The Longest List of Boswell Weekly Events Ever, for Monday, October 7 through Monday, October 14, 2013--Including Junot Díaz, Chuck Palahniuk, Jennifer Chiaverini, David Wiesner, David Shannon, Robert Sabuda, and More.

Monday, October 7, 6:30 pm, at the Franklin Public Library:
Scott Seegert and John Martin, authors of Vordak the Incomprehensible: Time Travel Trouble.

Vordak the Incomprehensible, Vol. 4: Time Travel Trouble is the next installment in the misadventures of Vordak. After having yet another evil plan to rule the world foiled by Commander Virtue, Vordak travels back in time in an attempt to defeat his arch-nemesis at the point of his greatest vulnerability—his childhood. Kirkus Reviews says, most likely followed by maniacal laughter, "At last, the supervillain tells his side of the story."

Vordak the Incomprehensible is a world-class supervillain and the Evil Master of all he surveys. His first books, including Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World, have inspired a whole new generation of minions and fiends.

Scott Seegert was selected to transcribe Vordak's notes based on his ability to be easily captured. He has completely forgotten what fresh air smells like and has learned to subsist on a diet of beetles, shackle rust, and scabs.

John Martin has the great misfortune of being chosen by Vordak to illustrate this book. He hasn't seen the sun in three years. He is deathly afraid of the dark and spiders, which is unfortunate considering his situation.

Tuesday, October 8, 6:30 pm, at Greenfield Public Library:
David Shannon, author of Bugs in My Hair! and No David.

This event is of course co-sponsored by the Greenfield Public Library, which is located at 5310 West Layton Avenue, in Greenfield.

Lice: Nobody talks about them, but they are everywhere. (Some estimate 20 million children a year host them.) Luckily, the unwelcome bugs in this story are so funny you will be laughing aloud—even when Mom attacks them with battle-tested anti-lice weapons. From the opening picture of a happy, oversized louse appearing with his suitcases, you
know these bugs are determined to stay. Shannon peppers his hilarious scenes with fun, "nitpicking" facts about these "lousy" critters and pokes fun at common denial: "It's probably ash from that volcano in Pogo Pogo," resulting in another fresh, entertaining read-aloud.

David Shannon is the internationally acclaimed creator of more than thirty picture books, including No, David!, a Caldecott Honor Book and his second New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year, and three more David picture books. Shannon's bestsellers include A Bad Case of Stripes and his recent Jangles: A Big Fish Story.

Tuesday, October 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
The Greatest Self Help Event Ever, with
Kimanzi Constable, author of Are You Living or Existing?
and
David Mezzapelle, author of Contagious Optimism.

Not just content to have one author to improve your life, we've doubled the life changing potential in just one short hour. In Are You Living or Existing?, Kimanzi Constable shares “9 Steps to Change Your Life.” He lays out his plan with an easy to read style that combines specific advice with anecdotes from his own experience, encouraging readers to examine their own lives and goals through self-reflection and further reading. A speaker and life coach who strives to “help people live the full and abundant life they deserve,” Constable also makes it clear he is personally dedicated to walking the walk, not just talking the talk, in his own life.

Inspired by a lifetime of practicing contagious optimism, personally and professionally, David Mezzapelle set out to gather stories and advice from business leaders, visionaries and ordinary people from around the world. The result is a “compendium of encouragement” with more than 100 easily digestible tidbits of guidance and inspiration. Contagious Optimism: Uplifting Stories and Motivational Advice for Positive Forward Thinking aims to show readers it’s possible to find a silver lining in every cloud, whether due to personal hardship or wrong turns in their own lives or the world around them.

Kimanzi Constable is an author, speaker, coach, and corporate consultant who lives in Wisconsin with his family.

David Mezzapelle is an entrepreneur and speaker who is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal in addition to appearances on various radio and television programs.

Wednesday, October 9, 7 pm, at Boswell:
a ticketed event with LeRoy Butler and Rob Reischel, authors of Packers Pride:Green Bay Greats Share Their Favorite Memories

In this new collaboration, LeRoy Butler, a 12-year veteran and one of the most popular Green Bay Players ever to don the uniform, teams up with Journal Sentinel's Packer Plus reporter Rob Reischel to tell the stories of the team's most memorable players and coaches.

Tickets are $25.95 + tax and available online at brownpapertickets.com, event 477730. Purchase of one full-priced ticket includes a copy of Packers Pride, signed by LeRoy Butler and Rob Reischel, and allows for one additional free companion ticket. Free companion ticket must be ordered at the same time as the full-priced ticket.

LeRoy Butler played defensive back for 12 seasons with the Green Bay Packers between 1990 and 2001. He was named to four Pro Bowls, the NFL's 1990s All-Decade team, was a member of the Packers' Super Bowl XXXI squad, and is credited with inventing the Lambeau Leap after scoring a touchdown in 1993. He still makes his home in Wisconsin, co-hosting "The Big Show" on WSSP-AM in Milwaukee.

Rob Reischel has covered the Green Bay Packers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Packer Plus since 2001. Rob has also received 12 awards from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association for his writing and editing at News Publishing Co. since 2000. His books include the recently published 100 Things Packers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.

And yes, Rob Reischel will also sign his previous books, including ones brought from home.

Thursday, October 10, 6:30 pm, at the Oak Creek Public Library:
Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of Risked
and
Shannon Messenger, author of Exile.

Oak Creek Public Library is co-sponsoring this event, and is located at 8620 South Howell Avenue, in Oak Creek.

In Risked, the latest installment of the Missing series from Margaret Peterson Haddix, time-traveling middle schoolers Jonah and Katherine find themselves on a mission to return Alexei and Anastasia Romanov to history and then save them from the Russian Revolution. But they are at a loss, because in their own time, the bones of Alexei and Anastasia have been positively identified through DNA testing. What hope do they have of saving Alexis and Anastasia’s lives when the twenty-first century has proof of their deaths?

Exile, sequel to Keeper of the Lost Cities, opens with Sophie settling in nicely to her new home and her new life in the world of the lost cities. And it helps that living at Havenfield means getting to spend time with rare, precious species including the first female Alicorn, who shows herself to Sophie and trusts no one but her. Sophie is tasked with helping to train the magical creature so that the Alicorn can be revealed to the people of the lost cities as a sign of hope, but the secrets buried deep in Sophie’s memories remain, and before long she’s back in incredible danger, risking everything to find the answers to questions that could save not only her life, but the life of someone close to her.

Margaret Peterson Haddix is the author of many critically and popularly acclaimed YA and middle-grade novels. A graduate of Miami University of Ohio, she worked for several years as a reporter for The Indianapolis News. Among her popular novels are Running Out of Time, Uprising, and The Shadow Children series.

Shannon Messenger graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts where she learned among other things that she liked watching movies much better than making them. She studied art, screenwriting, and television production, but realized her real passion was writing for kids and teens. In addition to the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, she is also author of the young adult novels Let the Sky Fall and Let the Storms Break.


Thursday, October 10, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jennifer Chiaverini, author of The Spymistress and Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.

Madison's Jennifer Chiaverini was previously best known for her Elm Creek Quilters series, but with Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and The Spymistress, she's developing a new reputation for her historical novels about the footnoted women of the Civil War era. (Mrs. Lincoln's Rival is up next, coming in January). We're co-sponsoring the event with Patched Works of Elm Grove as always, but these are really different books, and thus do not have fabric giveaways attached to the event. That said, Chiaverini is a wonderful speaker and what with all the book clubs planning to read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker in paperback, I would highly recommend getting a jump start on your discussion by coming to see Chiaverini in person.

Although she was posthumously inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, Elizabeth Van Lew’s achievements during the Civil War are not widely known. Born to slave-holding aristocracy in Richmond, Virginia, and educated by Northern Quakers, she was a paradox of her time. When her native state seceded in April 1861, Van Lew's convictions compelled her to defy the new Confederate regime, pledging her loyalty to the Lincoln White House.

With unparalleled skills in gathering military intelligence, Van Lew developed a cipher system, helped to construct the Richmond Underground and orchestrated escapes from the infamous Confederate Libby Prison under the guise of humanitarian aid. Her spy ring's reach was vast, from clerks in the Confederate War and Navy Departments to the very home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Ulysses S. Grant would one day be quoted as saying she sent him “the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war.” Throughout it all, her courage would never waver, even as her wartime actions threatened not only her reputation, but also her life.

Friday, Octrober 11, 4 pm, at Boswell:
David Wiesner, author of Mr. Wuffles, Tuesday, and more.

Another comic tour de force from three-time Caldecott medalist David Wiesner. Mr. Wuffles ignores all his cat toys but one, which turns out to be a spaceship piloted by small green aliens. When Mr. Wuffles plays rough with the little ship, the aliens must venture into the cat's territory to make emergency repairs.

Here's Wiesner talking about his new book!



David Wiesner’s interest in visual storytelling dates back to high school days when he made silent movies and drew wordless comic books. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration, where he created a painting nine feet long, which he now recognizes as the genesis of Free Fall, his first book of his own authorship, for which he was awarded a Caldecott Honor Medal in 1989. David won his first Caldecott Medal in 1992 for Tuesday, and he has gone on to win twice more: in 2002 for The Three Pigs and in 2007 for Flotsam. He is only the second person in the award's history to win the Caldecott Medal three times.

Friday, October 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Tea Krulos, author of Heroes in the Night.

There are heroes among us. They wear spandex, masks, capes, and utility belts. They have names like The Fox, Death’s Head Moth, and The Watchman. They have day jobs and families. And there are hundreds of them across the U.S. and Canada. They are the Real Life Super Heroes.

For three years, Milwaukee-based journalist Tea Krulos immersed himself in their world—one he refers to alternately as a “movement,” a “community” and a “subculture.” Although their missions vary from actual crime-fighting to charity work, the one thing that they all have in common is bravery, and a passion for actively making the world a better place. Juxtaposing profiles of individuals and groups against a historical timeline of superheroes in literature, film and pop culture, Krulos offers a heartwarming and adrenaline-pumping contextualization of the roles extraordinary people are playing in order to fight injustice in the real world.

Read more about the movement on Riverwest Currents. And don't forget, after our event, the celebration continues at The Stonefly Brewery, 735 East Center Street. For more info about the after party, contact Stonefly at (414) 212-8910.

Saturday, October 12, 7 pm, at the UWM Union:
Adult Bedtime Stories, a ticketed event with Chuck Palahniuk (photo credit Shawn Grant), author of Doomed, Damned, and  Fight Club, along with special guests Chelsea Cain and Monica Drake.

Please note that there is no signing for this event.

Chuck Palahniuk celebrates the release of his latest novel, Doomed. This follow-up to Damned continues the adventures of Madison Spencer, a very overweight, very snarky, and very dead, thirteen-year-old girl. This time, instead of being trapped in Hell, she's trapped on Earth, or as it's known in the afterlife: Purgatory.

In addition to the usual Chuck-directed fun (trivia, prizes, toys, other shenanigans), we'll be joined by two of his favorite authors, Chelsea Cain and Monica Drake, who each possess their own dark visions. In keeping with the theme attendees are encouraged to wear their best sleepwear and bring a pillow or stuffed animal to keep them feeling safe from the monsters that might be lurking in the shadows.

Tickets are $24.95 plus tax and service fee and include a pre-signed copy of Chuck's latest novel, Doomed; available at brownpapertickets.com, event #445282. UWM students, staff and faculty can purchase discounted tickets from the UWM Bookstore, located in the Union.

Chuck Palahniuk's twelve best-selling novels and two works of nonfiction have sold more than five million copies in the United States. They include Fight Club (made into a David Fincher movie of the same name, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt), Haunted (including the short story, "Guts," which caused numerous faintings at live events), Survivor, Invisible Monsters, and the acclaimed essay collection, Stranger Than Fiction.

Sunday, October 13, 2 pm, at Boswell:
Mark Tatulli, author of Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic, as well as the comic strip Lio.

Mark Tatulli is an internationally syndicated cartoonist best known for his popular comic strips, Heart of the City, which chronicles a fun-loving, tenacious little girl's adventures in the big city of Philadelphia; and Lio, which tells the adventures of a young boy and his pet squid. In addition to cartooning, Tatulli is an accomplished filmmaker and animator, and the recipient of three Emmy Awards.

Meet Desmond Pucket—master of mayhem, professor of frightology! Someday Desmond will be famous for his special effects wizardry, but for now he's just trying to make it through sixth grade at Cloverfield Memorial Junior High, which means he needs to stay one step ahead of the school's disciplinary officer, Mr. Needles.

The only problem is Desmond just can't stop pulling pranks--like the time he attached a shrieking rubber goblin to the toilet seat in the teachers' bathroom. Will his monster-y special effects pranks get him kicked out of middle school before the class trip to Crab Shell Pier? Or will Desmond be able to keep his monster magic in check?

Sunday, October 13, 6 pm, at Boswell:
Paper Engineer Robert Sabuda, author of The Little Mermaid.

Come along on a magical journey under the sea in this stunning pop-up adaptation of the beloved fairy tale The Little Mermaid, expertly crafted by renowned paper engineer Robert Sabuda. Amazing three-dimensional paper structures pop off each page, bringing this classic underwater adventure to life. This visually stunning tale of adventure, true love, and sacrifice is sure to become a favorite in any story-lover’s library.

The Little Mermaid will be sold for this event as a Boswell’s Best selection: 20% off the list price.

Robert Sabuda is known worldwide for his innovative pop-up paper engineering. His books have garnered numerous awards and have made the New York Times bestseller lists. Sabuda’s classic tales include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and The 12 Days of Christmas.

Monday, October 14, 7 pm, at Boswell:
a ticketed event with Junot Díaz, author of This is How You Lose Her.
This event is co-sponsored by 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.

Tickets for this event are $16 plus tax, and include a copy of This is How You Lose Her, or on the night of the event only, an $11 gift card. Buy ten or more tickets and get 10% off the ticket price.It's event 445965 on brownpapertickets.com.

This Is How You Lose Her is The New York Times bestselling and National Book Award shortlisted story collection from Junot Díaz, author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and the critically acclaimed story collection, Drown.

"In the age of e-books and Twitter novels, we old-fashioned, language-loving followers of literature can feel a bit glum. Gadgets seem to matter more than writers do. Then a book like Junot Díaz's lands in our laps, and we're reminded of the acrobatic word wizardry that a true master can bring to the simple printed page."
--Héctor Tobar in the Los Angeles Times

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey, Junot Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, Díaz is also the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/O. Henry Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Award.

Wow! Hope to see you at one or more of these events. That's 11 events in a week, and it really is our new record!

Sunday Bestseller Post from Boswell, Week Ending October 5. What Did We Sell Last Week?

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Layton's Legacy: A Historic American Art Collection, 1888-2013, by John Eastberg and Eric Vogel
2. Body Memories, by Susan Falkman
3. Barracuda in the Attic, by Kipp Friedman
4. The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism, by Naoiki Higashida, translated by David Mitchell
5. David and GoliathL Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell

What memories this list brings! We had a great time with this week's top three, and apparently John Stewart had a great time with David Mitchell, popping sales for The Reason I Jump enough that it's likely to place well on the national bestseller lists this week. Watch part one here.



Hardcover Fiction:
1. Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King
2. The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
3. Someone, by Alice McDermott
4. Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent
5. Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is the first appearance of Brandon Sanderson, who is all over this week's list, with hardcover and paperback fiction, as well as a couple of books on the kids' list. It's nice to see both Alice McDermott and Hannah Kent continue to pop a week after their appearances at Boswell. We're hoping to see strong sales for Someone and Burial Rites all the way through the holidays. Signed copies available for both. Just request in the notes field.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Volume 2
2. Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Volume 1
3. 1775, by Kevin Phillips
4. Orange is the New Black, by Piper Kerman
5. North Point Historic Districts, by Shirley McArthur

This is what the list looks like when you have a lot of events in the week. Eddie Trunk came to us from New Jersey and Kevin Phillips from Connecticut, which is also where Kerman's prison was.

Shirley McArthur was a Milwaukeean through and through, and her book, North Point Historic Districts, continues to be a popular titles for the neighborhood just east of us. I just realized there's a listing on our website for the book, using a dummy ISBN. By next week, I hope to have a way to order the book using its real ISBN.

The Kevin Phillips event for 1775 was held at the American Geographical Society Library on the third floor of the Golda Meir library. I learned how the Society's collection was moved in its entirety from New York. And the Library created an interesting Revolutionary War mini-exhibit to celebrate the event.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Kind, by Gretchen Primack
2. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
3. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
4. Emperor's Soul, by Brandon Sanderson
5. NW, by Zadie Smith

While Louise Erdrich's recently released The Round House won last week's National Book Award. It's likely that within a couple of weeks, a different shortlisted title should top our sellers. Yes, Junot Díaz's event is just around the corner, on Monday October 14, 7 pm. We just went over the 200 mark for tickets. Don't expect to be able to just walk up and attend--we could be sold out in the next week. A ticket gets you a copy of This is How You Lose Her, in addition to admission to the event.
 

Books for Kids
1. Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson
2. Mr. Wuffles, by David Wiesner (our event is Friday, October 11, 4 pm)
3. The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson
4. Mighty Lalouche, by Matthew Olshan and Sophie Blackall
5. Flora and Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo

All my Brandon Sanderson photos were blurry. I must have had a setting wrong. Let me just assure you that a fun time was had by all.  And yes, we have signed copies of Steelheart and The Rithmatist.

Chris Foran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Milwaukee is a footnote in Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin, even though the assassination took place in town. Per Foran, Gerald Helferich has written an entertaining history that is a bit short on juicy details.

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer finds Dave Eggers' new novel, The Circle, a bit lacking. "What this book doesn't do is give us a single rounded character; instead it's vaguely reminiscent of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" — another passionate manifesto pretending to be a novel and championing individual freedom, albeit from the libertarian right rather than Eggers' position on a socially engaged left.

And finally, speaking of Junot Díaz, and we were above, he is interviewed in the Journal Sentinel today by Georgia Pabst. Here's where he touches our heart the most: ""I can't imagine a world without books. Where are we with no libraries or bookstores. They are civic spaces. The most important thing to do is create readers, support bookstores and libraries with all the privileges and resources you have."

Sigh. Can I remind you to buy your ticket here?

Saturday Gift Post--Halloween/Fall Table, Plus a Little Tiki Action.

It's a short gift post today, as even a series of 12-hour days didn't give me enough time to get everything done. I'm covering for folks at the Heartland Fall Forum today, and we've got Susan Falkman's event for her Body Memories book, co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Coalition.

After that, I race down to an O'Hare hotel for a Heartland Fall Forum dinner. There are a good number of authors we've hosted in the past whom it will be nice to see again. If any of the kids authors attend the dinner, I will likely see them again next week, as we are packed with Heartland add-ons.

This week Anne put up a combination fall/Halloween table by the front door. I tend to zig and zag regarding Halloween merchandise, but this year I stepped back and only brought in a jack-o-lantern mug. In addition, I thought our owl mugs also seemed appropriate. In addition to the blue design, there is also one in green. We also have some monster wind ups.

Another display that went up this week was a small assortment of tiki items. There's currently a lull in tiki publishing, so it turned out to be not the book tie in that I hoped. That said, there are pens, boxes, and a few mugs. Alas, a few of the last item came damaged.

The boxes also turned out to be rather delicate, but I think the pens are sturdy. Resin items are relatively cheap, but as I've learned from the dinosaur pens, you must pay them the proper respect.

Heroes, Villains, and Brandon Sanderson--More on Tonight's Event.

It's been quite a week. Earlier this week we had a Boswell bag miscommunication and we realized that the bags we ordered seven weeks ago had not arrived. I was so proud of myself of getting the order in early, but in the end, we wound up heading to Associated Bag by the airport and picking up a carton of plain blue die cut, strong enough for books. I felt like a hero, as we were only out of bags for a few hours.

Thursday night started the Heartland Fall Forum, which goes through Sunday. It's a two year experiment, a joint conference of folks in MIBA (Midwest Independent Booksellers Association) and GLIBA (Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association), this year at a hotel by O'Hare. There are a slew of authors attending, as well as workshops, rep presentations, and roundtables, and it made sense for us to send folks. The only problem was the store was left working on a skeleton crew. On Saturday, I am going to head over to the show to have dinner with authors and publishers and booksellers, following our event with Susan Falkman, author of Body Memories, at 2 pm. Jason thinks I can make it in 72 minutes, though I am allotting two hours. My super speed is on the fritz. It's probably a longstanding kryptonite issue.

Interestingly enough, we did notpick up adult authors for events at this show, but we did get quite a few kids' authors, including David Shannon next Tuesday, October 8, who'll be at the Greenfield Public Library next Tuesday for his new book, Bugs in My Hair!. Tonight is one of our coups--the first Milwaukee-area appearance of Brandon Sanderson, one of our buyer Jason's favorite authors. I should note that it may not be his first time ever (we'll find out tonight) but just since Jason has been living here and paying attention. He's coming for his new book Steelheart, an epic struggle set in Newcago.

Sanderson is well known for finishing the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series, but he's written numerous books and series, both for kids and adults. We were shouting out the Mistborn Trilogy a lot, though Jason noted that the new series, the Stormlight Archive, is also quite impressive. The first book in that series, The Way of Kings, came out in 2010.

Being that both Jason and Mel are new fans of Steelheart, the new novel for both adults and kids that Sanderson is on tour for, we had a lot of fun putting together ideas to help promote the book. Mel created a super hero display, being that not only were we hosting Sanderson tonight, but Tea Krulos, for his launch of Heroes in the Night on Friday, October 11, 7 pm, which reports on the real-life superhero movement.

And then Stacie got the idea to put together a super-villain display, mostly because we are hosting Scott Seegert and John Martin next Monday, October 7, 6:30 pm, for Vordak the Incomprehensible, at the Franklin Public Library. The Vordak books (the newest is Time Travel Trouble) in a Diary of a Wimpy Kid format .Coincidentally, I just finished the fourth NERDS book, the Villain Virus, where a nanobyte virus went haywire, turning thousands of everyday folk into supervillains. Problematic, no?

One of the things I learned about Sanderson's book is that it's named after the villain, which is sort of a rare thing in superhero culture. I've also learned that Sanderson's fans are both legion and powerful, and that we should have a pretty fun time tonight. The only signing restrictions we have is that we may limit personalizations to three books per person.

For the event tonight, we'll be giving out line letters, starting at 5 pm. Instead of our generic line letters, we've created a custom line letter that also doubles as a bookmark, letting folks know how the event will proceed and letting folks know about the restrictions, few that they may be.

I should leave you with some recs, right? Here's Jason Kennedy on Steelheart:
"Brandon Sanderson has created another amazing and brilliant universe, where everything has been rocked to its very core and humanity is struggling to just survive. In David's world, a calamity occurs which transforms normal people into Epics, who have varying levels of super powers. We would all like to think that most people with super powers would do good by humanity, but these Epics kill at a whim and destroy the normal working order of the world. Steelheart murders David's father, and for the next ten years he attempts to learn as much about the Steelheart and the other Epics as he can so he can avenge his fathers and countless others deaths. It is a dangerous proposition, however. If he can convince others to help him, then they might have a slim chance at best. That's all they need."

And here's his take on The Rithmatist, which came out earlier this year:
"Brandon Sanderson does an amazing job of creating vividly defined worlds of magic and characters. In this world, which is similar to ours, yet has some distinct differences (there is no U.S. as the continent in this world is more of a lot of islands as water has seeped throughout the continent), Joel goes to a school that trains Rithmatists to defend the realm in Nebrask. Unfortunately for him, he was not chosen to be one of them, despite being more knowledgeable than the other students. When somebody starts kidnapping fellow students from Armedius Academy, Joel teams together with some fellow students to find the culprit. A brilliant start to a new series for Sanderson!"

That makes three series he's started with second volumes yet to be published. That's a tall order, but nothing a hero from Nebrask can't handle, heading to Mill Walk* on his way to Newcago.

*Do you know which famous author coined this for alterna-Milwaukee?

New Book Club Brochure--We Add Louise Erdrich, A.M. Homes, Alyson Hagy, Ayana Mathis, Paul Tough, Tom Reiss, Jennifer Chiaverini, Gail Tsukiyama, and Antoine Laurain,

It's time for a new book club brochure! I hedged my bets by making the previous brochure summer-fall, but there were several titles that came out that I just felt needed a place on the Book Club 24. And wouldn't you know it, I started out adjusting a couple of titles and before I knew it, a full third of our selections were updated. Here's our new additions.

1. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich. Winner of the National Book Award, a customer favorite, and a fellow bookseller, it's hard not to want to do everything we can to help this. Erdrich returns to the Ojibwe reservation and a terrible act which propels the plot along. All this and courtroom drama too. I'm not sure how I feel about the paperback jacket. Considering the sales track in cloth, I might have kept this one looking the same for paperback.

2. May We Be Forgiven, by A.M. Homes. This is also on the award winners page, having won the Women's Prize for Fiction, which is the former Orange Prize. The lowdown: two competitive brothers and the shocking act of violence that changes their lives.I'm hoping Homes will get a little more action with a double display in both awards and on our book club display. The novel is also in the running to be our December in-store lit group selection.

3. Boleto, by Alyson Hagy. Here's one that we've had multiple staff recs on, partly due to Hagy's visit in hardcover. I think it's Sharon, Stacie, and myself. It's a contemporary story of a cowboy and his horse, structured like a triptych. Stacie called Boleto "a quiet, lingering novel that will open more space inside you than the expanse of a spring Wyoming sky."

4. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, by Ayana Mathis. This one is Oprah certified as book club worthy, but reviews were really great too. It's the story of the children of the Great Migration through the eyes of one family.  The Chicago Tribune called it "a remarkable page turner of a novel."

5. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by Paul Tough. We've had great sales on this every since it came out, and Hannah's rec has given the paperback unusual staying power--she calls it a must read! I think there are a lot of clubs that would love to discuss this.

6. The Black Count, by Tom Reiss. Not on the awards page but still a Pulitzer winner, this is the story of Alex Dumas, the real Monte Cristo. Born to a slave in what is now Haiti, Dumas made his way to France where he made his mark as soldier and hero. And yes, it was his son Alexander Dumas who turned him into legend. Jason recommends this.

7. Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini. The story of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, former slave turned seamstress and civil activist, is chronicled in Jennifer Chiaverini's break from the Elm Creek Quilts series. It seems like her new books could be called "overlooked women of the Civil War era." Her new novel, The Spymistress, is about Elizabeth Van Lew, a Confederate woman who spied for the Union. She's coming to Boswell on Thursday, October 10, 7 pm.

I should also note that Mrs. Lincolns's Dressmaker is our best non-event sale for Chiaverini at Boswell since we've opened.

8. A Hundred Flowers, by Gail Tsukiyama. Tsukiyama's newest follows a family caught up in Mao's China. When Mao asked the intellectuals to critique his policies, they had no idea he was trying to weed out the rabble rousers. Things go from bad to worse when the father's imprisonment leads to a bad fall for the son. Eugenia Zukeran called this "an inspiring work of dignity and love" and Jane Glaser of course recommends.

9. The President's Hat, by Antoine Laurain. How could we not include this beloved story in our book club round up? I just think it will be great for the holiday months when it's hard to get the group to finish their selection--short and captivating seems to be the answer.

Here's hoping you wind up having a great discussion with one of these titles. Pick up one (or several) of our pastel green fliers (formerly pastel blue) at Boswell.

Two Green Bay Players and One Sportscaster Celebrated at Boswell Events in October and November.

Wow, that sounds like an advertisement, doesn't it? Maybe that's because I just finished writing and laying out our Sunday Journal Sentinel ad for the sports section. This has all come together very quickly. I said we had no more room for any authors this fall, but how can you say no to LeRoy Butler and Donald Driver?

Amazing event #1, Wednesday, October 9, 7 pm, at Boswell (ticketed):
A talk and signing by LeRoy Butler and Journal Sentinel contributor Rob Reischel, authors of Packers Pride: Green Bay Greats Share Their Favorite Memories.

Andrea of Triumph Books clued me into an upcoming book with LeRoy Butler after the great time we had with All Star Break Baseball Night. We jumped at the chance to add Butler to our schedule, and shockingly enough, this date was free. Butler and Reischel will talk and take questions and then sign books. Mr. Butler will not sign memorabilia, but he will personalize. Tickets for this event are available at Brown Paper Tickets and are $25.95 plus tax. The ticket includes a copy of Packers Pride and for this event, admission for up to two people.

In addition to Packers Pride, Reischel has also penned 100 Things Packers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. That makes this event a bookend to Tom Haudricourt's appearance for 100 Things Brewers Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die.

Amazing event #2, Thursday, October 24, 2 pm, at Boswell (ticketed):
A signing with Donald Driver, author of Driven: From Homeless to Hero, My Journeys On and Off Lambeau Field.

Donald Driver previewed his new memoir at a recent Sharp Literacy fundraiser luncheon. Sharp is a great organization that energizes urban school children to become confident, capable readers, writers and researchers, using the visual arts to engage young minds and reinforce learning. Every year they publish a curriculum-based reader. This year's release is A Great Lake Adventure: Salmon’s Journey Home, and we'll be celebrating it's spawning on Monday, November 4, 7 pm. That's just an aside, but it's hard for me to not talk about events.

So Driver spoke about his memoir and signed copies of his kids' books, which benefiit the Donald Driver Foundation, and we took presales for the new book, which releases October 22. From this, we were lucky enough to be one of the two Milwaukee-area stores who will be hosting a signing with Driver.

Here's what you need to know. It's a ticketed signing with tickets available at Brown Paper Tickets. There will be no personalization for this event, and Mr. Driver will not sign memorabilia. Please leave this at home. I would suggest buying a ticket for each book you want signed, and if you want books mailed out, there's an option for that as well. We will be calling our customers who bought books pre-signed to see if they would like to convert this to be part of the ticketed signing.

A seventh round draft pick in 1999, Donald Driver was considerred to have little chance of making the team roster, much less of amassing over 10,000 yars in his career, or of becoming a beloved icon for one of football's  most storied franchises, and a title champion as well. He followed that up by becoming a much-loved champion on the dance floor, winning his season on the popular television show, "Dancing with the Stars."

When they say Donald Driver grew up on the mean streets of Houston, it is no exaggeration. He is a player, who, when he got to the big time, remembered all the folks that got him to where he is today--his family, his teammates, and especially his fans.

And now a tale from the other side of the game.
Wednesday, November 6, 7 pm, at the Shorewood Public Library Community Room, 3920 N. Murray Ave.: Jessie Garcia, author of My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting. This one is free--no tickets necessary!

Jessie Garcia takes  fans behind the scenes in her new memoir, providing personal, and sometimes hilarious insights on her career reporting on the Green Bay.  As a woman, she's certainly had a unique perspective on sports reporting, juggling the demands of family life while still trying to maneuver into the locker room for the coveted post-game interviews.

Mike Holmgren says "As I read her book, I was reminded of her extraordinary ability to balance work and family. Her tales brought back memories and was a great read."

It's quite the celebration. We've got a lot of work to do. Now to get started on a football display. (Note: the original blog post was edited to remove certain trademarked phrases).

A Whole Mess of New Nonfiction at Boswell--Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Bryson, Mark Twain, and More.

As I might have noted previously, recapping new fiction two weeks in a row can have dangerous consequences. For one thing, this is nonfiction season and that means a dramatic shakeup in the Boswell's Best. If you haven't browsed the section in a few weeks, it will seem mighty fresh. I am tempted here to make a harvest pun, but I will resist for now.

The highest profile release is likely Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (Little, Brown). Do I dare drop everything and read this? I still haven't read his What the Dog Saw collection, but aside from that, I haven't missed a book. Here's an interview with Gladwell in the UK Guardian. "If my books appear oversimplified, then you shouldn't read them" is the teaser."

I was just chatting with someone about Graham Nash's Wild Tales: A Rock and Roll Life (Crown Archetype). He's one of those guys that comes up in every rock music history, being a member of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and then without Young, and then without Stills. But he also shows up on the periphery of a lot of other musician's stories. Just look who he thanks in the back of the book. We were saying that last year had an onslaught of such releases, but the load seems a bit lighter this year, giving the book a better chance.

Speaking of groupies (and we were, sort of), Bill Bryson has his own rabid fan base. A few week's ago I had to talk down a bookseller from driving to Nashville to see the author. What I should have noted is that if you're going to do this, he's also going to be in Skokie. Here's the whole tour. The new book is One Summer: America, 1927 (Doubleday). It's the year of Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, a tabloid sensation murder trial, flagpole sitter Alvin Kelly, the great Mississippi flood, The Jazz Singer, and Al Capone's murderous reign, plus the secret banker's meeting that led to the Great Crash two years later.

As someone who goes through a lot of proofreading, you can only imagine the interesting conversations we have about proofreading. Semicolon or colon, m dash or n, where does the period go between a single and double quote? The answer is "between the two," per Mel. I'm sure Keith Houston, writer of the Shady Characters blog, would chime right if he could. But since he's across the pond, we can only read Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols and Other Typographical Marks (Norton). Hey, Keith, in the United States, though it's still okay either way, we prefer the serial comma; we noticed it is missing from your jacket.

I actually read a bit of Monique Brinson Demery's Finding the Dragon Lady: The Mystery of Vietnam's Madame Nhu (Public Affairs). She's a footnote to many in the Vietnam War, a once-glamorous celebrity who, per the author, retreated into exile and seclusion until Demery tracked her down in Paris thirty years later. It's the first history of the Dragon Lady herself, one that Philip Caputo calls "a riveting detective story and a fascinating portrait of a woman far more complicated than her media image."

And finally, though I like to stop at five, I would be remiss not to mention Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2 (University of California), edited by Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith, and other editors of the Mark Twain Project. Per the publisher, this eagerly awaited volume delves deeper into Mark Twain's inner world. It ranges from his earliest childhood to his final years, when he sat down to write his own story. Volume 1 was a phenomenon. Let's see how folks take to part two. Here's some background from the Endpapers blog that came out two years ago. I'm sure they are happy that it's finally out.