Monday Event Post--Daryl Brown, Mary Gordon, Melissa de la Cruz, Stuart Rojstaczer, Patricia Polacco, Betsy Woodman, Miki Knezevic, Tom Angleberger, and next week, Alternative Waffle Maker Daniel Shumski.

Let's be frank. I'll never get through documenting this week without cribbing from our press release.

Monday September 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Daryl Brown, co-author of Inside the Godfather: Never Before Told Stories of James Brown by His Inner Circle.

Please join us as we welcome Daryl Brown, co-author of Inside the Godfather (also known as My Father the Godfather), to Boswell. If you think you know the soul truth about James Brown, think again. Who better to tell us the inside stories than artist, songwriter, musician, and produce Daryl Brown, son of the legendary James Brown. Daryl played on countless James Brown hits and toured with him extensively.

The Godfather of Soul may be the most misunderstood man in the last century. Confusion emerges as a consequence of the complexities in his life. His contributions toward modern music pale in comparison to the indispensable role he played in modern history. James Brown lifted all races toward the ideals of equality and opportunity. Tragically, while he had the ability to calm the storms of social turmoil, his personal life was a perpetual tempest. Inside the Godfather brings together, for the first time, those from Brown’s inner circle. They will correct the distortions of the past and provide for the reader a clear understanding of the brilliance and generosity that was Mr. Dynamite. 


Tuesday September 9, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Mary Gordon, author of The Liar’s Wife: Four Novellas

Legendary author Mary Gordon, who penned The Love of My Youth and Circling My Mother, is coming to Boswell for her latest, The Liar’s Wife: Four Novellas. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to meet Mary Gordon as she introduces Milwaukee to the book that has already garnered praise as “emotionally engaging and smoothly flowing” (The New York Times Book Review), “vivid and richly imagined” (Chicago Sun-Times), and “entrancing” (Los Angeles Times).

The beloved author is at her storytelling best: four wonderful novellas of Americans abroad and Europeans in America. In these tales of relationships at home and abroad, both historical and contemporary, we meet the ferocious Simone Weil during her final days as a transplant to New York City; a vulnerable American grad student who escapes to Italy after her first, compromising love affair; the charming Irish liar of the title novella, who gets more out of life than most of us; and an American high school kid meeting Thomas Mann. These stories dazzle on the surface, with beautifully rendered settings and vistas, and dig deep psychologically. At every turn Gordon reveals in her characters' interactions those crucial flashes of understanding that change lives forever. So richly developed it is hard to believe they fit into novella-sized packages, these tales carry us away both as individual stories and as a larger, book-length experience of Gordon's mastery and human sympathy.

“The virtuosic Gordon presents a quartet of enfolding novellas that examine the revelations and paradoxes of cross-cultural encounters and relationships between mentors and protégés….The sheer bliss of reading Gordon’s consummate prose is deepened by her stunning insights into moral tangles and abrupt comprehension as she mixes the comic and the profound in her considerations of innocence and defilement, self-sacrifice and greatness, insularity and the bracing tussle of the world….Beloved and much-honored, Gordon is at her captivating finest in a book primed to catch fire.” —Booklist

We've had great word of mouth on this upcoming event, with customers emailing their friends to make sure they know about the evening. Ms. Gordon was once the featured speaker at the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Literary Lunch. And I have to say, I'm quite taken with that mauve dust jacket.

Wednesday, September 10, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Stuart Rojstaczer, author of The Mathematician’s Shiva

Milwaukee-born geophysics-professor-turned-author, Stuart Rojstaczer, returns to the East Side for a reading and signing of his debut novel, The Mathematician’s Shiva, a comic, bittersweet bildungsroman of middle-age set in Wisconsin, which takes on the Jewish Eastern European immigrant experience following the combined darkness of World War II and Stalinism evocative of Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated. This event is co-sponsored by the UWM Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies.

Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish émigré mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin, is rumored to have solved the million-dollar Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem. Rumor also has it that she spitefully took the solution to her grave. To Sasha’s chagrin, a ragtag group of socially challenged mathematicians arrives in Madison and crashes the shiva, vowing to do whatever it takes to find the solution—even if it means prying up the floorboards for Rachela’s notes. Sasha must do his best to keep these geniuses in check, keep his patchwork family happy, and figure out who he is now that he no longer exists in relief against his mother’s towering presence—all at the same time.

Novelist Jonathan Eviston offers this praise: “The Mathematician's Shiva is a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history, and humor, not to mention a cast of delightfully quirky characters, and a math lesson or two; all together, a winning equation! When Rojstaczer writes about mathematics, you'd think he was writing about poetry.”

For many years, he was a professor of geophysics at Duke University, which is why The Mathematician's Shiva might appeal to folks who are enjoying our academic novel table.

Wednesday, September 10, 6:30 pm (note tim) at the Oak Creek Library, 8620 South Howell Avenue:
Melissa de la Cruz, author of Vampires of Manhattan: The New Blue Bloods Coven

Melissa de la Cruz appears for the first book in the New Blue Bloods Coven series, Vampires of Manhattan. Ten years after The Coven’s battle with Lucifer, the Blue Bloods are older, cooler, sexier, and in more danger than ever before! They call this genre new adult, which we sort of explain by saying they are teen novels with sex.

On the island of Manhattan lurks a secret society of the city’s most wealthy, beautiful, and powerful people; they are the Blue Bloods and they are vampires. Vampires of Manhattan takes place ten years after the Blue Bloods defeated the enemy in the Great War. To celebrate a new era of prosperity, the irresistibly charming and handsome leader of the Blue Bloods, Oliver Hazard-Perry, throws a Four Hundred Year Ball with all of society in attendance. And then, all hell breaks loose. Booklist writes that "Fans will be plenty satisfied by this dishy, Gossip Girl-style story and eager for further installments."

De la Cruz has written a number of novels for young adults over the years, after a career as a fashion and beauty editor. For directions or other questions, contact the Oak Creek Library at (414) 764-4400.

Thursday, September 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Patricia Polacco, author and illustrator of  Fiona’s Lace

Bestselling author of The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup, Patricia Polacco, returns to Boswell (she was last here in 2009) for Fiona’s Lace, a gorgeous picture book and heartwarming immigration story great for ages 4 and up. After escaping the difficult times in Ireland and moving to Chicago, an Irish family stays together with the help of Fiona’s talent for making one-of-a-kind lace.

Fiona’s family finds work in domestic service to pay back their passage, and at night Fiona turns tangles of thread into a fine, glorious lace. Then when the family is separated, it is the lace that Fiona’s parents follow to find her and her sister and bring the family back together. And it is the lace that will always provide Fiona with memories of Ireland and of her mother’s words: “In your heart your true home resides, and it will always be with you as long as you remember those you love.” This generational story from the family of Patricia Polacco’s Irish father brims with the same warmth and heart as the classic The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup, which Kirkus Reviews called “deeply affecting” in a starred review, and embraces the comfort of family commitment and togetherness for which Patricia Polacco’s books are known.

Everybody has their own favorite Patricia Polacco story. Among the favorites I've heard mentioned by our customers have been My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, Thunder Cake, and Pink and Say. Our experience is that Polacco tends to draw adults (like librarians and teachers) more than kids, but kids are still welcome. And my other experience is that the crowd will likely be in tears at least once.

Friday, September 12, 2 pm (note time), at Boswell:
Betsy Woodman, author of Emeralds Included: A Jana Bibi Adventure

Join us as we welcome Betsy Woodman, appearing for the third volume in her cross-cultural Jana Bibi Series, Emeralds Included. Jana Bibi saved the town from a government dam in Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes and foiled an international bird-smuggling ring in Love Potion Number 10, but in Emeralds Included, Jana faces her biggest challenges yet: preparing for her son’s arrival and planning a wedding in the upside-down town of Hamara Nagar!

Betsy Woodman spent ten formative years in India and studied in France and Zambia. A graduate of Smith College, she earned a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Brandeis University. She has edited history books and been a frequent book reviewer, and was a writer/editor for Experiencing War, the award-winning radio documentary series for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

In the third installment of the Jana Bibi Series, Betsy Woodman takes us back to the Jolly Grant house for the arrival of Jana’s son, Jack, from Scotland, and his Hungarian bride-to-be, Katarina Esterhazy. The whole gang is excited to welcome their international visitors—and Jana is determined to repair the house to Jack’s high standards and those of her grandfather, from whom she inherited the eccentric building. But this puts a strain on Jana, both emotionally and financially, and she risks her most prized and valuable possession—the (surprisingly real!) emeralds she got from the Treasure Emporium—to help her through it.

This is part of a series of collaborations with Elizabeth Berg, who is championing under-appreciated authors through a series of events in Oak Park, Illinois on Saturday evenings. We are lucky enough to be able to work with Berg and add on a Friday event. We always have requests for daytime events, and we think Woodman really fits the bill.

Friday, September 12, 7 pm, at Boswell: Madison Author Miki Knezevic, author of Behind God's Back: A Serbian Female Physician's Journey through Two World Wars and the Communist Era in the Balkans.

Yes, the novel's title reads more like a memoir, but it's fiction. The author grew up in Milwaukee. Miki Knezevic is visiting for her 20th century historical novel, Behind God’s Back. An enticing story of life in Europe and particularly in Belgrade between 1914 and l962, Knezevic integrates history, travel, family life, and a love story from the perspective of Serbian physician Desa Jovanovic, who survives the bombing of Belgrade by the Austrians to France to move on to Tunisia and Macedonia, before returning finally to Belgrade.

Kirkus Reviews writes that “In this ambitious novel, Knezevic fleshes out the often confusing political, religious and economic history of the Balkans while detailing Desa's journey from child to wife, mother and doctor…Not only is this book a vivid description of the history of the era, but a deeply felt saga of love and emotions.”

Miki Knezevic is a product of Milwaukee Public Schools and Marquette University. For the last 25 years, she and a partner have been writing ESL textbooks for McGraw-Hill, and now lives in Madison.

Sunday, September 14, 11 am:
Don't forget about Story Time with Jannis:

Grab you favorite hat and come on down to Story Time with Jannis! This month, Jannis is reading Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won, as well as Jon Klassen’s This Is Not My Hat. Hats off to September, and hooray for a Story Time great for ages 18 months and up! And don't forget that Jon Klassen, the author of This is not my Hat, comes to Boswell on October 21 with Mac Barnett.

Sunday, September 14, 3 pm (note time), at Boswell:
Tom Angleberger, author of Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus: An Origami Yoda Book

Please join us for an exciting talk (and origami demo!) with the author of the bestselling Origami Yoda Series, Tom Angleberger, for his latest and final book in the series, Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus, great for ages 8 and up!

After successfully fighting to save their field trip in Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue!, Tommy and the gang prepare for a well-earned day of fun and adventure in Washington, DC…but of course it won't be that easy! This trip to the nation's capital will be full of shifting alliances and betrayals, carsickness and sugar rushes. Trouble starts even before the buses leave school, when Principal Rabbski decrees the field trip an “origami-free zone.” Dwight secretly folds a Yoda from a Fruit Roll-Up, but will Fruitigami Yoda be a match for Harvey's sour, hate-filled pickle of darkness? Astronaut ice cream, a supersonic plane, a Johnny Appleseed sighting, and a near arrest are just some of the clues in the sweetest, stookiest, biggest, and craziest Origami Yoda case file yet.

Tom Angleberger is also the author of Horton Halfpott and Fake Mustache, both Edgar Award nominees, and The Qwikpick Papers. The Origami Yoda series, starting with The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, has charmed children and adults alike. This should be a very fun afternoon.

Sneak peek at next week!

Monday, September 15, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Daniel Shumski, author of Will It Waffle?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron

Join us as we welcome Daniel Shumski, the founder of waffleizer.com and author of the exciting new book, Will It Waffle?: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron, where he’ll be talking waffles and waffle-izing your favorite recipes, sharing samples, and signing copies of this unique and fun book!

Helping with our presentation will be Julie Pandl, author of Memoir of the Sunday Brunch.

How many great ideas begin with a nagging thought in the middle of the night that should disappear by morning, but don’t? For Daniel Shumski, it was: Will it waffle? Hundreds of hours, countless messes, and 53 perfected recipes later, that answer is a resounding: Yes, it will! Steak? Yes! Pizza? Yes! Apple pie? Emphatically yes. And that's the beauty of being a waffle iron chef—waffling food other than waffles is not just a novelty but an innovation that leads to a great end product, all while giving the cook the bonus pleasure of doing something cool, fun, and vaguely nerdy (or giving a reluctant eater—your child, say—a great reason to dig in). Waffled bacon reaches perfect crispness without burned edges, cooks super fast in the two-sided heat source, and leaves behind just the right amount of fat to waffle some eggs. Waffled Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Pressed Potato and Cheese Pierogi, and Waffled Meatballs all end up with dimples just right for trapping their delicious sauces. A waffle iron turns leftover mac ‘n’ cheese into Revitalized Macaroni and Cheese, which is like a decadent version of a grilled cheese sandwich with its golden, buttery, slightly crisp exterior and soft, melty, cheesy interior.

Hope to see you at one of this week's events!

Boswell Bestsellers for the Week Ending September 6, 2014--Fall Means a Weekly Major Release in Hardcover Fiction, Course Adoptions in Paperback Fiction, and School Visits in the Kids' Realm.

Welcome back to school. On the paperback list, you'll find a sprinkling of course adoption books, which I sometimes edit out from the blog list, but it feels appropriate to include at least on the first week of September. I should note we don't chase these sales, as there are many fine bookstores in town that focus on this market, but there are some professors who really push their kids to find Boswell and look around. In fact, there's a least one instructor who has been known to split his reading list amongst several nearby bookstores, and ask his kids to visit all of them; He's surprisingly convincing, as a lot of students follow the course book scavenger hunt.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell
2. The Long Way Home V10, by Louise Penny
3. The Secret Place V5, by Tana French
4. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami
5. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
6 All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
7. One Kick V1, by Chelsea Cain (event is Tuesday, 9/16)
8. 1004, by Ben Lerner
9. The Liar's Wife, by Mary Gordon (event is Wednesday, 9/10)
10. O Democracy, by Kathleen Rooney

On Saturday, David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks (some signed copies still available) beat Louise Penny's first week numbers, but both lagged behind Haruki Murakami. Random House did a great job on the book's package, and the heavyweight permanent paper means this book will look great in twenty years. Jason was very excited about 10:04, the follow up to Leaving the Atocha Station. Publishers Weekly writes: "In his second novel, an associative, self-aware roman a clef that ably blends cultures high and low, Lerner explores the connections between contemporary life, art, and literary writing."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Mockingbird Next Door, by Marja Mills (signed copies available, but not firsts)
2. Delivering the People's Message, by Julia Azari
3. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Piketty
4. Liar, Tempress, Soldier, Spy, by Karen Abbott
5. Kill My Mother, by Julies Feiffer
6. David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
7. Shadows in the Vineyard, by Maximillian Potter
8. The Invisible Bridge, by Rick Perlstein (event is Thursday, 11/6, at the UWM Golda Meir Library)
9. Augustus, by Adrian Goldsworthy
10. Eichmann Before Jerusalem, by Bettina Stangneth

Some time ago, two bookseller friends came up to Milwaukee to visit the store and saw our huge pile of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. "You're going to sell all that? they queried. "It's died for us after the initial pop." Well I can say that we've sold down and we're just about to reorder. I did talk to one customer, about setting up a book club discussion for the book, as she was having trouble making her way. Another person in the store piped in, "You're reading it? I thought you were just supposed to buy it."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
2. Saving Kandinsky, by Mary "Peetie" Basson
3. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman 4. V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore
5. Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson
6. Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger
7. Americanah, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
8. The Illusion of Separateness, by Simon Van Booy (event on Tuesday, 9/30)
9. In Case We're Separated, by Alice Mattison
10. A Sentimental Education, by Gustav Flaubert

The Kandinsky exhibit closed this week and moves on to Nashville. As Saving Kandinsky is on the Amazon platform which, surprisingly enough, offers terrible terms to booksellers, I'm hoping that some stores are able to set up consignment. And perhaps the only reason I'm including the course adoption books is that it's rather a thriller to see Alice Mattison on a bestseller list. I've read so many of her works of fiction, but alas, I haven't gotten to her most recent yet. In Case We're Separated is one of her best!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Stuffed and Starved, by Raj Patel
2. A Brief History of Neoliberalism, by David Harvey
3. The American Way of Eating, by Tracie McMillan
4. Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
5. The Locavore Way, by Amy Cotler
6. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
7. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got that Way, by Amanda Ripley
8. Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay
9. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
10. The Guns at Last Night, by Rick Atkinson

And one of those classes obviously touches on the environment and eating, as you can see from this lineup. Back-to-school brought a pop on Amanda Ripley's The Smartest Kids in the World. There are several opportunities to see Ripley this fall in the midwest, but alas, none in Milwaukee. Drive down to St. Louis, why don't you?

Books for Kids:
1. The Unwanteds V1, by Lisa McMann
2. Found V1, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3. Pout Pout Fish Goes to School, by Deborah Diesen and Daniel X. Hanna (event Thursday 9/18, 4 pm, at Oak Creek Library)
4. Revealed V7, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
5. Island of Silence V2, by Lisa McMann
6. Sent V2, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
7. Island of Legends V4, by Lisa McMann
8. Copper Magic, by Julia Mary Gibson
9. Risked V6, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
10. Island of Fire V3, by Lisa McMann

Can you guess the authors who visited Boswell this week? In our three school events, Margaret Peterson Haddix and Lisa McMann visited over 500 kids and we had a great in-store event as well. While Margaret Peterson Haddix has two series, all the books listed are from her current chronicle, The Missing. We have signed copies of both authors' books, including their newest, Revealed and Island of Legends, and we've got signed Copper Magic too. The first non-event book to show up is President Taft is Stuck in the Bath at #15, but come to think of it, Barnett is visiting Boswell with Jon Klassen on Tuesday, October 14 for Sam and Dave Dig a Hole.

First in the Journal Sentinel is a book that's very important to us, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, which comes out on Tuesday, September 9. It's a post-apocalyptic story of a world after a deadly flu virus (with brings to mind the current Ebola epidemic) wipes out modern civilization, focusing in particular on a small troupe of combination actor-musicians and they bring art to various outposts some years after the devastation. Mike Fischer calls the book "haunting and riveting." He writes "Station Eleven comes to seem less like a spaceship reflecting how we'll live our dystopian future than a way of thinking about how and where we're traveling here and now. It's not just the residents of Mandel's post-collapse world who need to forge stronger connections and live for more than mere survival. So do we all." Emily St. John Mandel is coming to Boswell on September 22, appearing with the Soulstice Theatre, and at Books and Company September 23. More in a separate post.

Next up in the Journal Sentinel is Chris Foran's review of No Man’s Land: Fiction From a World at War--1914-1918. While Foran notes that many usuals are included "the standouts--as much for their novelty as their freshness-- are the many voices that likely will be new to English-speaking readers." He notes that there are more women's voices than he's seen in past collections, and remarks that taken together, it's "a sobering read."

And also in the Journal Sentinel, Erin Kogler reviews A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimear McBride, which already has been getting some award nominations. Kogler writes: "Set in Ireland, McBride tells the story of a young woman's life and her relationship with her brother, who as a young child contracts a brain tumor. Even though the tumor is treated, it is the beginning of the painful downward spiral of her family." Noting that the novel is rather stylized, Kogler offers that "McBride has successfully crossed over from just telling a good story to creating a work of art."

A Look at Milwaukee Book-Related Media for this Week, Including Lake Effect, Wisconsin Public Radio, Urban Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Gazette.

This week's online literary clipping service for Milwaukee.

Will Stotts, Jr's "Booked Up" column in Dial/Urban Milwaukee features a review of Emma Donoghue's Frog Music. He writes: "Emma Donoghue is a gifted writer. This book deepens the admiration I felt after ROOM. She has opened an unknown world to us and forced us to smell and taste it, even when it disgusts us. Her achievement here is one akin to time travel. We are transported and return with insights into the past in ways we may never have dreamed. Frog Music makes the past sing."

And finally, the Wisconsin Gazette has a periodic WiGWords column. Their most recent entry featured another look at Christopher Isherwood, in lieu of the recent reissues of A Single Man and his letters. She notes: "The Animals: Love Letters Between Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, also from FSG and edited by Katherine Bucknell, creates a remarkable portrait of the relationship between the two men. It is a strange, engrossing book — extraordinarily personal and unlike any other volume of letters in literature. 'Animals' is a word the men use for themselves, for their private world, where Isherwood is a workhorse named 'Dobbin' and Bachardy is a playful kitty cat."

Lake Effect's Labor Day broadcast featured an airing of the conversation with Mitch Teich and Matthew Algeo, author of Pedestrianism: When Watching People Walk Was America's Favorite Spectator Sport. From the promo: "Turn back the clock to the 19th Century, and the hottest ticket in town, as far as sports were concerned, was the sport of pedestrianism. Watching people walk, around a track, often for days at a time."

A reairing of Teich's interview with Julia Azari, author of Delivering the People's Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate, was particularly timely, as it aired the day before our event with Julia Azari and Kathleen Rooney on Tuesday. "When Presidents justify their decisions in terms of what they promised they would do and what they were elected to, it kind of puts the decision in the hands of the voters in a way that sounds democratic, but you know, there’s a way of thinking about democracy that’s kind of about, we elect leaders and we want leaders to exercise good judgment," says Azari.

Tuesday's Lake Effect offered an interview with Daniel James Brown, author of The Boys in the Boat, a timely airing that promotes the upcoming Milwaukee River Challenge. Back when we had our event, it was clear that the crew fans were among the early adopters of Brown's wonderful story. Lake Effect notes: "The (Milwaukee River) Challenge will draw throngs of curious onlookers, but back in 1936, rowing was very much in the public consciousness. It was that year that an underdog group of American rowers took on the world’s best at the Olympics in Berlin, and took home a gold medal."

We're big fans of Do Not Sell at Any Price (or at least Josh is, as he's got the rec), and apparently so are the Lake Effect crew, who talked to author Amanda Petrusich. "Because 78 RPM records are so fragile and because nearly no metal masters survived of those sessions, the 78s themselves, the artifacts, the records, are sometimes the only evidence we have that these songs were ever written," says author Amanda Petrusich. Alas, there's no play button on this segment, but you can find it on the full episode.

LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame (to say nothing of STNG, was interviewed by Mitch Teich on Wednesday. Burton is the featured speaker at the annual Sharpe Literacy Luncheon. He's definitely an ebook reading type of guy, and is currently immersed in Game of Thrones.

Oh, I did love Garbage, with such gems as "Only Happy When it Rains." If Butch Vig or Shirley Manson ever write a book, I'll recap where each of their songs peaked on my personal top 100. But only if...or if Mr. Vig is ever spotted at Boswell.

Marja Mills appeared on Lake Effect on Thursday, in advance of our wonderful Thursday evening talk for The Mockingbird Next Door. Bonnie North talked to the Madison-born Mills, who originally went to Alabama to report on the town of Monroeville, as part of a Chicago Tribune project. The Chicago Public Library had chosen the book as the citywide read, and the story started from there when Mills met Alice Finch Lee.

And on Friday, Mitch Teich talked to Katey Schultz, author of the story collection, Flashes of War, a collection from May 2013. From Lake Effect: "It’s a collection of short stories and flash fiction pieces written from the perspectives of people on many different fronts of the war on terror - active soldiers, Afghan citizens, traumatized veterans and more. The pieces are, in essence, thought-provoking snapshots of where the characters find themselves at a particular moment in time."

Over on Wisconsin Public Radio, Joy Cardin spoke with Harlan Cohen, author of the perennial graduation table staple, The Naked Roommate. From WPR: "But no matter what your place in life, sharing an apartment with someone can come with rewards and challenges. Joy Cardin's guest discusses how to deal with a far-from-ideal roomie, and welcomes your stories of horror, happiness, and lessons you learned." Amusingly enough, I once though this book was written by thriller writer Harlan Coben.

I actually caught most of Joy Cardin's interview with Michael Ellis, author of The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection when it aired on Wednesday. We will likely be the last generation to know what it's like to not be continuously wired. Well, unless Station Eleven's predictions come true.

I've apparently been listening to a lot of Cardin lately. It's generally on the reairing at night. Thursday's program featured Steve Almond, author of Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto, a favorite of our buyer Jason. Per WPR, Almond says "the once-wholesome game not only puts players at too high a risk of brain damage, but also promotes greed, violence, racism, and homophobia." I had an interesting conversation with a fan when I brought this up recently; even though he loves the sport, he wondered why there weren't weight limits, as there are in boxing.

On the Larry Meiller Show, Michael Perry talked to Meiller about his new kids' book, The Scavengers. From WPR: "Author Michael Perry is back, and this time, it's a dystopian novel for middle grade readers. Larry Meiller visits with Michael and finds out how different it is from writing memoirs, and what inspired the story." Michael Perry appears at Boswell on Thursday, September 18, 7 pm.

On Kathleen Dunn, the author of The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of New Orleans and the Future of Urban America talks about "what cities can do to rebuild after a terrible disaster." Scott Cowen is the past president of Tulane University.

And then on Thursday, Dunn talks to Chuck McCutcheon and David Marks, author of Dog Whistles, Walk-Backs, and Washington Handshakes: Decoding the Jargon, Slang, and Bluster of American Political Speech. On this interesting tome: "To the amusement of the pundits and the regret of the electorate, our modern political jargon has become even more brazenly two-faced and obfuscatory than ever. Where once we had Muckrakers, now we have Bed-Wetters. Where Blue Dogs once slept peaceably in the sun, Attack Dogs now roam the land. During election season--a near constant these days--the coded rhetoric of candidates and their spin doctors, and the deliberately meaningless but toxic semiotics of the wing nuts and backbenchers, reach near-Orwellian levels of self-satisfaction, vitriol, and deceit."

A New Acrylic Display for Our Bookmark Calendar, A Waffle Maker for Daniel Shumski, The Mystery of the Two "Found" Covers, and A Selfie with Lisa McMann.

1. A bookseller asked me what we were going to do with our bookmark calendars, but we were using the plexy for another sideline, so we decided to buy a new plexy. These multi-tiered acrylic displays are very, very helpful at Boswell, and only occasional fall and break.

We decided that the only thing wrong with our existing displays is that tended to be limited to two or three tiers, and so we upgraded to four. And then the craziest thing happened. Without measuring, it turned out that the display exactly fit the twenty styles of bookmark calendars that Amie brought in, meaning no rotation of titles on her part. How the heck did the happen when we were just winging it? Sometimes things just work out.

2. It took longer than we hoped, but we finally put together a program to backup our event with the dynamic Dan Shumski, author of Will it Waffle: 53 Irresistible and Unexpected Recipes to Make in a Waffle Iron. At first we hoped to have a restaurant help us with a dinner, but we couldn't get any takers. A lot of breakfast places do not make waffles, it turns out, and a lot of waffle places are franchises (meaning it's tough for them to do something out of the box) or are located too far from the store. While we sometimes go a half hour away for things like a library event, this seemed too complicated to do too far afield, as our best hope was to get our customers engaged.

In the end,, we found the perfect companion in Julie Pandl, author of Memoir of the Sunday Brunch, and marketing person for Boelter SuperStore. Pandl documents her time on the brunch line in her memoir, but I suspect they rarely used it to make, say, waffled meatballs, except perhaps as a prank. Ms. Pandl agreed to make samples and demo a recipe at our event, and all we had to do was find her a waffle maker. The only problem? It's not as easy as you think to find a classic (that reads "non-Belgian", where the indentations are too dep), rectangular (that reads "not round") waffle maker. We finally picked one up at the Bayshore Boston Store, with the help of Carla in the housewares department.

3. I bring up a mystery that has not yet been solved in her current series of Margaret Peterson Haddix, "The Missing." For one thing, we long thought that the series would have seven installments, and it turns out with the release of Revealed, there are now eight. It's sort of like the fourth book in a trilogy, which is not that unsuaul. But stranger than that, when we got our lrage order of volume one, Found, it turns out our stock was equally divided between bluish covers and purplish covers. And we had a lot of copies to sample.


It's probably just an issue of dye lots, but I couldn't help thinking there was some sort of secret code involved.

Speaking of our event with Haddix and McMann, there's no consistency with when we get author photos and when we don't, but for some reason, the camera was flashing a lot during our two days (four events, including the school visits) with our authors. I have some nice photos of Ms. Haddix and Ms. McMann with students, with principals, in front of their Powerpoints, and so forth, but for sheer amusement, nothing beats this silly selfie with Lisa McMann, right?

That sort of catches me up on the posts I hoped to write last week. And now I'm already behind for this week! So goeth life in a bookstore.

Display Tour--Star Wars Stuff for Tom Angleberger, China Focus with Christine Merritt, Rock and Roll Table for Daryl Brown, Larry Widen, and Jim Peterik, and questing with Chris Guillebeau.

I was waiting for an opportunity to feature these wind-up Star Wars figures from Schylling and then somehow we got the opportunity to host Tom Angleberger, author of the Origami Yoda series. I say "somehow" but I know how, Abrams asked us and we are grateful to present Mr. Angleberger on Sunday, September 14 (corrected--thanks, Sharon!), 3 pm, in conjunction with the release of Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus.

I know I sound like a broken record, but while I'm happy that the Star Wars license moving to Disney means a J.J. Abrams film in the future, it also means a much tigher reign on licensing. We've had so much fun selling Jeffrey Brown's Jedi Academy and William Shakespeare's Star Wars, among countless other projects, and when you look at Disney, everything is just more strictly controlled, and most likely to be merchandisey, and say what you will, these other projects, including Tom Anglebeger's, are just too creative to fall solely into that slot.

This display was so fun that we duplicated it in the window, but you have already figured out that our windows don't photograph well.

Being that we are hosting several music-related events over the next couple of months, my brain started thinking rock and roll. Among the upcomers are James Brown's son this coming Monday, September 8, for Inside the Godfather (it has another title too that makes it clearer that Daryl is James's son), Lary Widen for his Arcadia book, Milwaukee Rock and Roll, on Thursday, October 2, and Jim Peterik, the Survivor member who wrote "Eye of the Tiger" and most of their other big hits, and is also a member of Ides of March, on which he sang "Vehicle", more than forty years ago. How old does that make you feel? Peterik is is coming to Milwaukee on Saturday, October 18, 7 pm for Through the Eye of the Tiger. If you want some eighties flashbacks, I should note that Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick wrote the foreword to Widen's book and Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon penned Peterik's.

So with all that, when I saw this Beatles stuff that Chronicle released in the spring but I didn't catch because it was an add on, I figured we'd still have the market for it in the fall. Hey, it's still fifty years past 1964 and the Beatles were still going strong come fall. I've also got some journals and other things made out of old vinyl, which we should be getting in a few books. The display is a great place to highlight Conrad's enthusiasm for Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyonce, and Josh's recommendation of Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78 rpm Record.

Here's some good advice to local authors--if you have a really cool prop, it's possible we can use it in a display and give you extra promotion for your book. I wasn't planning to do a China display, though we were fortuitously discussing Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire for our In-Store Lit Group on Monday, November 3, at Boswell. But when Christine Merritt, author of Once Upon a Time in China: Worms, Cha and a Harmonious Society, offered to bring in a traditional carrying basket, I could see the way it would work on the table and we went for it. I had just had a conversation with my sister Claudia about Americans misconceptions about China, focusing on the older traditions, event though we'd be surprised if a group of Chinese tourists asked us where the blacksmith was to make our horseshoes. The table features books about more traditional China, but also focuses on its modernity.

Our display includes such popular novels as Gail Tsukiyama's A Hundred Flowers and Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement, but also less well known titles like Kim Fu's For Today I am a Boy, Jenny Bowen's Wish You Happy Forever, and David Eimer's The Emperor Far Away, from our travel lit section. Politics is represented by Geoff Dyer's The Contest of the Century and Nicholas Griffin's Ping Pong Diplomacy, while good's authors Natasha Lim, Li Jiang, and Amanda Cheng are featured as well. Christine Merrit's talk is on Friday, September 26, 7 pm, at Boswell.

The last display I'll mention is also inspired by an upcoming event. On Wednesday, September 24, 7 pm, Chris Guillebeau is coming to Boswell for The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life. We've had great sales on his previous title, The Hundred Dollar Startup, and the new book has won raves from the trifecta of personal growth, at least at Boswell: Brené Brown, Gretchen Rubin, and Susan Cain. The book is about finding happiness through quests, and so we came up with a number of books about these very quests We tried to not overly focus on fantasy, where quests run rampant (among both adult and kids' books), but we couldn't leave them out entirely. But there's also things like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated.

The back-to-school academic novel table has proven popular enough to extend past our event with Julie Schumacher, though still featuring Dear Committee Members of course. At a customer's request, we did add Richard Russo's Straight Man.

I should note that not every event this fall is display driven; I'm reading our football table, and believe it or not, we have no events scheduled at the moment. That said, visit our upcoming event page on our website and guess what will inspire us next.

Tuesday New and Noteworthy--What Oprah Knows and What "The Baffler" Knows are Not Necessarily the Same Thing, Plus The Impulse Society, Civil War Women, and The Beethoven Update.

I don't know if I would be highlighting the new book from Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure, if it weren't also the first release in the new Flatiron Books division, headed by Bob Miller, the man who started up Hyperion and HarperStudio. This started as a column in the eponymously named magazine, revised, updated, and sorted by theme. There was lots of media attention when this project was signed up, such as this piece in The Hollywood Reporter. I'm sure the publisher hopes they get just as much attention today.

I'm not sure what Paul Roberts would say about Oprah's impulse to offer everyone in the audience a car or a trip to Greece. In The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification (Bloomsbury), the journalist and author of The End of Food and The End of Oil, looks at "how the pursuit of short-term self-gratification, once scorned as a sign of personal weakness, became the default principle not only for individuals, but for all sectors of our society." He's got a lot of advance quotes from social critics and environmental reporters, such as Elizabeth Kolbert, who observes that "Paul Roberts traces the country's many, disparate ills to the same source: as a nation, we’ve abandoned the common good. His analysis is smart, provocative, and timely. The Impulse Society compels us to reexamine what it is that we really want." While I find the book's premise compelling, I do question whether this is one of those "kids today" commentaries--it strikes me that selfish robber barons, wars, persecution for economic ends and all-around selfishness have had cyclical impact since time immemorial. Convince me this is new, Paul!

I'm told consensus is the enemy of No Future for You: Salvos from "The Baffler" (MIT), edited by John Summers, Chris Lehmann, and Thomas Frank, with contributions from Heather Havrileski, Evgeny Morozov, Susan Faludi, David Graeber, Rick Perlstein, and Barbara Ehrenreich. That said, Michael Patrick Brady's review in the Boston Globe shoes that there is some agreement in the arguing that "the essays in No Future for You all coalesce around a singular theme. They point an accusatory finger at a society that emphasizes the primacy of private enterprise over public investment, individual development over collective action, and 'lookingforward' over reckoning with the mistakes of the past--solutions that just so happen to benefit the entrenched, moneyed interests that work hardest to promote them." Hey, the books are more connected than it appeared at first glance.

Enough about ideology--remember when we had those burlesque dancers at Boswell? Instead of shimmying, they discussed their craft as an opener for Karen Abbott, who wrote American Rose, a biography of Gypsy Rose Lee. Her new book is Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War (Harper). From the publisher: "Abbott's pulse-quickening narrative weaves the adventures of these four forgotten daredevils into the tumultuous landscape of a broken America, evoking a secret world that will surprise even the most avid enthusiasts of Civil War-era history." It's too early for trade reviews but Kirkus's rendering: "Remarkable, brave lives rendered in a fluidly readable, even romantic history lesson." Civil War books usually mean a tour through the South for publishers, so if you want to catch Abbott, it looks like Square Books, Malaprops, and Quail Ridge are among her stops. Milwaukeeans who want to see her have several opportunities in suburban Chicago as well--check her website for more info.

Looks like our wholesaler Ingram had a run on Jan Swofford's Beethoven: Angony and Triumph (HMH), which came out at the beginning of August; they are now completely out of stock (though we do have books). It's probably due to reviews like Matt Damsker's in USA Today: "Following Jan Swafford through the thousand-plus pages of his new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven is hardly as exhilarating as listening to the music of the peerless composer. But the stately rhythm, carefully etched detailing and oceanic sweep of this ambitious book mirror the complexity and richness of Beethoven's revolutionary Romanticism. It may be hard to grasp, but surrender to it and it's easy to be swept away." Swafford is both composer and critic, having penned biographies of Ives and Brahms and The Vintage Guide to Classical Music, and as for his music, his website lists his work.

This Week's Events! Marquette's Julia Azari and Kathleen Rooney on Tuesday, Margaret Peterson Haddix and Lisa McMann on Wednesday, Marja Mills on Harper Lee on Thursday, and Julia Mary Gibson's Milwaukee Homecoming on Friday.

As I mentioned in the email newsletter, we're open on Labor Day until 5 pm. No events today, but it's a busy week this week.

Tuesday, September 2, 7 pm, at Boswell: Politics in Fact and Fiction. Kathleen Rooney is the author of the novel O, Democracy! while Julia Azari has written Delivering the People's Message: The Changing Politics of the Presidential Mandate.

Here's a little more about O, Democracy!: "It’s late spring of 2008, and one of Illinois’ two Democratic senators is poised to become the next president of the United States. Colleen Dugan works for the other one—not on Capitol Hill, but in a Chicago skyscraper that overlooks Lake Michigan, among coworkers with little to do but field calls from angry constituents while the future of the nation gets decided elsewhere. In the coming weeks Colleen will navigate the perils of costumed protestors, thuggish union reps, vacuous interns, trifling bureaucrats, dirty tricks by the Senator’s Republican rival, and the unexpected discovery of a scandalous secret that will give her the power to change the course of the election and shape her own fate—though not necessarily for the better.

In Delivering the People’s Message, Julia R. Azari draws on an original dataset of more than 1,500 presidential communications, as well as primary documents from six presidential libraries, to systematically examine choices made by presidents ranging from Herbert Hoover in 1928 to Barack Obama during his 2008 election. Azari argues that Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 marked a shift from the modern presidency formed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to what she identifies as a more partisan era for the presidency. This partisan model is a form of governance in which the president appears to require a popular mandate in order to manage unruly and deeply contrary elements within his own party and succeed in the face of staunch resistance from the opposition party.

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, as well as a member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She is the author of six books, most recently, the novel in poems Robinson Alone, based on the life and work of Weldon Kees. She lives in Chicago where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor at DePaul University.

Julia R. Azari is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Marquette University. She is coeditor of The Presidential Leadership Dilemma: Between the Constitution and a Political Party.

Wednesday, September 3, 7 pm, at Boswell: An Evening with Margaret Peterson Haddix and Lisa McMann.

It's back-to-school season and that means we're taking authors to schools. We normally pass on doing school visits in the first half of September, but how could we say no to two of our favorite authors, Lisa McMann and Margaret Peterson Haddix, who separately done four days of events with Boswell. One thing we we were aware of is that all our public events were at public libraries, so to change things up, we decided to do the public event at the bookstore, especially because McMann was a long-time children's bookseller in Michigan before her writing career took off.

Both authors are in the midst of popular middle grade series, so we also have plenty of the first books in their series, so that kids (and adults can jump right in). But it's my job to tell you what's going on in the newest installment, so here's a little bit about Revealed, the newest book in The Missing series: "It’s morning as usual at the Skidmore household—until Charles Lindbergh, the famous historical pilot, appears in their living room. Jonah can hardly believe his eyes—and then Lindbergh grabs Katherine and vanishes again. And that’s not all. Chip, Andrea, and all the other children from the plane have disappeared too. And worst of all, Jonah’s parents and all the other adults in his town have de-aged into children. Jonah is the only one left, and the only one who can save everyone. With the help of de-aged JB and Angela, he has to collect the clues. And they lead directly back to Gary and Hodge, and a terrible plot that could mean the end of everything Jonah has ever loved. Can Jonah put the pieces together before time runs out?" Yikes!

Here's more from the publisher about the fourth installment of The Unwanteds, Island of Legends: "As Alex grows more confident in his role as the mage of Artime, he expands his skills and brings his first creature to life--with results that are both painful and wonderful. A team from Artime heads out to rescue Sky and Crow's mother from underwater Pirate Island and discovers there are more creatures than they ever imagined in the ocean surrounding the islands--and not all of them are friendly. Meanwhile in Quill, Aaron faces threats to his leadership as Gondoleery hones her rediscovered magical abilities and Eva and Liam form a secret alliance against him. But Aaron's distracted with a discovery of his own--a hidden jungle that holds a dangerous secret. His time there yields a startling truth about himself, and a potential opportunity to increase his power."

What you need to know is that Alex and Aaron are twins who were separated, with Aaron on course to be a leader and Alex to be sent to his death for being creative, only he didn't die, but instead was whisked off to a hidden school where creatives were taught how to use their powers of art, music, writing and acting almost like superpowers. No, exactly like superpowers.

Margaret Peterson Haddix previously had great success with her Shadow Children series, while McMann is also writing very sucessful books for teens, including the Visitors series and The Wake trilogy. I've been to both their events previously and had a great time, so I can only imagine what fun they'd be together.

Thursday, September 4, 7 pm, at Boswell: Marja Mills, author of The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee.

As a Madison native whose spent most of her adult career in Chicago, we're lucky enough to be in the orbit of Marja Mills and host her for her memoir of some special years in her life that she spent with Harper "Nelle" Lee and her sister Alice in Alabama. It all started with the To Kill a Mockingbird was chosen as Chicago's all-city read and Mills was sent to do a story about the town where it all happened. And that led to Mills moving to Monroeville and getting to know them up close and personal. This is hardly a tell-all, though it's been not without controversy, of course. But Boswellian Anne read the book and said it was nothing short of "delightful." I asked her about it again recently, and she confirmed how much she enjoyed The Mockingbird Next Door.

Marja Mills is a former reporter and feature writer for the Chicago Tribune, where she was a member of the staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for a 2001 series about O’Hare Airport entitled “Gateway to Gridlock.” The Mockingbird Next Door is her first book.

There are so many great quotes about the book that I'd be remiss to not include some. Publishers Weekly, in their boxed review, stated "As she portrays the exceptional Lee women and their modest, slow-paced world with awed precision, Mills creates a uniquely intimate, ruminative, and gently illuminating biographical memoir." And writer Elizabeth Berg (who may have had a role in getting Mills to come up, for which we are grateful), says "In her first book, a journalist offers a gentle, loving portrait of a reclusive writer.... Mills portrays Nelle as a grown-up Scout, the feisty and defiant heroine of Mockingbird.... [A] charming portrait of a small Southern town and its most famous resident."

Come celebrate with Hershey's Kisses and sparkling cider. You'll understand the former if you know the story!

Friday, September 5, 7 pm, at Boswell: Julia Mary Gibson, author of Copper Magic.

When Gibson (corrected!) contacted me about an event, she told me that she grew up in Milwaukee and was excited to be back to appear for her first book. What she didn't tell me was that she went to elementary school with one of my closest friends. By the way, that had no bearing on booking; it was already set when I found out.

Here a little more about the book: "If anyone needs magic, it’s 12-year-old Violet Blake. Her mother and little brother are gone, perhaps never to return. Violet’s morose, heartbroken father can’t seem to sustain their failing farm on the outskirts of a fading town, and summer people are invading the quiet woods. Violet unearths an ancient talisman, a hand fashioned from copper. The copper hand makes its power known. Surely it can make things right for Violet and restore her fractured family. But the copper hand’s abilities are beyond Violet’s understanding – maybe even anyone’s."

Here's a slightly different bio from Gibson's website: "For a significant chunk of my life I worked with sprocketed celluloid, as a garage animator and in various capacities in the visual effects industry. My colleagues were geniuses and magicians and sorceresses. The work was a blast (sometimes literally – catch me as Frances McDormand’s double in an awesome old-school beamsplitter shot in Sam Raimi’s Darkman*), but a time came when my own work cried out to be fostered again. I live in Hollywood, California, surrounded by my four-generation extended family of poets, thespians, dancers, filmworkers, and urban farmers."

*Darkman is the most successful screenplay of my name doppelganger, Daniel Goldin.

Here's a preview of the following week. Monday, September 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:Daryl Brown, co-author of Inside the Godfather: Never Before Told Stories of James Brown by His Inner Circle. The book is also known as My Father the Godfather. More about the book on the official website.