Paige Rawl at Shorewood High (and Boswell Tonight), Emily St. John Mandel and the Soulstice Theatre, Deb Diesen and Dan Hanna and the Pout-Pout Hat.

The last minute blog post is something I try to avoid. I feel obligated to put tonight's event on a Monday post, but nowadays, my rule of thumb is that said event should also be featured the week before. And we try the same for the email newsletter, which is one of the reasons why we list out the events another couple of weeks, whenever possible. This way when the email newsletter runs late, and we're cutting an event close, at least we know that the event had at least a listing in a previous newsletter.

So that's why I feel a bit off touting Paige Rawl's event tonight at the store for her memoir, Positive. But for one thing, I just heard her presentation at Shorewood High School and it was very powerful. And for another, Gina forwarded the Morning Blend interview with Paige this morning, and I can similarly offer you the link. Our event is Thursday, September 25, 7 pm, co-sponsored by the ARCW. Don't forget that AIDS Walk Wisconsin is Sunday, October 12.

Speaking of events, we had a really great one with Emily St. John Mandel and the Soulstice Theatre on Monday. I spoke to FOB Jenny on Wednesday, at Chris Guillebeau's event for The Happiness of Pursuit (also great, but without actors) and she was completely absorbed in Station Eleven.I mentioned to her that I was trying to talk down the dystopian element (like her American publisher, Knopf) but Jenny countered with "I love dystopian!" so she is more in line with the marketing plan for UK Publisher, Panmacmillan, which does still categorize the book as literary fiction, but the copy definitely leans more genre.

Thank you to Margaret Casey, Bo Johnson, Josh Perkins, Stephan Roselin, and Mark Flagg, who together put together a wonderful staged reading. My favorite comment of the night was Ms. Mandel, who said it gave her chills to hear actors reciting her words. My second favorite? The person who wondered whose idea it was to start with the scene from King Lear, and not in a good way. The fault, dear reader, was mine.

And finally, while best production goes to Emily St. John Mandel and the Soulstice Theatre, best costume goes to Dan Hanna, illustrator of The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School. I can't get enough of that Pout-Pout Fish hat. "Glub, glub, glub" is all I can say.

I should mention that signed copies of all books mentioned are available at Boswell. And my apologies to the young guest who posed with Deb and Danny. I didn't do you justice in my artistic rendition.