Monday, June 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Chris Cleave, author of Gold and Little Bee, a fundraiser for The Pablove Foundation.
$5 tickets. We'll donate ticket proceeds to this organization that supports kids with cancer and their caregivers. Web ticket sales shut down at 3 pm CDT, but after that, you'll be able to buy tickets at the door.
What more can one say? Here's the Chris Cleave video where he discusses what he was trying to do in Gold. A sad book? No, more like joyful, per Cleave. I'll let him tell it.
Tuesday, June 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time, and Knockemstiff.

In the editing of this video, they removed all the questions and play mood music. Actually, I think this is true of both interviews, only the music is different.
Wednesday, June 18, 7 pm, at Centennial Hall, 733 North Eighth Street:
David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story.
Since this has turned out to be video day, I certainly need to find an interesting interview that will whet your appetite, and in this case, it's not too hard. Here's Maraniss on CNN with Wolf Blitzer.
We've had several calls worrying about capacity. Centennial Hall holds 700 people. Based on my experience, I do not think we will sell out. If you are concerned, I might get there at 6:30, when the doors open. Doors will close if we reach capacity. Parking tends to be pretty easy at that time a block south, on Michigan. There are also some parking garages east of the library, and more at the Public Museum and court house.
If you missed the Journal Sentinel yesterday (we held our paper but still bought a copy when we arrived back in Milwaukee), there were a lot of interesting book-related articles in the Cue section.

2. Another review in the Journal Sentinel from Higgins tackles The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire, by Ted Gioia (Oxford). I can almost imagine organizing a night at the bar for readers to argue out Gioia's choices for what is the definitive version of 250 classic songs. As noted, the canon doesn't always include the very best songs, at least according to Gioia, but the ones most commonly played by jazz musicians. And yes, a Willie Nelson rendition is on the list. Fight among yourselves.

This is endemic of what the business has become--ten years ago, Oxford would have thought there was enough business in retail to support a retail margin, but now they have basically figured that our web competitor takes no margin anyway, so if most of the books are going to be sold that way, why not cut the retailers out of the equation? They could accomplish the same thing with a $49.95 book with regular trade terms, but that will apparently send too many copies out into the field, which might come back as returns. Or maybe there's a different reason? I'd love to hear from someone about this.

4. And yes, I'm not including Higgins' profile of Maraniss in the numbering, and I grouped the two wire service reviews together, but there is still Carole E. Barrowman's mystery column. Featured this week were:
The Prisoner of Heaven, by Carlos Ruiz Zafron (Harper), perhaps "his darkest and wittiest book to date," set in 1950s Barcelona under the early days of the Franco regime. Beth at the wedding told me she'll buy three copies--the hardcover, the paperback, and the ebook.

Suzy's Case, by Andy Siegel (Scribner), which Barrowman notes is comparable to The Lincoln Lawyer, and definitely her legal thriller pick for the month.
Innocent Victims, by Minette Walters (Mysterious Press) is a collection of two novellas, an interesting genre for mystery/thrillers. Barrowman calls them fascinating, and my suspicion is at this length, your chills per page ratio goes way up.
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