Tuesday, September 10, 7 pm, at Boswell:Larry Watson, author of Let Him Go.
We've had a lot of reads on Larry Watson's latest, but our buyer Jason Kennedy's rec is the classic: "It’s early 1950s North Dakota. George and Margaret Blackledge have lost their son in a tragic horse accident; his widow Lorna has married Donnie and moved to Montana. Margaret does not trust the sketchy Weboy clan with her grandchild, and convinces George to go after them to bring the boy home, with Lorna or without. The Blackledges are not ready for what awaits them in Gladstone, and their world will never be the same again. Larry Watson is a master at setting the atmosphere and the characters up in this tragedy waiting to happen. My heart went out for their desperate situation and their dead-end choices. Brilliant!"
In addition to Montana 1948 and American Boy, Larry Watson is also author of Justice, White Crosses, and several other novels. He is recipient of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the Friends of American Writers award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and many other prizes and awards. He teaches writing and literature at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife, Susan.More on our Facebook event page.
Wednesday, September 11, 6:30 pm, at the Cudahy Family Library:Jasper Fforde, author of Song of the Quarkbeast, Volume 2 of the Chronicles of Kazam.
A recommendation from Boswellian Hannah Johnson Breimeir for Song of the Quarkbeast: "This sequel to The Last Dragonslayer, is fun, silly, exhilarating and ridiculously magical. After all, magic is experiencing a resurgence in the Un-united Kingdom and Jennifer Strange's agency of magicians is taking advantage of it. So to, is their rival, I-Magic, who has a tendency to muck up the plot and make things very tense and unpredictable. Will our ragtag heroes overcome nefarious plans to prove they are the best act in town? And what exactly is this "Song of the Quarkbeast?" Instead of attempting to go out and discover the answers on your own, I suggest you read the book, it's much safer and you'll keep all your fingers."
Jasper Fforde is the internationally best-selling author of the Chronicles of Kazam series for young readers, two series of mysteries: Thursday Next and the Nursery Crime books, and a dystopian thriller, Shades of Grey. He currently lives and works in Wales, where his hobbies include family, flying, and photography.
The Cudahy Family Library is located just off Packard Avenue, south of Layton. If you are coming from afar, take either 794 (the Lake Parkway) south to the Layton exit, turn left (east) into Cudahy and make a right onto Packard. You can also go due east from 94E,but if you are coming from the north or west, taking 794 at downtown over the Hoan Bridge will be faster. More on our Facebook event page.
Wednesday, September 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:Oliver Pötzsch, author of The Ludwig Conspiracy.
"I wish to remain an eternal enigma to myself and to others..." - Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria. Shortly after being deposed for mental incapacity, Ludwig II was found lying dead in waist-deep water along with the body of his doctor. Evidence as to how either man came to his untimely fate has never been found...until now."
"Enter Steven Lukas, a German antiquarian book dealer who has been decoding a strange leatherbound diary discovered in his shop. Lukas soon realizes that this diary holds within it some very dangerous secrets, including clues about the Mad King's death, and even now there are those that will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Plunged into a thrilling race across Germany, Lukas must decipher clues from the past - both Ludwig's and his own - before falling prey to dark, pursuant forces. Fans of Dan Brown and Steve Berry will certainly enjoy Potzsch's elegant mixture of history and fiction in this vast and stylish detective story."Oliver Pötzsch is the author of the bestselling Hangman's Daughter series, each installment of which topped the charts in Germany and have sold over half a million copies in English. Born in Munich, Germany in 1970, he worked for years as a radio personality for Bavarian radio and a screenwriter for Bavarian public television. Mr Pötzsch will be reading in both German and English for this event. More on our Facebook event page.
Thursday, September 12, 7 pm at Boswell:An evening of Irish storytelling and song, with Erin Hart, author of The Book of Killowen, and Paddy O'Brien, author of The Road from Castlebarnagh.
In addition to being a mystery writer, Erin Hart happens to be an expert on bog artifacts. Her husband, Paddy O'Brien, is a world-renowned accordion player with thousands of folk tunes in his repertoire. With live music and fascinating tales, this is bound to be a fine céilidh!
In The Book of Killowen, the last installment of Erin Hart’s dazzling, award-winning mystery series, American pathologist Nora Gavin and archaeologist Cormac Maguire joined forces to uncover the truth about a body found in a bog on the rugged west coast of Ireland, and wound up forming a tenuous partnership in love, too. Jacquelyn Mitchard writes, “Can the arcane science and lore of the Irish "bog people," who often died alone and in agony, be fuel for a mystery that actually does what The Da Vinci Code tried to do? A thousand times yes, if Erin Hart's storytelling witchery is at work. Intelligent, eerie, utterly compelling.”
The Road from Castlebarnagh is the story of O’Brien’s life growing up in rural Ireland, near a village called Daingean in County Offaly. His family lived in a thatch-roof cottage, with no running water or electricity. What they did have was plenty of love for each other, support within the community, and many, many stories around the hearth – literally, the fireside. The Irish Gazette calls this “…long-awaited memoir from one of Ireland’s legendary musicians…a rare gift: not just a retelling of personal history but representative of the development of great musicians everywhere: the crossroads where hermitage and individual talent meet.” More on our Facebook event page. 
Friday, September 13, 4 pm, at Boswell (note special time):Brian Floca, author of Locomotive and The Racecar Alphabet.
A recommendation from Boswellian Jannis Mindel for Locomotive:
"Brian Floca has written and illustrated another beautiful and highly informative book about a trip across the west on the newly created transcontinental railroad. The pages of this large format book are packed with sumptuous illustrations depicting all aspects of train travel in the age of the steam train. This book is terrific for train lovers of all ages."
Brian Floca is a critically acclaimed author and illustrator. His books include Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Lightship, also a Sibert Honor Book; and The Racecar Alphabet, an ALA Notable Children’s Book; and he also illustrated Avi’s Poppy Stories, among others. More on our Facebook event page. 
Sunday, September 15, 3 pm, at Boswell:
Barbara Mujica, author of I Am Venus.
Barbara Mujica's latest novel is a sweeping and vivid recreation of a corrupt kingdom on the brink of collapse. Reminiscent of Girl with a Pearl Earring, it is a thrilling novel that brings to life the public and private worlds of Spain’s greatest painter, Diego Velázquez. Narrated by the model who posed for “The Toilet of Venus,” the only surviving female nude portrait by Velázquez, I Am Venus re-imagines the life of a great artist’s rise to fame during a time of great political turmoil through the lens of romance and scandal.
Barbara Mujica is a prolific novelist, essayist, short story writer and critic whose work has been published in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She is a professor at Georgetown University and a specialist in early modern Spanish literature.More on our Facebook event page.
Preview event: Monday, September 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:Kathryn Davis, author of Duplex, The Thin Place, Hell, and Versailles.
Let's be blunt here. This is the best novel Stacie has read this year. If you question this, I should note that she officially read Simon Van Booy's The Illusion of Separateness in 2012.
From Stacie M. Williams:“Mary and Eddie are star-crossed high school sweethearts. Their teacher is having an affair with a sorcerer who has no soul and envies the ability of humans to fall in love. A family of robots who can shrink to the size of a pocket pal live next door with their hirsute human-like beast pet. Adolescent girls gather to ominously share, through hushed whispers, stories of what happened to girls who didn't value their purity: tales that include sudden disappearances, darkened foliage-laden paths, a mysterious rain, and fierce mermaids. Such a strange and wondrous landscape that feels simultaneously of the past and of the future, of urban legend and daymare, Duplex explores the very human search for a connection to "the other"--the other person, place, thing, idea, or self. With its pithy and beauteous turns-of-phrase, this labyrinthine novel of adolescence and mythology is one of the most mesmerizing, hypnotic things I have ever read.”
Kathryn Davis puts the "spectacular" in "speculative" fiction. To much? She has received numerous awards including a Kafka Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at Washington University, and lives in Vermont and St. Louis, Missouri. More on our Facebook event page. Hope to see you at one of our upcoming events.
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