Boy, do we need your help! It's election season.

We are constantly being judged and evaluated. This owning-the-bookstore thing makes me feel like I'm back in third grade, getting evaluations from Mrs. Mandel, who never liked me as much as Mrs. Launer (2nd grade), Mrs. Brauner (4th grade, and yes, they looked like they rhymed, but they actually did not), and Mrs. Rosenberg (5th grade).

Mrs. Mandel liked to pull ears.

1. The Shepherd Express has their annual Best of Milwaukee poll going on. In order to fill it out on line, you must answer at least 25 categories. Don't have a favorite bartender? I'm partial to Dan Roubik at the Palm Tavern and Sugar Maple myself...ex-bookseller you know. Who else will discuss the new Dan Chaon (Await your Reply) with you over a bottle of Belgian ale? Oh, and he liked it!

Vote for your favorites here. And here's hoping we're your favorite bookstore.

2. Please help us get on the Yelp map. Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop is #2, after Downtown Books. If you like us, let's at least get us placed. And maybe someone can tell Yelp that Schwartz closed. Yelp it up right here.

3. WISN's City Voter website is tabulating best bookstore too. Lanora of Next Chapter told me that folks are voting for Schwartz here, but in their comments, are referring to Boswell. And there's a picture of Boswellian Conrad as the shop photo.

We're trying to get this fixed. I'm hoping that you'll be able to vote for the new us instead of the old us. Here's where to do it.

4. Finally, would it hurt to write a nice review of us on Google? I'm thinking of dictating one from my mother, who thought the store was pretty large when she visited, and had some biographies, which she thought would be quite popular.

Here's how to do this. Go to Google. Select maps. Put in Boswell Book Company. We come up first. Select the one on Downer, not the locations on Oakland or Bluemound, which of course don't exist. Review away! And don't forget about our biographies.