Eventastic: Lilsa Ko, Margaret Rozga, Mark O'Connell, Don Lee with Will Johnson, Lous V. Clark

Monday, June 12, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers.

Lisa Ko's fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2016, Apogee Journal, and The Asian Pacific American Journal. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and Blue Mountain Center.

Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It's a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past.

Boswellian Caroline Froh adores The Leavers and has this to offer, “Deming Guo’s first six years of life were spent with his immigrant mother in New York, then China with a grandfather he’s never met, and America again. After his mother disappears from her job at a nail salon, Deming is adopted by two professors and dropped into what feels like an alien, all-white suburb upstate. This pattern of early upheaval sets Deming - now Daniel Wilkinson — on a path marked by difference and isolation. As Deming’s story unfolds, his mother’s side of the story gradually comes to light, filling in holes and ripping others open, until finally, side by side, their disparate journeys form one complete portrait of the resilience of the spirit. This is a heartbreaking, poignant, beautiful book that will stay with you for a long time.”

This event is cosponsored by OCA-Wisconsin. Celine Wong will be providing both Fuzhou-style and Chinese-American style appetizers.

Tuesday, June 13, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Margaret Rozga, author of Pestiferous Questions: A Life in Poems.

Margaret Rozga is a civil rights activist, poet, playwright, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, and the author of Justice Freedom Herbs, Though I Haven’t Been to Baghdad, and 200 Nights and One Day. She served as managing editor of the chapbook anthology Turn Up the Volume: Poems about the States of Wisconsin.

Pestiferous questions? Race, gender, class; American expansion, American exceptionalism; love: all these roil thinking and complicate responses. In the history of the United States, they peppered debates, caused rifts, and ignited conflicts. They shaped our history and national identity. They vex us today.

Jessie Benton Frémont (1824-1902) faced them all. The poems in this volume show her assuming some answers, struggling for others. Daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, who saw the expansion of slavery as the key pestiferous question, Jessie Benton married against her father’s wishes. John Charles Frémont, the explorer, in 1856 the first Republican candidate for president and during the Civil War, briefly the commander of the western front for the Union.

Politically astute and insightful, disparaged as a woman who didn’t know her place, faithful to a difficult marriage, privileged, sometimes questioning privilege, a product of her times, and forward thinking, Jessie Benton Frémont the public figure emerges in these poems. The poems also do what poems do so well, turn to the wings to see her before and after she appears on the public stage.

Wednesday, June 14, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Mark O’Connell, author of The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs.

Mark O’Connell is a screenwriter, teacher, and blogger. He wrote episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and has feature film projects with major studios, including Walt Disney, DreamWorks Animation, and Endless Entertainment Group. He is also the founder of the UFO blog High Strangeness. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife, Monica, and teaches screenwriting at DePaul University in Chicago.

The wildly entertaining and eye-opening biography of J. Allen Hynek, the astronomer who invented the concept of "Close Encounters" with alien life, inspired Steven Spielberg's blockbuster classic science fiction epic film, and made a nation want to believe in UFOs.

In June 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold looked out his cockpit window and saw a group of nine silvery crescents weaving between the peaks of the Cascade Mountains at an estimated 1,200 miles an hour. The media, the military, and the scientific community - led by J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer hired by the Air Force - debunked this and many other Unidentified Flying Object sightings reported across the country. But after years of denials, Hynek made a shocking pronouncement: UFOs are real.

Thirty years after his death, Hynek's agonizing transformation from skepticism to true believer remains one of the great misunderstood stories of science. In this definitive biography, Mark O'Connell reveals for the first time how Hynek's work both as a celebrated astronomer and as the U. S. Air Force's go-to UFO expert for nearly twenty years stretched the boundaries of modern science, laid the groundwork for acceptance of the possibility of UFOs, and was the basis of the hit film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. With unprecedented access to Hynek's personal and professional files, O'Connell smashes conventional wisdom to reveal the intriguing man and scientist beneath the legend.

Thursday, June 15, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Don Lee, author of Lonesome Lies Before Us, in conversation with Will Johnson.

Don Lee is the author of the novel Lonesome Lies Before Us. He is also the author of the novel The Collective, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association; the novel Wrack and Ruin, which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize; the novel Country of Origin, which won an American Book Award, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and the story collection Yellow, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters  His stories have been published in The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, and GQ.

Here's more about Johnson. Will Johnson is a prolific and much beloved indie singer-songwriter. The frontman for the bands Centro-matic and South San Gabriel, he has been recording mainly as a solo artist of late, and he has just released his fifth solo album, Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm. In addition, he has collaborated and performed with dozens of other acts, including Jason Isbell, Monsters of Folk, Jason Molina, and New Multitudes. When not on tour doing living-room shows and playing in clubs, he works on baseball-inspired paintings, which have been exhibited in solo and group art shows.

Drawn to the music of indie singer-songwriters like Will Johnson, who helped shape the lyrics in this book, Don Lee has written a novel that unforgettably captures America's deepest yearnings. Beautifully sad and laced with dark humor, Lonesome Lies Before Us is a profound, heartfelt romance, a soulful and memorable song.

Here’s what Proprietor Daniel has to say about Lonesome Lies Before Us: “Ever since his short story collection Yellow, I have been falling in love with his characters, pondering his philosophy about art and identity, and laughing at his sharp wit. In Lonesome Lies Before Us, his hero is Yadin Park, a musician who was on the verge of making it, despite his stage fright and not fitting the rock star mold, only to walk away. Now he’s installing carpet for a living in Rosarita Bay, Lee’s own Yoknapatawpha, when after years of being away from the business, with a left-brained girlfriend with big ideas (though she’s currently cleaning rooms in a fancy resort), inspiration hits him again. Only he is still the same insecure mess he ever was, and now he’s also got degenerative hearing loss. I still consider Wrack and Ruin one of the best novels I’ve read in my bookselling career, and in many ways, Lonesome Lies Before Us is a companion work and it’s such a great tightrope-walking, argumentative, heartbreaking, and inspiring novel, all at the same time.”

Monday, June 19, 7:00 pm, at Milwaukee Public Library’s Loos Room, 733 N Eighth St:
Louis V. Clark, author of How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century.

This event is cosponsored by the Milwaukee Public Library.

Louis V. Clark was born and raised on the Oneida Reservation in northeastern Wisconsin. Clark turned to poetry to continue the oral tradition of his tribe, the People of the Standing Stone. A member of the Iroquois Confederacy, his family is of the Bear clan. He received a Fellowship Award for his work from the Oneida Nation Arts Program and the Wisconsin Arts Board. Two Shoes was Clark’s first chapbook.

In deceptively simple prose and verse, Louis V. "Two Shoes" Clark III shares his life story, from childhood on the reservation, through school and the working world, and ultimately to, life as an elder, grandfather, and poet.

How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century explores Clark's deeply personal and profound take on a wide range of subjects, from schoolyard bullying to workplace racism to falling in love. Warm, plainspoken, and wryly funny, Clark's is a unique voice talking frankly about a culture's struggle to maintain its heritage. His poetic storytelling style matches the rhythm of the life he recounts what he calls, "the heartbeat of my nation."

Stephen King and Owen King in Conversation on Saturday, September 30, 8 pm, for "Sleeping Beauties." A Few of Your Questions Answered.

Exciting news!

Boswell Book Company presents an evening with Stephen King and Owen King, in conversation, at the Riverside Theater. Tickets are $32.50, not including tax and fees. There will be a special presale on Wednesday, June 14, 12 Noon, with sales to the general public starting Friday, June 16, 12 Noon. A limited number of tickets will be available on sale at the Riverside Theater box office on June 14 and 16 only. There is a limit of four tickets per order for this event.

We expect this event to sell out extremely quickly. Here is the link.

Each ticket guarantees entry to the event, as well as one hardcover edition of Sleeping Beauties. Please note that there will be no author signing at this event. But as a special bonus, up to 400 lucky attendees will randomly receive a pre-signed copy.

Here are a few questions you might have.

1. How can I take part in the pre-sale?
Check your Boswell or Pabst Theater Group email newsletter for details. You can also sign up for the Pabst Theater Group email newsletter.

2. How much time do I have to buy a ticket? 
Mr. King's events sell out within days. We spoke to another store that sold out in 15 minutes for the last tour. 15 minutes!

3. Can I buy books at the box office? 
A limited number of box office tickets will be set aside. The theater will hold enough tickets to cover the folks who are in line on both Wednesday, June 14 or Friday, June 16 at the Noon starting time. If you come at 1 pm, you will likely be out of luck, so if you can't be there by Noon, do not use this option.

4. I am an observerant Jew and celebrate Yom Kippur. Stephen King is my favorite author. What should I do?
We checked with a few of our customers and the Chabad website and noted that the Yom Kippur holiday ends at 7:15 pm. So we have a special later start time of 8 pm for this event.

5. Has either Mr. King done an event in Milwaukee? 
We've checked with a few experts and to our knowledge, the answer is no. If it happened, it was more than 30 years ago.

6. I can't make this date work. What do I do? 
I suggest planning an exciting vacation to one of the other cities where Stephen King and Owen King are in conversation. Pick the city you can drive (or fly) to and make sure you are getting reports from Stephen King's website.

7. Can I get a signed copy of Sleeping Beauties?
400 lucky attendees to the show will get a signed copy of Sleeping Beauties. Alas, we cannot take any additional signing request. There is no autograph session at this event.

8. I would love to know more about this book. Can you offer me some publisher copy? 
Yes, I can!

In this spectacular father/son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the world of men?

In a future so real and near it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place... The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women's prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration between Stephen King and Owen King.

Here's another link to tickets.

Boswell's Annotated Bestseller Lists, week ending June 10, 2017, plus links to the Journal Sentinel TapBooks reviews

Here are our bestsellers for the week. Due to our event with Al Franken today at 1 pm, the store will be closed off to browsing between 12 noon and 3, and may not be open to the general public for part of that time.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Ministry of Utmost Hapiness, by Arundhati Roy
2. The Leavers, by Lisa Ko (event at Boswell Mon 6/12, 7 pm)
3. Camino Island, by John Grisham
4. The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry
5. The Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
6. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
7. Do Not Become Alarmed, by Maile Meloy
8. Grief Cottage, by Gail Godwin
9. Beartown, by Fredrik Backman
10. Lonesome Lies Before Us, by Don Lee (event at Boswell Thu 6/15, 7 pm)

Scroll.in, which I have never heard of before, offers a link to reviews of Arundhati Roy's long-awaited novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happinessv. The Irish Times review, in particular, was characterized as hatchet job.

Another high-profile release is John Grisham's Camino Island. He's also doing his first author tour in 25 years. Traditionally he signed copies for the few stores that hosted him when he self-published A Time to Kill. Here are the lucky stores.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Option B, by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
2. Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris
3. The Rules Do Not Apply, by Ariel Levy
4. Al Franken, by Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken (ticketed signing, Sun 6/11, 1 pm)
5. Give a Girl a Knife, by Amy Thielen
6. Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
7. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
8. Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath
9. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
10. The New Midwestern Table, by Amy Thielen

Ariel Levy's The Rules Do Not Apply was David Sedaris's recommended title at Wednesday's event. He's a huge fan of her work and she is accompanying him on select dates of his tour. I recently read her profile of Elizabeth Strout in The New Yorker.

From Ann Hulbert in The Atlantic: "A bold and bookish girl growing up in Westchester, New York, in a pre-9/11 world, she thrived throughout her 20s and into her 30s on “a compulsion to thrust myself toward adventure.” She had male and female lovers. She traveled to far-flung places. Her journalistic specialty was 'stories about women who are too much.' Levy counted herself among that undaunted company. She still qualifies, even after being buffeted by deep grief in marriage and pregnancy, and chastened to learn how much in life eludes control. Levy has the rare gift of seeing herself with fierce, unforgiving clarity. And she deploys prose to match, raw and agile. She plumbs the commotion deep within and takes the measure of her have-it-all generation."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Excellent Lombards, by Jane Hamilton
2. Before the Fall, by Noah Hawley (book club discussion Mon 8/7, 7 pm)
3. The Drifter V1, by Nick Petrie
4. The Alice Network, by Kate Quinn
5. The Dead Don't Bleed V1, by David Krugler
6. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
7. Burning Bright V2, by Nick Petrie
8. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
9. Enchanted Islands, by Allison Amend
10. Fathers Day, by Simon Van Booy (book club discussion Mon 7/10, 7 pm)

Jane Hamilton did an excellent job interviewing Sheryl Sandberg this past Monday, and we had a nice pop in sales for The Excellent Lombards as a result. It's a 1-2 punch for Grand Centeral, as our August book club selection, Before the Fall, was picked up by a number of folks who discussed Homegoing on Monday. I figured a smart thriller was just the thing for August.

I didn't know much about Kate Quinn's the Alice Network. The publisher sets up this historical novel: "Two women--a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947--are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption." Jean Zimmerman writes on the NPR blog: "At the heart of Quinn's telling is the true story of the covert Alice Network, through which courageous men and women infiltrated the German lines in rural France."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Think Skinny, Feel Fit, by Alejandro Chaban
2. Ruthless, by Ron Miscavige
3. Heretics!, by Steven Nadler and Ben Nadler
4. Creating Cultures of Thinking, by Ron Ritchhart
5. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
6. The Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee, by Thomas Fehring
7. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
8. Dark Money, by Jane Mayer
9. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
10. How to Be an Indian in the 21st Century, by Louis V. Clark

It's an event driven list this week. Even The Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee and the Engineers Who Created Them had its launch event at Historic Milwaukee last Tuesday. And probably John Gurda spoke somewhere!

Books for Kids:
1. Firefly Hollow, by Alison McGhee
2. Percy: Dog of Destiny, by Alison McGhee
3. Someday, by Alison McGhee
4. Maybe a Fox, by Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee
5. Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing, by Alison McGhee
6. Little Boy, by Alison McGhee
7. Bink and Gollie Two for One V2, by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
8. Bink and Gollie Best Friends Forever V3, by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
9. Bink and Gollie V1, by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
10. Oh, the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss

Alison McGhee spent the day at an area school and they obviously had a good time. At least Dr. Seuss cracked the top ten with Oh, the Places You'll Go. After all, we're thick into graduation season. But at age 27, we're hoping this book is at least graduating with advanced degrees.

Here are the book reviews from the TapBooks page.

From Jim Higgins comes an essay about Hunger, the new memoir from Roxane Gay. He writes: "Hunger is also a coming-of-age story, often a painful one, about a shy young woman coping with the aftershocks of her violation, grappling with her compulsive eating and its consequences, and discovering her voice as a writer. As a Haitian-American, she comes from a culture that prizes thinness, making her size a family issue. In pointed detail, she describes attending with her father an intake seminar for possible gastric bypass surgery, an experience that shook both of them. (Her account won't show up in the surgeon's press kit anytime soon!)"

We've had a lot of inquiries as to whether Gay is coming to Milwaukee. We're not on the tour but if you want to see here, why not hit up one of the great stores that are hosting her. Not sure if tickets are still available for the Chicago Humanities Festival event on June 19.

Chris Foran takes on Alan Alda's new memoir, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? I still remember working our Alda event back with Schwartz at Alverno College. I was working the parking lot, guiding folks to the theater and got to tell Alda where to go. Foran offers: "In 2009, Alda founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York. Combining academic research with theater training, the center has trained more than 7,000 scientists and doctors to communicate better. A lot of it centers on an appreciation of the power of empathy. Sharing stories of acting and improv exercises — including some he conducted at Ten Chimneys in Genesee Depot, where he led a master class in 2013 — Alda shows how making a human connection is 'the bedrock of communicating.'"

I was particularly curious to read Mike Fischer's thoughts on Allegra Goodman's newest, as I also read it. You'll find my recommendation in an email going out next week. Here's what Fischer says: "Can Emily Dickinson compete with World of Warcraft? That’s among the intriguing questions raised by Allegra Goodman in The Chalk Artist, featuring a 23-year-old teacher trying to win the hearts and minds of her students in a high school that 'had a reputation for out of the box kids – those who were artistic, or autistic, those with learning differences, or special gifts, or both at once.'” Which wins out in the novel, gaming or poetry? You'll have to read the novel to find out.

And finally, in the print edition, is a review of Scott Turow's Testimony. He'll be at the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center on Sunday, June 25, 2 pm. Tickets are $30, including the book. Jocelyn McClurg, originally writing in USA Today, wrote that the book centers on the midlife crisis of Bill ten Boom, who takes a case at the Hague, investigating "the possible massacre of 400 gypsies in a refugee camp after the Bosnian war." She's not crazy about the sex scenes with Esma Czarini, the Russian legal advocate, but notes that "Testimony is a fun ride, an odd thing to say about a novel that casts new light on Bosnian war atrocities and sketchy American arms deals, as well as midlife crises among smart (but stupid) white guys.

Last-minute David Sedaris Details

Tonight is our David Sedaris event. Here are some things you should know.

1. We have been sold out since we announced the event back in March. That said, occasionally tickets have opened up due to cancellation. You never know if you check. Here's the ticket link.

2. The store is closed to the general public at 5:30 pm. We'll be open again tomorrow at 10. While the free part of the signing is going on (see below), we should be somewhat browsable.

3. After the event, Sedaris will be doing a free signing. We'll be giving out line letters to the signing starting at 4. Because the talk attendees will get first crack at the line letters, we'll be starting the free signing with letter "I." For those who don't want to stick around outside, we'll be announcing line progress on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Don't forget, you don't have to purchase a book from us for the signing part, and honestly, you don't have to purchase a book at all. You can bring a book from home, or have him sign a magazine article he's written.  That said, there are event guidelines. Please no photos or video at this event.

3. If you are a regular at Boswell, you may have noticed that our red plastic/metal chairs have slowly been falling apart. These originally were bought for the Bay View Schwartz store. Alas, the screws loosen and the seats crack. Whereas I think we once had 30 or so, we're now down to three. We needed to buy more chairs. And since our workhorse metal chairs are doing just fine, we decided to buy more of them.

4. After years of searching for chairs beyond black, red, gray, and tan, Hercules released a color burst series with 8 special colors. I thought it was a little odd that they have two shades of orange and what I perceive as two variations of purple, but no basic green or yellow, or navy, but hey, I figure they know what they are doing. I also think their teal is more of a turquoise. I decided not to go crazy and picked up two new shades, citron (yellow-green) and one of the oranges (marmalade, not coral). They seem to be available everywhere online, though I haven't found a bricks-and-mortar store carrying them. Sigh.

You can only imagine how exciting this is to me. After the Sedaris event, which is sort of its debut, we'll be using the new colors as our book club chairs, and we'll pull out the rest for big events.

5. You can purchase a signed copy of Theft by Finding too to pick up after the event. For this event, we require pre-purchase, whether it is signature only or personalized. Limited quantity available.

6. Can't make this event but wanted to see him? Sedaris will be back at the Riverside Theater on April 20, 2018. It never hurts to plan ahead.

Events: Sheryl Sandberg in conversation with Jane Hamilton at the Riverside Theater, philosopher Steven Nadler and artist Ben Nadler, Ron Miscavige at Greenfield Public LIbrary, David Sedaris signing following sold-out talk, Lori Rader Day's Mobcraft Mystery Tour (with Nick Petrie and David Krugler), Amy Thielen in conversation with Kyle Cherek, ticketed signing with Al Franken, novelist Lisa Ko

Monday, June 5, 7 pm, at the Riverside Theater, 116 W Wisconsin Ave:
A ticketed event with Sheryl Sandberg , co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy .
Ms. Sandberg will be in conversation with Jane Hamilton.

Tickets are still available to tonight's event. Each attendee will get a signed copy of Option B. There is no autographing line for this event.

Here's a little more about Option B, which was written with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. Her friend Adam, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are steps people can take to recover and even rebound. Option B combines Sheryl's emotional insights and Adam's eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Sheryl will share what she and Adam learned together about helping others in crisis, developing compassion for ourselves, raising strong children, and creating resilient families, communities and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to ordinary struggles, allowing us to build resilience for whatever lies ahead. They will discuss the capacity of the human spirit to persevere... and to rediscover joy.

Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook. In addition to Option B, Sandberg is also the international best-selling author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. She chairs the board of the Sheryl Sandberg and Dave Goldberg Family Foundation.

Jane Hamilton lives, works, and writes in an orchard farmhouse in Wisconsin. Her latest novel, The Excellent Lombards, is now available in paperback.

Tuesday, June 6, 6:30 pm, at the Greenfield Public Library, 5310 W Layton Ave:
Ron Miscavige, author of Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me.


The father of the leader of the Church of Scientology, New York Times Bestselling author Ron Miscavige will visit Greenfield Public Library to discuss his personal story of participation and escape from the international group and highlight his son's involvement in the organization.

Due to the high expected turnout for this event, please note that space will be limited. Doors will open at 6:00PM. The Greenfield Public Library is located just east of the 60th St exit of I-894.

Tuesday, June 6, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Steven Nadler and Ben Nadler, co-authors of Heretics!: The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy.

Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy and Evjue-Bascom Professor in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include Spinoza: A Life, which won the Koret Jewish Book Award, and Rembrandt's Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ben Nadler is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and an illustrator. Yes, they are related.

Heretics! is an entertaining and enlightening graphic narrative tells the exciting story of the seventeenth-century thinkers who challenged authority, sometimes risking excommunication, prison, and even death, to lay the foundations of modern philosophy and science and help usher in a new world. With masterful storytelling and color illustrations, Heretics! offers a unique introduction to the birth of modern thought in an entertaining graphic novel format.

Contentious and controversial philosophers like Galileo, Descartes, and Newton fundamentally changed the way we look at the world, society, and ourselves, thus overturning everything from the idea that the Earth is the center of the cosmos to the notion that kings have a divine right to rule. More devoted to reason than to faith, these thinkers defended scandalous new views of nature, religion, politics, knowledge, and the human mind.

Wednesday, June 7, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
A signing after our sold-out ticketed event with David Sedaris, author of Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) 

The talk is sold out but the signing is free and open to the public. Anyone who has the desire to meet Mr. Sedaris can do so at Boswell on June 7, though admittedly by the time we get to everyone, it might be June 8. After the line is finished for the ticketed attendees, we'll start with everyone else. Will he sign Theft by Finding for you? Yes! Will he sign any of his backlist for you? Yes! Will he sign an anthology or magazine where he had a contribution? Yes! Will he say hello to you even if you don't want anything signed? Yes! We'll stay as long as it takes, and all you need is patience. Our suggestion? Bring something to read.

Attendees are allowed to bring books from home. Mr. Sedaris will sign (and personalize!) anything he has written, including magazine articles, but he will not sign any books penned by other writers. If you do not have a book, you may still enter the signing line if you’d just like to say hello to Mr. Sedaris. And lastly, Boswell will remain open until everyone has a chance to meet Mr. Sedaris.

Please note that there is no gift card option for the talk portion. And also note that as is always the case for David Sedaris events, we ask that there be no photos or video at this event. 

Here's Patton Oswalt in The New York Times Book Review on Theft by Finding: "It’s encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris’s diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. It’s helpful to see that a voice as original, hilarious and sometimes as infuriating as his was put through the same Struggle and Starve meat grinder that most of us go through"

Thursday, June 8, at Mobcraft Brewery, 505 S 5th St in Walkers Point:
Mobcraft Mystery Tour, with Lori Rader Day, Nick Petrie, and David Krugler.

Join Mystery Writers of America Midwest authors Nick Petrie, David Krugler, and Lori Rader-Day for a tour of the Mobcraft Taproom and mystery panel event. Fun with friends with a beer in your hand! Tour is free; beer is cash bar. Save some dough for a signed book or two. Or three.

The tour starts at 7 pm. Space is limited. Please register here.

About Lori Rader-Day: Her new novel, The Day I Died, a gripping, unforgettable tale of a mother’s desperate search for two lost boys. Her debut mystery, The Black Hour, won the 2014 Anthony Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her second novel, Little Pretty Things, received a starred review from Booklist and was named a 2015 “most arresting crime novel” by Kirkus Reviews.

About Nick Petrie: The first novel of Whitefish Bay's Petrie, The Drifter, was a finalist for the Edgar Best First Novel Prize. Of his work, Lee Child wrote: "Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Petrie’s Peter Ash is the real deal." His second novel, Burning Bright, was just released in paperback, and his third novel, Light It Up, is scheduled for publication in January 2018.

About David Krugler: His first novel, The Dead Don't Bleed, the story of a young naval intelligence officer who goes undercover to solve a murder and prevent the Soviets from stealing the secrets of America’s atomic bomb project, was recently released in paperback. In addition to his work as a novelist, David Krugler is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

Thursday, June 8, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Amy Thielen, author of Give a Girl a Knife: A Memoir, in conversation with Kyle Cherek.

Amy Thielen is the author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook The New Midwestern Table and the host of Heartland Table on Food Network. A former New York City line cook, she now speaks and writes about home cooking for radio, television, and magazines, including Saveur, where she's a contributing editor. She lives in rural Park Rapids, Minnesota.

Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York City's finest kitchens, she grew up in a northern Minnesota town home to the nation's largest French fry factory, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter. Inspired by her grandmother's tales of cooking in the family farmhouse, Thielen moves north with her artist husband to a rustic, off-the-grid cabin deep in the woods. There, standing at the stove three times a day, she finds the seed of a growing food obsession that leads her to the sensory madhouse of New York's top haute cuisine brigades. But, like a magnet, the foods of her youth draw her back home, where she comes face to face with her past and a curious truth: that beneath every foie gras sauce lies a rural foundation of potatoes and onions.

Kyle Cherek is host of the Emmy-nominated television show Wisconsin Foodie, beginning its seventh season on PBS. Kyle has made regular appearances on The Travel Channel and Food Network, and is a frequent media contributor to Public Radio, NPR, and NBC. His widely-acclaimed video web series, Chef Talk with Kyle Cherek, features candid, forthright and often amusing conversations with some of America’s most engaging chefs.

Sunday, June 11, 1:00 pm at Boswell:
A ticketed signing with Al Franken, author of Al Franken, Giant of the Senate           
From Senator Al Franken - #1 bestselling author and beloved SNL alum - comes Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that.

Tickets are $30.00 and include a copy of Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, and all taxes and fees. Senator Franken will personalize books on the signing line. There will be no posed photos at this event. Limited to 500 attendees. Other line restrictions may be in effect. Please note that there is no talk at this event and no early pick up option.

Monday, June 12, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers.

This event is cosponsored by OCA-Wisconsin. We will have light refreshments.

Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It's a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past.

Boswellian Caroline adores The Leavers and has this to offer, “Deming Guo’s first six years of life were spent with his immigrant mother in New York, then China with a grandfather he’s never met, and America again. After his mother disappears from her job at a nail salon, Deming is adopted by two professors and dropped into what feels like an alien, all-white suburb upstate. This pattern of early upheaval sets Deming - now Daniel Wilkinson - on a path marked by difference and isolation. As Deming’s story unfolds, his mother’s side of the story gradually comes to light, filling in holes and ripping others open, until finally, side by side, their disparate journeys form one complete portrait of the resilience of the spirit. This is a heartbreaking, poignant, beautiful book that will stay with you for a long time.” .

From Ann Patchett: “There was a time I would have called Lisa Ko’s novel beautifully written, ambitious, and moving, and all of that is true, but it’s more than that now: if you want to understand a forgotten and essential part of the world we live in, The Leavers is required reading.”

From Bustle: "Lisa Ko's The Leavers is the year's powerful debut you won't want to miss. The Leavers expertly weaves a tale of the conflicts between love and loyalty, personal identity and familial obligation, and the growing divide between freedom and social justice. An affecting novel that details the the gut-wrenching realities facing illegal immigrants and their families in modern America, Lisa Ko's debut is the 2017 fiction release you can't afford to miss.”

Read more about Ko's journey on NBC News.

Coming next week!

Tuesday, June 13, 7 pm, at Boswell: Poet Margaret Rozga, author of Pestiferous Questions: A Life in Poems.

Wednesday, June 14, 7 pm, at Boswell: Mark O'Connell, author of The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs.

Thursday, June 15, 7 pm, at Boswell: Don Lee, author of Lonesome Lies Before Us, in conversation with musician Will Johnson.

More upcoming event information on the Boswell website.

Bestseller Coverage: Boswell's top tens for the week ending June 3, 2017

Here's the Book Expo edition of the Boswell bestseller list.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Hope Chest, by Viola Shipman (Wade Rouse)
2. Anything Is Possible, by Elizabeth Strout
3. Close Enough to Touch, by Colleen Oakley
4. The Leavers, by Lisa Ko (event Mon 6/12, 7 pm, at Boswell)
5. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
6. Beartown, by Fredrik Backman
7. Beren and Luthien, by Christopher Tolkien
8. Dragon Teeth, by Michael Crichton
9. Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
10. Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane

Dragon Teeth, released May 23, is the found-in-the-trunk novel from the late Michael Crichton. It's an 19th century archeological thriller, telling of two competing fossil hunters. The Booklist reviewer wrote: " The book is sure to garner a lot of attentiona posthumous book about dinosaurs from the creator of Jurassic Park, but it's more than just a literary curiosity. It's also a very good novel; in fact, taken among all Crichton's novels, it's one of his best, a beautifully detailed, scientifically engrossing, absolutely riveting story about the early days of paleontology."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken (ticketed signing Sun Jun 11, 1 pm)
2. Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris (Our Wed, June 7 reading is sold out. The signing following is free and open, and we'll stay as long as it takes, but be prepared to wait)
3. The Making of Milwaukee, by John Gurda
4. Coach Wooden and Me, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
6. Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman (what I can say? It sometimes winds up in nonfiction because that's where our mythology books are. Plus they might not be nonfiction to some)
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Shattered, by Jonathan Allen
9. This Fight Is Our Fight, by Elizabeth Warren
10. Perfectly Good Guitar, by Chuck Holley

We recently sold books for a UWM-sponsored appearance with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and looked at Coach Wooden and Me longingly. It's the story of Abdul-Jabbar's 50-year friendship with Wooden, starting when the future basketball legend started at UCLA. Here's Mark Medina in the Orange County Register: "Since Wooden’s passing in 2010, Abdul-Jabbar said he has developed a greater understanding of the strength of their bond. It centered on basketball but included passion for literature, history and music and a mutual respect of their different backgrounds. It took Abdul-Jabbar seven years to write that story."

One doesn't expect three political books in the top ten in June, but Boswell's bestseller list has books from two Democratic senators plus Jonathan Allen's Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign, which has been on the national bestseller lists for six weeks. The national lists also include Senator Ben Sasse's memoir and another from Condoleeza Rice. Sports and history are also represented on the national lists. If we just laid out the categories, I wonder if an expert could guess that it was two weeks before Father's Day. Here's the Shattered review in The New York Times, from Michiko Kakutani. Here's a sort of rebuttal to the book, from Politico.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma
2. The Shoemaker's Wife, by Adriana Trigiani (ticketed event for Kiss Carlo on Wed 7/12 at Wilson Center)
3. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
4. The Simplicity of Cider, by Amy E. Reichert
5. The Couple Next Door, by Shari Lapena
6. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
7. Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly
8. In This Moment, by Karma Brown
9. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi (open book club discussion Mon 6/5, 7 pm, at Boswell)
10. A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle

The psychological suspense breakouts keep coming. Published by Pamela Dorman Books last year, The Couple Next Door has a nice first week at Boswell, so my guess is, based on the genre, it probably had strong sales at the outlets that are breaking out one author after another - Ruth Ware and Megan Miranda are currently in the NYT paperback top ten, while Paula Hawkins rules the hardcover list. Here's Mark Medina writing about the journey to publication in The Globe and Mail: "On Oct. 27, 2015, at exactly 9 o’clock in the evening, Shari Lapena sent an e-mail to the literary agent Helen Heller. Attached was a .doc file and PDF of a thriller called The Couple Next Door. Along with the manuscript, Lapena included three short paragraphs describing the novel, as well as her bio. 'Thank you very much for your consideration,' she wrote, 'and I look forward to hearing from you.'"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The South Side, by Natalie Y. Moore
2. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
3. Borchert Field, by Bob Buege (event Tue 6/20, 6:30 pm, at Tippecanoe Library on Howell and Howard, right off I-43)
4. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, by Samantha Irby
5. Heretics, by Steven Nadler and Ben Nadler (event at Boswell, Tue 6/6, 7 pm)
6. The Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee, by Thomas H. Fehring
7. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
8. Selma of the North, by Patrick D. Jones
9. Brick Through the Window, by Steven Nodine, Eric Beaumont, Clancy Carroll, David Luhrssen
10. Wisconsin Literary Luminaries, by Jim Higgins

We are so excited about our upcoming event for Borchert Field and Heretics, but on the bestseller lists, sometimes I can focus on the ones that got away. We had a great event for Samantha Irby when Meaty come out, but with her new book, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, released, the former Evanstonian is no longer local and a Milwaukee appearance just couldn't work out, at least for now. Here is Betty Scott reviewing the book in the Books and Whatnot blog: "Saying that We Are Never Meeting in Real Life is full of heavy material without being burdened with pretension or melodrama understates what Irby accomplishes. The realness and candor here aren’t preachy or moralistic–Irby’s dark humor and self-deprecating style charm you into wanting to read more about how the diet industry is full of toxic garbage."

Books for Kids:
1. Viola in Reel Life V1, by Adriana Trigiani (Yes, Trigiani has written YA too. Event info for July 12 event here)
2. Viola in the Spotlight V2, by Adriana Trigiani
3. Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder
4. Booked, by Kwame Alexander
5. Enchanted Air, by Margarita Engle
6. Dragons Love Tacos 2, by Adam Rubin, with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
7. She Persisted, by Chelsea Clinton, with illustrations by Alexandra Boiger
8. Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
9. The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, by Drew Daywalt, with illustrations by Adam Rex
10. Margaret and the Moon, by Dean Robbins, with illustrations by Lucy Knisley

Just released this week, Laurel Snyder's Orphan Island is a middle grade novel about nine children who live on a mysterious island. Our HarperCollins sales rep Jennifer Sheridan was talking this up both at our educator night on May 2. After listening to her presentation, it's hard not to be excited about this book, which has been compared to Pax and The Giver. And Newberry winner Kelly Barnhill called Orphan Island "A wondrous book, wise and wild and deeply true." Colby Sharp in School Library Journal's The Yarn podcast wrote: "If you love this book half as much as I do, it will be your favorite book of 2017. It is that good."

Here's what's going on over at the Journal Sentinel TAPbooks page.

I am a huge fan of Don Lee's Lonesome Lies Before Us, so I was thrilled to see Jim Higgins review the book in the Journal Sentinel. Here's a teaser of the review: "Yadin Park, the memorable front man of Lee's novel, is a middle-aged alt-country singer-songwriter with his modest musical career receding in the rear-view mirror. He ekes out a living post-bankruptcy installing carpet, his future complicated by intermittent flareups of Ménière's disease, which is destroying his hearing. Yet this beleaguered fellow, in the eventful days depicted by Lee in this novel, is humbly approaching greatness of soul. In a remarkable sequence, Park happens upon a lecture about Gerard Manley Hopkins in the local library, and becomes fascinated with both Hopkins' highly compressed poetry and life as a Catholic convert and Jesuit priest." Hope you want to read more! The novel comes out on Tuesday and Lee is at Boswell on June 15, in conversation with musician Will Johnson.

Mike Fischer reviews Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, her first novel in 20 years. Fischer writes: "Ranging from the impoverished southern India of Roy’s upbringing (setting for The God of Small Things) north to the killing fields of Kashmir (one of Roy’s celebrated causes) while mostly unfolding in Delhi (where Roy lives), Ministry practices what Tilo envisions while moving from the late 1950s to the present. Much like Salman Rushdie’s similarly broad-canvassed Midnight’s Children, Ministry opens with the story of an equally unique protagonist: while Rushdie’s Saleem features an excessively large nose, Roy’s Anjum is a hermaphrodite who is classified as a hijra – a woman trapped in a man’s body."

In the print edition, Mila Koumpilova takes on Mai Neg Moua's The Bride Price: A Hmong Wedding Story. She notes: "When Moua and her husband-to-be break with the age-old Hmong practice of paying a bride price, their decision pries opens a deep rift between the author and her strong-willed mother. Moua, a Twin Cities writer and editor, is upfront about her generation’s blind spots in fully comprehending their elders’ refugee experience, in which culture was a force that hampered, grounded and sustained. The draw of her story rests in the author’s willingness to dwell in contradiction." You can read the original review in the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune.

And finally, Carolyn Kellogg interviews Dennis Lehane for Since We Fell, which originally appeared the Los Angeles Times. Kellogg's introduction observes that this is "his first told from a woman’s point of view. Rachel Childs, the daughter of a difficult mother who refuses to tell her daughter who her father is, tries to find her dad, becomes a journalist who covers the earthquake in Haiti, and her experiences make her agoraphobic — or maybe she’s being gaslit by her husband? Oh, and she shoots him on the first page. "

What I'm Reading at Book Expo: David Barclay Moore's The Stars Beneath Our Feet

Needless to say, you have to think carefully about what you take to Book Expo, the annual late spring convention that launches the fall selling season for publishers. Though it's hardly the targeted-to-booksellers convention it once was when run by the American Booksellers Association, I still find it a valuable tool to discover great books and writers. In fact, I've been been going since 1984, and I've only missed two -  1986, which was the year I moved to Milwaukee, and 2009, which is the year we opened Boswell, but don't worry, we sent both Amie and Jason in my stead.

I always have big plans to read ahead, but life and spring events generally get in the way. One book that I read very early that was being touted on Editor's Buzz Panel was Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists, a January 2018 release. I'd like to credit Book Expo for another book I read early, Tom Perrotta's Mrs. Fletcher, but the truth is that I read that one for Winter Institute, which seems, well years ago (it was actually in the winter, of course). It comes out in August.

The truth is that I always think I'll get through my last book and get to pick something special to read on the way to the show, and some years that has actually happened. Jason reminded me I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo bound for BEA. I guess their promise that it was going to be kind of a big book was fulfilled.

But fortunately, the book I was reading when it was time to pack turned out to be an important book at the show anyway. I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the advance reading copy for David Barclay Moore's The Stars Beneath Our Feet, and it finally came about a week before the show. It's set in New York, and who doesn't like reading a book that's set where you're going? I think one of the reasons that Michelle Huneven's Jamesland is one of my favorite books is that I walked around the Los Angeles neighborhood it was set in while I read it. And both Jonathan Lethem's Dissident Gardens and Matthew Thomas's We Are Not Ourselves led me to Queens neighborhoods I had never explored, which was only weird because I grew up in Queens.

I'm going to appropriate my staff rec here for a little plot about The Stars Beneath Our Feet. "Wallace, better known as Lolly, lives in the Harlem projects. His parents are divorced, his brother is dead, his mom has a girlfriend, and two kids just outside the neighborhood are threatening him and his best friend Vega. The thing that keeps him sane through all of this is his Legos, lots and lots of Legos. One day, he stops creating replicas of the kits, and starts building his own stuff. When there’s no more room in the apartment, he turns to the after-school center in the projects, and that’s when he meets Rose, who though very different from Lolly and all his friends, bonds over their shared desire to build stuff. Lolly has to work through his grief over his brother, and still try to figure out how to navigate the projects so he doesn’t go down the same path." Yes, I'm quoting myself. Haven't any number of writers gotten in trouble for plagiarizing themselves?  I don't want to go down that road.

For a middle grade novel, Moore actually keeps a lot of balls juggling. Where is Mom's girlfriend Yvonne getting the Legos from? Why does the rival crew want Vega's cousin to join? Is that girl Sunny exasperated by Lolly or is it something else? What is actually going on with Rose? What did Jermaine do to get himself in touble? And how is Lolly going to come to terms with his love for his brother with the knowledge that he knows that he doesn't want to follow in his footsteps?  I love how this young kid, a smart kid, but still very realistic, has to navigate some complicated adult situations, like who's at fault in his parent's separation? Both his mom and dad get a little time to make their case. And exactly how many mentors does a boy in the projects need? I think I can answer that one for you - as many as possible.

And the idea that Legos might lead a kid to develop a love of architecture? I told fellow bookseller Kay about the book and she told me that's exactly what happened with her son. He loved Legos and he's now in architecture school. Now my high school friend Francie, she loved Legos but her dream was to go to Europe and work for Lego. And she did, but that's another story (for which I don't know the ending, as we haven't talked in many years).

So I was headed to a reception, still thinking about finishing the book, and I passed the Lego store. I had Jason take a picture, but of course it turned out to be a rather un-Lego-y window display. No matter. You get the point.

I'm not the only one loving David Barclay Moore's The Stars Beneath Our Feet. It's been picked as one of the Middle-Grade Buzz Panel books of the show. And back at Boswell, we'll be hosting Mr. Moore for a day of school visits, and if you're excited about that, I'm sad to tell you that they are pretty much booked. If you're an educator, you really need to get on Todd's educator distribution list.  But if you want to meet Moore (and I think once you read the book, you will), we're working with the publicist to create some sort of public, after-school event. And of course you can reserve a copy by clicking on the titles and yes, we can get a copy signed for you this coming September.

If you're at the show, I highly recommend you attend the Buzz Panel on Friday at 11 am, in room 1E where you can hear more from the author's editor. Then Moore himself will be at a panel on Friday at 2. He'll be at the PRH booth at 3:30. I would go, but I have to head back to Milwaukee. I'm attending Chigozie Obioma's event at the Nigerian Community Conference Center at 7 pm (That's June 2, 7 pm). Yes, Milwaukee has a Nigerian Community Conference Center. How cool is that?