Friday Short Post--Waldo Update, Booking Janice Clark's "The Rathbones," Tickets On Sale for Louise Penny's "How the Light Gets In Launch Event on August 27.

1. We're seeing lots of kids running around finding Waldo, and we've heard from other retailers that this is working as well (plus we've run into kids with Waldo passports on our travels around town). I talked to one mom who came in with her songs, having completed their passport (it's only the 12th) and I asked her if the kids enjoyed it. "They loved it!" she told me. It's not too late to start playing, and if you stop by one of our 30+ partners and they are out of passports, have them contact us and we can email the pdf so they can print more.

2. It seems odd that I'm spending my summer worrying about fall, but that's the way it goes. We're booking all kinds of events, from local launches of self-published titles, to literary favorites to several high profile ticketed launches. Today I officially closed out our August schedule with one of Mel's favorite novels of the summer, The Rathbones, Janice Clark's epic of whaling, yes, that's right, and not derivative of Moby Dick either.  She's coming on Wednesday, August 28, 7 pm. We've been oohing and ahhing of the quote that our rep Jason sent us from The Millions. 

They wrote in their 2nd half of 2013 roundup: "The Rathbones is the most sui generis debut you’re likely to encounter this year. Think Moby-Dick directed by David Lynch from a screenplay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez…with Charles Addams doing the set design and The Decembrists supplying the chanteys. Clark writes a beautiful prose line, and the story, like the ocean, gets deeper, richer, and stranger the farther out you go.”

Our friend John is talking up Caleb Crain's Necessary Errors, after reading an excerpt. It's coming August 6.

3. Speaking of the end of August, tickets just went on sale for our launch event for Louise Penny's How the Light Gets In, her newest Inspector Gamache novel. Yes, it's the first day of sale. A ticket gets you a signed copy of Penny's latest plus light refreshments. This event is co-sponsored by Mystery One and Alliance Francaise. The ticket is $25.99 plus tax, and for this one, we're absorbing the Brown Paper Tickets fees. I'll be talking more about this event at length is it gets closer, but I should note that we've been trying to get Penny to come to Boswell since the day we opened. Here's the link!