New release: If You Want to Make God Laugh, by Bianca Marais, on sale July 16

Our buyer Jason first told me about Bianca Marais's novel, Hum If You Don't Know the Words. He was on the Indies Introduce judging panel, where a number of booksellers had taken to this story of two lost souls finding each other during the Soweto Uprising in South Africa. We wound up having six booksellers at Boswell read and recommend the title. Marais spoke at a lovely Lynden Sculpture Garden event, and we went on to sell many more copies in hardcover and paperback.

Aside: This month's Lynden event, produced by Milwaukee Reads, is Beatriz Williams, whose new novel is The Golden Hour, a story featuring the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, set in Nassau. It's this Sunday, July 14, 2 pm and they are still taking phone reservations at (414) 446-8794. Sorry, the online registration is closed. Signed copy requests also available. At this point, you should call Boswell (414) 332-1181 for that.

At the time, Marais told us she might work on a sequel to Hum If You Don't Know the Words because lots of people who read the book wanted to know what happened next. But those can be tough to sell, so I'm glad her second novel, If You Want to Make God Laugh, is a completely new story, still set in South Africa, but this time during the election of Nelson Mandela. It's about two sisters, somewhat estranged but forced together again, who find a black baby on their doorstep, as well as the woman who comes to take care of the child. Delilah and Ruth are very different, but have both been through traumas, with Ruth having had at least one abusive husband and Delilah having given up her child long ago when she was preparing to be a nun.

Actually, all three women have had to deal with sexual abuse and they all have scars. But now they are also fighting folks involved in the Afrikaner resistance movement, specifically their neighbors who want to buy up their family farm for their own operation, and will do anything to get them to leave. I think it's now time for Boswellian Jenny's recommendation.

"Set in South Africa during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, there’s no question that If You Want to Make God Laugh tells a heart wrenching story, but it’s also exactly the kind of thought-provoking book that stays with me long after turning the last page. Two of the main characters are white, sisters who haven’t seen each other in decades, and the third is their black teenage maid, Zodwa. Over the course of the novel, all of them confront what motherhood means in their very different lives. Ruth and Delilah arrive back at the abandoned house they grew up in within hours of each other, both for reasons they’d rather keep secret. Delilah is an aid worker who almost became a nun, while Ruth, known to the tabloids as South Africa’s wild child, has just attempted to fake her own suicide in a misguided bid to save her failing (third) marriage.

"Tension between the sisters is fraught enough, and when an abandoned black newborn appears on the doorstep the sisters’ opposite but equally intense reactions further divide them. Ruth would like the baby to stay, and Delilah knows she can’t possibly endure sharing her home with a child. Delilah’s story of betrayal is perhaps the most poignant, and I blinked back tears for the loss she endured, but Zodwa and even the seemingly self-centered Ruth are richly developed characters. The writing is so lovely I could blanket the sky with the stars If You Want to Make God Laugh deserves. Don’t miss this one!" --Jenny Chou

We've used The Help and The Secret Life of Bees as comparison for Marais's first novel and it might even be more apt for If You Want to Make God Laugh. Concerned about making sure she is not writing white savior novels, Marais has been careful to get sensitivity readings on her books. Photo at left is from her last event at the Lynden.

Here's a nice recommendation from Robin Oliveira, author of My Name is Mary Sutter: “You will absolutely love this book. You will. Why? Because Bianca Marais’s heart is immense and full of love. With unsparing insight into the human condition, she unspools a tale that is at once heartbreaking as it is merciful, validating our frailty while eulogizing our endless capacity for generosity and love. We all need the deep refuge of Bianca Marais’s exceptional voice.”

Maris does a great job of setting the time and place and completely hooks you with the life-or-death stakes for many of the characters. It's also hard not to fall in love with Ruth, Delilah, and Zodwa, despite Ruth's best efforts to make you think ill of her. And yes, there's a lot of drama in the story, but that's what helps keep you hooked.

We're doing this event on a Friday afternoon (Friday, July 19, 2 pm, to be exact), being that there is so much going on Friday evening in Milwaukee, from Festa Italiana to Gallery Night. The event is free, but we're requesting registration, and we'll be giving out ten $5 Boswell gift cards in a drawing to folks who both register and attend the event. The link is maraismke.bpt.me.  If you'd like a signed copy, Marais's latest goes on sales July 16 and we'll have signed copies after the event.

Photo credit: Jory Nash

New Releases: "The Need," by Helen Phillips

I am many things, but there are two things I am not - a mother and a regular reader of horror fiction. But The Need, the new novel by Helen Phillips, is psychological horror novel about motherhood and I read it anyway. That's why I'm a fan of don't-stay-in-your-lane reading. For it turns out that The Need is psychological horror perhaps the way Kate Atkinson might tell it, and that's why it's getting so much love on its July 9 release date. '

I really was a hard sell, though that cover was definitely intoxicating. It's part of the floral-on-black trend reminds me of another cover I loved, The Immortalists, without aping it. But you generally have to comfort me a bit before you start scaring me when I'm reading and The Need is creepy from the first page. So I'll admit, I started the book, and then I put it down.

I must interrupt this post to ask the vocabulary buffs - is there a word to describe the person, the one you've never really met before, that you keep running into at a conference? It's one of those games of statistics, like the fact that if you're in a room with not that many people, the odds are good that two will have the same birthday. At every bookseller conference I go to, this happens. I will start seeing someone everywhere. Sometimes that person pretends that it is not happening, while other times, we bond, like I did with Carrie at Skylark Bookshop, a relatively new store in Columbia, Missouri that I have plans to visit on my westward road trip through the Midwest and Plains.

At this conference, that person was Helen Phillips. We kept running into each other everywhere, exacerbated by both of us groupy-ishly standing in a lot of lines to get books signed by other authors. But really, we saw each other everywhere - at another party, in the hallway, on the street.

But first we met at a Simon and Schuster dinner, and we had a wonderful conversation about reading and writing and teaching and life in New York, specifically Brooklyn, where writers have these running into each other experiences all the time, but for me, I'm excited when I say hi to a customer in Menomonee Falls or Oak Creek. It happens, they always ask why I'm not at the bookstore, and I'm always grateful that another person traveled farther than you'd expect to shop at Boswell.

When was time to get a copy of The Need signed, I asked if she'd inscribe one to Kay, my philosophy being that if someone gets a book personalized to you, you have to read it. I am well aware that it doesn't work in the slightest, but isn't that true with so many belief systems - you keep believing even though there are clearly holes in the theory?

But first I had to ask Kay, are you at the point in your life where you can read a scary book about motherhood? And she said yes, but I should note that I asked the same to my friend Rebecca, who has two young children, and she said no.

It turns out that Kay loved the book as much as I hoped, and she wrote this recommendation: "The stresses of caring for two very young children while working have kept Molly from taking the occasional misinterpreted sound or sight too seriously. But since David was suddenly called out of town for a week, the odd hallucination has transformed into a very real, um, problem. Perfect pacing, exquisite portrayal of the relentless demands of young children balanced by rare moments of perfect joy, coupled with Molly’s wavering interactions with her antagonist make The Need a beguiling read." (Kay Wosewick)

Kay calls attention to the pacing, which I would also like to mention. The story goes back and forth as Molly and her children are faced with an intruder, and Molly at a fateful day at work. She is a paleobotanist and has unearthed some unusual finds, and one of them has made her a target of hate. The story could be a what-if in Molly's head, or it could be a real speculative head-exploder.

There's a great profile of Helen Phillips in The New York Times, as well as a review from Harriet Lane, who said "Like parenthood itself, The Need is frightening and maddening and full of dark comedy." I should also note there's a wonderful recommendation by Rebecca Makkai, who wrote: "Phillips is, as always, doing something at once wildly her own and utterly primal. Maybe it doesn't surprise me that the strangest book I've read about motherhood is also the best, but it does thrill me." Can I mention here that while Phillips isn't coming to Boswell, Makkai has also been touting Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had and she is visiting, on Tuesday, August 6, 7 pm. Visit our upcoming events page.

I should also mention that when I was at Wisconsin Comic Con selling books with Carole E. Barrowman, we both had a nice conversation about The Need, and Carole reminded me it was in her summer reading roundup in the Journal Sentinel.  She calls it the mother of all domestic thrillers. That's a good one - I wish I thought of that. Barrowman would also like to give an extra shout-out to Kalisha Buckhanon Speaking of Summer, coming at the end of July. Can I also mention how excited I am about Barrowman's next work in progress, set during the Civil War?

But I digress. We're talking about The Need here, and how it just came out, and how I think a number of you are going to want to read it. If you buy it from us, it's Boswell Best (20% off) through at least July 22.

New Releases: Bud Selig's "For the Good of the Game"

One of the legends of Milwaukee regards baseball - we somehow were able to get the Boston Braves to come to Milwaukee, attendance was phenomenal for a few years, the team won the World Series, and then, after several years of decline, left for Atlanta. Having read Home of the Braves: The Battle for Baseball in Milwaukee last year, I am well aware that the story is more complicated than legend generally dictates. But the happy ending remains the same - Bud Selig and friends brought baseball back to Milwaukee, by securing the Seattle Pilots. And don't feel badly for Seattle - just about every city that loses baseball eventually gets it back. Here's looking at you, Montreal.

But Bud Selig wasn't just a Brewers owner - he was eventually tapped to be the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, at first in an acting capacity, and then in full capacity. In a way, it reminded me of our experience at Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, with Avin Domnitz moving from co-owner to Executive Director of the American Booksellers Association. Not only can that transition be complicated, but so can negotiations, particularly when you are dealing with the Players Union.

Selig's new book, For the Good of the Game: The Inside Story of the Surprising and Dramatic Transformation of Major League Baseball, is not a full memoir. One caller asked me, "Is there much about Washington High School in the book?" And I had to answer that there was not, to his dismay. Most of the focus of the book is on his years as Commissioner, dealing with three main issues - player negotiations, the imbalance between large and small-market teams, and the steroid issue. All were related, as was the stadium-building  boom, which as we know from the recently opened Fiserv Forum, pretty much never ends. Along the way, Selig warmly recalls his friends, such as Hank Aaron, who he's known for sixty years, and Herb Kohl, his college roommate at UW-Madison. Other folks don't get such fond reminiscences. And others get left out of the narrative altogether.

I've heard that not everyone likes the book - I don't really have to listen to talk stations or follow social media to find out - customers have been letting us know what they've heard - but as a person on the outside, just wondering when that extra sales tax will ever end (I'm guessing never), it's an fascinating story, thanks in part to writer Phil Rogers. The only time I zone out is when Selig actually starts describing games in detail - it's a long way from when I used to sit with David Schwartz at County Field and score games - I thought of the complicating coding as the equivalent of giving a child one of those activity books for long road trips. I'm guessing at least sometimes the tickets came from David's Cousin Sue. I'm well aware that I am more interested in the business of baseball (or any sport), rather than the sport itself. I'm the same wimp I was at 12.

Boswellian Tim McCarthy wrote a nice rec for the book so I'm not even going to try. Here it is. "Bud Selig loves the game of baseball. That's very clear throughout the book, and nobody seems more qualified to tell an insider's story about how the game has changed over the last 50 years. From his childhood ballpark excursions across the country with his mother to his time after leaving the Commissioner's job and entering the Hall of Fame, Selig has seen it all. He's effusive in praising the people he loves, both inside and outside the game, but the most compelling aspect of this memoir is how honest he's willing to be about his frustrations and the people who caused them. One perfect example of this is Selig's expression of deep friendship with Henry Aaron and the irritation he felt with representing baseball as Commissioner to witness Aaron's iconic home run record being broken by Barry Bonds, a man he obviously does not like. This book is genuine and fast moving, and I was fascinated by it. I admit to a bias. I was lucky to have lived across the street from the first field manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, Dave Bristol, for the three summers his family stayed in Milwaukee. I went to lots of games with his kids and played in the County Stadium clubhouse and bullpen. They even let us kids shag batting practice in those days. That all happened because of Bud Selig! He brought us baseball again after the Braves left. With a warm forward by baseball fan and master historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, this book is a one of a kind look at America's Pastime from a proud man who has always called Milwaukee his home."

Registration is still open for Bud Selig's talk with Tom Haudricourt on Thursday, July 11, 7 pm, at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. It's free, but you must upgrade to a book to get in the signing line. Tax and fees included. Visit seligmke.bpt.me. This program sponsored by Boswell, Books & Company, and the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center. You can also get a book signed through Boswell Order the book with your request (personalizations must be prepaid), email us, or call (414) 332-1181.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 6, 2019

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending July 6, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
3. Big Sky V5, by Kate Atkinson
4. Normal People, by Sally Rooney
5. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
6. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
7. The Satapur Moonstone V2, by Sujata Massey
8. Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes
9. Exhalation, by Ted Chiang
10. The Flight Portfolio, by Julie Orringer

Exhalation is the second collection of short stories, following Stories of Your Life and Others. The title story in this collection received both a Hugo and Nebula Award. Adam Morgan wrote in AV Club: "A handful of living science fiction writers have attained godlike status - N.K. Jemisin, Cixin Liu, and Ann Leckie, to name a few. But Ted Chiang is the only one who’s done it without writing a novel. In fact, he’s published far less than his neighbors on the genre’s current Mount Rushmore, usually just one short story every two years. But oh, his stories. They’re a religious experience."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Educated, by Tara Westover
2. The Hidden Power of F*cking Up, by The Try Guys
3. A Good American Family, by David Maraniss
4. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
5. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
6. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
7. The Great Successor, by Anna Fifield
8. Dutch Girl, by Robert Matzen
9. Underland, by Robert MacFarlane
10. Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl

Keith, Zach, Eugene, and Ned signed copies of Boswell while in town for The Hidden Power of F*cking Up. No, you didn't miss them at the store - they were dropped off after their appearance at the Pabst Theater. The popular YouTube personalities met at Buzzfeed and went off on their own in 2018. Here's an article from Nina Zupkin in Entrepreneur Magazine, where Keith Habersberger discusses a little more about their philosophy: "By going in and simply trying and failing or doing OK, being open to a new experience and broadening your horizons just makes you a better person. We have seen it." I was a little surprised we were shelving the book in self help, well, okay, maybe.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Poison Pen, by Bill Zaferos
2. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan (In-Store Lit Group Mon Aug 5, 7 pm)
3. Call Me Zebra, by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (In Store Lit Group Mon Aug 26, 7 pm - our September meeting)
4. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
5. The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
6. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
7. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
8. Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain
9. The Overstory, by Ridhard Powers
10. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

Something you can't see here - paperback fiction bestseller numbers seem to have the best bump in sales of the five lists over the summer. The kids list, without either schools or actively touring authors, tends to drop off.

There are lots of reasons for picking our In-Store Lit Group titles - recommendations from others, prizes, books I've been thinking about reading, books out of our comfort zone, plus I do think about at least some author diversity. All these came into play* when I was selecting Call Me Zebra, after all, though aside from The Overstory, it was kind of a finalist of long shots. I also met her briefly at some bookseller conference, and it's funny how that sort of thing can resonate. I guess it's why they send the authors! Liesl Schillinger wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "With intricacy and humor, Van der Vliet Oloomi relays Zebra’s brainy, benighted struggles as a tragicomic picaresque whose fervid logic and cerebral whimsy recall the work of Bolaño and Borges."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. 111 Places in Milwaukee That You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
2. Vote for Us, by Joshua A Douglas
3. The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
4. Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
5. Jon Hassler, by Ed Block (event Wed Jul 10, 7 pm, at Boswell)
6. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
7. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
8. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk
9. Spying on Whales, by Nick Pyenson
10. Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

There are a lot of Milwaukee books this year, including two best-places-to-go compilations. You've seen the second edition of Jenna Kashou's 100 Things to Do in Milwaukee Before You Die and now there's 111 Places in Milwaukee You Must Not Miss, compiled by Michelle Madden. You can still attend this launch party, at Best Place at the Pabst Brewery on July 17. More info here. Madden will also be at Historic Milwaukee on July 16. More info on that here.

Books for Kids:
1. Hollow Earth, by John and Carole E Barrowman
2. Hi Fly Guy V1, by Tedd Arnold
3. Front Desk, by Kelly Yang
4. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls V1, by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
5. Kids Cooking, by Klutz Publishing
6. A Field Guide to the North American Teenager, by Ben Philippe
7. On the Day You Were Born, by Debra Fraser
8. Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, by Pamela Cameron, with illustrations by Renée Graef
9. Dragons Love Tacos, by Adam Rubin with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
10. Pigeon Has to Go to School, by Mo Willems

It's rare to have a paperback pop on middle grade kids books, but several folks came in for Kelly Yang's Front Desk, perhaps because of all its laurels, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children's Literature, a Parents' Choice Gold Medal Fiction Award Winner, and best book of the year from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, PW, Washington Post, Bookpage, School Library Journal, and Booklist. It's about a Chinese immigrant girl whose parents take jobs at a run-down motel. Bulletin for the Center of Childrens Books notes: "Reminiscent of the television series Fresh Off the Boat, this title is an honest account of the ups and downs of immigrant life in America in the early 1990s, here told from a child's perspective."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins writes about Bud Selig's memoir, For the Good of the Game, which goes on sale Tuesday. I love this line: "...Selig is fannish in ways that I can’t imagine other sports commissioners, like Roger Goodell, would be. His beef with Bonds is personal, because Bonds eclipsed the mark of Selig’s beloved Hammerin’ Hank. And every time Selig mentions Robin Yount in this book, I can feel the love." As the Journal Sentinel notes, the event at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center on July 11 is free, or you can upgrade to a book for the signing line. Here's the link.

Bruce Desilva reviews the fifth Jackson Brodie mystery from Kate Atkinson, courtesy of Associated Press. Here's what he has to say about Big Sky: "The unfolding plot snags a dozen main characters in a web of duplicity, human misery, betrayal and murder that Atkinson skillfully relates from multiple points of view — investigators, criminals, family members and victims alike. The heroes of the yarn are its women. The two young police officers, one of the conspirators’ wives, and one of its victims as well, fashion a conclusion that, although not entirely lawful, is justice nonetheless."

One more review from USA Today's Mark Athitakis: "Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s assured and spiky novel about a busted marriage, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an assault on misleading surfaces. In most domestic novels, that means revelations of an affair, a hidden trauma or a long-buried family crisis. But Brodesser-Akner is after something more common yet more subtle: the inability of two members of a couple to simply hear each other, and how that miscommunication is often gendered." I'm intrigued!

New Book Club Picks - B.A. Shapiro and More

Our new book club table is up. I had trouble cutting down the number of books so I skipped the normal copy we include and added a few extra titles, plus included a page of upcoming book-club friendly events. I could have added another 50 books.

My only rule of thumb for the table is that at least one bookseller has to have read and liked all our selections. Some books were left off because I simply didn't have a rec. And then, like a writer, I had to finally stop writing.

Another stumbling block was that I started obsessing over themes running through the lists of books we were recommending. Do book clubs actually read in themes or do they discover them after they have finished. I used to have a book club I worked with that had very specific themes, which could make recommendations quite difficult, but now they just want great books. That makes it easier, except when they don't like I book I suggested. 

I will mention one unusual thread that runs through our list, and I should say up front that I often gauge whether to include books on our book club picks list after our In-Store Lit Group discusses them. First we read Asymmetry and then we read The Friend, and one attendee asked if I'd had us read two books about the mentor relationship together on purpose. I had not. And then I thought about it and realized I could add Meg Wolitzer's The Female Persuasion to that list as well. And Park Avenue Summer. And The Collector's Apprentice.

Once or twice a year we like to group an author appearance with a book club talk, and that's what we're doing with B.A. Shapiro and her new paperback reprint of The Collector's Apprentice. (If you read this in time, our program is Monday, July 8, 2 pm at Boswell and 6:30 pm at the Elm Grove Library. At Elm Grove, we'll also have selections from Noah, an Elm Grove librarian, and what do you know, two of his recommendations are also on the Boswell recommendations.

One of our big B.A. Shapiro fans on staff is Kay, who handles coordinating the the many book clubs in town that work with us, keeping us posted on their upcoming selections, which we display in our front-of-store display case. From her rec: "You’ll be swept into a quiet tale of intrigue starring a rather traumatized young lady from Europe, a savvy con artist from America, and a wealthy American amassing a huge collection of contemporary European art. The story will take you for a couple of unexpected spins before letting you go well satisfied. Shapiro brings this highly-charged era in art alive with dazzling prose and deftly drawn characters."

Like her previous art novels, Shapiro started from fact, in this case, the making of the Barnes Foundation, that spectacular art collection that was for many years displayed in a private home in Merion, Pennsylvania, but is now showcased in downtown Philadelphia. That is one of the questions she explores in the book - how did they remove this collection from the home? It's quite a different outcome from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is Boston, but perhaps that was not as much of an issue because it wasn't as difficult to get to as the Barnes was. Many of you know that Shapiro was inspired by the Gardner Musuem for her breakout novel, The Art Forger.

Shapiro has noted that while that Albert C. Barnes and his "fascinating" assistant, Violette de Mazia had an interesting story, it was "flat" in the telling and left the author dispirited. So, as happens in much historical fiction, she fictionalized the characters so she could make it a better novel. The paperback edition of The Collector's Apprentice explains what's true and what is not. Let's just say that as fascinating as it would be to have a Madoff-like character flim-flamming the art world, George Everard is a figment of the author's imagination.

Shapiro touches on themes that we've seen in fiction (most notably in Hannah Rothschild's The Improbability of Love) and nonfiction (not just frauds, but any number of investment bubbles) that we see what we want to see in value. I always enjoy Shapiro's writing on art as well. In this case, Dr. Edwin Bradley sees the value in the Post-Impressionists that many contemporaries did not, which was one thing that helped him build up such an impressionist collection.

If you're not able to make Monday's events, we'll be having a second evening of book recommendations from Jason, one of our Penguin Random House sales reps, on Tuesday, August 6, once again at Boswell. Jason has recommended many of my favorite books, not just the Rothschild novel above, but also encouraged reads on There There (which most of you know) and Amy Jones's We're All in This Together (which you likely do not). Another one of his picks is Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had, which just hit the New York Times bestseller list. And Lombardo will be a special guest at Boswell when he does his presentation, which he's also doing at Books & Company in Oconomowoc.

Here's a list of our book club recommendations

An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
Asymmetry, by Lisa Halliday
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Robinson
The Collector's Apprentice, by BA Shapiro
Dear Mrs Bird, by AJ Pearce
The Female Persuasion, by Meg Wolitzer
Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
Friday Black, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez
The Gone World, Tom Sweterlitsch
The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The Maze at Windermere, by Gregory Blake Smith
Milkman, by Anna Burns
My Ex Life, by Stephen McCauley
My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ohio, by Stephen Markley
The Overstory, by Richard Powers
Park Avenue Summer, by Renée Rosen
The Power, by Naomi Alderman
A Student of History, Nina Revoyr
There There, by Tommy Orange
Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
We're All in This Together, by Amy Jones
The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey

plus the Independent-Bookstore only supplemental title, What to Eat with What You Read Independent Bookstore Day. Available while supplies last.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending June 29, 2019

Here's what is selling at Boswell for the week ending June 29, 2019. Apologies if you already received this on The Boswellians blog.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
2. Time's Convert, by Deborah Harkness
3. A Discovery of Witches V1, by Deborah Harkness
4. The World of All Souls, by Deborah Harkness
5. Shadow of Night V2, by Deborah Harkness
6. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert
7. Big Sky V5, by Kate Atkinson
8. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
9. Girl in the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
10. The Most Fun We Ever Had, by Claire Lombardo (event at Boswell Tue Aug 6, 7 pm)

It might have been a late add to our event schedule but Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had has already hit our top ten twice. The book got an excellent review in The Wall Street Journal from Joanne Kaufman, where she chornicles the "lies, secrets, betrayals, and quarrels" in Lombardo's "assured" first novel: "Just to be clear, these events aren't the fun referred to in the book's title, but they provide ample evidence that life is is messy and life is unfair."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. One Giant Leap, by Charles Fishman
2. Total Rethink, by David McCourt
3. Propeller, by Craig Hickman
4. Keep the Wretches in Order, by Dean A Strang
5. Helping the Good Do Better, by Thomas Sheridan
6. Spying on the South, by Tony Horwitz
7. Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered, by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Harstark
8. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
9. Doodle Love, by Anne Emerson (event at Boswell Thu July 11, 7 pm)
10. Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat

I'd like to think that Charles Fishman's book, One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon, rocketed to the top of our bestseller list because of our moon window, but no, it's because he was in town to speak at a water conference. On Fresh Air, he talked about the people who wove the special NASA parachutes: "The parachutes were made of high-tech fabric, and yet they were sewn by hand, and then this sort of marvelous detail: There were only three people in the whole country certified to fold and pack Apollo parachutes. Those three people packed the parachutes for all the Apollo missions, and they had to be relicensed by the FAA every six months to be recertified that they knew what they were doing. And they were considered so valuable to NASA that they were forbidden to ride in the same car at the same time, out of fear that that car would be in a car accident and NASA would be without people to pack its Apollo parachutes."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Time's Convert, by Deborah Harkness
2. A Discovery of Witches V1, by Deborah Harkness
3. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
4. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
5. There There, by Tommy Orange
6. Vintage 1954, by Antoine Laurain
7. The Book of Live V3, by Deborah Harkness
8. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
9. We're All in This Together, by Amy Jones
10. Shadow of Night V2, by Deborah Harkness

We were honored to be one of four cities that hosted Deborah Harkness for her paperback tour of Time's Convert. Each city had a different talk, all of which were live-streamed on Facebook. You can watch the talk here, which opens with me rushing off stage! We have signed copies of the Time's Convert paperback and must of the hardcovers.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Big Thirst, by Charles Fishman
2. Level Up, by Rochelle Melander
3. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
4. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
5. Wildflowers of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
6. Trees of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
7. The Mueller Report, by US Department of Justice and The Washington Post
8. Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby, by Matthew Inman
9. The Milwaukee Anthology, by Justin Kern
10. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan

Matthew Inman, the Eisner Award-winning creator of The Oatmeal, offers another collection of cat cartoons, following the #1 bestseller, How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You. Inman also came to Milwaukee once - dare I say it was eight years ago? He toured for his latest, but alas, no Milwaukee. He spoke to The Washington Post when he was in DC, noting that he won't be regularly doing The Oatmeal strip much longer: "'I’m not going to retire,' the 36-year-old says. But he’ll go on long-term hiatus and then publish an occasional Oatmeal strip when, 'f I put out a comic, it’s a blessing.'" The article confirms that Inman toured Boswell for what was his first book, Five Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth.

Books for Kids:
1. The Amazing Idea of You, by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, with illustrations by Mary Lundquist
2. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, with illustrations by Melanie Demmer
3. Bad Guys in the Big Bad Wolf V9, by Aaron Blabey
4. With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo
5. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renee Graef
6. A Tale of Two Kitties V3, by Dav Pilkey
7. 12 Days of Christmas, by Robert Sabuda
8. Viral, by Ann Bausum
9. Dragons Love Tacos 2, by Adam Rubin, with illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
10. Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson (ticketed event at Boswell, Mon Sep 23, 7 pm - details to come)

Wow, The Bad Guys series has really caught on - while its been hitting The New York Times for about a year, I think this is the first week where we had pent-up demand for a first week pop. I made sure that this week's bestseller pop wasn't to just one organization or school buying in bulk and it was not. The series is in development for a film at Dreamworks. The Bad Guys in The Big Bad Wolf has its own trailer - maybe you should watch!

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Leanne Italie's Associated Press profile of Elaine Welteroth is featured on the book page. In More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say), she notes as a person of mixed race, she has come to appreciate "her biracial status as one of her superpowers, along with an ability to empathize with and understand many world views."

Italie's piece doesn't really so much critique as summarize, but Douglass K. Daniel's Associated Press piece for Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s Changed Hollywood Forever does include a caveat: "A flaw in (Nick) de Semlyen’s enjoyable book is its bent toward fact over analysis. His answer to the question posed by its subtitle - a couple of paragraphs about legacies, rule-breaking and commercial success - feels perfunctory."

And from Patty Rhule comes a USA Today piece for Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything, about two sisters who "paved the way for Weiner's more modern protagonist." Her take: "If you are a woman who has lived through the past 50 years, this book will make you uneasy, even angry. But maybe that’s the point. Coming of age during the women’s liberation movement, Bethie and Jo take different tracks to fulfillment; one follows traditional expectations for women, and the other runs from them. Both choices prove costly."

Events this week - Deborah Harkness, Scholastic Read-A-Palooza, Dean Strang with Mitch Teich, Rochelle Melander with Jeanette Hurt

Here's what's going on this week at Boswell.

Monday, June 24, 7 pm, at Boswell
Dean A Strang, author of Keep the Wretches in Order: America's Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW, in conversation with WUWM's Mitch Teich

Madison attorney Dean A Strang returns to Boswell with his latest book, a sharp legal history of the largest mass trial in US history. Cosponsored by Wisconsin Justice Initiative. This will also be WUWM Lake Effect Executive Producer and Host Mitch Teich's last conversation at Boswell before he leaves to be the General Manager at North Country Public Radio in New York.

Dean Strang analyzes the fragility of the American criminal justice system as he details United States v. Haywood et al, the fascinating case that had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. Before World War I, the government reaction to labor dissent had been local, ad hoc, and quasi-military. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, the Department of Justice embarked on a sweeping new effort - replacing gunmen with lawyers. Soon, the department systematically targeted the nation’s most radical and innovative union, the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies.

In the first legal history of this federal trial, Strang shows how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamentally different strategy to stifle radical threats and had a major role in shaping the modern Justice Department. As the trial unfolded, it became an exercise of raw force, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under great external pressure.

Dean A Strang is a criminal defense lawyer in Madison and teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror. Mitch Teich is the new station manager of North Country Public Radio in  Canton, New York. Until recently, he was executive producer of WUWM's Lake Effect.

Tuesday, June 25, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Rochelle Melander, author of Level Up: Quests to Master Mindset, Overcome Procrastination, and Increase Productivity, in converastion with Jeannette Hurt

Milwaukee-based Rochelle Melander, book coach, teacher, and author of ten books, including the National Novel Writing Month guide, Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It), turns every obstacle you face into quests, offering the perfect productivity solution. This event cosponsored by Red Oak Writing.

Melander offers creatives an opportunity to tackle their most common creative problems by turning them into quests. These short adventures challenge readers to investigate their life and habits to discover and use their own best practices.

Instead of playing someone else’s game, creatives will design their own game, create a playbook, define the rewards, and reap them all. Adopt a secret identity, recruit allies, identify villains, and celebrate epic wins by using a gameful approach to shaping creative life. Completing these quests won’t be a chore. Instead, Melander helps creatives relish investigating life, play with the possibilities, and maybe even have some fun along the way.

Rochelle Melander is a Milwaukee-based writing coach, teacher, and author. She is Founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop for children and teens in Milwaukee. She interviews authors and publishing professionals on her blog, at the Write Now! Mastermind class, and in her podcast, Business Boosting Books.

Wednesday, June 26, 7 pm, at Boswell Deborah Harkness, author of Time’s Convert:
Deborah Harkness, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches visits us with her latest novel about what it takes to become a vampire.

Please register for this free event at harknessmke.bpt.me, or upgrade to a book-with-registration option for $19, which includes a paperback copy of Time's Convert, signing line priority, and all taxes and fees.

A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the All Souls Trilogy instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history and a love affair that will bridge centuries.

A Discovery of Witches was made into a television series starring Teresa Palmer, Matthew Goode, Edward Bluemel, Louise Brealey, Malin Buska, Aiysha Hart, Owen Teale, Alex Kingston, and Valarie Pettiford. It aired on Sky One in the UK last fall and debuted on AMC in April. It just finished its run, but do not fear - the production has been renewed for two more seasons. If you just discovered the All Souls Trilogy via television or streaming, it's time to read the books, which, of course, are even better.

Deborah Harkness is the New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life. A history professor at the University of Southern California, Harkness has received Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Humanities Center fellowships.

Friday, June 28, 3-5 pm, at Boswell:
Scholastic Read-A-Palooza, featuring Dog Man and Clifford the Big Red Dog

Boswell hosts a Scholastic Read-a-Palooza Summer Reading Celebration! There will be activities for young readers and giveaways of goodies like stickers, temporary tattoos, and more. Plus, we’ll have a visit from (costume characters) Dog Man and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Great for kids and adults. We’ll also have a Summer Reading Give Back donation box to collect donations of new children’s books for Next Door Foundation.

Those who wish to attend this free event are asked to register at readapaloozamke.bpt.me.

Scholastic Read-A-Palooza is a nationwide effort to unite kids, parents, educators, public librarians, community partners, and booksellers in a movement to get books to kids in need during the summer, keeping every child reading.

Milwaukee’s Next Door Foundation supports the intellectual, physical, and emotional development of children by partnering with their families for success in school and the community.

Saturday, June 29, All Day, on Downer Ave:
Downer Classic Bike Races

Historic Downer Avenue is home to one of the most famous urban criterium courses in the country, The Cafe Hollander Downer Classic Pro Criterium. Global in reach and extremely local in flavor, this promises to be one of the highlights of cycling in Wisconsin this summer. The full day of racing also features a popular kids’ race, a Belgian Beer Festival, the famous Ben’s Cyclery Super Prime, as well as a full slate of racing all afternoon and evening.

Boswell will be open during our normal Saturday hours, 10 am – 9 pm, on the day of the races, though please note that the race course runs directly in front of the store. While the sidewalks will be open to foot traffic, the street will be closed.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending June 22, 2019

Boswell bestsellers, week ending June 22, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Girl in the Rearview Mirror, by Kelsey Rae Dimberg
2. City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilberg
3. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
4. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong
5. Recursion, by Blake Crouch
6. Becoming Mrs. Lewis, by Patti Callahan
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
8. Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner
9. FKA USA, by Reed King
10. Murder in Bel-Air V19, by Cara Black

Though Blake Crouch is probably best known to readers for his breakout Dark Matter, he also wrote the books that became the Wayward Pines series. Now he's back with Recursion, a twisty speculative thriller that posits that it is possible to plant false memories in a person. As he told Mary Louise Kelly on NPR's Morning Edition: "I came across this article about two MIT scientists who were implanting false memories in the brains of mice and actually tricking these poor mice into believing they had experienced a reality that they never experienced. And when I read this, I thought, this is my book." Recursion is also on our time travel table, but I've heard it's only time travel of a sort, so I'm adding a caveat.

Hardcover Nonficition:
1. Inheritance, by Dani Shapiro
2. Dark Fantastic, by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
3. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
4. Elderhood, by Louise Aronson
5. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
6. Educated, by Tara Westover
7. Underland, by Robert McFarlane
8. Anthony Bourdain Remembered, by CNN
9. Upheaval, by Jared Diamond
10. The Witch's Book of Self Care, by Arin Murphy-Hoscock

It's always nice to see a book sell off our staff rec shelf. Witches, as I'm sure you've heard, are hot again, what with Deborah Harkness coming to Boswell on Wednesday (register here) for A Discovery of Witches and Augusten Burroughs coming out with Toil and Trouble in October. But what got The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit onto our bestseller list was that someone bought it off the rec shelf on Saturday and walked over to Starbucks. It caught the eye of a barista (with a slightly different title that we figured out) and she bought a copy too. It's got a four on GoodReads (yes, I know that's Amazon, but I just can't find an NPR piece to link to).

I also wanted to call attention to an interesting book, whose sales pop was for a conference appearance. The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games. Thomas teaches at University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. I think a number of our customers would find the thesis of interest, and I'm excited to say we have a few signed copies.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
3. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
4. Vintage 1954, by Celeste Ng
5. Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
6. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
7. The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey
8. The Clockmaker's Daughter, by Kate Morton
9. Dear Mrs. Bird, by AJ Pearce
10. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles

It's another week of having read eight of the top ten titles, with all of the said eight having been reported on either here or in our events blog. That's not to say I won't have more to say, but I'll turn to Kate Morton's The Clockmaker's Daughter, which I don't think we've discussed since it was in hardcover. Nice to see it selling even with Jane on summer sabbatical. They call the genre country house goth, and this time, the dark house in question is Birchwood Manor, with two stories told 100 years apart. The hardcover jacket treatment focused on the clock, but the paperback says no, it's all about the daughter. Here's a nice Kirkus review.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Writing Fiction, 10th edition, by Janet Burroway
2. A Socialist Defector, by Victor Grossman
3. A Suffragette in America, by Sylvia Parkhurst, edited by Katherine Connelly
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
6. One Summer, by Bill Bryson
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Wildflowers of Wisconsin, by Stan Tekiela
9. Little Book of Restorative Justice, by Howard Zehr
10. Damn the Old Tinderbox, by Matthew Prigge

No new sales pops here, just events holding down our top three, and a number of perennials, including Wildflowers of Wisconsin, which is literally a perennial about perennials. Several books had sales at the Evicted Mobile Design Box book fair on Friday, including Evicted and Just Mercy on the paperback list and Educated on the hardcover list. Ben Austen's High Risers would have made the top ten if we hadn't sold out. If only we'd brought one more. Info about the Evicted Mobile Design Box here

Books for Kids:
1. Lulu and Rock in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renee Graef
2. Sweeping Up the Heart, by Kevin Henkes
3. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, by Fred Rogers, edited by Luke Flowers
4. Trees, by Socho Piotr
5. The Wicked King, by Holly Black
6. A Piglet Named Mercy, by Kate DiCamillo
7. Squirm, by Carl Hiaasen
8. Dry, by Neal Shusterman and Jared Schusterman
9. You Are Light, by Aaron Bucker
10. Thunderhead: Volume 2 of Schythe, by Neal Schusterman

I thought we'd see nice summer sales for Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, a great keepsake from a visit to town, so it's nice to see the book at #1. We just saw the second book in the series, Lulu and Rocky in Detroit, and having just visited Detroit in April, I'm excited about this one for our Michigan neighbors.

The Journal Sentinel book page is on vacation this week - it's planning a trip to Summerfest.