Boswell bestsellers for the week ending June 29, 2019

Here's what is selling at Boswell for the week ending June 29, 2019. Apologies if you already received this on The Boswellians blog.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
2. Time's Convert, by Deborah Harkness
3. A Discovery of Witches V1, by Deborah Harkness
4. The World of All Souls, by Deborah Harkness
5. Shadow of Night V2, by Deborah Harkness
6. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. Big Sky V5, by Kate Atkinson
8. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
9. Girl in the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
10. The Most Fun We Ever Had, by Claire Lombardo (event at Boswell Tue Aug 6, 7 pm)

It might have been a late add to our event schedule but Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had has already hit our top ten twice. The book got an excellent review in The Wall Street Journal from Joanne Kaufman, where she chornicles the "lies, secrets, betrayals, and quarrels" in Lombardo's "assured" first novel: "Just to be clear, these events aren't the fun referred to in the book's title, but they provide ample evidence that life is is messy and life is unfair."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. One Giant Leap, by Charles Fishman
2. Total Rethink, by David McCourt
3. Propeller, by Craig Hickman
4. Keep the Wretches in Order, by Dean A Strang
5. Helping the Good Do Better, by Thomas Sheridan
6. Spying on the South, by Tony Horwitz
7. Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered, by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Harstark
8. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
9. Doodle Love, by Anne Emerson (event at Boswell Thu July 11, 7 pm)
10. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat

I'd like to think that Charles Fishman's book, One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon, rocketed to the top of our bestseller list because of our moon window, but no, it's because he was in town to speak at a water conference. On Fresh Air, he talked about the people who wove the special NASA parachutes: "The parachutes were made of high-tech fabric, and yet they were sewn by hand, and then this sort of marvelous detail: There were only three people in the whole country certified to fold and pack Apollo parachutes. Those three people packed the parachutes for all the Apollo missions, and they had to be relicensed by the FAA every six months to be recertified that they knew what they were doing. And they were considered so valuable to NASA that they were forbidden to ride in the same car at the same time, out of fear that that car would be in a car accident and NASA would be without people to pack its Apollo parachutes."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Time's Convert, by Deborah Harkness
2. A Discovery of Witches V1, by Deborah Harkness
3. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
4. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
5. There There, by Tommy Orange
6. Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain
7. The Book of Live V3, by Deborah Harkness
8. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
9. We're All in This Together, by Amy Jones
10. Shadow of Night V2, by Deborah Harkness

We were honored to be one of four cities that hosted Deborah Harkness for her paperback tour of Time's Convert. Each city had a different talk, all of which were live-streamed on Facebook. You can watch the talk here, which opens with me rushing off stage! We have signed copies of the Time's Convert paperback and must of the hardcovers.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Big Thirst, by Charles Fishman
2. Level Up, by Rochelle Melander
3. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
4. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
5. Wildflowers of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
6. Trees of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
7. The Mueller Report, by US Department of Justice and The Washington Post
8. Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby, by Matthew Inman
9. The Milwaukee Anthology, by Justin Kern
10. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan

Matthew Inman, the Eisner Award-winning creator of The Oatmeal, offers another collection of cat cartoons, following the #1 bestseller, How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You. Inman also came to Milwaukee once - dare I say it was eight years ago? He toured for his latest, but alas, no Milwaukee. He spoke to The Washington Post when he was in DC, noting that he won't be regularly doing The Oatmeal strip much longer: "'I’m not going to retire,' the 36-year-old says. But he’ll go on long-term hiatus and then publish an occasional Oatmeal strip when, 'f I put out a comic, it’s a blessing.'" The article confirms that Inman toured Boswell for what was his first book, Five Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth.

Books for Kids:
1. The Amazing Idea of You, by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, with illustrations by Mary Lundquist
2. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, with illustrations by Melanie Demmer
3. Bad Guys in the Big Bad Wolf V9, by Aaron Blabey
4. With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo
5. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renee Graef
6. A Tale of Two Kitties V3, by Dav Pilkey
7. 12 Days of Christmas, by Robert Sabuda
8. Viral, by Ann Bausum
9. Dragons Love Tacos 2, by Adam Rubin, with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
10. Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson (ticketed event at Boswell, Mon Sep 23, 7 pm - details to come)

Wow, The Bad Guys series has really caught on - while its been hitting The New York Times for about a year, I think this is the first week where we had pent-up demand for a first week pop. I made sure that this week's bestseller pop wasn't to just one organization or school buying in bulk and it was not. The series is in development for a film at Dreamworks. The Bad Guys in The Big Bad Wolf has its own trailer - maybe you should watch!

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Leanne Italie's Associated Press profile of Elaine Welteroth is featured on the book page. In More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say), she notes as a person of mixed race, she has come to appreciate "her biracial status as one of her superpowers, along with an ability to empathize with and understand many world views."

Italie's piece doesn't really so much critique as summarize, but Douglass K. Daniel's Associated Press piece for Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s Changed Hollywood Forever does include a caveat: "A flaw in (Nick) de Semlyen’s enjoyable book is its bent toward fact over analysis. His answer to the question posed by its subtitle - a couple of paragraphs about legacies, rule-breaking and commercial success - feels perfunctory."

And from Patty Rhule comes a USA Today piece for Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything, about two sisters who "paved the way for Weiner's more modern protagonist." Her take: "If you are a woman who has lived through the past 50 years, this book will make you uneasy, even angry. But maybe that’s the point. Coming of age during the women’s liberation movement, Bethie and Jo take different tracks to fulfillment; one follows traditional expectations for women, and the other runs from them. Both choices prove costly."

Events this week - Deborah Harkness, Scholastic Read-A-Palooza, Dean Strang with Mitch Teich, Rochelle Melander with Jeanette Hurt

Here's what's going on this week at Boswell.

Monday, June 24, 7 pm, at Boswell
Dean A Strang, author of Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW, in conversation with WUWM's Mitch Teich

Madison attorney Dean A Strang returns to Boswell with his latest book, a sharp legal history of the largest mass trial in US history. Cosponsored by Wisconsin Justice Initiative. This will also be WUWM Lake Effect Executive Producer and Host Mitch Teich's last conversation at Boswell before he leaves to be the General Manager at North Country Public Radio in New York.

Dean Strang analyzes the fragility of the American criminal justice system as he details United States v. Haywood et al, the fascinating case that had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. Before World War I, the government reaction to labor dissent had been local, ad hoc, and quasi-military. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, the Department of Justice embarked on a sweeping new effort - replacing gunmen with lawyers. Soon, the department systematically targeted the nation’s most radical and innovative union, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies.

In the first legal history of this federal trial, Strang shows how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamentally different strategy to stifle radical threats and had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. As the trial unfolded, it became an exercise of raw force, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under great external pressure.

Dean A Strang is a criminal defense lawyer in Madison and teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror. Mitch Teich is the new station manager of North Country Public Radio in  Canton, New York. Until recently, he was executive producer of WUWM's Lake Effect.

Tuesday, June 25, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Rochelle Melander, author of Level Up: Quests to Master Mindset, Overcome Procrastination, and Increase Productivity, in converastion with Jeannette Hurt

Milwaukee-based Rochelle Melander, book coach, teacher, and author of ten books, including the National Novel Writing Month guide, Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It), turns every obstacle you face into quests, offering the perfect productivity solution. This event cosponsored by Red Oak Writing.

Melander offers creatives an opportunity to tackle their most common creative problems by turning them into quests. These short adventures challenge readers to investigate their life and habits to discover and use their own best practices.

Instead of playing someone else’s game, creatives will design their own game, create a playbook, define the rewards, and reap them all. Adopt a secret identity, recruit allies, identify villains, and celebrate epic wins by using a gameful approach to shaping creative life. Completing these quests won’t be a chore. Instead, Melander helps creatives relish investigating life, play with the possibilities, and maybe even have some fun along the way.

Rochelle Melander is a Milwaukee-based writing coach, teacher, and author. She is Founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop for children and teens in Milwaukee. She interviews authors and publishing professionals on her blog, at the Write Now! Mastermind class, and in her podcast, Business Boosting Books.

Wednesday, June 26, 7 pm, at Boswell Deborah Harkness, author of Time’s Convert:
Deborah Harkness, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches visits us with her latest novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

Please register for this free event at harknessmke.bpt.me, or upgrade to a book-with-registration option for $19, which includes a paperback copy of Time's Convert, signing line priority, and all taxes and fees.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history and a love affair that will bridge centuries.

A Discovery of Witches was made into a television series starring Teresa Palmer, Matthew Goode, Edward Bluemel, Louise Brealey, Malin Buska, Aiysha Hart, Owen Teale, Alex Kingston, and Valarie Pettiford. It aired on Sky One in the UK last fall and debuted on AMC in April. It just finished its run, but do not fear - the production has been renewed for two more seasons. If you just discovered the All Souls Trilogy via television or streaming, it's time to read the books, which, of course, are even better.

Deborah Harkness is the New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. A history professor at the University of Southern California, Harkness has received Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships.

Friday, June 28, 3-5 pm, at Boswell:
Scholastic Read-A-Palooza, featuring Dog Man and Clifford the Big Red Dog

Boswell hosts a Scholastic Read-a-Palooza Summer Reading Celebration! There will be activities for young readers and giveaways of goodies like stickers, temporary tattoos, and more. Plus, we’ll have a visit from (costume characters) Dog Man and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Great for kids and adults. We’ll also have a Summer Reading Give Back donation box to collect donations of new children’s books for Next Door Foundation.

Those who wish to attend this free event are asked to register at readapaloozamke.bpt.me.

Scholastic Read-A-Palooza is a nationwide effort to unite kids, parents, educators, public librarians, community partners, and booksellers in a movement to get books to kids in need during the summer, keeping every child reading.

Milwaukee’s Next Door Foundation supports the intellectual, physical, and emotional development of children by partnering with their families for success in school and the community.

Saturday, June 29, All Day, on Downer Ave:
Downer Classic Bike Races

Historic Downer Avenue is home to one of the most famous urban criterium courses in the country, The Cafe Hollander Downer Classic Pro Criterium. Global in reach and extremely local in flavor, this promises to be one of the highlights of cycling in Wisconsin this summer. The full day of racing also features a popular kids’ race, a Belgian Beer Festival, the famous Ben’s Cyclery Super Prime, as well as a full slate of racing all afternoon and evening.

Boswell will be open during our normal Saturday hours, 10 am – 9 pm, on the day of the races, though please note that the race course runs directly in front of the store. While the sidewalks will be open to foot traffic, the street will be closed.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending June 22, 2019

Boswell bestsellers, week ending June 22, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Girl in the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
2. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilberg
3. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
4. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
5. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
6. Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
8. Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner
9. FKA USA, by Reed King
10. Murder in Bel-Air V19, by Cara Black

Though Blake Crouch is probably best known to readers for his breakout Dark Matter, he also wrote the books that became the Wayward Pines series. Now he's back with Recursion, a twisty speculative thriller that posits that it is possible to plant false memories in a person. As he told Mary Louise Kelly on NPR's Morning Edition: "I came across this article about two MIT scientists who were implanting false memories in the brains of mice and actually tricking these poor mice into believing they had experienced a reality that they never experienced. And when I read this, I thought, this is my book." Recursion is also on our time travel table, but I've heard it's only time travel of a sort, so I'm adding a caveat.

Hardcover Nonficition:
1. Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro
2. Dark Fantastic, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
3. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
4. Elderhood, by Louise Aronson
5. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
6. Educated, by Tara Westover
7. Underland, by Robert McFarlane
8. Anthony Bourdain Remembered, by CNN
9. Upheaval, by Jared Diamond
10. The Witch's Book of Self Care, by Arin Murphy-Hoscock

It's always nice to see a book sell off our staff rec shelf. Witches, as I'm sure you've heard, are hot again, what with Deborah Harkness coming to Boswell on Wednesday (register here) for A Discovery of Witches and Augusten Burroughs coming out with Toil and Trouble in October. But what got The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit onto our bestseller list was that someone bought it off the rec shelf on Saturday and walked over to Starbucks. It caught the eye of a barista (with a slightly different title that we figured out) and she bought a copy too. It's got a four on GoodReads (yes, I know that's Amazon, but I just can't find an NPR piece to link to).

I also wanted to call attention to an interesting book, whose sales pop was for a conference appearance. The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games. Thomas teaches at University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. I think a number of our customers would find the thesis of interest, and I'm excited to say we have a few signed copies.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
3. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
4. Vintage 1954, by Celeste Ng
5. Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
6. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
7. The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey
8. The Clockmaker's Daughter, by Kate Morton
9. Dear Mrs. Bird, by AJ Pearce
10. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles

It's another week of having read eight of the top ten titles, with all of the said eight having been reported on either here or in our events blog. That's not to say I won't have more to say, but I'll turn to Kate Morton's The Clockmaker's Daughter, which I don't think we've discussed since it was in hardcover. Nice to see it selling even with Jane on summer sabbatical. They call the genre country house goth, and this time, the dark house in question is Birchwood Manor, with two stories told 100 years apart. The hardcover jacket treatment focused on the clock, but the paperback says no, it's all about the daughter. Here's a nice Kirkus review.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Writing Fiction, 10th edition, by Janet Burroway
2. A Socialist Defector, by Victor Grossman
3. A Suffragette in America, by Sylvia Parkhurst, edited by Katherine Connelly
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
6. One Summer, by Bill Bryson
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Wildflowers of Wisconsin, by Stan Tekiela
9. Little Book of Restorative Justice, by Howard Zehr
10. Damn the Old Tinderbox, by Matthew Prigge

No new sales pops here, just events holding down our top three, and a number of perennials, including Wildflowers of Wisconsin, which is literally a perennial about perennials. Several books had sales at the Evicted Mobile Design Box book fair on Friday, including Evicted and Just Mercy on the paperback list and Educated on the hardcover list. Ben Austen's High Risers would have made the top ten if we hadn't sold out. If only we'd brought one more. Info about the Evicted Mobile Design Box here

Books for Kids:
1. Lulu and Rock in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renee Graef
2. Sweeping Up the Heart, by Kevin Henkes
3. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Fred Rogers, edited by Luke Flowers
4. Trees, by Socho Piotr
5. The Wicked King, by Holly Black
6. A Piglet Named Mercy, by Kate DiCamillo
7. Squirm, by Carl Hiaasen
8. Dry, by Neal Shusterman and Jared Schusterman
9. You Are Light, by Aaron Bucker
10. Thunderhead: Volume 2 of Schythe, by Neal Schusterman

I thought we'd see nice summer sales for Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, a great keepsake from a visit to town, so it's nice to see the book at #1. We just saw the second book in the series, Lulu and Rocky in Detroit, and having just visited Detroit in April, I'm excited about this one for our Michigan neighbors.

The Journal Sentinel book page is on vacation this week - it's planning a trip to Summerfest.

What does Humphrey Bogart have to do with Kelsey Rae Dimberg's Girl in the Rearview Mirror

While we love whenever our customers have a book come out, it's particularly exciting to see a debut from a Friend of Boswell at a major house. And Girl in the Rearview Mirror is just that, a novel won at a competitive auction by William Morrow and published today. So what indeed does Humphrey Bogart have to do with Kelsey Rae Dimberg's debut novel, Girl in the Rearview Mirror? After all, the story is set in contemporary Phoenix, and the main character is a nanny, about as far from the actor well known for his role as Sam Spade in the adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's classic noir novel, The Maltese Falcon.

As Dimberg tells Jim Higgins in Sunday's Journal Sentinel, "Girl in the Rearview Mirror has roots in classic noir films that Dimberg came to love while she was in graduate school at the University of San Francisco. Back then, she was writing traditional literary fiction, including what she called 'my sad guy novel,' full of emotion and angst. But after seeing a noir double bill in 2009 - Dimberg thinks it was While the City Sleeps and Shakedown — she plunged into that cinematic genre. Soon she was writing, for fun, the novel that became Girl in the Rearview Mirror.

Dimberg also told Higgins that she made her protagonist a nanny because who else knows the secrets of a family so well, with no real commitment to keep them secret? A nanny is also a great job for someone running away, and that fits Girl squarely in between the genres of noir mystery and psychological suspense. We've got the detective equivalent (as we've noted, there are less and less classic private investigators to star in novels but no shortage of other professions to fill the bill) in the nanny, trying to unravel what's going on in this family. But like many psychological suspense characters, our hero is also not completely trustworthy. She's got her own secrets, and she's withholding them from the reader.

Katherine Nintzel at William Morrow offered these thoughts on why she acquired the book in a letter to booksellers and other early readers: "The first thing that gripped me about Girl in the Rearview Mirror was the voice. I saw it from the first page, and I hope you do too: Kelsey Rae Dimberg is a writer working in a classic noir space, but bringing a real modern angle to it."

Like many protagonists in novels that straddle the psychological suspense genre (which generally includes any novel that has Girl in the title), our protagonist is running away from something and is not exactly trustworthy. But unlike some antiheroes that are trying to cause trouble, Finn inadvertently finds herself in the thick of a conspiracy and would like nothing more than for it to go away. Her fumbling only makes it worse.

Girl in the Rearview Mirror is getting some great reviews around the country, like this stunner from Jay Strafford in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star: "As Dimberg reveals the secrets and lies that animate her tale, and as a river of death runs through it, even the most astute readers of suspense fiction will find themselves engulfed by multiple stunners, including an explosive and unforeseen conclusion. Dimberg, who holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of San Francisco and is a former editor-in-chief of Lux, the literary magazine of Barrett Honors College of Arizona State, set out to write a novel that places morality - or its absence - at the heart of the story. She succeeds with verve and intensity - and her initial effort foreshadows a brilliant future."

As I mentioned, we've had some great reads on Girl in the Rearview Mirror as well. Here's Boswellian Tim McCarthy's take: "I was absorbed by this novel, by its quick start and strong pace, and I like the way Dimberg uses politics as the context for people's lives without letting political issues become a distraction. The characters are well developed, Finn having a bold determination to find the truth mixed with a lot of self doubt. Her mutual attraction with Amabel's father Philip is a subtle but important element of the story, never becoming a nanny stereotype. Above all, the tragedies and the suspense moved me. Deeply. I truly look forward to Dimberg's next work!"

Here's my silly elevator pitch: It's like Noir moved from San Francisco to Phoenix because of the cheaper cost of living.

The book is on sale today. We gave Dimberg a sneak peek at the books piled on our shelving cart. She also signed preorders. Our event is this Thursday, June 20, 7 pm, now cohosted by Crimespree magazine. Here's our debut novelist on Morning Blend, where she talks about how the book took eight years to write. I'm sure you'll be charmed and want to come out and see her on Thursday. Why not get your book signed* and take a photo with Dimberg and Humphrey Bogart? And if you're from out of town and want a signed first edition, we can get that done for you as well. Here's the order link.

If you are reading this post from metro Chicago, Madison, or Phoenix, Dimberg is visiting your area too. Here's her schedule.

Chalkboard credit - Rose Camara

*It's 20% off, through at least June 24.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending June 15, 2019

Here are the Boswell weekly bestsellers for the period ending June 15, 2019. Happy Father's Day!

Hardcover Fiction:
1. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. Murder in Bel-Air V19, by Cara Black
3. Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
6. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
7. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
8. Fall; or Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson
9. The Sentence Is Death V2, by Anthony Horowitz
10. Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverni

We were lucky enough to host Elizabeth Gilbert for her previous novel, The Signature of All Things. I always like to throw in that I read and liked Gilbert's 2000 novel, Stern Men, back when none of you knew who she was. But today's story is about City of Girls, her latest novel winning praise from many reviewers, including Leah Greenblatt in Entertainment Weekly (about to go monthly), who wrote that “Gilbert stays true to her pledge that she won’t let her protagonist’s sexuality be her downfall, like so many literary heroines before her. That may be the most radical thing about a novel that otherwise revels in the old-fashioned pleasures of storytelling - the right to fall down rabbit holes, and still find your own wonderland.”

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Second Mountain, by David Brooks
2. Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered, by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Harstark
3. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. The First Wave, by Alex Kershaw
6. Cocktail Codex, by Alex Day
7. Vegetables Unleashed, by Jose Andres
8. The Making of a Justice, by John Paul Stevens
9. Songs of America, by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw
10. Spying on the South, by Tony Horwitz

There's still an imprint called Caliber at Penguin - who knew? I thought it used to be through Berkley, but it's Dutton Caliber that published Alex Kershaw's The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II. Does this scream Father's Day or what? I thought I had a nice Wall Street Journal review for the book but it's for The Liberator. But Publishers Weekly's reviewer writes: "Kershaw is at his evocative best describing the chaos, courage, and carnage of combat, vividly portraying the bravery of the “greatest generation.” Even readers well-read on the subject will enjoy this perspective."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton (Books and Beer Book Club, Mon Jun 17, Cafe Hollander)
3. Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain
4. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
5. There There, by Tommy Orange
6. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
7. The Collector's Apprentice, by B.A. Shapiro (events at Boswell and Elm Grove Library, Mon July 8, 2 and 6:30 pm respectively)
8. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
9. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
10. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles

This week's tally - I've read eight of the top ten. This is usually the only category where I have good numbers! This leaves me with nothing to talk about, because I've recently done features on The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Book Woman of Troublesome Creeks. Hope 'bout if I call out the paperback release of The Great Believers? I usually like keeping the hardcover jacket and tweaking it a little - in this case making the orange tones more yellow, but in this case, it feels a little washed out to me. Yes, I think about color every waking minute. I am very excited about my new olive green jacket*. Here's a conversation on WCAI radio (Cape Cod - it's actually part of WGBH) with Rebecca Makkai in conversation with Christopher Castellani, the author of another Daniel favorite, Leading Men.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Healing the Thyroid with Ayurveda, by Marianne Teitelbaum
2. Writing Fiction, 10th edition, by Janet Burroway (event at Boswell Wed June 19, 7 pm)
3. Last Call, by Daniel Okrent
4. One Summer, by Bill Bryson
5. A Brotherhood of Spies, by Monte Reel
6. Amity and Prosperity, by Eliza Griswold
7. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
8. Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern
9. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, by Steve Brusatte
10. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan

Here's a paperback at Jason's new favorite price point, $18 - Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, it's about a Pennsylvania woman who fights back when she realizes that the pets and domestic animals, and then children are getting sick in her town after fracking begins nearby. From Jennifer Szalai's review in The New York Times: "...The social effects of fracking start to look truly pernicious, as the environmental fallout and the influx of money splinter a community, thereby dismantling its willingness and ability to act in a way that transcends the cynicism of individual interests."

Books for Kids:
1. Because, by Mo Willems, with illustrations by Amber Ren
2. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd
3. Don't Let Them Disappear, by Chelsea Clinton, with illustrations by Gianna Marino
4. Dragons Love Tacos, by Adam Rubin, with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
5. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, by Jeff Kinney
6. Pete the Cat's Groovy Guide to Life, by James Dean and Kimberly Dean
7. Restart, by Gordon Korman
8. High Five, by Adam Rubin, with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
9. Finale, volume 3 of Carnivale, by Stephanie Garber
10. Bold and Brave, by Kirsten Gillibrand, with illustrations by Maira Kalman

Following up her Start Now!, Chelsea Clinton profiles some animals facing extinction in Don't Let Them Disappear. From School Library Journal: "Those familiar with her past works will recognize the format: a collection of factual blurbs rather than one long narrative. A spread is devoted to each animal, always accompanied by a short explanatory paragraph. The text may be sparse, but there is not one wasted word." Kirkus notes that Clinton controversially supports zoos. The line is always changing.

Jim Higgins profiles Kelsey Rae Dimberg's Girl in the Rearview Mirror in today's Journal Sentinel: "Girl in the Rearview Mirror has roots in classic noir films that Dimberg came to love while she was in graduate school at the University of San Francisco. Back then, she was writing traditional literary fiction, including what she called 'my sad guy novel,' full of emotion and angst. But after seeing a noir double bill in 2009 - Dimberg thinks it was While the City Sleeps and Shakedown — she plunged into that cinematic genre." On sale June 18!

From USA Today comes Emily Gray Tedrowe's take on the earlier-profiled Elizabeth Gilbert's City of Girls: "Whether in her unconventional household or her unconventional relationships, this character never ceases to hold our interest. City of Girls rewards Elizabeth Gilbert’s many devoted fans with a novel that provokes delight as well as thought."

Barbara VandenBurgh of the Arizona Republic, who works with Changing Hands on their First Draft Book Club, reviews Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: "Immigrant narratives and queer sexual awakenings are not unfamiliar literary fodder, even together; look at last year’s excellent America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo. But On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is irreducible by such easy categorization. There is no diagrammable plot here, no villains, no clear conflict. Vuong is pushing the boundaries of the novel form, reshaping the definition to fit the contours of his restless poetic exploration, using language to capture consciousness and being."

*It is very difficult to find a traditional jacket that is neither bomber nor athletic nor outdoors inspired. I'm also not a huge fan of elastic waists and cuffs, though I do have a very nice leaf green jacket that has both of these things, and it's such a nice color that I forgive it. I had two non-elastic, relatively lightweight (enough with the nylon and down already) ones I had kept forever (the gray one had a somewhat noticeable stain on it and the black one, with a subtle red plaid, had a rip that I'd attempted to sew up), but eventually it happened; I left one and then the other behind when I went out to a restaurant and by the time I remembered them, they was gone (on two separate occasions). Don't be smug - I know this has happened to you too, but more likely with an umbrella or gloves. This is another reason I like cold weather - you always go back to get your coat if you forget it.

As heard on Lake Effect - Summer reading with Mitch Teich

Today I'm saying goodbye to Mitch Teich at WUWM's Lake Effect. We're so excited for him for his new gig as station manager at North Country Public Radio, but so sad that we he won't be here in Milwaukee.*

We've still got some opportunities to say goodbye. There's a Lake Effect on location in Cedarburg this coming Wednesday, June 19 (registration is still open) and Mitch will be in conversation for the last time at Boswell on Monday, June 24, 7 pm, with Dean A Strang, author of Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW.

But another last has just aired with Mitch, our last book conversation. Mitch invited me to talk about summer reading, and I came up with a list of books I'd read that I thought might work well. But I couldn't think of a good hook for the talk. And then I came up with the idea of the idea of tying in the books to Milwaukee summer activities. Now I'm going to answer your questions before you ask them.

Why nothing for Summerfest? I didn't really think of the theme until the last minute. Otherwise I would have made sure I read a music-related novel. I read a lot of them. But I haven't read anything lately. There were a number of other festivals where I similarly just didn't have the right book, like Polish Fest. And there were several that worked for multiple celebrations. Vintage 1954 is a wonderful book for Bastille Days but since one of the four protagonists works at Harley Davidson, it also might have worked for the Milwaukee Harley Davidson Rally on Labor Day weekend.

Why no Pridefest? No Juneteenth Day? I didn't know when the program would air, and thought these holidays would have been over by the time the segment was featured.

Their intro: "Have you assembled your summer beach reads yet? While there's lots to do in Milwaukee during the summer, there’s always time to read. Daniel Goldin, of Boswell Book Company, put together a list of books perfect for the wide ranging festivals and activities the city has to offer all summer."

Here's what I did come up with

For Germanfest: Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverini

For the Northwestern Mutual Life agents meeting: If She Wakes, by Michael Koryta

For Bastille Days: Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain

For the JCC Summer Festival: Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro (event at Boswell, Tuesday, June 18, 7 pm - register here)

For Zoo a la Carte: Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl

For Wisconsin State Fair: Biloxi, by Mary Miller (at Boswell, Saturday, July 11, 6 pm, with Juliet Escoria, Elizabeth Ellen, and Amanda McNeil)

For Irish Fest: Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane

For the Black Arts Festival: Patsy, by Nicole Dennis-Benn

For the Democratic National Convention and the year of planning going on: Girl In the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg (at Boswell Thursday, June 20, 7 pm)

For Maker's Faire: Sweeping Up the Heart, by Kevin Henkes

For the Downer Avenue Classic/Tour of America's Dairyland: The World's Fastest Man, by Michael Kranish

I've read and enjoyed all these books, except for The World's Fastest Man, which was Mitch's pick. Listen to the whole segment here.

The great news is that we'll be continuing the book segments on Lake Effect with Bonnie North. Much thanks for letting me gab about books!

What did the In-Store Book Club think of Amy Jones's We're All in This Together?

A family, a barrel, a shark, Finnish pancakes, Canada - I know of no better formula for a novel. One never knows what the In-Store Lit Group will think of a book beforehand. While several folks ahead of time told me they liked June's selection, Amy Jones's We're All in This Together a lot, and a good-sized majority were very positive, our discussion was thrown off a bit because two of the early folks to comment on the book were, well, not positive.

I think my method for conducting the book club talk is a little unusual. I hate when discussions leave out the quieter participants, so we start out each getting two minutes to offer our opening statement. This offers me the advantage of knowing what folks are thinking, and really, nobody should feel left out, except for the occasional latecomer. But there is a disadvantage too. At our Books and Beer Book Club, Jen cautions everyone to talk about the book, but not to put their cards on the table until the end, when everyone rates the book. Yes, with numbers! That's a lot of pressure to me, which is why every book I like on the Edelweiss website gets an eight (the number rating is required), and every book I don't like - doesn't go on the Edelweiss website.

A little backtracking is needed here to discuss Amy Jones's novel. This is her first, following a book of short stories. It was published in 2016, and since McClelland and Stewart is now a part of Penguin Random House Canada, the American sales force brought it over for distribution in early 2019. It was a favorite of our sales rep Jason Gobble (you've got to see him when he does a book club talk on August 6 at Boswell with author Claire Lombardo on Tuesday, August 6 for The Most Fun We Ever Had.* Mr. Gobble is a consummate sales rep in that he has that bookseller knack for matching people with books, only he does wholesale matching or books with booksellers. Jason convinced me to read a number of books that went on to be my favorites - Homegoing, Saints for All Occasions, and The Improbability of Love come to mind. He also put There There on our radar. He knows what he's doing!

So Jason didn't get me to bite, but he did get our marketing/second hand bookseller Chris to read it and his enthusiasm was nothing short of contagious. My reading pile was full of upcoming event books (and the occasional one-off on Charleston or semicolons) but by scheduling it as our reading group selection, I had to read it. I usually like at least one lighter book in the summer - sometimes it's a mystery, but a comic novel will work just fine.

We're All in This Together is a fine specimen of what I call dysfunctional family comedies. Sometimes these turn out to be big hits, like Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest and other times they don't do as well as one hopes, like Joe Meno's The Great Perhaps. They might be structured like short stories, as in the case of Allegra Goodman's The Family Markowitz. And if you're going highbrow, I guess you gun for The Corrections. To fit in this genre of my making, they do have to have multiple perspectives. Neither Chris nor I are above comparing books to projects in the wider world of entertainment, and he struck upon the perfect comparison for this book, Arrested Development. 

At the heart of the story is a mother and two daughters, to paraphrase from a Gail Godwin novel I remember with fondness.** Twins, no less. Finn is the daughter who left the family home in Thunder Bay, Ontario for more glamorous prospects in Toronto. Nicki is the sister who stayed behind to take care of the family. I think that's giving both of them too much agency. Finn lives in a boring suburb and made nothing of her life. Nicki didn't exactly have high-minded reasons for staying behind - she has four kids with three guys and I'm not giving much away to say that the father of one of the kids is Finn's one-time boyfriend.

And their mom? The story opens with Mother Kate having gone over the Falls in a barrel. No, not Niagara Falls, but glorious Kakabeka Falls, just 30 minutes west of town. What was she thinking? It will take about the whole book to find out, because firstly, she's in a coma, and secondly, she's not been thinking that well for a while.

And there's another sibling too, Shawn, who works in a restaurant in what is known as Little Finland. Not that he's Finnish or anything - he just fell into it. In fact, he's not even a sibling. When he was young, he just sort of got adopted into the family by Kate. It was actually originally going to be a grift, but well, here he still is.

The story's other characters include Walter, Kate's husband, who spends more time on his boats, the Serafina and the Veronica (those are the birth names for Finn and Nicki, and unlike the sisters, they still hang out together at the dock) and London, Nicki's oldest daughter, who is obsessed with sharks and particularly obsessed with a shark that might have been spotted in Lake Superior and the glamorous television scientist, Adam Pelley, who is on a mission to rescue it. The story jumps around from character to character, but there's a shorthand to help you keep track - road signs - and I don't know whether this was the idea of the author or designer, but I found it pretty amusing.

As I mentioned, the group was split on the book, but more liked it than not, and a sizable number loved it as much as I did. I really loved this theme of the pull and push of home and family. It's certainly something that authors enjoy meditating on ; I can think of several Anne Tyler novels that have explored this. Jones is like Anne Tyler on a 5-Hour Energy caffeinated high, by the way. Ooh, that's a good shelf talker. I think the book I'm thinking of mostly is Ladder of Years.

There are a lot of messy loose ends, a whole lot of coincidences, and some suspension of disbelief too, but I almost expect that from a comic novel. But there's a lot of poignancy too. As we learn more about Kate, and her developing, we delve into her backstory. Her brain has her memories, but they've become a bit of a swirl, a bit confused. Who is Walter, the man she's known since childhood, the man she made a life with. Is he the love of her life, or is there a secret? And why does she keep running away? And is this how she's tied to both her daughter Finn and Nicki's daughter London?

I should note that our two former social workers really liked the novel, but our nurse did not. I don't think it was because of the hospital scenes. Pretty much everyone agreed that Kate was their favorite character, and I can't argue with that. But I was kind of in love with all of them, except maybe for London's friend Anastasia. She's a snake.

Do you like a good twin novel? I do. I just finished Cathleen Schine's The Grammarians, coming out in September, and I have a whole lot to say about that. They are like sibling novels to the next degree. Do you like Canadian novels? I do. I used to go to Toronto and just stock up on Canadian novelists who weren't published in the United States. And now I just recommend ones who are, like the South-African-turned Canadian novelist Bianca Marais, who is coming back to Milwaukee for her second novel, If You Want to Make God Laugh, on July 19. Register here.

I also haven't read a good fictional book set in a North American Finnish community since Sharon Dilworth's The Long White back in 1988. Yes, 1988 and I still remember it. I had no idea they did a paperback edition of the book in 2009 or that Dilworth had a book come out called My Riviera. This is what happens when you are not the buyer. Not that I'm saying I would have time to read it, but I certainly would have thought about it.

Now I desperately want to go back and read more Jones. She has a collection of short stories from Biblioasis called What Boys Like and Other Stories, but more than that, the second novel, Every Little Piece of Me, just came out in Canada this month. Quill and Quire called the book "Hugely entertaining," going on to say "Every Little Piece of Me makes you think and makes you laugh. Which is sometimes exactly what you need." The Globe and Mail (subscribers only reviewer called it "addictive." In other words, it does not veer too far from the first novel, which to me, is very exciting. Two friends and an intrusive reality show - how's that for a setup? More here. Hoping that PRH imports this one soon. And if Amy Jones visits, I'll make Nanaimo Bars. Seems unlikely but you never know.

Up next for the In-Store Lit Group, we're getting prize-y:

--We discuss Milkman, by Anna Burns, on Monday, July 1. It won the Man Booker and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It's dense and Irish.

--It's a return to Canada - Our August 5 book is Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan. Named a New York Times ten-best book of 2018, it also received the Canada's Scotiabank Giller Prize (as did a previous novel from Edugyan.

--For September, we have our annual Labor-Day dilemma. We're going to meet a week early, on Monday, August 26 for Call Me Zebra. Azreen Van der Vliet Oloomi won the PEN Faulkner Prize for this novel

Our October book is going to be the Pulitzer winner The Overstory. I usually pick one book per year that I've already read. Date is to be determined - I think we have a ticketed event in our normal slot. All of these meetings are at Boswell.

*It might well be the most fun you've ever had.

**called A Mother and Two Daughters

Photo credit of Amy Jones by Ali Eisner.

Boswell events this week: Marianne Teitelbaum, Monte Reel with Meg Jones, Cara Black, plus Michael Moreci to be rescheduled

The first thing we should note is that Michael Moreci, author of numerous novels, comic books, and the Black Star Renegade series, has had to postpone his visit on Thursday, June 13 for his latest work, We Are Mayhem, due to family illness. We're hoping to reschedule this event and should have a new date shortly. We also hope that like our originally scheduled event, Moreci will be in conversation with long-time Chicago bookseller Javier Ramirez, currently at Oak Park's beloved Book Table.

But still happening...

Monday, June 10, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Marianne Teitelbaum, author of Healing the Thyroid with Ayurveda: Natural Treatments for Hashimoto's, Hypothyroidism, and Hyperthyroidism

Marianne Teitelbaum, recipient of the Prana Ayushudi Award, addresses thyroid disease from the perspective of the Ayurvedic tradition. Cosponsored by Bodhi Ayurveda. In this comprehensive guide for practitioners and those concerned with thyroid health, Teitelbaum integrates the ancient medicine of Ayurveda with modern scientific findings. Based on the treatment of thousands of patients, Teitelbaum shares success stories of thyroid healing and the scientific studies that support the author’s Ayurvedic thyroid protocols, showing that optimum thyroid health as well as overall health are within everyone’s reach.

Revealing how the thyroid is the victim of many factors that conspire to create ill health, Teitelbaum focuses not only on treating thyroid problems and symptoms but also on diagnosing them at their earliest, most reversible stages. She outlines the basic principles of Ayurveda, including pulse diagnosis, a key tool for early detection, and explains the successful treatment protocols she has developed over more than 30 years of Ayurvedic practice.

This event came to us through Carol Nace at Bodhi Ayurveda, who will be saying a few words at this event. We really like to have a strong partner for our health and wellness events, and we're grateful for Bodhi to help get the word out. Our Boswell customers are showing their interest too - advance sales have been quite strong for the book, with Healing the Thyroid with Ayurveda hitting our bestseller list for three weeks in advance of the event.

Tuesday, June 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Monte Reel, author of A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA’s Secret War, in conversation with Meg Jones

Monte Reel, former foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and author of Between Man and Beast, chats about his thrilling historical narrative of the top-secret Cold War-era spy plane operation that transformed the CIA and brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to the brink of disaster. Reel is in conversation with Meg Jones, reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Bonus - Thanks to The Safe House, Milwaukee's spy-themed bar, one lucky attendee will get a chance to win a $25 Safe House gift card.

Reviews have been great for this book. Booklist called Reel's history: "A richly detailed, well-researched, and engagingly written book that takes us behind the scenes of one of the twentieth-century's most nail-bitingly tense episodes." And Edward Kosner in The Wall Street Journal offered this praise: "An old-fashioned tale of the American ingenuity, resourcefulness and grit that remade intelligence gathering . . . Casts intriguing light on this familiar history. The rock-steady, nuanced leadership of Ike and JFK in these crises, supported by deeply experienced advisers desperately seeking to avert nuclear war, is a sobering contrast to today's White House melodramas."

Monte Reel's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Harper’s, and he currently writes for Bloomberg Businessweek as part of its Projects and Investigations staff. Meg Jones is a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and author of World War II Milwaukee. Calling all lovers of Meg Jones's work in the Journal Sentinel - you know this is going to be a great conversation.

Wednesday, June 12, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Cara Black, author of Murder in Bel-Air

We're celebrating the 20th anniversary of Aimée Leduc's adventures in Paris with a visit from Cara Black, whose latest mystery novel is Murder in Bel-Air. This 19th installment finds PI Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris's 12th arrondissement.

Our evening is cosponsored by Alliance Française de Milwaukee and Crimespree Magazine and will feature blood orange tartlets from North Shore Boulangerie. Pre-register for this event by Tuesday at carablackmke.bpt.me. Reigstration not required to attend the event, but we're grateful for those who did. Also, if you pre-ordered the book, you can pick it up any time before the event itself, at the event, or up to six months afterwards.

Booklist loves this book!: "Aimée Leduc's nineteenth adventure is one of her best, both because the plot is notably rich, incorporating the complex relationship between France and its former colony, Côte d'Ivoire, and because the ongoing domestic drama in the extended Leduc household has become a thoroughly involving serial novel of its own. In a manner similar to how Donna Leon builds Guido Brunetti's family life into the fabric of her series, Black tells a parallel story in every book about single-mother Aimée's relationships in the present and her lingering parental issues, whose roots are in the past and involve both her dead father (killed under suspicion of being a corrupt cop) and American mother, Sydney (vanished for years but now back in Paris, swearing to no longer be a CIA agent)."

Cara Black is the author of nineteen books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. If you love Donna Leon and would like to do more European travel in your mystery reading, Cara Black is perfect for you.

This is where we'd normally list the Michael Moreci event. See top of post for information about its postponement. Here's some info about events early next week.

Monday, June 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Victor Grossman, author of A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee

Journalist and author Victor Grossman appears at Boswell to discuss his autobiography, which recounts the circumstances that impelled him to flee a military prison sentence during the icy pressures of the McCarthy Era.

Cosponsored by the Milwaukee Turners,  A Socialist Defector is the story, told in rare, personal detail, of an activist and writer who grew up in the U.S. free-market economy, spent 38 years in the GDR’s nationally owned, centrally administered economy, and continues to survive, given whatever the market can bear in today’s united Germany.

Victor Grossman, born Stephen Wechsler, joined the Communist Party as a Harvard student. He was pardoned by the U.S. Army in 1994 and, in 2003, published an autobiography, Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany.

Tuesday, June 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Dani Shapiro, author of of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

Acclaimed memoirist Dani Shapiro, author of Hourglass, is coming to Boswell for her New York Times bestselling book. Cosponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at UWM and the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. Publishers Weekly writes: With thoughtful candor, she explores the ethical questions surrounding sperm donation, the consequences of DNA testing, and the emotional impact of having an uprooted religious and ethnic identity. This beautifully written, thought-provoking genealogical mystery will captivate readers from the very first pages."

Registration is free at shapiromke.bpt.me or upgrade to a registration-with-book option for $26.35, including taxes and fees. Registration-with-book upgrade gets signing line priority.

More event info on our upcoming event page.