Three Events with Food, Including One (Geralding Brooks) Tonight.

Today is Geraldine Brooks day (5/12, 7 pm) Thanks for the shout out in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for the event, and we've also been doing some underwriting on WUWM.  Hope you heard one of our spots? I did while doing errands on Tuesday. 

And there's news on the factual front of Caleb's Crossing too. Louise at Penguin just let me know that Harvard will be honoring Joel Iacoomes, one of the first Native Americans to attend the school, with a special posthumous degree at its 2011 Commencement exercises on May 26. 

Speaking of public radio (which I was doing before that last aside), we just did a deal to underwrite some spots on WHAD for Ann Patchett's wonderful novel, State of Wonder (it's in the title so it must be true), and Wisconsin Public Radio is going to co-sponsor that event with us when Patchett visits on June 22, 7 pm.  Hooray.

 Back to today. At 5 pm, I pick up a little something from Beans and Barley, catering if you will. I can't take requests because you need to get your catering orders in 24 hours in advance. Now that we're offering $5-plus off the book (Boswell Benefits price) to anyone who buys the $5 ticket, the catering isn't as necessary for the value, but hey, I promised, and it makes the whole thing festive.  And I put a bug into Andy's ear (you know him, he's the friendly manager of the Starbucks next door) that this was a good crowd for sampling.

Speaking of food, we've put together a last-minute event for Joe Yonan, author of Serve Yourself, Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One, on Friday, May 20, 7 pm.  I haven't finalized it but I'm contracting with a local caterer (yes, I'll talk them up when it's all confirmed) to make several dishes from the book, which looks lucious.  Yonan is the food editor for the Washington Post.  I'm going to to a little outreach on this, but I'm trying to set up a group interview with food bloggers beforehand.  If you write about food, contact me so I can include you in the group.

And because it gives me a sense of accomplishment, I just finished putting together our latest author lunch, this time with charming and thoroughly personable Darin Strauss, author of the National Book Critic Circle award winning memoir, Half a Life.  He'll be doing a traditional talk-signing with Next Chapter on Monday, June 20, but since we have known each other a long time (I hosted events with him twice at Schwartz), he's agreed to join us for lunch at Downer's Cafe Hollander on Tuesday, June 21, at Noon.

Details to come.  We don't even have the tickets ready, but it will be $40 all inclusive, including a copy of Half a Life.