Korean American writers: musing on Min Jin Lee, Don Lee, Patricia Park, Samuel Park, and one other author I can't remember!

Back when I lived in Queens, one of my father's favorite walks was down Northern Boulevard, all the way from Bell Boulevard, near where we lived, to Main Street, where he would have lunch at one of the many Chinese restaurants. I accompanied him on his walk many times, and one of the things we enjoyed was the changing cultural influences as we moved through the borough. It was a long time since our neighborhood had been heavily Jewish, but there still was a delicatessen on 73rd Avenue which had particularly good potato knishes. Along the way were pockets of Irish, African Americans (despite most Black people living on the south side of Queens, there was a long-established black community just off Northern Boulevard), Greeks, Chinese, and Koreans. By the time our walks ended, that Korean community had expanded, and that's one of the reasons I am enjoying Re Jane, the novel from Patricia Park which came out in 2015. Much of its setting is along the very strip of Northern Boulevard that I used to share with my Dad.

After having a good reading summer, I've been stuck, spending long periods of time reading books I can't finish, and in some cases, can barely start. I knew I needed something that one of my fellow booksellers (Jane) calls light with a bite, and when I saw Park's novel while shelving another book, I picked it up. A contemporary take on Jane Eyre set in Brooklyn and Queens? I think I can do this! I want to sit down and not come up for air for 100 pages. This intoxicating feeling was hammered home to me yesterday when I was speaking to one of the families at the event for Katherine Rundell's The Explorer last night. First Charlie read it, and then his dad got a hold of it, and didn't stop reading for three hours. As Liz Lemon often said in 30Rock, I want to go to there.

There are nobody of reasons why Korean American literature is on my mind. For one thing, tensions with North Korea are at an all-time high. I wonder what it's like to live in South Korea right now. I'm reminded of what my Jewish friends have told me about their relatives who live in Israel, or our former Lebanese customer (he's coming back for an event at Boswell when his novel is published, and it will be) when he visits family in Beirut. But is it that different from living in the prospect of (or the wake of) hurricanes or earthquakes or gang violence? You go on with your life.

But my focus in this post is not on Korean writers in South (or North) Korea. I'm interested in the Korean American experience - how it's parallels the stories of other groups and how it's different. But sometimes, like in this year's Pachinko, the story is not set in the United States, but living here probably affects the narrative.

I'm always thinking about events, and as you know, we're cosponsoring a ticketed event with Min Jin Lee for Pachinko on Thursday evening at the Lynden Sculpture Garden*. Pachinko was just longlisted for the National Book Awards, plus our recent author (and old friend) Bill Goldstein raved about it at his talk for The World Broke in Two. Plus fellow bookseller Jen just told me that the novel is going in her top five for the year, meaning even if it doesn't win the National Book Award (I'm well aware it's a long long long shot) we'll be featuring the novel through the end of the year. If you like historical novels and maybe don't want to read the 34th one set in World War II Europe, maybe you should consider this, a multi-generational saga about Koreans living in Japan. Here's Anita Felicelli's review in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jen told me that as soon as she finished Pachinko, she knew it would be in her top five and had she not picked it, it might have been in mine. Instead, I went with another recent novel I've written about before, Lonesome Lies Before Us, by Don Lee. It's the novel I can't stop thinking about this year, and being that it focuses in on both cultural identity and class, it should be at the forefront of way more people's consciousnesses. I think that part of the reason it's not is because it takes on identity by not writing about it - almost all the characters are brown, black, or yellow, but nowhere are there any physical descriptions. I'm guessing a lot of folks interested in this sort of thing want to be more, well, direct. And of course there's a place for those books. But there's also a place for this one.

I think I wrote this once before but Don Lee and Allegra Goodman would be great in conversation together, as I think Goodman was trying something similar with her most recent novel, The Chalk Artist. 

But come on, how can you not love a failed alt country singer who blames his weight, his stage fright, and his hearing loss, but not the implied fact that he's Korean? Both my sisters read the book, and while they both liked it a lot, one called it terribly sad. But it's funny too. And I like sad-funny a lot. I think it's the two best emotions to put together in a book. I think most people prefer scary and romantic, but maybe not together. If you've not read this blog before, catch up with Lloyd Sachs's review of Lonesome Lies Before Us in the Chicago Tribune.

Speaking of sad, I keep thinking about another Korean American writer who told me about the second book he was working on when he visited us twice for his first (twice). Samuel Park taught at Columbia College in Chicago and recently passed away. He told me this story about a glamorous Korean actress, and as I remember, the story kind of had a high-drama noir vibe to it. We still have a copy of his first novel, This Burns My Heart on our shelves, and I think you should read it.

Did you know that there's at least one novel about the Milwaukee Korean community and it came out from a major publisher? I read it but here's the thing. I don't remember the author or title. But if I did, I'd mention it now. I think it came out from Dutton and might have been published about twelve years ago. Any ideas? (Editor's note: our friend Jason, who I think worked at Penguin at the time, came up with the answer. It's In Full Bloom, by Caroline Hwang.)

So maybe see you Thursday night, but before I get to work today, i'm going to spend a little more time reading Re Jane. And then I'm going to try to figure out a good place to get sweet potato noodles, a delicacy I haven't had since Seoul restaurant ended their lunch buffet several years ago.

*There's a second daytime event on the UWM campus for Min Jin Lee, focusing on students.

Bestseller blog: what's selling at Boswell? (week ending 9/23/17)

Here's what Boswell has been selling this week.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz
2. A Legacy of Spies, by John Le Carre
3. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
4. Forest Dark, by Nicole Krauss
5. Sing, Unburied Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
6. The Ninth Hour, by Alice McDermott
7. A Column of Fire, by Ken Follett
8. Y Is for Yesterday, by Sue Grafton
9. The Golden House, by Salman Rushdie
10. Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders

Alice McDermott's new novel is The Ninth Hour. Here's what Sarah Begley said about the book in Time: "Not much happens to the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick Poor, the stars of Alice McDermott's new novel The Ninth Hour - they live to serve others. But plenty has happened to those in their care." She's goes on to call it a "story with the simple grace of a votive candle in a dark church." Read the rest of the review.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. It Takes Two, by Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott
2. The 3D Body Revolution, by Donald Driver
3. The Happpiness Prayer, by Evan Moffic
4. The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Marta McDowell
5. What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton
6. A Self-Made Woman, by Denise Chanterelle DuBois
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
9. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
10. Killing England, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Here's what we learned from selling It Takes Two at the Riverside from Jonathan and Drew Scott. The show is Property Brothers, but Jonathan and Drew are the Scott Brothers. We had a fun time and enjoyed chatting with the fans. The VIPs were especially thrilled.

Here's an interesting column from Caitlin Flanagan in Vulture about how HGTV promulgates house flipping and another bubble in the making. Please note that the Scotts are not flippers; Flanagan just notes their popular diamond-in-the-rough transformations are what many people like about the flip shows and helped lead to them dominating the HGTV lineup. For me, I sort of miss the early Suzanne Whang House Hunters, to say nothing of Design on a Dime and Decorating Cents.

We didn't get to do the Scott autographing, but we had a similar giddy experience working one of the signings for Donald Driver's new book, The 3D Body Revolution. I'd ask a random person who'd just gone through the signing-and-photo line, "Are you a changed person?" and each person would chime "Yes!" very enthusiastically. We have signed copies available.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Moonbath, by Yanick Lahens
2. The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles
3. Karolina's Twins, by Ronald H. Balson (event 10/24 at Chai Point, 3 pm, at Boswell, 7 pm)
4. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
5. Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry
6. The Atomic Weight of Love, by Elizabeth J. Church
7. Arrows of Light, by Andrea Potos
8. In Grace's Time, by Kathie Giorgio (event 9/25, 7 pm, at Boswell)
9. Chronicle of the Murdered House, by Lucio Cardoso
10. Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly

Last year's Best First Novel Edgar Award, Under the Harrow, by Flynn Berry, has had well over a year of strong sales and continued to make regular appearances in our top ten. Elizabeth Brundage wrote in The New York Times: "I was expecting a knockoff of Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train or another rendition of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Ever since those books’ phenomenal success, any new novel that is at all similar greedily begs comparison. Indeed, Under the Harrow contains similarities that will undoubtedly attract readers — but underneath its hard-driving, page-turning, compulsively readable narrative is a striking, original."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Stop Anxiety from Stopping You, by Helen Odessky
2. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
3. Easy Italian Step-by-Step, from McGraw Hill
4. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
5. Horsemen of the Trumpcalypse, by John Nichols (event 9/27, 7 pm, at Boswell)
6. A Little History of Religion, by Richard Holloway
7. Run, Hide, Repeat, by Pauline Dakin
8. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
9. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
10. I Hear She's a Real Bitch, by Jen Agg

Just out is Pauline Dakin's Run, Hide, Repeat: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood, which is unusual in that it's a Viking paperback original. I'm not a buyer so I don't see every book that comes out, but I haven't noticed a Viking paperback in a long time. This CBC journalist and Halifax professor has written "a memoir of a childhood steeped in unexplained fear and menace. Gripping and suspenseful, it moves from Dakin’s uneasy acceptance of her family’s dire situation to bewildered anger at a cruel charade. As she revisits her past, Dakin uncovers the human capacity for betrayal, manipulation, and deception—-and the power of love to forgive. As compelling and twisted as a thriller, Run Hide Repeat is an unforgettable portrait of a family threatened by those closest to them."

Picture Books and Board Books for Kids:
1. Little i, by Michael Hall
2. Big Machines, by Sherri Duskey Rinker with illustrations by John Rocco
3. Wherever You Go, by Pat Zietlow Miller, with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler
4. The Quickest Kid in Clarksville, by Pat Zietlow Miller, with illustrations by Frank Morrison
5. Pomegranate Witch, by Denise Doyen, with illusrations by Eliza Wheeler
6. Frankencrayon, by Michael Hall
7. Wolfie the Bunny, by Ame Dyckman, with illusrations by Zachariah Ohora
8. Little Poems for Tiny Ears, by Lin Oliver with illustrations by Tomie DePaola
9. John Ronald's Dragons, by Caroline McAlister, with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler
10. The Great Pasta Escape, by Miranda Paul, with illustrations by Javier Joaquin

Last weekend we sold books at the SCBWI. You can tell that one of the featured speakers was illustrator Eliza Wheeler, including Pat Zietlow Miller's Wherever You Go and Denise Doyen's The Pomegranate Witch. Also featured was local writer Pat Zietlow Miller. Here's an interview with Miller by Colleen Riordan in the SCBWI-Wisconsin newsletter.

Of The Pomegranate Witch, which is also featured on our Halloween table, Publishers Weekly writes in its starred review: "Working in ink and watercolor, Wheeler contrasts the rich red of the pomegranates with washes of pale, sickly green, saturating the pages with a sense of otherworldly magic."

Chapter Books through Young Adult
1. Fantastic Frame: Danger! Tiger Crossing, by Lin Oliver
2. Guitar Notes, by Mary Amato
3. Fantastic Frame: Splat! Another Messy Sunday, by Lin Oliver
4. Here's Hank: Bookmarks Are People Too, by Henry Winkler
5. Waking in Time, by Angie Stanton
6. Native People of Wisconsin, by Patty Loew
7. Odin's Promise, by Sandy Brehl
8. Sol Ray Man and the Freaky Flood, by Jane Kelley
9. Mari's Hope, by Sandy Brehl
10. Octo Man and the Headless Monster, by Jane Kelley

Another speaker at SCBWI-Wisconsin, has both picture books and chapter books featured on our bestseller list. The first two entries in the Fantastic Frame series are featured. The Booklist review notes that Danger! Tiger Crossing notes that "Oliver bases this new series on an unusual, promising premise: an ornate magic picture frame that sucks bystanders into any painting it holds...Kallis' color scenes of bug-eyed children add bright notes of comedy and terror, and an afterword about Rousseau's life and art rounds off the breathlessly paced adventure with a dash of arts education. More adventures follow in a copublished sequel, Splat! Another Messy Sunday."

On the TapBooks page of the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins reviews Fred Hersch's Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life in and out of Jazz. Higgins notes: "Writing this memoir, too, has been a way for Hersch to weave the strands of his life together and to accept himself more fully. Hersch spent nearly two months in a coma in 2008, brought on by AIDS-related dementia. In the ICU, when his partner Scott asked Hersch's doctor about his condition, the doctor replied, in a case like this, 'good things happen slowly,' then added, 'but bad things happen fast.'"

Other reviews to check out in the print edition:

1. Laurie Hertzel, originally in the Star Tribune, reviews A Disappearance in Damascus: "It's a pity that Deborah Campbell's new book has such a Nancy Drew-like title, because it is actually a serious, riveting work about a part of the world that too many of us know too little about."

2. Marion Winik, originally in Newsday, reviews our top ten bestseller, Celeste Ng's latest: "While Everything I Never Told You focused intensely and single-mindedly on solving the mystery of a teenage death within a context of gender and racial stereotyping, Little Fires Everywhere has more pages, more characters, and more themes, among them affluence, conformism, and their discontents: cross racial adoption and the rights of biological parents, and what artists have to offer the rest of us."

Three new displays: space window, Montaigne and Perry, confronting mass incarceration

It's time for a tour of new displays.

a. Space window - We got the idea for this one because we are either sponsoring or cosponsoring two astronauts coming to UWM in October. First up is Kathy Sullivan, the first woman in space, who has a kids book called To the Stars. Her talk on Tuesday, October 3, 7 pm at the UWM Student Union is called Looking at Earth. It's free, but registration is requested.

Our second out-of-this-world event is with Scott Kelly, who is doing a ticketed event, also at the UWM Student Union, for his memoir Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery. He's in conversation with WUWM's Bonnie North on Tuesday, October 24, 7 pm. Tickets are $32 and include a book. On September 18, tickets go on sale for UWM students, faculty, and staff, at a slightly discounted price. ID is required for purchase.

Peter made the display with the help of Olivia V., who is called Olivia the Elder in house. The planets are made out of papier mache over balloon molds.

2. Montaigne and Perry display - I'm always looking for events in different ways. Frequent visitors to Boswell know that I almost always have a recommendation table from an upcoming author. The authors profiled in Bill Goldstein's The World Broke in Two were featured on a table. And what better way to talk up Michael Perry's forthcoming essay collection, Montaigne in Barn Boots, but to feature books by and about Montaigne. It's not a large table, so it doesn't need much to fill it. The only problem is that the Montaigne books keep selling off it!

Michael Perry will be at Boswell on November 14, 7 pm to talk about the book, which goes on sale November 7. I enjoyed the book so much - it really takes Perry in a slightly new direction, though Perry is still uniquely true to himself - that I lent it to one of our customers who is a Montaigne fanatic. He's now excited to be coming to the event.

3. Confronting mass incarceration table - this is inspired by a series of events sponsored by Milwaukee Turners this fall. Each event has a panel discussion in the afternoon and a talk at night. On October 26, Daniel Karpowitz appears for College in Prison: Reading in the Age of Mass Incarceration, and on October 30, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann talks about Getting Tough: Welfare and Imprisonment in 1970s America. Both of these author talks are 7 pm at Boswell. And then on November 6, Pulitzer Prize winner Heather Ann Thompson is the Frank P. Zeidler is the featured speaker at the Frank P. Zeidler lecture at Turner Hall on Monday, November 6, 7 pm. Her book is Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.

This is just a small sample of the books in this topic that have come out in the last year. Some of the other books on display are Becoming Mrs. Burton, by Susan Burton, Cuz, by Danielle Allen, and Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It, by Terry Allen Kupers.

Event alert: Bill Goldstein on modernism, Matthew Janzen on beer, Sandy Brehl on Norway during WWII, the Scott Brothers on stage, Jason Reynolds on a kid who loves to run, Helen Odessky on anxiety, and Evan Moffic on the spirituality-happiness link.

The abundance of riches event season is here!

Monday, September 11, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Bill Goldstein, author of The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forester and the Year that Changed Literature.

Bill Goldstein, the founding editor of the books site of The New York Times on the Web, reviews books and interviews authors for NBC's Weekend Today in New York. He is also curator of public programs at Roosevelt House, the public policy institute of New York's Hunter College.

I thought maybe this book came out of Goldstein's doctoral thesis (City University Graduate Center, 2010), but it turns out the subject of that was John Milton. I read Paradise Lost in college, but sadly, I cannot discuss it at length. Or even briefly.

The World Broke in Two tells the fascinating story of the intellectual and personal journeys four legendary writers make over the course of one pivotal year and how their writing lives are changed by the publication of two seminal works, most notably Ulysses.

The Times Literary Supplement just published an over-the-top rave of the book from Gerri Kimber, in advance of the British publication. It begins "It is hard to imagine there is anything left to say about 1922, the literary annus mirabilis that saw the publication of the twin pinnacles of modernist prose and poetry: Ulysses and The Waste Land...Goldstein takes four authors – Eliot, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster – and weaves around them a fascinating and engrossing tale, not only of their writing during that one special year, but their personal lives as well" You'll have to log in to read the entire review, or maybe, like our good customer Dennis, you already got your copy in the mail and found the review to be nothing short of smashing."

Every event for this book has had 50+ people. Let's hope Boswell does not break the streak.

Tuesday, September 12, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Matthew Janzen, author of The State of Craft Beer.

Matthew Janzen is a Waterloo native and UWM graduate. He was an advertising copywriter before quitting to follow his interests in craft beer while also maintaining a position in the Marine Corps Reserve as a scout sniper instructor.

Matthew Janzen spent over two years collecting the images and stories featured in this 272-page journey across the state visiting over 130 breweries, farms, factories, and industry suppliers. Following his curiosity down the rabbit hole, Janzen quit his job to delve into the nitty gritty of making beer. He worked with brewmasters, owners, employees, and farmers to capture every stage of the process. This book brings to life the beer we know and love. Now, he gears up to release the book, which was also 100 percent sourced and manufactured in Wisconsin.

Of State of Craft Beer, Chris Drosner writes in the Wisconsin State Journal that State of Craft Beer "is a 272-page dopplebock of a coffee table book that’s impressive both in- and outside its handsome leather cover."

Thursday, September 14, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Sandy Brehl, author of Mari’s Hope.

Muskego-based Sandy Brehl is a teacher and an active member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Mari's Hope is the dramatic conclusion to Brehl’s historical fiction set in occupied Norway sees Mari become more involved in her village’s resistance. Despite ever-present dangers, including a snooping German soldier and a former friend turned collaborator, Mari is determined to do the right thing.

Here’s what others have had to say about Odin’s Promise and Bjorn’s Gift, the first two books of the series. Kathleen Ernst, author of the American Girl Caroline Abbot series, says “Readers will cheer for Mari as she discovers her inner strength – and the courage to help celebrate Norway’s spirit of resistance.” Angela Cerrito, author of The Safest Lie, raves “An exciting and detailed look at the occupation of Norway, through the eye of a young, brave girl.”

Cosponsorship!
Thursday, September 14, 7:30 pm, at The Riverside Theater, 114 W Wisconsin Ave:
Boswell is cosponsoring the Scott Brothers House Party, in conjunction with the release of It Takes Two: Our Story

For their millions of fans around the world, twin brothers Jonathan and Drew Scott are masters of the impossible - finding and transforming ordinary houses into stunning dream homes. As hosts of multiple top-rated series on HGTV including Property Brothers: Buying & Selling, Property Brothers at Home and Brother Vs. Brother, they entertain millions of fans with their winning blend of sibling rivalry and humor. Now Milwaukee fans can experience the duo in person during a stop on their nationwide tour, The Scott Brothers House Party at the Riverside Theater on Thursday, September 14.

Jonathan and Drew’s House Party tour, inspired by their new memoir, It Takes Two: Our Story, offers fans an uncensored look into their lives. There will be plenty of audience participation as they breakdown their dos and don’ts, share the wisdom they’ve gleaned as entrepreneurs, and reveal all the hilarious moments that don’t make it onto television. Door prizes, impromptu design consults, behind-the-scenes bloopers, and plenty of laughs will round out this fun evening with Jonathan and Drew.

Tickets are now available, and include admission and a copy of It Takes Two. A limited number of VIP seats that include the best seats in the house and a post-show photo opportunity are available. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Friday, September 15, 6:30 pm, at Boswell:
Jason Reynolds, author of Patina.

This event is cosponsored by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee.

Jason Reynolds is crazy about stories. He is a New-York-Times-bestselling author, a National Book Award Honoree, a Kirkus Award winner, a Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors.

Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities who are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.


In The New York Times Book Review, Tom Rinaldi reviewed Patina along with another running book for kids and wrote: "For nearly all of us who see ourselves (wishfully or otherwise) as athletes, competitive sport leaves us behind long before we’re ready. Yet we often find meaning in memories of competition from years past, and we hope our children will find the same. There is, and will always be, a competitiveness to life, and a ready metaphor in how that competition plays out in sports. And whether you’re an athlete or not, such themes carry a lasting power." Of the book, he wrote: "Reynolds’s ability to weave story lines in Patina’s life across both particular and universal ground — race and class, acceptance and grief, loyalty and individuality — is seamless and moving."

Sunday, September 17, 3 pm, at Boswell:
Helen Odessky, author of Stop Anxiety from Stopping You: The Break-through Program for Conquering Panic and Social Anxiety.

This event is cosponsored by REDgen, a nonprofit that promotes balance and resiliency in the lives of children and teens.

Based in Chicago, Helen Odessky is a highly sought after clinical psychologist, coach, and anxiety expert. She has been working with individuals, teens, and couples for nearly 15 years.

In her book, Dr. Odessky offers an explanation of the process of anxiety and strategies that work. Dr. Odessky draws on fifteen years of clinical experience to guide adults and teens through the process of not only learning how to overcome anxiety, but also how to enrich their lives. Here's Odessky on The Morning Blend talking about the book.


Stop Anxiety from Stopping You offers a foreword from John Duffy, a highly sought-after clinical psychologist, certified life coach, parenting and relationship expert, relationship expert on The Steve Harvey Show, and author of The Available Parent.

Monday, September 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Rabbi Evan Moffic, author of The Happiness Prayer: Ancient Jewish Wisdom for the Best Way to Live Today.

This event is cosponsored by the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.

At age 30 Evan Moffic became the leader of a large congregation. He had great success. But he couldn't find happiness. Then he found a 2000-year-old prayer. In it were hidden elements of Jewish wisdom. They became a part of his life and those of his congregation and transformed them and him. In the tradition of Rabbi Harold Kushner, Moffic opens up wisdom that has been at the heart of Judaism for thousands of years. He distills the "Eilu Devarim", an ancient prayer for happiness found in the Talmud, into ten practices that empower us to thrive through setbacks, so nothing can hamper our happiness.

Here's Moffic talking to Illinois Public Media on the show The 21st, where he talks about the relationship between spirituality and happiness.

Bestsellers! Lots of new releases, sales of past and future events, a big movie opening, and the Journal Sentinel TapBooks page

Here's what's selling at Boswell this week.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. George and Lizzie, by Nancy Pearl
2. A Legacy of Spies, by John LeCarre
3. Glass Houses, by Louise Penny
4. My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent
5. One of the Boys, by Daniel Magariel
6. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
7. Dinner at the Center of the Earth, by Nathan Englander
8. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
9. Mrs. Fletcher, by Tom Perrotta
10. August Snow, by Stephen Mack Jones (at Boswell on November 3, 7 pm, with Danny Gardner. At Murder and Mayhem Milwaukee on November 4)

The numbers in hardcover fiction are up this week, not just at the top (where we had our ticketed event with Nancy Pearl) but in the middle, where we had our best numbers for titles ranked from 2-10 for non-event books in a while. Nathan Englander's Dinner at the Center of the Earth and Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing, if I have my calculations correct, are the second and third novel respectively for these talented writers. I read the previous novels from both writers, but I'm behind in their newest entries.

David L. Ulin in the Los Angeles Times calls Englander's latest: "a kaleidoscopic fairy tale of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation … or its inverse. Shifting fluidly among characters and settings, the book divides its action between 2002 and 2014."

And Carter Hillyer in Biloxi's Sun Herald wrote: "Jessy Ward’s previous novel, Salvage the Bones, won the 2011 National Book Award for fiction. Sing, Unburied, Sing is better and should be a contender in awards season, not to mention a potential best-seller. Some reviewers identified the influences of other, great writers in Ward’s new novel: stream-of-consciousness and horror techniques found in both Faulkner’s and Stephen King’s fiction; the magic realism of Garcia Marquez; the harsh pathos of Dickens."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Happy Accidents, by David Ahearn
2. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
3. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
4. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken
5. The Driftless Reader, by Curt Meine and Keeley Keefe
6. Wisconsin Sentencing in the Tough-on-Crime Era, by Michael O'Hear
7. Getting Tough, by Juilly Kohler-Hausmann
8. Hue 1968, by Mark Bowden
9. The World Broke in Two, by Bill Goldstein (event Mon 9/11, 7 pm)
10. Crash Override, by Zoe Quinn

The Driftless Reader is a new anthology of a collection of work from Native people, explorers, scientists, historians, farmers, songwriters, journalists, and poets. Contributors include Black Hawk, Mark Twain, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frank Lloyd Wright, Aldo Leopold, and David Rhodes. We're still hoping to have one or both of the editors come to Boswell.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
2. Bernie Weber and the Riemann Hypothesis, by Matthew Flynn
3. Pryme Knumber, by Matthew J. Flynn
4. Swing Time, by Zadie Smith (In-Store Lit Group Mon Dec 4, 7 pm)
5. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
6. News of the World, by Paulette Jiles
7. It, by Stephen King
8. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
9. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
10. The Atomic Weight of Love, by Elizabeth J. Church (In-Store Lit Group Mon Nov 6, 7 pm)

It opened in theaters Friday to bigger-than-expected box office. From Deadline: " Stephen King’s It has been gathering up the records like a handful of balloons: The best opening day ever for a horror title ($51M), the highest pre-show for a horror film ($13.5M), the highest three-day opening record weekend for the genre and the second-highest opening for an R-rated pic (behind Deadpool's $132.4M), the best September opening for any genre which means the best September opening to date for the studio, and likely more records coming as New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. sorts through all of their stats early this AM."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Education of Kevin Powell, by Kevin Powell
2. Two Dollars a Day, by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Schaefer
3. The Black Male Handbook, edited by Kevin Powell
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
6. Sheet Pan Suppers, by Molly Gilbert
7. Kinnikinnic Avenue, by Lisa Ann Jacobsen
8. Pigeon Tunnel, by John LeCarre
9. Optimism Over Despair, by Noam Chomsky
10. How to Bake Pi, by Eugenia Cheng

Pigeon Tunnel was released in paperback to coincide with A Legacy of Spies, the first Smiley book in more than 25 years and #2 on our hardcover fiction list. Of Legacy, Robert McCrum writes in the Guardian: "A Legacy of Spies achieves many things. Outstandingly, it is a defiant assertion of creative vigour. There had been rumours of work abandoned, a professional crisis, but in these pages there is no faltering. Le Carré’s storytelling remains close to top form." And here's Walter Isaacson's review in The New York Times Book Review for Pigeon Tunnel.

Books for Kids:
1. Little i, by Michael Hall
2. Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties, by Dav Pilkey
3. Frankencrayon, by Michael Hall
4. Wonderfall, by Michael Hall
5. Perfect Square, by Michael Hall
6. Patina, by Jason Reynolds
7. Mari's Hope, by Sandy Brehl
8. Tower of Dawn, by Sarah Maas
9. Red, by Michael Hall
10. Miles Morales, by Jason Reynolds

Three upcoming events dominate the kids list with presales. First up is Michael Hall, whose Little i will be featured at the Oak Creek Public Library's Family Fun Night on September 19, 6:30 pm. He's got five books in our top ten. Kirkus Reviews called Little i "an inventive alphabet book for the perceptive reader." Then there's Jason Reynolds who will be at Boswell on Friday, September 15, 6:30 pm. Both his new novels, Patina and Miles Morales, the latter a Spider Man novel, score. And finally there's Sandy Brehl, who will be at Boswell on Thursday, September 14, 7 pm, for Mari's Hope, the third novel in her Norwegian historical saga.

Here's Jason Reynolds talking to Shelly Diaz at School Library Journal about getting the call to write Miles Morales: "I wish I could give you all a better answer for this question - one filled with drama and magic - but the truth is, Marvel and Disney reached out to my agent. That’s all. I know - not very exciting. But, trust me, when you get a call about writing Spider-Man, it doesn’t matter how it comes. They could’ve texted me, or sent me a telegram, or even broken into my home, and it wouldn’t have changed the feeling for me. It was mind-blowing!"

Here's what's reviewed this week in the Journal Sentinel TapBooks section:

1. Journal Sentinel contributing writer Mike Fischer covers Nicole Krauss's Forest Dark, which he's calling the best novel he's read this year. It's hard to get a chunk of review that explains the book and what Fischer feels about it, but let's try the opening: "Having gradually lost her faith in language, Nadia in Great House has come to distrust herself. In Forest Dark, Nicole – who shares numerous biographical details with Krauss and reminds one of those narrating doubles in Philip Roth – tells us that she can’t write because 'in my work and my life, 'I had become distrustful of all the possible shapes tat I might give things.' Nicole isn’t alone. While she flounders in Brooklyn, where her writing has stalled and her marriage is failing, alternating chapters in “Forest Dark” feature a third-person narrative revolving around Jules Epstein, a 68-year-old New York lawyer whose story might be the one Nicole is trying to write as a means of finding herself."

2. Originally appearing in the Seattle Times, Moira MacDonald profiles Sue Grafton. MacDonald writes: "In Y Is for Yesterday, in which Kinsey gets pulled into a decade-old case involving a sexual assault at an elite private school, you get a sense of a soon-coming final farewell, like the cast of a musical assembling on stage for one last number. But Grafton says she's resisting bringing back too many old characters...and that she doesn't yet know exactly how Z Is for Zero will end."

3. Charles Finch in USA Today reviewed Bill Goldstein's literary history, reprinted in today's Journal Sentinel. He writes: "The real strength of The World Broke in Two lies not in its overarching vision, but in its beautiful mosaic work. Goldstein pieces thousands of lovely quotations and long-neglected anecdotes together, arranging them to precise effect, describing in rich detail Forster's dying first love, Woolf's endless acuity, Lawrence's tormented mind, Eliot's rigid depression." He goes on to call it an "imperfect book with something perfect on every page, a line, a story, a joke." Did we mention (more than once) that Bill will be at Boswell tomorrow, September 11, 7 pm?

4. And while its not a review, we'll take that blow-up photo of Jason Reynolds for his Friday night at event at Boswell anytime. Don't forget, Friday, September 15, 6:30 pm, at Boswell, cosponsored by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee.

What did the book club think of Nicole Dennis-Benn's "Here Comes the Sun"?

I recently finished reading Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire, the story of three siblings in contemporary London (and Massachusetts and Pakistan) whose fates are determined by their parent, and who must live in a society where their lives as British Pakistanis leave them with any number of obstacles to happiness. It's a tragic story, and it turns out to be inspired by a classic Greek tragedy, Antigone. So the only problem when I was trying to judge the book, I couldn't decide if I could do the book justice without knowing its source material.

So after that I started reading Nicole Dennis-Benn's first novel, Here Comes the Sun, another tale of family dynamics, passionate affairs that may or may not have ulterior motives, and the feel of a Greek (or possibly Shakespearean) tragedy. But the more I thought about, the more it seemed more inspired by Breaking Bad, a more contemporary and gray take on the morality and justifications. But then I thought, I'm not really sure, because I've not really seen more of an episode or two of Breaking Bad either.

I just watched the complete run of Parks and Recreation, so let me know when there's a book that's inspired by that. But I digress.

Here Comes the Sun is set in Jamaica in the early nineties. That's important, because it was just as the country focus on tourism went into high gear. Delores, the mother of the family, has a stall at the local market. Her older daughter Margot works at one of the hotels nearby, while the younger daughter Thandi is enrolled at a prestigious school. Both Delores and Margot have pinned their hopes on Thandi becoming a doctor, with Margot funnelling extra cash for the schooling.

But here's the thing, Thandi thinks she's on scholarship, but Margot is actually providing the money through prostitution. And she's got bigger hopes, of managing a new hotel when it's developed, and to do this, she's got to take her scheme to the next level. And her dreams of helping Thandi are not just academic - she wants to protect her sister from the abuse that she herself suffered at the hands of her mother.

Yes, you're probably thinking, running a prostitution ring to protect your sister from abuse? But that whatever it takes attitude runs through the story, and you see the cycle over and over. But as one of the attendees said at the discussion, you make the best of the hand you're dealt. I didn't put that in quotes because I'm paraphrasing.

I picked Here Comes the Sun, knowing this would be a tough book for some of our attendees, and interestingly enough, we even saw it in advance sales. While The Little Red Chairs, which also deals with abuse and mistreatment, took off in sales when we made it a book club pick, Here Comes the Sun struggled. And otherwise, the books have a lot of similarities, aside from the more recognizable name of Edna O'Brien. Both books were lauded, and both looked at the troubles behind a pleasant facade. I actually think a lot of folks bought O'Brien thinking it really was a sweet Irish village novel, but I guess people were less fooled by the island paradise vibe of Dennis-Benn's jacket.

Sure enough, there were attendees who really didn't like the book, but they were outnumbered by the readers who liked or loved it. I call that polarizing. I'm using that a lot to describe My Absolute Darling, the first novel from Gabriel Tallent, which has gotten some great reviews and much bookseller love (#1 Indie Next pick for September, three enthusiastic reads from Boswellians) but nonetheless has a vocal contingent of booksellers who do not like it at all, and I get to say that because we're not hosting the author. This, I guess, is the only upside of having a weak literary event calendar this fall. We do a really good job with literary authors, but the competition for them is fierce. But I digress again.

I'm glad N. was there because she spoke to what I always fear with a book like this. She had trouble liking the book because she didn't like the characters. Everybody was using, using, using, with probably the dual exceptions of Verdene, the older woman who is secretly sleeping with Margot, and Charles, the smart but uneducated boy, the brother of one of the prostitutes who connects with Thandi. And yes, this is a small town and so there are more connections than that.

So I threw this back to her. Say you were in this situation. You had very little. You're competing with everyone for what little you can get. What would you do to get money? An education for your family? The chance to leave? As S. said, "They made the best decisions they could." This quote I wrote down correctly.

It is interesting to note that about half of the attendees had been to Jamaica, but only one visitor had gone back, and two (not a couple) had cut their trips short. For some people, it's hard to relax when you're so close to poverty and violence, and it can be uncomfortable, at least for some, to see your privilege up close. But the ads keep coming - who can forget the advertising slogans? - and the hotels keep getting built, and the folks living there get pushed out of the way.

Some of the group had trouble with the patois, which is completely understandable. In a lot of books I've read, the dialect is heavier at the beginning of the book, but dials down as you read it, giving you the perception that you are getting immersed in the world. Dennis-Benn decided to keep it through the whole narrative, deciding only to have the narrator tell the story dialogue-free. In at least one interview, she talked about writing a book completely in patois. I probably should have made everyone tackle A Brief History of Seven Killings, which I thought was even heavier in patois. Here Comes the Sun, in comparison, would have seemed like a vacation.

At least one other attendee had a lot of troubles with the book. M. felt that not only did she not like the characters, but that they seemed too much like types to her. We had a spirited discussion about this, and to me, Margot, in particular, is really about as complex and not-before-seen character I've come across. For all the things she did that made me squirm - that scene where she sets up the manager is pretty much horrifying - I found her fascinating and understandable. Talk about anti-heroine.

G. particularly liked that Dennis-Benn highlighted the treatment of women and the cycle of abuse that comes about in society. We talked a lot about the various women and their motivations. To balance some complaints, I was actually surprised how much support their was for Delores, the mom. As J. noted, "If you met her at her stall, you would have loved her."

J. did note that the white people in the book were a bit cardboard, particularly Alphonso. It was really hard to figure out his motivations. But I think, through the eyes of Margot, that makes perfect sense. At the core, she knew how to use him, but I don't think she did understand him. And as a reader, it was hard to figure out why he was so awful. But how many of us ask this question about other people every day. And it wasn't his book.

Speaking of color, one subject that energized the discussion was that of color and shading. Many characters in the book is obsessed with skin tone, most notably Thandi, who is secretly using a potion (it's actually a creme, but potion sort of puts it better in perspective) to lighten her skin. This led me to recommend a book from Lori Tharps called Same Family, Different Color, which comes out in paperback on October 3. It's both a memoir and sociological study that looks at how not just African Americans, but all sorts of communities, including folks from India, Japan, Korea, and several South American countries subtly and sometimes unsubtly favor light skin tones over dark. I think it's really good book for a coordinator to read when discussing Here Comes the Sun, beyond the obvious background on Jamaica.

We really only touched on the LGBT themes of the story. Here Comes the Sun won a Lambda Literary Award (and a bucket of other accolades) and the relationship between Margot and Verdene is certainly one of the core relationships. We're well aware that Jamaica is not the easiest place to be gay, and everyone was pretty horrified by the community's treatment of Verdene, but of course there was not much to say beyond that. It's not unusual behavior - you attack the other to build up your own self-image, especially when you don't have much yourself. Who doesn't see this harnessed all the time in contemporary society?

I recently watched a show called Gaycation that looked at the plight of LGBT Jamaicans. You'll need to have a cable, satellite, or Hulu subscription to watch it. And of course you could also ask Marlon James next time you hear him speak or read. Here's an article in Out magazine where both James and Dennis-Benn talk about their experiences.

I actually got to hear a little about this first hand. I visited a friend of mine from college last year who helps gay male political refugees in DC. He gives them a place to stay, gives them guidance on job hunting, and helps them through the red tape. At the time, he was helping a Jamaican man, who had several horrible stories to tell of his life on the island. If he ever writes his memoir, you can use that book as background material to Here Comes the Sun too.

People always ask authors, "Who are you in this book?" and so many of them reply, "I am all of them!" In this case, note that like Thandi, Dennis-Benn has noted that she was originally working towards a career in the medical world before embracing writing, her true love. And like Verdene, Dennis-Benn left Jamaica but then returned. This spurred some discussion. Why did Verdene come back? In the author's case, she went back with her now wife to have a  wedding ceremony. According to Dennis-Benn, the Jamaican media had a field day with this.

By the way, A. was not able to attend, but we did learn he had 13 pages of notes. He apparently loved the book. Maybe we'll hear a bit more of his thoughts next month.

And finally there's L., who said, "I didn't enjoy reading it, but I'm glad I read it." Coincidentally enough, she's now reading Kamila Shamsie's Home Fire. They really are great books to read together, and I can't wait to talk to her about it. And now maybe we can get some momentum going on Here Comes the Sun, now that I can give it a staff rec.

On Monday, October 2, we're reading Michael Perry's Population 485. I'd love to read every Michael Perry book but he writes them faster than I can read them - Population 485 will be my fourth. In addition to Montaigne in Barn Boots, which I loved (pub date November 7, at Boswell November 14), he's also just had published Danger, Man Working: Writing from the Heart, the Gut, and the Poison Ivy Patch.

And then on Monday, November 6, we're reading Elizabeth J. Church's The Atomic Weight of Love, a novel about a scientist who gives up her career to be a housewife in Los Alamos, only to becomes obsessed with the behavior of crows. This was recommended to me by my new favorite birder, Nancy Quinn, at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.

And since I already know, we're returning to the well of riches that is the okayafrica yearend booklist of 2016 for the third time. After reading Homegoing and Here Comes the Sun, we turn to Zadie Smith's Swing Time for our Monday, December 4 meeting. And don't forget, no registration is necessary for the In-Store Lit Group. Here's a list of our other upcoming Boswell-run book clubs.

Nicole Dennis-Benn photography credit: Jason Berger

Annotated Boswell bestsellers, week ending September 2, 2017

Here's the Boswell bestseller list for the week ending September 2, 2017.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Glass Houses, by Louise Penny
2. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
3. My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent
4. Mrs. Fletcher, by Tom Perrotta
5. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, by Arundhati Roy
6. Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
7. Hum If You Don't Know the Word, by Bianca Marais
8. House of Spies, by Daniel Silva
9. A Piece of the World, by Christina Baker Kline
10. The Store, by James Patterson with Richard DiLallo

Needless to say, Glass Houses was the big seller for this week, with comparable sales to last year's A Great Reckoning.

Gabriel Tallent's My Absolute Darling is probably the most touted debut of the fall. It's the #1 pick on the American Bookselles Association Indie Next List. John Evans at Diesel: A Bookstore, wrote "This is a Great American Novel: exquisitely lush language of the natural world; startlingly vivid characters; a global understanding of social context, in a particular place; and, in this case, steel-wire narrative tension stringing through the beautiful prose like piano wire." And Boswell's Kay Wosewick adds "The characters are richly drawn and it is impossible not to root for the awakening of the young girl."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, by Al Franken
2. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
3. Wild Things, by Bruce Handy
4. The Republic for Which it Stands, by Richard White
5. Why Buddhism Is True, by Robert Wright
6. The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben
7. College in Prison, by Daniel Karpowitz (event at Boswell Mon 10/30, 7 pm)
8. Devotion, by Patti Smith
9. Milwuakee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
10. Wisconsin Sentencing in the Tough-on-Crime Era, by Michael O'Hear

Just out is Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult, from Bruce Handy, contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Annalisa Smith on the NPR website writes "Bruce Handy's generous, warm voice is just the kind you would want reading you btive, with pleasant jolts of irreverence." And here's Rivka Galchen's review in The New York Times Book Review.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Howard's End, by E.M. Forster
2. The Trespasser, by Tana French
3. Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
4. Blankets, by Craig Thompson
5. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
6. Bernie Weber and the Riemann Hypothesis, by Matthew Flynn (event at Boswell Thu 9/7, 7 pm)
7. Cooking for Picasso, by Camille Aubray
8. They May Not Mean To, But They Do, by Cathleen Schine
9. Close Enough to Touch, by Colleen Oakley
10. Miss Jane, by Brad Watson

Camille Aubray's novel has been out in paperback since June but it's our first appearance on our top 10. It's a historical novel with a contemporary frame, in the vein of the B.A. Shapiro novels. Then: On the French Riviera, Ondine meets Picasso when he starts eating at her mother's restaurant. Now: Ondine's granddaughter returns to France to find out the real story. Now it's not often that your book is recommended by Margaret Atwood on Twitter, but that's the case with Cooking for Picasso. The Tweet: "A tasty blend of romance, mystery, and French cooking." Bethanne Patrick in The Washington Post calls Cooking for Picasso "not a steaming pile of pigeon poop." To be clear, the quote is out of context and the review is quite good!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
2. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
3. White Trash, by Nancy Isenberg
4. Pain Free, by Pete Egoscue
5. Stop Anxiety from Stopping You, by Helen Odessky (event with REDgen on Sun Sep 17, 3 pm)
6. Blood in the Water, by Heather Ann Thompson (Frank P Zeidler Memorial Lecture Mon 11/6, 7 pm)
7. In Lieu of Flowers, by Nancy Cobb
8. The War that Forged a Nation, by James M. McPherson
9. Quotes for Nasty Women, by Linda Picone
10. The Other Shore, by Thich Nhat Hanh

If you watch our event schedule very carefully, you might have caught that Heather Ann Thompson's talk for Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy was originally scheduled for last spring, but the date had to change when it was also the night that Thompson was awarded the Bancroft Prize. Thompson, who subsequently was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her work, is rescheduled as the featured speaker at the Frank P. Zeidler Memorial Lecture, cosponsored by Milwaukee Turners, at Turner Hall. More info on this Lecture Facebook page.

Books for Kids:
1. Hollow Earth, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
2. The Bone Quill, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
3. The Book of Beasts, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
4. Nephilim, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
5. Boy21, by Matthew Quick
6. Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties, by Dav Pilkey
7. Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
8. Most Dangerous, by Steve Sheinkin
9. Little Elliot, Fall Friends, by Mike Curato
10. Miles Morales: A Spider Man novel, by Jason Reynolds (event Fri 9/15, 6:30 pm, at Boswell)

Jason Reynolds has no less than three novels coming out in the three months between August and October. First was Miles Morales, the Spiderman novel. Then Patina, which just came out this week and should show up on our bestseller list shortly. Then comes Long Way Down on October 24, a novel "that takes place in sixty potent seconds--the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he's going to murder the guy who killed his brother." Here's a feature on Miles Morales in Entertainment Weekly.

Here are the TapBooks features in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

On the front page is a feature on some interesing new regional books just out or forthcoming.

The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and Its People, by Michael Edmonds. Higgins says "After an earlier Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison burned down in 1904, architect George B. Post won a contract to build a new, classically inspired capitol with a dome. Edmonds' book celebrates the centennial of that building, finished in 1917."

God and Starbucks: An NBA Superstar's Journey Through Addiction and Recovery, by Vin Baker with Joe Layden. Higgins: "Vin Baker was named an all-star three times during his years with the Milwaukee Bucks. But if you felt, like I did, that we weren't always seeing his full potential, his memoir helps explain why."

Danger, Man Working: Writing From the Heart, the Gut, and the Poison Ivy Patch, by Michael Perry. The take: "Like all of his prose, these pieces flow gracefully with amusing accents of self-deprecation: 'It quickly becomes obvious that I am a self-absorbed hypochondriac forever resolving to do better nutritionally and fitness-wise but my follow-through is laughable,' he writes in his introduction."

Kinnickinnic Avenue: The Heart of Bay View, WI, by Lisa Ann Jacobsen. From Higgins: "I confess to liking best this visual book's older black-and-white photographs of the developing neighborhood: the Schwarts blacksmith shop; elementary school children posed in a group photo outside St. Lucas Church; a street view of Gitzel's Department Store (including a sidewalk clock, which can now be found downtown in front of the Milwaukee County Historical Society); a 1959 portrait of the massive ore ship Edmund Fitzgerald (the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's song) visiting Milwaukee." Where the heck was Gitzel's?

A Crowded Hour: Milwaukee During the Great War 1917-1918, by Kevin J. Abing. Higgins writes: "Milwaukee's substantial percentage of German-Americans and its Socialist politicians, notably Mayor Daniel Hoan and Victor Berger, made it a complicated place during World War I, with some folks quick to questions loyalties here. Abing, a Milwaukee County Historical Society archivist, chronicles those stormy years, which also included the growing power of the temperance movement, the Milwaukee police station bombing of 1917, and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed nearly 1,200 Milwaukeeans."

Mike Fischer writes about Sing, Unburied, Sing, the new novel from Jesmyn Ward: "The setting and even a few characters’ cameo appearances in Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward’s poetic and moving new novel, recall Ward’s exceptional Salvage the Bones. But this new novel’s meditation on what it means to be black - and particularly a black male — in contemporary America is more apt to remind readers of Men We Reaped, Ward’s devastating memoir of her brother and four other black men she’s known who all died too young."

And back to Jim Higgins, who reviews a new collection of essays from the recently deceased Dick Gregory: "Gregory died Aug. 19 of heart failure at age 84. Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies, completed before his death, is not as definitive as the title suggests, at least not by the standards of footnoted history. But it is a fair representation of Gregory's passion for social justice and disdain for white supremacy obvious and subtle."

And finally, originally from Newsday is See What I Have Done, a review of Sarah Schmidt's new novel, from Karen R. Long. Long writes: "See What I Have Done is a barn-burning, fever-ridden first novel. It makes blistering reading out of first-rate historical fiction, which must walk the tightrope of established facts while fashioning a story anew. Hilary Mantel, in her brilliant re-creation of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies, may be the best practitioner alive, but this book announces Schmidt as a new sister in the craft."