Hey, We Got an Award--and the Picture Not Professional Enough for Our Email Newsletter

So it was time for the Shepherd Express Reader's Choice Awards to be announced. I didn't go this year because I worked an event on Monday night, a signing for Joe Dungan's L. A. Nuts. Joe and I had a discussion about this book and an event when we set up the event--it was his contention that the midwest hates L. A. and would get into an L. A. bashing book. It was my feeling that the midwest ignores L. A. Interest in L. A. and Southern California travel guides train New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D. C., New Orleans, Seattle, and Boston.

Alas, I would have liked to have been wrong, but I was correct. We didn't have anyone at the event. Joe took a lot of photos so I assumed there's a blog posting somewhere, but I can't find one. I did have a very interesting conversation with his host, who teaches history at the Milwaukee High School for the Arts, and might have taken issue had we hosted a Boston bashing book. Au contraire, we know a lot of Red Sox fans and my mother lives in Brookline very happily. No bashing for us.

So anyway, our Rebecca was able to attend, but it was Lanora at Next Chapter who called us to tell us we won what we thought was "Best New Bookstore."

It turns out the next day, we won "Best Bookstore--New", which is a grammatically* superior award. But there are still a lot of things we need to do better--I'm certainly not resting on any laurel-like things. And I love my friends at Next Chapter and I'm glad they were second--I'm sure it was a very close race, and we were probably helped by the fact that more of our customers are core Shepherd Express readers than are theirs in Ozaukee County.

(Note: we know that we're really talking about semantics and not grammar, but Amie and I were not sure if "semantically" was a word. I had a very angry comment a few weeks ago because I called my posting about Barbara Ehrenreich a "press release", even though it was not only released to the press. It was so impersonal that I decided to not post it at the time, but the person of course was correct so I hereby acknowledge that I took some license with the term.)

Here's Bridgette at the Shepherd Express presenting our award.

Thanks to everyone again.

A Visitor to Boswell Shows up in the Acknowledgements Page of Jennifer Chiaverini's New Book

So our first Herta Mueller books came in, a reprint of The Land of Green Plums from Northwestern University Press. We kept a list of interested parties and one of them was our good friend Brian, ex-Brookfield Schwartz bookseller, and now of Half-Price Books.

The funny thing for me was that we have another customer that shares Brian's last name and I thought it was for him. For some reason, it's a source of continual amusement for me. If only I could have have more customers named Mary Smith, it would give me no end of pleasure.

You may have heard that Half Price is moving across the street into the old Schwartz space on Bluemound sometime in 2010. Here's the story.

While we were chatting, Brian was admiring our table of holiday novels. Among them was a pile of Jennifer Chiaverini's A Quilter's Holiday, the newest in her series of quilt-related novels. Chiaverini, a Madison author, was a big fan of the Brookfield Schwartz and spoke at the store wake, held shortly before closing. She was also a big fan of Brian--he's thanked in the acknowledgements. How swell is that?

We're still unsure of what kind of crafting business we have at Boswell. We certainly carry substantially more books than we did at1Schwartz on Downer, but mostly we've increased our knitting titles. I've been remiss in doing serious category analysis. An embarrassing flaw.

So far, Chiaverini has been doing events at Next Chapter in Mequon and Books and Company in Oconomowoc. I don't know if we could equal their audiences, but I like the author so much I'd want to someday try. So to the author, if you're doing a Google Alert (and every author should, it's what we have instead of clipping services), here's a heads up--lets do something creative together someday.

Except don't ask me to make something. I'm very clumsy.

Yes, Virginia, There was a 4th Rep Night at Next Chapter

The Boswell and Next Chapter folk gathered together at Mequon for rep night number 4.

Food was from Hong Anh Palace, where I have been eating for many years. It was very good. I just learned from their web site that they are closed on many major holidays, and honestly, I was a bit surprised!

Lanora presented the kids' titles from Penguin Group, because it turned out that Alex was travelling with Patricia Polacco (and she made a stop at Boswell, and we had a wonderful event that brought several attendees to tears). For me, the highlight was Loren Long's Otis, a wonderful story with illustrations that are an homage to classic illustrators like Virginia Lee Burton and Munro Leaf. I'm pretty sure ex-Boswellian Sarah would have loved it. Must check her blog to find out.

Cathy Schornstein presented titles from HarperCollins and Hyperion. She had so many wonderful books that I can't list them all here. In particular, she was enthusiastic about Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which turned out to be a much more attractive and more urban-friendly book that anyone would have thought. Here's the blog that led to the book contract.

And Joe Cain had a few gems from Penguin. He gave us another chance to read Juliet Naked, and highlighted several sleepers from Tarcher. The one that caught my eye was The Power of Kindness, which Common Good Books in St. Paul has done very well with over the last year.

Thank you to all the reps who participated in this year's program. It was really great to continue a tradition that went on for so long at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, starting at David's Schwartz's home, and then, as we grew, expanding into the stores. There's no question that rep nights have made successes of books in our stores or at least cemented our commitment, most recently The Uncommon Reader and The Elegance of the Hedgehog. What success will come from this year, I'm not sure of yet. I can only hope for something big.

CIROBE Bargain Book Show in Chicago Offers...Bargains

Last weekend was CIROBE, a bargain book show in Chicago. Jason went down for a couple of days to refill our bargain book tables. I went along for the train ride, as who can pass up a reason to get up at 4:30?

We almost immediately ran into CIROBE confounder Marshall Smith, who shared some good stories about selling to A. David Schwartz, my longtime boss/mentor at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, a man who was absolutely obsessed by bargain books. One time Marshall came to sell him and he was out with a back injury. No problem! Marshall just held the jackets over David's head so he could complete his buys.

Alas, I've never been able to be quite as passionate as David, but I'm getting better. We'll have an expanded selection of great bargain books for the holidays. Oh, and I think David would have really loved buying second-hand; I wonder why he never got into it.

I continued my quest to fill in some sections with nicely priced academic books (several vendors let us order in ones) and I went to another vendor to bring in some reasaonably-priced sidelines. This is a good way for us to try magnets, for example. Now I just have to find something metal to put them on. Hmmm...cookie sheets are aluminum, so that won't work...

Of course the highlight of the show was having lunch with Arsen Kashkashian of Boulder Bookstore. First I got to introduce him to fellow blogger John Mesjak (I use their last names because they both publish) on the show floor. They'd previously only Twittered each other.

Arsen's blog is Kash's Book Corner. I really love Arsen's new post about interviewing his new buyer Martina.

John's blog is My 3 Books.

We had lunch at Chutney Joe's Indian Diner, which was only a few blocks from the Hilton on South State Street. It was pretty good, and indeed fast.

***

This post turned out to be a tribute to Marshall Smith. He passed away shortly after the show's end, on his way home to Florida.

What Would Karel Capek Think?

Remember when I was blogging about our robot window and I mentioned that I was featured in my fifth grade production of RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots)? And why should you?

Well, Donald Ruehl, a local used-and-rare buyer/seller/appraiser, came in with a copy of the book to show me. It's a first edition from the 1920's, published by Doubleday, Page, and Company.

I'm so sad that it's just about time for the window to come down, partly because it's my favorite window since we've opened, and partly because due the sidewalk construction, not as many folks got to see it as I'd hoped. We sold a decent amount of things out of it too, including Crobot, a book on knitting cute robots.

I should also warn you that if you love our bendable wooden robots, they are now out of stock at the distributor. We're hoping on getting more before Christmas, but who knows? We still have about 20 left in the mini size, plus about 4 of the larger ones. Did I mention they are going to stop making the gray minis? Though the least popular color, they are very nice to have in threes, one each of red, blue and gray. At least that's what I bought for myself.

Alas, the "book and plush" signs are at the printer (or at least I think they are, I had better recheck) and it's time to move our futuristic friends to a nice table.

What's Going on This Week at Boswell?

Here's what's going on in the store this week. We're pretty busy!


Monday, November 9th (tonight!), 7 PM.
Joe Dungan, discussing his book L. A. Nuts. We use the Ingram web site so the link will indicate the book is not available. It will work to order the book if you pick it up in store. Yes, we still have work to do on our web site.

Whether you love or hate L. A., Joe's columns might make you chortle. Here's Joe's web site.

Tuesday, November 10th, 7 PM.
The A.V. Club, with their new collection Inventory.

I can't print Joel McHale's recommendation because it's too cussy, but here's what David Cross had to say:

"In a culture that worships the disposable, lazy lists obligatorily put together by self-serving editorial staffs at the likes of Barely Information Magazine, The A.V. Club has decided to embrace what it parodies until it meets itself just outside of heaven and shakes its own hand while flipping itself, and you and me, off. Kudos A.V. Club!” – David Cross, of Mr. Show and Arrested Development"

Rescheduled due to a death in the family and a case of the flu (there are several folks involved in this), here's a link to their link to us!

Wednesday, November 11th, 7 PM.
Bob McGinn, discussing The Ultimate Super Bowl Book: A Complete Reference to the STATS, Stars, and Stories Behind Football's Biggest Game-And Why the Best Team Won.

This is the perfect book for the sports-obessed, detail obsessed, numbers-obsessed kind of person. McGinn writes for the Journal Sentinel, but out of Green Bay, so even his coworkers hardly see him. Why not visit him this Wednesday?

Here's the Journal Sentinel Packers page. You're bound to see some of McGinn's work here, but I believe some of it is available by subscription only.

Thursday, November 12th, 7 PM.
Lorrie Moore, reading from and taking questions about A Gate at the Stairs

1. Get here early.
2. Have us get a book signed for you.
3. Read this fabulous review from the Guardian, who has called Moore the finest short story writer in America today.

Friday, November 13th, 7 PM.
Nona Willis Aronowitz, discussing Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism.

Here's one of their info-blogs about the Girldrive adventure (yes, there are more than one).

I just learned that Aronowitz is a reporter and editor for a hyperlocal Chicago Tribune venture called Triblocal. I have just begun to explore this site, but it seems very "future of journalism."

This event has a shout-out in today's "Flash Forward to the week ahead" section in the Journal Sentinel.

***

Here's a Journal Sentinel link to today's story on Milwaukee's bookstore wars from Cary Spivak. I thought it was fair. If it makes me sound a little whiny, I am a little whiny. It could be worse. This deserves a whole post and perhaps I'll soon do one.

Try Out Our Freshly Repainted Crosswalks on Your Next Visit

Our construction is pretty much done! Why there is still a no parking anytime sign directly in front of my store is a little beyond me. Maybe a competitor paid the city to place it there. Just in case it was left there in error, I will email someone as soon as this post is done.

There are now bike lanes.

Of late, the crosswalks in Milwaukee haven't been repainted in a lot of areas; just ask , but our new crosswalks are very striking. We have the fresh paint, and the warning sign. Don't you just want to try it out right now?

When you come in, pick up a copy of Traffic. If you haven't read it yet, it's an interesting and often fun survey on the politics, planning, and psychology of driving.

A New Segment--Magazine of the Week. Not that I'll do this Weekly.

Thursday is magazine day. We generally pick our magazines, but our supplier likes to throw some surprises in. We're not sure if they get paid to force circulation or what, but usually we send them right back.

So I was thinking we should highlight some of our interesting magazines, ones that might normally not be on your reading list.

This week's magazine is Sheep: The Voice of the Independent Flockmasters.

Features include:
--Got Predator Troubles? Why Didn't a Coyote Show Up?
--Shearing News
--History Sells! Re-Enactors and Period Farms Lure Wool Buyers
--The Shocking Truth: Building an Electric Fence
--News Bleat
and of course
--Sheep! Price Reports.

Who advertises in this magazine? Sheep feed, electric fences, sheep supply houses, de-worming supplies, organizations like the National Livestock Producers Association.

Sheep! Magazine is published in Medford, Wisconsin, but it's editorial office is in Trout, West Virginia. It does have a website.

And no, I can't figure out why we got it either. But it's kind of interesting.