Monday, May 7, 2018

Event alert: Too late to sign up for Luis Alberto Urrea luncheon, but you've still got time for Arundhati Roy with Parneshia Jones, J.P.. Leary, Bob Barry, Samantha Irby, Fierce Reads YA tour at Oak Creek Public Library, Amy and Dave Freeman, and Allison Pataki

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

Tuesday, May 8, 7:00 pm, at UWM Student Union, 2200 E Kenwood Dr in Milwaukee:
A ticketed event with Arundhati Roy, author of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, in conversation with Parneshia Jones

Boswell and the Humanities Division, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee present a rare evening with Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things, winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. For this event, Roy will be in conversation with Evanston poet Parneshia Jones, winner of the Midwest Book Award for her first collection, Vessel.

Tickets are $19 for the general public and are available at roymke.bpt.me. Tickets are available at a reduced rate to UWM students, faculty, and staff at the UWM Union Box Office only. ID is required and there's a limit of two tickets per person at the Box Office.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes readers on a panoramic yet intimate journey across the Indian subcontinent, following a varied cast of characters who become swept up in Kashmir’s fight for independence. The tale begins with Anjum, a hijra, unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. Then there is Musa, a Kashmiri freedom fighter; Tilo, his lover; his landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul; and the two Miss Jebeens - the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs’ Graveyard, the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi. The result is a shimmering, deeply humane novel that reinvents what a novel can do and can be.

Arundhati Roy is the author of The God of Small Things, which won the Man Booker Prize and has been translated into more than forty languages. She also has published several books of nonfiction including The End of Imagination, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, and The Doctor and the Saint. She lives in New Delhi.

 Recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Margaret Walker Short Story Award, and the Aquarius Press Legacy Award, Parneshia Jones is a Ragdale Fellow and published in several anthologies including She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems, edited by Caroline Kennedy and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, edited by Nikky Finney. Jones is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, a collective of Black voices from Appalachia and serves on the board of Cave Canem and GlobalWrites.

Wednesday, May 9, 6:00 pm, at UWM, Mitchell Hall, Room 361, 3203 N Downer Ave:
J.P. Leary, author of The Story of ACT 31: How Native History Came to Wisconsin Classrooms

Leary’s book chronicles one piece of Wisconsin legislation from forward-thinking resolution to violent controversy and beyond. Since its passage in 1989, a state law known as Act 31 requires that all students in Wisconsin learn about the history, culture, and tribal sovereignty of Wisconsin’s federally recognized tribes. This event is cosponsored by Electa Quinney Institute and the School of Education.

The Story of Act 31 tells the story of the law’s inception, tracing its origins to a court decision in 1983 that affirmed American Indian hunting and fishing treaty rights in Wisconsin, and to the violent public outcry that followed the court’s decision. Author J.P. Leary paints a picture of controversy stemming from past policy decisions that denied generations of Wisconsin students the opportunity to learn about tribal history.

J.P. Leary is an associate professor of humanities, First Nations studies, and history at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. He is also a member of the graduate faculty in education and a faculty affiliate with the Professional Program in Education Center for First Nations Studies.

Wednesday, May 9 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Bob Barry, author of Rock 'n' Roll Radio Milwaukee: Stories from the Fifth Beatle

We're so excited to be able to reschedule our event with legendary DJ Bob Barry. Come early for good seats on this one - everybody is attending, or so it seems from what our customers are saying.

His popular “Bob Barry Calls the World” segment entertained thousands with cold calls to famous personalities, including Bob Hope, Sophia Loren, Elton John, and Cher. Through it all, Barry maintained a calm and fun-loving demeanor, even when mocked by the WOKY Chicken or nearly eaten by wolves on the air.

Packed with never-before-seen photos, this revealing memoir recalls the iconic DJ’s many celebrity encounters, his career highlights and setbacks, and the hijinks that made Milwaukee radio rock.

Bob Barry is best remembered as a legendary Milwaukee disc jockey and TV personality. During his career, he received numerous industry awards, chief among them Billboard Magazine Top 40 Air Personality of the Year in 1975. In 2001, Bob was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Please note this event was rescheduled, due to an April snowstorm.

Thursday, May 10, 6:30 pm, at Oak Creek Public Library , 8040 S Sixth St in Drexel Town Center:
The Fierce Reads YA Tour, featuring  Taran Matharu, author of The Outcast, Mary E. Pearson, author of the forthcoming Dance of Thieves, Maurene Goo, author of The Way You Make Me Feel, and Tricia Levenseller, author of Daughter of the Siren Queen

Boswell presents an evening of fantasy and adventure for young adult readers at the Oak Creek Library. This event is cosponsored by Pizza Man, and yes, that means that pizza will be served. We'll have lots of swag too! Register for this event at oakcreeklibrary.org/events.

Taran Matharu has written The Outcast, the prequel to the popular Summoner series, in which a lowly stable boy accidentally summons a demon and becomes the key to a secret that powerful overlords would do anything to keep hidden.

Mary E. Pearson is the author of The Remnant Chronicles series, among other books for teen and young adult readers, and won the 2006 Golden Kite Award for fiction. Pearson will be previewing her newest book, Dance of Thieves, which is a cat and mouse game of false moves and motives.

Maureen Goo is the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Since You Asked. Her newest, The Way You Make Me Feel, is a laugh-out-loud story with a Korean American heroine about summer love, new friends, and a food truck.

Tricia Levenseller is the author of Daughter of the Pirate King. In this thrilling, action-packed sequel, Daughter of the Siren Queen, a seventeen-year-old pirate captain must race her father, The Pirate King, to a legendary hidden treasure.

If you haven't been to a Fierce Reads tour, here's New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo discussing her experience in Publishers Weekly: "From the start, I absolutely loved being part of this group tour,” she said. “It’s much more fun and more relaxed than a solo tour, and [there’s less] anxiety about whether people will show up. You can be assured of lots of laughs and having a good time." We're positive you will have a great time too!



Thursday May 10, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Samantha Irby, author of Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life

Samantha Irby’s second collection, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, was a huge New York Times bestseller and garnered raves reviews from Lindy West, Jenny Lawson, and Sonya Renee Taylor. Now Vintage is rereleasing her breakout essay collection, Meaty.

Back by popular demand, Irby’s debut collection laughs its way through a tragicomic adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. Updated with with Instagramable, couch-friendly recipes, this much-beloved romp is treat for anyone in dire need of the infamous, scathing wit and poignant candor thousands of loyal readers have come to expect from visiting Irby’s notoriously hilarious blog.

From Irby's interview in Book Riot with Katie MacBride, on how Irby is blowing up: "You know what, I’ve been invited to a handful of interesting things, but I’m not special enough yet to be offered free transportation so I don’t go to a goddamn thing. I hate going places because the outside world is unpredictable, so I try not to go anywhere. The cat voted me Most Important Person in This Living Room and that’s enough for me."

Here she talks about the difference between the earlier edition of Meaty and the new edition from Vintage: "My first book didn’t have a copy editor. And that was fine because it was an indie press with a shoestring budget and the whole thing felt very cool and DIY when we were putting the book together. But this time around I had an editor and a copy editor and a marketing team and lawyers had to look over it, and that was the most excruciating process I’ve ever been through."

Samantha Irby lives in Kalamazoo and writes a popular blog called Bitches Gotta Eat. Meaty has been optioned by FX Studios to be developed into a show based on Irby’s life.

Monday, May 14, 7:00 pm, at Riverside Park Urban Ecology Center, 1500 E Park Place:
Amy and Dave Freeman, author of A Year in the Wilderness: Bearing Witness in the Boundary Waters

Amy and Dave Freeman are biking to DC from Ely, Minnesota in support of their new book and to continue to raise awareness of their efforts to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. They’re stopping in Milwaukee as they take their book and a petition of support over 1,750 miles across the country to the nation’s capital.

On September 23, 2015, Amy and Dave Freeman embarked on a yearlong adventure in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in support of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters to protect the Boundary Waters from sulfide-ore copper mining. They shared their year in the wilderness in their blogs with hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens. This book tells the story of their adventure in northern Minnesota: loons whistling under a moonrise, ice booming as it forms and cracks, a moose and her calf swimming across a misty lake.

With the magic, urgent message that has rallied an international audience to the campaign to save the Boundary Waters, A Year in the Wilderness is a rousing cry of witness activism and a stunning tribute to this singularly beautiful region. This stop on their cross-country trip is being held at the Riverside Park Urban Ecology Center. Admission is pay what you can.

Amy and Dave Freeman's expeditions have taken them over 30,000 miles by canoe, kayak, and dogsled through some of the world's wildest places, from the Amazon to the Arctic. National Geographic named Amy and Dave Adventurers of the Year in 2014 and their images, videos, and articles have been published by the Chicago Tribune, National Geographic, and Minnesota Public Radio.

Monday, May 14, 7:00 pm reception, 7:30 talk, at Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 W Brown Deer Rd in River Hills:
A ticketed event with Allison Pataki, author of Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience

Milwaukee Reads presents Allison Pataki, author of Sisi and The Traitor's Wife, as a part of the Women’s Speaker Series at the Lynden Sculpture Garden. Tickets are $30, $25 for Lynden members, include an autographed copy of her new memoir, Beauty in the Broken Places, and are available at lyndensculpturegarden.org/AllisonPataki-2018 or by phone, at (414) 446-8794. Light refreshments will be offered by MKE Localicious.

Beauty in the Broken Places is a deeply moving memoir about a couple whose lives were changed in the blink of an eye and the love that helped them rewrite their future. Five months pregnant, on a flight to their “babymoon,” Allison Pataki turned to her husband when he asked if his eye looked strange and watched him suddenly lose consciousness. After an emergency landing, she discovered that Dave, a healthy thirty-year-old athlete and surgical resident, had suffered a rare and life-threatening stroke. Next thing Allison knew, she was sitting alone in the ER in Fargo, North Dakota, waiting to hear if her husband would survive the night.

As a way to make sense of the pain and chaos of their new reality, Allison started to write daily letters to Dave. Not only would she work to make sense of the unfathomable experiences unfolding around her, but her letters would provide Dave with the memories he could not make on his own. She was writing to preserve their past, protect their present, and fight for their future. Those letters became the foundation for this beautiful, intimate memoir. And in the process, she fell in love with her husband all over again.

Please note that ticket sales have ending for the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Literary Luncheon with Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels. We hope to have signed copies after the event.

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