Bestsellers from Boswell for the week ending April 14, 2018

Bestsellers from Boswell for the week ending April 14, 2018

Hardcover Fiction:

1. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan (a very strong non-event week for Paris)
2. The House of Broken Angels, by Luis Alberto Urrea (Library Lunch tickets available till May 3)
3. Flying at Night, by Rebecca Brown
4. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
5. Circe, by Madeline Miller (read the rec from Jason)
6. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah (read the rec from Kay)
7. The Female Persuasion, by Meg Wolitzer (tickets for April 23 event here)
8. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
9. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
10. The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn

For all those zillions of people buying The Hidden Life of Trees, and especially for those percentage who like fiction. I think we have a book for you. Kay has been a fan of The Overstory since she got an advance copy and now the critics are chiming in. Adam Morgan in the Star Tribune wrote: "A colleague of mine once claimed that a critic’s opinions are worth less than his or her ability to convey what a book is like. If that’s true, never mind that I believe Richard Powers’ 12th novel to be a masterwork sculpted from sheer awe. Instead, know that reading The Overstory will convince you that we walk among gods every time we enter a forest."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Right-and-Wrong Stuff, by Carter Cast
2. Rising to the Challenge, by Carly Fiorina
3. Fascism, by Madeleine Albright
4. Natural Causes, by Barbara Ehrenreich
5. See What Can Be Done, by Lorrie Moore
6. Home of the Braves, by Patrick Steele
7. Recovering, by Leslie Jamison
8. Educated, by Tara Westover
9. Gift of Our Wounds, by Arno Michaelis and Pardeep Singh Kaleka (Register for event on Sat Apr 28, 5:30 pm at First Unitarian Society here)
10. Obama, by Pete Souza

So many new books popping this week! I'll highlight Barbara Ehrenreich's Natural Causes, as Lynn was telling me how interesting it was while we were on our way to work the offsite for another author. Much like Bright-Sided took on the concept of positive thinking, Ehrenreich's newest focuses on the wellness industry, and how it plays on our fear of death. Parul Sehgal wrote in The New York Times: "Her new book is blunt: Nothing in modern life prepares us for the leaving of it. We treat aging as an outrage or, worse, as a sin. In our addiction to betterment, we’ve replaced 'health' — an absence of sickness — with the amorphous 'wellness' and a flurry of overtesting, fad diets and pointless 'alternative' treatments."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel
2. Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee
3. Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
4. Last Night in Montreal, by Emily St John Mandel
5. The Lola Quartet, by Emily St John Mandel
6. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See (event at UWM Golda Meir Library, Tue April 19, 7 pm)
8. The Singer's Gun, by Emily St John Mandel
9. Anything Is Possible, by Elizabeth Strout
10. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

Since we last talked about Elizabeth Strout's Anything Is Possible, which was the focus of last year's Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Literary Lunch (this year's speaker is Luis Alberto Urrea, highlighted above), the book has come out in paperback and it's also received The Story Prize. One thing I noticed about he paperback is that it's a similar jacket but the blue of the hardcover is lightened to more of a baby blue, almost pearl. I wonder what it was like to be in that meeting where they made that decision.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Tough Choices, by Carly Fiorina
2. Last Girl Standing, by Trina Robbins
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan (event at Schlitz Audubon May 17 - register info here)
5. Master of the Grill, by America's Test Kitchen
6. Insprialized, by Ali Maffucci
7. The Complete Healthy Dog Handbook, by Betsy Brevitz
8. Janesville, by Amy Goldstein
9. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, by Samantha Irby (event at Boswell Thu May 10, 7 pm)
10. Brick Through the Window, by Nodine, Beaumont, Carroll, and Luhrssen

Cartoonist Trina Robbins had multiple books come out last year but Last Girl Standing, her memoir, was the focus of her talk at UWM last week. You'll also notice that Carly Fiorina also hit the list, in hardcover for Rising to the Challenge and paperback for Tough Choices. She was also at the UWM Union.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Rebound, by Kwame Alexander
2. The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander
3. How to Sell Your Family to the Aliens, by Paul Noth
4. The Stupendous Adventures of Mighty Marty Hayes, by Lora Hyler
5. You Go First, by Erin Entrada Kelly
6. Sled Dog School, by Terry Lynn Johnson
7. Avalanche, by Terry Lynn Johnson
8. Lovabye Dragon, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Randy Cecil
9. Evermore Dragon, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Randy Cecil
10. Sail Away Dragon by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Randy Cecil

All ten books are connected to store or school visits and have been discussed in our upcoming events blog. You actually have to go all the way to #22 to find a title that somehow isn't connected to an author appearance somewhere. That would be Gayle Forman's latest young adult novel, I Have Lost My Way. Of the new book, the story of the friendship of three teens, Jacqueline Woodson wrote "A beautifully written love song to every young person who has ever moved through fear and found themselves on the other side." And Publishers Weekly's starred review: "Forman occasionally references the parable of the boiling frog, in which a frog in a pot of water doesn’t notice a gradual increase in temperature and is eventually cooked to death. In some ways, she performs a similar trick: readers may be so caught up in the intensity and warmth of the bond Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel form that they’re caught off guard by their story’s final act. "

Journal Sentinel's TapBooks page!

--Marion Winik reviews Meg Wolitzer's The Female Persuasion (Schlitz Audubon ticket link here). This review is from Newsday: "For those who have been eagerly awaiting Meg Wolitzer’s 10th adult novel, The Female Persuasion, the fun starts as early as the dedication page - which lists eight female literary role models and mentors, among them Rosellen Brown, Nora Ephron, Mary Gordon and the author’s mother, Hilma Wolitzer, who raised her in Syosset in the 1960s and 70s. You don’t call out your teachers by name unless you plan to do them proud. This dedication goes right to the theme of the book - mentorship and influence among women." Note: Sysosset is important because it is a town in Newsday's home base of Long Islalnd.

--Lisa Genova's latest is reviewed by Maureen Mccarthy. The review, which originally appeared in the Star Tribune, offers this praise: "Lisa Genova, the neuroscientist and author who riveted audiences with her tale of early onset dementia in Still Alice, delivers another gripping journey through a dread disease in Every Note Played. This time she trains her masterful storytelling skills on ALS as it plays out in a fractured family.

--And Another McCarthy, Matt, with two capital letters this time, offers his take on a timely memoir, first published in USA Today: "Leslie Jamison wants you to know that her new book, The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, isn’t like other redemption memoirs. Before we have the chance to roll our eyes or make assumptions, she beats us to it. 'I was wary of trotting out the tired tropes of the addictive spiral,' she writes, 'and wary of the tedious architecture and tawdry self-congratulations of a redemption story.'"