Events this week: David Krugler, Great American Read, Amber Tamblyn

Tuesday, July 10, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
David Krugler, author of Rip the Angels from Heaven

Cosponsored by Crimespree Magazine, David Krugler, Professor of History at UW-Platteville, brings to Boswell Rip the Angels from Heaven, his novel of American and Soviet espionage at the end of World War II. In this thrilling sequel to The Dead Don’t Bleed, intelligence officer Ellis Voigt fights to prevent the Soviets from infiltrating the Manhattan Project while running from enemies on both sides.

Washington, DC, 1945. Lieutenant Ellis Voigt of the Office of Naval Intelligence is desperate to keep his secrets and escape a web of double-agents and undercover spies who follow his every move. The FBI suspects he is the communist who murdered a Naval officer in a Washington back alley. The Soviets believe he’s holding back information from their contacts, and they’re willing to use any means necessary to extract it.

Voigt is sent to New Mexico on a mission to identify a Soviet spy, tailed by the FBI and the Russians, and he’s running out of people he can trust. As the team at Los Alamos prepares to test an atomic bomb in the desert, Voigt faces the dilemma he’d been trying to avoid: he can keep the bomb out of Soviet hands, or he can save himself, but he might not be able to do both.

Wednesday, July 11, 2:00 pm, at Boswell:
The Great American Read, with Daniel Goldin in conversation with PBS's Bethan Latham by Skype

Boswell goes behind the scenes of The Great American Read, an eight-part PBS series exploring the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels. The event features a conversation between Boswell’s Daniel Goldin and a Milwaukee PBS representative about the program and how the country’s favorite books were chosen. Light refreshments will be served.

Please register to attend this event at GreatAmericanMKE.bpt.me. The first 40 people to register and attend will receive a $5 gift card to use on a Great American Read book.

The Great American Read investigates how and why writers create their fictional worlds, how we as readers are affected by these stories, and what these 100 different books have to say about our diverse nation and our shared human experience. With entertaining and informative documentary segments, and compelling testimonials from celebrities, authors, notable Americans, and book lovers across the country, the series is the centerpiece of an ambitious multi-platform digital, educational and community outreach campaign, designed to get the country reading and passionately talking about books.

As the Project Director for PBS’s The Great American Read, Bethany Latham interfaces with internal and external stakeholders to create a cohesive multi-platform media initiative. Prior to joining PBS, Latham held programming & production positions at the Travel Channel as well as communications and partnership development positions at a variety of non-profits including the Ocean Conservancy and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She holds a master’s degree in producing for film and video from American University and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in public relations and journalism from Towson University. A bookworm from an early age, she is thrilled to share her passion and love for the written word with others through The Great American Read.

Friday, July 13, 6:00 pm, at Boswell:
Amber Tamblyn, author of Any Man, with opening reader Bianca Brummell

Multitalented actor, poet, and now novelist Amber Tamblyn visits Boswell with her debut novel, the blazingly original Any Man, which brings to startling life a specter of sexual violence in the shadowy form of Maude, a serial female rapist who preys on men. Please note this event’s earlier-than-usual start time, scheduled for those who also wish to attend David Cross’s 8:00 pm performance at the Pabst Theater.

This event is free, but registration is required to attend. Please register at tamblyn.bpt.me. Attendees must purchase a copy of Tamblyn's novel Any Man to join the signing line.

In this electric and provocative debut novel, Tamblyn blends poetry, prose, and suspense, mapping the destructive ways society perpetuates rape culture. A violent serial rapist hunts for men at bars, online, at home. Her victims suffer doubt from the police, feelings of shame and alienation, and the haunting of a horrible woman who becomes the phantom on which society projects its greatest fears, fascinations, and even misogyny. All the while the police are without leads and the media hounds the victims, publicly dissecting the details of their attack. As years pass these men learn to heal, by banding together and finding a space to raise their voices.

Here's a recommendation of Any Man from Boswell's Chris Lee: Tamblyn's tale of a hideous woman sexually assaulting men is a surefire conversation-starter. Told through journal entries, letters to the editor, radio transcripts, OKCupid messages, drawings, and tweets, the book captures the nightmarish swirl of media and gossip, blame and doubt that spins around assault. The book has earned praise for the way it confronts rape culture in America, and rightfully so, but perhaps most impressive to me is the way this novel understands and presents each survivors' detachment after their attack - their detachment from language and meaning, from their physicality, from the space they occupy in the world. For these survivors, the facts of their body have been violently rearranged. Any Man packs an intense emotional punch that lingers long enough to change the way you think.

Amber Tamblyn, author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Dark Sparkler, has been nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit awards. She has published two additional books of poetry, Free Stallion, which won the Borders Book Choice Award for Breakout Writing, and Bang Ditto. Tamblyn is poet in residence at Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls and a contributing writer for The New York Times.

Keep up with our complete upcoming events schedule.