A Little Recap About Our Nick Offerman Event for "Gumption."

There are a lot of great things about hosting events. We love hearing authors speak, and asking them questions. And at signings, we love that fans get an up-close moment with someone that is important in their life. It's exciting but it's scary too. And that's why I was particularly anxious about Thursday's event at the Riverside Theater for Nick Offerman. The paperback edition of Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers has just come out this week and we are grateful that Milwaukee was one of the tour cities.

These large events are really hard to get. Every city in the country is clamoring for them, and many bookstores putting them together do a great job. Plus you're competing with libraries, clubs, museums, and festivals. And while Milwaukee may have some advantages, most notably its proximity to Chicago while still being a distinct market, it also has disadvantages, like its underdog status. So thank you Dutton! I have noticed that an author having some Chicago connections does help--both Offerman and last fall's headline Rainn Wilson had lived in Illinois at some point.

One advantage we do have is the amazing Pabst Theater Group. Both the check in and book distribution and signing organization had me quite tense, and the logistics for both wound up going smoothly. Thanks to Matt who knows his venues so well that he suggested we consider the Riverside when the Pabst wasn't available, Simon who was running the theater, and Paul, who handles hospitality. And all the way to Lauren and Karen who helped us stuff 2000 books with a Nick Offerman bookmark that promoted his the upcoming fall woodworking book, Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop. And what the heck, since we were already stuffing a bookmark, we also included one of ours too. And I must say, it was pretty swell when someone waiting to get his book signed complimented us on our bookmark.

A lot of folks on the signing line were woodworkers. Just because a book category isn't hot anymore doesn't mean there isn't a book out there that can explode expectations. During the signing, we chatted about Matthew Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, which was a surprise hit at Boswell (and everywhere else) several years ago. Did I mention that Offerman was about as nice as a star author could be?

This time we wound up doing the signing on stage, at Dutton's suggestion, and it really worked well, partly thanks to Per Mar Security. And of course nothing wouldn't work without a team of booksellers, so thanks to Chris, Todd, Caroline, Peter, Teasha, and Teasha's friend Lena. I am also grateful to the late Next Chapter Bookshop, who trailblazed this partnership, as Boswell was content to just sell books in the lobby for touring acts (which is what we're doing for David Sedaris on April 23).

In lieu of posed photos, Dutton provided two standups of Offerman posing with his book from the hardcover publication. They proved to be very popular.  In terms of my own photos, I took a few stage photos with my cell phone but they did not turn out well. But without the photo, it seems like maybe I wasn't even there, so with that said, here's a very blurry photo of Offerman on stage.

With our biggest event to date having been completed, it's time to move on. Who knows, maybe one day we'll sell out the Riverside? But for now, we're just hoping that some of those people will look at that Boswell bookmark and think about dropping by to browse.

Kwame Alexander's "Booked" Doesn't Make You Just Want to Read More Poetry, It Makes You Want to Write Poetry.

It started with Barb, who showed me her staff rec of The Crossover, the Newbery-medal-winning novel from Kwame Alexander.

"With a

            tap

                        tap

                                    tap

and a j

           u

             m

               p (up)

            and a

                        WOSH-

this book scores BIG

in a TALE of 2 twin

teen brothers

                        LOVING

                                    BASKETBALL

and how

their LIVES FACE different

                                    CROSSOVERS"

(The Crossover review from Barbara Katz)

Let me just say this was a bit hard to format and I apologize if I got any of the details wrong.

So then I read Booked, Kwame Alexander's new novel, which came out on April 5, and the effect was hypnotic. I was compelled.

"Dad demands (and thinks it’s best).
Mom competes (but yearns for more)
Coby dribbles (and is there for his friend).
April teases (but might be interested).
Mr. Mac throws (rhymes and stories).
Mrs. Hardwick bores (but means well).
Dean and Don push (and pummel).
Life happens (both good and bad).
And through it all, Nick grows (a little)
. And that’s why Kwame Alexander kills it (with his newest novel).
I loved it (and you will too)."
(Booked review from Daniel Goldin)

And then I got a rec from Tim, who was also taken by Kwame Alexander's new novel.

"Nick Hall is a boy of
12 years, with
Dreams--
about a great girl named April
and a top soccer tournament,

with
Agony--
over his loving parent's split
plus nasty bullies Dan 'n Don,

and with
Skills--
on the soccer pitch facing his best friend Coby,
and with words he'd rather not use.

Nick's being Booked, by
his father's homemade Weird and Wonderful Word dictionary,
his teacher's assigned novels,
and wild librarian Mr. Mac's persistent offerings.

Nick's got a big new world ...
and Kwame Alexander scores again with Booked!"
(Booked review from Tim McCarthy)

Now none of our verse holds a candle to Kwame Alexander's. This is all homage, sort of like the literary equivalent of fan fiction. Alexander's story is so compelling, his characters are so real, and his language is so effective and playful and moving, that you just can't help yourself. And if we can't help ourselves, can you imagine how a classroom of kids feels after reading Booked or The Crossover?

Barb actually wrote her review for Booked in prose.

"Like a whirling soccer ball, twelve year old Nick's life is spiraling out of control. Tough spins in his life include how his dad wants him to love words and books the way he does, and how his mom and dad don't get along anymore. Nick's bright lights are a girl named April, his best friend Coby, and a book loving rapper school librarian. Told in verses, soccer and books weave through Nick's days. Readers will cheer as Nick gradually starts to go along with the twists in his changing life, and comes to see the value in books and words."
(Booked review from Barbara Katz)

We're hosting Mr. Alexander at Boswell on Sunday, April 17, 3 pm. It's a free event and we expect to have a pretty full house, so I would suggest coming early. But if you can't come, Barb, Tim, and I would suggest you buy a copy of Booked and pass it around. You'll be moved and possibly inspired as well. Happy National Poetry Month!

Art Memories Inspired by Reading Molly Prentiss's "Tuesday Nights in 1980," a Wonderful Novel Out Today.

When I was living in New York in the 1980s, my friend Michael introduced me to the Gallery Girls, two of his friends that were part of the city's art scene. It was hard not be part of it, even for someone who still secretly felt shamed by the "Bridge and Tunnel" label given to someone who grew up in an outer borough like Queens. Working at a publishing house and still being connected to friends from college, you'd get invited to various openings, and our work ID got into a lot of museums, like MOMA, which were otherwise quite expensive for a publicity assistant.

I could only imagine what life was like as an artist. I took a painting class in summer school where my greatest work was a portrait of Wilma Flintstone, with Fred looking on from a distance. There's a slot for that sort of thing nowadays but at the time it was just seen as immature, and it's true that I really, really, really liked the Flintstones. I looked for the painting, which I had stored in my parent's basement, but alas, my dad had tossed it some years before.

And then in college, I took one studio art class from Professor Boghosian, sort of a last desperate attempt at being visually creative. I remember one project where we colored in maps to hone our design sense. Instead of complimenting my work, he would instead quiz me about Joseph Cornell, and whether I had lived near his home studio on Utopia Parkway. It turned out that the answer was no, but he was pretty close to my pediatrician, who, due to a years-long regimen of allergy shots, was a regular visit. But that class did not reveal any innate talents that lay dormant. Hey,  my professor has a Wikipedia entry!

But I do like reading about art. Last year we had a good run on The Contemporaries: Travels in the 21st-Century Art World, which is now in paperback. It's a survey of the art world by Roger White, which was not necessarily only because one chapter was set in the Milwaukee DIY art scene, though it certainly got me to read it. It was a pleasant surprise that I knew one of the dealers who featured in the story, another fellow from college who dated a friend of mine. I think we also took a class together, but as has come up in the past (when I hosted an author who was my classmate in freshman Russian), my memories get a little blurry. But I remembered Nick and it was nice to read that he'd done well.

So there I was at the BEA (Book Expo) convention last spring, piling up books to read, excited about what is to come. I had already had that HarperCollins visit where I was shown The Nest, and now I was meeting my friend at Simon and Schuster, Wendy, for breakfast. Wendy is a former bookseller, and in fact, the first time I met her was just after she learned her bookstore was closing. I later went though that transition myself and now we are in a good place - she tells me what to read and when I can, I read it. It was on that morning that I discovered that New York was obsessed with avocado toast. Until then, I was oblivious.

She handed me a bound manuscript, knowing that it's still pretty impossible to get me to read electronic galleys. The book was Tuesday Nights in 1980, a first novel by Molly Prentiss. As you'll read in my writeup (yes, this is a long introduction, as sometimes I like to ramble on a theme), the book is about an artist, a critic, and a muse, and while at that point, I was getting into galleys, I was certainly wandering the neighborhood, shopping for strangely colored carpenter pants at Canal Jeans, the emporium that is now Bloomingdale's southern outpost and once had a lot of galleries, but have now moved to another neighborhood where there were meat packers and rather raunchy gay bars. I swear, Am I sounding like an elderly crank? Good.

I didn't even know at the time that this is the 40th anniversary of Argentina's Dirty War, which factors into the story. All I remembered was that I was reminded a bit of Nathan Englander's (only) novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, which I'm happy to say we have in stock right now, so I'm linking to it. I would love for someone to read it, as would Conrad, who is a big fan. You can put it on hold through our website, and you don't even have to register to do this.

So that said, I should probably include my recommendation of Molly Prentiss's Tuesday Nights in 1980. Here it is: "An art critic whose reputation for creative insight is built on his own synesthesia. An Argentine artist hoping to make it as a painter, having fled not just the country’s Dirty War but a bad family situation is on the cusp of discovery. A young high-school grad escapes rural Idaho, and like the others, finds herself in the center of the downtown New York art scene and becomes the third point in a very complicated triangle. Prentiss captures that moment in time when New York’s downtown art scene was about to explode from social experiment to big business. Her fictional characters vie with the real artists sprinkled through the story for how larger than life a person can be. She also does a deft job balancing internal musings with some rollercoaster plot twists, and the Big Apple details have a Technicolor intensity. I’m not sure I agreed with a few of the structural tics, but on the other hand, how can you have a novel about an art scene without some stylizing? It’s a compelling and passionate read, perfect for anyone who enjoyed The Flamethrowers or Ten Thousand Saints." (Daniel Goldin)

When I read the book, which feels like a long time ago, a copy editor wrote that Idaho was in the Midwest, which I'm sure was long since corrected. Being that in yesterday's newsletter, we spelled Pegi Christiansen's name wrong, and listed the Barbara Rinella Services lunch as benefitting something other than Ozaukee Family Services, I am completely forgiving. Here's another shout out for the brunch, featuring Barbara Rinella as Beryl Markham on May 11.

While Carly is now archiving elsewhere, I am including her review of Tuesday Nights in 1980 as well, which she wrote as a Boswellian. "Gallery shows and creative gatherings mark Tuesday nights in New York City in the year 1980, where artists, critics, observers, and loyal fans join up and celebrate art in the midst of unrelenting gentrification and urban transformation. James Bennett, an oddball art critic with overwhelming synesthesia, and Raul Engales, a young Argentinian exile whose paintings are on the cusp of being discovered, abruptly cross paths when they realize they share a muse, a beautiful girl from Idaho named Lucy who is struggling to make ends meet in the big city. Layered with detailed backstories and cultural references that truly set the 1980s scene, Tuesday Nights in 1980 is an inventive debut that will appeal to art lovers, urban spelunkers, and postmodern readers." (Carly Lenz wrote the review. That's Molly Prentiss's author photo at left - photo credit Elizabeth Leitzell.)

Tuesday Nights in 1980 is officially out today, as is a veritable truckload of new titles. It's Boswell's Best for at least the next two weeks. And since I read the book so long ago, I will just note that it has stayed with me a long time, and you know something? I liked it so much that I wouldn't mind reading it again.

Boswell presents a week of book-related events.

Our email newsletter went out today, and while that features events through the end of April, this week's blog features happenings from now through April 11.

Tuesday, April 5, 6 pm, at MIAD, 273 E Erie St:
Barry Schwabsky, author of The Perpetual Guest: Art in the Unfinished Present.

Barry Schwabsky, leading art critic for The Nation, co-editor of international reviews for Artforum, and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, is coming to MIAD to discuss his latest book, The Perpetual Guest: Art of the Unfinished Present, in which he explores the connections between art's past and present. Contemporary art sometimes pretends to have made a clean break with history. Barry Schwabsky demonstrates that any robust understanding of art's present must also account for the ongoing life and changing fortunes of its past. Schwabsky's rich and subtle contributions illuminate art's present moment in all its complexity: shot through with determinations produced by centuries of interwoven traditions, but no less open-ended for it.

Here's Barry Schwabsky critiquing two photography exhibits. I am quickly working through my monthly allotment of online articles for The Nation, what with Schwabsky and John Nichols (below) both writing for that magazine.

Tuesday April 5, at 6:30 pm at Alverno College’s Alumnae Hall and Tuesday April 12, at 7:00 pm at UWM Union Fireside Lounge
Ellen Bravo, author of Again and Again.

Ellen Bravo will be appearing at two area universities to read from and discuss her recent novel, Again and Again. When the man who raped her roommate in college becomes a Senate candidate, women’s rights leader Deborah Borenstein must make a choice—one that could determine control of the Senate, the course of a friendship, and the fate of a marriage.

Wednesday, April 6, 7 pm, at the North Shore Library, 6800 N Port Washington Rd in Glendale:
Jesse Andrews, author of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Haters.

From Jesse Andrews, author of the bestselling Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, (and screenwriter of the award-winning film adaptation) comes The Haters, a novel about music, love, friendship, and freedom.

For Wes and his best friend, Corey, jazz camp turns out to be lame. It's pretty much all dudes talking in Jazz Voice. But then they jam with Ash, a charismatic girl with an unusual sound, and the three just click. It's three and a half hours of pure musical magic, and Ash makes a decision: they need to hit the road. Because the road, not summer camp, is where bands get good. Before Wes and Corey know it, they're in Ash's SUV heading south, and The Haters Summer of Hate Tour has begun.

Here's the trailer for The Haters. It features Andrews playing guitar.



Thursday, April 7, 7 pm, at the Riverside Theater: Nick Offerman, author of Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers.

Tickets are $20 plus taxes and fees and include a copy of the paperback. A crazy big signing will follow, for those who are interested. We are not sold out yet, but we're getting close to capacity.

Here's some more about the book, due out in paperback tomorrow. Bill Jones in The AV Club notes: "In chapter 11 of Gumption, Nick Offerman handily refutes the idea that Yoko Ono was responsible for the breakup of The Beatles. He also espouses her creativity as an artist, recounts the gallery exhibition at which John Lennon connected with her work, and delves into the cleverness of their peace efforts. The chapter is not only indicative of what Offerman tries to accomplish throughout Gumption - dispel long-held myths, muse on anecdotes about the 'gutsiest troublemakers' who have died, and exchange philosophies with many troublemakers still alive - but is also the point where he hits his stride."

Friday, April 8, 7 pm, at Boswell: John Nichols and Robert McChesney, authors of People Get Ready:The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.

Please join us at Boswell for a talk and signing with John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney, appearing for their new collaboration, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy. John Nichols is The Nation's Washington, DC correspondent and has written their Online Beat since 1999. He is also a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times. Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is author or editor of 23 books and cofounder of Free Press, a national media reform organization.

Kirkus Reviews writes: "McChesney and Nation Washington, D.C., correspondent Nichols bring clear urgency to this sprawling polemic, which encompasses politics, the cybereconomy, the decline of critical journalism, and historical movements beginning with America's founding." They posit that technology could lead to a jobless economy but technology itself is not the enemy. I wasn't thinking about the Wisconsin primary when I booked this event, but let's just say that had the event been booked earlier, we likely would have had to bump it, due to the audience

Here's McChesney and Nichols speaking at Town Hall Seattle.



Monday, April 11, 6:30 pm, at the West Allis Public Library, 7421 W National Ave:
Ally Condie author of Matched and Summerlost.

It's the first real summer since the accident that killed Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben. Cedar and what s left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They re just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery. The mystery of the tragic, too-short life of the Hollywood actress who haunts the halls of Summerlost. And the mystery of the strange gifts that keep appearing for Cedar.

From Publishers Weekly's starred review: "The thread of Lisette’s mystery is intriguing in itself, but Leo and Cedar’s unlikely friendship steals the show. Their adventures, set against the quirky backdrop of a community of personality-rich theater creators, make for a summer with plenty of good to remember along with the bad."

Ally Condie is the author of the trilogy Matched, Crossed, and Reached. I know that disappointing box office has led to less development of YA series, but if you look through film sites, you can see that a lot of readers have had great fun coming up with fantasy casts for Ally Condie's novels.

Construction alert: If you are attending this event, please leave extra time, as several exit ramps are closed on I-894 and I-94 that service West Allis. We'd recommend the 70th Street exit if you are traveling west on I-94 and 60th/Hawley if traveling east. From the west, northwest, and southwest, you can also take I-894 and get off on Lincoln (if traveling south) or Greenfield (if traveling north). I used the DOT map to try to determine which exits were open, but I understand you can't always depend on the info being right or that I actually have the ability to read them correctly. My apologies in advance!

Here's Ally Condie on Salt Lake City television discussing her book.

The Annotated Boswell Bestsellers for the Week Ending April 2, 2016

Here are our Boswell bestsellers for the week ending April 2, 2016.

Hardcover fiction:
1. Contrary Motion, by Andy Mozina
2. The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
3. The Girl on the Train, by Paul Hawkins
4. The Ancient Minstrel, by Jim Harrison
5. Spill Simmer Falter Wither, by Sara Baume
6. The Summer Before the War, by Helen Simonson
7. The Crossing, by Michael Connelly
8. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
9. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
10. The Little Red Chairs, by Edna O'Brien

It's been six years since Boswell favorite Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, but Helen Simonson is back with The Summer Before the War, a novel about a new teacher who arrives to teach Latin, the first woman in the post, in 1914. Judith Martin in The New York Times Book Review compared the book to E.F. Benson's Lucia and Mapp novels, though she had some quibbles. Jean Zimmerman on the NPR book page, notes, as did Martin, that one character is a stand-in for Henry James. She also observes the way the Great War looms over this pastoral comedy of manners: "It is a shadow all the more poignant because the lives portrayed in The Summer Before the War have been so pleasant and pacific — yet through all the lovely season, the specter of death has been much closer and more imminent than they knew. The contrast between pastoral peace and the violent chaos of war is what gives this novel its heft."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Lauren Conrad Celebrate, by Lauren Conrad
2. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. Half-Earth, by Edward O. Wilson
6. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paula Kalanithi
7. Lauren Conrad Beauty, by Lauren Conrad
8. The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson
9. The Finest Traditions of My Calling, by Abraham Nussbaum
10. A Mother's Reckoning, by Sue Klebold

Edmund O. Wilson's 32nd book is Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life. In it, he advocates for creating a natural reserve for 50% of the planet. In speaking to Claudia Dreifus in The New York Times, he notes: "Now, this proposal does not mean moving anybody out. It means creating something equivalent to the U.N.’s World Heritage sites that could be regarded as the priceless assets of humanity. That’s why I’ve made so bold a step as to offer this maxim: Do no further harm to the rest of life. If we can agree on that, everything else will follow. It’s actually going to be a lot easier than people think." Alas, Jedediah Purdy in The New Reublic opines: "The glimmer of an important argument is here, but it is not much developed beyond the title."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
2. The Dream Lover, by Elizabeth Berg (event 4/28 at Lynden)
3. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald (event 5/19 at Boswell)
4. An Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett
5. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman (event 5/14, 2 pm, at Boswell)
6. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
7. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
8. Dirty Dust, by Mairtin O'Cadhain
9. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
10. Epitaph, by Mary Doria Russell

The transformative novel continues to dominate our bestseller lists with Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop taking the top spot, with Katarina Bivald and Fredrik Backman (both coming in May) close behind, and even a pop for one of the earlier favorites, An Uncommon Reader. I think this needs to be discussed a little more in a blog post. Janet Saidi has quibbles but ultimately writes in The Christian Science Monitor: "Ultimately, Nina George’s creation is not only picturesque, it’s a journey to find a life well-lived and -loved. And for this, readers will be grateful. The best platitude delivered in the novel is the most unexpected one, on life: 'It’s never easy,' Perdu’s lover, Manon, writes, 'and there are a thousands ways to live it.' This story makes you want to live life all those thousand ways, taking enough food, wine, books, and friends along for the journey."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. White Dresses, by Mary Pflum Peterson
2. Elle and Coach, by Stefany Shaheen with Mark Dagostino
3. Essential Strums and Strokes for Ukulele, by Lil' Rev
4. Dying to Be Me, by Anita Moorjani
5. The Emotional Life of Your Brain, by Bruce J. Davidson
6. My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor
7. Lauren Conrad Style, by Lauren Conrad
8. Wisconsin Off the Beaten Path, by Martin Hintz
9. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
10. H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald (ticketed event 4/12, almost sold out)

Though it did not work for us in hardcover, an offsite event helped pop Elle and Coach, the paperback edition of Stefany Shaheen's story of a service dog that helped her daughter cope with type 1 diabetes. We've seen the rise in service animals for people with folks working with issues beyond blindness. Kelli Bender explains in People Magazine: "With his special set of skills, this highly trained canine helps Elle, now 15, detect changes in blood sugar before she feels symptoms. But Coach is more than just a tool. Over the past two years, the doting dog has become a best friend, bedside companion and family member to Elle. Most important, Coach has shown Elle that diabetes is not a battle she has to manage alone but an opponent they can tackle together."

Books for Kids:
1. Stories from Bug Garden, by Lisa Moser
2. The Book Thief Tenth Anniversary Edition, by Markus Zusak
3. Pax, by Sara Pennypacker, will illustrations by Jon Klassen
4. L.A. Candy, Lauren Conrad
5. Finding Winnie, by Lindsay Mattick, with illustrations by Sophie Blackall
6. The Boy in the Black Suit, by Jason Reynolds (ticked lunch 4/23 at ICC)
7. Masterminds: Criminal Destiny V2, by Gordon Korman
8. The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander (event 4/17 at Boswell)
9. The Key to Extraordinary, by Natalie Lloyd
10. Tru and Nelle, by G. Neri (signed copies available)

Lisa Moser's newest release, Stories From Bug Garden, is a collection of short prose poems on all our garden friends. Kirkus Reviews called this picture book "Whimsical and delightful, a celebration of imagination." And Paul O. Zelinsky writes in The New York Times Book Review: "These tales carry a sense of purpose, of meaning more than what’s apparent. At their best they feel like little puffs of wisdom."

Over in the Journal Sentinel, Chris Foran offers his annual round-up of baseball books for opening day, This year's crop of contenders:

--The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend, by Glenn Stout

--If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers - Stories from the Milwaukee Brewers Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box, by Bill Schroeder with Drew Olson

--Stealing Games: How John McGraw Transformed Baseball With the 1911 New York Giants, by Maury Klein. Chris's commentary: "The argument's not always convincing...but Stealing Games does a terrific job of re-creating the tail end of the dead-ball era.

--Kings of Queens: Life Beyond Baseball With the '86 Mets, by Erik Sherman. This comment is for both this book and the Klein - can you ever imagine a New York publishing house purchasing a book of this sort from any other team except the Mets and Yankees? Well, maybe the Red Sox. There are a lot of New Englanders in publishing.

--Baseball and the Law, by Louis N. Schiff and Robert M. Jarvis (I'm not bothering linking as this publisher is really not interested in distribution through bookstores)

--Double Switch, by T.T. Monday. The second in a mystery series by writer Nick Taylor about an aging major-league relief pitcher who moonlights as a private detective.

--The House of Daniel, by Harry Turtledove. Alternative baseball history with vampires and zombies. The For-answer: "The supernatural stuff sometimes gets in the way, but Turtledove does a good job evoking the world of the barnstormer, and captures the rhythm of a life punctuated by baseball."

--Bucky F*cking Dent, by David Duchovny. Yes, the actor. Chris's critique: "Duchovny sometimes loses the thread, and baseball itself is an in-and-out presence in his story. But the relationship between father and son — difficult but candid, warm but resistant to traditional forms of sentimentality — echoes the bonds forged through baseball in books like W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe."

--Baseball History for Kids, by Richard Panchyk. "Bright and readable," says Foran

--The Kid From Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton, by Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno. It's true!

--The Hero Two Doors Down, by Sharon Robinson. Written by Jackie's daughter. CF calls it a "story of friendship, understanding and bridging different cultural experiences through communication."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, a review of Ella Enchanted, at the Milwaukee Rep. Drama critic Mike Fischer writes: "In a world where date rape remains widespread, one can't say often enough that "no means no." But what about the larger problem of a culture continually telling women from the time they're girls that they should say "yes," appeasing and pleasing rather than choosing for themselves? That's the question at the heart of Gail Carson Levine's marvelous Ella Enchanted, a novel in which Cinderella becomes the story of a girl who learns to say no...To steal the names of First Stage's alternating casts of young performers, Ella is both 'spectacular' and 'brilliant.' Despite its serious message, it's also uproariously funny..."

Don't forget, Gail Carson Levine will be at Boswell on Saturday, April 16, 2 pm. But you'll want to purchase your tickets to the First Stage production of Ella Enchanted here.

More on Ticketed Lauren Conrad Celebrate Signing at Boswell on Friday, April 1, 7 pm, Including a Link to Tickets.

We are very exciting about our ticketed signing for Lauren Conrad on Friday, April 1, 7 pm, at Boswell.  Lauren Conrad Celebrate went on sale yesterday, March 29, and has already been getting a lot of attention.

In this interview with Faith Cummings in Teen Vogue, Conrad talked about the book's inspiration: "[This guide has] been two years in the making. I was sharing a lot of photos of the parties I was throwing through my site and social media. We’d then get a ton of questions about how to achieve a similar look or how to do it with a smaller budget. We were also covering party etiquette and rules quite a bit, because I was finding that there are were so many unwritten rules when it comes to event planning. For instance: when to get a wedding gift, when an invitation should be sent, dealing with a plus one, and so many other situations. I’ve found that these kinds of guidelines make everything run smoothly because there’s a best practice for how to approach things. With this book, I was able to compile all of the basics, so that the process becomes less complicated and everyone can focus on what they’re there to celebrate — and on having fun."

Natalie Stone in The Hollywood Reporter also talked to Conrad about the book. One of her questions was if there was a party not in the book that she'd like to throw in the future: "I really love themed parties. My husband (William Tell) is actually born in the same week as me, so now we combine our birthdays. We combine our parties now, and he's the dude in that I would throw a theme — I used to do '20s or masquerade — and now we just do the same theme every year which is hoedown... We do that every year, which is really fun. But, I've always wanted to do a prom-themed birthday. You get a cover band and everybody goes to a second-hand store and gets the most obnoxious prom dress that they can find. It would be so fun! High school prom and everyone gets a corsage. I can't wait — I'm going to do it!"

We learned from the first event that there were way more walk ups than we were used to at one of our ticketed events. Due to the sheer size of the event at Bookends in New Jersey (a store that is no stranger to celebrity events - look at their roster!), we have increased the potential capacity for the tour by bringing in more books, but please note that to make sure you get to see Conrad and get a signed book, you really should buy your ticket now.  We are also not able to take signing requests before the event, but if you buy a ticket, you will get a signed book, even if you miss the event - we'll hold it for you after the event at our special order desk.

Don't forget, in order for us to make sure everyone gets a signed copy of Lauren Conrad Celebrate on Conrad's tight schedule, there are signing restrictions. She will not be able to sign memorabilia and there are no posed photos. We are also not able to schedule any interviews with the author; if you have a query, we will funnel it to her publicist.

I really should have asked Conrad to help us plan our 7th birthday party. As many of you may know, our soft opening was on April 3, 2009.

This Week's Boswell Events: Mary Pflum Peterson, Andy Mozina, Lil' Rev, Lauren Conrad.

Upcoming events!

Tuesday, March 29, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Mary Pflum Peterson, author of White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters.

Mary Pflum Peterson is a television producer in New York, a former reporter with CNN, a mom with four kids, and a writer. But she growing up, she faced the trauma of both parents struggling with mental health. Her father eventually came out as gay and her mother, a former nun, struggled with severe depression and an increasing tendency to hoard. She died in 2010, and White Dresses is the author's attempt to come to understand her mother's life.

Elfrieda Abbe writes explains the concept in the recent Journal Sentinel profile: "The book's title refers to the 'shared mother/daughter history' of wearing white dresses to commemorate special occasions — births, First Communions, graduations and marriages. The fashion dictum that except for special events, you didn't wear white dresses between Labor Day and Memorial Day had been passed down through the generations. For mother and daughter, who both remained faithful to the Catholic Church despite Anne's suffering at the convent, the white dresses represented an element of faith: 'of winter making way for spring,' said Peterson.

There are several great recommendations for White Dresses. Author Dorothea Benton Frank writes: "This stunning memoir takes us inside the secret lives of nuns, and teaches of the unbreakable bond between mothers and daughters. Mary Pflum Peterson rises as a new, bright shining star in the literary world. Her prose is as elegant as the white dresses about which she so lovingly writes." And from Martha McPhee: "Mary Pflum Peterson unveils the beautiful camouflage of significant white dresses to look at the disappointments of a life, releasing secrets and pain that she ultimately transforms to love."

Because we hosted an event at St. Monica Parish last week, we made a special bookmark to promote White Dresses, which we thought would be of interest to attendees. And I should note that there is another public event for Pflum Peterson tonight, March 28, at the University Club downtown. It's a meet-and-greet with refreshments and yes, we will be there selling books. Tickets to the Monday event do not include the book and are $30 for University Club members, $40 the general public.

The event at Boswell is Tuesday, March 29, 7 pm.

Wednesday, April 30, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Andy Mozina, author of Contrary Motion (Photo credit Katherine LeMoine).

This is Mozina's second visit to Boswell, and third to this space, as he read for his first short story collection at the Downer Schwartz. Like his protagonist, Matt Grzbc (it's pronounced Gerbik), he grew up in Milwaukee and now lives elsewhere. But unlike Mozina, who is a professor of English at Kalazmazoo College, his hero is a professional (well, semi-professional) harpist in Chicago, trying out for orchestras, and playing at hotel brunches and hospices.

In Contrary Motion, Matt's life has reached a fracture point, and I'm not referring to the damage that his harp received from a recent drop. His shares custody of his young daughter Audrey with his ex-wife Molina. She's seeing someone else and so is he, a lawyer named Cynthia, who is struggling with a complicated case made more complicated by sexual harassment from a partner. Matt likes her a lot, but things are not going as well in the bedroom, whereas the sexual tension is heightening again with his ex-wife. And this is all while he's still trying to come to terms with his father's recent death, and also struggling to get ready for a major audition with the St. Louis Symphony.

Mozina's first novel is a sort of near Jonathan Tropper, but I also saw him writing into a similar angsty funny abyss that consumes Lauren Fox. And because there's a decent amount of Milwaukee detail (and even more Chicago color), that also led me in a Fox direction. Because Mozina has previously had two collections of stories published and goes a little crazy on his blog, you can see that he channeled his absurdist sensibilities a bit for the novel. It would be interesting to see him go crazy in a future novel, in more of a Simon Rich-Mark Leyner kind of way, while still making the characters as realistic as Matt and friends in Contrary Motion, sympathetic in spite of their foibles.

Mozina has received a lot of praise from Boswell event alums Mark Wisniewski, Jaimy Gordon, Ann Patchett, and Jonathan Lethem. But for those who don't like to link, let me just include this quote from Bonnie Jo Campbell: "This brilliant debut novel zigzags across Chicago’s neighborhoods exploring the obsession a striving artist must have for his craft, as he also makes a living and nourishes those near him, especially his eccentric and precocious six-year-old daughter. Contrary Motion is a wonderful story—beautifully written, hilarious, tortured, and filled with heavenly music."

Our event with Mozina is Wednesday, March 30, 7 pm.

Thursday, March 31, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Lil' Rev, author of Essential Strums and Strokes for Ukulele: A Treasury of Strum-Hand Techniques.

Our event with Lil' Rev, an evening of ukulele thoughts and music, in conjunction with the release of his new book from Milwaukee's Hal Leonard Publishing, was originally scheduled for last December. We're very sad about the circumstances that led to the cancellation but we're grateful that the our evening could be rescheduled.

For those of you who have taken up the ukulele, and there are many of you, there is apparently a point where you fall into a rut. Lil' Rev's new book and video pack details a variety of strumming techniques that might not be in your repertoire, from clawhammer to the zig-zag stroke to punk rock strums and beyond. The accompanying video lessons feature Lil' Rev's demonstrations of every technique in the book and the publisher says it is great for both the beginning and the advanced player.

As I've mentioned before, if you're in the market for a ukulele, there's a great selection at our local independent, Brass Bell in Glendale on Silver Spring Drive. We just replaced our microphone stand there. And if you're not able to see Lil' Rev on Thursday, either because you're busy or live too far away, he'll be doing a lunch gig at Bay View's Anodyne on April 5 (11:30, why not treat yourself for voting?) and at concerts in Waukesha, Neenah, Traverse City, Baraboo, Madison, and Beaver Dam (which is where Mary Pflum Peterson grew up). Here's the complete schedule, including our event on Thursday, March 31, 7 pm.

Friday, April 1, 7 pm, at Boswell:
A ticketed signing with Lauren Conrad, author of Lauren Conrad Celebrate (photo credit Steve Erle).

"Lifestyle and fashion icon Lauren Conrad #1 bestselling author of Lauren Conrad Style and Lauren Conrad Beauty (as well as a series of six novels for young adults) has made a career of inspiring women to look and feel their best. And now that she's gotten us all dressed up and looking our most beautiful, she gives us somewhere to go in this lavishly illustrated, elegant, and essential guide to entertaining.

"Showcasing an array of parties that span the calendar, Lauren Conrad Celebrate demonstrates how easy it is to throw a fantastic party for any occasion, from a charming baby shower to a casual midsummer clambake to a festive holiday soiree. Along with her creative ideas and budget-friendly lifestyle tips, Conrad offers advice about party-planning basics to make hosting any type of event a breeze, including suggestions for the perfect invitations, food, drinks, decorations, gifts and even the perfect outfit. Throughout are inspiring color photos and stories from Conrad's life, recounting her housewarming party, bridal shower, and wedding."

Please note that while this is publisher copy, I changed references to "Lauren" to "Conrad." I think it's not polite to refer to people by their first name only when I don't know them well. And of course the last time she came, I didn't throw the best party - the power went off in the middle. That said, in the words of Tim Gunn, we made it work! Tickets are $30 and include a copy of Lauren Conrad Celebrate. We're going to have a complete blog post donated to the event tomorrow.

Next week event preview:
Tuesday, April 5, at MIAD: Barry Schwabsky, author of The Perpetual Guest: Art in the Unfinished Present. This event is free and open to the public. MIAD is located on 273 E. Erie St. in the Third Ward.

Tuesday, April 5, 6:30 pm, at Alverno College: Ellen Bravo, author of Again and Again. This event is free and open to the public. The event is being held at Alumnae Hall.

Wednesday, April 6, 6:30 pm, at North Shore Library, 6800 N Port Washington Rd: Jesse Andrews, author of The Haters and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

Thursday April 7, 7 pm, at the Riverside Theater: Nick Offerman, author of Gumption. Tickets still available for this event. Please note: a very, very long signing will follow the presentation. We are not able to take signed copy requests in advance of this event.

Friday, April 8, 7 pm, at Boswell: John Nichols and Robert McChesney, author of People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.

The Boswell Annotated Weekly Bestsellers for the Period Ending March 26, 2016.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Two If By Sea, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
2. Fool Me Once, by Harlan Coben
3. Patience, by Daniel Clowes
4. All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
5. The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
6. Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
7. Spill Simmer Falter Wither, by Sara Baume
8. The Swimmer, by John Koethe
9. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
10. At the Edge of the Orchard, by Tracy Cheavlier

With so many novels, you'd think that Harlan Coben, master of reversals, would run out of new ways to fool his readers. But in Fool Me Once (and yes, this title is just asking for it), Coben tries again, for the 29th time, more or less. Jackie K. Cooper in The Huffington Post says the newest is about a helicopter pilot who upon returning to the United States, finds out that her husband's murder might not be what it appeared.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Listen, Liberal, by Thomas Frank
2. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
3. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
5. Liar, by Rob Roberge
6. I Suck at Relationships, so You Don't Have to, by Bethenny Frankel
7. In Other Words, by Jhumpa Lahiri
8. Dead Presidents, by Brady Carlson
9. Sven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli
10. Streetfight, by Janette Sadik-Khan

New Hampshire Public Radio host Brady Carlson (wonder if Bonnie North knows him?) has penned Dead Presidents: An American Adventure Into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlives of Our Nation's Leaders, which offers surprising stories about dead presidents, wrapped around field trips, a la Sarah Vowell. Kate Tuttle in The Boston Globe writes: " The book blends wry humor with thought-provoking analysis. What should we make, for instance, of Grover Norquist (himself named for a dead president) and his quest to put Ronald Reagan’s name on at least one thing in every county in the nation?"

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy (in store lit group May 2, 7 pm)
2. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
3. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman (event May 14, 2 pm)
4. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes
5. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
6. Nora Webster, by Colm Tóibín
7. Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín
8. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald (event May 19, 7 pm)
9. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
10. Reader I Married Him, edited by Tracy Cheavlier

The National Book Critics Circle award pops Paul Beatty's The Sellout onto our bestseller list this week. The NBCC is generally the one award where you can say with certainty that the winner appeared on many best-of-the-year lists, being that the winner is picked by the same critics who compile those yearend lists. Michael Schaub wrote on the NPR website: "Post-racial America or not, it's hard to see how anything funny could come out of slavery, police violence, gangs and racial discrimination, all subjects Beatty tackles in his fourth novel. It's the equivalent to an improv comedy troupe dedicating an entire performance to abortion. But somehow, The Sellout isn't just one of the most hilarious American novels in years, it also might be the first truly great satirical novel of the century."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Unmeasured Strength, by Lauren Manning
2. Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas Tallamy
3. A Place of Yes, by Bethenny Frankel
4. Skinnygirl Solutions, by Bethenny Frankel
5. I Suck at Relationships, so You Won't Have to, by Bethenny Frankel
6. Pocketful of Mojo, by Debi Silber
7. Skinnygirl Cocktails, by Bethenny Frankel
8. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
9. H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
10. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda

You can probably tell from this list that this week was the Women's Leadership Conference at the Pfister. But Doug Tallamy's sales pop is for an upcoming event at the Urban Ecology Center. I was speaking with Kim, who said that Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants is one of her favorite books. In this profile by Anne Raver in The New York Times, she noted: "They are struggling to plant the native species that are needed for insects and animals to flourish. As exotic ornamentals leap the garden fence and out-compete the native plants, many creatures are starving to death because they did not evolve with the exotics and simply can’t eat them. 'I’m not trying to recreate the ancient ecosystem,' said Mr. Tallamy, who is chairman of the department of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. 'That is gone. I’m trying to create biodiversity.'"

Books for Kids:
1. Will Wilder #1: The Relic of Perilous Falls, by Raymond Arroyo
2. Seven Wonders #1: Colossus Rises, by Peter Lerangis
3. Seven Wonders #2: Lost in Babylon, by Peter Lerangis
4. Seven Wonders #5: Legend of the Rift, by Peter Lerangis
5. Seven Wonders #3: Tomb of Shadows, by Peter Lerangis
6. I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster, by Lauren Tarshis
7. Seven Wonders #4: Curse of the King, by Peter Lerangis
8. I Am a Bunny, by Ole Risom with illustrations by Richard Scarry
9. I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters, by Lauren Tarshis
10. I Survived True Stories #2: Nature Attacks, by Lauren Tarshis
11. When Spring Comes, by Kevin Henkes, with illustrations by Laura Dronzek
12. Pax, by Sara Pennypacker, with illustrations by Jon Klassen
13. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs
14. A Is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara
15. The Book Thief Anniversary Edition (cloth), by Markus Zusak

Raymond Arroyo and Peter Lerangis were both in town doing events with Boswell - two schools and a public event for the former and three schools for the latter, as we the store was already booked and we took on his project too late to host at a library. We were a good add on for Lerangis as the former city had a lot of schools on break, but in the Milwaukee area this year, just about every district except for a few private schools did breaks the week after Easter, not before. So anyway, Arroyo and Lerangis ran into each other at their hotel, and being that this is Arroyo's first book for kids and it has been compared to Lerangis's current series, they had a lot to chat about. Legend of the Rift is the fifth of the Seven Wonder Books,  In this one, they head to several Wonders, including the Temple of Artemis and The Lighthouse at Alexandria.

At Arroyo's events, he notes publicly what we discovered doing research on the books, that Will Wilder was originally named Kerman Derman. The publisher made him change and it's all for the good - Will is a good indicator of his hero's strength and Wilder is a person who tames wild creatures, and yes, there are some beasts in The Relic of Perilous Falls. 

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Elfrieda Abbe profiles Mary Pflum Peterson author of the new memoir White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters. Abbe notes the story's origin: "A 'crazy workload' as a producer for Good Morning America, the birth of her fourth child and the responsibility of taking care of her mother's affairs after her unexpected death didn't keep Mary Pflum Peterson from enrolling in a writing class to 'polish off a novel. I was pretty much on a hamster wheel, she said during a phone interview. But instead of finishing a novel, Peterson wrote her debut nonfiction book White Dresses. The change of plan came when as a class assignment she wrote an essay about her family's tangled history."

At the Women's Leadership Conference, I ran in Friend-of-Boswell Peter, the concierge, while carrying books into a session. "I see you're hosting Mary next week," he said. Confused, I asked "But how do you know her?" and of course the obvious reply: "She was married at the Pfister!" Of course. Our event is Tuesday, March 29, and there is also an author mix-and-mingle at the University Club on Monday, March 28. Details here.

According to Mike Fischer in the Journal Sentinel, Edna O'Brien's new novel, The Little Red Chairs, begins as one would expect: "A remote town in western Ireland, filled with lonely souls and limited opportunities. Until opportunity knocks, in the form of a handsome stranger hailing from Montenegro and calling himself Dr. Vladimir Dragan. When he shows up advertising his services as a practitioner of alternative medicine, the women fall hard." But then the story shifts to London, and focuses on the plight of Bosnian refugees. He's not a fan of the second half, but understands how the story ties into O'Brien's oeuvre.

And for the third Journal Sentinel book piece, Paul Kritzer writes about Apprehensions and Convictions: Confessions of a Fifty-Year-Old Rookie Cop. Kritzer writes: "Johnson delights the reader with confessions of his foibles and insights into the mind of law enforcement officers. He goes out on solo nighttime stakeouts. He often answers potentially dangerous calls without waiting for a backup partner." Johnson will appear at Martha Merrell's on Thursday, March 31, 6:30 pm, at 231 Main Street. For more info, call (262) 547-1060 or visit their website.