Tuesday, January 7, 7 pm, at Boswell:M. Evelina Galang, author of Angel de La Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery
Galang is the director of the creative writing program for University of Miami, and this is her first novel for young adults, and to my knowledge, the first young adult novel from Minneapolis-based indie, Coffee House Press. I really don't know if it's true, but the cold has be jabbering a bit.
In the story, Angel is coping with the death of her father, when her mother announces that she is moving to Manila to begin a new life, but leaves behind Angel, her sister, and her grandmother. In my quest to mention Jim Higgins' Journal Sentinel profile
every day, you learn (just like we did) that some of the experiences in this book are inspired by growing up in Brookfield. Galang (photo credit Hydee Ursolino Abrahan) went to Brookfield East High School and then to UW Madison.Higgins writes that the "novel is deeply grounded in Angel's Filipina experience, with Tagalog words and Taglish hybrids dropped in the text in the natural places bilingual speakers might use them. Yet it's a story built on a universal template: a mother and teen daughter who don't understand each other in the moment."
Galang's school event was postponed, but as of now, our public event is a go, and with the warning ending by Noon tomorrow, it should be fine tomorrow evening. I'm not saying it's going to be 40 degrees out, but the winds will have died down and the temperature will still be higher than today.
Wednesday, January 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:Jon Kolb, author of The Summer of Rain: Odyssey of a Young P.I.
Whitefish Bay's Kolb has been keeping us posted on his writing endeavors for quite a while, and it was great to see this project come to fruition. He sees this new work as both a mystery and coming-of-age novel, and follows numerous short stories and three plays, all of which have been performed locally.
In The Summer of Rain: Odyssey of a Young PI, Bobby Broyles embarks on a dangerous career as a Private Investigator, pitting himself against corrupt politicians, cynical funeral directors, assassins and beguiling rich women. His hometown engulfed in a tsunami of crime, Bobby struggles to remain alive, protect his working class parents from a vengeful drug dealer, and navigate his way to young manhood. The book has been described by the editor of a major publishing house as having "a crisp, aware feel to it that caught me as a reader and held me throughout."
Saturday, January 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:Samantha Irby, author of Meaty.
Irby's book of essays had a number of great reads (Mel, Stacie, Hannah) at Boswell before she was offered to us as an event. After a little back and forth, a Saturday evening event seemed to work best, as Irby's work schedule didn't allow for a weekday evening appearance, and the content is a little raw* for a weekend daytime event.
Saturday evening events are very special birds and I think only three kinds really work in that slot.
a. local launches
b. super huge names where it's the only way we can host them
c. entertainingly hilarious essayist slash performers.
Right now I'd say Irby falls under "c" but she might become a "b." The book had a great holiday run and was out of stock for part of the holiday season. Congrats to Irby and Curbside Splendor, her publisher! Here's Mel's rec on the book. "Samantha Irby has a potty mouth, doesn't miss a detail, and is an equal-opportunity sh*t-talker. Which means she's probably my soulmate. At any rate, she'll convince you that she's--at the very least--your mom's soulmate in this eye-popping collection of essays. You will learn new words. You will laugh until you wee. And you will want to read passages aloud to friends, lovers, family members, and complete strangers. Don't miss your opportunity for some seriously Meaty reading: this is a collection to savor!"
Hope you can join us at one of these. The heat is working. Oh, and don't forget, tonight's book club discussion of All Saints was moved to January 13, at 6 pm.
*Good and raw. Deliciously raw.
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