atlas Obscura, coauthor of the Atlas Obscura book, and host of the AO Youtube series 100 Wonders. The Greenfield Public Library is located just off the Sixtieth St exit of I-894.

Thursday, September 20, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Nathaniel Stern, author of Ecological Aesthetics: Artful Tactics for Humans, Nature, and Politics

UWM Associate Professor of Art and Design Nathaniel Stern connects art and environments in a scholarly and poetic collection of stories about art, artists, and their materials that argues that ecology, aesthetics, and ethics are inherently entwined. This event will feature Stern and artists for a presentation and discussion.

Ecological Aesthetics is a plea for us to think and act with the world and its inhabitants, both human and nonhuman; to orient ourselves in ways that we might find and express what our environments, and what they are made of, want; and to decisively help and continue those thoughts, wants, and actions toward novel aims and adventures.

Including dozens of color images, this book narrativizes artists and artworks, ranging from print and installation art to bio art and community activism. Stern contextualizes and amplifies our experiences, our practices of complex systems, and our practices of thought. Stern, an artist himself, writes with an eco-aesthetic that continually unfurls artful tactics that can also be used in everyday existence.

Nathaniel Stern is also the author of Interactive Art and Embodiment: The Implicit Body as Performance. He is an Associate Professor of Art and Design at UWM and an Associate Researcher at the University of Johannesburg.

Friday, September 21, 2:00 pm, at Boswell:
A scene preview and talkback with Jonathan Gillard Daly and In Tandem Theatre Company, for the release of The Eagle in Me: An Evening with Carl Sandburg

The Eagle in Me is a delightful journey through the heart of America with one of its finest storytellers, Pulitzer-prize winning author, Carl Sandburg. Milwaukee’s own Jonathan Gillard Daly recreates Sandburg’s traveling show, bringing his poetry, folklore, and music to life in this exciting world premiere.

This event will include a scene preview and a talkback with Jonathan Gillard Daly, who is both the writer and featured actor in this one-person show. This In Tandem production opens September 28 and runs through October 21. There's a special pay-what-you-can preview on September 27. Tickets are $35, $30 for seniors or military with ID.

Performances will be at In Tandem Theatre Company's Tenth Street Theatre, located at 628 N Tenth St (Calvary Church). Buy your tickets on the Tempo website, or call (414) 271-1371.

Friday, September 21, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
DeWitt Clinton, author of At the End of the War.

Shorewood-based poet and Professor Emeritus at UW-Whitewater, DeWitt Clinton presents his newest collection of poetry, which layers ancient, sacred ritual and texts with contemporary life and language.

At the End of the War contains poems about seeing the world, living, and observing what people can do to one another, the good and the evil. These chiseled poems bespeak a consciousness trying to come to terms with history, specifically the horrific atrocities of Word War II and the Holocaust. There’s a communal “we” in many of the poems of a people searching for an identity, a marginalized culture trying to define and reinvent itself on the historical stage.

In sometimes long lyric-narratives, he interprets Biblical stories and honors artists and other poets, often in poems written in another’s voice, which allows readers another perspective. These are poems of searching and discovery, of consequences and coming-to-terms, of family, friendship, connections, some strong, some tentative. At the End of the War offers a poetic coming to terms with history, a Taoist way to emerge on the other side of atrocities, and speaks poetically for the self and contemporary society.

DeWitt Clinton is the author of the books The Conquistador Dog Texts, The Coyot. Inca Texts, and the forthcoming collection, On a Lake by a Moon: Fishing with the Chinese Masters. His work has recently appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Negative Capability, and Santa Fe Literary Review.

Saturday, September 22, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Jessica Hopper, author of Night Moves, in conversation with 88Nine Radio Milwaukee's Justin Barney.

Boswell and 88Nine Radio Milwaukee are happy to cohost music journalist and author of The First Collection of Criticism by A Living Female Rock Critic, Jessica Hopper as she stops by Boswell for a chat about her new memoir with Justin Barney, Music Director of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.

Written in taut, mesmerizing, often hilarious scenes, Night Moves captures the fierce friendships and small moments that form us all. Drawing on her personal journals from the aughts, Jessica Hopper chronicles her time as a DJ, living in decrepit punk houses, biking to bad loft parties, and exploring Chicago deep into the night. It’s an homage to the vibrant corners of the city muted by sleek development. Born in the amber glow of Chicago streetlamps, Night Moves is about a transformative moment of cultural history and how a raw, rebellious writer found her voice.

Boswellian Chris Lee is a fan, and says the book captures some “seriously good hangout vibes. Hopper returns to her formative years as a writer, punk, and aspiring ne'erdowell Chicago. She tells her story in mini-essays that feel like memories snatched out of time. Delightfully bored, aloof, and snarky but also self-aware, plugged-in, and forward-thinking, Night Moves captures a time, people, and city that feels like a ghost town Hopper (and gentrification) has left behind.”

Jessica Hopper is a music critic and was formerly the Editorial Director at MTV News and an editor at Pitchfork and Rookie. Her essays have appeared in multiple Best Music Writing collections and her book The Girls' Guide to Rocking was named one of 2009's Notable Books for Young Readers by the American Library Association.

Monday, September 24, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Robert Shellow, editor of The Harvest of American Racism: The Political Meaning of Violence in the Summer of 1967, in conversation with Dean Strang.

Boswell is pleased to host Robert Shellow, who led the team of social scientists researching the root causes of 1967’s violent protests for the Kerner Commision. Shellow and Madison-based attorney Dean Strang will discuss the first publication of the Harvest report after a half-century of being buried for political reasons. This event is cohosted by Wisconsin Justice Initiative.

In response to violent demonstrations that rocked cities across the US, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly known as the Kerner Commission, was formed. The Commission employed social scientists to research the root causes of the disturbances, including the role that law enforcement played. Chief among its research projects was a study of 23 American cities, headed by Shellow.

An early draft of the analysis, which uncovered political causes for unrest, was delivered in November of 1967. The team of researchers was fired, and the controversial report remained buried at the LBJ Presidential Library until now. The first publication of the Harvest Report half a century later reveals that many of the issues it describes are still with us, including how cities might more effectively and humanely react to groups and communities in protest.

Robert Shellow was principal social scientist and Research Director for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission). He later directed the Pilot District Project, an experimental police-community relations program for the Washington, DC, Department of Public Safety. While on the Carnegie-Mellon University faculty he advised police departments on civil disorder training and neighborhood policing. Dr. Shellow was a founder of the IMAR Corporation. Dean Strang is a criminal defense lawyer in Madison and author of Worse Than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror and a new book on America’s largest mass trial, to be published by the University of Wisconsin Press this winter. Many may know him from his appearance on Netflix’s Making A Murderer.

Monday, September 24, 7:00 PM reception, 7:30 talk, at Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 W Brown Deer Rd in River Hills:
Kelly O'Connor McNees, author of Undiscovered Country: A Novel Inspired by the Lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok.

Boswell is pleased to cosponsor the Lynden Sculpture Garden’s Women’s Speaker Series, welcoming Kelly O’Connor McNees with her latest novel, Undiscovered Country.

Tickets for this event are $30, $25 for Lynden members, and include admission to the event and sculpture garden and an autographed copy of Undiscovered Country. Light refreshments provided by MKE Localicious. For tickets, go to lyndensculpturegarden.org/kellymcnees or call (414) 446-8794. This event is curated by Milwaukee Reads.

In 1932, reporter Lorena “Hick” Hickok starts each day with a front page byline and finishes it swigging bourbon. But an assignment to write a feature on FDR’s wife Eleanor turns Hick’s independent life on its ear. Soon her work and secret entanglement with the new first lady will take her from New York and Washington to Scotts Run, West Virginia, where impoverished coal miners’ families fear the New Deal’s promised hope will pass them by. Together, Eleanor and Hick imagine how the new town of Arthurdale could change the fate of hundreds of lives.

Undiscovered Country artfully mixes fact and fiction to portray the intense relationship between this unlikely pair. Inspired by the more than three thousand letters Hick and Eleanor exchanged over a span of thirty years, McNees tells this story through Hick’s tough, tender, and unforgettable voice. A remarkable portrait of Depression-era America, this novel tells the poignant story of how a love that was forced to remain hidden nevertheless changed history.

Chicago-based Kelly O’Connor McNees is the author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, The Island of Doves, and In Need of a Good Wife, a finalist for the 2013 Willa Award. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Toast, and Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology.

Fear not! Here's the Boswell bestseller list for the week ending September 15, 2018

Fear not!*  Here's the Boswell bestseller list for the week ending September 15, 2018.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit V4, by Amy Stewart
2. There There, by Tommy Stewart (register for this event Tue 9/25, 7 pm, at orangemke.bpt.me)
3. The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason (event Mon 11/5, 7 pm, at Boswell)
4. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai (signed copies still available)
5. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
6. The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Albert Urrea
7. Farm, by Wendell Berry
8. Lake Success, by Gary Shteyngart
9. Juror #3, by James Patterson
10. The Man Who Came Uptown, by George Pelecanos

About a month after our event with Amy Stewart, Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit is finally here (and signed copies are available). I really enjoyed it (read my recommendation on the Boswell item page) and so did Katherine Powers at The Washington Post: "Aside from its plot, fine character development and nicely timed humor, the novel excels in revisiting a vanished time, place and sensibility. Clothes, food and transportation are smoothly integrated into the story. Constance’s flouting of the proper role of women is central. Her exploits make her, in the popular mind, more of an astonishment than a noble creature."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Fear, by Bob Woodward
2. Heirloom Houses, by Wade Weissmann
3. War in 140 Characters, by David Patrikarakos
4. High-Risers, by Ben Austen (event Mon 9/17, 7 pm, at Boswell)
5. Educated, by Tara Westover
6. You Can't Spell Truth Without Ruth, edited by Mary Zaia
7. The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt 8. The Soul of America, by Jon Meacham
9. Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, by John Gurda (event Mon 10/1, 6 pm, at Milwaukee Public Library Loos Room)
10. The Fall of Wisconsin, by Dan Kaufman

Guess what? People really want to read Bob Woodward's Fear. Barnes and Noble said the rate of sale is the highest for them in since Go Set a Watchman in 2015 (per CNN). Here's a story from Time magazine by Alejandro de la Garza about one West Virginia librarian's attempt to keep Fear off their shelves. And here's George Packer's New Yorker piece. We hope to get more copies in this week.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Death Checks In V3, by David S. Pederson
2. In the Midst of Winter, by Isabel Allende
3. Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee
4. The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott
5. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
6. Death Comes Darkly V1, by David S. Pederson
7. Death Goes Overboard V2, by David S. Pederson
8. Absalom, Absalom, by William Faulkner
9. The Penguin Book of Hell, edited by Scott G. Bruce (event Thu 9/27, 7 pm, at Boswell)
10. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

In its second week of sale, the paperback edition of Isabel Allende's In the Midst of Winter, the story of a group of people changed by an accident during a blizzard, has a nice sales pop. Anita Felicelli reviews the book in the San Francisco Chronicle: "This sturdy braid of dramatic migration stories is balanced by an equally interesting present-day plot. Evelyn’s strong reaction to the rear-ending turns out to be justified: There is a dead woman, a frozen corpse, in the trunk of the Lexus. Without knowing who killed the woman, but suspecting Evelyn’s boss, the three devise a plan to dispose of the body without alerting the authorities."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Optical Vacuum, by Jocelyn Szszepaniak-Gillece
2. The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
3. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
4. Milwaukee Ghosts and Legends, by Anna Lardinois
5. Janesville, by Amy Goldstein
6. The View from Flyover Country, by Sarah Kendzior
7. Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
8. Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
9. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
10. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann

Also out on September 4 was Yuval Noah Harari's Homo Deus, a take on the future from an acclaimed historian. He has a new book too, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. In The Telegraph, they noted that Harari sells like Harry Potter and gets reviewed by Umberto Eco. For a take on Homo Deus, here's the review in The Economist.

Books for Kids:
1. People Kill People, by Ellen Hopkins
2. Illegal, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, with illustrations by Giovanni Rigano
3. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
4. Atlas Obscura Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid, by Dylan Thuras and Rosemary Mosco (Register for event at Greenfield Public Library, Tue 9/18, 6:30 pm)
5. Rite of Passage, by Richard Wright
6. Artemis Fowl V1, by Eoin Colfer
7. Chicken Sunday, by Patricia Polacco
8. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls V1, by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
9. We Don't Eat Our Classmates, by Ryan T. Higgins
10. Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson

More on Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me. Here's Kirkus Reviews: "Woodson delivers a powerful tale of community and mutual growth. The bond they develop is palpable. Haley’s recorder is both an important plot element and a metaphor for the power of voice and story. The characters ring true as they discuss issues both personal and global. This story, told with exquisite language and clarity of narrative, is both heartbreaking and hopeful."

From the Journal Sentinel book page.

--Jim Higgins reviewed The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War, written by Joanne B. Freeman. His take: "The Field of Blood seconds a broader point Freeman makes regularly in her excellent Yale University Open Course on the American Revolution. While historical events, such as the outcomes of the American Revolution and the Civil War, may seem preordained to us now, they certainly were not to people living in those times. Nineteenth-century congressmen making those honor challenges, or sidestepping them, were weighing unknowns as they sought to advance their interests, stay electable and preserve the Union."

-In addition, Barbara Ortutay reviews Small Fry, by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from the Associated Press

*We're temporarily out.

An autumnly amount of authors: Ellen Hopkins, Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, Eoin Colfer (with Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano), David Patrikarakos, David Pederson, plus next week's Ben Austen. Alas, Wade Weissmann event at Villa Terrace is sold to capacity.

An autumnly amount of authors: Ellen Hopkins, Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, Eoin Colfer (with Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano), David Patrikarakos, David Pederson, plus next week's Ben Austen. Alas, Wade Weissmann event at Villa Terrace is sold to capacity.

Tuesday, September 11, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Ellen Hopkins, author of People Kill People.

The author of 14 bestselling YA novels and 3 adult novels, Hopkins comes to Boswell with her latest, a compelling, complex story that tackles gun violence and white supremacy.

A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for protection. Who was it? Each character has the incentive to pick up a gun. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race and possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything in a devastating accident and sunk quietly into depression?

As Boswellian Jenny Chou wrote in her recommendation: "Someone will shoot. And someone will die. Ellen Hopkins infuses the poetry and prose in People Kill People with such emotional depth that all six of her teen characters are beautifully complicated."

Ellen Hopkins is the author of Crank, Love Lies Beneath, and Burned, and several more novels. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, where she founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative.

Wednesday, September 12, reception 5:30 PM, presentation 6:30 PM, at Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum:
Wade Weissmann, subject of Heirloom Houses: The Architecture of Wade Weissmann.

Alas, our cosponsored event with Wade Weissman, founder of Wade Weissmann Architecture, is sold to capacity. Please check back to see if signed copies are available after the event.

Wednesday, September 12, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, author of The Optical Vacuum: Spectatorship and Modernized American Theater Architecture.

Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies at UWM expounds upon exhibition history and the captivating way the architecture of movie theaters impacts viewers’ experience.

Movie theaters are not just places to see a film. They are sites in which to experience new technologies, explore immersive environments, and to innovate new modes of seeing and hearing. This fascinating book shows us that movie theaters have long been irretrievably shaped by dynamic debates across fields such as modernism, architecture, design, and commercial entertainment, inviting us to look beyond the screen and at the spaces in which movies have long been embedded.

This is essential reading for those interested in the history of theaters and cinema, as well as those interested in modernity, entertainment, and the persistent transformation of the human senses by technological design.

Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece earned a BA in English and Film from Notre Dame and an MA and PhD in Screen Cultures from Northwestern University. Her writing has been published in academic journals such as Screen and magazines such as 2ha. She is Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies at UWM.

Thursday, September 13, 6:30 PM, at Boswell:
Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, and Giovanni Rigano, creators of Illegal

Eoin Colfer, author of Aretmis Fowl, appears at Boswell with the creative team behind the Artemis Fowl graphic novel series for a powerful, moving new graphic novel that explores the current plight of migrants around the world. Colfer and Donkin will discuss the creation of Illegal as Rigano creates live illustrations. Yes you can bring Colfer books from home to be signed.

You can still register for this free event at colferdonkin.bpt.me. Or, upgrade to a book-with-ticket option. It’s $15.75 for paperback, $21 for hardcover, and includes the selected copy of Illegal, one event reservation, and signing line priority. This event is cosponsored by Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, which provides comprehensive resettlement services to refugees fleeing from war and persecution around the globe since 1974.

Please note this event will most likely not be at capacity. Registration is optional, though it will help us determine how many chairs to put out. And upgrading will still get you signing line priority. Read more about Illegal in this Publishers Weekly profile.

Please consider bringing packaged toiletries for refugees in need to this event, which will be given to Lutheran Social Services. Bar soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, and toothpaste are most desired. And don't forget to watch the Artemis Fowl movie preview trailer here.

Eoin Colfer spent four years between 1992 and 1996 working in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Italy. His first book, Benny and Omar, was based on his experiences in Tunisia. He is author of the bestselling Artemis Fowl series. Andrew Donkin is a graphic novelist and illustrator who has also written for adults. Giovanni Rigano has illustrated many graphic novels.

Thursday, September 13, 6:30 PM, at University School of Milwaukee, 2100 W Fairy Chasm Rd, River Hills:
David Patrikarakos, author of War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.

Boswell and the University School of Milwaukee Global Scholars Read program present leading foreign correspondent David Patrikarakos with a discussion of how social media has transformed the modern battlefield and the way wars are fought today.

You can still RSVP to this free event, at usmk12.org/page/patrikarakos.

Modern warfare is a war of narratives, where bullets are fired both physically and virtually. Whether you are a president or a terrorist, if you don't understand how to deploy the power of social media effectively you may win the odd battle but you will lose a twenty-first century war.

Patrikarakos draws on unprecedented access to key players to provide a new narrative for modern warfare. He travels thousands of miles across continents to meet a de-radicalized female member of ISIS recruited via Skype, a liberal Russian in Siberia who takes a job manufacturing "Ukrainian" news, and many others to explore the way social media has transformed the way we fight, win, and consume wars - and what this means for the world going forward.

David Patrikarakos is a Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale and an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, author of Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State, a contributing editor at The Daily Beast, and a contributing writer at Politico. He has written for The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Saturday, September 15, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
David S. Pederson, author of Death Checks In.

Wisconsin author David S. Pederson returns to Boswell with the latest installment of his mystery series, the adventures of Milwaukee Detective Heath Barrington.

All Detective Barrington and his partner Alan Keyes want is a get-away weekend of romance and relaxation, but they find murder instead when a missing tie leads them to the body of the peculiar Victor Blount, and Heath can't resist the urge to investigate.

Clues turn up around every corner and lead down a strange and winding road of mystery and danger. As Heath and Alan work together to solve the case, they encounter various and eccentric suspects, old friends, and a hostile Chicago Detective who doesn't like Milwaukee police involved in a Chicago crime. Forced to act on their own, out of their jurisdiction, they race against time to find the killer before the case is closed for good.

David S. Pederson grew up in Wisconsin, where he currently lives with his longtime partner and works in the furniture and decorating business. The author of the Heath Barrington mystery series, including Death Comes Darkly and Death Goes Overboard, he is passionate about mysteries, old movies, and crime novels.

Monday, September 17, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
The Rose Petranech Lecture featuring Ben Austen, author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing.

Cohosted by Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, Boswell is pleased to host the inaugural edition of the Rose Petranech Lecture, which presents journalist Ben Austen speaking about his book High-Risers, which braids personal narratives, city politics, and national history to tell the timely and epic story of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, America’s most iconic public housing project.

From Daniel Goldin at Boswell: "From slums to shantytowns, housing for the poor has always been a hot-button issue. In contemporary times, nothing has captured American consciousness like public housing. And no housing project has captured our attention like the former Cabrini-Green on the near North Side of Chicago. Maybe it was because the buildings were so close to the wealth of the Gold Coast, or perhaps it was due to it being the setting of the television show Good Times. Journalist Ben Austen expertly chronicles Cabrini-Green’s rise and fall, focusing on the lives of a half-dozen long-time residents and their stories, while also chronicling the disinvestment, corruption, gang violence, and the rising neighborhood property values, which is this case, doomed Cabrini-Green, despite at least one success story of tenant management. If you’re looking for a book to read after Evicted or The Color of Law, this is a great choice. And what a perfect author and book to highlight for our first Rose Petranech Lecture"

Speaking of The Color of Law, author Richard Rothstein reviewed the book for The New York Times, writing: "Until the sociologist William Julius Wilson published The Truly Disadvantaged, in 1987, few comprehended the terrible consequences of cleansing urban neighborhoods of the stably employed. In 2018, Ben Austen has illustrated these repercussions; we can now better consider remedies by contemplating the lessons High-Risers offers." I should also note that Matthew Desmond recommended High-Risers when he last stopped by Boswell.

About the Rose Petranech Lecture: When Rose Petranech died unexpectedly earlier this year, the family wanted to create a lasting memorial in her name. An annual lecture would honor her love of learning, advance knowledge about subjects of interest to her, such as social justice, and contribute to the already rich intellectual life in her beloved hometown.

So much more coming! Your next favorite event is listed on our upcoming event page.