Monday Event Post--Sandra Ackerman, Matthew Gavin Frank, Edan Lepucki, Nick Harkaway Release Party, Find Waldo Local Wrap Party, Plus a Deborah Harkness Preview.

Tuesday, July 29,  4-6 pm, Nick Harkaway's Tigerman release celebration.

We  have been queried by customers about doing midnight release parties this fall, specifically for David Mitchell and Haruki Murakami. I asked my staff and I could not get enough volunteers to make this work. This person has to work at Starbucks at 4 in the morning, this other person has to work all day and host the events in the evening. Hey, that's me!

But former Boswellian Hannah, who had been rocking hand-selling Nick Harkaway during her tenure at the store, had long petitioned for the author to visit Milwaukee on his first tour, and while the tour did not happen to the extent that he slipped into the midwest, we are hosting Mr. Harkaway for a virtual visit this week and are celebrating from 4-6 pm with a release party of sorts.

A. Tigerman is Boswell's Best. Buy Harkaway's newest at an extra incentivized good price.
B. Take the Nick Harkaway personality quiz.
C. Have a Hannah-made cupcake! (Hannah made = better than home made, and in a completely different league than monster-made)
D. Agree that Nick Harkaway is the best author ever. Do you think it's coincidence A Most Wanted Man, a film based on a John LeCarré novel is playing next door, or fate?


Tuesday, July 29, 6 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.: Sandra Ackerman, author of Milwaukee: Then and Now.

You're probably wondering "why the new edition?" Well this book was originally part of a series published by Thunder Bay Press, a Canadian promotional publisher that was owned by Advanced Marketing that was picked up with Baker and Taylor when they went bankrupt. Several books in the series are seemingly still available, but somehow Ackerman was able to get the rights back on this one. This location, both as Schwartz and Boswell, sold over 1000 copies of the previous edition.

Watch Ackerman on Morning Blend today. My apologies on the room change, as the event switched from the Rare Books Room on the 2nd floor to the first floor meeting room.

Wednesday, July 30,  7 pm, at Boswell:
Matthew Gavin Frank, author of Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer.

I have done this enough to know that just because Frank had a front page review in the New York Times Book Review is not enough for you to come out and hear the author. But John Mooallem's review is quite good. Here's a taste:

"Preparing the Ghost, Frank’s slyly charming book-length essay, explores Harvey’s compulsion to understand the mystery of the giant squid and also Frank’s compulsion to understand compulsions like Harvey’s. Frank is interested in both the way we mythologize what we can’t fully understand and the amount of uncertainty that surrounds every story. (It’s not even clear if Tommy Picco existed; Harvey may have invented him to liven up his story. And Frank has no problem clouding the facts further by embellishing some of the historical scenes he relays.) Frank winds up musing about a lot--it’s a wide-ranging book — but the giant squid is always pulsating somewhere in the darkness underneath it all."

Here's William Giraldi's review in The Wall Street Journal.

From Andrea Denhoed in The New Yorker: "The book is a history of people who have become enthralled by the giant squid; it is also a larger exploration of the human tendency to fall into obsession and mythologize the actual, just because it’s unusual.'"

Frank also has a lot of nice quotes from fellow authors, the most prominent of which is probably Simon Winchester. "Fans of Federico Fellini and, most especially, of Georges Perec, will adore Mr. Frank’s infuriatingly baroque, charmingly eccentric and utterly unforgettable book. And with hand on heart I can truly say that I also loved every word of it."

So here's our three areas of interest--creative nonfiction, photography, Georges Perec fans, squids. We once had an octopus gift table in the store. Doesn't that mean anything?

Thursday, July 31, 3-5 pm, at Boswell
Find Waldo Now Wrap-Party.

I was very excited to vist Bartz's: The Party Store on North Avenue in Wauwatosa so I could pick up our Waldo costume. One of the rules of having someone be Waldo is no talking allowed, so now you know if you someday host a Waldo party.

Join us for some Waldo activities, your basic assortment of Waldo swag, but most of all, the Waldo prize giveaway. We've got goodies from Fischberger's Variety, Soaps and Scents, Outpost Natural Foods,  Indulgence Chocolatier, plus Waldo books and Boswell gift cards.

Oh, and the most important thing--we'll have a survey for you to fill out so that we can make Find Waldo Local 2015 better than ever, assuming Candlewick continues the promotion.

Refreshments provided by Nehring's Sendiks on Downer.

Friday, August 1, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Edan Lepucki, author of California.

First of all, a big thank you to the Journal Sentinel for including this event on the front page of the Tap section. Of course we dreamed about the tour (and Boswell) being mentioned on the Colbert Report but heck, that's something to aim for in the future, though not too much in the future, as the show is ending soon.

First of all, I think you need a link to the Colbert Report appearance.

Second of all, I'm sure you want to know if the book is up to snuff? Well, it's my thinking that the book got some tougher reviews than it might have normally, as they saw Lepucki as a lottery winner of sorts, and everybody knows that people who win the lottery don't deserve it, which is why it's completely appropriate to hit them up for money, which is why I don't play the lottery. Also because as a gentleman who enjoys probability and statistics, I know what the odds are.

But we've had some great reads at Boswell, both from Jannis and Carly. "A hyper-realistic literary approach to a not so distant future, Lepucki's California presents a disturbing world of fragmented settlements, the crumbling and rebuilding of communities, as well as their social hierarchies, where people and the things they say and do are not necessarily how they appear on the surface. Frida and Cal, the two main protagonists, find their marriage challenged and tested in the dramatic trappings of this dystopian future when they choose to abandon their safety in order to discover the dark truths about the nature of their current world. An extremely imaginative debut novel!"--Carly Lenz

Monday, August 4, 7 pm, at Boswell

Deborah Harkness, author of The Book of Life, Volume 3 in the All Souls Trilogy.

From Boswellian Jen Steele: "Witches and Vampires and Daemons, oh my! The moment of truth has arrived; the past, the present and the future for all creatures. Diana and Matthew are back from their time-walk in London, 1590 and are faced with new losses and new beginnings. Reunited with their family, they must get to the Ashmole 782 before old enemies get to it. A combination of magic, mystery, science, romance and suspense--these threads, like a weaver’s knot, wrap you up in this book's powerful spell! Sink your teeth into the final installment of the All Souls Trilogy. Once you sit down to start it, you will not want to stop."

A few more things you should know. Though most of the events on the tour are ticketed, or require a book purchase to get on the signing line, our event is free, and we'll allow anyone to get a book signed.

Line letters for the general public will be given out starting at 5 pm on Monday, August 4, but we'll be putting aside the A line letters for folks who bought the book from us. And starting Thursday, we'll be giving out a line letter to folks who buy the book from Boswell, with this caveat--we will not replace the line letter if lost. You'll have to get a new one.

Don't worry, everyone's book will get signed and we'll be here as long as it takes. Yes, we'll close the doors when we hit capacity, but if that happens (and I don't think it will), you'll be able to wait outside till the store opens up again and get your books signed and meet Ms. Harkness and get your picture taken--the whole nine yards.

Stay tuned for next week. There are so many interesting events, you're going to have to double check your calendar to make sure it's not October.