Monday, October 5, 2020

Here's what's happening at Boswell this week - Helen Phillips, Cetonia Weston-Roy, Abigail Gewirtz, Lesley Kagen, Anna Lardinois, John Rocco plus next Monday, Amy Timberlake

Here's what's happening at Boswell this week.

Monday, October 5, 5:30 pm
Helen Phillips, author of The Need
in Conversation with Daniel Goldin for a Virtual Event

Join us for a special event featuring the National Book Award Longlisted author Helen Phillips for a conversation about her dazzlingly original novel in which a mother of two young children grapples with the dualities of motherhood after confronting a masked intruder in her home. Click here to register for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of The Need for 10% off list price today! Do know this paperback event is spoiler-friendly, so questions about about the book's ending may be discussed. Though it’s not necessary, we might suggest reading the book before this evening.

When Molly hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do. But then she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly Molly is face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.

Helen Phillips is author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the story collection Some Possible Solutions, which received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. She is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College.

Tuesday, October 6, 5:30 pm
Cetonia Weston-Roy, author of The Misadventures of Toni Macaroni in: The Mad Scientist 
In conversation with Daniel Goldin for a Virtual Event 

Join us for a virtual family event with Cetonia Weston-Roy, who will talk about her book and her new mobile bookstore in Milwaukee, Niche Book Bar. Click right here to register for this Zoom event today! And purchase your copy of The Misadventures of Toni Macaroni for 10% off list price One lucky person who registers and attends this virtual event will also get a Toni Macaroni doll giveaway! No purchase necessary.

Meet Antoniette MacArthur! Also known as Toni Macaroni because of her skinny arms and legs (much to her dismay). Her dad insists they're so skinny because she's a picky eater. Toni knows that's not right, she just doesn't eat HIS cooking. Her dad cooks just like a Mad Scientist, toxic sludge and all! Can she find a way to get out of eating his gross cooking experiments? Join her misadventure in The Mad Scientist to find out!

Milwaukee author and entrepreneur Cetonia Weston-Roy is proprietor of the Niche Book Bar and founder of the Black Authors Collective, through which she organizes events with Black authors. More about Weston-Roy's enterprise in the Journal Sentinel.

Tuesday, October 6, 7 pm CDT
Abigail Gewirtz, author of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids
in Conversation with Ellie Campbell for a Virtual Event

REDgen and Boswell Book Company present and evening with Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, child psychologist and a leading expert on families under stress. She’ll chat with Ellie Campbell, Director of Marketing and Communication for REDgen. Click here to register for this Zoom virtual event. And purchase your copy of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place for 10% off list price today!

In our complicated world, big issues make both parents and children anxious. So how should parents talk to their kids about the things that make both parent and child on edge - from family financial issues to school shootings to global warming? Here, an expert child psychologist offers parents scripts for conversations that will help us raise kids who are informed, engaged, and confident.

Gerwitz shows how to use the most basic tool at your disposal - conversation - to give children real help in dealing with the worries, stress, and other negative emotions caused by problems in the world, from active shooter drills to climate change to COVID-19.

Abigail Gewirtz is a Professor in the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. Gewirtz is Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Psychology, a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Prevention Research. Ellie Campbell is Director of Marketing and Communication for REDgen. 

Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm
Lesley Kagen, author of Every Now and Then
in Conversation with Lauren Fox for a Virtual Event

Wisconsin’s own bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark chats about her latest, a heartfelt story about three young girls searching for adventure during the summer of 1960 that’s perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing. Kagen will chat with Shorewood-based Lauren Fox, author of Days of Awe and Send for Me, publishing in February 2021. Register right here for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of Every Now and Then today for 10% off the list price, through at least October 14. 

The summer of 1960 was the hottest ever for Summit, Wisconsin. When three patients escape from Broadhurst Mental Institution, it becomes the summer eleven-year-old best friends Frankie, Viv, and Biz will forever remember as the year evil paid a visit to their small town. Six decades later, Biz, now a bestselling novelist, remembers that long ago summer and how it still haunts her in this story about the ties that bind us, the timelessness of grief and guilt, and the everlasting hope for redemption.

Publishers Weekly writes: "Kagan perfectly portrays the sense of invincibility felt by the young girls, whose lives have not yet been touched by tragedy. Colorful secondary characters, especially Mayor Bud, underpin a taut plot. This fast-paced and suspenseful outing will captivate Kagan’s fans and do much to win her new ones."

Thursday, October 8, 7 pm
Anna Lardinois, author of Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin: A History of Mischief and Menace, Heroes and Heartbreak
in Conversation with Molly Snyder for a Virtual Event

Anna Lardinois, purveyor of our city's most popular haunted, historical walking tours, joins us for a perfect event for every Wisconsonite’s Halloween season. She'll walk us through her latest book chock full of true, shocking tales from Wisconsin's seamy past. Click here to register for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin for 10% off list price today!

Lardinois brings together lots of well-researched information into these cohesive tales of terrible fires, vengeful call girls, famous flim-flam men, and eye-brow archingly suspicious deaths. Meet mob boss Frank Balistrieri and discover the havoc he wreaked. Read the stories of red light districts, rum runners, crimes, and tragedies that fill our state’s past. Learn how the great lakes made Prohibition a great party in Wisconsin. Welcome to Wisconsin’s surprisingly seedy underbelly.

Anna Lardinois owns Gothic Milwaukee, is author of Milwaukee Ghosts and Legends and the forthcoming Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes in 2021, and is creator of Walking Milwaukee, a collection of self-guided tours that explore the best of Cream City’s history and architecture. Molly Snyder is a reporter for OnMilwaukee whose latest book is Walking Milwaukee, cowritten by Royal Bravväxling.

Friday, October 9, 7 pm CDT
John Rocco, author of How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure
in Conversation with JoAnn Morgan and Ann Montgomery for a Virtual Event 
Cosponsored by UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium

John Rocco, the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of acclaimed books for children, including the Caldecott Honor book Blackout and the covers of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, chats about his National Book Award-longlisted picture book, How We Got to the Moon. This latest is a beautifully illustrated, oversized guide to the people and technology of the moon landing. For a special virtual event, Rocco will be in conversation with JoAnn Morgan, the only women in the firing room when they launched Apollo 11, and Ann Montgomery, the person in charge of all the astronauts’ equipment and tools that they would use on the Moon.

This event is a must-attend for space fans, tech geeks, and anyone else who's wondered - what did it really take to put a man on the moon? The Moon landing is one of the most ambitious, thrilling, and dangerous ventures in human history. Featuring exquisite illustrations and deep-diving research, this is a chronicle of the engineers, mathematicians, seamstresses, welders, and factory workers and their innovations and life-changing technological leaps forward that allowed NASA to achieve this unparalleled accomplishment. Rocco offers up a comprehensive chronicle detailing the grandest human adventure of all time for explorers of all ages!  

Click here to register for this event now! And purchase your copy of How We Got to the Moon for 20% off list price from Boswell Book Company now. This event is cosponsored by UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium. And yes, How We Got to the Moon was just longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People.

John Rocco received the Caldecott Honor for Blackout. He has illustrated the covers for many of Rick Riordan's series, including Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. His young adult novel, Swim that Rock, was a finalist for the New England Book Award.

Monday, October 12, 5:30 pm CDT
Amy Timberlake, author of Skunk and Badger
in Conversation with Jim Higgins for a Virtual Event

Newbery Honoree and Wisconsin native Amy Timberlake chats about her brand new book, a fresh take on the classic odd couple story of two opposites who need to be friends. Timberlake will chat with Jim Higgins, Art and Books Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This event shall be broadcast via Zoom - click right here to register today! And don’t forget to purchase your copy of Skunk and Badger for 20% off list price today!

Wallace and Gromit meets Winnie-the-Pooh in this story when Skunk plows into Badger’s life. No one wants a skunk around. They are unwelcome on front stoops. They should not linger in Important Rock Rooms. Skunks should never, ever be allowed to move in. But Skunk is Badger’s new roommate, and there is nothing Badger can do about it. Now, everything Badger knows is upended. Tails are flipped. The wrong animal is sprayed. And why-oh-why are there so many chickens? Skunk and Badger has already earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, which calls it "a treasure of a book that promises future misadventures from your new favorite odd couple."

Amy Timberlake’s work has received a Newbery Honor and the Edgard Award for Best Juvenile for her previous novel, One Came Home. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. Timberlake grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin. Jim Higgins is the Book and Arts Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

More on the Boswell upcoming events page.

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