Weekly Events--Dan Schultz, Daniel Maguire, Marriage of Figaro Preview, Kate Atkinson, William Alexander, Robert Tanzilo, and a Few Words About Thomas Dyja Next Monday.

Monday, April 15, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Dan Schultz, author of  Dead Run:The Murder of a Lawman and the Greatest Manhunt of the Modern American West.

Dan Schultz is an award-winning writer and journalist. He received his M.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota and worked as a reporter and feature writer for daily newspapers in Minnesota and Oregon, covering crime stories before he began writing for magazines and television. After living in Aspen, Colorado, for several years, he and his wife, Lynda, now split their time between their Chicago home and the Colorado mountains.

Evoking Jon Krakauer, Dead Run is the extraordinary true story of desperado survivalists, a brutal murder, and vigilante justice set against the harsh backdrop of the Colorado wilderness.

On a sunny May morning in 1998 in Cortez, Colorado, three desperados in a stolen truck opened fire on the town cop, shooting him twenty times; then they blasted their way past dozens of police cars and disappeared into 10,000 square miles of the harshest wilderness terrain on the North American continent. Self-trained survivalists, the outlaws eluded the most sophisticated law enforcement technology on the planet and a pursuit force that represented more than seventy-five local, state, and federal police agencies with dozens of swat teams, U.S. Army Special Forces, and more than five hundred officers from across the country. Dead Run is the first in-depth account of this sensational case, replete with overbearing local sheriffs, Native American trackers, posses on horseback, suspicion of vigilante justice and police cover-ups, and the blunders of the nation's most exalted crime-fighters pursuing outlaws into territory in which only they could survive.

Randy Wyrick in the Vail Daily recommends it thusly: "This story has it all: good guys and bad guys clearly defined, posses, cowboys, horses, shootouts, corruption and bungling and bad guys found shot in the head — but not by the police."

Tuesday, April 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Daniel Maguire, author of A Merry Memoir of Sex, Death, and Religion

A longtime professor of ethics at Marquette University, Daniel C. Maguire was hailed as "America's most respected Catholic social ethicist" by the president of New York Union Theological seminary and listed in Ms. Magazine's Tenth Anniversary issue as "one of the forty male heroes of the past decade, men who took chances and made a difference." Condemned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for his views on contraception, abortion, and same-sex marriage, his story is truly an interesting one.

Jenni Herrick in the Shephred Express made Maguire's event this week's Book Preview: "Humor and religion may not seem synonymous, especially these days, but theologian Daniel Maguire merges the two in his funny and contemplative new book A Merry Memoir of Sex, Death, and Religion. This enlightening memoir proves that life’s difficulties should never cause someone to abandon his/her sense of humor. Told through episodic chronicles, Maguire’s tale offers readers valuable insights infused with outrageous humor."

Wednesday, April 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Opera Insight: The Marriage of Figaro.

Set in Spain, this continuation of the plot of The Barber of Seville focuses on the debauchery that unfolds during a single “day of madness” in this grand folly of aristocratic courtship.

The Florentine brings you a highly energetic production of Mozart’s melodies featuring a critically acclaimed cast. Grammy Winner, Daniel Belcher reprises his role as Figaro from the Florentine’s The Barber of Seville. – Adriana Zabala brings her critically acclaimed interpretation of Cherubino along with audience favorite tenor Frank Kelley of the Florentine’s two-time Grammy Award-winning Elmer Gantry (2010) and the world Premiere 2013 Grammy Award-winning Río de Sangre (2010) return for this light-hearted, hilarious romp as Basilio.

This evening, featuring the Florentine Opera Studio and talk from Corliss Phillabaum, previews the latest opera from the Florentine, performed on May 10 and May 12.

Friday, April 19 7 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Market, 400 N. Water Street:
Kate Atkinson, author of Life After Life and Case Histories, as part of the Milwaukee Public Library Fill the Shelves campaign, co-sponsored by the Milwaukee Public Library, the Milwaukee Public Market, and the Katie Gingrass Gallery.

Once a year, the Milwaukee Public Library accepts donations for its collection and Boswell is proud to be a retail partner in this endeavor, making available for purchase books from the library’s wish list. Donations will be recognized with a personalized book plate inside the donated book. We’re excited to have Kate Atkinson’s appearance be a part of this annual event.

Kate Atkinson is the author of six novels, including Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which won the Whitbread Award for Book of the Year (now the Costa), and Case Histories, one of the first in a series of mysteries featuring the detective Jackson Brodie. She lives in Edinburgh.

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

As Connie Ogle notes in her recent Miami Herald review: "Two things are implicit in such a setup: a warning (some repetition lies ahead) and a promise (don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, and you won’t be bored). The gifted Atkinson, best known for the excellent suspense series that began with Case Histories, is clever and talented enough to build on this shifting foundation, and she tells the story of Ursula’s odd existence with enough twists and revelations to keep the reader guessing. She’s so adept at propelling us through this hefty novel, which flits through both World Wars and beyond, that we’re able to temporarily overlook the first two pages, in which Ursula employs the most egregious cliche available to alternative histories."

Satuday, April 20, 11 am, at the Frank L. Weyenberg Library, 11345 N Cedarburg Rd  Mequon: William Alexander, author of Ghoulish Song and Goblin Secrets.

Earning high praise from Ursula K. LeGuin, Peter S. Beagle, and Jane Yolen, William Alexander is the National Book Award-winning author of the middle-grade novel, Goblin Secrets, set in the charmed, cursed world of Zombay, where goblins walk the streets and witches work their charms and curses.

Goulish Song follows the adventures of a young girl who is gifted a little bone flute by a goblin theatre troupe. When she plays it, the flute's single, mournful song has a dangerous consequence: It separates Kaile and her shadow. In Zombay, anyone without a shadow is considered dead, and despite Kaile's protests that she's alive and breathing, her family forces her to leave so she can't haunt their home. She soon learns that the troublesome flute is tied to a terrifying ghoul made from the bones of those who drowned in the Zombay River. With the ghoul chasing her and the river threatening to flood, Kaile has an important role to play in keeping Zombay safe. Will she, and her shadow, be able to learn the right tune in time?

From his interview with John A. Sellers in Publishers Weekly: "Alexander first began writing Goblin Secrets while working on his master’s degree, and finished it during a “one-and-a-half-year concentrated push.” He credits author Holly Black, who was an instructor at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop he attended in 2006, with getting him in touch with the Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency, where he is now represented by Joe Monti. From there, Alexander says the book was on submission for about a year before finding what he calls its “perfect home” with Karen Wojtyla at Simon & Schuster’s Margaret K. McElderry Books imprint." Continue reading here.


Sunday, April 21, 2 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Library, 814 W. West Wisconsin Ave, Meeting Room One: Robert Tanzilo, author of Historic Milwaukee Public Schoolhouses.

From Jeremey Jannene's review in Urban Milwaukee: "Public schools are cornerstones of their communities. They’re landmarks that help form an identity, they’re a key public gathering place, and for approximately 180 days a year they’re bustling centers of activity. Unfortunately these buildings are increasingly treated as disposable, with no ornamentation and bland materials. Thankfully, Milwaukee is blessed with many beautiful buildings from an era long-passed. Robert Tanzilo was inspired to study those buildings in his latest book, Historic Milwaukee Public Schoolhouses."

Monday, April 22, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Thomas Dyja, author of The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream

Chicago-native Thomas Dyja offers a cultural history of the Windy City at midcentury and how its incredible mix of architects, politicians, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, and actors helped shape America’s culture and identity. From the architecture of sky-grazing buildings, the tentacle-spread of fast-food chains, and the personal dramas taking place in housing projects, to the dominance of rock and roll, the roots of literature and entertainment, and beginnings of the new labor movement,

Chicago’s unique intermingling of race, class, and politics ushered the unparalleled creativity and innovation that made Chicago “the third coast” in post-war America. Dyja argues that understanding America requires understanding beyond the east and west coasts, and that it’s important to restore the central place of cities like Chicago – and their considerable contributions to our culture – to their central place in our history. It is, he says, “a crucial step towards reassembling a nation that has lost its shared sense of identity and experience.”

Thomas Dyja is the author of several novels, including Play for a Kingdom, which won the Casey Award in 1998 for the best baseball book of the year; works of nonfiction, including Only Connect, about reforming our schools; children's books; and has edited a number of biographical works.