It's a strange thing to have Mother's Day weekend following Easter so closely. We didn't really get a chance to catch our breath. I think we started out with about 30 card designs for Mom and I think we're down to about five by halfway through Saturday. I even picked up some dozens of a few of the folks we normally do well with (like Misha Zadeh from Madison Park) but you have to be prepared for last minute shopping.
By Monday, the Mother's Day card display will be gone, to be replaced by Dad. We don't sell quite as many Father's Day cards, even though when I was a young bookseller, I was told that Father's Day tended to be a better sales holiday than Mom, as there was no flowers, candy, and lunch ritual. It was a book or a tie, your choice. So anyway, the cards are ready to go out, with probably some last minute additions.
Fortunately I don't bring in too many things like frames that say "Mom" that need to be marked down right away. Unfortunately I sold through these little Paris bags and coin purses way too quickly and couldn't get the restock in in time. I did a lot of gift restocking this morning, but it was things like file folders (which we sell through pretty quickly since we got a wire display from an office supply store), vintage regional postcards, and puppets. I don't know if anyone was getting their mother a puppet for Mother's Day. If so, my apologies as our selection is a little slim at the moment.
Today we moved some tables around, and set the Father's Day table. It's hard to buy guy-themed gifts for the bookstore, even though it isn't hard to buy guy-themed books. We've got journals and boxed cards and bookmarks that don't scream floral, but I would say that our gift business leans more female than our book business. I went with a wine theme. Alas, the publishers mostly went with a sports theme, but no matter how hard I try, I will not sell golf-themed desk sets very well. Our loss, I guess.
I've been chatting with Judy Bridges, of Redbird Studio and Shut Up and Write renown, about our upcoming event with Dalya Massachi, author of Writing to Make a Difference, on Sunday, May 8, 2 pm. Massachi is in the area for a program in Madison, and was able to include an event with us as well. The book is focused to nonprofits, community groups, and other cause-related organizations where writing can really, really, really make a difference* More on our events page.
Bridges let me know that Massachi was recently awarded a Silver Ippy, the Independent Publisher Book Awards, for her Writing to Make a Difference. Awards started being announced yesterday, and there will be a ceremony on May 23. Here are the honors for the writing/publishing category:
Gold: Riding the Alligator: Strategies for a Career in Screenplay Writing , by Pen Densham (Michael Wiese Productions)
Silver: Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact , by Dayla F. Massachi (Writing for Community Success)
Bronze: The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Fourth Edition: Everything You Need to Know About the Costs, Contracts, and Process of Self-Publishing, by Mark Levine (Bascom Hill Publishing Group)
I wanted to give a shout out to Judy Bridges (more here), who is hosting an event for Shut Up and Write on Wednesday, May 11, 7 pm, at Woodland Pattern, on 720 East Locust. Joining her for her rising stars program are:
Amy Lou Jenkins is the Author of Every Natural Fact: Five Seasons of Open-Air Parenting, winner of the 2010 Council for Wisconsin Writers' Ellis / Henderson Outdoor Writing Award.
Maura Fitzgerald is a freelance writer whose work ranges from nonprofit marketing and communications to short fiction. Her work has appeared in Milwaukee Magazine.
Sara Jane Rattan writes fiction, essays, and poetry. Her work has appeared in the 2009 Wisconsin Poets' Calendar, Free Verse, and The Wisconsin Academy Review.
And since we're talking up our friends who write about writing, congratulations to Rochelle Melander, whose new book, Write-a-thon, will be coming out this fall. More on Melander's website.
*Though it's not specifically cited in Writing to Make a Difference, Massachi would caution you to limit yourself to one "really."
This morning I am on an errand to buy the last of our supplies for the Mo Willems signing at four --backup markers and sticky notes. Yesterday we received some of Mr. Willems plush that we ordered, including Elephant and Piggie, Knuffle Bunny, and Cat the Cat. I didn't buy that much, as Mr. Willems doesn't sign plush, as it has a tendency to go into a kids' mouth. But it is very cute and I thought that a few lucky kid's parents might be up for it. Or it could be the case like I saw at Dwellephant's school event we just did, where a kid bought the book himself with a gift card.
Today's Mo Willems-related talk is...why we request no flash photography at Mo Willem's event. Here are two very good reasons.
1. It's very distracting, both to the author and the audience.
2. It doesn't work well at Boswell. Our store is so bright that flashes for the most part will make your photo come out darker. I know this from experience--I always turn off my flash in the store.
Just in case our 7 pm event with Carsten Jensen (author of We the Drowned) is delayed, I'm bringing that group a bit of a treat/reward. Hint: it's Danish.
Speaking of Jensen, thanks to the Journal Sentinel for covering our dad-friendly events in yesterday's Tap Milwaukee* and today's Journal Sentinel Cue section. In addition to Jensen, there's a plug for tomorrow's event with Nathaniel Philbrick, author of The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of Little Big Horn. That's tomorrow (Friday, May 6) night at 7 pm.
And as an aside that leads us into Saturday, I was chatting on the phone with Alex Bledsoe, guest for Saturday, May 7, 2 pm (Dark Jenny and others), and he realized that Philbrick was coming Friday night. "Would you get me a copy of In the Heart of the Sea signed? He's one of my favorite authors," requested Bledsoe. Indeed we would.
Bledsoe called to make sure everything was all set and get directions to Boswell. One of the weird things I've noticed on map software is that Google Maps (and Mapquest too, I think) won't take you to the store the easiest way, which is 794 to Lincoln Memorial Drive and up Lafayette Hill to Lake Drive. For some reason Google doesn't know that there's access. When I tried to nudge the route, at one point it sent me over the Hoan to Bay View and back. But sadly, that route doesn't work right now because the entrance ramp from the Port of Milwaukee/Russell is closed. You have to turn around at Oklahoma.
I have learned that Yahoo Maps does give the correct directions. That's what I'm recommending.
Oh, and if you don't get our email newsletter, we sent off a new one yesterday. It's got several reviews and event details that don't show up in the blog. If you've changed your email address and no longer get it, but you still want it, there's a link on our website and the blog page.
*Do you italicize or underline a blog? A website? I have no clue.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
New display!
Our reading group table is back. With the new brochure (launched at Julie Orringer's wonderful talk last weekend) we have a whole batch of new perfect-for-book-club titles to offer. Just about everything is out in paper, except for Room and Half a Life, both arriving shortly.
New buttons!
With our Fomato buttons on clearance (we only have a few left and most of them talk up "pomade"), we put out our new buttons, which are done by Emily Martin of Black Apple fame. We actually had the Black Apple Paper Doll primer in last fall, and didn't restock. I have just remedied that.
Martin's work just screams for a greeting card, and while she does produce some of her own prints and even some notebooks, that work seems confined to her Etsy site. See more here.
What's going on with the reading glasses?
When I didn't receive my last order for reading glasses after a month, I followed up with a query. Nothing. I finally called the customer service number and suddenly two plus two equaled four. These folks are out of business. Sure enough, I can no longer locate their website either. We're looking for another vendor for reading glasses. Good luck, Paula (our telephone rep).
All that was combined with me putting off our order because I was looking for another vendor anyway. So anyway, that's why we're running low.
Mo Books, Mo Windows, Mo Events!
I just can't do justice to our cute display window for Mo Willems appearance this Thursday at 4 pm. Here's my advice to all retailers--anything looks better when you cut out letters and let them hang from the ceiling. It doesn't hurt that all his books look so great, and the pop (point of purchase) material is also wonderful.
So don't forget our event this Thursday. Willems will not be able to sign memorabilia, plush, or board books. One book can be personalized from home with a purchase from Boswell. All this is due to time constraints. And since we've had warnings of craziness, I guess I should add the obvious caveat--the doors close when we reach capacity. But you'll still be able to get books signed. We'll have a line outside, and let folks in as space opens up.
Willems' new book is Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator. I talked to the folks at Yottoy (who do Mo plush) and they said an Amanda and Alligator plush is already in the works.
Today is Geraldine Brooks day at Boswell. Caleb's Crossing goes on sale today (5/3). Our event is Thursday, May 12, 7 pm. So here are four things you need to know:
1. Tickets are $5. You can buy them in the store, online, or by phone.
2. But wait, there's more. Buy the ticket and you'll get a special Boswell's Best price of $21.56 off on the book. (Yes, that's $5.39 off the price for non ticket holders).
3. Our Anne loved it. Here's what she had to say about Caleb's Crossing:
"My favorite Geraldine Brooks novel up to this point has been Year of Wonders. Caleb’s Crossing is on a par. Colonial America is a period in history that I love reading about. The picture of life for women in that time period is both fascinating and appalling. The inventiveness that Bethia exhibited to get around all the constraints imposed on her was truly amazing. The characters were compelling, and the story line was wonderful. Loved it, loved it, loved it!"
4. I just finished reading People of the Book for our in-store lit group last night. Yes, I know, very clever of me to schedule our discussion for the day just before the book goes on sale. I figured out that between the three of us, we'd read the book 13 times. Two people read it twice, and one person had read it three times. I think that's a record.
As the ga-jillions of folks who've read Brooks' last novel, the story is wrapped in a contemporary drama of Hanna Heath, an archivist analyzing the Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued by a Muslim librarian. As each interesting detail about the book is discovered (a trace of salt, a wine stain, a hair), the story harkens back to the historical incident. There's concern that something is not right, giving the main narrative the drive of a thriller.
The discussion wound up being quite fascinating. Reactions to the book wound up ranging from mixed to "one of the best" (with most people trending to the latter), but there's no question that when this group comes together, we're always up for a good quibble. Honestly, I don't know how authors can handle appearing at book club discussions.
One interesting conundrum is that sometimes what makes for great storytelling can be the very thing that trips you up in analysis. And there's no question that Brooks is a great storyteller. Her journalistic background really brings you into whatever world she's describing.
For the contemporary story, we have Hanna's quest to analyze the manuscript and see if it can be restored, and I'll avoid mentioning the wrench thrown into that drama. There's a family discovery that relates back to the lives of the historical characters. And yes, there's a little romance.
There was no question that we all really liked the historical parts of the book, though when it got down to rating each of them, I got a little confused by whether folks loved or hated Venice. It turned out we got mixed up with Vienna. But I think most of us were particularly taken with Lola's story.
So here's my question: Is Hanna Heath's story the novel itself, or is it the framing device for the novel? If you took out the historical parts of the book, would it still work as well? And if it did, would it make the historical parts seem extraneous? This is a problem every writer must balance, and I think Brooks did a good job with it, based on all the folks I know who love, love, love the book. But I don't have the answer to those questions.
Oh, we talked about other things as well. I'm always fascinated by historical novels that clearly have a tremendous amount of research in them, and yet are largely products of an author's imagination. Do folks who read them understand that they can't accept as fact everything they read, particularly the characters and plotlines? And if that's the case, how important is it to get the other details correct? But somehow it is, just the way I want the geography of the city laid out correctly if you use real landmarks in a real city.
To conclude, People of the Book was a great discussion, and definitely worth recommending to other book clubs. And don't forget that Geraldine Brooks is coming to Boswell on Thursday, May 12. Can I link to tickets again? Of course I can.
Here's our upcoming schedule for the in-store lit group, first Monday at 7 pm.
June 6, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell
July, 4 (uh oh) Room, by Emma Donoghue. We'll probably adjust a bit. Details to follow
And now, as promised, bios of our writers for Tuesday's undergraduate fiction reading!
Matt Hart was born and raised in Milwaukee. He is the youngest of three boys. He studied two years at Columbia College Chicago, one semester in the Comedy Studies program at Second City, and two and a half years at UWM. Matt has collaborated on a sketch comedy show at Second City, video poem featured on thiszing.org, and will be published in this years issue of UWM’s literary magazine, Furrow.
Rachel Gomez has been writing stories since middle school and has always loved it. She studied at UW Stevens Point and transferred to UWM two years ago. While studying at UWSP she had a piece published in the magazine called "Word Play." The story is called "An Unacceptable Fate." Her hobbies are hanging out with friends, listening to music, and reading.
Carly Fay Wycklendt (Wike-lint) enjoys writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her inspiration generally comes from the interesting characters she meets from day-to-day, as well as from the little bits of nature that exist in the cityscape. Her interests/hobbies include singing, playing guitar, hiking, bicycling, and doing yoga.
Joshua Vogt is a Marine Corps veteran, and served an overseas tour in Operation Enduring Freedom (Feb-Sept 2007). He is majoring in creative writing and minoring in psychology. In Fall 2010, Joshua received recognition from the Chair of the English Department for exemplary performance in the area of Creative Writing for my his work in English 233.
Rachel Niemann is a junior transfer student studying creative writing and journalism/mass communication at UWM. Before attending UWM, she studied music performance and English language and literature at Lawrence University. Her writing focuses on those who live on the fringes of society, and she particularly enjoys reading and writing satire.
Bethany Price is a Junior in the Creative Writing Program. She was raised in Florida but has adapted to the harsh Wisconsin winters. For her senior project, she plans to create an illustrated manuscript of poetry. Bethany's favorite poets are Rumi, Chaucer, Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath. Bethany has been published in the Fall 2009 issue of BlazeVox, and was featured in this spring’s Literary Circular at UWM. She has also contributed to a choose-your-own-adventure fiction chapbook called “Pick your Poison”.
Tonight (May 2, 7 pm) is book club discussion with People of the Book, readying us for our Geraldine Brooks event on May 12. And here's a little more news about Caleb's Crossing. If you buy a ticket to the event, you get the book at the Boswell's Best 20% off price, which is $21.56. That means you get more than $5 off your purchase of the book, getting your ticket price back and then some.
Tuesday, May 3 at 7 pm is our UWM undergraduate student reading night. We've got a good crowd of readers for this event. This evening we're hosting Matt Hart, Rachel Gomez, Carla Fay Wycklendt, Joshua Vogt, Rachel Niemann, and Bethany Price. I've got complete biographies at the end of this entry...because hey, you might know them and you're definitely going to want to cheer them on. Yes, they will be getting their first official Boswell author water, which has become ritualized. More on a separate post.
On Wednesday, May 4 at 7 pm, we're hosting acclaimed writers Alexander MacLeod and Clark Blaise to Boswell at 7 pm. Alexander MacLeod’s celebrated first collection, Light Lifting, offers us a suite of darkly urban and unflinching elegies that explore the depths of the psyche and channel the divide between Canada and the United States. In The Meagre Tarmac, Blaise offers up an Indo-American Canterbury Tales, a suite of intimately linked stories about the trials and tribulations of several generations of Indo-Americans, grappling with the changing nature of race relations in post 9-11 America and the spectre (and reality) of terrorism. MacLeod, shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and Blaise, shortlisted for everything else, are what we call writer's writers. So that means if you don't show up, you're not really a writer...which could be troubling to your psyche.
What are you doing at 4 pm on Thursday, May 5? If you're a kid or a kid's book lover, you might be coming to Boswell to see Mo Willems. He'll be reading from his new books, Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator and I Broke my Trunk, the new Elephant and Piggie book.
And yes, there are some restrictions:
1. Mr. Willems cannot sign board books or plush or anything else that might go into a kid's mouth.
2. Due to time restrictions, Mr. Willems will not be able to sign memorabilia or posters.
3. You must get a line letter to get your books signed. Priority is given to folks who purchase books from us. Mr. Willems will be able to personalize one book from home.
Rules subject to the size of the crowd. If we get a larger-than-expected turnout, there may be more of them, like a limit to the number of books per family. If there are fewer people, who knows? You can ask me, but if this happens, I will be in the back room crying.
Willems will be signing until 6 pm, after which we clean up for Carsten Jensen, author of the Danish masterpiece, We the Drowned, appearing Thursday, May 5 at 7 pm. This is Jason's favorite book of 2011, and it's an honor to be hosting the author of, as we like to say in Danish, Vi, de Druknede.
We the Drowned is the story of the port town of Marstal, whose inhabitants have sailed the world's oceans aboard freight ships for centuries. Despite the countless dangers, the sea continues to lure generations of Marstal men away from home and into terror and violence. Left behind are the women: strong and resilient, they must raise large families alone and sometimes take history into their own hands. There are cannibals here, shrunken heads, prophetic dreams, forbidden passions, cowards, heroes, devastating tragedies, and miraculous survivals--everything that a town like Marstal has actually experienced. My apologies for the use of paraphrased copy on the blog. It's either that or a wait for a spectacularly original essay on the book to shoot from brain to keyboard, and in that case, we talk up the book next July. But it's Thursday, May 5, at 7 pm.
Stacie has put a video together of two fans of the book in a heated book discussion. You may recognize these guys from "skinny vanilla latte" and "where's the bathroom?"
On Friday, May 6 at 7 pm, we're hosting Nathaniel Philbrick, acclaimed historian and author of Mayflower and In the Heart of the Sea. His new book, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We're hosting this event with Reclaiming Our Heritage, organizers of the Civil War Reenactment going on at VA Medical Center on June 4 and 5. More information here.
Little Bighorn and Custer are names synonymous in the American imagination with unmatched bravery and spectacular defeat. Mythologized as Custer's Last Stand, the June 1876 battle has been equated with other famous last stands, from the Spartans' defeat at Thermopylae to Davy Crockett at the Alamo. In his tightly structured narrative, Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly sketches the two larger-than-life antagonists: Sitting Bull, whose charisma and political savvy earned him the position of leader of the Plains Indians, and George Armstrong Custer, one of the Union's greatest cavalry officers, and a man with a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage. (Note: I am using copy here too--my brain cells are wiped out!)
And on Saturday, May 7, at 2 pm, we're joined by Alex Bledsoe, author of Dark Jenny, a genre hybrid that's been receiving glowing praise for an innovative mix of high fantasy and hard-boiled detective fiction. In this new installment, wisecracking sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse finds himself the prime suspect in a shocking political crime—with the fate of an entire kingdom in his hands. The author is from Tennessee but now makes his home in Madison. Let's give him a warm Milwaukee sf/fantasy welcome.
Hope there's something that tickles your fancy here. And now to work on our Shepherd ad and the email newsletter, which I'm hoping goes out tomorrow. And instead of linking every book on this blog post, know that you can find everything on our website, and can order a signed copy. It's easy!
It's unusual when Easter is right on top of Mother's Day. We were so used to holding our Mother's Day cards until after Easter that we let them go a few extra weeks. And then I forgot to get in enough card designs, but one line of ours came to the rescue and got our order to us in less than a week. I usually buy cards in 6's, but we sell Seattle designer Misha Zadeh (Graham)'s beautiful designs so well that we went with some 12's. Hey, big time!
So that's my gift update for the week. What did you buy your mom for Mother's Day*? Here's what our customers have been contemplating.
Hardcover fiction
1. The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace
2. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
3. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer (see below)
4. Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
5. The Tragedy of Arthur, by Arthur Phillips.
6. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
7. Murder in Passy, by Clara Black
8. Great Night, by Chris Adrian
9. Started Early, Took by Dog, by Kate Atkinson
10. Drawing Conclusions, by Donna Leon
Phillips has the front-page of The New York Times Book Review. That's two in a row for him, I think. And in addition to our sales, The Paris Wife continues to come up in a lot of conversations. And Jason loved it. So maybe it's my next late read.
Hardcover Nonfiction
1. The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk
2. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
3. 1861, by Adam Goodheart
4. The Social Animal, by David Brooks
5. The Nature Principle, by Richard Louv (coming to UEC May 18!)
6. Apollo's Angels, by Jennifer Homans
7. Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff
8. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand
9. The Divinity of Doubt, by Vincent Bugliosi
10. My Germany, by Lev Raphael
Richard Louv is appearing at the Urban Ecology Center on May 18. Admission is $5. Call to register (414) 964-8505. More UEC events here.
Paperback fiction:
1. The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer
2 A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
3. How to Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer
4. A Qustion of Belief, by Donna Leon
5. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell
6. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
7. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (at Boswell May 12!)
8. The Solitude of Prime Numbers, by Paolo Giorano
9. Separate Kingdoms, by Valerie Laken
10. The Empress, by Sa Shan
We'll be discussing Geraldine Brooks and David Mitchell at upcoming in-store book club discussions, People of the Book on May 2 and The Thousand Autumns on June 6. Several of the titles this week were mentioned at our book club talk on Friday. And Stacie just put The Empress on our staff shelf.
Paperback Nonfiction
1. Heaven is for Real, by Todd Burpo
2. Born to Run, by Chris McDougall
3. The Last Stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick (at Boswell Friday May 6!)
4. Just Kids, by Patti Smith
5. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
While some of the hot titles from the Christian market have not really gotten traction at Boswell, Todd Burpo's witnessing account is at phenomenon levels. For trade phenomenons, you can't do much better than the long-lasting-in-hardcover Born to Run. Should have a nice run in paper too; it's on our book club table and will likely wind up on our Father's Day assortment, when we get it up next week.
Kid Books
1. The Danger Box, by Blue Balliett
2. Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliet
3. The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett
4. The Calder Game, by Blue Balliett
5. Hawksmaid, by Kathryn Lansky
6. I am a Bunny, by Ole Rissom
7 Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad, by David Soman and Jacky Davis
8. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do it Yourself Book, by Jeff Kinney
10. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Guess who we hosted this week? If you guessed Blue Balliett, give yourself a hand. And we've got some signed stock of many of the authors who visited. If you'd like to buy one of these books, here's a handy link to our website. Or stop by. Or call us at (414) 332-1181.
*It's not too late. And we just got a nice assortment of those popular New Yorker Magazine jigsaw puzzles, that work for moms and dads and vacation cottages and who knows what else?
By Monday, the Mother's Day card display will be gone, to be replaced by Dad. We don't sell quite as many Father's Day cards, even though when I was a young bookseller, I was told that Father's Day tended to be a better sales holiday than Mom, as there was no flowers, candy, and lunch ritual. It was a book or a tie, your choice. So anyway, the cards are ready to go out, with probably some last minute additions.
