Event alert: Amy Goldstein on Janesville, Educator Night with John David Anderson (and Boswell and HarperCollins recs, Elephant and Piggie costume tour, Heather Lyn Mann, Drew Daywalt at Wauwatosa Library, L.A. Kauffman at First Unitarian Society, two nights of the Best of the Undergraduate Writers, Sally J. Pla at Schlitz Audubon, and preview for Graeme Simsion at Shorewood Public Library. Alas, Elizabeth Strout is sold out.

Here's what's going on at Boswell this week. Don't forget that you can hold a copy of any of our upcoming books through our website. No registering or credit cards are necessary. Some ticketed events have hold or personalization restrictions.

Monday, May 1, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Amy Goldstein, author of Janesville: An American Story.

This event is cosponsored by Community Advocates Public Policy Institute.

Pulitzer Prize winner and Washington Post reporter delivers an intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors assembly plant in Janesville and a larger story of the hollowing of the American middle class.

Amy Goldstein has spent years immersed in Janesville where the nation's oldest operating General Motors plant shut down in the midst of the Great Recession, two days before Christmas of 2008. Now, with intelligence, sympathy, and insight into what connects and divides people in an era of economic upheaval, she makes one of America's biggest political issues human. Her reporting takes the reader deep into the lives of autoworkers, educators, and job re-trainers to show why it's so hard in the twenty-first century to recreate a healthy, prosperous working class.

Amy Goldstein has been a staff writer for thirty years at The Washington Post, where much of her work has focused on social policy. Among her awards, she shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She has been a fellow at Harvard University at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Janesville: An American Story is her first book.

Tuesday, May 2, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Educator’s Night with John David Anderson, author of Posted, Sidekicked, The Dungeoneers, and Miss Bixby's Last Day.

We're excited to host our first Educator’s Night of 2017, focusing on great picture books, early readers, and middle grade titles. We'll have recommendations from booksellers Todd Wellman and Barbara Katz, as well as Jennifer Sheridan, our HarperCollins sales rep. Expect a lot of swag for your classroom or library.

Our special guest is John David Anderson, beloved author of Ms. Bixby's Last Day and Sidekicked, and his latest novel Posted, the story of what happens in Branton Middle School when cell phones are banned and kids start leaving sticky notes for each other.

John David Anderson is one of those authors who resonates both with educators and kids alike. Our school outreach coordinator, Todd Wellman, is a huge fan, having read seven of his novels. Booklist’s starred review called Posted “a rewarding novel (that) should resonate with many readers” while Publishers Weekly wrote that “Anderson captures the tumultuous joys and pains of middle school with honesty, creating characters with whom readers will find common ground and insight. Words have lingering and persistent power, Anderson makes clear, but so does standing up for others and making one's voice heard.”

While this event is free, we ask that you register.

Wednesday May 3:
Two Costume Storytime Events with Gerald and Piggie, of Elephant and Piggie Like Reading:The Good for Nothing Button:
--Event #1 Venue: Wednesday, May 3, 4:00 pm, at Cudahy Family Library, 3500 Library Dr
--Event #2 Venue: Wednesday, May 3, 6:30 pm, at Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N Murray Ave.

Please note, there is no author in attendance at these costume storytimes, but it’s a great photo opportunity. Remember to bring your smart phone or camera!

More about The Good for Nothing Button: Yellow Bird has a button. It does . . . nothing! It is a good for nothing button. Red Bird and Blue Bird are excited to try the button. But when they press it, they discover that the button makes them happy. Happy is something! A flabbergasted Yellow Bird insists the button does nothing. But it sure does seem to be making him mad. Mad is something!

The hilarious debate that follows takes readers on an emotional roller coaster that pokes at the power of imaginative play. Each library event will feature a reading of The Good for Nothing Button and a book or two from the Elephant and Piggie series.

Wednesday, May 3, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Heather Lyn Mann, author of Ocean of Insight: A Sailor’s Voyage from Despair to Hope.

Heather Lyn Mann was a battle weary environmental advocate in Madison, Wisconsin, struggling over what to do about climate change when she and her husband decided to explore the Atlantic on a small sloop. This memoir of six years living afloat is a chronological unfolding of disasters and discoveries life threatening storms, the boredom of isolation, societies on the brink of extinction, sinking ships, colorful Caribbean characters, near collisions, a pirate scare, and more. Throughout, the ocean becomes Mann’s teacher, transforming her with uncompromising lessons on how to harmonize with natural order, the exact moments and ways to let in fearlessness, resilience, happiness, impermanence, balance, compassion, skillful action, and beginner’s mind.

Her suspenseful, sometimes hilarious, and always heartwarming journey of body and mind, shaped by ancient Buddhist teachings, entertains as it charts reality’s depths and danger zones so arm chair adventurers, spiritual seekers, and the climate concerned can navigate tumultuous waters and arrive together on the shore of planetary well-being.

Heather Lyn Mann is a Spiritual Ecologist and practitioner of Buddhism, sailing, and mindful advocacy. Mann founded and led the not-for-profit Center for Resilient Cities, an organization mobilizing inner city residents to restore natural beauty and function in damaged neighborhood landscapes. She also co-edits Touching the Earth: A Newsletter of Earth Holding Actions in the Plum Village Tradition.

Thursday, May 4, 4:00 pm, at Wauwatosa Public Library, 7635 W North Ave:
Drew Daywalt, author of The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors.

You’ve played the game. Now read the legend of the three great warriors who started it all. New from Drew Daywalt, the bestselling author of The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home, comes a laugh-out-loud funny picture book about the legend of the classic childhood game Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Please note the following signing restrictions: To enter the signing line, you must purchase a copy of The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors from either Boswell or Wauwatosa’s Little Read Book. There will be no inscriptions or flash photography, but Mr. Daywalt will personalize.

Thursday, May 4, 7:00 pm, at First Unitarian Society, 1342 N Astor St:
L. A. Kauffman, author of Direct Actions: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism.

As Americans take to the streets in record numbers to have their voices heard, L.A. Kauffman's timely, trenchant history of protest offers unique insights into how past movements have won victories in times of crisis and backlash and how they can be most effective today.

Direct Action is 25 years in the making, tracing the evolution of disruptive protest since the Sixties to tell a larger story about the reshaping of America. Kauffman, a longtime grassroots organizer, examines how movements from ACT UP to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter have used disruptive tactics to catalyze change despite long odds.

Waukesha-raised L.A. Kauffman has spent more than 30 years as an organizer, strategist, journalist, and observer or protest movements. Her writings on grassroots activism and social movement history have been published in The Nation, Mother Jones, n+1, and many other outlets.

Alas, sales for the ticketed luncheon for Elizabeth Strout on Friday, May 5, cosponsored by the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library, have ended. We'll have signed copies of Anything Is Possible at Boswell after the event.



Best of the Undergraduate Writers:

--Event #1: Friday, May 5, 7:00 pm at Boswell
--Event #2: Saturday, May 6, 7:00 pm at Boswell.

Since 2009 it has been a tradition to host the Best of the Undergraduate Writers from Milwaukee area colleges and universities. Now please join us in our 8th evening of the bookstore debuts of area undergraduates.

On Friday: --Marquette University: Paige Robinson, Brian Higgins, and Anna Miller
--University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Morgan Finley, Matthew Wamser, Peter McCracken, and Christopher Kactro

On Saturday: --Cardinal Stritch University: Kate Babbitt and Caroline Sommer
--Carroll University: Linda Braus and Jack Sherman
--Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design: Claire Desfor and Lynnzie Palomaki
--Mount Mary University: Samantha Snedeker and Suzanne Skalmoski.

Saturday, May 6, 1:00 pm, at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, 1111 E Brown Deer Rd:
Sally Pla, author of The Someday Birds.

Boswell is cosponsoring this special Schlitz Audubon Raptor Saturday, featuring Sally J. Pla, author The Someday Birds, a heartfelt coming-of-age debut novel about Charlie whose father gets injured in Afghanistan and his struggles to adapt to a world he doesn’t understand.

When arriving, attendees will be greeted by the Center’s Great Horned Owl, Bald Eagle, and Red-tailed Hawk – birds that make appearances in the book. Followed by Pla’s talk at 1:30 pm and a nature walk concluding the event. This event is free with membership or admission, $8 for adults and $5 for children. Boswell will have books for sale as well.

Sally J. Pla graduated from Colgate University and has a Masters in English from Penn State. The Someday Birds is her first novel and is a Junior Library Guild Selection for 2017. Here's a handy Schlitz Audubon event link.

Tuesday, May 9, 6:30 pm, at Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N Murray Ave:
Graeme Simsion, author of The Best of Adam Sharp.

Set against a vibrant Melbourne, Simsion’s new novel features an amateur musician and music trivia fanatic who gets a second chance at love with an old flame. Two decades ago, Adam Sharp's piano playing led him into a passionate relationship with Angelina Brown, an intelligent and strong-willed actress. They had a chance at something more but Adam didn't take it. Now, on the cusp of turning fifty, Adam likes his life and loves his wife, Claire, but he often wonders how different life might be if he hadn’t let her walk away.

Graeme Simsion is a former IT consultant and the author of two nonfiction books on database design who decided, at the age of fifty, to turn his hand to fiction. The result was The Rosie Project, an international bestseller.

This event is cosponsored with the Shorewood Public Library and will feature mate-friendly Australian treats and music.

Yes, that includes Vegemite.