What's Going on This Week at Boswell? June 25-July 1, 2012 Sapphire, Matthew Flynn, Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner.

Three great events this week, a top poet/performance artist/novelist, a well-known local lawyer/mover/shaker and do it yourself tour that celebrates Turkish culture, taking the two authors from coast (Pasadena) to coast (Princeton).

Tuesday, June 26, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Quarles and Brady litigation partner Matt Flynn, author of Pryme Knumber.
Bernie Weber is an ordinary 15-yr-old high school student. But when Washington, the CIA, and Yale discover his extraordinary gift for factoring prime numbers, they realize he could be the world’s best codebreaker. When they all invade Milwaukee with the same mission—to kidnap and force him to help—they think it will be an easy task. However, the people of Milwaukee have a different idea: hide Bernie Weber.

More on the Shepherd Express website, where Pryme Knumber was this week's Book Preview.

Wednesday, June 27, 7 pm., at Boswell:
Sapphire, author of The Kid.
Sapphire’s new novel, The Kid, introduces us to Abdul, son of the unlikely heroine of Push (adapted into the 2009 film, Precious). Academically excelling and on track to be the first member of his family to attend college, Abdul’s future tragically crumbles when his mother dies. Now an HIV/AIDS orphan, he is shuffled through foster homes and into a world too much like the one his mother fought to save him from.

There's no question about it--this is not an easy book, but the cycle of sexual abuse is not an easy subject. Many reviews had trouble coming to terms with the graphic and difficult nature of the story.

I had to go outside the United States to find a critic who really connected with the work. Of course this is a total generalization, but please allow me that conceit. I wonder if that is partly because there can be a collective guilt about the subject.  So I turn to Bernadine Evaristo in The Observer, a London paper, who calls the writer, "brave, bold, and uncompromising," and notes that the "breathtaking velocity and visceral power of her prose soars off the page."

I thought I might have saved my original write up of Push, back in 1996 when it was originally published. I saw it as almost a performance piece, with Sapphire playing all the parts. One can only imagine the author bringing this book to life at our podium--however you were affected by the The Kid, I can assure you that this will be a very special event, not to be missed.

And don't forget, Sapphire is also signing at Reader's Choice from 5 to 5:45 pm, at 1950 North Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Drive. That event is a signing only--purchases from Readers Choice are welcome at our store if you'd like to hear Sapphire's presentation. For more info, call them at (414) 265-2003.


Thursday, June 28, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner, authors of Anatolian Days and Nights: A Love Affair with Turkey, Land of Dervishes, Goddesses and Saints.
When Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner meet on the balcony of a guesthouse in a small resort town on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, they think they have only a mutual friend and a summer dream in common. Soon, they discover a shared love of travel, history, culture, cuisine, and literature; and they begin a ten-year odyssey through Turkey.

Sheila O'Connor in Examiner.com offers this praise: "Through vivid prose, Stocke and Brenner offer a fresh perspective on a culture usually written about from a male point of view. With intuition, experience, and a bit of serendipity, they reveal the heart and soul of Turkey and find friendship and love in the most unlikely places."