Event update - Max Gross, Antoine Laurain, Suzzy Roche, Thomas Maltman and next week - Matt Haig and Jess Walter

Here's what's happening at virtual Boswell this week.

Monday, October 19, 7 pm
Max Gross, author of The Lost Shtetl
in Conversation with Andrew Silow-Carroll for a Virtual Event

Join us for a virtual event with Max Gross, debut author of a remarkable novel, written with the fearless imagination of Michael Chabon and the piercing humor of Gary Shteyngart, about a small Jewish village in the Polish forest that is so secluded no one knows it exists - until now. Cohosted by The Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center and the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. Hell chat with his former mentor Silow-Carroll, editor of The New York Jewish Week. Click right here to register for this Zoom event.

Gross, formerly at the Forward and now Editor of the Commercial Observer, has written a novel with starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus. Boswell Book Company’s Chris Lee says, “It’s a myth, it’s a fable, it’s something like a newly discovered religious text. In a world with a seemingly endless supply of novels about the ends-of-the-earth reaching consequences of WWII and the Holocaust, The Lost Shtetl is a wondrous left turn. Gross has written a clever, affecting parable of the ways history, sooner or later, reaches us all.”

For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century. Divided between those embracing change and those clinging to its old world ways, the people of Kreskol will have to find a way to come together or risk their village disappearing for good.

Tuesday, October 20, 2 pm
Antoine Laurain, author of The Readers’ Room
in Conversation with Anne Leplae and Daniel Goldin for a Virtual Event

Boswell Book Company hosts the virtual return of our in-house favorite French author, Antoine Laurain, author of beloved novels like Vintage 1954 and The Red Notebook (and The Red Notebook and French Rhapsody and Smoking Kills and The Portrait). He’ll chat about his latest, in which a Parisian editor is drawn into a murder investigation when an unknown thriller author is shortlisted for a prize. Laurain will chat with Anne Leplae, the Executive Director of Alliance Française de Milwaukee, and Daniel Goldin. Click right here to register for this virtual Zoom event. 

Publishers Weekly notes of The Readers’ Room, “A profound love of books and authors underpins this sprightly mystery,” and the European Literature Network calls it “another winner for Laurain.” And from Daniel Goldin’s recommendation: “Each character is brought to life with the quirky details Laurain does so well, a few literary figures make an appearance, and the book offers up connections to Laurain’s past works, including French Rhapsody and The Red Notebook, which was recently on the Duchess of Cornwall’s quarantine reading list.

When the manuscript of a debut crime novel arrives at a Parisian publishing house, everyone in the readers' room is convinced it's something special. And the committee for France's highest literary honour, the Prix Goncourt, agrees. But when the shortlist is announced, there's a problem for editor Violaine Lepage: she has no idea of the author's identity. Intrigue and charm combine in this dazzling novel of mystery, love and the power of books.

Wednesday, October 21 7 pm Suzzy Roche, author of The Town Crazy 

in Conversation with Jane Hamilton for a Virtual Event

Suzzy Roche, a founding member of the band The Roches (and author of Wayward Sints), will be in conversation with Jane Hamilton for a virtual Ink/Well event sponsored by Ink Link Books and Boswell Book Company. Roche’s latest is a novel of passion, absurdity, innocence, and sorrow. Click here to register for this virtual event.  

The Town Crazy is set in the sleepy town of Hanzloo, Pennsylvania. In 1961, a single father moves into town with his young son, which arouses suspicion from the husbands and the interest of the wives, but at the same time, one of the wives seems to be losing her mind, and no one knows what to do. A contemporary, often humorous take on a bygone era, The Town Crazy also delves into the terror and cruelty of childhood, the dangerous loneliness of failing marriages, sexual repression and desire, and the intersection of art and religion, all culminating in a tragedy for which everyone in the town bears some responsibility. 

Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion says, "The Town Crazy casts a strong spell, and I don't think I've shaken it off yet, nor do I want to. Suzzy Roche understands so much about other people’s lives; her fiction, just like her singing and songwriting, is thrilling, beautiful, and shattering. I will be thinking about this town, these people, this captivating novel, for a long time."

I made my own record chat between 1975 and 2002, meaning I would rate my favorite songs every week. For 23 of those years, I tabulated to 100. The Roches had numerous chartings, but alas, by the time Suzzy went solo, I had stopped. Their highest peak was #3 in 1992 for Troubled Love. How did I ever have so much time?

Thursday, October 22, 7 pm
Thomas Maltman, author of The Land
in Conversation with William Kent Krueger for a Virtual Event

Thrillwaukee heads northwest for an evening of criminal Minnesotan masterminds. Thomas Maltman chats about his follow up novel to his IndieNext pick Little Wolves, a story of violence set in the heart of a pastoral landscape, with William Kent Krueger, author of Ordinary Grace. Click here to register for this virtual event.

Recovering from a terrible auto accident just before the turn of the millennium, college dropout and hobbyist computer-game programmer Lucien Swenson becomes the caretaker of a house in northern Minnesota. Shortly after moving in, Lucien sets out to find a woman with whom he had an affair, who vanished along with money stolen from the bank where they had worked together. At once a mystery and spiritual noir, The Land explores the dark side of belief, entrenched white supremacy in the Heartland, the uniquely American obsession with end times, and the sacrifices we make for those we love. 

Leif Enger, author of Virgil Wander and Peace Like a River says, “Maltman’s The Land is a gift to readers longing for a tale of lost love, fringe prophets, souls in cold suspension, and ravens that darken the skies of a Northern winter. Set against a looming apocalypse and the clicking of a projector showing classic films, The Land is generous, intricate, and propulsive.”

Monday, October 26, 3 pm
Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library
A Readings from Oconomowaukee Virtual Event
in Conversation with Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin

Presenting the latest event in the Readings from Oconomowaukee series from Books and Company and Boswell Books. Matt Haig, author of the novel How to Stop Time and the memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, joins us all the way from Brighton, England for this special afternoon event to chat about his latest, which draws on quantum wave theory to tell the charming story of an English woman with situational depression. Click here to register for this Zoom virtual event.  

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? 

In Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. 

So many people love Matt Haig's writing, but I can't think of a better quoter than Jameela Jamil, since this book would definitely be of interest to lovers of The Good Place. She wrote: "I can't describe how much his work means to me. So necessary...[Matt Haig is] the king of empathy."

Wednesday, October 28, 7 pm
A Ticketed Event with Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions
in Conversation with Karen Russell for a Virtual Event

We are pleased to host a ticketed virtual with Jess Walter, the author of the beloved #1 bestseller Beautiful Ruins and Edar winner for Citizen Vince, for a conversation about his first new novel in eight years. Walter will chat with Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia and Sleep Donation, a haunting novella praised by Stephen King, now available in paperback. What a great pairing!

Tickets are available at jesswalter-boswellmke.eventbrite.com for $23.19 (20% off the price of The Cold Millions), plus sales tax and ticket fee, and include "admission" on one device to the event. The first 60 folks to sign up will get a signed tip-in copy of The Cold Millions. Folks who sign up after that will either get tip-ins or a signed book with bookplate.

What better place to quote from for The Cold Millions event than the literary website The Millions? Matt Harvkey dives deep into Jess Walter's latest here. "...The Cold Millions has politics in its DNA. It raises questions about power’s corrupting influence, about the sides people take and fortify with rhetoric, and about brotherhood, both genetic and thematic. The book is intimate enough to tell a moving story about Rye and Gig, and expansive enough to tell other stories too - about labor, class, inequality, privilege, corruption, and migration. But above all, The Cold Millions is about Spokane." Read the rest!

A final note - all of Jess Walter's initial events are ticketed. If you're going to read the book anyway, why not buy it as part of the event and watch this great conversation? We've discounted the book so even with the ticket fee, it's under list price. We'll ship anywhere in the continental United States for $4. And don't forget about the signed bookplate. And can I just say, remember how much you loved Beautiful Ruins?

More on Boswell's upcoming events page. All start time are Central time (or Chicago time, if you'd prefer).

Ready for the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending October 17, 2020? Of course you are.

Ready for the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending October 17, 2020? Of course you are.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. A Time for Mercy, by John Grisham (still have a few signed tip-in copies left)
2. The Searcher, by Tana French
3. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar (signed tip ins available of this too)
4. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (register here for October 26 event here)
5. The Lost Shtetl, by Max Gross (register here for October 19 event here)
6. All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny
7. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
8. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
9. The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett
10. The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow

Jessica Wick reviewed The Once and Future Witches on the NPR blog. She writes: "If spells (witch-ways in the novel) are truly hidden in stories, then I know what spell is in The Once and Future Witches. It's the spell to claim a heart and dwell there, ever after. I unabashedly, unreservedly adore The Once and Future Witches. I adore it with the kind of passion that prickles at my eyes and wavers my voice. I adore it in a way that requires purchase of a giving copy, for friends in need."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Forward, by David Jeremiah
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. The Well-Plated Cookbook, by Erin Clarke (signed copies available)
4. How to Write One Song, by Jeff Tweedy
5. I'm Still Here, by Austin Channing Brown (register for November 17 event with America's Black Holocaust Museum here)
6. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten
7. 99 Percent Invisible City, by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt
8. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh
9. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
10. Be More RBG, by Marilyn Easton

One of the interesting things we pay attention to is how categories do at different times of the year. We see a big increase in cookbooks in the fourth quarter, but another gift category that works for us quite well are music bios and memoirs. Jeff Tweedy's How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back had a very nice first week of sale, mostly due to their being signed tip-in copies. We're getting more - some signed and some not. If you're requesting a signed copy, please put that info in the comments section of your order. From Will Leitch in GQ: "Jeff Tweedy has long been prolific, but the Wilco frontman is currently on a monumental run of Making Sh*t. In the past five years, Tweedy has made two Wilco albums, gone on several world tours, released three solo albums, appeared in multiple movies and television series, and written two books. Fittingly, the announcement of his second book - How to Write One Song, a smart, funny, relentlessly practical guide to discovering the secret songwriter within—was accompanied by an actual surprise album too. That one’s called Love Is the King, and it was written, produced, and performed, all during quarantine, by Tweedy and his sons, Spencer and Sammy."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Mirror Lake, by Juneau Black (register for October 29 event here)
2. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
3. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
4. Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion
5. Second Sleep, by Robert D. Harris
6. The Good Lord Bird, by James McBride
7. Where We Come From, by Oscar Cásares (register for December 8 author event here)
8. The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
9. Shady Hollow, by Juneau Black
10. The Overstory, by Richard Powers

I have to get used to the fact that our MTI code for movie-tie-in should now say STI, for streaming, which is more likely to be the case. No Jason, I don't want to change the code! But The Good Lord Bird is the latest streaming series to pop onto our bestseller list. This Showtime series features Ethan Hawke as John Brown and has Daveed Diggs recurring as Frederick Douglass. From Mike Hale's review in The New York Times: "The Good Lord Bird has not received what you could call kid-glove treatment from Showtime. It was announced for Feb. 16 but pulled, then rescheduled for Aug. 9 and pulled again. It will finally premiere, without much fanfare, this Sunday. It’s curious treatment for a prestige mini-series based on a National Book Award-winning novel that was spearheaded by and stars one of America’s most accomplished actors. And it’s a shame, because The Good Lord Bird - a seven-episode adaptation of James McBride’s 2013 novel - is fine entertainment, capturing some measure of McBride’s jaunty, irreverent humor and featuring an absorbing performance by Ethan Hawke, who created the series (with the writer Mark Richard) and plays the central role of the messianic abolitionist John Brown."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Burnout, by Emily Nagosaki
2. Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin, by Anna Lardinois
3. My Grandmother's Hands, by Resmaa Menakem
4. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
5. Furious Hours, by Casey Cep
6. Tough Love, by Susan Rice
7. Chaos, by Tom O'Neil
8. Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl
9. My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
10. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The numbers are still relatively small, but it's nice to see our long-delayed update to our book club checklist and brochure selling some books. One of my friends in publishing asked me what there was to talk about in Save Me the Plums. I told her that many book clubs just need books they are certain the members will finish. But then I thought back and thought about how I wound up talking about this book with several other readers. There's an Alice in Wonderland quality about the story, of an anonymous restaurant reviewer stepping into the world of food celebrity, only it's as if she has to go back to Kansas every night. I also really love book clubs where people share food from a book, and that reminded me of my sister's family's get-togethers where they cook food together virtually every Saturday. And then we could cry about the decline of magazines. I just received a copy of a magazine that I think is doing pretty well because online subscriptions have held up, and I think I saw only one ad outside of the back cover.

Books for Kids:
1. Stamped, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
2. The Rock and the River, by Kekla Magoon
3. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake, illustrations by Jon Klassen (we may have some signed bookplates left - just ask)
4. The Strange Birds of Flannery O'Connor, by Amy Alznauer
5. The Assignment, by Liza Wiemer (signed copies available)
6. The Time of Green Magic, by Hilary McKay
7. The Unadoptables, by Hana Tooke
8. Brave, by James Bird
9. The Girl and the Ghost, by Hanna Alkaf
10. Wink, by Rob Harrell

I am not usually driven to read kids books from The New York Times Book Review, but something about Hilary McKay's A Time of Green Magic spoke to me, especially because it also had a very nice quote from Katherine Rundell. From Sarah Harrison Smith's NYT review: "That moment propels an increasingly magical story, involving, like many of the best children’s books, a move to a more verdant abode, an absent mother and much-needed repair work - to a neglected house and an isolated young soul who lives to read. The Time of Green Magic is, in part, a book about loving books. McKay refers to Narnia and Hogwarts, and though she doesn’t mention Edwardian classics like Five Children and It or The Secret Garden, she nestles her story so snugly in the literary canon that you can imagine E. Nesbit and Frances Hodgson Burnett fluttering nearby like kindly, aging aunts." It reminded me a lot of Magic or Not from Edward Eager, whose work is indebted to E. Nesbit. Our buyer Amie is also a big fan.

Please check upcoming event page for event times. All are Central Time

Shady Hollow is back! Juneau Black talks about Mirror Lake, the third book in the series.

Mirror Lake, the long-awaited third book in the Shady Hollow series is here! The follow-up to Cold Clay is another delightful cozy mystery that once again is set in a forest hamlet where enterprising animals have created a unique self-sufficient economy devoid of human interlopers.

As Juneau Black states: "It is pointless to question too deeply the mechanics of this town. If a moose pours a mug of coffee for a sparrow sitting a the cozy counter of the local diner, why not focus on the friendliness of this gesture, rather than the logistics of dish size and seat height?"

We'll be hosting Juneau Black in conversation on October 29, 7 pm. Register here. But I thought it would be a great idea to ask a few questions in advance to the folks behind JB, Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Cole (Koehler). It's a teaser!

Daniel: This is your third book in the Shady Hollow series. What was your initial impetus for the story.

Sharon: Jocelyn and I worked together at Boswell way back in 2010. On one very slow night, we assembled some adorable finger puppets in the children’s department and gave them names and occupations. Then we started telling stories about them. We decided to write the first book during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which takes place every year in November. That story became Shady Hollow, the first book in the series.

Jocelyn: And fun fact, people can see one of the very first named characters, Howard Chitters, in an illustration by the wonderful Aaron Boyd that’s hanging up at Boswell (see below) 

Daniel: Who is your favorite new character in Mirror Lake?

Sharon: I am partial to Arabella Boatwright, the Mirror Lake librarian. It might have something to do with the fact that I recently graduated from Library School and am a librarian myself.

Jocelyn: For me, Bradley Marvel, the wolfish thriller author who’s in town for a book reading, was incredibly fun to write. He’s the worst kind of alpha male! (editor's note: I'm also a fan of Marvel, who is often distraught about the inability to find a good steak dinner in this godforsaken outpost of vegetarianism).

Daniel: What were some of your inspirations for the Shady Hollow series?

Sharon: Both Jocelyn and I enjoy reading mysteries. We get inspiration from reading the works of other authors that we admire. We also thought it was important to vary our crimes somewhat, so that Vera is not constantly tripping over dead bodies on the way to work in the morning.

Jocelyn: Yes, we much prefer our bodies to be discovered in odd places, sometimes years after the crime.

Mirror Lake is so much fun. The characters, whether rat or raven, are fully furred (or feathered) out, the story is compelling, and I really enjoyed many of the turns of phrase, such as when Vera the fox trotted over to her next clue. There was a lot of giggling. All three books are now available - Shady Hollow, Cold Clay, and Mirror Lake.

Event is Thursday, October 29, 7 pm CDT. Register here.

The book club recommendation table is updated. It only took a year.

Well, I'm only a year late with my updated book club recommendation brochure. I had one due to come out in March, and I actually changed our website, but wound up never laying out or printing something, being that we didn't have anyone coming into the store, and hadn't had many book clubs asking for suggestions. And though I changed the website, I didn't update our inventory system, so the old books were still on display. Not that they weren't wonderful books, or anything.

Unlike all the big book clubs nowadays, we're still focusing on paperbacks, with at three paperback originals and the rest reprints. I've read all but two of the books - one is our December In-Store Lit Group selection that will be followed by an interview with the author the next day, while another is a Jane special. I'm hoping to one day read Becoming Mrs. Lewis because the book has been a pick of hers for several years - it was so successful that the paperback was delayed.

Speaking of delays, publishers are delaying paperbacks fairly aggressively, being that coronavirus has hurt bookstore browsing and paperbacks don't work as well in web orders. The trend mentioned above that almost all the high-profile book clubs pick hardcovers hasn't helped either. 

I tend to like picking books that have been vetted by the book club I run. I don't mind when a book is polarizing (Trust Exercise fit that bill) but I did leave out one recent selection where a lot of us seemed bored (title redacted). 

The recommendations (in alphabetical order)

Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane
Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan

Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, by Kathleen Rooney
An Elegant Defense, by Matt Richtel
Family Trust, by Kathy Wang
Furious Hours, by Casey Cep
Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo
Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro
The Lager Queen of Minnesota, by J. Ryan Stradal
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim 
The Need, by Helen Phillips
The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
The Overstory, by Richard Powers

Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson
Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverini
Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl
Say Nothing, By Patrick Radden Keefe
The Story of a Goat, by Perumal Murugan
Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi
Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger
Where We Come From, by Oscar Cásares (event coming soon!)
The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom

Some nonfiction, some historical fiction, some challenging titles, and some where you just want the group to finish the book - I think we call that compelling. Here's a link to purchase the titles. I guess I'm hedging my bets - I only printed 10 copies. But I'm not just hoping to reprint - I'm also hoping to see better sales on these titles.

I guess my pick of all these is The Story of a Goat. It's sort of an offbeat story that is way more interesting than you expect. Even with it's recent longlist nod for the National Book Award Books in Translation longlist, I don't think it's found its potential. It might even make my best-of-the-year list. Yes, I know it released in December 2019, but in the old days, a December on-sale meant it was a January publication.

We're hosting Angie Kim for Miracle Creek this Friday, October 16, 2 pm. It's gonna have spoilers, but if you don't mind hearing a few, join us even if you haven't read it yet. Register here.

View the list with purchase links here. It also has our staff recommendations for each title. Now I just have to do some virtual talks about them.

Here's what sold at Boswell for the week ending October 10, 2020.

Here's what sold at Boswell for the week ending October 10, 2020

Hardcover Nonfiction:

1. The Searcher, by Tana French
2. Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam
3. Crooked Hallelujah, by Kelli Jo Ford
4. Saving Ruby King, by Catherine Adel West
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by VE Schwab
6. All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny
7. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar (see below)
8. Snow, by John Banville
9. Jack, by Marilynne Robinson
10. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (register for our October 26 event here)

Janet Maslin comes out of retirement to do what she loves best - review books she loves from authors she loves. From her New York Times review of The Searcher: "French has said that she didn’t care this time about hooks or plotting. Instead, she’s interested in stripping away the police authority that Cal once took for granted and seeing how an ex-cop without power can operate on his own. She’s also interested in Cal’s fundamental sense of right and wrong, and how badly he thinks it has been distorted by the culture wars in America. That’s less a matter of politics than of one man’s effort to retrieve his moral compass after decades of following orders."

We've had several great reads on Leave the World Behind, which was just announced as a National Book Award finalist. Hillary Kelly in The New Yorker observes that Rumaan Alam's latest is a contemporary take on a disaster novel: "In most literature of this ilk, the disaster, whether rising seas or a virus, is a force of narrative tension: the reader is keen to learn how humans move from a time of upheaval to one of stability. Alam never gets there; upheaval is all his characters have. His achievement is to see that his genre’s traditional arc, which relies on the idea of aftermath, no longer makes sense. Today, disaster novels call for something different, a recognition that we won’t find a new normal, even if we’ve hoarded our Duracells and tucked ourselves behind sturdy walls in forested hideaways. The catastrophe came long ago, before Amanda went grocery shopping and the Washingtons left Manhattan, and before Clay submitted his latest piece to the Times Book Review."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Unapologetically Ambitious, by Shellye Archambeau
2. Forward, by David Jeremiah
3. The Well-Plated Cookbook, by Erin Clarke (signed copies still available)
4. 99% Invisible City, by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt
5. Modern Comfort Food, by Ina Garten
6. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
7. Is This Anything, by Jerry Seinfeld
8. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh
9. Trust, by Pete Buttigieg
10. Humans, by Brandon Stanton

October 6 was one of the biggest release dates of fall and we saw that in lots of new appearances on this week's bestseller list. One new arrival is The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design, by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt, adapted from their very popular podcast, one of thousands that I'd probably listen to if I were paying attention. From Kenneth T. Jackson's New York Times review: "A brief review cannot do justice to such a diverse and enlightening book. The authors have sections on oil derricks, cell towers, the Postal Service, water fountains, the transcontinental telegraph, cisterns, telephone poles, emergency exits, cycling lanes, archaeological sites in Britain, national roads, zero markers, the Oklahoma land rush, cemeteries, public lighting, pigeons, raccoons and half a hundred other eccentric topics."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Every Now and Then, by Lesley Kagen
2. The Readers' Room, by Antoine Laurain (register for October 20 event here)
3. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, by Abbi Waxman
4. Where We Come From, by Oscar Cásares (join our authorless book club discussion on December 7)
5. Mirror Lake, by Juneau Black (register for our October 29 event here)
6. Poems 1962-2012, by Louise Gluck
7. Dhalgren, by Samuel Delany
8. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (register for our authorless book club discussion on October 12)
9. The Witch Elm, by Tana French
10. Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim (register for our October 16 event here)

So excited to see a nice pop in sales for The Readers' Room, the newest from Antoine Laurain. We actually were organizing an in-person event for Vintage 1954, being that it had a Milwaukee connection, but family issues prevented it from happening. When coronavirus is getting me down, I always try to remember that we're able to host authors who'd likely not appear in person. Laurain's newest is about a publishing house that discovers a writer, only to find that the murders in the book are repeating in real life. I thought I'd be clever and link to a French review, but it's too much work, so I'll just note that Publishers Weekly wrote that " The tendency of characters to wax philosophical adds to the charm of this witty and perceptive novel."

Paperback Nonfiction
1. Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin, by Anna Lardinois (more signed copies soon ask for one!)
2. Wise Aging, by Rachel Cowan
3. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
4. Pushout, by Monique W. Morris
5. March V1, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin
6. Higher Call, by Adam Makos
7. My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
8. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
9. Getting the Love You Want, by Harville Hendrix
10. Underland, by Robert MacFarlane

Needless to say, the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has led to interest in her work. My Own Words, a collection of essays (with the help of Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams) came out in 2016 and was praised by Harper's Bazaar as "a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fascinating life of one of our generation's most influential voices in both law and public opinion.”

Books for Kids:
1. The Very Last Leaf, by Stef Wade, illustrated by Jennifer Davidson
2. You Matter, by Christian Robinson
3. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, illustrated by Melanie Demmer
4. The Assignment, by Liza Wiemer
5. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake, illustrated by Jon Klassen (register for October 12 event here)
6. How We Got to the Moon, by John Rocco
7. Bunheads, by Misty Copeland, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey
8. Screaming Hairy Armadillo and 76 Other Animals with Weird Wild Names, by Matthew Murrie
9. The Misadventures of Toni Macaroni in The Mad Scientist, by Cetonia Weston-Roy
10. The Tower of Nero V5, by Rick Riordan

At last, the breathtaking, action-packed finale of the #1 bestselling Trials of Apollo series is here, says the publisher. My problem with kid series is that I never quite know when they are ending. It's a stand-alone. No, it's a trilogy. Now it's a septet. Wait, there's also a spin-off series. At least with adult mystery series, it's clearer - expect this to keep going until nobody wants to buy it. Or I die. But wait, it might keep going anyway. In The Tower of Nero, the Greek God, sent down to earth in the form of teenage Lester Papadopoulos, tries to regain his place in Mount Olympus.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins reports on news about a ex-Milwaukee writer making literary news: "Ayad Akhtar, who's made his bones writing fiery speeches for characters on stage and in his novels, may have to make a few speeches himself in the coming year. On Dec. 2, the Brookfield Central High School graduate will become president of the advocacy group PEN America, with the mission of standing up for writers and journalists punished for speaking truth to power." His latest book is Homeland Elegies, #7 on our bestseller list. Ask for a signed tip-in copy. Limited supply available.

Here's what's happening at Boswell this week - Helen Phillips, Cetonia Weston-Roy, Abigail Gewirtz, Lesley Kagen, Anna Lardinois, John Rocco plus next Monday, Amy Timberlake

Here's what's happening at Boswell this week.

Monday, October 5, 5:30 pm
Helen Phillips, author of The Need
in Conversation with Daniel Goldin for a Virtual Event

Join us for a special event featuring the National Book Award Longlisted author Helen Phillips for a conversation about her dazzlingly original novel in which a mother of two young children grapples with the dualities of motherhood after confronting a masked intruder in her home. Click here to register for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of The Need for 10% off list price today! Do know this paperback event is spoiler-friendly, so questions about about the book's ending may be discussed. Though it’s not necessary, we might suggest reading the book before this evening.

When Molly hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do. But then she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly Molly is face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.

Helen Phillips is author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the story collection Some Possible Solutions, which received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. She is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College.

Tuesday, October 6, 5:30 pm
Cetonia Weston-Roy, author of The Misadventures of Toni Macaroni in: The Mad Scientist 

In conversation with Daniel Goldin for a Virtual Event 

Join us for a virtual family event with Cetonia Weston-Roy, who will talk about her book and her new mobile bookstore in Milwaukee, Niche Book Bar. Click right here to register for this Zoom event today! And purchase your copy of The Misadventures of Toni Macaroni for 10% off list price One lucky person who registers and attends this virtual event will also get a Toni Macaroni doll giveaway! No purchase necessary.

Meet Antoniette MacArthur! Also known as Toni Macaroni because of her skinny arms and legs (much to her dismay). Her dad insists they're so skinny because she's a picky eater. Toni knows that's not right, she just doesn't eat HIS cooking. Her dad cooks just like a Mad Scientist, toxic sludge and all! Can she find a way to get out of eating his gross cooking experiments? Join her misadventure in The Mad Scientist to find out!

Milwaukee author and entrepreneur Cetonia Weston-Roy is proprietor of the Niche Book Bar and founder of the Black Authors Collective, through which she organizes events with Black authors. More about Weston-Roy's enterprise in the Journal Sentinel.

Tuesday, October 6, 7 pm CDT
Abigail Gewirtz, author of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids
in Conversation with Ellie Campbell for a Virtual Event

REDgen and Boswell Book Company present and evening with Dr. Abigail Gewirtz, child psychologist and a leading expert on families under stress. She’ll chat with Ellie Campbell, Director of Marketing and Communication for REDgen. Click here to register for this Zoom virtual event. And purchase your copy of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place for 10% off list price today!

In our complicated world, big issues make both parents and children anxious. So how should parents talk to their kids about the things that make both parent and child on edge - from family financial issues to school shootings to global warming? Here, an expert child psychologist offers parents scripts for conversations that will help us raise kids who are informed, engaged, and confident.

Gerwitz shows how to use the most basic tool at your disposal - conversation - to give children real help in dealing with the worries, stress, and other negative emotions caused by problems in the world, from active shooter drills to climate change to COVID-19.

Abigail Gewirtz is a Professor in the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development. Gewirtz is Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Psychology, a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Psychological Science, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Prevention Research. Ellie Campbell is Director of Marketing and Communication for REDgen. 

Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm
Lesley Kagen, author of Every Now and Then
in Conversation with Lauren Fox for a Virtual Event

Wisconsin’s own bestselling author of Whistling in the Dark chats about her latest, a heartfelt story about three young girls searching for adventure during the summer of 1960 that’s perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing. Kagen will chat with Shorewood-based Lauren Fox, author of Days of Awe and Send for Me, publishing in February 2021. Register right here for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of Every Now and Then today for 10% off the list price, through at least October 14. 

The summer of 1960 was the hottest ever for Summit, Wisconsin. When three patients escape from Broadhurst Mental Institution, it becomes the summer eleven-year-old best friends Frankie, Viv, and Biz will forever remember as the year evil paid a visit to their small town. Six decades later, Biz, now a bestselling novelist, remembers that long ago summer and how it still haunts her in this story about the ties that bind us, the timelessness of grief and guilt, and the everlasting hope for redemption.

Publishers Weekly writes: "Kagan perfectly portrays the sense of invincibility felt by the young girls, whose lives have not yet been touched by tragedy. Colorful secondary characters, especially Mayor Bud, underpin a taut plot. This fast-paced and suspenseful outing will captivate Kagan’s fans and do much to win her new ones."

Thursday, October 8, 7 pm
Anna Lardinois, author of Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin: A History of Mischief and Menace, Heroes and Heartbreak
in Conversation with Molly Snyder for a Virtual Event

Anna Lardinois, purveyor of our city's most popular haunted, historical walking tours, joins us for a perfect event for every Wisconsonite’s Halloween season. She'll walk us through her latest book chock full of true, shocking tales from Wisconsin's seamy past. Click here to register for this Zoom event, and purchase your copy of Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin for 10% off list price today!

Lardinois brings together lots of well-researched information into these cohesive tales of terrible fires, vengeful call girls, famous flim-flam men, and eye-brow archingly suspicious deaths. Meet mob boss Frank Balistrieri and discover the havoc he wreaked. Read the stories of red light districts, rum runners, crimes, and tragedies that fill our state’s past. Learn how the great lakes made Prohibition a great party in Wisconsin. Welcome to Wisconsin’s surprisingly seedy underbelly.

Anna Lardinois owns Gothic Milwaukee, is author of Milwaukee Ghosts and Legends and the forthcoming Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes in 2021, and is creator of Walking Milwaukee, a collection of self-guided tours that explore the best of Cream City’s history and architecture. Molly Snyder is a reporter for OnMilwaukee whose latest book is Walking Milwaukee, cowritten by Royal Bravväxling.

Friday, October 9, 7 pm CDT
John Rocco, author of How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure
in Conversation with JoAnn Morgan and Ann Montgomery for a Virtual Event 

Cosponsored by UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium

John Rocco, the #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of acclaimed books for children, including the Caldecott Honor book Blackout and the covers of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, chats about his National Book Award-longlisted picture book, How We Got to the Moon. This latest is a beautifully illustrated, oversized guide to the people and technology of the moon landing. For a special virtual event, Rocco will be in conversation with JoAnn Morgan, the only women in the firing room when they launched Apollo 11, and Ann Montgomery, the person in charge of all the astronauts’ equipment and tools that they would use on the Moon.

This event is a must-attend for space fans, tech geeks, and anyone else who's wondered - what did it really take to put a man on the moon? The Moon landing is one of the most ambitious, thrilling, and dangerous ventures in human history. Featuring exquisite illustrations and deep-diving research, this is a chronicle of the engineers, mathematicians, seamstresses, welders, and factory workers and their innovations and life-changing technological leaps forward that allowed NASA to achieve this unparalleled accomplishment. Rocco offers up a comprehensive chronicle detailing the grandest human adventure of all time for explorers of all ages!  

Click here to register for this event now! And purchase your copy of How We Got to the Moon for 20% off list price from Boswell Book Company now. This event is cosponsored by UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium. And yes, How We Got to the Moon was just longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People.

John Rocco received the Caldecott Honor for Blackout. He has illustrated the covers for many of Rick Riordan's series, including Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. His young adult novel, Swim that Rock, was a finalist for the New England Book Award.

Monday, October 12, 5:30 pm CDT
Amy Timberlake, author of Skunk and Badger
in Conversation with Jim Higgins for a Virtual Event

Newbery Honoree and Wisconsin native Amy Timberlake chats about her brand new book, a fresh take on the classic odd couple story of two opposites who need to be friends. Timberlake will chat with Jim Higgins, Art and Books Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This event shall be broadcast via Zoom - click right here to register today! And don’t forget to purchase your copy of Skunk and Badger for 20% off list price today!

Wallace and Gromit meets Winnie-the-Pooh in this story when Skunk plows into Badger’s life. No one wants a skunk around. They are unwelcome on front stoops. They should not linger in Important Rock Rooms. Skunks should never, ever be allowed to move in. But Skunk is Badger’s new roommate, and there is nothing Badger can do about it. Now, everything Badger knows is upended. Tails are flipped. The wrong animal is sprayed. And why-oh-why are there so many chickens? Skunk and Badger has already earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, which calls it "a treasure of a book that promises future misadventures from your new favorite odd couple."

Amy Timberlake’s work has received a Newbery Honor and the Edgard Award for Best Juvenile for her previous novel, One Came Home. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. Timberlake grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin. Jim Higgins is the Book and Arts Editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

More on the Boswell upcoming events page.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending October 3, 2020

Boswell bestsellers, week ending October 3, 2020

Hardcover Fiction:
1. A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
2. Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar
3. Battle Ground, by Jim Butcher
4. All the Devils Are Here, by Louise Penny
5. Monogamy, by Sue Miller
6. One by One, by Ruth Ware
7. Jack, by Marilynne Robinson
8. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig (register for October 26, 3 pm event here)
9. Shakespeare for Squirrels, by Christopher Moore
10. Whale Day, by Billy Collins

Jim Butcher is one of those authors that you think might not sell at an independent bookstore, but at least at ours, does. We carry a broad range of inventory from him too, as there always seems to be a customer working their way through his oeuvre. Maybe it's because Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chicago, though I don't know if any installments took him on a road trip to Milwaukee. But Dresden has the home field advantage when fighting The Last Titan in Battle Ground, his latest (#17) release in the series.

Also in a series of sorts is Jack, the fourth book in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead cycle. The story is of John Ames Burton, the son of Gilead's minister, and his relationship with Della Miles, the child of a Black preacher. Lily Meyer says on the NPR website, "In Jack, Robinson meets racial inequality head-on." 

And there's a new collection from Billy Collins, Whale Day. 

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Know Your Price, by Andre Perry
2. Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
3. Solutions and Other Problems, by Allie Brosh
4. The Well-Plated Cookbook, by Erin Clarke
5. The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
6. Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown, by John Lithgow
7. Be More RBG: Speak Truth and Dissent with Supreme Style, by Marilyn Easton
8. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
9. This Isn't Happening, by Steven Hyden
10. Having and Being Had, by Eula Biss

A major nonprofit is reading Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities, from Andre Perry.From the Op/Ed in Essence: "Real property devaluation creates a wealth gap, and Black children experience lesser intergenerational mobility when raised in devalued neighborhoods, he explains. They have fewer options, show weaker performance in school, and, generally, make longer commutes to school."

How can we not give a shout out to former Milwaukeean Steven Hyden? (Here's an OnMilwaukee interview with Hyden when he lived in Bay View). This Isn't Happening: Radiohead's 'Kid A' and the Beginning of the 21st Century is sort of a maxi-disc version of the 33 1/3 series, looking at the lingering influence of Radiohead's Kid A. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. Feast Your Eyes, by Myla Goldberg (register for JCC ticketed event on October 13 here)
2. Miracle Creek, by Angie Kim (register for October 16, 2 pm event here)
3. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk
4. Readers' Room, by Antoine Laurain (register for October 20, 2 pm event here)
5. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
6. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
7. Persepolis Rising, by James Corey
8. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah
9. The Need, by Helen Phillips (register for October 5, 5:30 event here - spoiler warning)
10. The Girl in the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg

A Memory Called Empire is the upcoming selection of our Science Fiction book club. It just won the Hugo Award. Amal El-Mohtar wrote in The New York Times: "With incredible clarity and precision, Martine folds layer after layer of complexity into this book, such that it, like Mahit, is a fusion of Lsel Station and Teixcalaan: welding beauty and efficiency, building engineering out of verse. It left me utterly dazzled." Visit our upcoming book clubs page for more.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Inextinguishable Symphony, by Martin Goldsmith (join this October 18 event here - no registration required)
2. Storied and Scandalous Wisconsin, by Anna Lardinois (register for October 8, 7 pm event here)
3. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder (who will also be at October 8 event)
4. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
5. The Rise of Wolf 8, by Martin McIntyre
6. Emergent Strategy, by Adrienne Maree Brown
7. The Power of a Focused Heart, by Mary Lou Redding
8. The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
9. Grey Matters, by Ellyn Lem
10. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander

The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog, has a nice staff rec from Kay and is just out in paperback. Jared El-Osta did a wolf roundup last year in The Washington Post, where he wrote: "The main attraction of the book, though, is the storytelling about individual wolves, including the powerful origin story of one of Yellowstone’s greatest and most famous wolves."

Books for Kids:
1. Dear Justyce, by Nic Stone
2. Skunk and Badger, by Amy Timberlake/Jon Klassen (register for October 12, 5:30 pm event here)
3. The Very Last Leaf, by Stef Wade/Jennifer Davidson
4. All Are Welcome, by Alexandra Penfold, with illustrations by Suzanne Kaufman
5. Be Kind, by Pat Zietlow Miller/Jill Hen
6. Enemy Pie, by Derek Munson/Tara Calahan King
7. A Tale of Witchcraft, by Chris Colfer
8. The Office: A Day at Dunder Mifflin Elementary, by Robb Pearlman/Melanie Demmer
9. Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure, by Jeff Kinney
10. Screaming Hairy Armadillo and 76 Other Animals with Weird, Wild Names, by Matthew Murrie

Dear Justyce is finally here. After a teaser where Stone was the conversation partner for Adib Khorram's Darius the Great Deserves Better, we were able to book a school event for Nic Stone's new book where we'd be able to use the video in Milwaukee Public School (and other) classrooms, as well as connect to the Vel E. Phillips Juvenile Justice School where multiple pods where able to tune in and see Nic Stone talk live to educator and advocate Shana Lucas. We'll have the recording up soon so you can watch it too. Stone talked to Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition - read the copy or listen to the interview.

Two book segments of note on WUWM's Lake Effect this week.
--Lois Lowry about her virtual visit to First Unitarian Society - read here
--Joanne Nelson on This Is How We Leave - read here