Event alert: Timothy Lensmire at Shorewood Public Library tonight 6/19, Josh B. Noel at Good City on Thursday 6/21, Sabaa Tahir 6/22, Cara Black 6/24, John Gurda at Discovery World 6/25 - register for Gurda and Tahir.

Tuesday, June 19, 6:00 pm, at Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N Murray Ave Timothy Lensmire, author of White Folks: Race and Identity in Rural America

White Folks explores the experiences and stories of eight white people from a small farming community in northern Wisconsin. Lensmire grew up in this community and creates a generous but clear-eyed portrait of white folks’ conflicting ideas and feelings about race and who they are, as white people, in America. Lensmire will read from and sign copies of his book.

Here's a little more about White Folks. What does it mean to be white and American? White Folks moves beyond the dominant critical methodologies of examining 'whiteness, ' to conceptualize white people in a way that is unafraid to confront, head on, the violence at the core of white racial selves, but that also that illuminates conflicts and complexities there. The book focuses on the authors' own experience of growing up in a small, rural community in northern Wisconsin, and the stories of people from that community, drawn from a series of in-depth interviews.

Timothy Lensmire is a Professor at University of Minnesota's Department of Curriculum and Instruction. In the author's words, "I explore the possibilities and problems of various critical pedagogies for how they can promote and embody radical democracy; and I explore how white people learn to be white in our white supremacist society."

The sponsors of this event are Shorewood Public Library, the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin, and the Shorewood School District. Please note that Boswell will be on hand to sell books, but supply is limited.

Thursday, June 21, 7:00 pm, at at Good City Brewing, 2108 N Farwell Ave in Milwaukee:
Josh Noel, author of Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out: Goose Island, Anheuser-Busch, and How Craft Beer Became Big Business, in conversation with Good City Brewing’s Andy Jones

Boswell cosponsors an event with Chicago-based Josh Noel, one of the nation’s foremost beer journalists, for his new book, Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out, at Good City Brewing Company. Noel will discuss the state of craft beer and the impact of Goose Island’s history and unprecedented sale to Anheuser-Busch on the beer industry with Goose Island alum and Good City Brewmaster Andy Jones.

Goose Island opened as a family-owned Chicago brewpub in the late 1980s and soon became one of the most inventive breweries in the world. In an age of light, bland, and cheap beer, John and Greg Hall brought European flavors to America. Goose Island became one of the 20 biggest breweries in the United States, an American success story and a champion of craft beer.

Then, the Halls sold the brewery to Anheuser-Busch, maker of the least craft-like beer imaginable. The sale forced the industry to reckon with craft beer’s mainstream popularity which few envisioned. Beer fanatics across the country as the discussion escalated into a craft beer war. From that outcry rises a question: how should a brewery grow?

Josh Noel writes about beer and travel for the Chicago Tribune, has contributed to This American Life and The New York Times, and has won multiple awards from the North American Guild of Beer Writers. Note that both Boswellians Daniel and Jason have read Barrel-Aged Stout and both thought Noel did a great job.

Friday, June 22, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Sabaa Tahir, author of A Reaper at the Gates, now in conversation with Boswell's Jenny Chou

Boswell is so excited to be part of the tour for Sabaa Tahir’s A Reaper at the Gates, the third volume of The Ember Quartet. This event will be free but registration is required at tahir.bpt.me. Registration gets you better an earlier line letter, and trading up to the book with ticket package offers a shot at reserved searing. Please note that VIP tickets to this event are sold out.

Here’s more about the latest book from Boswellian Jen Steele: “Laia, Elias, and Helene all have a path they are meant to follow and straying from it might lead to grim consequences. With enemies lurking at every turn, Laia of Serra must find the strength to prevent the Nightbringer's destruction of her people and the world. Helene, the Blood Shirke, must persevere through the ongoing threats, not only from the Emperor himself, but from the deadly Commandant in order to protect her family and the Empire itself. As much as Elias loves Laia and wants to protect her, it may not be within his power. Can Elias fulfill his new duties as Soul Catcher without sacrificing all it means to love and be human? A Reaper at the Gates will keep you on the edge of your seat 'til the very end! You will not want to put this book down. I know I didn't.”

Not enough enthusiasm? Here's a review from Boswellian Jenny Chou, who will be in conversation with Tahir for the event: "My first thought after finishing A Reaper at the Gates: Not sure how I will go about my day in this world when my heart is still with Laia, Elias, and Helene in theirs. The stories of the three main characters are tightly intertwined, and each can only survive at the demise of the others. And yet none are willing to sacrifice love, and so they struggle to find another way and a shred of hope. But war is looming, and tough choices must be made. Brilliantly plotted, this YA fantasy will satisfy long-time fans and if you haven't started the series yet, snap up the first volume, An Ember in the Ashes, and spend the summer (or one really intense weekend) reading all three!!"

Sunday, June 24, 3:00 pm, at Boswell:
Cara Black, author of Murder on the Left Bank, cosponsored by Alliance Française de Milwaukee

Milwaukee loves Cara Black and loves Paris, too, so Black is returning to Boswell with the 18th mystery in her Parisian detective series full of local color and French culture, an atmospheric thriller with a savvy take on international arms dealing. Cosponsored by Alliance Française de Milwaukee and Crimespree Magazine.

A confession fifty years in the making puts everyone’s favorite Parisian détéctive très chic, Aimée Leduc, on a collision course with the Black Hand, a cabal of corrupt Parisian cops, among whose ranks her disgraced father may have once found membership. When a friend’s child is kidnapped while wearing her daughter’s hoodie, Aimée realizes that the case has crossed into the realm of the personal in more ways than one.

Early reviews on Murder on the Left Bank are great. Publishers Weekly wrote: "Once again Black combines a twist-filled mystery with a convincing look at the culture and politics of the City of Lights" And Booklist offers this take: "For longtime Aimée fans - and are there any other kind, really? - this episode is particularly poignant, both for the backstory it reveals and what it suggests about the future."

Lee Child calls Black’s chic computer-hacker-turned-criminal-investigator Aimée Leduc “one of the very best heroines in crime fiction today!”

Cara Black is the author of eighteen books in The New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco and visits Paris frequently.

Monday, June 25, 7:00 pm, at Discovery World Pilot House, 500 N. Harbor Drive:
John Gurda, author of Milwaukee: A City Built on Water

Update: Please note this event is sold out. We're at capacity for this event. Gurda will be doing additional events for Milwaukee: A City Built on Water over the next several months.

Milwaukee’s preeminent historian makes his first public appearance with his latest book, Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, which expands upon his popular PBS Milwaukee documentary to relate the mucky history of the waters that gave Milwaukee life. Boswell is cosponsoring this event, and registration is required for attendance, by emailing whspress@wisconsinhistory.org or calling (608) 264-6465. Doors open 6:30 pm. We're going to double check this morning to see if the event is full and update the blog and website if it is.

Telling tales of brewers, brickmakers, ecologists, and engineers, Gurda explores the city’s complicated connection with its most precious resource and greatest challenge. Generations of people, from a Potawatomi chief to fur traders and fishermen, settled on the small spit of land known as Jones Island. Learn how Milwaukee’s unique water composition creates its distinct cream-colored bricks, visit Wisconsin’s first waterparks, and see how city leaders transformed the Milwaukee River, once described as a “vast sewer” with an “odorous tide,” into today’s lively and lovely Riverwalk.

John Gurda is a Milwaukee-born writer who has been studying his hometown since 1972. He is the author of twenty-one books, including histories of Milwaukee-area neighborhoods, churches, and industries. He is also a photographer, lecturer, regular contributor to Milwaukee PBS's Around the Corner with John McGivern, and local history columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Gurda is an eight-time winner of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Award of Merit.