Events This Week--Eric Kahn Gale, Chris Crowley and Jennifer Sacheck, Scott Jacobs.

Well, I finally got an email newsletter out yesterday, but that was partly because we had to let folks know that Stuart Neville's plane was delayed. Neville, author of Ratlines (signed copies available), got to Boswell shortly after 4 pm, where we had a spirited conversation about his novels. If I hadn't gone to the event, I would have known which people were actual historical figures in the novel, and what a large role Charles Haughey plays in the book. When reading the story, one things of him as simply the crooked commander that Albert Ryan has to work around, but he's actually going to tie the whole series together, if there will be further books in the series.

So now onto this week's events. Who knows what I'll learn from them? To make sure this got out time, I have reprinted my newsletter copy. Here's the complete newsletter.

Tuesday, January 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Eric Kahn Gale, author of The Bully Book.

The Bully Book is a darkly humorous, semi-autobiographical novel about Eric Haskin, a sixth-grader who becomes the target of several bullies whose actions are guided by something called a "bully book." The journal entries and excerpts from the bullying guide make for a realistic and compelling look at both the bullied and the bullies. Publishers Weekly writes, "Gale's accounts of bullying are subtle and chilling, but readers will finish the book believing that the humiliations Eric suffers can be conquered."

Eric Kahn Gale While The Bully Book is written for kids from 8-14, we are hoping that parents, educators, counselors, and other adults will find Eric Kahn Gale's story to be a great teaching tool. Meet Gale and hear about his story on Tuesday, January 8, 7 pm.

Eric Kahn Gale, a graduate of the University of Michigan, lives in Chicago. The Bully Book is his first novel, and he is determined to get it into the hands of as many children as possible.

Wednesday, January 9, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Chris Crowley and Jennifer Sacheck, authors of Thinner This Year:

"Thinner This Year is the how-to book of the Revolution in Behavior... the Revolution in Aging that was the subject of the Younger Next Year books. It is a hands-on guide to nutrition and weight loss and to cutting-edge exercise practice, right down to little drawings of actual exercises. It is designed to do nothing less than change the shape of America. And of you, by heaven."

So begins the enthusiastic call of Chris Crowley, the memorable patient and co-author of The New York Times bestselling Younger Next Year, who has turned healthy living into the ultimate lifestyle. In the new Thinner this Year, he partners with Sacheck, a nutritionist and exercise physiologist (and Associate Professor at the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University), to present a diet and exercise program that aims to be both effective and long-lasting.

In lively, alternating chapters, Crowley and Sacheck spell out a weight-loss plan that will have readers lose up to 25 pounds in the first six months--and keep it off for life. The message is straightforward and based on the most up-to-date nutritional science: Avoid "dead," i.e., nutrient-poor, foods, particularly the SOFAS (solid fats, added sugars) choices that comprise more than a third of our diet. Design your plate to be 50% vegetables and fruits, 25% whole grains, and 25% lean proteins. Skip the supplements. Never drink your calories.

And exercise. Exercise, the authors emphasize, is the great flywheel of weight loss. And whereas Younger Next Year told you why to exercise six days a week--Thinner This Year tells you how to eat and how to exercise, from the best aerobic workouts to a lifetime supply of 25 whole-body strength exercises--the "Sacred 25"--that will build muscle, protect joints, and add mobility. Exercise will do more than anything else to put off 70% of "normal" aging until the very end and eliminate 50% of serious illness and injury.

Saturday, January 12, 2 pm, at Boswell:
Scott Jacobs, author of Never Leave Your Block: Adventures in Urban Living.

In Never Leave Your Block, Jacobs tells stories from Bucktown, the neighborhood in Chicago he calls home. Whether he is taking a tour of the water aisle in a local supermarket, talking with a neighbor fixated on the latest rat traps, or observing penitent parishioners worship a water stain under the Kennedy Expressway, Jacobs sees city living Scott Jacobsas an ongoing adventure. Through political upheaval, gentrification, and social redemption, he finds the common threads that hold a city together.

Scott Jacobs has been a reporter, filmmaker, political consultant, author, and community activist for 40 years. He is editor of The Week Behind, an online magazine now celebrating its 18th year, and his freelance writings have appeared in Milwaukee Magazine, Slate, Scan, and The Chicago Sun-Times.