Rep Night Wrap-up #2--We Visit Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon

The Boswell Book gang decamped to Mequon, where we joined our old friends at Next Chapter for sales rep presentations from Johanna at W. W. Norton and John from Abraham and Associates. Though Johanna is a house rep and John is commission, they both sell multiple lines. John actually sells Norton to smaller accounts that Johanna is not able to visit (and let's just say they are likely pretty small, because Johanna goes everywhere. She visits us from Louisville (home of Derby pie (trademark) and Hot Browns (oddly enough, no trademark, though it originated at the Brown Hotel.))

I've already wrote a love letter to Anna Young's Love Soup, and we've also waxed eloquent on David Small's Stitches (and you've probably weighed in on the controversy about whether Stitches should have been nominated as an adult or kids book for the National Book Award), but Johanna had some other goodies to share with us as well. I was very intruqued with the possibilities of Thames and Hudson's The Classical Compendium for our impulse table, and several booksellers raved over Terrence Holt's short story collection, In the Valley of Kings. Lanora raved about another cookbook, My Bread.

And of course we all discussed The Red Book, the $195 Jung book that sold out its first printing in about 7 seconds. We only have five coming in and two are already spoken for. You may want to contact us and secure one for yourself. I'm suspecting they will be in short supply.

John has so many lines, and I walked away for a moment and didn't get the handout. Some folks were excited about Pictorial Websters (pictured), which, being Chronicle, already has some spin-off gift product. A number of folks chimed in when John talked about how wonderful Kate DiCamillo's new Magician's Elephant was.

Another rave was reserved for the new title Tower from Busted Flush Press. It's a collaborative novel from Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman. The publisher David Thompson (a bookseller fat the Houston store Murder by the Book) commented on our Ken Bruen blog piece (the customer who judged a store by the presence of Ken Bruen) and I was told by Johanna that this guy is an incredible bookseller. Even if you don't like mysteries, you'll walk out of the store with a pile of books.

We had pizza from Leonardo's, nostalgic for me as this has always been a regular meal of mine when I worked at the Mequon Schwartz. The pizza is good (eat it hot) but the meatball sub toasted in the pizza oven? Even better.

Read more about what John has to say on his My Three Books blog.

***

Read Lisa Yee's blog where her pal peepy tours Milwaukee after several events with Boswell Book Company and other local stores.

I keep thinking of my former coworker James, who was a huge Peep fan, but never had a Peep for a friend.