Monday, February 25, 2019

Join the conversation at Boswell: Chris Jones with Mark Clements of Milwaukee Rep, Chloe Benjamin (The Immortalists) in conversation with Lucy Tan, Nickolas Butler in conversation with Mitch Teich

Monday, February 25, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Chris Jones, author of Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton, in conversation with Mark Clements

Chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of the Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones chats theater history with Mark Clements, Artistic Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Jones tells the story of Broadway’s renaissance, from the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, via the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, through the unparalleled financial, artistic and political success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. It is the story of the embrace of risk and substance, where the theater thrived by finally embracing the bold statement and inserting itself into the national conversation.

Chris Jones was in the theaters when and where it mattered and chronicles the era in a singularly creative way, tapping into the nexus of artistic innovation, the business of show business, new forms of audience engagement, and the political fevers that can emerge. Whether you booed or applauded for the many plays and musicals discussed in Rise Up!, there is no denying that Jones vividly captures the theater's new clout as it attempts change American society for the better.

Chris Jones is the chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of the Chicago Tribune. He is author of Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 Years of Chicago Theater and his work has appeared often in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Variety. He was named one of the most influential theater critics in America by American Theater and is a winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. Mark Clements is an award-winning director and serves as Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Rep.

Tuesday, February 26, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Chloe Benjamin, author of The Immortalists and Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised

Madison comes to Milwaukee! Lucy Tan and Chloe Benjamin, both Madison-based authors and graduates of UW-Madison’s MFA program, chat at Boswell.

Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists was one of the breakout novels of 2018, a New York Times bestseller that asks, “What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?” Entertainment Weekly picked The Immortalists as one of the ten best books of the year, and it's now #4 on The New York Times bestseller list in paperback.

Lucy Tan’s debut novel tells of a China-born couple who return to Shanghai as expats. Told in alternating voices by the couple and their housekeeper-turned-ayi, After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family settles into a luxurious serviced apartment in Shanghai and join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city. Chloe praised What We were Promised as a “compassionate and heartbreaking, funny and wise.”

Can't make our evening event? Lucy Tan will be at UWM's Garland Hall, 2441 E Hartford Ave, room 104, on Tuesday, February 26 at Noon. This event is presented by Asian Studies, the English Department, the Honors College, and the Center for International Education, and is moderated by Xin Huang, Assistant Professor of  Women's and Gender Studies.

Chloe Benjamin is author of The Immortalists. Her first novel, The Anatomy of Dreams, received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was longlisted for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Wisconsin.

Lucy Tan received degrees from New York University and the University of Wisconsin, where she was awarded the 2016 August Derleth Prize. Her fiction has been published in Asia Literary Review and Ploughshares, where she was winner of the 2015 Emerging Writer's Contest.

We have a little break while Chris and I do publisher presentations in New York, but don't forget about...
Nickolas Butler, author of Little Faith, in conversation with Mitch Teich
Tuesday, March 5, 7:00 pm, at Boswell

Boswell is thrilled to host prize-winning Wisconsin author Nickolas Butler, whose previous novel was the much loved Shotgun Lovesongs, for a conversation with WUWM Lake Effect's Mitch Teich about the release of his latest, the story of a Wisconsin family grappling with the power and limitations of faith.

Lyle Hovde is living out his golden years in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg, daughter, Shiloh, and six-year old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence, Shiloh has finally come home, but she has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced wee Isaac has the ability to heal the sick. While reckoning with his own lack of faith, Lyle soon finds himself torn between unease and his desire to keep his daughter and grandson in his life.

Soon, the church’s radical belief system threatens Isaac’s safety, and Lyle is forced to make a decision from which the family may not recover. Set over the course of one year and beautifully evoking the change of seasons, Little Faith is a powerful and deeply affecting intergenerational novel about family and community, the ways in which belief is both formed and shaken, and the lengths we go to protect our own.

Nickolas Butler was raised in Eau Claire. He is a graduate of UW–Madison and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is the author of The Hearts of Men, Shotgun Lovesongs, and Beneath the Bonfire.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending February 23, 2019

Here are the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending February 23, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
2. Good Riddance, by Elinor Lipman (register for March 11 event here)
3. Devotions, by Mary Oliver
4. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
5. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
6. There There, by Tommy Orange
7. Finding Dorothy, by Elizabeth Letts
8. Bowlaway, by Elizabeth McCracken
9. Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli
10. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles (register for April 3 event here)

Jessie Martin from Nicola's Books offers a recommendation of Elizabeth McCracken's Bowlaway: "At the turn of the 20th century, Bertha Truitt is found lying unconscious in a frosty New England cemetery with no explanation of how she arrived there and a past she is unwilling to talk about. In a bag by her side are a corset, a bowling ball, one candlepin, and 15 pounds of gold. Thus begins a story of love, bowling, and how Bertha Truitt would influence the town of Salford and its residents for generations to come." Dwight Garner reviews McCracken's first novel in 18 years in The New York Times.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Threat, by Andrew G McCabe
2. The Cooking Gene, by Michael W Twitty
3. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
4. Spearhead, by Adam Makos
5. Women Rowing North, by Mary Pipher
6. Educated, by Tara Westover
7. How to Hide an Empire, by Daniel Immerwahr
8. The First Conspiracy, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
9. Dreyer's English, by Benjamin Dreyer
10. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat

Last weekend every news channel was featuring Andrew McCabe's The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. CNN thinks that Trump's tweets against it helped sales. Ron Elving on NPR weighs in as well.


Paperback Fiction:
1. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin (event Tue 2/26, 7 pm, at Boswell)
2. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
3. Affliction, by C Dale Young
4. The Milkman, by Anna Burns
5. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
6. The Curiosities, by Susan Gloss
7. Sing Unburied Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
8. Cloudbursts, by Thomas McGuane
9. The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Slimani
10. I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon (register for March 7 event at Lynden Sculpture Garden here)

Cloudbursts: Collected and New Stories from Thomas McGuane was named one of the best books of the year from The Wall Street Journal. In its second week of sale in paperback, it hit our bestseller list. Gabe Habash notes in the Los Angeles Times: "Two of his last four books have been story collections, Gallatin Canyon and Crow Fair,bincluded in their entirety in Cloudbursts, along with stories from his first collection, To Skin a Cat, as well as eight new stories, nearly all set in Montana. These 45 career-spanning stories contain more artistry, humor, eyebrow-raising plot turns, and surprising diction than seems possible in one book."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Cooking Gene, by Michael W Twitty
2. Permission to Thrive, by Susan Angel Miller
3. Mother of Black Hollywood, by Jenifer Lewis
4. In the Shadow of Powers, by Patrick Bellegarde Smith
5. Dear White Christians, by Jennifer Harvey
6. Raising White Kids, by Jennifer Harvey
7. Go Ahead in the Rain, by Hanif Abdurraqib
8. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
9. Martin and Malcolm and America, by James Cone
10. Breaking the Vicious Cycle, by Elaine Gottschall

I don't often see a recommendation for a book from actress and singer Brandy Norwood so I thought I'd call your attention to her shout out for Jenifer Harvey, who plays a grandmother on Black-ish: "The Mother of Black Hollywood is inspiring, funny, and boldly transparent. It takes a beyond brave person to write such a memoir. Jenifer Lewis is a true vessel and channel for pure expression...the most honest person I have ever met." Lewis almost came to Milwaukee for the DMEF lunch. The new speaker is Jesse Holland. Buy your ticket here for the March 30 celebration.

Books for Kids:
1. The Survivors Club (paperback), by Michael Bornstein with Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
2. The Art of Losing, by Lizzy Mason
3. The Happy Book, by Andy Rash
4. The Survivors Club (hardcover), by Michael Bornstein with Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
5. Beautiful Oops, by Barney Saltzberg
6. Crazy Hair Day, by Barney Saltzberg
7. Arno Needs Glasses, by Barney Saltzberg
8. Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights, by Rob Sanders
9. Would You Rather Be a Princess or a Dragon?, by Barney Saltzberg
10. Hello Lighthouse, by Sophie Blackall

The weather held up enough for us to have a great kids event with Lizzy Mason for The Art of Losing, in conversation with former Boswellian Phoebe Dyer. Mason also visited Nicolet High School. Hey, you might be saying, I teach at a high school and I would love to have an author visit. You can email jenny@boswellbooks.com. Bustle notes calls Mason's debut "a riveting story about loss, addiction, and love, The Art of Losing is a poignant novel readers young and old will be able to relate to."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins highlights some of the great authors coming to Milwaukee, including Nicholas Butler, Anna Quindlen, and Amor Towles. Note that Jon Meacham (which we're helping with) is sold out. It turns out Michelle Obama is not, there are only a few single seats left and they are in the $650-$825. If this seat is calling your name, you can get one here.

Patty Rhule from USA Today reviews Yangsze Choo's The Night Tiger, which is "so vividly told, you can practically smell the oleander blossoms outside Acton’s house."

Ann Levin (Associated Press) weighs in on Nobody's Looking at You, a new collection of essays from Janet Malcolm: "It would be frightening to be interviewed by Janet Malcolm. But the same qualities that make her such a fearsome interlocutor also lend her essays an uncommon clarity."

Monday, February 18, 2019

Events; Michael W Twitty, Susan Angel Miller, Lizzy Mason, Stephen Savage, Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, Jennifer Harvey, Andy Rash, Chris Jones

Tuesday, February 19, 4:00 pm, at UWM Golda Meir Library, Fourth floor conference Center, 2311 E Hartford Ave:
Michael W Twitty, author of The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South 

The UWM Stahl Center for Jewish Studies features a panel discussion featuring Michael Twitty, along with Portia Cobb, Jennifer Jordan, and Shahanna McKinney Baldon,

Moderated by Kyle Cherek, host of Wisconsin Foodie. Free and open to the public, no registration required. Cosponsored by UWM’s Stahl Center for Jewish Studies and Boswell.

Here's a little more about Twitty's book: Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who owns it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.

From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors' survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia.

Twitty's talk at the Milwaukee Public Library Mitchell Street branch on Monday, February 18, 6:30, is fully registered, but there's likely a waiting list line at the event.

Tuesday, February 19, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Susan Angel Miller, author of Permission to Thrive: My Journey from Grief to Growth

Milwaukee author and speaker Susan Angel Miller tells the story of her family’s journey through illness and loss in order to confront death, illness, and trauma while conveying a hopeful message about personal growth in face of life’s inevitable adversities. Cosponsored by Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.

Susan Angel Miller traces her extraordinary journey, which begins when her healthy fourteen-year-old daughter dies suddenly and the family's difficult decision to donate Laura's organs, saving the life of a woman with whom the Miller family would eventually cultivate an exceptional relationship.

This intensely personal story addresses the unnerving and universal topics of death, illness, and trauma while conveying a hopeful message: life-changing tragedies might be impossible to prevent or predict, but it is the response to these adversities which influences the extent and likelihood of post-traumatic emotional growth. This memorable book speaks to anyone who fears when that next bad event will occur and wonders how they will respond.

Susan Angel Miller earned degrees from the University of Michigan and Loyola, and has held leadership positions with the National Council of Jewish Women-Milwaukee Section, The Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and The Milwaukee Jewish Community Center. Angel Miller also gives presentations on empathy, post-traumatic growth (PTG), and organ donation awareness.

Wednesday, February 20, 6:30 pm, at Boswell:
Lizzy Mason, author of The Art of Losing, in conversation with Phoebe Dyer,

Boswell is pleased to welcome YA author Lizzy Mason for a conversation about her compelling debut novel of sisterhood, addiction, and loss with Boswell-bookseller-turned-book-publicist Phoebe Dyer. Perfect for adults and teens 14+.

On one terrible night, 17-year-old Harley Langston’s life changes forever. At a party she discovers her boyfriend, Mike, hooking up with her younger sister, Audrey. Furious, she abandons them both. When Mike drunkenly attempts to drive Audrey home, he crashes and Audrey ends up in a coma.

Now Harley is left with guilt, grief, pain and the undeniable truth that her now ex-boyfriend has a drinking problem. So it’s a surprise that she finds herself reconnecting with Raf, a neighbor and childhood friend wrestling with his own demons. At first Harley doesn’t want to get too close to him. But as her sister slowly recovers, Harley begins to see a path forward with Raf’s help that she never would have believed possible.

Critics call The Art of Losing lyrical, authentic, brave, and moving. Publishers Weekly says, “The interwoven stories of many kinds of love - between friends, sisters, and possible romantic partners - give this well-paced book a depth that makes it more than just another recovery tale.”

Lizzy Mason was until recently Director of Publicity at Bloomsbury Kids. She is now Director of Marketing and Publicity at Page Street Kids. Phoebe Dyer was a bookseller at Boswell. She is now a publicist at Bloomsbury.

Thursday, February 21, 6:30 pm, at Boswell:
Stephen Savage, author of The Babysitter From Another Planet

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor winning author/illustrator of Supertruck shows off his latest picture book, a story about kids who are in for a treat when their parents leave them with a babysitter who is truly out of this world.

When their parents go out for the evening, a brother and sister are left with a babysitter unlike any they’ve ever had before—an alien from another planet! But even though she seems a little strange, the kids quickly see that this babysitter can make anything fun…even brushing their teeth and doing their homework.

It’s ET meets Mary Poppins, and as soon as the babysitter from another planet is gone, the kids can’t wait for her to come back again. With sly sci-fi references from classic movies sure to produce a chuckle from knowing parents, Savage has produced a visual and verbal tour de force that School Library Journal calls a “super read-aloud selection to share one-on-one or with group, even at bedtime.”

Stephen Savage’s accolades include a New York Times Best Illustrated Book declaration for Polar Bear Night and a Geisel Honor for Supertruck. He teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Friday, February 22, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, author of In the Shadow of Powers: Dantès Bellegarde in Haitian Social Thought, 2nd ed.

UWM Professor Emeritus of African and African Diaspora Studies traces the history of Haiti through the life and career of his grandfather Dantès Bellegarde, one of Haiti's most influential diplomats and preeminent thinkers. Cosponsored by UWM's Department of African and African Diaspora Studies.

Throughout much of the twentieth century and even to this day, there has been a dearth of scholarship on the intellectual and political contributions of Haitians. Out of a slave rebellion, Haiti was forged as an independent nation. This should be enough to perpetuate an image of Haitians as strong and agentive people. But countries on both sides of the Atlantic were intent on sapping it of resources. More than a century of trade restrictions, the imposition of crippling fines, and, eventually, a US occupation followed. Yet even under these penalties, Haitians persisted, some becoming influential actors in the world of global politics.

First published in 1985, this second edition updates an invaluable and foundational text of the intellectual and political history of Haiti. Scholars who want to learn about the intellectual and political foundations of Haiti, its influence on other intellectuals worldwide, and its struggles against imperialism continue to find this to be an invaluable classic.

Patrick Bellegarde-Smith is a professor emeritus of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is author of Haiti: The Breached Citadel, Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in a New World and Invisible Powers: Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture.

Saturday, February 23, 1:00, at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 1100 N Astor St:
A talk and workshop with Jennifer Harvey, author of Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation 

Immanuel Presbyterian Church presents author, teacher, and speaker, Jennifer Harvey for an afternoon lecture, titled ‘Understanding Racial Identity,’ and workshop. Register here for this event. Cosponsored by Boswell. Dr. Jennifer Harvey, a sought-after speaker on the topic of racial justice, focuses much of her work on the intersection of religion, ethics, race, gender, and spirituality. This engagement with Dr. Harvey is another step in Immanuel's commitment to continuing conversation and action around the realities of racial injustice and white privilege in church and culture.

In Dear White Christians, Harvey argues for a radical shift in how justice-committed white Christians think about race with insightful historical analysis of the painful fissures that emerged among activist Christians toward the end of the Civil Rights movement. In Raising White Kids, Harvey presents an ideal resource for families, churches, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most radically diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions.

Jennifer Harvey is Professor of Religion at Drake University. Dr. Harvey also contributes to NPR, The New York Times, and Huffington Post and is ordained in the American Baptist Churches.

Saturday, February 23, 2:00 pm, at Boswell:
Andy Rash, author of The Happy Book

Milwaukee author/illustrator Andy Rash returns to Boswell for a story time and sing song fun with his latest picture book, a story about two friends who can’t escape feeling all the feels.

Camper is happy as a clam, and Clam is a happy camper. When you live in The Happy Book, the world is full of daisies and sunshine and friendship cakes. Until your best friend eats the whole cake and doesn’t save you one bite!

Moving from happiness to sadness and everything in between, Camper and Clam have a hard time finding their way back to happy. But maybe happy isn’t the goal. Maybe being a good friend is about supporting each other and feeling together. At once funny and thoughtful, The Happy Book supports social-emotional learning, a book to keep young readers company no matter how they’re feeling.

Milwaukee’s Andy Rash has illustrated for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. He is author/illustrator of the picture books Archie, The Daredevil Penguin and Unstinky.

Monday, February 25, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Chris Jones, author of Rise Up!: Broadway and American Society from Angels in America to Hamilton, in conversation with Mark Clements

Chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of the Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones chats theater history with Mark Clements, Artistic Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Jones tells the story of Broadway’s renaissance, from the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, via the disaster that was Spiderman: Turn off the Dark, through the unparalleled financial, artistic and political success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. It is the story of the embrace of risk and substance, where the theatre thrived by finally embracing the bold statement and inserting itself into the national conversation.

Chris Jones was in the theaters when and where it mattered and chronicles the era in a singularly creative way, tapping into the nexus of artistic innovation, the business of show business, new forms of audience engagement, and the political fevers that can emerge. Whether you booed or applauded for the many plays and musicals discussed in Rise Up!, there is no denying that Jones vividly captures the theatre's new clout as it attempts change American society for the better.

Chris Jones is the chief theater critic and Sunday culture columnist of The Chicago Tribune. He is author of Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 Years of Chicago Theater and his work has appeared often in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Variety. He was named one of the most influential theater critics in America by American Theater and is a winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. Mark Clements is an award-winning director and serves as Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Rep.

More Boswell programming on our upcoming events page.

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Here are the week's reading intentions, for the period ending July 16, 2019

Here are the week's reading intentions, for the period ending July 16, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Black Leopard Red Wolf, by Marlon James
2. All the Names They Used for God, by Anjali Sachdeva
3. Circe, by Madeline Miller
4. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
5. Finding Dorothy, by Elizabeth Letts
6. Early Riser, by Jasper Fforde
7. The Female Persuasion, by Meg Wolitzer
8. The Lost Man, by Jane Harper
9. The Overstory, Richard Powers
10. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai

Elizabeth Letts's new novel Finding Dorothy (just out this week) peels back the layers of The Wizard of Oz and finds widow of L Frank Baum trying to maneuver her way onto the MGM set where they are filming the movie. Library Journal's reviewer writes "Fans of the Oz novels or film will be enchanted" while Book Page offers: "In some ways reminiscent of Jerry Stahl's excellent I, Fatty, Letts' Finding Dorothy combines exhaustive research with expansive imagination, blending history and speculation into a seamless tapestry. It's true that Oz author L. Frank Baum's widow spent time with Judy Garland on set. And it's from this point of departure--California, not Kansas--that Letts leads us down a parallel pair of yellow brick roads."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Millennial Whisperer, by Chris Tuff
2. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
3. Not for Long, by Robert W Turner
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. Dreyer's English, by Benjamin Breyer
6. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
7. Mother Winter, by Sophia Shamiyev
8. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat
9. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
10. The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis

Also new this week is Mother Winter, Sophia Shamiyev's story of trying to find the estranged mother she left behind when she emigrated to the United States from Russia. Her fans include Chris Krauss, Michelle Tea, and Eileen Myles, who wrote "Vividly awesome and truly great." Well that was truly a textual read. Paris Review's is a little more detailed: "The lyrical prose of Sophia Shalmiyev’s memoir, Mother Winter, splits open like layer after layer of an ornate matryoshka. With a mesmeric voice and scathing vulnerability, Shalmiyev peels her past down to its hollow core: the vacancy left by her absent mother. "

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin (event Tue Mar 5, 7 pm, with Lucy Tan)
2. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
3. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
4. The Discovery of Witches V1, by Madeline Miller
5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
6. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
7. Improvement, by Joan Silber
8. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
9. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
10. The Milkman, by Anna Burns

So exciting to see both An American Marriage and The Immortalists break into the top 10 paperbacks at The New York Times. And while Paris by the Book has not yet hit national lists, Liam Callanan's third novel has now hit six regional indie bestseller lists. On the other hand, several other 2018 bestsellers won't see paperback releases for some time - Circe has been delayed until September 2019 while Where the Crawdads Sing (August 2018) has no paperback scheduled and likely won't see a paperback release until 2020. Circe's success has also lifted sales of Song of Achilles, Madelijne Miller's previous novel.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, by Richard P Feynman
3. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
4. All the Pieces Matter, by Jonathan Abrams
5. All the Wild Hungers, by Karen Babine
6. Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
7. Climate, by Charles Eisenstein
8. Fascism, by Madeleine Albright
9. The Cooking Gene, by Michael W Twitty (event at UWM Golda Meir Library, Tue Feb 19, 4 pm)
10. Uneasy Piece, by Patrick Sharkey

Several February 12 paperback releases make this week's top 10, most notably Born a Crime: Scenes from a South African Childhood from Trevor Noah. You probably know that one, but there's also All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of the Wire, from Jonathan Abrams. From Samantha Nelson at AV Club: "Ten years after it wrapped, The Wire is widely considered one of the best shows of all time, but Abrams presents a number of views about its impact. Did it hurt Baltimore? Portend the death of Freddie Gray? Glorify crime and violence? Like The Wire itself, All The Pieces Matter doesn’t provide much in the way of answers. But the stories Abrams tells deliver the same mix of humor and despair that made The Wire worth writing so much about."

Books for Kids:
1. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade
2. On the Come Up, by Angie Thomas
3. Watch Us Rise, by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan
4. How to Properly Dispose of Planet Earth V2, by Paul Noth
5. How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens V1, by Paul Noth
6. The Good Egg, by Jory John, with illustrations by Pete Oswald
7. Archie the Daredevil Penguin, by Andy Rash
8. Dog Man: Brawl of the Wild V6, by Dav Pilkey
9. The Trials of Morrigan Crow: Nevermoor V1, by Jessica Townsend
10. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd

It's the 2nd week of sale for Angie Thomas's On the Come Up and it's a national bestseller. Maria Russo interviewed Thomas for The New York Times: "I had this character, Bri, and I knew she had to be a rapper, but that’s all. I got the idea for the plot after The Hate U Give, when I began to deal with challenges to the novel, people trying to censor it." Variety notes that Fox bought the film rights to the new book.

Over at the Journal Sentinel Life section:

--Rasha Ali offers 17 kids books to read for Black History Month. This is from USA Today.

--Hillel Italie interviews Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. He notes "I’ve always thought we go back to the myths when we want answers." Read the rest here in Associated Press.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Event alert: Robert W Turner on NFL players after the game is over, YA with Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan at Washington Park Library, Karen Babine on caregiving and cancer

What's going on at Boswell, in between the snowflakes. Note that Wednesday and Saturday are two days this week where no precipitation is expected.

Wednesday, February 13, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Robert W Turner II, author of Not For Long: The Life and Career of the NFL Athlete

Former professional football player and current Assistant Professor of Clinical Research and Leadership at George Washington University, Robert W Turner II traces the career trajectory of NFL players before and after their time in the league. Turner will read from his book and then participate in a conversation with former Wisconsin Badger and NFL running back Montee Ball.

The NFL is the most popular professional sports league in America, but for players, making it to the league is not about the promised land of fame and fortune. Turner II draws on his own experience and interviews with current and former NFL players to reveal what it means to be in the league and explain why so many struggle with life after football.

Retirees experience financial ruin, live with chronic pain, and many find themselves on the wrong side of the law. With little job security and few health and retirement benefits, Turner II argues that the fall of so many players is no accident. The NFL powerfully determines their experiences in and out of the league, and the process of becoming an elite football player leaves athletes with few marketable skills and little preparation for their first Sunday off the field.

Robert W Turner II earned a Ph.D. from City University of New York and is Assistant Professor of Clinical Research and Leadership at George Washington University. Dr. Turner played football professionally in the now defunct United States Football League, the Canadian Football League, and the National Football League.

Saturday, February 16, 3:00 pm, at Milwaukee Public Library, Washington Park Branch, 2121 N Sherman Blvd:
Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan, author of Watch Us Rise

Newbery Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Renée Watson teams up with poet Ellen Hagan at MPL’s Washington Park Branch to present this YA feminist anthem about raising your voice. Perfect for adults and teens 13 and up.

Jasmine and Chelsea are sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post everything online - poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences - and soon they go viral.

But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by online trolls. When things escalate, the principal shuts the club down. Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices, and those of other young women, to be heard in this story, which Julie Murphy, the bestselling author of Dumplin’ calls “timely, thought-provoking, and powerful… an immediate young adult classic.”

Renée Watson is the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning author of the novels Piecing Me Together, This Side of Home, and Betty Before X, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, as well as the picture books Harlem's Little Blackbird and A Place Where Hurricanes Happen. Watson is founder of the nonprofit I, Too, Arts Collective. Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer, and educator. Her latest collection of poetry, Hemisphere, was published by Northwestern University Press.

Saturday, February 16, 6:00 pm, at Boswell:
Karen Babine, author of All the Wild Hungers: A Season of Cooking and Cancer

Minneapolis author Karen Babine, winner of the Minnesota Book Award, appears with her new memoir, All the Wild Hungers, an affecting chronicle of one family’s experience of illness and of a writer's culinary attempt to make sense of the inexplicable.

When her mother is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Babine can’t help but wonder: feed a fever, starve a cold, but what do you do for cancer? She commits herself to preparing her mother anything she will eat, a vegetarian diving headfirst into the unfamiliar world of bone broth and pot roast.

In these essays, Babine ponders the intimate connections between food, family, and illness. How do we seek meaning where none is to be found, and can we create it from scratch? Book Riot says, “Babine’s essays focus on food as a vehicle for handling the pain of her mother’s cancer diagnosis… her lines are like poetry - which is exactly how good food, and family, should be.”

Karen Babine is author of Water and What We Know: Following the Roots of a Northern Life, winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for memoir/creative nonfiction, and a finalist for the Midwest Book Award and the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award. She also edits Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies. She holds an MFA from Eastern Washington University and a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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