Where in the World is Boswell This Week? Beer Bible at Sugar Maple Monday, Matthew J. Prigge at Centennial Hall Tuesday, Michael Witwer on Gary Gygax Wednesday, Bonnie Jo Campbell and Jim Higgins on Thursday, Adam Johnson on Friday, Amelia Klem Osetrud on tattoo history on Saturday, and Jerry Apps at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center on Sunday Afternoon.

Our email newsletter also went out today. Since I'm a it overwhelmed, I am having it do double duty. If you read both, you're probably feeling at this point I'm being repetitive. But on the other hand, maybe you will be convinced to come out to Sugar Maple tonight. Should be fun!

Monday, October 19, 7 pm, at the Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave. in Bay View:
Jeff Alworth, author of The Beer Bible.

The Beer Bible is the ultimate reader- and drinker-friendly guide to all the world's beers. No other book of this depth and scope approaches the subject of beer in the same way that beer lovers do - by style, just as a perfect pub menu is organized-and gets right to the pleasure of discovery, knowledge, and connoisseurship. Divided into four major families - ales, lagers, wheat beers, and tart and wild ales - there's everything a beer drinker wants to know about the hundreds of different authentic types of brews, from bitters, bocks, and IPAs to weisses, milk stouts, lambics, and more. Each style is a chapter unto itself, delving into origins, ingredients, description and characteristics, substyles, and tasting notes, and ending with a recommended list of the beers to know in each category. Hip infographics throughout make the explanation of beer's flavors, brewing methods, ingredients, labeling, serving, and more as immediate as it is lively.

The book is written for passionate beginners, who will love its "if you like X, try Y" feature; for intermediate beer lovers eager to go deeper; and for true geeks, who will find new information on every page. History, romance, the art of tasting, backstories and anecdotes, appropriate glassware, bitterness units, mouthfeel, and more-it's all here. Plus a primer on pairing beer and food using the three Cs- complement, contrast, or cut. It's the book that every beer lover will read with pleasure, and use with even more.

And what a great location for this event! Sugar Maple has 60 draft beers on tap with a "diverse and eclectic selection (that) will satisfy the discerned aficionado."

Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 pm, at Milwaukee Public Library's Loos Room, 733 N. Eighth St.:
Matthew J. Prigge, author of Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder and Mystery in the Cream City's First Century

Boswell is excited to partner with the Milwaukee Public Library for an event with Matthew Prigge, author of Milwaukee Mayhem and host of WMSE 91.7's weekly local history segment What Made Milwaukee Famous, at Central Library's Loos Room, located at 733 N. 8th Street in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Mayhem uncovers the little-remembered and rarely told history of the underbelly of a Midwestern metropolis from murder and matchstick men to all-consuming fires, painted women, and Great Lakes disasters - and the wide-eyed public who could not help but gawk at it all.

Prigge offers a new perspective on Milwaukee's early years, forgoing the major historical signposts found in traditional histories and focusing instead on the strange and brutal tales of mystery, vice, murder, and disaster that were born of the city's transformation from lakeside settlement to American metropolis. These stories are presented as they were recounted to the public in the newspapers of the era, using the vivid and often grim language of the times to create an engaging and occasionally chilling narrative of a forgotten city.

Wednesday, October 21, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Michael Witwer, author of Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons.

Lifelong gamer and gaming enthusiast, actor, and Chicago author, Michael Witwer, is coming to Boswell for his new book, Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons the first comprehensive biography of the mythic icon among geek and gaming culture. Empire of Imagination offers the complete story behind the invention of Dungeons & Dragons, the best-known, best-selling role-playing game of all time, and which boasts an elite class of alumni including Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, and Junot Diaz.

The godfather of all fantasy-adventure games, Gary Gygax, has a life story that has been told only in bits and pieces. Michael Witwer has written a dynamic, dramatized biography of Gygax from his childhood in Lake Geneva to his untimely death in 2008. Gygax's magnum opus, Dungeons & Dragons, would explode in popularity throughout the 1970s and '80s and irreversibly alter the world of gaming. Gygax's involvement in the industry lasted long after his dramatic and involuntary departure from D&D's parent company, TSR, and his footprint can be seen in the genre he is largely responsible for creating. But as Witwer shows, perhaps the most compelling facet of his life and work was his unwavering commitment to the power of creativity in the face of myriad sources of adversity-cultural, economic, and personal.

Thursday, October 22, 7 pm, at Boswell Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters, in Conversation with Jim Higgins, arts editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

From the author of National Book Award finalist American Salvage comes a dazzling and suspenseful new story collection, Mothers, Tell Your Daughters. We're honored to host a special evening with Bonnie Jo Campbell in conversation with the Journal Sentinel's Jim Higgins.

Higgins writes of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The collective message that mothers pass on to daughters in some of this book's most powerful stories might be summed up simply as 'danger ahead,' whether that be from predatory men or the difficulties engendered by the power of their own sexuality. In the sobering title story, a dying woman who can no longer speak aloud argues her case for her approach to life, and her record as a parent, in the presence of her adult daughter. 'Women get themselves hurt every day - men mess with girls in this life, they always have, always will - but there's no sense making hard luck and misery your life's work.' Sounds so affirming, doesn't it? But this is a story about abuse, of both women; readers are empaneled on the jury hearing her closing argument."

 If you've read Bonnie Jo Campbell previously, you know that she's disarmingly fearless, and we can say from our previous event with the author that she's just as fascinating in person. A Kalazmazoo resident, who now teaches at Pacific University's MFA program, Campbell grew up on a small Michigan farm with her mother and four siblings. She learned to castrate small pigs, milk Jersey cows, and make a fine batch of chocolate candy. She wound up leaving to study philosophy at the University of Chicago, and detoured to sell snow cones with the circus, and organize tours of Russia and the Baltics. For a time, she lived in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood and attended UWM.

Friday, October 23, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Adam Johnson, author of Fortune Smiles.
This event is cosponsored by the UWM English Department.

Adam Johnson by Tamara Beckwith We're excited to welcome back Adam Johnson, author of the major new short story collection, Fortune Smiles, for his first visit to Milwaukee since winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This event is cosponsored by the UWM English Department. Of the new collection, Ron Charles wrote in The Washington Post: "The six stories in Adam Johnson's new collection, Fortune Smiles, will worm into your mind and ruin your balance for a few days. From ravaged American cities to abandoned torture chambers, these pieces take place in an uncanny world you recognize but don't. They're all cast in an unsettling twilight of moral struggle, and each one is a miniature demonstration of why his remarkable novel The Orphan Master's Son won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for fiction."

The Orphan Master's Son was named one of the best books of the year by more than a dozen major publications, chosen as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and in addition to the Pulitzer, won a host of other prizes, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Now Johnson turns his remarkable talent to a collection of stories that delve deeply into love, loss, the decisions we make for ourselves, and the decisions we make for others. And to add to his honors, Fortune Smiles has just been named a finalist for the National Book Award.

Saturday, October 24, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Anelia Klem Osterud, author of The Tattooed Lady: A History.

Please join us at Boswell for an evening with Amelia Klem Osterud, talking about The Tattooed Lady: A History, which uncovers the true stories of heavily tattooed women throughout history, bringing them out of the sideshow realm and into their working-class realities. Combining thorough research with more than a hundred historical photos, this updated second edition of The Tattooed Lady: A History, explores tattoo origins, women's history, circus lore, and includes even more personal and professional details from modern tattooed ladies.

The Tattooed Lady pays tribute to a group of unique and amazing women whose legacy lives on. Living in a time when it was scandalous even to show a bit of ankle, a small number of courageous women covered their bodies in tattoos and traveled the country, performing nearly nude on carnival stages. These gutsy women spun amazing stories for captivated audiences about abductions and forced tattooing at the hands of savages, but little has been shared of their real lives. Though they spawned a cultural movement-almost a quarter of Americans now have tattoos-these women have largely faded into history.

Sunday, October 25 2 pm, at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, 1111 E. Brown Deer Rd." Jerry Apps, author of Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalists's Memoir.

Boswell is proud to welcome Jerry Apps to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, located at 1111 E. Brown Deer Road in Milwaukee, for a talk about his latest book Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalist's Memoir. This event is free with $8 admission to the Nature Center. In this book, Apps explores such topics as the human need for wilderness, rediscovering a sense of wonder, and his father's advice to "listen for the whispers" and "look in the shadows" to learn nature's deepest lessons.

Jerry Apps was born and raised on a central Wisconsin farm. He is a former county extension agent and professor emeritus for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Today he works as a rural historian, full-time writer, and creative writing instructor, and has written more than forty books. Whispers and Shadows will be a documentary, produced by Wisconsin Public Television and airing on Milwaukee Public Television this holiday season.

Also new is Wisconsin Agriculture: A History. Of that book, Pam Jahnke of Wisconsin Farm Report Radio says: It makes me thankful that Jerry Apps has such a sense of commitment to Wisconsin's agricultural heritage--and to getting the story right."

Monday, October 26, 7 pm, at Boswell:
John Garrison, author of Glass.

Please join us for an event with Carroll University's John Garrison, talking about his latest book, Glass, which explores an object that is all around us, from windows to iPhone screens, and the fascinating and strange ways it reflects our inherent desire for connection. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things, edited by Ian Bogost.

Pause and look, and you will see that you are surrounded by glass: light reflects off and refracts through your windows; it encircles a glowing filament above you; it's in a mirror hanging on the wall; you're drinking water out of a pint glass. Taking up a most common object, rarely considered because assumed to be transparent, Glass draws evocative connections between historical depictions of glass and emergent discourses within the technology sector that envision glass as holding unique promise for new forms of interaction. Grounded in examples familiar to most readers, this book offers a series of surprising, often counter-intuitive, insights into how we see the world and see ourselves in the world.

We also have Tyler Oakley at Boswell on Sunday evening for his new book, Binge. The store is closed to the general public and tickets for the event are sold out.