Events at Boswell--Joanne Fluke Tonight, Shannon Hale at North Shore Library Wednesday, Lydia Kang at Oak Creek Library on Thursday, Brandon Sanderson Here Saturday Evening, Plus a Preview of Next Tuesday's Event with Brigid Pasulka.

Today was email day! You can read the entire thing here, and this week's events are also listed below.

Murder Most Delicious, Tonight (March 18) with Joanne Fluke, 7 pm, at Boswell.

Life is never really quiet for Hannah Swensen, bake shop proprietress and accidental detective. After all, her mother's wedding is a little over a month away and guess who Delores put in charge of the planning? Yet just when Hannah believes her biggest challenge will be whether to use buttercream or fondant for the wedding cake, she accidentally hits a stranger with her cookie truck while driving down a winding country road in a raging thunderstorm. Hannah is wracked with guilt, and things get even worse when she's arrested...for murder!

It's all in Joanne Fluke's new mystery, Blackberry Pie Murder, with Fluke appearing at Boswell tonight at 7 pm. For the occasion, we've commissioned Milwaukee Cupcake Company to make their famous blackberry pie cupcakes. As you can see from the photo, some are garnished with a blackberry, while others have the pie crust garnish. They thought it was such a good idea, they made blackberry cupcakes this week's special flavor, now through Saturday.

Shannon Hale at the North Shore Library, Wednesday, March 19 at 6:30 pm.

When Maisie Danger Brown applied for space camp, she just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that has her and her new friends running for their lives while they try to manage the new superpowers they've accidentally developed.

But there's no going back now--Maisie is the only thing that can save the human race from annihilation. In an action-adventure story that explores a confusing first love, dealing with a disability, and the difficulties of maturing (while saving the world!), this explosive book is sure to leave both longtime Shannon fans and avid sci-fi readers completely breathless.

Dangerous presents Shannon Hale (photo credit Kelly Sansom) in a new genre, but featuring the same brilliant storytelling and well-rounded characters for which she is known. Touted as a brand-new, rip-roaring superhero adventure, New York Times bestselling author of The Maze Runner trilogy James Dashner says of Dangerous: "This is one of the best books I've ever read. Ever."

Shannon Hale's first novel, The Goose Girl, was published in 2003 and won the Josette Frank Award. Her novel, Princess Academy, earned her a Newbery Honor, and her novel for adults, Austenland, became a major motion picture starring Keri Russell.

The North Shore Library is located at 6800 North Port Washington Rd., just north of Bayshore Town Center in Glendale.

Lydia Kang at Oak Creek Library, on Thursday, Mar. 20, 6:30 pm.

Set in 2150, in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms, this is about the human genetic mistakes that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes. When their overprotective father is killed in a terrible accident, Zel and her younger sister,
Dylia, are lost in grief.

But it's not until strangers appear, using bizarre sensory weapons, that the life they had is truly eviscerated. Zel ends up in a safe house for teens that aren't like any she's ever seen--teens who, by law, shouldn't even exist. One of them, an angry, tattooed boy haunted by tragedy, can help Zel reunite with her sister.

Control, the debut by physician-turned-author Lydia Kang, is the perfect thriller for fans, age 8 and up, of dystopian sci-fi novels. Publishers Weekly calls Control "a smart, futuristic medical thriller." The Oak Creek Library is located at 8620 S. Howell Avenue, 53154, just off I43.

Brandon Sanderson at Boswell on Saturday, March 22, 7 pm for a Free Event.

Congratulations to Brandon Sanderson (photo credit Micah DeMoux), whose second book in The Stormlight Archive series, Words of Radiance, is the new #1 bestseller on The New York Times for hardcover fiction. We had a great time with Sanderson when he appeared for his kids' book last fall, and can vouch that all attendees were equally enthusiastic.

In Words of Radiance, readers enter the world of Roshar, a world both alien and magical, shared by humans and the enigmatic, humanoid Parshendi, with whom they are at war. Among those caught up in the conflict are Brightlord Dalinar Kholin, who leads the human armies; his sister Jasnah, a renowned scholar; her student Shallan, a brilliant but troubled young woman; and Kaladin, a military slave who, by the book's end, has become the first magically endowed Knight Radiant in centuries.

We will start giving out line letters at 5 pm. After the talk, there will be a signing, and following that, there will be another short talk, for our Orthodox Jewish friends who cannot arrive until 8 pm. And yes, Mr. Sanderson will personalize and pose for seated photos. He will sign stuff, but not body parts. We have yet to have anyone ask to sign a body part but I know it is done. See you then.

Next Week Event Preview: Brigid Pasulka's Novel of Sun and Soccer on the Italian Coast, Tuesday, March 25, 7:30 pm, at Boswell.

Everyone who enjoyed the PEN Hemingway award winner, A Long Long Time Ago and Essentially True (we read it for our in-store lit group) will be pleased to know that Brigid Pasulka's second novel is finally out, a tale that takes place in the seaside village of San Benedetto, Italy.

The Sun and Other Stars is the story of Etto, a young man, immersed in grief by the loss of his twin brother and mother and now estranged from his father as well. But then a newcomer arrives, Ukrainian soccer star Yuri Fil, taking refuge in the small town from an international scandal, with his sister in tow. The only problem? Etto could care less about soccer, and who better to help them hide?

Publishers Weekly writes that "the resulting complications could easily have been cloyingly heartwarming, but Pasulka avoids cliché with some lovely writing, well-placed low humor, and specificity of place."

Julia Glass calls this "a wondrous and radiant novel," while Gail Tsukiyama calls The Sun and Other Stars "storytelling at its best, and Pasulka has made magic with this wide, poignant tale of love, community, and the sport that brings them all together!" And as Mel notes, what could be a better novel for getting you in the mood for June's World Cup?

Here's a link to our in-store lit group discussion of A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True, which we had back in 2010.

At right above our our blueberry pie cupcakes from Milwaukee Cupcake Company. They are featuring them all week, along with another favorite, their English toffee upcake.