Monday Event Post--Daniel Shumski's Waffles, Chelsea Cain Kicks It, Kevin Miyazaki offers a Re-lake-able Series of Portraits, the Pout Pout Fish Goes to the Library, Michael Perry Does Dystopian, and the UWM English Department Unites in Reading.

Monday, September 15, 7 pm, at Boswell:

Daniel Shumski, author of Will It Waffle?: 53 Unexpected and Irresistible Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron, with samples by Julie Pandl, author of Memoir of the Sunday Brunch.

From the publisher: "How many great ideas begin with a nagging thought in the middle of the night that should disappear by morning, but doesn t? For Daniel Shumski, it was: "Will it waffle?" Hundreds of hours, countless messes, and 53 perfected recipes later, that answer is a resounding: Yes, it will! Steak? Yes! Pizza? Yes! Apple pie? Emphatically yes. And that s the beauty of being a waffle iron chef waffling food other than waffles is not just a novelty but an innovation that leads to a great end product, all while giving the cook the bonus pleasure of doing something cool, fun, and vaguely nerdy (or giving a reluctant eater your child, say a great reason to dig in)."

Behind the griddle is Julie Pandl, one writer whose spent many a brunch behind a waffle iron. The author of Memoir of the Sunday Brunch is helping us with samples. 

Kristine Kierzek speaks to Shumski in the Journal Sentinel food section.

Listen to Daniel Shumski on Central Time's Food Friday segment on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Watch Shumski today on Morning Blend on WTMJ4 and Studio A on Fox6.

Tuesday, September 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Chelsea Cain, author of One Kick and Heartsick:

After a series of adventures with psychopath Gretchen Lowell, her new heroine, Kick Lanigan, has a dark past, having been kidnapped as a child, and held captive for several years. Now as an adult, she's investigating another missing child: Booklist raves: "This is an edge-of-the-chair thriller, and Cain negotiates the twists and turns with finesse while keeping her foot firmly on the gas pedal. Excruciating yet always compelling."

Alison Flood in the (UK) Guardian praises Cain's newest: "Leavened with Cain's pitch-black wit, One Kick, the start of a new series, is a dark, dangerous journey into evil to find the vanished children, and entirely hide-away-until-you-finish-it gripping."

Wednesday, September 17, 6 pm, at the Haggerty Museum of Art, 530 N 13th St, Milwaukee, WI 53233: Kevin Miyazaki, photographer of Perimeter: A Contemporary Portrait of Lake Michigan.

From the publisher: "Commissioned by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University to create an artwork reflecting on the importance of freshwater, Milwaukee-based photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki embarked on a two-week, 1,800-mile drive around Lake Michigan. In Perimeter, Miyazaki's images of the lake and those drawn to it produce what he calls 'a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan.'"

Read this interview with Mary Louise Schumacher in the Journal Sentinel regarding Perimeter's original exhibition at the Haggerty.

Thursday, September 18, 4 pm, at the Oak Creek Public Library, 8620 S Howell Ave, Oak Creek, WI 53154:
Deborah Diesen and Daniel X. Hannah, author and illustrator of The Pout Pout Fish Goes to School.

On The Pout Pout Fish Goes to School: "Mr. Fish nervously awaits his first day of school. He frets about not knowing how to write his name, how to draw shapes, and how to do math until he's reassured that school is the perfect place to learn how to master all of these new skills."

Watch Deborah and Dan on Morning Blend on Thursday. I'll have the link posted this weekend. Meanwhile you can enjoy these Pout Pout Fish videos.

Thursday, September 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Michael Perry, author of The Scavengers and Coop: 

Michael Perry's first novel for kids is, per the publisher, "an imaginative and humorous novel for middle-graders. With a neighbor's help, 12-year-old Ford Falcon learns to survive in the harsh world outside the Bubble Cities by scavenging for items to use or tradeNskills she needs after her parents go missing."

Kirkus Reviews enthuses: "Sufficient unanswered questions exist to fuel a sequel, but there's no cliffhanger-Perry provides a satisfying closing for his restless heroine.Comparisons to other gritty, engaging tough-girl-with-a-strong-moral-compass stories are inevitable, but Maggie has originality and grit to spare."

Listen to this interview with Michael Perry on Wisconsin Public Radio's Larry Meiller Show.

Friday, September 19, 7 pm, at Boswell:
The UWM Department of English presents United We Read. One faculty and three graduate students from the Creative Writing program will be reading from this work in the fall 2014 launch of this popular series that moves from bookstore to bar to park.

This week's fantastic lineup includes Professor Kimberly Blaeser, and graduate students Ann-Marie Blanchard, Franklin Cline, and Mark Brand.​


A sneak peek at Monday, September 22, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven, reading with the Soulstice Theatre.

Entertainment Weekly gave Station Eleven a resounding A: "One of her great feats is that the story feels spun rather than plotted, with seamless shifts in time and characters. Here, a young Arthur's fateful meeting with his first wife. Then, a Michigan airport where stranded passengers cluster in huddles of horror beneath screens showing CNN. Now, a resolute band of actors whose caravan roams between dystopian settlements performing Shakespeare and Beethoven. ''Because survival is insufficient,'' reads a line taken from Star Trek spray-painted on the Traveling Symphony's lead wagon. The genius of Mandel's fourth novel—the first with the marketing muscle of a major publisher—is that she lives up to those words. This is not a story of crisis and survival. It's one of art and family and memory and community and the awful courage it takes to look upon the world with fresh and hopeful eye."
 

Sigrid Nunez reviews Station Eleven in The New York Times Book Review: "Station Eleven is as much a mystery as it is a post-apocalyptic tale, and Mandel is especially good at planting clues and raising the kind of plot-thickening questions that keep the reader turning pages. Why does the prophet own a dog with the same name as a dog owned by Dr. Eleven? What is the meaning of the two black knives tattooed on Kirsten’s wrist? Who is this “V.” to whom Arthur has written a slew of letters over the years? If Mandel has to rely heavily on coincidence to bring certain parts off, she does so with satisfying panache."

Here's our blog post about the Soulstice Theatre collaboration, featuring Margaret Casey, Bo Johnson, Josh Perkins, and Stephan Roselin, and organized by Mark Flagg. Their next production is a staged reading of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on September 19, 20, 26, and 27.