What are you reading on vacation? Haven't left yet? We're open 10 am to 5 pm on Memorial Day (and July 4th, and Labor Day)

I am not one for traveling on holiday weekends. For one thing, I rotate working through our holiday shifts, when we are open special hours, from 10 to 5. For another, I like to travel off peak and that means Tuesdays and Saturdays, not Mondays and Fridays.  Did you catch that we are open Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day from 10 am to 5 pm? I was trying to be subtle. But hey, sometimes retailers need to shout -we're open today from 10 to 5!

I'm not at Boswell today. It worked out this year that this was the perfect time for me to visit my mom in Worcester. And that meant at least one visit to a New England bookstore I've never been to (that will be in another post) and a little extra focus on what to read.

The first book is whatever I haven't quite finished, and that was Larry Watson's As Good As Gone. Watson may write about Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana but he is a Milwaukee author (or to say it probably closer to the truth, he is our visiting author in residence) and his new book is officially released on June 21.

We'll be hosting an event with Watson, in conversation with Mitch Teich of Lake Effect, cosponsored by 89.7 Milwaukee Public Radio on pub date, June 21, 7 pm, at Boswell.

While I can't say I've read every Watson novel (yet), I've been on a roll lately and am picking up themes. The newest is about Calvin Sidey, a Montana guy whose escaped town life to be a cowboy in the middle of nowhere. He's not exactly roping cattle, being around 70 and all that, but he's living out the classic tropes in an isolated life, with only his library of Greek literature to keep him company. OK, he's not following every trope.

You see, when he was younger, he lost his wife, and escaped from the grief, leaving behind his two kids. Now his son Bill has kids of his own, Ann and Will, and Bill's not sure of what to do when he takes his wife to the hospital for an operation, so he asks Cal to come to the house and watch them. Now it turns out that Cal soon figures out that his family is in a heap of trouble--Ann's being stalked, Will's being bullied, and Bill is in an escalating fight with an old friend about an eviction he is handling. This is a lot to take on for one solitary guy to take on, one whose inclinations for justice have gotten him into trouble before.

It's another great novel from Watson, who skirts the edges of suspense with his work but is more concerned with family dynamics and character. Some folks are calling this Montana, 1963. The starred Booklist review read: "In Hollywood, Calvin's attempts to solve his grandchildren's problems like a cowboy confronting a gang of rustlers would be the stuff of inspirational melodrama, but in Watson's far more subtle hands, the novel becomes something else entirely. Calvin is trapped on a cultural and emotional fault line, the ground shifting beneath him as he realizes that the only tools he knows how to use won't unlock the secrets to life in a new world. Yes, Watson has told versions of this story before but perhaps never with as powerful a sense of loss. Fine writing in the grand western tradition of William Kittredge and Mark Spragg."

But when As Good as Gone was finished, what to read next? We had two events coming up with Boston-area settings, one being Margot Livesey's Mercury this fall (I think we've got the date but at this point, let me just say early October) and Michael Harvey, coming for Brighton, which goes on sale June 14.

I thought I should detour to Brighton on my way back from Worcester, but then I realized I'd already driven through it several times. It's actually not far from Brookline, where my mom used to live. And then I looked at the map and realized I probably drove through Brighton on Friday, heading from Jamaica Plain where I had dinner with my friend Michael, to I-90. Had I not been worried about getting lost, I would have taken some pictures.

Harvey will also be in conversation, with Ruth Jordan of Crimespree Magazine (our cosponsor) and his appearance is on Thursday, June 30, 7 pm, at Boswell. It's about two boyhood friends, Kevin and Bobby, who are as close as brothers (literally, as Kevin's family takes Bobby in at one point), who grew up together in the working class neighborhood of Brighton. They are both poor, but Kevin's grandmother owns a cab company, which leaves some money in their office. A horrible crime happens, binding the two together.

Kevin escapes for a life in journalism but comes back to the neighborhood when he covers a story about an unjustly imprisoned black man from Brighton who is eventually exonerated, but not before he is murdered in prison. This leads him back to Bobby, who is now a crime boss. What I know is about to come (from reading the jacket copy) is that a series of brutal murders is going to rock the neighborhood and Kevin and Bobby are going to have to work together again.

That's where I left off, but you can see some overlapping themes of family and justice playing out. And for those interested in Harvey's work in The Innocence Project (used to full effect in his stand-alone, The Innocence Game), you can see it here. Also note that if you are interested in the subject, why not attend our event with Alison Flowers for The Exoneree Diaries on Monday, June 13, 6 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Library's Rare Books Room, 814 W Wisconsin Ave, 2nd floor.

Both Watson and Harvey have a strong sense of place. Watson has sets most of his novels in small Great Plains towns, and while Michael Harvey has previously kept to his adopted home of Chicago, this is his first book reaching back to his Massachusetts boyhood. And he's getting ringing endorsements from other New Englanders, most notably Stephen King, who wrote "Brighton is the f*cking bomb. I loved it!

But what I love the most in my odd Daniel way are the similarity of the two covers - it's kind of a country mouse, city mouse variation. It's more dramatic when you put them together, like at left. nothing so ominous as a car where you can't see the driver, right?

I understand that reading upcoming event books is like taking work home, but hey, it's more fun than a lot of other things I do, though I did just have a blast updating our sales rep checklist.

But I digress. So what are you reading on vacation?

Addendum: I finished Brighton on my way back to Milwaukee and while I focused on the similarities between Watson and Harvey's novels, and while they both make you uncomfortable, and both ruminate on the passage of time, the fragile bonds of family and friends, and both are very place-centric, the wrapping could not be more different. For while As Good as Gone simmers at a slow burn, Brighton  is as explosive as a bare-knuckles thriller should be. Misdirection and double crosses abound and being the delicate flower that I am, you might be surprised that I could make it through what is a pretty violent tale. But the truth is that I can read it better than I can watch it, and every time I put the book down to catch my breath, I thought, "but now what?" and had to start reading again. I should note there is some ethnic slurring scattered throughout but it tends to be equal opportunity. There is also what may be a major loose end that I believe needs some explaining, so please read Brighton quickly and then we can discuss it - it goes on sale June 14. And see you on June 21 and June 30 for our events with Watson and Harvey.

The Annotated Boswell Bestseller List for the week ending May 28 2016, or should I say it's the Main Street bookstore, at least for some lists...plus the Journal Sentinel reviews and summer reading guide.

Welcome to the Boswell urban planning bookstore. We sold books at the Main Street Now Conference that was in Milwaukee this past week. Next year, some list you get from a Pittsburgh store will be filled with city books. But maybe not - this was the first time they used a bookstore in a number of years.


Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
2. The Happiness Track, by Emma Seppala
3. City of Thorns, by Ben Rawlence
4. Serengeti Rules, by Sean B. Carroll
5. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. Reclaiming Conversation, by Sherry Turkle
7. One in a Billion, by Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher
8. Milwaukee City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
9. The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
10. Urban Street Design Guide, by National Association of City Transportation Officials
11. America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook
12. Urban Bikeway Design Guide, by National Association of City Transportation Officials
13. Transit Street Design, by National Association of City Transportation Officials
14. 32 Yolks, by Eric Ripert
15. Terror in the City of Champions, by Tom Stanton (Event at Boswell Friday June 10, 7 pm)

It's a weird sales week in general. We also had a number of bulk sales, from school orders to authors, to books for a local business. But we've got at least one book from this week's events (One in a Billion) and a pop in sales from an upcoming book (Terror in the City of Champions), though I did sell at least one of Tom Stanton's books at the Main Streets Now conference. It's part of the explosion of books about Detroit that continues. We're just booking another author for this fall, Christopher Hebert, whose novel is Angels of Detroit.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
2. LaRose, by Louise Erdrich
3. The Excellent Lombards, by Jane Hamilton
4. Zero K. by Don DeLillo
5. Everybody's Fool, by Richard Russo
6. The Drifter, by Nicholas Petrie
7. The Yid, by Paul Goldberg
8. The Fireman, by Joe Hill
9. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
10. North of the Tension Line, by J.F. Riordan

It was just a hunch, but it felt like Don DeLillo's Zero K was selling better for us than his last few. In fact, it has already outsold Point Omega (2010) and the story collection The Angel Esmerelda (2011), as well as the Downer Schwartz sales for Falling Man (2007). What's different? Six years between books definitely helps and the reviews are everywhere. Meghan Daum writes: "Adjectives like cold and numb are frequently applied to DeLillo’s work, even—perhaps especially—by those who consider him a genius. Zero K, a novel that is literally about coldness, is duly benumbed and also duly brilliant in its imaginative scope (which, rather miraculously, the author manages to contain to fewer than 300 pages)." One should note that the novel is about cryogenic freezing, giving greater weight to a cold and numb setup. But we also have a reader in Chris (or at least I think we do, I've been distracted) and that helps.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Life on the Loose, by Cari Taylor-Carlson
2. Old Town, New World, by Jason Broadwater
3. Street Fairs for Community and Profit, by Bridget Bayer
4. The Start-up City, by Gabe Klein
5. Tactical Urbanism, by Mike Lydon
6. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
7. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
8. Fantastic Cities, by Steve McDonald
9. Charrette Handbook, by Bill Lennertz
10. World War II Milwaukee, by Meg Jones
11. City by City, edited by Keith Gessen
12. After Preservation, by Ben Minteer
13. The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough
14. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), by Felicia Day
15. H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

I went a little deeper than normal just to list a few of these interesting Main Street bestsellers. Most of the titles that did best were from Island Press, and a few came from the American Planning Association. More than a couple were self-published. But City by City, Keith Gessen's n+1 collection of writing about cities, which I took a chance on and brought in more copies. It was hard to say what might have also hit our bestseller list if we had decided to be a bit more speculative about titles, but instead we combed not just our architecture and urban planning, but current events, history, travel lit, bicycling, and even our urban farming sections. We sold out of the copy of Bike Battles that Todd found in about 10 minutes, but with speculative buying comes speculative returns, and really, it wasn't that large a conference, nor did we know what traffic would be like. Thanks to Tina Hochberg for putting this together. Attendees really seemed to enjoy browsing the display.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Girl Waits With Gun, by Amy Stewart
2. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald
3. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
4. A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler
5. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
6. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
7. Murder in the Museum, by John Rowland
8. Death Comes Darkly, by David Pederson (event at Boswell Sat June 4, 7 pm)
9. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
10. My Sunshine Away, by Mo Walsh

If you are looking for a good Baton Rouge novel, look no further than My Sunshine Away, though he must note that his town lives in the shadow of New Orleans, the generic mediocre version. Alfred Hickling in The Guardian noted the comparisons to Go Set a Watchman, but only in the setup (a rape in the past, told through the haze of memory). And Meredith Maran in the Chicago Tribune writes: "A gripping read that's more than a thriller, more than a traditional Southern tale, My Sunshine Away is a brilliant meditation on the unpredictability and the lifelong effects of childhood events and relationships: how they make us who we are, and who we wish we were, and who we wish we weren't." And we've got a great rec from Sharon too.

Books for Kids:
1. Doodle Adventures: The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs, by Mike Lowery
2. Symphony for the Dead, by M.T. Anderson
3. The Last Star by Rick Yancey
4. Thunder Boy Jr., by Sherman Alexie with illustrations by Yuyi Morales
5. The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan
6. The Crown, by Kiera Cass
7. The Library of Souls, by Ransom Riggs
8. Waiting, written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
9. Stories from Bug Garden, by Lisa Moser with illustrations by Gwen Millward
10. Pax by Sara Pennypacker, with illustrations by Jon Klassen

Kiera Cass's Selection series tends to be #1 New York Times bestsellers, though of course #1 and #2 are listed as teen novels and as of #3, the books jump to the series. But that's only if they are identified by series, which sometimes makes me a little confused about the lists. There aren't generally traditional reviews for most series, but there are lots and lots of blogger write ups. But in this case for The Crown, the final book in the Selection, we can link to the romantic trailer.

Over in the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins offers the annual summer reading list, including favorites in all sorts of categories. He starts off with Larry Watson's As Good as Gone, who will be at Boswell on launch day, June 21. I expect to see a review for the book on June 19 (I'm just being logical, since it's an editor's pick. I don't know anymore than you do).

Being a compulsive checklister, I had to count how many books I've already read on the Journal Sentinel summer reading list (nine, but I don't include picture books). But maybe a better number for you is how many do you want to read?

Christi Clancy reviews Jean Thompson's newest novel, She Poured Out Her Heart, about a dysfunctional friendship that becomes an even more dysfunctional love triangle. Her take: "In a less capable writer's hands, it would be easy to know who to root for and who to condemn in this awkward love triangle, but Thompson muddies our ideas about culpability and blame. In doing so, she elevates a plot that might have the makings of a soap opera into a nuanced study of marriage and friendship, fidelity and deceit, and our lonesome search for meaningful connection."

Chris Foran reviews Alan Furst's newest. The verdict?: "A Hero of France is the 14th of Furst's novels taking place during or in the years leading up to World War II, and his third straight (after Mission to Paris and Midnight in Europe) set principally in Paris — this time in early 1941, months into the German occupation after the fall of France in 1940.But unlike many of Furst's previous spy thrillers, the emphasis is on the milieu, and the danger, more than the intrigue. And while that makes the story seem a little slight by comparison, the result is no less captivating."

It's quite the book section, isn't it? It's also time for Carole E. Barrowman's Paging Through Mysteries. Here are her four summer picks:

--I Let You Go, by Claire Mackintosh. Set in Bristol, Carole calls this an "astonishing debut is the kind of psychological thriller that burns into your psyche and blacks out everything else until you finish it."

--The Second Life of Nick Mason, by Steve Hamilton, which is already a national bestseller, supporting Hamilton's contentious exit from another publisher for lack of support. The setup? "Ex-con Nick Mason wants so much to rebuild his life with his family that he agrees to a deal with a devil (a Godfather-like convict running his business from a cell) to get an early release. The price? Don't get in trouble and do whatever he's told. Mason discovers quickly that you really can't go home again, but if you do, watch your back." The Barrowman bite? "It's a killer read."

--Stealing People, by Robert Wilson. Here's the Barrowman-date: "I loved this novel's detailed twisty plotting and its multidimensional characters, including kidnapping consultant Charlie Boxer, his detective ex-wife, and his latest client, a young transsexual woman whose father may be a suspect."

--Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry, set in the remote English countryside. What's the fear factor? "Told in first person from Nora's perspective (and in present tense), this psychologically intense and darkly atmospheric mystery reminded me of Patricia Highsmith in its vivid style and toxic substance."

What did the book club think of "The Turner House?" and why I think your book club should read it too.

Sometimes you just don't know where you're next favorite book will come from. I read a lot of reviews, but when The Turner House came out, I thought to myself, that this seems like a good book. I have a pile of good books, a tower of good books, a castle of good books. I don't have an event with this author, so I'm not getting pressured to read it, and I don't know the editor, so he or she isn't sending me very lovely notes about why this is the best book ever.

It got a wonderful review from Mike Fischer at the Journal Sentinel, which always resonates with me. But of course I had already fallen in love with another National Book Award shortlist title, Fates and Furies, and we were hosting an event with another, the eventual winner, Adam Johnson for Fortune Smiles. And I didn't want this to turn into a three-way emotional horse race, so I put off the read until paperback, where I hoped we'd read it for our in-store lit group.

But Mr. Fischer made another pitch in the store. There are books he loves and books that I love, and he was well aware that not every book is in the intersection. But he Venn Diagrammed me on this one and he was completely correct. I love this review quote, which really captures the story in all its poetic glory: "For all our past failures and disappointments, can we be more than the ruins we all eventually resemble? Can we escape the haints that would pull us backward into a darker past? Do we, against the evidence, still dare to hope?"

The story is set in Detroit. I have been reading a lot of Detroit books lately, including Beer Money, Frances Stroh's memoir of growing up at the tail-end of a beer dynasty, and much but not quite all of Once in a Great City, David Maraniss's history of early sixties Detroit. On my pile now is Tom Stanton's Terror in the City of Champions, a story of domestic terrorism in the 1930s set against an unprecedented year of Motor City sports achievements. Stanton's coming to Boswell on Friday, June 10, 7 pm.

The Turner family home is in East Detroit. The patriarch has died, mom's having health problems and is now living at her eldest son Cha-Cha's house, and though she's raring to return, her kids, 13 in all, know that's not likely to happen. The house is under water from remortgaging and the kids are not on the same page about what to do - keep the house and have someone live with her, or sell at a short sale. One son, Troy, as the idea to sell at a short sale to a friend of the family, keeping the house but getting the bank to take the hit.

One of the great things about Angela Flournoy's novel is that it is very much a story about a story about a contemporary African American family, and yet the large family complications and machinations are universal. I convinced my colleague Jane to read the book and she took to it in a big way. Being that she's from a family of 12 herself, she saw some of the same family dynamics play out in her own family.

Despite all these characters, Flournoy wisely decides to focus on three of them - the oldest son \Charles, and the two youngest, Troy and Lelah. That said, you really get a feeling for a lot of the siblings and there's one fascinating passage where every sibling gets their voice.

And there's another through line -- Cha Cha is convinced that he's seeing a haint. That's like a ghost, only with a bit of an African American twist. Haints are one of the plot points of Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men, so I know have an additional homework assignment to read that. You can also check out Flournoy's essay about the book's influence on her in The Atlantic.

There's so much to talk about in this book. There's the issue of parental caregiving, which we've also been discussing in George Hodgman's Bettyville. There's the backstory of Detroit itself. There are the family dynamics, and there's also the Great Migration from the South to Detroit, and what happened when the jobs dried up. And there's the way that Flournoy gave each character a struggle - you might call it an addition - Cha Cha's haint is most noticeable, but there's also Lelah's gambling addition, one sibling who has struggled with drugs, the brother obsessed with self help success, and the sister who a collector verging on hoarder.

And of course there is the youngest daughter Lelah's predicament, homeless through a series of bad breaks and of course her uncontrolled gambling. Its like a story straight out of Matthew Desmond's Eviction. And I want to note that Flournoy does a really great job capturing the euphoria that gambler's feel in the moment.

Albert didn't expect to like The Turner House but he was won in by Flournoy's ability to radiate humanity. These characters are real and you feel the flaws. On the other side was Mickey, who didn''t connect with the characters. Other attendees, however, wound up liking a number of the characters a lot. I had one reader say to me, "I am totally Francey!"

Jeff thought that Flournoy had a particularly good ear for dialogue, particularly the party scene. And by the way, according to Daniel's law, this is in my book officially a comic novel, as it ends with a party. I also really loved the party, I want to add. That was another scene when the less-seen siblings really came to life.

Juli loved it. She really enjoyed the obsessions, and found the therapist an interesting character. I forgot to mention that Cha Cha sees this therapist when his haint causes an accident and while she clears him, he keeps seeing her until things get a little complicated on both sides.

We had a few more loves, some mixed, some disappointed - the usual mix. This is the market of a great book club selection; you need a little disagreement to keep the juices flowing. One problem we had with A Man Called Ove was that everyone liked it so much and the conversation seemed to peter out after we all agreed it was good. Backman suggests that book clubs read My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry instead - it's a lot more polarizing!

For Jane and me thought, the book hit hard, and it's been so much fun telling folks to read it. We're in the top five stores for sales on Above the Treeline (which most indies use as a buying resource but I obsesss over in terms of how we're doing against other stores on particular titles) and for a while we were #1, but we've slowed down after the book club. I'm hoping to get a lot of clubs in the metro area to choose it.

Rand Richards Cooper reviewed The Turner House for Commonweal Magazine. He wrote: "Flournoy’s command of unspectacular daily realities is near perfect. She’ll write a passage describing life on an automobile assembly line, and not only does she get it right, but the passage lacks the researchy feel that such set-pieces can have; instead, the depiction of work forms a seamless and necessary part of the evocation of the life of Cha-Cha Turner, the family member who’s working the line. Flournoy moves deftly from small daily actions to the interpretations her characters themselves make of those actions; she catches the way people read big meanings into the small events of their own lives"

Oh, and if you wind up liking The Turner House, I've already read two books coming out this fall that have to go on your to-be-read list - Brit Bennett's The Mothers and Jacqueline Woodson's Another Brooklyn. Flournoy has a great quote on The Mothers, which is one of the things that drew me to this book coming this fall.

I've got our next three in-store lit group selections laid out and take special note, because two meetings don't follow our normal schedule.

On Monday, June 6, 6 pm, we're reading Paul Goldberg's The Yid. We're meeting early so we can attend his conversation at 7 with Joel Berkowitz of the UWM Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies. The Yid is set in the last days of Stalin, when a ragtag group of rebels comes up with a plan to assassinate him. Goldberg will stop by at the end of our discussion to let us ask spoiler questions. Don't attend if you haven't read - we plan to reveal all twists! Note that you get 10% off on our selection if you're reading it for the book club, but folks are getting 20% off on this one since we don't normally choose a hardcover. It's hard coded, so you don't have to ask on this.

Because Boswell closes at 5 on July 4, the in-store lit group will move to Monday, July 11, 7 pm, to discuss Anne Tylers A Spool of Blue Thread. The science fiction group is also meeting at that time so we'll be at the back of the store.  I've read a lot of Tyler over the years but stopped a few books ago, but this one has gotten some of her best reviews and was shortlist for both the Baileys Womens Prize and the Man Booker Prize.

Speaking of prizes, well be discussing Viet Tranhn Nguyen's The Sympathizer, recent winner of the Pulitzer as well as the Edgar for Best First Novel. It's about a group of Vietnamese folks who post-war, wind up in an American immigrant community. And one is a spy!

Thursday, May 26, 7 pm - Join us for an evening with Mark Johnson, Kathleen Gallagher, and Alan Mayer, the reporters and pediatric gastroenterologist behind the Pulitzer Prize winning story series, "One in a Billion."

Tonight (Thursday, May 26, 7 pm) we're hosting Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher, authors of One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of Genomic Medicine. Special guest will be Dr. Alan Mayer, the pediatric gastroenterologist who pointed the way to gene mapping to identify and treat Volker's gut-destroying disease.

This series of articles won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting and of course you can read the articles right here. This Journal Sentinel link will lead you to the three-part series.

Reviews have been strong for the recently released book. Kirkus Reviews wrote that "the authors do a solid job integrating the personal stories of a wide cast of characters—Nic, his family, and the doctors and researchers involved with his treatment—with the exciting tale of a major medical milestone."

And from Publishers Weekly: "By sequencing all 21,000 or so of his genes, investigators sussed out the right one—a gene known as "XIAP"—and alerted Volker's parents and doctors that they'd chosen the right treatment (a bone marrow transplant). This is a moving, skillfully written book that's well positioned to introduce a broad audience to the profound clinical relevance of whole-genome and exome sequencing."

You can also listen to Kathleen Gallagher and Mark Johnson discuss genomic medicine on The Joy Cardin Show with John Munson on Wisconsin Public Radio. Gallagher notes how she first heard about the story from a tip about "the great things going on at Children's Hospital." It started to be a great story when they met the Volker story - "they'd already been through two years of searching for answers for Nic's disease."

That's where we learn that Nic's mom, Amylynne Santiago Volker, did the search to find Dr. Mayer, not satisfied with the other doctors' lack of answers.

Mark Johnson is a health and science reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he has worked since 2000. He was a member of the Journal Sentinel team that won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on the Nic Volker story in 2011. He is also a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has won numerous other awards for his reporting.

Kathleen Gallagher is a business reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where she has worked since 1993. She was a member of the Journal Sentinel team that won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on the Nic Volker story in 2011. She was also part of a team that won the 2006 Inland Press Association award for explanatory reporting.

Dr. Alan Mayer is a pediatric gastroenterologist currently in practice with GI Associates, LLC and affiliated with Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. He received his medical degree and PhD in molecular biology at Cornell University, completed residency training at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and subspecialty training at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has authored over 30 research articles and book chapters in molecular genetics and intestinal development

Boswell Bestsellers for the week ending May 21, 2016--Good Housekeeping pops a book, an unpublished WPA book is a local success, and what about those missing 26th and 27th Elephant and Piggie books?

Here we go!

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Audacity of Goats, by J.F. Riordan
2. The Charm Bracelet, by Viola Shipman
3. Don't You Cry, by Mary Kubica
4. North of the Tension Line, by J.F. Riordan
5. LaRose, by Louise Erdrich
6. Everybody's Fool, by Richard Russo
7. Zero K, by Don DeLillo
8. The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
9. Everyone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave
10. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah

We had a very nice week of author appearances, including The Charm Bracelet. According to Wade Rouse, who is writing as Viola Shipman after a series of nonfiction books under his own name, has found new success, including international sales and an Italian bestseller. See, the Italian critics were right to suspect that Elena Ferrante's novel might actually written by a man. Just kidding. In any case, Rouse told me that this Good Housekeeping piece was actually one of the most influential pieces in helping get the word out about his new book.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. No House to Call My Home, by Ryan Berg
2. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
3. The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
6. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
7. Valiant Ambition, by Nathaniel Philbrick
8. Grit, by Angela Duckworth
9. The Romanovs, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
10. Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round, by Ron Faiola

One hot title in the bookstore marketplace has been Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene, his follow up to the award-winning The Emperor of All Maladies. Kevin Canfield for the San Francisco Chronicle called this "a rich, occasionally whimsical book." He continues: "Mukherjee spends most of his time looking into the past, and what he finds is consistently intriguing. But his sober warning about the future might be the book’s most important contribution."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald
2. Lucadora!, by Alvaro Saar Rios
3. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy L. Sayers
4. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, by Fredrik Backman
5. A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler
6. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
7. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
8. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
9. Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson
10. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

I made the pitch to the In-store Lit Group that A Spool of Blue Thread had a little more review attention than her previous two novels, but I would say that this was mostly contingent on the Man Booker shortlist. It was also on the Baileys Women's Prize shortlist. So maybe I should say it was the better reviewed in the UK! But here's Ron Charles in The Washington Post, talking about it: "Everything about her new novel — from its needlepointed title to its arthritic plot — sounds worn-out. So how can it be so wonderful? The funky meals, the wacky professions, the distracted mothers and the lost children — they’re all here. But complaining that Tyler’s novels are redundant is like whining that Shakespeare’s sonnets are always 14 lines long. Somehow, what’s familiar seems transcended in these pages, infused with freshness and surprise — evidence, once again, that Tyler remains among the best chroniclers of family life this country has ever produced."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
2. Milwaukee in the 1930s, by John D. Buenker
3. Life on the Loose, by Cari Taylor-Carlson (event today at 3 pm)
4. Kitchen Hacks, by America's Test Kitchen
5. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
6. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
7. Between You and Me, by Mary Norris
8. My Holiday in North Korea, by Wendy E. Simmons
9. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
10. A Lucky Life Interrupted, by Tom Brokaw

We're selling books at the Main Street Now conference downtown on Monday through Wednesday. One book we'll definitely be bringing is Milwaukee in the 1930s by John D. Buenker. Here's David Luhrssen's review in the Shepherd Express.

Books for Kids:
1. American Born Chinese, by Gen Luen Yang
2. The Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
3. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
4. Hello?, by Liza Wiemer
5. The Problem With Forever, by Jennifer Armentrout
6. Thank You Book, by Mo Willems
7. The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan
8. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
9. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
10. Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, by Jonathan Auxier

So the big question is whether The Thank You Book is the last Elephant and Piggie story. Indeed, Mo Willems's website says as much but the Wikipedia page says We Are Superheroes was scheduled for July and A Great Party is on the schedule for October:
26. We Are Super Heroes! (July 2016)
27. A Great Party (October 2016)

What's up with this? Did these exist and were they cancelled? Where's 60 Minutes when you need it?

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer reviews a book that looks at how the American military broke new grounds in fairness. He writes: "I begin with this story (of the army throwing out a court martial for a black soldier refusing to move to the back of a bus) so I might honor the effective way Chris Bray starts most of the chapters in his impressively researched, well-written and thoroughly entertaining account of military justice in U.S. history. I didn't expect a book titled Court-Martial: How Military Justice Has Shaped America from the Revolution to 9/11 and Beyond to be riveting as well as informative. I was spectacularly wrong."

Also included in the print edition is Laurie Hertzel's profile of Louise Erdrich, author of LaRose, whose story turns on the Native American tradition of sharing a child in the face of loss. From Hertzel: "This fluidity was misunderstood by Western social workers, who also took advantage of it, adopting Indian children out of the tribe, out of the community. Since the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, which makes it more difficult to remove children from their families."

But that's just the tip of the iceberg of this interview. It got an nice spread in today's paper.

What's Selling at Boswell and a little bit of why, plus how we got more signed copies of a popular title by meeting the author at a truck stop...plus the Journal Sentinel book features.

Despite being gone to BEA for a few days, we had plenty of events, including some school visits that weren't on our public calendar, and due to Jane and I selling at a lunch and a brunch, we had some extra handselling going on, which definitely helped our bestsellers lists, hence a slight expansion of hardcover fiction and a breakout and tripling of our normal kids bestseller report.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Britt-Marie Was Here, by Fredrik Backman
2. The Excellent Lombards, by Jane Hamilton
3. Everyone Brave is Forgiven, by Chris Cleave (#16 on the NYT - congrats!)
4. LaRose, by Louise Erdrich (Associated Press has a review from Carla Johnson)
5. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
6. Everybody's Fool, by Richard Russo
7. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
8. Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain (Barbara Rinella's focus title at Ozaukee Family Services)
9. Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld
10. The Summer Before the War, by Helen Simonson
11. Zero K, by Don DeLillo
12. The Nest, by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Thank you to Jane Hamilton, who met Lisa of Books and Company and me at the truck stop and O&H kringle stand on I-94 and Highway 20. We got more books signed as we sold out of copies at Hamilton's event. Plus our server bought a book for her mom. Plus Lisa and I bought kringles (the official pastry of Racine) - I like them more than the other brands that are sold in Milwaukee, though you don't have to go all the way to Highway 20 - they have another stand on 27th and Ryan.And that's one reason why we had an excellent week for The Excellent Lombards. The other reason is that it's a great book.

And because you're asking (I can tell) whether we have signed copies of Britt-Marie Was Here and paperback Backman backlist, we do.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Code of the Extraordinary Mind, by Vishen Lakhiani
2. The Romanovs, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
3. The Courage Solution, by Mindy Mackenzie
4. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
5. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
6. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
7. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
8. The Last Goodnight, by Howard Blum
9. Grit, by Angela Duckworth
10. The Heart of Europe, by Peter H. Wilson

Angela Duckworth tells how teaching seventh grade math led her to the book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perserverance. The book had a good week at Boswell, following up a strong debut nationally. Here's her TED Talk. There have been lots of stories on the book, and much of the buzz about Duckworth's work started before publication, like this NPR story, where Anya Kamenetz reported on Duckworth's concerns that enthusiasm was getting ahead of the science.

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
2. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, by Fredrik Backman
3. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
4. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
5. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald (event 5/19, 7 pm, at Boswell)
6. A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler
7. Burning Dark, by Adam Christopher
8. Girl Waits With Gun, by Amy Stewart
9. The Secret of High Eldersham, by Miles Burton
10. Death Stalks Door County, by Patricia Skalka

We've got a mystery-heavy top ten this week, though positioning might make you think otherwise. At least one person who read Girl Waits With Gun argued that the book wasn't a mystery, though the release of Lady Cop Makes Trouble this fall sort of indicates that this is a crime series. The Secret of High Eldersham is from the British Crime Library, the series from Poisoned Pen that is doing so well, and The Sympathizer not only won the Pulitzer, but the debut mystery award from the Edgars as well.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Milwaukee in the 1930s, by John D. Buenker
2. Tomas Young's War, by Mark Wilkerson
3. Bettyville, by George Hodgman
4. Kitchen Hacks, by America's Test Kitchen
5. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
6. H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
7. The Balkans, by Mark Mazower
8. The Residence, by Kate Andersen Brower
9. We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
10. The Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook, by Mary Bergin

America's Test Kitchen's Kitchen Hacks: How Clever Cooks Get Things Done is an impulse table pop. Claire Lower in Skillet called the book "a comprehensive, well-indexed tome of tips and tricks to help you clean, cook, store, and transport food in more efficient and clever ways, all without the use of fancy appliances. You will need some tongs though; the folks at Cook’s Illustrated seem to be obsessed with tongs." I was pleased to see the unwaxed dental floss method for cutting cakes, which for some reason, used to come up in my life with some frequency.

Picture books:
1. The Thank You Book by Mo Willems
2. Good Trick, Walking Stick, by Sheri Mabry Bestor with illustrations by Jonny Lambert
3. How to Dress a Dragon, by Thelma Lynne Godin with illustrations by Eric Barclay
4. Rain Fish, by Lois Ehlert
5. The Hula Hoopin' Queen, by Thelma Lynne Godin with illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
6. Thunder Boy Jr., by Sherman Alexie with illustrations by Yuyi Morales
7. Snail and Worm, by Tina Kügler
8. Stories from Bug Garden, by Lisa Moser with illustrations by Gwen Millward
9. Wolf Camp, by Andrea Zuill
10. Last Stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña with illustrations by Christian Robinson

It must be spring as there is definitely a nature theme in many of these titles, including Snail and Worm and Stories from Bug Garden. Some of these sales were from us ringing up sales from the Greedale Children's Book Festival. One highlight was definitely Thelma Lynne Godin hula hooping with the attendees for The Hula Hoopin' Queen. And the book that was most often bought outside the presentation was Sheri Mabry Bestor's Good Trick, Walking Stick.

Chapter books:
1. Rump, by Liesl Shurtliff
2. Red, by Liesl Shurtliff
3. Jack, by Liesl Shurtliff
4. Borrowed Time, by Greg Leitich Smith
5. Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith
6. Booked, by Kwame Alexander
7. The Hidden Oracle, by Rick Riordan
8. Raymie Nightingale, by Kate DiCamillo
9. Pax, by Sara Pennypacker
10. Kate Walden Directs Night of the Zombie Chickens, by Julie Mata

Liesl Shurtliff continues reimagining fairytales in Red: The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood. Kirkus Reviews called the newest a solid outing, noting: "Shurtliff brings inventive new dimensions to Granny and Red, whom readers met in the companion book, Rump. Granny, a witch, is none other than Rose Red, whose sister, Snow White, married a bear-prince. Red has powers, too, but she's been afraid to practice after a particularly disastrous spell almost killed Granny years ago."

Young Adult:
1. The Girl I Used to Be, by April Henry
2. The Body in the Woods, by April Henry
3. Blood Will Tell, by April Henry
4. The Glittering Court, by Richelle Mead
5. Soundless, by Richelle Mead
6. The Book Thief Tenth Anniversary Edition, by Markus Zusak
7. All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
8. Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead
9. The Crown, by Kiera Cass
10. Quiet Power, by Susan Cain

April Henry continues to ring up book sales from her school visits. About her newest, The Girl I Used to Be, Booklist wrote: "With her straightforward thrillers, Henry has carved a welcome niche for herself in young adult literature, thanks to her great instinct for intriguing plots, likable characters, and fast-paced action. The short chapters with cliff-hanger endings, not to mention the juicy plot, will keep readers engaged to the end."

Over in the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer reviews A Country Road, A Tree, a novel by Jo Baker about Samuel Beckett. which he calls a "moving, beautifully written and riveting historical novel." It's about Becket's life in Europe during World War II and Fischer notes that "Starting with her title, taken from the terse stage direction that opens Godot, Baker draws many understated parallels between Beckett's wartime experience and what would become his most famous play."

The Journal Sentinel's Jim Higgins covers the return of Siddhartha Mukherjee's new book, folowing his Pultizer-winning The Emperor of All Maladies. Higgins calls The Gene: An Intimate History "a fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are — and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future." He later writes that "The Gene captures the scientific method — questioning, researching, hypothesizing, experimenting, analyzing — in all its messy, fumbling glory, corkscrewing its way to deeper understanding and new questions."

And finally in the print edition of the Journal Sentinel, Ed Sherman reviews The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports. Originally published in the Chicago Tribune, the book focuses on why baseball teams are so focused on pitchers (outspending football teams when it comes to paying quarterbacks), despite the high risks of injury. The problem is getting worse, and it's afflicting younger players. Sherman writes: "The Arm should be required reading for youth baseball coaches and parents with a child who appears to have a gift to throw a baseball. It also should be on the list for fans who want to understand why some of most expensive athletes in sports, pitchers, are such a fragile commodity."

Events This Week! Mark Wilkerson, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Richelle Mead at Oak Creek Public Library, Fredrik Backman,and Alvaro Saar Rios next Monday

Monday, May 9, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Mark Wilkerson, author of Tomas Young's War
Co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace.

From Mark Wilkerson, who spent eight years in the army as an AH-1 Cobra and UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter crew chief, comes a biography of the paralyzed Iraq War soldier turned antiwar activist. From his obituary by Christine Mai-Duc in the Los Angeles Times: "Young, a native of Kansas City, Mo., enlisted in the Army two days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at the age of 21. He completed his basic training at Ft. Hood, Texas, and shipped out to Iraq. Young was riding through Sadr City in an unarmored, uncovered Humvee when he was shot through the spinal cord and paralyzed. He relied on a wheelchair for the rest of his life."

Wilkerson interviewed Young in 2013 and 2014 before Young's passing in November 2014. Phil Donahue helped bring to life a documentary on Young called Body of War and wrote the foreward to this book. Donahue writes: "The author has brilliantly rendered a true account that includes all the dramas that were never seen by the government ‘bring it on’ boys who boast of their toughness by calling a war and send other peoples’ kids to fight it.”

Kirkus Reviews called Tomas Young's War "an extremely poignant statement on human vulnerability and the devastation of war." In addition to his years of service, Wilkerson has written books on Pearl Jam and Pete Townshend, He also has a day job as an aircraft maintenance professional.

Tuesday, May 10, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs, 1613-1918
This event is cosponsored by the UWM Russian and Eastern European Studies program and the UWM Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies.

Here is a not unusual conversation I have with bookstore shoppers. Someone will ask me why we can't host a famous writer. I will explain the particular complications of pitching writers of acclaim. They have a limited amount of time available and everyone wants them. In addition, there is more competition for their time with speaking paid speaking engagements. Serious nonfiction is particularly difficult because you're competing with every university campus in the country.

In this case, we're competing with just about every academic institution in the western world, but somehow we are hosting the acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. Just read this biography: "Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian of Russia and the Middle East. Potemkin: Catherine the Great’s Imperial Partner was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards. Young Stalin won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grande Prix de la biographie politique. Jerusalem: The Biography was a worldwide best seller. Montefiore is also the author of the novels Sashenka and One Night in Winter, which won the Paddy Power Political Fiction Book of the Year Award in 2014. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Dr. Montefiore graduated from Cambridge University, where he received his PhD."

Reviews of the new book, The Romanovs, 1613-1918, are very strong. Anthony Beevor called it "epic history on the grandest scale" in The Financial Times. Jon Kampfner in The Guardian wrote "the research is meticulous and the style is captivating." And Stuart Kelly in The Scotsman found it "a compelling study, balancing analysis and anecdote beautifully.

This is a big deal! Spread the word.

Friday, May 13, 6 pm signing, 6:30 talk, at the Oak Creek Public Library, 8040 S Sixth Street, just off Drexel Ave:
Richelle Mead, author of The Glittering Court.

Richelle Mead has written over 25 novels for teens and adults but far and away her biggest success is The Vampire Academy series. We're honored to be cosponsoring an event with Mead at the new Oak Creek Public Library in Drexel Town Center.

Richelle Mead has always had a particular fascination with mythology and folklore. Her standalone novel, Soundless, draws upon Chinese mythology and history, and her new series, The Glittering Court, follows the adventures of girls destined for arranged marriages in a fantasy world inspired by colonial America. Of her newest, Booklist wrote "There is a strong feminist element in Adelaide's narration, and more than meets the eye in terms of plot, character development, and substantive thought."

If you want to know a little more about Mead, she enjoys bad reality TV, traveling, trying interesting cocktails (made with mead?), and shopping for dresses to wear on tour. She is a self-professed coffee addict, works in her pajamas, and has a passion for all things wacky and humorous

There are signing restrictions for this event. Mead will sign up to three books from home, one personalized and two signature only. She'll take photos too, as time permits. More information on the Blue Succubus journal.

Saturday, May 14, 2 pm, at Boswell: Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here, in conversation with Claire Hanan, Senior Editor at Milwaukee Magazine.

It's finally here. The runaway international bestselling author who has been topping our own bestseller lists for months is coming!

Here's a little more about the new book. Britt-Marie can’t stand mess. A disorganized cutlery drawer ranks high on her list of unforgivable sins. She begins her day at 6 a.m., because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. She is not one to judge others - no matter how ill-mannered, unkempt, or morally suspect they might be. But hidden inside the socially awkward, fussy busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams, and a warmer heart that anyone around her realizes.

If you loved A Man Called Ove, we think you're going to love Britt-Marie Was Here too. Boswellian Jen Steele called Backman's newest "a wonderful novel full of heart and humor." And Publishers Weekly wrote: "Insightful and touching, this is a sweet and inspiring story about truth and transformation. Fans of Backman's will find another winner in these pages."

This event is free and open to the public, but I'd come early if I were you.

Monday, May 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Alvaro Saar Rios, author of Luchadora!

Presenting an event from the top rope: a talk and dramatic reading by Alvaro Saar Rios, assistant professor of playwriting and analysis at Peck School of the Arts, co-founder of The Royal Mexican Players, and author of Luchadora!, a moving tale of fathers and daughters, secret identities, and the exciting world of lucha libre—Mexican wrestling.

Rios's play has already been performed in Milwaukee by First Stage and what great reviews it got! Jim Higgins wrote in the Journal Sentinel: "Step right up, damas y caballeros, for the most exciting father-daughter wrestling saga this side of the Pecos. Playwright Alvaro Saar Rioshas described Luchadora! as the folk tale of Mulan set in the world of lucha libre wrestling. But Saar Rios and First Stage have packed so much into this swift-moving, often sweet family show, from the German and Mexican folk songs that reflect the diversity of Texas to a mystical female wrestling trainer with a Seinfeld-ian take on hugging."

We're celebrating the release of Luchadora! in book form. We'll have a talk and dramatic reading of this exciting story.