10 Books I Read 25 Years Ago--Hamilton, Chabon, Prose, Pym, White, and Others.

I keep a reading list and have done so since the mid 1980s. For many years, I would write up a short piece about each book, ranking the books I read for the month. This led to thematic reading, with say, a month of books about Asia, or perhaps New Jersey. Yes, I really did that once.

I'd never be able to do such a thing now--my reading is far more directed. It's hard enough for me to say, I'm going to read one book per month that I don't have to read for something. It just isn't going to happen.

These reviews are mostly pre-internet. What I would do in those days, in the heyday of my reviews, was send them out to lots of friends. At one point I had a subscription program. Really! For $5 I would send them monthly instead of clumps. At the time, I was also mailing out my weekly top 100 favorite songs list, so sending a list of books read wasn't a stretch.

What the heck, I thought. Why not do a blog post with some old reviews? Here are some from 1988, 25 years ago.

1. The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton.
Whenever I take a trip to Chicago, I drive past mythical Honey Creek, Illinois. In it, Ruth has probably recovered and is woking back at the dry cleaners. Hamilton writes the story of a girl, stuck in a life she has no idea how to get out of, with charged emotion and a classic tragedy plot. Is she smart or retarded? Her "msart" son ditcher her for an Eastern college. Ruth's husband, a slow, lazy good for nothing, part time birdhouse builder, moves in with Mom and disaster seems imminent. This build up to tragedy reminded me of Mama Day, another Ticknor and Field title. Is there a name for this sub-genre? I cheered Ruth ona nd hoped against hope that she would escape her destiny. A., our office manager, disagreed. She couldn't figure out why Ruth couldn't leave and thought the whole bunch were jerks. A. explained that her response was partly due to have grown up with similar types in rural Wisconsin.

Note: Halfway through the review I started calling Ruth "Jane."

2. The Twenty-Seventh City, by Jonathan Franzen.
Jammu, native of Bombay, is appointed chief of the St. Louis police. Slowly strange things happen. The heir to the brewery fortune marries another Indian. Terrorists bomb the city but are quickly subdued. Property values start rising in the middle of the ghetto and dropping in the suburbs. Businesses that left the city of St. Louis for the suburbs now contemplate returning. A referendum comes up to remerge the city and county of St. Louis, spearheaded by Jammu. The advisory board is swayed, except for a lone holdout, Martin Probst, builder of the famous arch, and pillar of suburban steadfastness. His wife and daughter abandon him. What is going on? Is a conspiracy at work? In fact, yes. There are things that bother me about Franzen's novel--the conspiracy, the sinister portrayal of the Indians, the outrageous style, seemingly borrowed from The Bonfire of the Vanities. How could I ignore, however, Franzen's depicture of St. Louis's unique eccentricities. Add to that Franzen's mature and engaging style and the result is a disturbing and enjoyable read. It might rile the natives, however.

Note: I needed to cut out a few clumsy sentences and rework others.

 3. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Many people look to South American fiction for the mystic and magical, typified by Garcia Marquez's own One Hundred Years of Solititude. Here, the magic is in the writin, not the plot. It's about a man who carries a torch for his teenage sweetheart for well over fifty years. The asides are enchanting, whether about a bird lost in a tree or a visit to a prostitute. I guess people say this book is about the many aspects of love, and I must concur. There is also a lot of cholera around too, for those who are curious.

Note: Oh, good! It does indeed have a thematic similarity to How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, just as I thought.

4. Second Chances, by Alice Adams.
Adams's first novel since her breakout, Superior Women, returns to the sedateness of Northern California. The pace is a bit slower, less pushy and calculated, though certainly not gimmick-less. This time she chronicles a group of seniors--Dudley the writer, Sam the artist, Edward the poet, and Celesete the actress et al, who have been together for well over thirty years. Needless to say, they are not your average bunch--one character leaves wads of cash on he doormats illegal alien families. In addition to following their day-to-day lives, we learn of their pasts with flasbacks. Death turns up in several guises: a close call, a terminal illness, a sudden loss. Adams has successfully mastered the Northern California outlook with characters that are almost overwhelmingly aware and politically involved, yet very well off. Though it sometimes feels a bit forced, Second Chance is filled with characters often considered to old to get the spotlight in a popuar novel. Of course Adams holds a place in my heart as Rich Rewards was the first book I bought in a Schwartz Bookshop.

Note: there was a time when I didn't begin every sentence with a conjunction. So excited to read the forthcoming biography of Adams by former Milwaukeean Carol Sklenica!

5. The Beautiful Room is Empty, by Edmund White.
This continuation of A Boy's Own Story starts with White's college days and contunues until the Stonewall Rebellion. He happens to be there when it happens, but that happens to the best of us. Though this is a novel and not a memoir, most agree tha tit is thinly disguised. Some of White's other work, like Caracole, is a bit dry, but this is not. It's wonderfully written and moving, yet funny and spirited.

Note: I read Caracole?

6. Real Estate, by Jane DeLynn.
Like a fly on the wall, DeLynn follows around a group of New Yorkers immersed in the search for a terrific apartment. Unfortunately my experiences concur--this is real life in the Big Apple. The action focuses on a separated couple that is now two couples, and the narrative detours are what make this book work. DeLynn will cover the musings of one of the character's acquaintances or their travel agent or even their dog, and then leave you there, returning back to the main narrative. It works, somehow.

Note: I still think about how much I liked this book, but never reread it.

7. Women and Children First, by Francine Prose.
How do you find the glittering jewel of a book, the one you want to read again and again and hold in your arms, even when you are not reading it? Sometimes reviews and sometimes recommendations lead you to it, but mostly it just calls to you.Last year I read Prose's Bigfoot Dreams about a tabloid reporter whose stories seem to be coming true. It was well-written but the situation became a bit strained by the end of the novel. Prose's talent with fascinating situations are more suited to the short story genre. "Tibetan Time" focuses on a bus trip to a Buddhist temple, while "Other Lives" tells of a mother and son being tested for their ESP ability. In "Electricity", a woman must deal with her father becoming a born-again Jew. Prose's characters are terrific--intelligent and competent, yet still confused by the perplexities of life. The writing is equally on target. Just start reading "Everyone Had a Lobster" if you don't believe me.

Note: I now know how to spell "terrific" but I makemore spelling errors than ever.

8.The Book and the Brotherhood, by Iris Murdoch.
A group of ex-Oxfordites meet again at a wild party. It turns out they have continued to fund a radical's efforts to write a book which will revolutionize society, a book many years in the making. Now the stakes have changed--their politics have moved to the right, and the radical, an unbalanced genius, has run off not once but twice with the spouse of one of the group. One has to get past he morass of character development. I'll admit I was confused for the first fifty pages. I love the way the pace is so different from Murdoch's last, The Good Apprentice, which started out with a bang, after which followed a slow unraveling of the repurcussions of violence. This time the shocking event happens at the end, and the entire book slowly builds to this climax of unforeseen tragedy, clearly destined, surprising, and yet inevitable.

Note: I seemed to love this, but never again read an Iris Murdoch book. What's that about?

9. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, by Michael Chabon.
I must convince people that this is not the next Bret Easton Ellis or Jay McInerney. Yes this is a coming-of-age novel, but the hero, Art Bechstein, is becoming an adult, not an adolescent. Yes, it's set in one of my all time favorite, never-visited cities and the places seem to be so genuine that I am planning to tour with this book as one of my guidebooks. Is the story autobiographical? The characters --his motorcycle pal, his bisexual buddy, his sweet but strange girlfriend, and his gangster father, are far from stereotype, and yet they are so far out they are believeable (with the possible exception of Dad, who I reads like a total fabrication). Chabon has a love affair going on with language and those he sometimes gets a little wordy for my taste, general his turns of phrase give me much pleasure.

Note: I bought a signed hardcover at the long-gone Squirrel Hill Bookshop, when I finally visited Pittsburgh. The cover pictured at left is for the new ebook.

10. Civil to Strangers and Other Writings, by Barbara Pym.
Three novels, some short stories, and a radio talk constitute what should be the last of Pym's published work. The title novel is Pym at her most traditional; a married woman is thought to be having an affair with a mytserious Hungarian. Still, it's the spy thriller, So Very Secret, that is the real winner here. To see an excellent women with sensible shoes caught in the web of any plot, let alone a World War II intrigue, is enough to keep any remote Pym-ophile in stitches.

Note: We're planning a Barbara Pym 101st birthday celebration for January 2, 2014. Want to help? Let me know.

Boswell's Best Looks at Fiction, Including Hosseini, Wallace, Scalzi, Tartellin, and Cheng, but Not Nesbo. Explanation Below.

Here's some fiction titles, some of them brand new, others a few weeks old, in Boswell's Best. All are 20% off, at least through next Monday.

"People who love Old Man's War are going to love this," said our buyer Jason, regarding John Scalzi's new novel, The Human Division (Tor). Publishers Weekly called this "an invigorating and morally complex interstellar thriller with heart." And for folks who already know they love Scalzi, I'd like to note that he will be visiting A Room of One's Own this Thursday, May 23, at 4 pm. We hosted a great event with him last year for Redshirts. For at least some of you, I think it's worth taking a vacation day to see him. Tell Sandi and friends we sent you!

Who am I kidding? By far the most high profile release of the week is And the Mountains Echoed (Riverhead), by Khaled Hosseini. While his first novel explored the father/son bond, and #2 tackled mothers and daughters, the newest is a story about siblings Pari and Abdullah, with Hosseini exploring the many ways in which family members love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another. Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called And the Mountains Echoed "his most assured and emotionally gripping story yet, more fluent and ambitious than The Kite Runner, more narratively complex than A Thousand Splendid Suns," and that ain't cole slaw.

Atria's been talking up Golden Boy (Atria), the first novel by Abigail Tartelin in a big way, and that led to a read and recommendation from Halley. She writes "Max is an outgoing, popular, and athletic fifteen-year-old son of a candidate for Parliament. Hidden underneath the perfect child facade is the fact that Max was born intersex, neither truly male or female. In a tragic turn, Max is betrayed and hurt by one of his childhood friends, which takes the book to even darker territory. The story broke my heart on numerous occasions, but even when I thought that I could go no further I kept on picking up the book for more." Jeanne Thornton in the Austin Chronicle also likes the novel, calling it "blissfully mainstream."

Stacie asked me if I'd tried reading Southern Cross the Dog (Ecco), by Bill Cheng, as she's become a huge fan. The New York Times story piqued a lot of folks interest, interviewing Southern booksellers who noted that Cheng nailed the voice of the area. The author was a student of Nathan Englander, who passed the book to Nicole Aragi. The Memphis Commercial Appeal is similarly fascinated that the author did not step foot in Mississippi before writing the book. When folks write books set in Wisconsin without having visited before (or in one case, having been here for just a few weeks), we yawn and say, "What else is new?" Stacie's rec says "Just trust me: open to page one and start reading. It only becomes more hypnotic as each page is turned. Wow."

One guy who has probably been to Mississippi is Daniel Wallace, whose new novel is The Kings and Queens of Roam (Touchstone), though you may know him from his first novel, Big Fish. It's the story of two sisters, their dark legacy, and the magical town that entwines them. Recs come from Hannah Tinti, Jill McCorkle, and Ron Rash, who says "the most impressive magic is his understanding of the human heart's depths and vagaries." A lot of folks call it fairy tale-ish. David Klein writes in Indy Week of Raleigh/Cary/Durham/Chapel Hill, "It's a testament to Wallace's skill at what one character calls 'maintaining fictions' that we are so immersed—or, in psychologist Bruno Bettelheim's locution, enchanted—by the tale he's spinning that we don't blink an eye at the idea of a lovelorn goat."

And finally, I asked Jason what happened to our the new Jo Nesbo novel, The Redeemer. Funny I should ask! Jason learned that our new release shipment was put on the wrong truck. They caught it, but that led to a one day delay. We'll have Nesbo and the other new titles from Random House's divisions and distributees tomorrow. 

Sedaris Yes, But Also Harilyn Rousso, Barry Wightman, Douglas Foster, Ru Freeman, and at the Weyenberg Library, Michael Perry.

Monday May 20, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Harilyn Rousso, author of Don’t Call Me Inspirational: A Disabled Feminist Talks Back 
This event is co-sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy of Southeastern Wisconsin, IndependenceFirst, and Disability Rights Wisconsin.

Daniel's take: Thanks to Ellen Bravo for helping put this event together. We are very proud to say that our store is (aside from getting the door open sometimes) a very accessible place for folks in wheelchairs. And who knew that would be an inadvertent bonus of having more lower cases in the center of the store?

Harilyn Rousso is a disability activist, feminist, psychotherapist, writer, and painter. She is the President of Disabilities Unlimited Consulting Services, founder of the Networking Project for Disabled Women and Girls, and co-editor of Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education and author of Disabled, Female, and Proud!.

In her empowering, and at times confrontational memoir, Rousso, who has cerebral palsy, describes overcoming the prejudice against disability—not overcoming disability. She addresses the often absurd and ignorant attitudes of strangers, friends, and family—as well as her own prejudice toward her disabled body—and portrays the healing effects of intimacy and creativity, as well as her involvement with the disability rights community. She intimately reveals herself with honesty and humor and measures her personal growth as she goes from “passing” to embracing and claiming her disability as a source of pride, positive identity, and rebellion.

“I've known Harilyn Rousso as a powerful activist and gifted artist, but with this revelatory book, she becomes something even rarer: a storyteller who conveys her uniqueness and so helps us to discover our own. Don’t Call Me Inspirational is irresistible to read, honest, insightful, and universal.”—Gloria Steinem

also on Monday, May 20, 6:30 pm, at the Frank L. Weyenberg Library, 11345 N. Cedarburg Road, Mequon 53092:
Michael Perry, author of Visiting Tom and more.

Say hi to us in Mequon, where we'll be selling books for Michael Perry and our friends at the Weyenberg Public Library (and also our friends at the Friends of the Weyenberg Library). Perhaps you missed our event last fall or the one at Next Chapter. This is part of Mequon's Communities Read program. I don't have to say it sounds like a blast; I know it will be a blast!

Tuesday, May 21, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Barry Wightman, author of Pepperland.

Daniel's take: This should be a fun event! We'll have music accompaniment and some light refreshments. And if you can't make tonight's event,you can see Wightman at the Brookfield Public Library on Tuesday, June 18, 7 pm.

Local favorite Barry Wightman is fiction editor for Hunger Mountain, a journal for the arts based in Vermont. He is an award-winning essayist who has contributed work to WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio and reviews books for publications in Chicago, Milwaukee and Washington D.C., including the Washington Independent Review of Books. Wightman is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and plays in a rock ‘n’ roll band, The Outta State Plates.

Regarding his new novel, Pepper Porter is on an improbable journey to rock stardom when his long-gone girlfriend reappears. Sooz, a subversively brilliant computer whiz, has crafted an algorithm that “will forever change the direction of all human communications,” fuel the birth of the personal computer and the Internet. But there’s trouble looming as Sooz is on the lam from the FBI—she’s ex-Weather Underground—radical and revolutionary. Falling in love with Pepper, she asks—do you want to play your little rock 'n’ roll songs or change the world? He says—both.

A 70s rock-and-roll race through the heartland of America and a love letter to the power of new-fangled computers and the importance of a guitar pick: Pepperland is about missing information, missing people, missing guitars, paranoia, brothers, revolution, Agents of the Federal Government, IBM, Hugh Hefner, a Dark Stranger, love, death and the search for it amidst the wreckage of recession-wracked, entropically rundown mid-seventies America.

Wednesday, May 22, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Douglas Foster, author of After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Douglas Foster, an associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, is a contributor to The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and Smithsonian.

Daniel's take: Both Anne Lamott and Michael Pollan have sung the praises of Douglas Foster and his work to me. I occasionally get gripes from customers that we don't do enough serious nonfiction. Here's your second event in a week. Show up and make us proud of our strong turnout for serious subjects so that we can the publishers that the new nickname for Milwaukee is Smartypants City (or alternately Brainiburg).

A brutally honest expose, After Mandela provides a sobering portrait of a country caught between a democratic future and a political meltdown.

Recent works have focused primarily on Nelson Mandela's transcendent story. But Douglas Foster, a leading South Africa authority with early, unprecedented access to President Zuma and to the next generation in the Mandela family, traces the nation's entire post-apartheid arc, from its celebrated beginnings under "Madiba" to Thabo Mbeki's tumultuous rule to the ferocious battle between Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Foster tells this story not only from the point of view of the emerging black elite but also, drawing on hundreds of rare interviews over a six-year period, from the perspectives of ordinary citizens, including an HIV-infected teenager living outside Johannesburg and a homeless orphan in Cape Town. This is the long-awaited, revisionist account of a country whose recent history has been not just neglected but largely ignored by the West.

“What a pleasant surprise to encounter a book that actually looks beyond the surface... Foster gives us a portrait of a vibrant nation, full of contrasts and contradictions."—Martin Rubin, Los Angeles Times.

Thursday, May 23, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane.

Daniel's take: Both Stacie (pictured with Freeman) and I have spent time with Ru Freeman at Winter Institute and AWP and we both were cativated. This is a great event for fiction fans, but also for folks interested in world affairs. Freeman takes the war in Sri Lanka and makes it come to life as fiction, using one of my favorite literary devices--reducing the conflict to folks on one block.

Ru Freeman is the author of A Disobedient Girl, which was a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and has been translated into seven languages. She is an activist and journalist whose work appears internationally.

For those who loved Kiran Desai’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss, and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, a novel that Cheryl Strayed calls “Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound… a riveting, important, beauty of a book.”

The Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) claimed tens of thousands of lives and pitted friends, neighbors, colleagues, and lovers against one another: Tamils and Sinhalese, Buddhist and Catholic and Hindu, rich and poor. In Ru Freeman’s stunning new novel, On Sal Mal Lane, we are transported to a quiet street in Colombo in the years leading up to the deadliest conflict in Sri Lankan history. The children growing up on Sal Mal Lane fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all. In a heart-rending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children—a beloved sister and her over-protective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers—contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman’s masterful hands, On Sal Mal Lane, a story of what was lost to a country and her people, becomes a resounding cry for reconciliation.

Sunday, May 26, 2 pm, at Boswell:
David Sedaris, author of Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.
Doors open at 10 am for this event.

Daniel's take: This is a free event however some restrictions/guidelines may be put into place. We expect to fill up early, but will arrange for an overflow signing line outside. As per our previous blog post, there are no holdsies on this event. You cannot come to the store, hold your place, and leave. Once you're here, you must stay here to make sure we do not close the door when we reach capacity. We will have hall passes for folks needing to use the facilities are get refreshments from the Starbucks next door.

1. We will not cut off the line. Mr. Sedaris will make sure that everyone's book is signed. I don't usually say this, but if you can't make it early, I think you could probably show up at 4 pm and we'd still be here. Also 6 pm. Maybe 8 pm. Who knows? Call the store to double check.

2. There are no photos or video allowed for this event. That's pretty much the only restriction. Folks that hear the presentation will get a line letter, but you are not required to buy the book from us to get the letter.

Oh, and a bit about the book. From the unique perspective of David Sedaris comes a new book of essays taking his readers on a bizarre and stimulating world tour. From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that are not to be forgotten.

Not going to be in town or looking for a more civilized experience? David Sedaris will be back in Milwaukee on Friday, November 1, for a show at the Pabst Theater. Books will be for sale from our friends at Rainy Day Books. Buy your tickets here.

What an exciting week! Please say hi when you're in the store.

Boswell's Sunday Bestsellers, Week Ending 5/18/13. Dan Brown, Books from the Grad Table, Plus Links to the Journal Sentinel Reviews.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Inferno, by Dan Brown
2. Red Moon, by Benjamin Percy
3. A Delicate Truth, by John Le Carre
4. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson
5. Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
6. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
7. The Conditions of Love, by Dale Kushner
8. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
9. Leaving Everything Most Loved, by Jacqueline Winspear
10. Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende

Well, Mother's Day season officially ended last Sunday, but the strong female fiction still dominated in positions held, with seven of the top ten slots held by women. Regarding Americanah, the new novel from the author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, Maureen Corrigan raved on Fresh Air: "Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting meanings of skin color; but, as Adichie has said in interviews, she also knows that black women's hair can speak volumes about racial politics."

I can't exactly say whether Inferno, Dan Brown's new release, drove other folks into the store, or whether it was folks in town for graduations from UWM and Marquette, but whatever it was, our bestseller numbers were quite good this week for hardcover fiction. Regarding Brown's newest, Molly Driscoll at the Christian Science Monitor has done the grunt work of collecting reviewers responses. It varies from best book yet, to worst book. I have to say, mixed reviews of a groundbreakingly successful thriller series like this is a triumph--when someone's this big on the commercial level, expectations are high and there is always someone who wants to knock you down a peg. 

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris (nonticketed event is 5/26, 2 pm)
2. Gulp, by Mary Roach
3. The Guns at Last Night, by Rick Atkinson
4. Cooked, by Michael Pollan
5. Letters to a Young Scientist, by E.O. Wilson
6. Country Girl, by Edna O'Brien
7.  Behind the Beautiful Forevers, by Katherine Boo
8. Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown
9. Lean In, by Sheryl Sandberg
10. Mom and Me and Mom, by Maya Angelou

Definitely the hit of the inspirational picks on the graduation table (and there seem to be more of these every year) is E.O. Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist, which I know has been what our young scientist, Halley, has been recommending. We're also doing particularly well with Mary Roach's Gulp, having more than tripled our sales of 2010's Packing for Mars (and doubled Bonk sales for Schwartz on Downer in 2008). Here's an interview with Roach from Busines Insider. How much food can you eat before your stomach bursts?

Papeback fiction:
1. This Most Amazing, by Jenny Benjamin
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. Jail Coach, by Hillary Bell Locke
4. Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
5. The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
6. The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain
7. The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka
8. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple

I met with several book clubs this week. One came with their list prepared, but we wound up tweaking it a bit. Another was working at our book club table, and knowing one of the participants, we started chatting about suggestions. But my favorite was a young couple who simply wanted to read the same book and talk about it--a mini book club of two. I gave them a few suggestions, expecting they'd tell me which direction to go to from there, but they wound up gravitating to Peter Heller's The Dog Stars. Anyhoo, that's partly how Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic wound up on the list this week. It's great for an intense club that wants to have the rich experience they demand in a month where they are time crunched.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. Bossypants, by Tina Fey
2. Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
3. I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar,  by Sharon Nichols
4. Bits and Pieces, by Barry Blackwell (event is July 10, 7 pm)
5. A Merry Memoir of Love, Sex, and Religion, by Daniel Maguire

I have to check with Jason as to whether I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar was a group purchase to one person or really popped that successfully off our graduation table. The book is actually from 2009. It's actually a variation of the popular Lonely Planet book Signspotting, with photos of bad grammar that were originally posted to a Facebook page. I looked at Ingram and saw they have a mess on order at the Indiana warehouse, so it appears this book might be quite the sleeper. Look at you, St. Martin's Griffin, acting like you're Chronicle or Workman or something.

Books for Kids:
1. The Lovable Dragon, by Barbara Joosse with illustrations by Randy Cecil
2. The Hollow Earth, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
3. Eggs 1-2-3, Who Will the Babies Be?, by Janet Halfmann, with illustrations by Betsy Thompson
4. Mice, by Lois Ehlert
5. One Came Home, by Amy Timberlake
6. Squirrel's World, by Lisa Moser, with illustrations by Valeri Gorbachev
7. Railroad Hank, by Lisa Moser, with illustrations by Benji Davies
8. Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King Jr's Final Hours, by Ann Bausum
9. Kisses on the Wind, by Lisa Moser, with illustraions by Kathryn Brown
10. Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss

I should note that nine of our top ten bestselling books on this list came from our Women's Club of Wisconsin event featuring area children's book authors. I was chatting with Ms. Joosse about the success of The Lovabye Dragon (we've sold way more of this title than any of her others since we've been open) and how there will be at least one more title that follows the friendship of this princess and her dragon.

Carole E. Barrowman is #2 on our kids' list this week, but she's also featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Paging Through Mysteries" column for four new releases. His Majesty's Hope features a female spying in training in World War II. Barrowman says "To write with energy and suspense about a period of history where many trod before can be a challenge, demanding a fresh perspective and an intimacy among characters so readers care about them as much as the world they inhabit." Her mom also recommends this one.

Ace Atkins, who was just in town at Mystery One promoting his new Spenser novel, Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, has a recommendation from Barrowman for The Broken Places, the newest in a series featuring Quinn Colson. She calls this "evocative tale of revenge and redemption plays out in Biblical proportions near a town called Jericho."

In Owen Laukkanen's Criminal Enterprise, a  once-successful businessman turns to robbing backs to pay the bills and finds he likes it, in that sort of "Breaking Bad" kind of way. Barrowman's take? " This book may be a chilling allegory for our disturbing economic times, but it's also a slick cinematic thriller that kept me reading long into the wee hours."

Finally, Barrowman gives a shout out to the popular spy thriller, Chris Pavone's The Expats, now in paper. "With every stunning reveal, readers are drawn deeper into a tangled web."

I mentioned earlier that Jason really loved the new Adichie novel, Americanah. Mike Fischer in the Journal Sentinel is a bit mixed, feeling the story has a bit of an identity crisis. However, "despite this novel's identity crisis, Adichie's willingness to try something different — and her insistence on posing questions that matter — is bracing. Discussing race, this novel takes real risks — and challenges us to do the same with each other."

And also in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins' this week explores an offbeat book that nonetheless fascinates me as well. It's The World's Strongest Librarian,  the memoir of a Salt Lake City, well, librarian of course. From Higgins: "If Hanagarne had published his memoir a year earlier, Mitt Romney could have handed copies out on the campaign trail to demystify public anxieties about Mormonism. Hanagarne experiences both the high and lows of belonging to a church that prizes close-knit community and also stresses obedience. A low point comes when the LDS Family Services turns down Hanagarne and his wife, Janette, for a possible adoption, based on a pair of short interviews with a 23-year-old intern. Hanagarne's Tourette's, late-blooming work history and passion for Mark Twain (not the Mormon world's favorite American writer) are all possible reasons for the denial."

I'm so glad Mr. Higgins brought up this book, as I really wanted a place to link to the NPR "Teenage Diaries Revisited" series the one that featured Josh Cutler,  a once teen, now adult, who is living with Tourette's Syndrome, and is currently on leave from teaching because another teacher felt threatened by his behavior. It's a really powerful segment. I think you should listen to it right now. 

Saturday Gift Post--New Magnets, Page Flags, Flexible Book Lights.

I finally have some new items in the store, but I'm not going to say that anything is groundbreaking, just a cute variation on a theme. For example, we've been doing so well with page flags from Girl of All Work that I bought this assortment from Streamline, which features wild animals, marine life, aliens, and birds, all packaged traveling together in, well, a bus/submarine/airplane/spaceship.

Another ever-popular bookstore staple is the booklight. Recently I brought in some new booklights from Mighty Bright that look like charming little desk lamps. But I also decided to try these flexible booklights, that wrap around your hand, a pole, a bicycle, whatever. It's called the Flexiflash and it's from DCI. I really should test one, but I'm not sure what to wrap it around. Seems like the answer to a question I hadn't asked yet. That would make author Dan Pink proud.

And finally we also got in our new shipment of I Pops, the super strong magnets from Madison Park. I love the various artists they use--one of the things I like about this line is that each artist's work is separarated out into collections, but they don't really do that with their greeting cards. They should. Maybe someone in Seattle is reading this and the lightbulb is going off over their head.

My reorder was a combination of things that sold through and new designs. The pictured ones are animal skins from Fumi Watanabe, animals mailing letters from boygirlparty, insects from Xenia Taler, and the pirate set from, well, I can't figure out the artist on that one.

I Pop magnets seem to be quite popular. I even found this website selling them that seemed to have copy written by a robot. And I quote: "I think numerous persons out there are seeking iPop Retro Flowers and Butterflies 4 Pack Magnet Set Duo. For that reason, in this website I want to give a little article about it. This product, iPop Retro Flowers and Butterflies 4 Pack Magnet Set Duo, provides substantial satisfaction since buyer get it. The item has much more features that they have never think before. That's the reason I suggest iPop Retro Flowers and Butterflies 4 Pack Magnet Set Duo to become yours as well."

How can you not agree?

The Zelda Table, Which May be Late for The Opening of "The Great Gatsby", but is Just in Time for Our Event with R. Clifton Spargo, on Monday, June 10.

We've been juggling displays around the store, and realized we'd been remiss at putting up our F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald titles together. Now that The Great Gatsby has been released and is a hit, it's probably good for a couple more months. That's good, as our Fitzgerald event isn't until June 10 It's for former Marquette prof R. Clifton Spargo, whose novel, Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald been showing up in the various Fitzgerald roundups. Boswellian Jane has become quite the fan, talking it up to lots of folks.

Ruth Scurr's column, "The Legend of Zelda" (of course), profiles several of the titles in The Wall Street Journal. Scurr noted what we have seen, that the book, at least Z, fall into The Paris Wife  and Loving Frank trend of writing autobiographal "wife of" novels. She notes: "Zelda is a compelling, but problematic, candidate for a "wife of" novel. Soon after Hemingway met the Fitzgeralds for the first time in Paris in 1925, he noticed two kinds of jealousy in their marriage: Zelda was jealous of Scott's work, but Scott was also jealous of Zelda's vitality and charisma."

Olivia Barker's review in USA Today makes the point that "Z is at its best as a parallel picture of not just a pioneering woman but a groundbreaking era. Popular culture tends to forget that for women, the '20s were nearly as epochal as the '60s."You can hear more about Therese Anne Fowler's take on Zelda in this interview on NPR. 

One of the other titles profiled, Call me Zelda, is the follow up to Hemingway's Girl. I wonder how Hemingway and Fitzgerald would have felt about being forever linked by book clubs.Publishers Weekly wrote that Erica Robuck's novel "effectively captures the Fitzgeralds' turbulent marriage, as well as their inability to function personally or professionally beyond their jazz age heyday and into the Depression era.

Regarding Spargo's novel, Julia Klein the Boston Globe says Beautiful Fools (the title derives from a Fitzgerald quote) is more narrowly focused, but almost as engrossing. Its narrative recreates a less than idyllic vacation that the couple took in Cuba in 1939, near the end of Fitzgerald’s life. Writing in third person, and alternating between Scott’s and Zelda’s perspectives, Spargo describes the imperfect communion of two troubled souls who can’t quite let go of their past or each other.

One book that hasn't made it into all the roundups is Superzelda, a graphic novel from One Peace Books. Jeff Nilsson in The Saturday Evening Post (that exists?) reviewed the book, observing "author Tiziana Lo Porto and illustrator Daniele Marotta offer a view of Zelda that is not quite either of these pictures. They show a Zelda who knows her own mind, and is determined to live with as little compromising as possible. But their Zelda also desperately seeks her own artistic outlet as a writer, dancer, and painter, without ever quite succeeding. The book tries to separate Zelda the natural-born eccentric from the Zelda who spent the last decade of her life in and out of mental hospitals"

And if you want a biography instead of a novel, both Jane and Anne recommend Nancy Milford's Zelda. 

But Spargo's our man, because he's the one coming to Boswell. Mark your calendar for Monday, June 10, 7 pm, at Boswell. And perhaps you'll want to wear something from the new Gatsby collection at Brooks Brothers.

Lauren Conrad is Coming for a Signing at Boswell. Yes, Boswell! Mark Your Calendars for Wednesday, June 12, 7 pm.

We've still got plenty of spring events to go, but I'm already booking summer and fall. For summer, the touring authors are in place, and we're filling things in with locals, and folks heading over from Chicago, Milwaukee, and sometimes Minneapolis and St. Paul. But we're particularly excited about some of the folks who are leaving us a bit starry eyed. I've already written about David Sedaris (coming Sunday, May 26, 2 pm) and I'll be writing shortly about Jim Gaffigan (Saturday, June 15, 7 pm, the best Father's Day present ever), but today I'm writing for the gals. Yes, Lauren Conrad is coming to Boswell for a signing on Wednesday, June 12, at 7 pm for her novel Infamous, which goes on sale June 11.

Let's get to all the details you want to know. The $20 ticket includes a copy of her new novel Infamous.. That's the price with tax for Wisconsin residents, so the ticket will be listed online at $18.94.

You can buy your ticket here.

We are co-sponsoring this event with Kohls, who features Lauren Conrad's "LC Lauren Conrad for Kohls" collection at their stores.Here's what the folks at Kohls have to say about the line.

"LC Lauren Conrad for Kohl’s delivers a contemporary, feminine collection of clothing, shoes and accessories for the fashion-conscious young woman. LC Lauren Conrad clothing is inspired by both breezy, beach looks and style staples. The collection incorporates delicate details like lace and ruffles with tailored, updated classics to offer you an entire wardrobe of fun and flirty pieces for any occasion."

Though a lot of readers outside the Milwaukee market don't know this, Kohl's is based in metro Milwaukee, headquarted in nearby Menomonee Falls.

In addition, we are donating $2 of every ticket to a charity that is dear to both Kohl's and Boswell's heart, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Here's a little more about Infamous:
"Filming for season two of The Fame Game has begun, and star Madison Parker is doing something she never thought she’d do: avoiding the PopTV cameras. She knows Trevor will come groveling, and that she’ll go back to the show eventually—but on her terms. Fame can turn a girl into a pawn, and Madison knows that’s not the life she wants. Fame can turn a girl into a target, too, something her Fame Game costars are quickly learning. Up-and-coming actress Carmen is trying to figure out who’s feeding gossip about her to the press, and all signs point to someone from her inner circle.

"Meanwhile, the tabloids have dubbed Kate 'The Boring One,' but if she’s so boring, why is she the one with the boyfriend and a stalker? Help comes from an unexpected place as Madison gives Kate pointers about how to work the reality-TV system. But will Kate take the advice too far? As the girls’ careers heat up, so do their love lives, and they each discover that chasing their dreams almost always comes at a price."

And here is some more information about Lauren Conrad:

Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in the MTV hit series The Hills. She is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including the L.A. Candy series as well as Lauren Conrad Style and Lauren Conrad Beauty, her fashion and beauty guides. She has been featured on the covers of Elle, Glamour, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, Shape, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. She lives in Los Angeles.

We're very excited about (and honestly, honored to be part of) the event and hope you are too. Please help spread the word.
 

Happy National Children's Book Week in Three Parts. The Tote! The Events! The Books from Our Boswell's Best Case!

Welcome to our three-part blog post, celebrating National Children's Book Week.

a. Tonight we're selling books at the Women's Club of Wisconsin, 813 E. Kilbourn Avenue. The program, Wisconsin Women Write for Children features seven wonderful local authors: Carole Barrowman, Ann Bausum, Lois Ehlert, Janet Halfmann, Barbara Joosse,, JoAnn Early Macken, and Lisa Moser.

Starting time is 6:30 and admission is $15 ($5 for students), with registration available at the door.We'll have National Children's Book Week posters for all attendees and a free bag to the first 25 people to spend $15 or more.

b. On Thursday, April 16, 6:30 pm, we're co-hosting Amy Timbelake at the St. Francis Public Library, 4230 S. Nicholson Ave, 53235. She'll be there for her novel One Came Home. Random House originally added a school and public event mini-tour (she's also at Books and Company on Wednesday, at 4:30 pm) due to the strength of his review in Journal Sentinel.

"Timberlake set her story in 1871 in Placid, a fictionalized version of Wisconsin Dells. That year, the largest nesting of passenger pigeons ever recorded took place in the state: It might have taken up as many as 850 square miles in south-central Wisconsin. (Unfortunately, passenger pigeons have been extinct since 1914.)" Read the rest of the story here.

Once again, the first people to buy One Came Home at the library will get a National Children's Book Week book bag.


c. And of course we should highlight a few kids' books! One book on this week's Boswell's Best is The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle (Walden Pond), by Christopher Healy. It's the follow up to Healy's The Hero's Gide to Saving Your Kingdom, and features the Princes Charming--Duncan, Liam, Gustav, and Frederic, stepping out of the shadows of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Briar Rose, to defeat an evil witch bent on destroying all their kingdoms. Susan Carpenter in The Los Angeles Times called this series "one of the more clever, hilariously successful incarnations of the current literary rage to rip apart and rewrite fairy tales."

The new book from Crystal Allen, whose How Lamar's Bad Prank won a Bubba-Sized Trophy received a Florida Sunshine State Award (it was raining the day of the ceremony, rumor has it) is The Laura Line. It's about 13-year-old Laura Dyson, who will do anything to prevent her class from making a field trip to the slave shack on her grandmother's property, but what if "anything" winds up putting the slave shack in jeopardy?

Here's a bit from book blogger Valeria Espinoza. "As soon as I saw this novel, I began reading it, right there in the bookstore. I was quickly fascinated with Laura and her life struggling in middle school. It took me back when I was in middle school simultaneously trying to fit in and be myself, or better yet, trying to figure out who I was. I loved Laura from the get go because we are all her in a fraction of our lives; not accepting who we are, or being afraid of who we want to be. The only obstacle in our lives is ourselves and that is evident in The Laura Line. Getting rid of that obstacle, of our own fears, is the hardest part and seeing this fight within the character herself, made it even more realistic and captivating."

Hey, a bookstore mentioned in a book blogger's review! That warms my heart.  

Amie, Stacie, and Jane have all been anxiously awaiting The Mighty Lalouche (Schwartz and Wade) from Matthew Olshan and Sophie Blackall, whose illustrations you probably know from the Ivy and Bean series. It's about a humble postman in Paris, who, sacked from his job at the post office, turns to boxing to support himself and his pet finch, Genevieve. I should note that he doesn't seem cut out for the career, but he turns out to be a worthy opponent. 

Amie told me that even the review copy she got was immaculately packaged, and there was no tape to seal it, as they tried to be true to the tools of the time in delivering The Mighty Lalouche to booksellers. Sophie Blackall has a fascinating blog post on how she put the artwork together. Wow!

And finally, another book that made the rounds of booksellers, but hasn't yet made it into the blog is Mo Willems's That is Not a Good Idea (Balzer and Bray) It's also a period place, but takes the format of a silent movie. A hungry fox (his name is Hungry Fox)  meets a blushing goose (That's Plump Goose, to you) and asks her to go for a stroll, and then asks her for dinner, as the audience (baby geese, or are they goslings) looks on in horror and tries to warn the participants, "that is not a good idea!"

Want to know more? You can watch this trailer:


The four titles reviewed in part C of this post are all Boswell's Best through at least May 20. Happy National Children's Book Week!