Events this Week at Boswell: Jen Lancaster Tonight, R.N. (Rick) Ryan Tomorrow, Adam Rockoff Wednesday.

Monday, May 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jen Lancaster, author of I Regret Nothing: A Memoir
with an Introduction to Self-Defense by Local Martial Artist, Personal Trainer, and Special Guest Paul Boyajian

According to Lancaster, several cities in the I Regret Nothing tour had to be rescheduled, but Milwaukee is on track. But Jen, being in a cast, she might not be able to fend off attackers for our self-defense bucket list challenge. On the other hand, the fact that Lancaster can get to Milwaukee without flying was our saving grace. As you know, Lancaster is the author of ten previous memoirs and novels, from The Tao of Martha to Jeneration X. Here's a little more about her newest, I Regret Nothing.

Mistakes are one thing; regrets are another. After a girls’ weekend in Savannah makes Jen Lancaster realize that she is—yikes!—middle-aged (binge watching is so the new binge drinking), Jen decides to make a bucket list and seize the day, even if that means having her tattoo removed at one hundred times the cost of putting it on. From attempting a juice cleanse to studying Italian, from learning to ride a bike to starting a new business, and from sampling pasta in Rome to training for a 5K, in I Regret Nothing, Jen turns a mid-life crisis into a mid-life opportunity, sharing her sometimes bumpy—but always hilarious—attempts to better her life...again.

And here's a little more about Paul Boyajian. With over 30 years of martial arts experience, personal trainer and founder of Anthro EX Corrective Exercise & Functional Training Programs Paul Boyajian is skilled in Tae Kwon Do, Thai Boxing, Savate, Jeet Kune Do, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, to name a few. He is an American Council on Exercise certified personal trainer and fitness nutritionist and a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified Corrective Exercise Specialist, and has taught and trained clients of all ages locally for many years in various disciplines, including a popular class on self-defense for women that he co-developed in the late 1980s. In the 90s, as a group-home manager, he designed and implemented new restraint and defense programs to reinforce the safety of residents and workers. For more information and to schedule your training session, visit Anthro EX on Facebook.

While Jen has previously appeared at Barnes and Noble and the now-gone Borders (where she had capacity crowds), this is her first time at Boswell. This event is not ticketed, though as always, we will close temporarily if we reach capacity.

Tuesday, May 19, 7 pm, at Boswell:
R.M. (Rick Ryan), author of There's a Man with a Gun Over There.

Former Milwaukeean Rick Ryan has been in the Bay area for many years, but he's back in conjunction with his novel, There's a Man with a Gun Over There. Based on Ryan’s military experiences as an antiwar activist and grad student turned translator and Military Police officer for the US Army, his new novel, per Publishers Weekly, "offers a side to Vietnam that most people don’t see."

Pop culture aficionados will recall Ryan's titular reference is from Buffalo Springfield's "For What it's Worth." While Stephen Sills' classic did find life as a antiwar protest song, it was originally inspired by an anti-noise curfew at a well-known Los Angeles music club, per this piece in the Los Angeles Times.

But you will not mistake Ryan's book for anything but the antiwar statement that it is. Per Publishers Weekly, "The book’s message is clear and repeated throughout the book: the Army is not a game, and no matter what you tell yourself to get through it, you are still a trained killer. Ryan offers a side to Vietnam that most people don’t see. He drives his points home about the dangers of the military and how it affects people."

Wednesday, May 20, 7 pm, at Boswell: Adam Rockoff, author of The Horror of It All: One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead.

Pop culture history meets blood-soaked memoir as a horror film aficionado and screenwriter recalls a life spent watching blockbuster slasher films, cult classics, and everything in between. Horror films have simultaneously captivated and terrified audiences for generations, racking up billions of dollars at the box office and infusing our nightmares with unrelenting zombies, chainsaw-wielding madmen, and myriad incarnations of ghosts, ghouls, and the devil himself. Despite evolving modes of storytelling and the fluctuating popularity of other genres, horror endures. In The Horror of It All author Adam Rockoff traces the highs and lows of the horror genre through the lens of his own obsessive fandom, born in the aisles of his local video store and nurtured with a steady diet of cable.

Rockoff is the screenwriter of Wicked Lake, a film so depraved it caused Ron Jeremy to storm out of the theater in anger. However, his 2010 adaptation of the classic exploitation film, I Spit on Your Grave, received nearly unanimous praise from horror critics. Brent R. Oliver writes in Buzzy Magazine: "This book is for people who outright, wholeheartedly, unabashedly, freaking love horror movies. It’s an intelligent and heartfelt look at something that too often seems dumb and heartless. Scary movies are art, whether they’re seriously great or seriously terrible. Rockoff sees this and he’ll make you see it, too."

And as for next Monday, happy Memorial Day! Don't forget, we are open 10 am to 5 pm. I'll be working, so stop by and say hi.