What's Going on This Week at Boswell? Lesley Kagen, Wade Rouse, and Wade Rouse's Writing Workshop.

My "what's going on this week" blog post was shifted a day while I grouped some green events together.

Wednesday, September 14, 7:00 pm:
Lesley Kagen, New York Times bestselling author of Good Graces.

It's one year later from the events in Whistling in the Dark, and a heat wave has everyone in the close-knit Milwaukee neighborhood on edge. None more so than eleven-year-old Sally O'Malley. Deeply traumatized by her daddy's sudden death, and a near escape from a murderer and molester the previous summer, Sally's confidence, sense of security and much of her faith have been whittled away. But as a series of disquieting disturbances unfold—a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, and the mysterious disappearance of an orphan—Sally is called upon to rise above her inner demons when she becomes certain that her wild younger sister, Troo, is in danger. Sally made a promise to her daddy to keep her sister safe. A promise she can't break, even if her life depends on it. But when events reach a crisis point, will Sally have the courage to make the right choices? Or will she be overwhelmed by a dilemma that no child should have to deal with?

Can't make it to our event? Kagen's making several other appearances in the area.

September 17th, 11am-1 pm and September 18, 1:30-3:30 pm
Creekside Books
Cedarburg, WI

September 27th, 5:30PM
Reader's Loft
Green Bay, WI

September 29th, 7PM
The Kiel Library
Kiel, WI

October 1st, 2-4PM
Read Between the Lynes
Signing and Reading
Woodstock, IL

October 4th, 7PM
Grafton Library
Grafton, WI

October 20th-23rd
Wisconsin Book Festival
October 20th: 5:30-6:30PM
A Room of One's Own with Nina Revoyr

***

Thursday, September 15, 7 pm:
Wade Rouse, editor of I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship.

Critically acclaimed memoirist Wade Rouse has gathered some of America's best known humorists- authors, comedians, and actors-to offer biting commentary on what it means to share a life, and a heart, with a dog. From battling for bed space to trying to transform a pampered NYC pup into a Texas rawhide, and from helping a shelter rescue navigate through her new life to interpreting dog run dynamics (and politics), being a canine companion has challenges as tough as any agility course, but laughter is just a tail-wag away. This collection features uncanny insight and witty prose from Jen Lancaster, Rita Mae Brown, Laurie Notaro, W. Bruce Cameron, and many others, including a Foreword by Chelsea Handler's dog, Chunk. A portion of the author’s sales are being donated to the Humane Society of the United States.

Selected as one of the top September literary releases by independent bookstores across the nation, Morgan Kiedrowski from our Mequon bookstore neighbor, Next Chapter Bookshop, says about this new canine essay collection, "In this wonderful collection of short stories we celebrate life with our favorite shoe-eating, bed-stealing, impossible-to-train friends: dogs. Dog lovers who read this will find solace in knowing that there are others out there having experiences just like their own, both frustrating and funny. This is the perfect book to curl up with -- that is if your dog hasn't already taken your spot in the bed!"

Wade Rouse is the acclaimed author of four memoirs, including the bestselling At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream and his latest, It's All Relative.

We're also hosting Wade Rouse's writing workshop on the evening of Friday, September 16 and during the day on Saturday, September 17.  Rouse will give you tips for giving yourself permission to find your writer's voice, share insider secrets of the publishing world and best of all, time to write! So what are you waiting for? Take that leap and move forward with your passion! We've still got a few slots available.  The cost is $165 and includes coffee and Saturday lunch. Contact us at 414-332-1181 or email Stacie.

 

Here's where else you can see Wade Rouse over the next month:
 
Wednesday, September 21, 2011, 6pm
Saturn Booksellers

133 W. Main Street

Gaylord, MI

Thursday, September 22, 2011, 5pm
McLean & Eakin Booksellers
307 E. Lake Street
Petoskey, MI

Friday, September 23, 2011, 7pm
Brilliant Books
305 St Joseph Street
Suttons Bay, MI 49682

Wednesday, October 5, 2011,7pm
Kalamazoo Public Library
315 S. Rose Street
Kalamazoo MI 49007

Uncovering the Secrets of Lesley Kagen's Vliet Street Gang of Milwaukee, Plus Another Secret About Reading Event Books--Event is 9/14, 7 pm.

You may have noticed in the last email newsletter that I made reference to Lesley Kagen's new book Good Graces, with perhaps a little too much focus on the Nancy Drew. Ms. Kagen wrote back and noted I wasn't quite on the mark.  It was my flippant nature and noted the Nancy Drew references in the story.  But it struck me that I hadn't done justice to Ms. Kagen's story.  Hey, we're hosting an event at Boswell with Ms. Kagen on Wednesday, September 14. I don't want folks having the wrong expectations for Good Graces.  So what do I do?

There's no other option--the towering pile of books to be read was tossed aside and I moved Good Graces to the tippy top. As you imagine, I wish I could read every book for every event we host, but I'm simply unable to do it. I read about six books a month, and I would say four tie into events.  One of the others is for our in-store lit group and the last one is something that is pretty much picked out of a hat. Out of a hat, yes, but if it's good, you'll no doubt see a blog piece on it someday.

But I digress.  Though I thought we'd have enough local coverage and other reads to read something from an upcoming event that was a bit more orphaned and needy, I had to make sure I had a handle on Kagen's story. And it's true, my Nancy Drew reference couldn't have been farther off the mark. 

The story starts with sisters Sally O'Malley and her sister Margaret "Troo", living on the west side of Milwaukee around 1960. They've already been through a lot of trauma.  They moved off the farm to the city.  Their dad died, and since Troo was playing peek-a-boo with him while he was driving, there are some guilt issues, and Troo is acting out.

Sally's had a better time of it.  It turns out that Mom's new boyfriend Dave the detective is her birth father.  But Troo's taking to calling Mom by her first name and swiping things from stores.

It's not that Sally plays Nancy Drew, mind you, though in both stories, there are a series of crimes, and Sally does come up with a suspect that she attempts to catch him, pretty much going outside the normal channels.  She's got her idea of justice, a child's idea, and I leave it to you to ponder the implications of that.

It's that Kagen in the novel, even moreso than in the first, has taken on the wide-eyed innocence of a child, and sort of plays off that innocence to look at our views of the past. From Happy Days (the fifties through the lens of the seventies and eighties) to the current obsession with some political and religious groups of returning to the good old days, we've been doing this forever.  As long as we are not reminded of the horrors of the past, we tend to idolize it.

But Kagen sees through that and tries to hint at what's really in the viewfinder.  Ethel the African caregiver is hardly accepted in the community and easy to target with wrongdoing.  Father Mickey, whatever he's doing, certainly was a bad egg in the past. The different ethnicities intermingle, but anyone who's not Catholic is an outsider.

What we are drawn to with Sally is that she's both an innocent child and incredibly mature.  She's got a depth of insight into character and is certainly not afraid to embrace the otherness of Wendy Latour, the neighborhood kid with what I assume to be Down Syndrome. She's sees and is comfortable with the differentness of Gary Galecki, and there's a hint of differentness about her pal Mary Lane too. She's not just any kid in the 1950s. She's Nancy Drew, our heroine, the modern astute, brave, open-minded, and empathetic person we all want to someday become. It wouldn't be a bad thing if we could also solve mysteries, but honestly, that's secondary, both to life and this story.

I'm glad to say Sharon also read Good Graces, and what a joy it is to have so many good readers at Boswell. Here are her thoughts on the new novel:

"Who knew that Milwaukee in 1960 could be such a dangerous place? In Lesley Kagen’s follow-up novel to Whistling in the Dark, we find out just how perilous it can be.

"Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, are still recovering from the sudden death of their father. Their neighborhood is hit with a string of burglaries, the escape of a bully from reform school, an orphan’s disappearance, and the suspicious behavior of a beloved priest.

"Sally is the voice of this novel, intelligent and funny, but also achingly naïve at times. Milwaukee natives will enjoy all the details of life in this city 50 years ago."

Kagen also let us know that she got a great write-up in Milwaukee Magazine.  Here's just an excerpt:

"Spend happy hours following the O'Malley sisters through the sweltering summer of 1960 on Milwaukee's West Side. This humorous, passionate novel of childhood is full of evocative local detail and the lives of wild, smart children."

Ms. Kagen's events in and around the Milwaukee area for Good Graces:

Thursday, September 1, 7 pm
Next Chapter, Mequon
This is a ticketed release party. Details here.

Tuesday, September 6, 7 pm
Books and Company, Oconomowoc
More with a click.

Our event at Boswell is Wednesday, September 14, 7 pm
2559 N Downer
It is a free event.
If I could find a box of Feeling Good Cookies, I'd bring them.