Sunday Bestseller Post--Event Recaps and Announcements, Plus Among the Asides, a Pynchon-Lethem Smackdown. Should Lethem Get More Secretive and Paranoid to Boost Sales?

The cooler weather definitely brought folks into the store this week. I thought with everything going on this past Saturday that we'd be dead, but that was not the case. And I was happy to get several comments from customers receiving the email who learned about Global Union. We also chatted with our friends at Woodland Pattern (as well as author Kathie Giorgio), who said that things were going quite well at the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books. Speaking of Giorgio, her new novel, Learning to Tell (a Life) Time is now available for purchase on the Boswell website. Here's a link to the review from Jim Higgins in the Journal Sentinel last week.

Hardcover Fiction
1. Bleeding Edge, by Thomas Pynchon
2. Enon, by Paul Harding (event Wed. 9/25, 7 pm)
3. Someone, by Alice McDermott (event Sat. 9/28, 11 am)
4. Burial Rites, by Hannah Kent (event Thurs. 9/26, 7 pm)
5. How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny
6. Claire of the Sea Light, by Edwidge Danticat
7. Duplex, by Kathryn Davis
8. Inferno, by Dan Brown
9. Round House, by Louise Erdrich
10. MadAddam, by Margaret Atwood

Because most of this week's events were for paperbacks or kids books, the hardcover fiction bestseller list is crowded with next week's events. I've marked them clearly so you don't think we're having Thomas Pynchon, Margaret Atwood, or Louise Erdrich. Some of Enon are advance purchases for our school event with him at Nicolet in the afternoon. I should also note that the Journal Sentinel featured Carolyn Cooke's San Francisco Chronicle Enon review--you can read it here.

Oh, and I should note that Jason and I had a fascinating conversation about Thomas Pynchon and Jonathan Lethem's sales trajectories. Both authors had identical and very strong sales with us for their last hardcovers (Inherent Vice and Chronic City), but I bet that Pynchon would do better this time, while Jason placed his bet on Lethem. So far, I seem to be winning this one (I assure you, I often do not, as I made Jason buy more Hothouse and have had trouble getting folks to grab onto this, though our customer Dennis agrees with me that its a wonderfully entertaining read) because I think at this point in their respective careers, Pynchon is review proof, while Lethem still has to proove himself with every title and so Bleeding Edge gets the edge over Dissident Gardens. Both authors actually had good reviews on their new work, each with front page Book Review/New York Times (anyone else noted this weird change to the section's title?), with Pynchon's by none other than Lethem.

My advice to Lethem. Stop doing press, stop touring (I've got nothing to lose, as the author has not been to Milwaukee since You Don't Love me Anyway in 2007), and start getting super secretive. He's got everything in place for this, including a love of Philip K. Dick.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. When Spiritual but not Religious is not Enough, by Lillian Daniel
2. Wilson, by A. Scott Berg
3. Lawrence in Arabia, by Scott Anderson
4. This Town, by Mark Leibovich
5. Zealot, by Reza Aslan
6. Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward (Hannah’s rec)
7. Knocking on Heaven’s Door, by Katy Butler (Jane’s rec)
8. Command and Control, by Eric Schlosser (Jason’s rec)
9. Jerusalem, by Yottam Ottolenghi
10. Heart of the Plate, by Mollie Katzen

Immanuel Presbyterian Church is running a discussion group on Wednesday evenings for Lillian Daniel's book, which is published by Jericho, the edgier division of Hachette's Christian publishing program, FaithWords. Regarding Mollie Katzen's newest, I heard the author talking with Joy Cardin on Wisconsin Public Radio this week, which may account for some of the pop for Heart of the Plate.

You'll probably see it again, but here's Boswellian Hannah-Johnson-Breimeier's recommendation of Men We Reaped: "Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award winning author of Salvage the Bones, knows too well the awful consequences of the Black male holocaust in our country. Five men beloved to her have died, due in part to the endless repetitive cycle of generational poverty and violence in their communities. Ward writes this moving and tender memoir to honor their memories and to attempt to make sense of her overpowering grief."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Tinkers, by Paul Harding
2. My Summer on Haight Street, by Robb Rice
3. The Tint of Glass Awnings, by Brian Quinn
4. The President’s Hat, by Antoine Laurain (event Tues. 9/24, 7 pm)
5. The Cutting Room Floor, by Sherrie Ball
6. Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
7. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
8. Lio: There’s a Monster in My Socks, by Mark Tatulli (event Sun. 10/13, 2 pm)
9. Lio: Making Friends, by Mark Tatulli
10. Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow

We're hosting Mark Tatulli for some schools on October 14, not for his Lio books but for his first middle grade graphic novel, or whatever they call books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid format. It's Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic, and the event is Sunday, October 13, 2 pm, one of five events we're hosting during what must be called "Crazy Packed Week of Events for Kids" week. If you can come up with a better name, let me know.

Hannah's a big fan of the Lio strip, but alas, it isn't carried by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. As one teacher noted, the strip is Calvin and Hobbes-esque. You can actually view the strip on Go Comics.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Larceny Games, by Brian Tuohy
2. Milwaukee at Water’s Edge, by Tom Pilarzyk (event Tues. 10/15, 7 pm)
3. Whiskerslist, by Angie Bailey
4. Honey and Vinegar, by Linetta Davis
5. Quiet, by Susan Cain

I had a little trouble categorizing the books from our Rebirth Ink event. I classified Brian Quinn and Sherrie Ball's books as fiction, but because Linetta Davis's book is a memoir with poetry, I put it in nonfiction. I think all the titles are classified as poetry in the store. It's like humor--I actually have to go through the category and determine where the books should actually fall each week, leading of course, to some inconsistencies.

Regarding Milwaukee at Water's Edge, we haven't had an updated Milwaukee guide book in who knows how long, so it's exciting to see Tom Pilarzyk take the plunge. The book is published by Trails Books.

Books for Kids:
1. The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde
2. Locomotive, by Brian Floca
3. Song of the Quarkbeast, by Jasper Fforde
4. Moonshot, by Brian Floca
5. Smoke, by Ellen Hopkins

As you've probably noticed, school event sales go on for several weeks as the student orders come in, which is why Fforde and Floca trade off spots on the bestseller list this week. Following Smoke are a number of Ellen Hopkins backlist titles, the most popular of which turned out to be Crank, just like demand showed on Ingram. Hopkins was telling me the new edition adjusted the trim size of Smoke, leading to a spirited discussion of the "new adult" genre.

In the Journal Sentinel, Carole E. Barrowman reviews Patrick Ness's More than This, which she says, well this is too good to paraphrase:

"When I finished Patrick Ness' More Than This, my first thought was Ness has written the 21st century's version of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. My second was I need to assign this in a lit class because much like Salinger's book (and John Green's more recent The Fault in Our Stars), Ness' young-adult novel is a game-changer. This genre-bending, pulse-pounding book is provocative and philosophical and sweet and darkly funny and it's destined to be discussed and debated. Plus there's not a vampire or a zombie lurking anywhere in its dystopian landscape."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer is respectful of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland, but like Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times, has issues. "Such writing works much too hard — and transparently — to force a coherence and unity that simply aren't here. Left to their own devices rather than nervously spooled through Lahiri's clunky plot, there is promising raw material aplenty in this book for several short stories — a form in which Lahiri can dazzle."

Others beg to differ. The Lowland was just announced to be part of the National Book Award longlist, as well as the Man Booker shortlist. Perhaps her inclusion was the impetus to lead to dropping the "no United States" rule, as Lahiri's inclusion pretty much broke it completely, having lived in the United States since childhood. It's a tricky question and I leave others to argue it out!

As noted above, we're super excited to sell Men we Reaped and are thrilled that Jim Higgins in the Journal Sentinel liked the book just as much as Hannah did. "Jesmyn Ward's memoir Men We Reaped is as beautiful, and sad, and scary, and as bone deep in its sense of suffering as a song by Howlin' Wolf."

And finally, a few reviews that are in the print edition only. Empty Mansions, which has a great rec from Nick, has a review from Philip Boroff in Bloomburg News.  And the Journal Sentinel also included Dan Cryer's review of Somone, highlighting our event next Saturday, September 28, at 11 am.

He begins: "Today's twentysomethings could learn a thing or two from Alice McDermott. Her novels amount to an astringent antidote to the fun-loving, just-do-it ethos of immediate gratification that makes contemporary youth seem so callow."

You can order a signed copy here.

Saturday Gift Post--Contemplating Cuteness, with New Breakfast-themed Keychains and Mini-Plush, Puzzles, and Lap Desks.

Regular readers of the blog have picked up by now that I have a soft spot for kawaii, or Japanese-style cuteness. There's the card line Maginating, for example, and the backpacks and lunchboxes I brought in from Beatrix. So when one of our gift reps showed me the Kidrobot line, I sort of swooned.

That said, one thing a buyer needs to remember is that our taste is not exactly our customers. One bookseller told me about working in a store where the buyer really loved cats, but it wasn't a pet store, so the market for the feline gifts wasn't quite as large as the buyer hoped. And similarly, this pop cultury stuff can skew a little narrow. There are other stores, Hot Pop, Exclusive Company, and Collectors Edge, come to mind, that might hit the market a bit more head on than us, but I thought surely there's something in the catalog that might work, and Mary noted that she hadn't placed on our side of town.

I was drawn to the breakfast items, if only because we have three strong brunch locations on our block--Cafe Hollander, Via Downer, and Original Pancake House*. We could have remind customers to revisit the block for brunch, and could have customers who came in who wanted a keepsake of their great brunch memories. OK, that's a little much. But am I glad that I bought the Dante's Down the Hatch bar glass when I was in Atlanta? Yes I am. I was shocked to hear that they recently closed.

So great, I brought in the mini plush and the key caps, and we've also got some of the erasers. But there was another problem. The key chains are blind box. That's a pop culture concept where you don't know which of the assortment you are getting, sort of an updated version of trading cards.

Let's just say our customers don't understand the concept of blind box. A small but significant chunk of them think they can open everything, even if they break the item or make it unsellable. I think this an issue that most bookstores have. So how do you make them understand but in fact you can't open this particular item, and if you get the sad banana instead of the happy grapefruit, you can't just bring it back?

At one point, we were just going to junk the blind box idea and open all the key chains and display them, but because of the way the key chains are constructed, they don't display on traditional racks. No, we're going to have to try this the way it was meant to be.

Is it ironic for me to say that after all my hesitations about buying this line, Jannis told me Barnes and Noble has been carrying them for about a year? I guess it's ok for a bookstore after all. 

So far, the biggest victim of this has been Nick, who wound up buying at least four keychains until the got the grapefruit of his dreams. He gave the banana to Greg and the donut to Jannis and the cupcake (breakfast cupcake?) to society.

Another new addition to the store are Pkolino puzzles, which also quite cute, though not exactly in kawaii way. We've been looking for some alternatives to Melissa and Doug as their presence has grown and expanded in the Milwaukee area. These puzzles are all wood and offer several creative options for solving.

When we ordered the Stephen Joseph backpacks and lunchboxes, the line was out of stock of their lapdesks. We don't normally hold backorders on gift items, as freight is so high, but in this case there was enough on the order to make it worth while. In addition to the owl and monkey lap desk, both of which contain a zippered pocket, we also got our dino pencil case.

And I'm sure you'll agree that these items are pretty cute as well.

*The original Original is in Portland, Oregon.

The Milwaukee-New York Connection, Kipp Friedman, The Back-Issue Magazine Store, and More About "Barracudas in the Attic"

Many years ago, when I was an assistant buyer, restocking books from publishers, one of my first responsibilities was buying blank books, a job, by the way, that I once again have. Back then, our major source was from Quillmark, a division of Random House, and the books were sold by the merchandise (kids) rep.

This was really the first rep from whom I actually bought new product We had a spinner rack, so my main job was keeping the rack full, but not so full that there was overstock. Each season I’d buy pretty much all the new product, reorder anything that sold in a reasonable amount of time, and call it a day. My biggest problem was getting product restocked in a timely fashion, a problem I still run into when a rack gets a little thin. And that’s a reminder that I should restock the Spitfire Girl wooden bookmarks.

To make a long story short, she hated Milwaukee, just hated it. She couldn’t find a good bagel, she couldn’t find a good deli, the restaurants closed too early, you had to go to the suburb to find a weekday matinee. Clothing stores, theater, you name it. All bad. But just as often New Yorkers take to the place. Recently a visitor said to me, "Everyone here is so friendly." I replied, “No, it’s just that since we've been walking around, I've run into five people I know."

A New Yorker visits and starts, at least temporarily, planning their move. Stacie and I hear it several times a year from authors, and the same day I wrote this piece, a publishing exec told me she started contemplating home prices. But I can think of at least one customer who pines for her former home in Manhattan weekly, always discussing her move back, but never quite geting there.

I’m sure you can find this for any two cities, certainly for any other city and Milwaukee, but there’s a weird New York-Milwaukee dynamic that only an ex-New Yorker might catch. Perhaps it’s all this moving back and forth. In Kipp Friedman’s case, it was college that sent him to the Midwest, leaving Manhattan to attend UW Madison. It’s all there in his new memoir in essays, Barracuda in the Attic.

Growing up as one of three sons of the writer Bruce J. Friedman, they had adventures many of us can’t imagine. I have a brother-in-law who is a noted playwright, but he didn’t take me to the Four Seasons in a limo when his show opened. And I can’t imagine spending a week at the Beverly Hills Hotel with an unlimited expense account. The whole experience reminded me quite a bit of the "Ricky Ricardo/Don Juan" extended adventure in the "I Love Lucy" series.

Kipp’s upbringing does resonate with me more than just another New York story, as before moving to Manhattan, the family lived in Glen Cove and Great Neck, two Long Island towns in the orbit of any two-car family living in Northeast Queens, as we Goldins did. Both our fathers liked to eat at the Jolly Fisherman in Roslynn. His dad’s bachelor pad was just a few blocks from my where my sister and brother-in-law (the playwright) lived in New York. Oh, and his father grew up on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, just like my Dad, and my dad and his grandfather were both cutters in the garment business.

Another thing we have in common was a childhood love of comic books. I wish I had known about Jay Bee Back-Issue Magazines; it sounds like heaven. I didn’t know if Kipp had a comic budget like I did; I snuck in extras under my shirt. And of course I did not have a brother like Drew, a fan who became part of the industry, collaborating with his writer brother Josh on work for Raw, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon, and High Times.

So with a pedigree like that, and an essay like “Comic Book Fever,” you can understand why his memoir was published by Fantagraphics. Another essay is about the transition during his childhood of horror movies from controlled, orderly terror to rule-breaking screamfests like “The Night of the Living Dead” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Just the kind of gore that skirts the artsy and cartoony that forms much of our graphic novel section, and is subsequently spun off into hugely successful series like "The Walking Dead."

Kipp Friedman is appearing at Boswell on Thursday, October 3, 7 pm. He's best known in Milwaukee for his photography and his work at the JCC. Our event is co-sponsored by the JCC as well. And if you'd like to get more of a taste of Friedman's memoir, Fantagraphics has a first chapter teaser online.

The Karen Joy Fowler Suprise and How to Approach Taking About "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves," Especially Because We're Hosting an Event with Her Next Monday, September 23.

The publisher went out of their way to keep the twist off the advance copy that I read. It's not in the blurbs either. But the truth of the matter is that Karen Joy Fowler's We are All Completely Beside Ourselves came out in June and I think I'm now writing to folks who weren't intrigued enough by the "we're not going to tell you what happens" pitch to buy the book without knowing what's going on. So we're going to tell you what's going on.

Karen Joy Fowler (photo credit Brett Hall Jones) is at Ragdale for a multi-author event, much like the one Gail Tsukiyama participated in last year. And like Tsukiyama, she's taking advantage of her central Chicago location to do a mini-midwestern tour. (The public event, by the way, is Friday, September 27 and also features such literary stars as Ruth Ozeki and Lauren Groff). You can get more info on their website.

So how did reviewers try to address the twist? Maureen Corrigan on NPR's Fresh Air warned of spoilers, but how could anyone who was interested in the book turn off the broadcast if they were interested in the book? Corrigan called the book "smart and exquisitely sad" but also noted it was "charming and comical."

Barbara Kingsolver in The New York Times Book Review notes that "The last writers to be unscathed by spoilers were probably the Victorians, who pounded out the likes of Great Expectations in weekly, serialized installments. So she basically says, "I shouldn't tell you but I have to." Her raves notes that the novel can be a bit madcap, but in the end, proclaims "this is a story of Everyfamily in which loss engraves relationships, truth is a soulful stalker and coming-of-age means facing down the mirror, recognizing the shape-shifting notion of self."

Well I think all the Karen Joy Fowler fans who were petrified about having a secret given away have all read the book. And can I also note that there is something that looks awfully simian-like swinging from the tree of the book jacket. So now I think I have to tell you the twist, even though there are many novels, such as Little Bee and The Story of a Marriage, where I was able to play the "not gonna give it away" game. 

Here's Chris Barton in the Los Angeles Times:
"Rosemary Cooke's personal life has put the broken in 'broken family.' Her sister Fern disappeared when she was five, and her brother Lowell  ran away by the time she was 11. She herself has abandoned Bloomington, Indiana for a college life at UC Davis where she has left her past behind. Relations with her parents are strained. Nobody knows her terrible secret. Nobody's going to call her names now.  Then her brother fleetingly shows up, on the run from the law. Will this exposure destroy her life once again, or will it be the impetus to slowly put her life back together?"

Yes, Rosemary's sister Fern is a chimpanzee, and Rosie was part of an experiment devised by her psychology professor father. Her brother? He's on the run from the law because he's rumored to be part of ALF, the Animal Liberation Front.You see, the family, or at least the kids, really did see Fern as one of them, and her disappearance, which forms the heart of the story, feels to them like a kidnapping.

To the outside world, they are just another family of science freaks. Is it any different from Geek Love, about the parents who give their kids drugs to make them freak show worthy? It reminded me of the rash of books about conjoined twins. In some strange way, these books all try to contemplate normality.  I thought of two other recent novels, Ape House, by Sara Gruen, which I read, and The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, by Benjamin Hale, which I did not, though I did go to a meet-the-author dinner that was arranged to get us to read the book. And then there's Peter Høeg's 1996 novel, The Woman and the Ape.

There are obviously differences between the novels. As Sharon notes, in Ape House, the protagnoist was a scientist, whereas here Rosie is one of the test subjects. And while her relationship was familial, it certainly didn't match the level of intimacy of Benjamin Hale's novel.

In the end, of course, Karen Joy Fowler's uses this unique setup to tell a story about ourselves, and not necessarily about chimpanzees. But isn't this what good literature does? The story must remain the same, as truth doesn't change, but we need to dress it up in different clothing to make it fresh. In Fern's case, she liked a tartan skirt with a safety pin clasp.

So did the book work? It certainly wasn't the bestseller of The Jane Austen Book Club. But I think that's just the Jane Austen factor. Cathleen Schine also had a jump onto the bestseller lists with The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and then returned back to a more earthly trajectory for Fin and Lady. It's a tough crossroads for a writer. You know you won't get the same literary reviews the second time you ape Austen, but you simply won't hold onto some of those newfound fans if you don't.

And maybe it's the animal thing. I don't think Sara Gruen's Ape House followed up Water for Elephants as well as, say, The Mermaid Chair followed up The Secret Life of Bees. Hey, I'm not writing or publishing novels, so for me, it's more sport than anything.

And when did I start equating bestsellerdom with literary achievement? Shame on me! I have friends like Michael in Boston who has been a huge fan of Karen Joy Fowler since her first novel, Sarah Canary. And Jane Hamilton is a big fan too, which is why she stepped outside her comfort zone to put together this mini-midwest Fowler tour. I wound up enjoying We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves as well, as have several Friends of Boswell who've stopped by.

So in the end, all I can do is encourage you to come to our event with the charming Karen Joy Fowler. It's next Monday, September 23, 7 pm. 

New Fiction with a Spooky Bent from Thomas Pynchon, Aminatta Forna, Jeanette Winterson, and John Searles, plus Terry McMillan Too.

We're caught in the avalanche of fall releases, and this week we're catching up with new and almost-new hardcover fiction. There are some high profile releases for sure, and probably none bigger for an indie bookstore than Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge (Penguin Press). This time the story is set in 2001 New York, and what is more perfect for a Pynchonian novel than the paranoia and conspiracies surrounding 9-11? The always erudite John Freeman* (ex-editor of Granta) writes in the Boston Globe "Bleeding Edge is essentially a private-eye novel, masquerading as a technothriller. It is a futuristic novel disguised in elegy. Like Tom Wolfe writing about New York as if he actually cared about the place. The action unfolds between the waning days of 2000 and pushes through 2001, the attacks of 9/11, and the shaky aftermath."

We didn't have anone waiting outside for us to open for Pynchon, so I'm not regretting our decision to not have a midnight party. Terry McMillan's newest novel, Who Asked You? (Viking) also seems up to party, as seen by those luscious purple lips on the jacket. I will note too that if this week's theme is creepy, those lips are a bit spooky to me. Her newest is set in a Los Angeles neighborhood, starting off when a mom drops off her two young boys with her mother Betty Jean, and promptly disappears. It's BJ's story here, but the voices jump to the kids, the missing mom, and Betty Jean's son, himself incarcerated.  It reminds me of my favorite Terry McMillan novel (I haven't read them all, but I've read more than one) Mama. As Patty Rhule in USA Today notes, "Who Asked You? doesn't have quite the pop-culture appeal that Waiting to Exhale and Groove captured (editor's note: culture schmulture). But it taps provocative veins for book club debates: life after a marriage ends; the high rate of imprisonment of black men; grandparents raising children; discovering a child is gay; and the bonds among sisters, to name just a few."

An author I kick myself for not reading is Aminatta Forna, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and I'm intrigued that her new novel, The Hired Man (Atlantic Monthly) is suitably digestible at under 300 pages. Don't get me wrong, I love long books but they do take a lot of time, and I'm committed to Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement as my current big book (our event with her is November 11). In Forna's newest, a Croatian town gets some new visitors, a British womean and her new kids. Duro takes to the family, but the rest of the town isn't so happy, and the publisher calls this a masterpiece of restrained menace. Frances Perraudin in the Observer observes that "Forna made her name with her memoir The Devil That Danced on the Water, which documents the circumstances surrounding the death of her father, a Sierra Leonean politician who was hanged on charges of treason in 1975. In The Hired Man she returns to her speciality theme of the psychology of civil conflict, but in a different setting – the small, aptly named, Croatian town of Gost, a place ravaged by the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s."

From short novel to novella, we turn to Jeanette Winterson's The Daylight Gate (Grove), set in 17th century England. In 1612, a local magistrate arrests a coven, accusing them of witchcraft, but some are protected by wealthy and respected Alice Nutter. But Nutter is about to be caught up in the reign of King James I. Winterson's got all the UK reviews and what we need to know is that in the UK, this book was released under the Hammer studio, which resonates there as an old horror movie studio, and this book has Winterson dancing with genre horror elements. Witches are in, you know, as seen in this season's American Horror Story. I'm told in the YA field, they have had their day and we're moving on to other tropes.

Hammer is an imprint of Random House UK, and as the publisher notes, they are publishing compelling and intelligent horror, with the list featuring such favorites as Helen Dunmore and Sophie Hannah. Sinclair McKay in the Telegraph weighs in positively on the program. "Ultimately, she (Winterson) combines compelling history and poetic dialogue with suspense, as a ghastly trap closes around Alice. In a story heavy with evil, another theme finally comes shining through: that of the abiding endurance of love. The old Hammer horrors were never big on redemption. But this rather more sophisticated story would make a particularly vivid film."

Keeping it genre crossover, Help for the Haunted (Morrow) from John Searles comes armed with advance quotes from Gillian Flynn, Sara Gruen, Jodi Picoult, Chris Bohjalian, and Robert Goolrick. I'm always trying to figure out how that assortment of authors tells the story of what I should expect. In this case, contemporary fiction with a bit of a gothic/mystery element, crossover commercial enough to hit bestseller lists.  Flynn notes that the book is "part ghost story, part coming-of age story" so the question is, do you call this mystery (easy to slot) or horror (harder)? I'll lay it out. Sylvie Mason overhears her parents on the phone, and this leads them to an old church where they disappear, one after the other. She wakes to the sound of gunfire. Oh, that should lead to some nightmares. Marion Winik in Newsday (my thanks for them allowing us to once again link to book reviews) writes "Searles controls the plot with a sure hand and wraps up the situation on Butter Lane in a satisfying and believable way. The darkest secrets in this book are not paranormal at all, but chillingly ordinary."

*Hey, I've gone to some parties at his house, so I'm free with the (still deserving) compliments.The equally erudite Mike Fischer reviewed the book in the Journal Sentinel, as noted on Sunday. They could compete in an erudite-off.

Uncovering My Love for Linda Ronstadt Through Her New Memoir, "Simple Dreams," on Sale Today.

As I have mentioned previously, I was about 12 when my music gene turned on. Whereas all my knowledge about 1972 is second-hand, by 1973 I was listening to the radio regularly. Sometime in 1974, I had discovered national music charts, first through "American Top 40" and then by viewing the entire Hot 100 in copies of Billboard magazine.

By the time I was 14, I was keeping obsessive lists of my favorite songs in order, a countdown that changed weekly. I don't actually think this is uncommon; at one point I had a dozen friends who did the same, some of whom made these lists for decades. When I started using the internet, I found websites collating hundreds of personal charts. Oddly enough, this made my hobby lose its appeal and within a few years I had stopped. It didn't hurt that my music gene seemingly turned off around this time as well. But one result of this is that if an artist was performing between 1975 and 2000, I can tell you exactly how much I liked them at the time, backed up by arbitrary statistics.

A little over a year ago, I read Shawn Colvin's memoir, an author I liked "one big #1 and several top tens worth." But Linda Ronstadt, whose memoir Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir just came out this week, was an artist I liked "three #1s and 15 top tens worth." I should also note that before 1982 I only charted singles, but I listened pretty deeply to the album cuts in Ronstadt's 1970s work. She'd probably have at least double the top tens with that taken into account."

Does it now makef sense that I am probably the most obsessive bookstore bestseller maker in the country? I've been tabulating store bestseller lists, first for Schwartz, and then for Boswell, for probably 25 years.

Linda Ronstadt's story is far different from Shawn Colvin's, even though their styles, for at least one point in their career, rock with folk and country influences, were not too dissimilar. Ronstadt was only 21 when "Different Drum" became a top 20 hit for a Stone Poneys, and she was pushed by their label to the center of the band. I was quite familiar with that song because it was in my sisters' 45 collection. For some reason, both sisters left their vinyl singles behind when they moved out of the house, but they found a good (if not messy) home with me. By the time I was 16, I was as fluent in the language of 1967 as I was with current year hits.

So there I was at 14, listening to Casey Kasem count down the top 40 each week, a complete surprise as there was no other way to learn what the chart toppers were, obsessively writing down the numbers in a series of notebooks. I followed Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good", her first big hit, as it moved up the rankings (Ronstadt and original Betty Everett versions here). I haven't checked, but I seem to remember it's big move being from 31 to 18 in one week. I have no idea if it's true, but what is true is that at the time, I would memorize all the big hits' chart progressions up Billboard.

A lot of artists were flashes in the pan, but Ronstadt wasn't. She'd have an album ready each year, and many of the artists whom she covered turned out to be equally good at performing their own material. I remember buying the first Karla Bonoff album solely because of the songs on Hasten Down the Wind. Is it a little embarrassing that I would get a little weepy singing "Lose Again" along with my vinyl recording? Did I even know what I was singing about at 16? I don't think so, but you know how hormones can affect someone.

Ronstadt probably had her first commercial peak with the album Simple Dreams, which had two concurrent top ten songs, "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy." That is pretty common nowadays but in the 1970s it was pretty irregular. The other example that comes to mind is the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever songs. Over the next couple of albums, she tried to rock out a bit more, and even dipped her toe into the trendy new wave movement.

But it's clear she'd fallen into a rut, and what's interesting about Simple Dreams the book is that this period in her life, when she was most firmly in my consciousness, is really covered the least in her story. Growing up? Sure. Trying to make it with the band? Absoutely. But the period from Heart Like a Wheel to Get Closer is almost a footnote. I am grateful that she does discuss the making itself of the Heart Like A Wheel album. I always wondered why here releases went Capitol-Asylum-Capitol-Asylum, and it turned out her people convinced Capitol to let Asylum have one album before their final set, and this let both labels to become super-competitive. Whereas normally that Capitol album would have been an orphan, instead it became heavily marketed by not one, but two labels.

But Ronstadt clearly got bored. And you can tell, because the writing comes back to life when she starts on the Nelson Riddle sessions, the Mariachi music, the country collaborations with Emmylou and Dolly, and the Joe Papp production of "Pirates of Penzance" (successful) and "La Boheme" (not successful). It made her a different artist, an artist who took risks and became in my eyes, more successful. But my ears were not ready to listen to that stuff in my twenties and thirties and I come to it, not like an obsessive, but as a novice.

There's really a lot that Ronstadt doesn't talk about. She stopped singing, but her Parkinson's is not really discussed (I checked with her publicist and her diagnosis was not until after the book was finished). This is not a tell all--even her relationship with singer-songwriter John David Souther (two top tens for me--his solo hit "You're Only Lonely" and his duet with James Taylor, "Her Town Too" which I think might have hit #1 on my chart. I'll look it up later) is only given casual mention. She also does not discuss in much depth any personal issues she might have had with various substances, though she does note she wasn't much of a drinker.

No, this is the kind of story your aunt might tell you on a spring day, looking back at what was important, and maybe what wasn't quite so important. I like that it sort of chronicles this desire for something, and when it's achieved, perhaps a desire for something else entirely.

I always thought that someday my charts would somehow be destroyed, lost in a move or something, but I still have these detailed records of my teen years. And so I would like to offer my Linda Ronstadt discography of songs that hit my top 40.

For those of you who regularly use blogger, you know how hard it s to make a table. You can understand how much this is a labor of love. I haven't done it since, well, Shawn Colvin's post.

Title	Peak	Wk40	Entry Date
You’re No Good	1	12	1/11/75
When Will I Be Loved	1	13	5/13/75
It Doesn’t Matter Anymore	18	4	9/6/75
Heat Wave/Love is a Rose	1	13	10/14/75
Tracks of My Tears	6	11	1/13/76
That’ll be the Day	4	12	9/11/76
Someone to Lay Down Beside Me/Crazy	8	9	1/8/77
Lose Again	10	8	6/25/77
Blue Bayou	5	13	10/15/77
It’s So Easy	17	9	11/5/77
Poor, Poor Pitiful Me	4	12	2/24/78
Tumblin’ Dice	4	11	4/24/78
Back in the USA	6	8	9/30/78
Ooh Baby Baby	16	9	12/9/78
Alison	23	7	4/24/79
How Do I Make You?	4	12	2/17/80
Hurt So Bad	5	10	4/6/80
I Can’t Let Go	3	12	6/22/80
Get Closer	18	7	10/24/82
I Knew You When	26	5	12/26/82
Easy for You to Say	8	10	4/17/83
What’s New?	33	4	12/11/83
Don’t Know Much	23	6	12/3/89

In a final observation, I love how the book jacket mimics the classic album covers of Kosh, Ronstadt's go-to designer for many years. (Addendum--Richard Rhorer at Simon and Schuster confirmed that there is no mimicking involved. Kosh designed the book jacket!)

Monday Events Post--Kathryn Davis, Ellen Hopkins, C. Desir, Angie Bailey, Brian Tuohy, Robb Rice, Brian Quinn, Sherrie Ball, Linetta Davi, and a Heads Up on Next Monday's Event with Karen Joy Fowler. s

Monday, September 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Kathryn Davis, author of Duplex, Versailles, and The Thin Place, and Labrador.

Feeling simultaneously of the past, present, and future, Davis’ newest novel places a pair of suburban teen sweethearts into a dark world of urban legend and morality tale-making that includes ominous disappearances, robots, a jealous sorcerer, and vicious mermaids.

From Rosecrans Baldwin on NPR's All Things Considered:
"Duplex is a traditional love story tucked inside an adult fairy tale, wrapped in science fiction. I think there are two planets in the novel. Possibly they're the same world. Possibly they're neighbors. In the end, it doesn't really matter."

From our own Boswellian Stacie M. Williams:
“Mary and Eddie are star-crossed high school sweethearts. Their teacher is having an affair with a sorcerer who has no soul and envies the ability of humans to fall in love. A family of robots who can shrink to the size of a pocket pal live next door with their hirsute human-like beast pet. Adolescent girls gather to ominously share, through hushed whispers, stories of what happened to girls who didn't value their purity: tales that include sudden disappearances, darkened foliage-laden paths, a mysterious rain, and fierce mermaids. Such a strange and wondrous landscape that feels simultaneously of the past and of the future, of urban legend and daymare, Duplex explores the very human search for a connection to "the other"--the other person, place, thing, idea, or self. With its pithy and beauteous turns-of-phrase, this labyrinthine novel of adolescence and mythology is one of the most mesmerizing, hypnotic things I have ever read.”

Kathryn Davis has received numerous awards including a Kafka Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She teaches at Washington University, and lives in Vermont and St. Louis, Missouri.

One last review that might grab you, from Alizah Salario in Slate magazine: "Taken on its own terms—as a book that defies genre and storytelling expectations—this off-kilter world in which humans, robots, and Bodies-without-Souls all co-exist hums beautifully to its own rhythm. It’s a series of dreamlike, often erotic, images and interconnected plot lines that don’t so much build to climax as swell to create an intoxicating atmosphere."

Tuesday, September 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Angie Bailey, author of Whiskerslist: The Kitty Classifieds.

Join us for a night of feline hijinks* as Catladyland blogger Angie Bailey introduces her new book Whiskerslist: The Kitty Classifieds. From new bandmates to love connections to lightly-used litterboxes, cat lovers and laugh lovers alike will be delighted by this highly amusing parody.

Do you ever wonder what your cat does when you're not home? Is your keyboard covered with mysterious paw prints? Well, your feline friend might be hiding a secret internet addiction: whiskerslist. The kitty community is more connected than ever with this online hub that brings together cats looking to sell lousy pet toys, rant about their humans, search for a soul mate (or quick hookup), and much more. With more than 160 hilarious classified ads written for cats, "by" cats, Whiskerslist reveals the inner lives of our furry companions like never before.

From the blog Sandpiper Cat: "Whiskerslist is a laugh out loud worthy read, that will have you rolling your eyes and thinking, 'That is so my cat!'"

Angie Bailey is a freelance writer, blogger, humorist, and professional member of the Cat Writers’ Association. She is the creator and writer of the Catladyland blog, which won the 2011 Pettie Award for Funniest Pet Blog/Blogger. She lives with her husband, two kids, and three cats in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

Wednesday, September 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Brian Tuohy, author of Larceny Games: Sports Gambling, Game Fixing and the FBI.

Although sports gambling is seen as a victimless crime, 99 percent of what occurs in the United States is done illegally, its untold billions of dollars directly handled by the mob. It is their top money-maker, followed closely by loan sharking activities that often accompany gamblers who cannot pay their bookies in time. When games are fixed today, the money wagered on rigged contests is trafficked through these mob-backed bookmakers.

In addition to extensive interviews with former FBI Agents, bookmakers and professional sports gamblers, Tuohy used numerous Freedom of Information Act requests to dig into over four hundred of the FBI’s case files directly related to sports bribery (the legal term for game fixing and/or point shaving). Covering everything from horse racing, boxing, and college athletic events to the NFL, NBA, and MLB (with a notable exception of the NHL), the files offered valuable information concerning the Bureau’s investigation into fixed sporting events as well as leads to other sports gambling cases. Putting the pieces together was no easy task, but in doing so, Tuohy offers an intriguing look at the possible depth of corruption in American sports historically, and today.

Here's a writeup in The New York Post from Gary Buiso, about how the coked-up Knicks fixed games for drug dealers in the 1981-1982 season.

Brian Tuohy is considered to be America's leading expert on game fixing in sports. While Larceny Games discusses game fixing from a sports gambling aspect, his previous book The Fix Is In: The Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and NASCAR examined how the professional leagues influence the outcome of their own games for TV ratings and profit.

Thursday, September 19, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Robb Rice, author of the novel My Summer on Haight Street.

Robb Rice back to his hometown of Milwaukee for a reading and signing of his debut novel, a coming-of-age tale with a tie-dyed backdrop and a psychedelic beat. A Riverside High School alum, he now lives in Santa Monica with his family.

It’s 1967, the Summer of Love. With the war in Vietnam raging and the draft hanging over their heads, three Milwaukee high school graduates set off on very different paths to seek their own destinies and discover that people, places, and things are neither what they expected, nor what they appear to be. Bob Ralston journeys to San Francisco—the epicenter of the hippie movement. John Haus enlists in the army and ends up in Vietnam. Jim Gaston beats the draft and seeks an alternative lifestyle. Each must live with their choices and survive in one of America’s most tumultuous times.

Friday, September 20, 7 pm, at Boswell:
An Evening with the publisher Rebirth Ink, featuring
Linetta Davis, author of Honey and Vinegar and A Black Woman's Burden
Brian Quinn, author of The Tint of Glass Awnings, and
Sherrie Ball, author of The Cutting Room Floor.

Rebirth Ink is a Milwaukee based, small press publisher whose current portfolio and forthcoming publications are not defined by any particular genre but rather by the distinction and quality of the writing. In this renaissance of literature and poetry that is characterized by the small press, Rebirth Ink looks to define itself as a premier publishing house for new or previously published authors, poets and playwrights whose writing is substantial and displays a firm grasp of their chosen craft.

Linetta Davis is a teacher, author, playwright, and creator of Rebirth Ink Publishing. Her play, A Black Woman’s Burden: Her Journey from Pain to Freedom, which points to the road of healing for those surviving sexual abuse, has been performed throughout the Milwaukee area. She is also author of Honey and Vinegar, a personal account of the tragic loss of her father before his fiftieth birthday using journal writing and poetry. While Davis wrote it as a means of understanding and coping with her bereavement, it has also found use as a guide for others who are dealing with great loss and/or unexpressed personal tragedies and are trying to find balance between the sweet and bitter aspects of life.

The Tint of Glass Awnings is Brian Quinn’s first published book. His poetry focuses on exploring the four humors, engaging all the senses in multi-dimensional scenes. A chef and a poet originally from the South, Quinn now lives in Milwaukee with his wife and son.

Author of The Cutting Room Floor, Sherrie Ball is a single mother, student, and writer. Her previously untitled poem “I Do Not Know Your Name,” honoring our military heroes has received viral internet recognition, acclaimed as the "new words to honor the fallen". Ball has also accepted the Written Works award from Southwest Wisconsin's Fallfire Contest from 2008- 2010, has printed a book of historical poetry in collaboration with sculpture artist Florence Bird, and her poem “Victorian/Victorious” is currently displayed at the Mississippi River Sculpture Park located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where she resides.

Saturday, September 21, 2 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Library's Loos Room at Centennial Hall,
733 North Eighth Street, Milwaukee 53233:
Ellen Hopkins, author of Smoke, Crank, Tilt, and Burned, along with
C. Desir, author of Fault Line.

Smoke, companion novel to Burned by Ellen Hopkins, is a masterful, gripping novel told in verse that weaves the riveting story about a teenage girl who is raised in a religious—yet abusive—family. With her father dead, Pattyn von Stratten is on the run. Alone and in disguise, she begins a new life as a migrant worker on a farm. Meanwhile, her sister Jackie remains extremely isolated back at home in their domineering community. What will it take to rise from the ashes of the past and move into a brighter future? And will they do it apart, or together?

C. Desir’s Fault Line is a gritty and devastating debut novel about teen sexual violence told through the eyes of the victim’s boyfriend, Ben. His new girlfriend, Ani, is everything he’s ever wanted and they’re nearly inseparable. Until the night she goes to a party without him and returns scarred. Broken hearted by the distance she puts between them and unable to get close to her, or the truth of what happened, Ben wonders if there is anything he can do to save the girl he loves.

Ellen Hopkins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several teen and adult novels, including Crank and Collateral. She lives with her family in Carson City, Nevada, where she has founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit youth housing and resource initiative.

C. (Christa) Desir writes dark contemporary fiction for young adults and lives with her husband, three young children, and overly enthusiastic dog outside of Chicago. She has volunteered as a rape victim activist for more than ten years, including providing direct service as an advocate in hospital emergency rooms. Desir will be appearing at the Voices and Faces workshop at Mount Mary Colllege on October 6 and 7.

Here's a recommendation of Desir's Fault Line, from our own Boswellian Mel Morrow: "This is an important text for all kinds of readers, and I'm so very happy it exists. Narrated by the boyfriend of a teen rape victim, Fault Line brings to life the challenges one faces when they are caught between the desire to rescue and the need to empower someone who has been victimized. Readers experience the ripples of chaos that circle out from one person's tragic moment, shaking the lives of those they love, and how much of a struggle it is to be there for someone who needs to stumble their way through uncomfortable steps on the path to recovery. This debut novel by C. Desir is challenging, yet needed in an age in which someone in the U. S. is sexually assaulted every two minutes, 80% of rape victims are under the age of 30, and 97% of rapists never spend a day in jail."

Plus a sneak preview of next week... Monday, September 23, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jane Hamilton Presents Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club, comes the story of an American family, ordinary in every way but one. Rosemary Cooke‘s best friend the first six years of her life was her sister, Fern, who Rosemary sees as her “twin,” “funhouse mirror” and “whirlwind other half.” When Fern is forcibly removed, the family begins to fall apart; a chimpanzee, Fern is sent to a research facility, never to come back.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is subversive, visionary, wise, morally complex, and wickedly witty, raising questions about the limits of science and the rights of animals. The praise being showered upon Fowler’s new book ranges from respected fellow novelists to a list of esteemed media outlets: O: The Oprah Magazine, Barbara Kingsolver in The New York Times Book Review, NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and Alan Cheuse, Salon, USA Today, Elle Magazine, Publishers Weekly, and many more.

Let's just link to one. Here's Ron Charles in The Washington Post:
"We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves isn’t just about an unusual childhood experiment; it’s about a lifetime spent in the shadow of grief. Clearly, something traumatic happened when Rosemary was five, something that turned her from a loquacious little girl into a quiet young woman. But unearthing the details of that event means digging in a mental landscape strewn with psychological land mines. Others can’t or won’t tell her the truth. Her own memories are confused and clouded. She’s grown wise and skeptical about the slippery nature of family history. ‘Language does this to our memories,’ she says, ‘simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An oft-told story is like a photograph in a family album; eventually, it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.’"

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of three story collections and six novels, including The Jane Austen Book Club, which was on The New York Times bestseller list for thirteen weeks. Born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, she now lives in Santa Cruz, California.

*An appropriate word, as it calls to mind the cartoon cat Mr. Jinx.