Monday, October 16, 7 pm, at Boswell:
David McAninch in Conversation with Kyle Cherek, author of
Duck Season: Eating, Drinking and Other Misadventures in Gascony – France’s Last Best Place.
Chicago magazine features editor David McAninch, who was previously an editor at
Saveur, joins us at Boswell for a conversation with
Wisconsin Foodie host, Kyle Cherek, to discuss his new book that tackles the love of food in the south of France.
A delicious memoir about the eight months food writer David McAninch spent in Gascony - a deeply rural region of France virtually untouched by mass tourism - meeting extraordinary characters and eating the best meals of his life.
With wit and warmth, McAninch takes us deep into this enchanting world, a place almost frozen in time, where eating what makes you happy isn’t a sin but a commandment—and where, to the eternal surprise of outsiders, locals’ life expectancy is higher than in any other region of France. Featuring a dozen choice recipes and beautiful line drawings,
Duck Season is an irresistible treat for Francophiles and gourmands alike.
Tuesday, October 17, 6:30 pm, at Oak Creek Library, 8040 S 6th St:
A YA Pizza Party with Karen M. McManus, author of
One of Us Is Lying, Tara Goedjen, author of
The Breathless, and Kara Thomas, author of
Little Monsters.
The Oak Creek Library and Boswell present three YA thriller writers! Join us for a night of suspense and mystery as Karen McManus, Tara Goedjen, and Kara Thomas delight fans with their thrilling tales of murder, intrigue, and betrayal.
Pizza Man pizza will be provided. This event is free, but registration is requested. Click on
October 17 Teen Thriller Night to register.
Karen McManus's
One of Us Is Lying is the first novel from Cambridge-based McManus, a graduate of Holy Cross (BA) and Northwestern (MA in journalism). One of Us is Lying is a YA thriller packed full of intrigue. When Simon, the creator of a high school gossip app, dies under mysterious circumstances, five students come under fire for his murder. Each had their own reason for wanting him dead, and someone is lying, but it will take everything they have in order to solve the crime.
Tara Goedjen, with an MFA from the University of Alabama, debuts
The Breathless, a gothic tale of deceit and secrets. A year after the death of her older sister, Mae’s home life has been off. When she discovers that her sister’s boyfriend has turned up after disappearing the night her sister died, Mae is determined to uncover her sister’s secrets; what she finds there may cause more problems than she bargained for.
Kara Thomas is a seasoned writer and true-crime addict who lives on Long Island. In addition to her other novels
The Darkest Corner and
The Cheerleaders, she's also written for Warner Brothers television.
Little Monsters tells the story of Kacey Young, a troubled young woman who has just moved cross country to live with her estranged father. After befriending two girls at school, life for Kacey seem to fall into place, that is until one of her friends goes missing
The legendary Pizza Man, a fixture on Oakland and North until 2010, has returned to greatness under the leadership of Zak and Sarah Baker. In addition to their location on Downer Avenue, down the block from Boswell, they have locations at the Mayfair Collection in Wauwatosa and at Drexel Town Center, across the street from the Oak Creek Public Library. My favorite is spinach and tomato with the bianca base. What's yours?
Wednesday. October 18, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Joan Marie Johnson, author of
Funding Feminism: Monied Women, Philanthropy, and the Women’s Movement.
Joan Marie Johnson is a historian and faculty coordinator for the Office of the Provost at Northwestern University. In her new book, she examines an understudied dimension of women's history in the United States: how a group of affluent white women from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries advanced the status of all women through acts of philanthropy. This cadre of activists included Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst; Grace Dodge, granddaughter of Wall Street "Merchant Prince" William Earle Dodge; and Ava Belmont, who married into the Vanderbilt family fortune.
Motivated by their own experiences with sexism, and focusing on women's need for economic independence, these benefactors sought to expand women's access to higher education, promote suffrage, and champion reproductive rights, as well as to provide assistance to working-class women. In a time when women still wielded limited political power, philanthropy was perhaps the most potent tool they had. But even as these wealthy women exercised considerable influence, their activism had significant limits. As Johnson argues, restrictions tied to their giving engendered resentment and jeopardized efforts to establish coalitions across racial and class lines.
Thursday, October 19, 4:00 pm, at Boswell:
Chezare A. Warren, author of
Urban Preparation: Young Black Men Moving From Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education.
In conjunction with the Black Male Achievement Summit, Boswell is proud to host Chezare A. Warren is assistant professor at Michigan State University and president of Critical Race Studies in Education Association. In Urban Preparation, Warren chronicles the transition of a cohort of young Black males from Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men to their early experiences in higher education. A rich and closely observed account of a mission-driven school and its students, Urban Preparation makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how young males of color can best be served in schools throughout the United States today.
A founding teacher at Urban Prep, Warren offers a detailed exploration of what this single-sex public high school on the South Side of Chicago has managed to accomplish amid profoundly challenging circumstances. He provides a rich portrait of the school - its leaders, teachers, and professional staff; its students; and the community that the school aims to serve - and highlights how preparation for higher education is central to its mission. Warren focuses on three main goals: to describe Urban Prep's plans and efforts to prepare young Black males for college; to understand how race, community, poverty, and the school contributed, in complex and interrelated ways, to the academic goals of these students; and to offer a wide-ranging set of conclusions about the school environments and conditions that might help young Black males throughout the country succeed in high school and college.
This special afternoon event is cosponsored by Council for Black Male Achievement and DeRute Consulting cooperative.
Thursday, October 19, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Lil Rev, celebrating the release of
Sing Song Daddy.
Lil Rev was born and raised in Milwaukee, and now hangs his hat in Sheboygan, WI. Influenced heavily by the city’s industrial powerhouses, he has a strong appreciation for the working man, a theme that is prevalent in his music. Along with being an accomplished musician and educator, he is also the author of multiple instructional books for the harmonica and the ukulele.
Lil Rev’s brand-new album,
Sing Song Daddy, “wrangles the best of American roots influences and runs ‘em thru a ukulele-playing, panhandler’s prism of originality. Turn it up and stake your claim. 15 new tunes, including “The Old Sheboygan Soft Shoe,” The Milwaukee Waltz,” and “The Night Dan Emmett Wrote Dixie” were all written by Lil Rev and recorded at SurroundinSoundStudio with Jonathan Leuber.
From Lil Rev: “Thank you for investing in the time-honored tradition of the troubadour. For over thirty years now, I have been collecting, interpreting, and writing songs for anyone and everyone who’ll listen. This endeavor has become like a rite of passage. As the years roll and the seasons change, so too, does the pen and palette. I hope you enjoy this collection of roots-based originals.”
Boswell’s event will feature many of the musicians featured on the sessions: Guy Florentini, Jason Klagstad, John Sieger, Robin Pluer, Jim Liban, Peter Roller, and James Eannelli. And we wouldn’t be surprised if some special guests joined at the last minute.
Friday, October 20, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Stacey Ballis, author of
How to Change a Life, in conversation with Amy Reichert, author of
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake and other novels.
A dare between friends leads to startling revelations and simmering tensions in the latest novel from the author of Wedding Girl. Eloise is happy with her life as a successful private chef. She has her clients, her corgi, and a recipe for the world's most perfect chocolate cream pie. What more could she need? But when her long-lost trio of high school friends reunites, Eloise realizes how lonely she really is.
Eloise, Lynne, and Teresa revamp their senior-class assignment and dare one another to create a list of things to accomplish by the time they each turn forty in a few months. Control freak Lynne has to get a dog, Teresa has to spice up her marriage, and Eloise has to start dating again. Enter Shawn, a hunky ex-athlete and the first man Eloise could see herself falling for. Suddenly forty doesn't seem so lonely, until a chance encounter threatens the budding romance and reveals the true colors of her friends. Will the bucket listers make it to forty still speaking to one another? Or do some friendships come with an expiration date?
Stacey Ballis is the author of ten foodie novels, including
Off the Menu, Out to Lunch, and
Recipe for Disaster. She is a contributing author to three nonfiction anthologies, including
Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume and
Living Jewishly.
Monday, October 23, 7 pm, at UWM Union Wisconsin Room, 2200 E Kenwood Blvd:
A ticketed event with Scott Kelly, author of
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.
Boswell, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union, and the Manfred Olson Planetarium present an evening with Scott Kelly, the astronaut who spent a record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station, in conversation with Bonnie North of WUWM’s
Lake Effect.
Scott Kelly is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired U.S. Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. In October 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space, the single longest space mission by an American astronaut.
Tickets are $32 and include admission to the event, all taxes and ticket fees, and a signed copy of
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery. Tickets are available at kellymke.brownpapertickets.com or you can order by phone at 800-838-3006. Tickets are also available to the UWM campus community at a special discounted price of $26 for students and $29 for faculty and staff, only at the UWM Student Union Information Desk.
The veteran of four space flights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, astronaut Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have: How does it feel to be launched in a rocket? What happens to your body in zero gravity? What do you do when you get a toothache 250 miles above the Earth?
Jim Higgins talked to Scott Kelly in the
Journal Sentinel. From the interview: "During his final space station mission, he called the writer who launched him on his life's journey. 'It was a great conversation,' Kelly said of his chat with Tom Wolfe, 'talking about how much he inspired me and how important it was to where I ended up.'"
Read more here.
And here's one last ticket link.
This Saturday, November 4, is the annual Murder and Mayhem conference at the Irish Cultural Center near the Marquette University campus downtown.The program features panels, interviews, and signings with these authors: James R Benn, Lou Berney, Chelsea Cain (pictured), Susanna Calkins, Reed Farrel Coleman (also pictured), Lori Rader-Day, Danny Gardner, Shaun Harris, Rob Hart, Matthew Fitzsimmons, Linda Joffe Hull, Stephen Mack Jones, Dave Krugler, SW Lauden, Kristen Lepionka, Bill Loehfelm, Nick Petrie, Thomas Pluck, Bryon Quertermous, Nathan Singer, F. Paul Wilson, and Lili Wright.
Here's the schedule of panels and interviews. Each panel tends to have four to six participants.
Stephen Mack Jones is a published poet, an award-winning playwright, and a recipient of the prestigious Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship. He was born in Lansing, Michigan, and currently lives in Farmington Hills, outside of Detroit. He worked in advertising and marketing communications for a number of years before turning to fiction.
In his debut, August Snow, the son of an African-American father and a Mexican-American mother grows up in the city's Mexicantown and joins the police force only to be forced out by corrupt officials and officers. It's not long before he's summoned to the palatial Grosse Pointe Estate, home of business magnate Eleanor Paget. Powerful and manipulative, Paget wants August to investigate the increasingly unusual happenings at her private wealth management bank, which he declines. A day later, Paget is dead of an apparent suicide – dragging Snow into a rat’s nest of deception and danger.
Joining him will be debut author Danny Gardner. From his beginnings as a young stand-up comedian, Gardner has enjoyed careers as an actor, director, and screenwriter. He is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee for his creative non-fiction piece Forever. His first short fiction piece, Labor Day, appeared in Beat to a Pulp, and his flash fiction has been featured in Out of the Gutter and on Noir On The Air. Gardner is a proud member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers.
The novel A Negro and an Ofay takes place in 1952. After a year on the run, disgraced Chicago Police Officer Elliot Caprice wakes up in a jailhouse in St. Louis. Friends from his hometown secure his release and he returns to find the family farm in foreclosure and the man who raised him dying in a flophouse. Desperate for money, he accepts a straight job as a process server and eventually crosses paths with a powerful family from Chicago's North Shore. A captain of industry is dead, the key to his estate disappeared with the chauffeur, and soon Elliot is in up to his neck. The mixed-race son of Illinois farm country must return to the Windy City with the Chicago Police on his heels and the Syndicate at his throat. Good thing he's had a lifetime of playing both sides against the middle.
