Boswell is Feeling Particularly Bright, at Least in Terms of Paper Bags, Plus the Long-Awaited Checklist of Books Discussed on Wisconsin Public Radio Last Friday.

In another mark of time passing, we went back to reprint our paper Boswell bags.  I had said at first that I would switch out our colors with each reprinting, and we did. Compared to the first round, I must be needing bright colors at the moment--our small bag is now teal and the medium-sized bag is magenta. Some might call it hot pink, but I assure you that is a different Pantone number. It's not necessary a palette a retail analyst would recommend, except perhaps to eight-year-old girls, but I asked a small sample of tough guy customers and staff whether they could handle the magenta, and they were all positive.

The plastic bags are on a slightly different schedule, but expect a change in the color of those too, from a burnt orange to a bright blue. If you think this color story is too perky, perhaps at your request next year we can do three shades of gray.

A thank you to the capable Keppler brothers at Brew City Promotions for another great job.

***

Once again, I had a great time on Wisconsin Public Radio talking about books on Ben Merens's show.  Though I ostensibly come with a list, much of the fun is hearing what listeners recommend, with the hope that I can add another their reading piles, one that will be a hit.

Here's a link to the Ben Merens's archive page.

I used to be able to figure out how to link to the exact show, but now all I get is a rotating series of messages reminding me to donate.  Not a bad thing, of course, but not what I wanted at the moment.  Don't worry, it's still easy to find the show, which aired Friday, July 22, at the 5 pm hour.

I've often listened to the show after airing and wrote down every book we talked about, but the list came by email soon after airing, thanks to Katie Madsen at WPR. And with that note, here are the books:

--Kosher Chinese, by Michael Levy

--The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain

--Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes, by Elizabeth Bard

--French Leave, by Anna Gavalda

 

--Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

--The Hangman’s Daughter, by Oliver Pötzsch

--The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

--The Magician King, by Lev Grossman

--Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

--The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan

--A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin

--A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin

--Divergent, by Veronica Roth

--The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

--Breaking out of Bedlam, by Leslie Larson

--State of Wonder, by Ann Patchet

--Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones

--The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir, by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

--Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America, by Garrison Keillor

--Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining American: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff, by James B. Stewart

--Dog on It, by Spencer Quinn

--I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship: Hilarious, Heartwarming Tales About Man’s Best Friend from America’s Favorite Humorists, by Wade Rouse

--An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

--Looking for Alaska by John Green

--Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, by Ruth Reichl

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton

The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin, by Douglas Hulick

The Story of Charlotte’s Web: E.B. White’s Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic, by Michael Sims

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading, by Nina Sankovitch

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, by Annie Jacobsen

Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathanial Philbrick

The Hare of Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss, by Edmund De Waal

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back, by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

Room, by Emma Donoghue

A Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

The Selected Works of Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, Nostromo, the Secret Agent & a Selection of Short Stories, by Joseph Conrad

A Dog’s Life, by Gerald Hammond

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Byzantium, by Stephen Lawhead

John Chancellor Makes Me Cry, by Anne Rivers Siddons

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

The Tennis Partner, by Abraham Verghese

My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story, by Abraham Verghese

The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer

A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson

Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, by Tony Horwitz

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

Thanks, as always, for having me on!