December 31 is Lillian Boxfish Day

Those of you who shop at Boswell, or subscribe to Boswell's email newsletter, or follow Boswell on social media, know that a number of us are fans of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. This was one of Jane's favorite books in 2017 and definitely her favorite paperback to hand-sell in 2018. While it sold quite respectably in hardcover, it definitely had not reached its potential, and working with Kathleen Rooney to do some book club talks at area libraries in late spring definitely helped jump-start renewed enthusiasm. Jane and I made a vow that we would sell 200 copies of the book and while we actually did achieve that goal if you include the hardcovers, I really think our goal was 200 paperbacks. Hey, we got to 185 copies and there's one day left. Can this blog sell 15 copies at Boswell in one day? Probably not, but I'm writing it anyway.

This "let's sell x many copies of this" is something I've done since the Harry W. Schwartz days when we had a bunch of reads on the same book that wasn't exactly exploding in the national marketplace, like Linda Olsson's Astrid and Veronika or was selling but not at bestseller levels, like Nicole Krauss's The History of Love. A lot of this energy came from our old Schwartz marketing person Nancy, who is now at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center. If she were a bookseller, she would be leading the charge for Lillian, which at least as of September, was still her favorite book she read in 2018. I haven't had a final update. In fact, she's still sending folks to Boswell to buy the book.

Why is December 31 Lillian Boxfish Day? New Year's Eve 1984 is when Lillian sets out for dinner at Delmonico's Steak House and winds up taking a ten-mile walk around Manhattan. It's a flâneuse novel, as Jane would say, a contemporary take on stories of women walking. We've actually been keeping copies of Lauren Elkin's Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London next to Lillian on our book club table. It actually had a nice paperback Christmas this year, and we're #4 in Treeline sales - that's the inventory service where we can compare our sales against other unnamed independent bookstores. By the way, we're #5 for Lillian, and that's pretty good, because we're neither in the city where the book takes place (New York) or where the author lives (Chicago). But the key here is that the contemporary thread of the story takes place in one night.

Lillian's walk is the framing device for a historical novel, which reaches back to 1920s New York. And if you know anything about the book, it's based on the life of Margaret Fishback, considered the most prominent woman in advertising at the time. She made her mark at Macy's in New York, and then went on to successfully freelance. Don't get her confused with the other Macy's copywriter, Bernice Fitz-Gibbon. Fishback was also known for her light verse - the Ogden Nash of her day, so to speak, and published four books of poetry. She also wrote one etiquette guide and a parenting manual. Here's a Poetry Foundation link. Rooney decided to change Margaret Fishback to Lillian Boxfish because the 1980s part of the story is completely made up, but the historical part is straight from the Fishback archive at Duke.

When I think about Lillian Boxfish Day, I think about Bloomsday, which is celebrated on June 16, especially in Dublin, and commemorates the day that James Joyce's Ulysses takes place. I believe that Webster's Books (which was in our space in the 1980s) celebrated it and particularly after we closed, there was one bus driver who would ask me why Schwartz did not celebrate Bloomsday. I did not have an answer for him. You'd think this would stop after one conversation but they did not, and I eventually started avoiding his bus routes. I guess he'd be sad to know that we only sold two copies of Ulysses in 2018, though we sold more in 2017. Or that I I've never read Ulysses, though I did finish both Dubliners and A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Both were school reading.

The starred Booklist review of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk itself had some sparkling sentences: " Her delectably theatrical fictionalization is laced with strands of tart poetry and emulates the dark sparkle of Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Truman Capote. Effervescent with verve, wit, and heart, Rooney's nimble novel celebrates insouciance, creativity, chance, and valor." And here's the Chicago Tribune review from Beth Kephart.

So what is it about Lilllian that has struck a nerve? Somebody asked me, "Will you still like the book if you're not a fan of New York novels?" Of course, desperate to sell it, I said yes. Boxfish is a powerful character in her own right, a proto-feminist who must learn to adapt to changing times. There is also the Man Called Ove "don't be afraid of different-ness and change" that weaves through the contemporary story. But really, it is a New York novel and it reminds me of many times taking long walks in New York. And of course it is a department store novel, and I am known to like these sorts of things. I did, after all, buy a copy and read the recent Thank You for Shopping: The Golden Age of Minnesota Department Stores cover to cover.

I really didn't think about this initially, but I've been contemplating the hold that Lillian has on me, and I would note that there's been a Lillian in my life who also loved to take long walks in Manhattan. Not only that, but in her twenties, she worked in a small advertising agency, and then at Grey Advertising, which still exists as a division of WPP. The fact that they are even still using the name, when so many others have disappeared, is shocking to me. My mom talked about working at the ad agencies well into her eighties - it was a memorable time in her life, I guess, because it might have been the first time that she had a modicum of independence. She didn't write poetry or ad copy, but it is said she wrote wonderful letters, and sometimes I think there was untapped potential in her ability. Our Lillian went back to college and then grad school after I was born and wound up teaching in the New York  City public school system. She died in April without being able to read Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. But I think she would have liked it.

So happy Lillian Boxfish Day to you. Boswell is open 10 am to 5 pm on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We open late on Friday, January 4 (approximately Noon) for our annual inventory, and then it's regular hours for the foreseeable future.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 29, 2018

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 29, 2018

Hardcover Fiction:
1. There There, by Tommy Orange
2. Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny
3. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
4. Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
6. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
7. The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
8. My Sister the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite
9. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
10. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson

I am pretty sure that I've never been in a situation where I've read 8 of our 10 hardcover fiction bestsellers (as well as #11, Tayari Jones's An American Marriage), but I'd like to do one better and say I read 9, so I just started The Overstory. Don't think that we're selling them because I read them, but more than I'm reading books that we're more likely to sell - in the case of Transcription and My Sister the Serial Killer, I read the books because customers (and in the latter case booksellers) were talking about the titles. How could I pass up a book that showed up on the top ten of both Jim Higgins and Carole E. Barrowman? If you look at the ABA's Midwest Bestseller List (compiled from stores in the MIBA and GLIBA sales regions - we're on the border - you'll see a lot of overlap and recognize most other titles from previous weeks. The weakest title for us in their top ten was The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawka (and sales there were still respectable) - I bought a copy, hoping to get into it, but it didn't click with me at the time. Maybe later!

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
2. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
3. The Making of Milwaukee fourth edition, by John Gurda
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. Gmorning Gnight, by Lin-Manuel Miranda
6. Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight
7. Lets Go (So We Can Get Back), by Jeff Tweedy
8. These Truths, by Jill Lepore
9. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
10. Ottolenghi Simple, by Yotam Ottolenghi

As we see books coming back into stock (we got a shipment of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that quickly were allocated to special orders - we don't really have copies for general sale, and no, we don't have Ottolenghi Simple either), there could be some changes in the lists but it feels like new releases start up later than they used to. There was a time where we'd see a fresh shipment of books in early January, but it appears that the first major pub date in the new year is January 15. Not worth looking at the Midwest list when the top ten is filled with The Great Minnesota Cookie Book*, but even on the national indie bestsellers, there are books that didn't pop as well for us as they did in other stores. I was particular surprised to see The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck at #3 on the national lists - the book sells steadily for us but it's been quite a while since we sold it in quantity.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney
2. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
3. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
4. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
5. The Milkman, by Anna Burns
6. The Drifter, by Nick Petrie (both paperback editions)
7. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
8. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
9. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante (both paperback editions)
10. Light It Up, by Nick Petrie (both paperback editions)

If we combine the regular and movie-tie-in editions of books for bestseller numbers, it sort of makes sense that we would also look at trade and mass market editions of a book together as one paperback listing. Our mass market sales are minimal, confined mostly to classics, cozies, and school adoption. We did, however, decide to stock both editions of Nick Petrie's thrillers, partly because Chris has a fondness for the format as well as the author's books, and that gave us two Petrie books in the top ten, with The Drifter for the second week running, and Light It Up, his newest, making an appearance as well. It's hard to cite, but Apple Books named Light It Up the thriller of the year. And yes, Nick's at Boswell for his next book, Tear It Down, on Monday, January 14, 7 pm, in conversation with Bonnie North.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
2. Call Them By Their True Names, by Rebecca Solnit
3. The Cooking Gene, by Michael Twitty (event at MPL Mitchell Street Branch, Mon Feb 18, 6:30 pm)
4. A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas
5. We Were Eight Years in Power, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
7. The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
8. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
9. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
10. The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, by Stephen Greenblatt

Post-Christmas, the list gets substantially issue-ier and less regional-ish. One thing I noticed during the holiday season is that happy was in, probably signified best the nostalgic hunger for Becoming. One book that doesn't necessarily take a stand (though I'm sure some gift receivers would like it more than others) is Stephen Greenblatt's The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, an unusual December paperback release. The book did not sell the way we hoped in hardcover but maybe will find its audience now. Reviews were mostly strong, but there was one pan from Marilynne Robinson in The New York Times Book Review, a review organ that generally balances bad reviews elsewhere with relatively positive ones from peers. But Robinson is not a peer - she's a fiction writer, albeit with strong views on the subject, who probably doesn't worry about retribution on a later book.

Books for Kids:
1. Brawl of the Wild V6 Dog Man, by Dav Pilkey
2. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
3. Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
4. P Is for Pterodactyl, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter, with illustrations by Maria Beddia
5. Metldown V13 Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
6. Crimes of Grindelwald V2 Fantastic Beasts, by JK Rowling
7. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
8. Winter Is Here, by Kevin Henkes, with illustrations by Laura Dronzek
9. National Parks of the USA, by Kate Siber, with illustrations by Chris Turnham
10. Dinosaur, a photicular book from Dan Kainen

Sales are up for Dog Man's latest, Brawl of the Wild. It turns out that releasing a book on December 24 helps a retailer a lot more than releasing a book on December 25 (which is when the last Dog Man December release was). On the other hand, we're feeling a slowdown of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with Meltdown with a 20% drop in first-season sales for Meltdown over the last two. It could well be an anomaly or a particularly strong marketing push from another retailer or website, or perhaps it's a trend. On the other hand, sales for Dan Kainen's Dinosaur, though not at levels we were seeing five years ago for these photicular titles, are more than double what we sold for the last year's Wild. You know kids and dinosaurs!

Over at the Journal Sentinel
--Jim Higgins finds useful tips in Martha Stewart's The Martha Manual: How to Do (Almost) Everything. You can read this story here
--Oline H. Codgill reviews Val McDermid's Broken Ground, originally from the Associated Press
--Patty Rhule from USA Today finds a purl or two in Ann Hood's Knitting Yarns.

Have a bestselling 2019!

*Our regional equivalent of this Minnesota cookie book is given out free by We Energies at Miller Park and other locations throughout the state. Maybe they will look at this success and do an omnibus trade edition for fall 2019.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 22, 2018

Our holiday hours: We stay open late Sunday, December 23, until 8 pm. We open at 9 am on December 24 and close at 5 pm. We're closed Christmas day.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. There There, by Tommy Orange
3. Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny
4. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
5. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
6. The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
7. The Witch Elm, by Tana French
8. Dear Mrs. Bird, by AJ Pearce
9. Circe, by Madeline Miller
10. Fire and Blood, by George RR Martin
11. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
12. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
13. The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez
14. Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
15. Killing Commendatore, by Haruki Murakami

We haven't discussed yet the holiday resurgence of Madeline Miller. Despite publishing in April (where the book hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list), Circe's best month at Boswell has been December and this has also led to a resurgence in Song of Achilles, which, unlike Circe, we still have in stock, which has been back in our top 10 paperbacks. Lots of bookseller reads (including being one of Jason's favorite novels), and a lot of warm feelings from spring readers who decided to give the books as gifts. Modern Mary Renaults, one reader called them to me. Isn't it interesting how more than half our hardcover fiction bestsellers are not published fourth quarter?

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
2. Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, by John Gurda
3. Educated, by Tara Westover
4. The Making of Milwaukee 4th edition, by John Gurda
5. You Can't Spell Truth without Ruth, edited by Mary Zaia
6. Gmorning Gnight, by Lin-Manuel Miranda
7. Calypso, by David Sedaris
8. Whose Boat Is This Boat, by Stephen Colbert
9. Frederick Douglass, by David W. Blight
10. Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts
11. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Jane De Hart
12. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
13. Almost Everything, by Anne Lamott
14. The Beastie Boys Book, by Michael Diamond
15. These Truths, by Jill Lepore

At one point on Friday, I asked us to move Whose Boat Is This Boat? to the counter because three folks came and asked for it and I was running back and fourth to the humor section. Not an issue now, as we've sold out. We had an initial pop and then it was slow, until the weekend. Lots of impulse titles selling this week, including Mary Zaia's collection of Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes. But for those who want something more series Jane De Hart's bio, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is one of the big three, selling along with Frederick Douglas and Churchill: Walking with Destiny. Simon got that reprint out for David Blight's biography just under the wire and we're grateful. It's top ten for the year for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time. And we have stock - at least on Sunday morning.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney
2. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
3. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
4. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
5. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
6. The Drifter (both paperback editions), by Nick Petrie
7. One Day in December, by Josie Silver
8. The Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
9. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
10. The Milkman, by Anna Burns
11. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
12. Hope Never Dies, by Andrew Shaffer
13. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
14. The Fifth Season V1: Broken Earth, by NK Jemisin
15. Best American Short Stories, edited by Roxane Gay

I've been telling people that December 31 is Lillian Boxfish day, sort of a mini-Bloomsbury. That's the day in Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk when our hero goes out for New Year's dinner at Delmonico's and winds up taking a ten-mile walk that takes her back through her whole life. There might be a blog about this later this week.

Speaking of books that focus on one day in December, One Day in December by Josie Silver makes its first appearance here, after solidifying its place on the national bestseller list. It's a Reese Witherspoon book club selection and it also has a staff rec from Boswellian Rose Camara, who wrote: "It's not a typical boy-meets-girl story because Silver left me with lessons on honesty, self-cultivation, and a belief that love exists. Love, for the characters of this book, reminded me that love of self, family, friends, and a partner all influence life and fate - not to mention it's very fitting for the holiday season."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
2. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
3. The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
4. From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City, by Carl Baehr
5. Prairie Fires, by Caroline Fraser
6. The Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee, by Thomas H Fehring
7. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
8. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
9. Call Them by Their True Names, by Rebecca Solnit
10. Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
11. Janesville, by Amy Goldstein
12. Anxiety Journal, by Corinne Sweet (Hmmm...have to figure out how journalish this is for the list)
13. Milwaukee Ghosts and Legends, by Anna Lardinois
14. Hillbilly Elegy, by JD Vance
15. You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero

It's not a regional book (sort of) and it's not an issue book (kind of). It's fascinating to see Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder having a good Christmas in paperback. For one thing, it did win the Pultizer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and was named one of The New York Times ten best books of 2017. For another thing, it had stock issues in hardcover. But it's $22 and 656 pages and most traditional  biographies live their best lives in hardcover. So cheers for Caroline Fraser overcoming the odds.

Books for Kids:
1. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
2. National Parks of the USA, by Kate Siber, with illustrations by Chris Turnham
3. Atlas Obscura's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid, by Dylan Thuras and Rosemary Mosco
4. Anthology of Intriguing Animals, from DK
5. Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
6. P Is for Pterodactyl, by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter, with illustrations by Maria Tina Beddia
7. Baby Monkey Private Eye, by Brian Selznick
8. Meltdown V13 Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
9. Hush Hush Forest, by Mary Casanova, with illustrations by Nick Wroblewski
10. Penguin Problems board book, by John Jory, with illustrations by Lane Smith
11. Winter Dance board book, by Marion Dane Bauer, with illustrations by Richard Jones
12. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
13. The Snowy Nap, by Jan Brett
14. A Is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara
15. Swirl by Swirl board book, by Joyce Sidman, with illustrations by Beth Krommes

Look how board book heavy the list has become in holiday time. A full five titles have bite-resistant pages and several others skew at the young end of picture book. Most are adapted from picture books. One national bestseller that had a pop in sales this week at Boswell (and might have a future as a board book) is P Is for Pterodactyl, from Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter with illustrations by Maria Tina Beddia. Haldar AKA the rapper Lushlife, uses silent letters and homophones to confound the normal alphabet book reader. I'm told its also great for ESL students.

From the Journal Sentinel:
--Jocelyn McClurg profiles Louise Penny for Kingdom of the Blind, originally from USA Today
--Alicia Rancilio looks at Joanna Gaines and her influence in Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave. If you're wondering why about two years ago, every woman on House Hunters started asking for a white kitchen, you're got your answer here. The Associated Press carried this story.

Off to work! We'll see what we have left to sell.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 15, 2018

Here are the Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 15, 2018.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
2. The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
3. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan (signed copies available)
4. Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny (just got signed copies in - they will go fast)
5. There There, by Tommy Orange (just ran out of signed copies)
6. Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
7. The Witch Elm, by Tana French
8. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai (signed copies available)
9. The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez
10. My Sister the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite
11. Circe, by Madeline Miller
12. Dear Mrs. Bird, by AJ Pearce
13. Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
14. American Marriage, by Tayari Jones (I think we're out of signed copies)
15. The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin (signed copies available)

Chicken and egg question - does my reading more than half the books on this top 15 mean that my reading has influence, or is Boswell the kind of store where I want to read the books we sell? Who's to know? But I'd still like to read both The Overstory and Washington Black by the end of the year. The odds seem unlikely, but that's why people have best-laid-plans stacks of books by their bedside. I wish I could go back to tabulate the Harry W. Schwartz Bestseller lists from 1985 to be sure, but since I was tabulating the lists at Schwartz by 1988 when his second novel came out, I can say with certainty that Richard Powers never had a hit like The Overstory and probably never hit one on our bestseller list, even when he won the National Book Award for The Echo Maker. It's not just #1 - it's 50% ahead of #2. Sam Jordison writes about The Overstory in a recent piece in The Guardian.

Hardcover Nonfiction
1. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
2. Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, by John Gurda
3. The Making of Milwaukee 4e, by John Gurda
4. Educated, by Tara Westover
5. Gmorning Gnight, by Lin-Manuel Miranda
6. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
7. Ottolenghi Simple, by Yotam Ottolenghi
8. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, by Jane De Hart
9. Leadership, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
10. Let's Go (So We Can Get Back), by Jeff Tweedy
11. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
12. Sister Pie, by Lisa Ludwinski
13. Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts
14. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
15. Almost Everything, by Anne Lamott

One Obama replaces another - last year Pete Souza's Obama was on top of our bestseller list for this week. And talk about domination - Becoming sold at the rate of five times what our second best-non-event book recorded, which was Educated, which might have gotten a little boost when Michelle Obama said that's what she was reading. We haven't had a book with this kind of holiday traction since 2015, when Gurda's Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods came out, and that was both regional and limited by a lack of online supply. I actually went through our bestsellers since 2009 and it's definitive - this is a phenomenon we haven't seen in fiction or nonfiction since we've been open. OK, the opening week of Go Set a Watchman. But by the second week, it was down to good but not record-breaking levels. I'm not going to discuss kids, because I haven't done a thorough Potter investigation.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Nothing to Lose, by Kim Suhr
2. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
3. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
4. Best American Short Stories 2018, edited by Roxane Gay
5. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
6. Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
7. Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee
8. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
9. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney
10. The Milkman, by Anna Burns
11. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
12. Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
13. Hope Never Dies V1, by Andrew Shaffer
14. The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
15. The Color of The Sun, by Douglas Armstrong

There were years when the Man Booker Prize (or perhaps it was then The Booker Prize) didn't sell, but despite a more traditional pick (not American) from an independent press (Graywolf), Anna Burns's The Milkman charted both nationally and at Boswell. I also don't remember seeing advance copies, but the one we got probably went into someone's box. Ron Charles in The Washington Post notes that it is one of the most challenging books of the year, with unnamed characters in an unnamed place, though likely Belfast in the 1970s.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. 100 Things Bucks Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, by Eric Nehm
2. From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City, by Carl Baehr
3. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
4. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
5. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
6. Call Them by Their True Names, by Rebecca Solnit
7. Countries of the World in Minutes, by Jacob F. Field
8. Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
9. Magnificent Machines of Milwaukee, by Thomas H. Fehring
10. The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein

When you look at books like Sapiens, Evicted, and Killers of the Flower Moon, you see books that had a good hardcover run that exploded even more in paperback. I only see one sure thing that's likely to have years of bestseller sales, no matter how long they wait in hardcover, and that would be Educated. But one book that is a paperback original that's now had two weeks on our list is Countries of the World in Minutes. Cambridge research associate Fields's book comes out from Quercus, once an UK indie with an American division but now a subsidiary of Hachette with everything coming out of the UK. From the publisher: "For each of the 195 officially recognis(z)ed countries of the world, a mini-essay clearly and concisely explains its key history, characteristics and social and political structures. Alongside, an outline map shows each country's global location, main geographic features and capital city, whilst (while) a table of essential data details its population, political system, languages, major religions, currency, gross domestic product, main industries, and much more."

Books for Kids:
1. Tomorrow I'll Be Brave, by Jessica Hische
2. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
3. National Parks of the USA, by Kate Siber (we're #3 on Treeline for this book, despite not being near a national park!)
4. Winter Is Here, by Kevin Henkes, with illustrations by Laura Dronzek (signed copies still available)
5. Chomp Goes the Alligator, by Matthew Van Fleet
6. Anthology of Intriguing Animals, from DK Publishing
7. Atlas Obscura's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid, by Dylan Thuras and Rosemary Mosco
8. The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo
9. The Wall in the Middle of the Book, by Jon Agee (I think we ran out of signed copies on this one!)
10. Carmela Full of Wishes, by Matt de la Peña, with illustrations by Christian Robinson (also signed copies)
11. Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson
12. There's a Dinosaur on the 13th Floor, by Wade Bradford, with illustrations by Kevin Hawkes
13. A Parade of Elephants, by Kevin Henkes (also signed copies)
14. Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales
15. Into the Forest, by Laura Baker

Sales are skewing particularly young for the holidays, with just two novels for older readers - Harbor Me and The Poet X, which is likely getting crossover adult action with its National Book Award win and a week's worth of signed copies. No more alas. One of Barb's picks, There's a Dinosaur on the 13th Floor, about a gentleman named Mr. Snore who is shown to various hotel rooms, only to encounter animal adversaries. Publishers Weekly notes: "The bellhop’s unflappability comically contrasts the hotel guest’s escalating exasperation as they climb the stairs to one room after another, encountering dangling spiders, giraffes, and a mazelike hamster colony." It's A Gentleman in Moscow for little ones.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins and Carole E. Barrowman pick their best books for 2018.

From Higgins:
Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, by Alec Nevala-Lee
The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War, by Joanne B. Freeman
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce, by Colm Tóibín
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, by Michelle Dean
My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite
There There, by Tommy Orange
Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, by John Gurda

From Barrowman:
A Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier
The Line That Held Us, by David Joy
The Cabin at The End of the World, by Paul Tremblay
My Sister, The Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite
November Road, by Lou Berney.
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
The Disappearing, by Lori Roy
The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd
Tangerine, by Christine Mangan
Leave No Trace, by Mindy Mejia

Follow the links to read more about each book. How about that tonal similarity of The Calculating Stars and The Book of M.

Limited supply of signed copies available.

Can I talk a little more about Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers?

It's hard to choose a favorite book for the year, though I have to say that while I read a lot of nonfiction titles in 2018, and some of them were terrific, all my contenders are novels. First there was Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists, which I first read back in March 2017. By the time the book came out, I had to read it again. Then there was Liam Callan's Paris by the Book, which has been a joy to sell, and sort of was nine years in the making, since I first started working with Liam in 2009*. We've just heard that the advance orders for the paperback are very good - how cool is that?

My underdog book for 2018 is definitely Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir. It's been a Boswell team effort, but we're hard pressed to find another bookstore whom we can compete with to sell the most books! Our flyover country book is Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger, which I call the best book about small-town Wisconsin published this year, only it's set in small-town Minnesota. In a way, the perfect book to hand-sell is Daniel Mason's The Winter Soldier, being it's incredibly well-written, but doesn't have the time shifting and multiple perspectives I generally love that nonetheless throw off traditional readers. I would have to say my favorite mystery/thriller for 2018 was Nick Petrie's Light It Up, and I never thought I'd pick a book that wasn't a stand-alone or first in a series for this slot. The most powerful book I read is There, There, by Tommy Orange, but while I'm blown away by the book, it's got a coolness that says "Admire me" more than "Love me." By the way, Barbara Bush Pierce's favorite novel of 2018 was There, There. If you want to know Jenna Hager Bush's top pick was Tayari Jones's An American Marriage, which was also a must-read novel for me. If you loved it, go back and read Silver Sparrow.

 As much as I loved being the champion of the underdog for 2017 with Don Lee's Lonesome Lies Before Us, and I continue to stand by that book's greatness, and I hope that Norton still decides to do a paperback edition, it's fun to be excited about a book that has so much love being thrown at it, so I decided my favorite book of 2018 is The Great Believers.  We've hosted Makkai for every book since 2011's The Borrower, and it's so exciting to see how her reputation has grown for each book. Short-listed for the National Book Award, named one of the ten-best books of the year by The New York Times (and that makes it one of the five best fiction books, being that they mix fiction and nonfiction together) and who knows what else. But this might not be the accolade that most impacted at me.

Let me digress and mention that my favorite television show of the 2017-2018 season was a sitcom called Great News, which got cancelled after two seasons. It's about Katie (Briga Heelan) a producer at a soft news magazine show, whose mother Carol (Andrea Martin) becomes the intern at the magazine. It's got a 30 Rock vibe, being that it's from Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, and I'm sad to say when I talk about it to most people, they never saw it. I watched it in first run and then I subscribed to Netflix just so I could watch it again. Perhaps it's greatest achievement was that it made me fall in love with Nicole Richie. I have now watched the episode "Love Is Dead" three times, and I know that more will come.

Andrea Martin was one of the regulars on SCTV, but her greatest success has come from Broadway, where she's won numerous accolades. So when she wrote up her thoughts on The Great Believers in The Wall Street Journal and the impact it had on her, I got teary. Then I read it to a fellow bookseller and they got teary. It's that kind of book. I know that WSJ is paywalled, but if you can find a way to read this article, it's fascinating, just for the reading list of Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally - so glad to hear Megan finally read Stoner!

From Martin: "When I picked up Rebecca Makkai’s beautiful, tender, harrowing novel The Great Believers, I knew it was going to be sad. But I didn’t imagine it would unravel me. It is a vivid, passionate, heart-wrenching story about the AIDS crisis in Chicago between 1985 and 1992, the devastation of young lives lost and of profound friendships forged in the face of inexplicable dying."

It might be the holiday season, but that didn't stop me from taking a few hours to drive to Illinois so that Makkai could sign more books for us. We have a limited supply and the author added a big orange heart to her signature, which seemed for the book, as it's about as big-hearted a book as you can read this year. We also have signed copies of The Immortalists, Paris by the Book, There, There, and Virgil Wander. If you want an interesting tidbit about the book that I learned from the author, it's that there was a version of the jacket in purple tones.

Additional note: Apologies on the misprint of sales info. That was for a different Penguin Group. book. Though I wish it were the case, we have not sold 500 copies of The Great Believers yet.

December doings at Boswell - Kim Suhr's stories, Angela Brintlinger and Thomas Feerick on translating a Russian emigré cookbook, Eric Nehm on the Bucks, Carl Baehr on Irish Milwaukee, and a signing with John Gurda

Here we go! The last week of Boswell events in 2018.

Tuesday, December 11, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Kim Suhr, author of Nothing to Lose: Stories

Wisconsin author and Director of Red Oak Writing debuts her first collection of fiction, Nothing to Lose, from Cornerstone Press of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the second title in the Press’s Legacy Series.

Drawing on the rich complexity of the American Midwest, Kim Suhr peoples her debut book of fiction with characters that we know, carved out of the Wisconsin landscape and caught between expectation and desire.

An Iraq war veteran stalks the streets of Madison. Four drunk friends hunt deer outside Antigo. A mother tries to save her son. A transplanted New Yorker plots revenge against her husband. A man sobers up and opens a paintball range for Jesus. A women with nothing to lose waits for her first kiss. Personal and powerful, Kim Suhr's Nothing to Lose shows us a region filled with real people who are less than perfect, plagued with doubts, and always reaching.

In case you can't make this event, Kim Suhr will also be at Oconomowoc’s Books and Company on Wednesday, December 12, at 7 pm.

Kim Suhr is Director of Red Oak Writing and serves on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Writer’s Association. She holds an MFA from the Solstice Program at Pine Manor College in Boston, where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow in 2013, and her work has appeared in Midwest Review, Stonecoast Road, and Solstice Literary Magazine, and has been featured on WUWM’s Lake Effect. She is author of Maybe I’ll Learn: Snapshots of a Novice Mom.

Wednesday, December 12, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Angela Brintlinger and Thomas Feerick, translators of Russian Cuisine in Exile

Boswell and UWM’s Slavic Languages Program present the translators of Russian Cuisine in Exile, which brings the essays of Pyotr Vail and Alexander Genis, originally written in the mid-1980s, to an English-speaking audience. This is a delicious introduction to Russian culture and the problems of Soviet life, viewed through the experiences and recipes of émigrés.

A must-read for scholars, students, and general readers interested in Russian studies, but also for specialists in émigré literature, mobility studies, popular culture, and food studies, the essays in this book re-imagine the identities of immigrants through their engagement with Russian cuisine.

Beloved by Russians in the U.S., the Russian diaspora across the world, and in post-Soviet Russia, these essays narrate everyday experiences. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book has been translated “not word for word, but smile for smile,” to use the phrase of Vail and Genis’s fellow émigré writer Sergei Dovlatov. Translators Angela Brintlinger and Thomas Feerick have supplied copious authoritative and witty commentaries.

Angela Brintlinger has written, edited, and translated numerous books and articles about Russian literature. She is Professor and Graduate Studies Chair of Slavic and Eastern European Languages and Studies at Ohio State University. Thomas Feerick is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University.

Thursday, December 13, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Eric Nehm, author of 100 Things Bucks Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die

Cohost of the Locked on Bucks podcast and staff writer for The Athletic, Eric Nehm combines his encyclopedic knowledge of Bucks history and his passion for basketball into a list of Bucks fans’ most memorable moments, biggest personalities, and must-do activities.

Milwaukee Bucks fans have seen it all. They know the joy of a championship season and the despair of finishing last in the conference. They’ve welcomed legendary players with open arms and seen future stars slip through their fingers. With half a century of basketball in the books and a talented young core, the Bucks’ history makes a great story, and one that keeps getting better.

From the early years of the Milwaukee Arena to the one-of-a-kind play of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nehm covers everything that makes Bucks Basketball unique. 100 Things Bucks Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die will rekindle the fandom of diehards while introducing new fans to the rich history of the franchise. Loaded with facts, stats and anecdotes, this great new title will bring value to readers of all stripes.

Eric Nehm is a former producer and writer for ESPN Milwaukee, current staff writer for The Athletic, and cohost of the podcast Locked on Bucks.

Friday, December 14, 2:00 pm, at Boswell:
Carl Baehr, author of From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City: A History of the Irish in Milwaukee

Native Milwaukeean and Urban Milwaukee’s City Streets history and culture columnist Baehr discusses how the Irish influenced the political, educational, religious, and sports landscape of Milwaukee and their impact on other ethnic groups, overcoming early poverty and bigotry to help make Milwaukee the city that it is today.

Irish-Milwaukee history begins with the first Irish immigrants who arrived during Milwaukee's founding in the mid-1830s. Irish laborers helped shape the city by cutting down bluffs, filling in marshes, digging a canal, and creating streets. They were joined in the late 1840s by more Irishmen who were fleeing the Great Famine and starvation in Ireland.

It's a history populated with heroic figures like Patrick O'Kelly, the city's first Catholic priest and the founder of Milwaukee's first Catholic church. There was John O'Rourke, the first editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and Timothy O'Brien, who emerged as a hero during the cholera epidemics. Other colorful characters are the scoundrel Robert B. Lynch, kind-hearted Hannah Kenneally, firefighting hero Patsy McLaughlin, and militia leader John McManman.

Carl Baehr is the City Streets columnist for Urban Milwaukee and author of the Gambrinus Prize-winning book Milwaukee Streets: The Stories Behind Their Names.

Saturday, December 15, 2:00 - 3:00 PM, at Boswell:
John Gurda, author of Milwaukee: A City Built on Water and the newest edition of The Making of Milwaukee

John Gurda, Milwaukee’s preeminent historian, will appear at Boswell for a special afternoon book signing. Please note, Gurda will only be signing books at this event. There is no talk or presentation.

An autographed and personalized copy of Milwaukee: A City Built on Water, or the brand new Fourth Edition, including an all new chapter, of The Making of Milwaukee each make the perfect holiday gift for any Milwaukeean, whether they’re brand new to the metro or a lifelong Cream City resident. Boswell will have more of Gurda’s titles available as well.

John Gurda is a Milwaukee-born writer and historian who has been studying his hometown since 1972. His book, The Making of Milwaukee, was the basis for an Emmy Award-winning documentary series that premiered on Milwaukee Public Television in 2006. In addition to his work as an author, Gurda is a lecturer, tour guide, and local history columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

More in 2019! Visit the Boswell upcoming events page.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 8, 2018

What is selling at Boswell?

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Winter Soldier, by Daniel Mason
2. Kingdom of the Blind V14, by Louise Penny
3. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
4. Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. Transcription, by Kate Atkinson
6. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
7. Killing Commendatore, by Haruki Murakami
8. The Witch Elm, by Tana French
9. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
10. The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez

How are author's current books performing, compared to previous works? This is Daniel Mason's first novel since Boswell has been open, I should note that we've probably sold more copies of The Winter Soldier at Boswell than all the Harry W. Schwartz stores sold of The Far Country. I can't say that for The Piano Tuner, which was a big hit at a few of the Schwartz locations.

I'm guessing that the November release of Kingdom of the Blind will not dramatically increase sales for Penny's latest over her previous novel, Glass Houses, at least not at Boswell. And it looks like Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel, Unsheltered, will perform for us somewhere between The Lacuna (2009) and Flight Behavior (2012), the latter of which had sales about double of the former for us. Similarly, Kate Atkinson likely won't hit the heights she had at Boswell for Life After Life (2013), but Transcription is looking to outperform A God in Ruins (2015). In that case, Atkinson did an event at Boswell for Life After Life, so the numbers are not really comparable.

Finally, all comparisons to Richard Powers previous books are thrown out with The Overstory. His last two novels, Generosity (2009) and Orfeo (2014) sold in the single digits, but we're well into the triple digits with his latest, and I can't remember, in all my years at Schwartz, having a Richard Powers novel sell in these kinds of numbers in hardcover. And that includes The Echo Maker, which won the National Book Award.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
2. Conversations with Abner Mikva, by Sanford Horwitt
3. Educated, by Tara Westover
4. You Can't Spell Truth without Ruth, edited by Mara Zaia
5. Ottolenghi Simple, by Yotam Ottolenghi
6. In the Hurricane's Eye, by Nathaniel Philbrick
7. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean
8. These Truths, by Jill Lepore
9. Sister Pie, Lisa Ludwinski
10. Born to Be Posthumous, by Mark Dery

In a way, Michelle Obama is responsible for two books in the top three. She's the author of Becoming  (along with collaborator Sara Corbett, per her acknowledgments) and also mentioned she is reading Educated, after a recommendation from her husband. Now of course Tara Westover's memoir has been a bestseller since its February release and it also was just named ten best by The New York Times, but I'm guess the Obama mention didn't hurt.

When Jason says cookbook's have become more fourth quarter driven, he's not kidding. We have two books in our top ten this week, Yotam Ottolenghi's Ottolenghi Simple and Lisa Ludwinski's Sister Pie, and another at #12, Chinese Soul Food, is Aaron's pick, from Hsiao-Ching Chou. Many of you might not know that Aaron worked at a Chinese restaurant. The author is a former food editor at Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In addition to cooking classes at the Hot Stove Society, she's on the James Beard cookbook committee. Per Publishers Weekly, not a cookbook for vegans: "Chou thickens her fillings not with gelatin but with the natural collagen from simmered pork skin."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Lord of the Butterflies, by Andrea Gibson
2. Colors of The Sun, by Douglas Armstrong
3. The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
4. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman
5. Hotel Silence, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
6. Milkman, by Anna Burns
7. Friday Black, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (In-Store Lit Group, Mon Feb 4, 7 pm, at Boswell)
8. Improvement, by Joan Silber (In-Store Lit Group, Mon Jan 7, 7 pm, at Boswell)
9. Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward
10. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, by Kathleen Rooney

Sometimes I read a book late just to see what makes it tick, and that's why I'm about a third of the way through The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Barbara Spindel at The Christian Science Monitor wrote that the book is " flawed, remarkable, wrenching, moving." She notes that your take on Life Is Beautiful will probably give you a handle on how you'll react to the book, which is currently #1 on The New York Times bestseller list for paperback fiction. Here's another take from Sophie Cohen in The Jewish Chronicle.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Mettle and Honor, by Mark Concannon
2. Countdown to Pearl Harbor, by Steve Twomey
3. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
4. The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
5. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
6. 100 Things Bucks Fan Should Know and Do Before They Die, by Eric Nehm (event Thu Dec 13, 7 pm, at Boswell)
7. Call Them by Their True Names, by Rebecca Solnit
8. Somos Latinas, by Andrea-Teresa Arenas and Eloisa Gómez
9. From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City, by Carl Baehr (event Fri Dec 14, 2 pm, at Boswell)
10. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda (signing Sat Dec 15, 2 pm)

Issues and regional books drive nonfiction paperbacks, as is generally the case - Evicted and Death and Life of the Great Lakes falls into both categories. I know that biography and history bestsellers tend to skew hardcover, but what happened to things like self help and popular memoirs. I should note that our media table (which has both Beautiful Boy and Boy Erased) moves to the back of the bookstore during holiday season. Speaking of it, you can see David and Nic Sheff at Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts on January 11, presented by Elmbrook Schools, REDgen, and Your Choice. Register here.

Books for Kids:
1. Santa Bruce, by Ryan T. Higgins
2. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse with illustrations by Renée Graef
3. Bruce's Big Move, by Ryan T. Higgins
4. Tomorrow I'll Be Brave, by Jessica Hische
5. National Parks of the USA, by Kate Siber
6. Mother Bruce, by Ryan T. Higgins
7. Hotel Bruce, by Ryan T. Higgins
8. Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs, by America's Test Kitchen
9. Anthology of Intriguing Animals, from DK
10. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats

Interest in cookbooks includes those published for kids. America's Test Kitchen Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs brings the same testing rigor of other titles in the series to this volume, with Booklist noting: "The inviting, encouraging tone, which never talks down to the audience; emphasis on introducing and reinforcing basic skills; and approachable, simplified recipes make this a notable standout among cookbooks for kids." The sales pop was so strong I assumed that some of the sales were to another store for whom we effectively wholesale - and whose numbers I generally back out of our printed lists. But these were all individual sales!

Over at the Journal Sentinel:
--Charles Finch looks at five takeaways from George RR Martin's Fire and Blood: "There’s a riddle: 'What’s always coming and never arrives?' The answer is 'tomorrow,' but a reply of The Winds of Winter should receive partial credit from now on." Originally from USA Today.

Matt Damsker, also from USA Today, reviews Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, by Karina Longworth. He writes: "Film critic and creator of the popular Hollywood-themed podcast You Must Remember This, Longworth delivers much more than a warmed-over recounting of the eccentric Hughes saga and the famous women who helped define it."

In Between Holiday Shopping: Sanford D. Horwitt with Mary Spicuzza on Abner Mikva, Doug Armstrong at Whitefish Bay Library, type designer and illustrator Jessica Hische, Mark Concannon shares Wisconsin veterans' stories, Daniel's Holiday Book Talk at Shorewood Public Library

Things to do while you're holiday shopping

Tuesday, December 4, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Sanford D. Horwitt, author of Conversations with Abner Mikva: Final Reflections on Chicago Politics, Democracy’s Future, and a Life of Public Service, in conversation with Mary Spicuzza

Former speechwriter and senior congressional aide to Congressman Mikva, Milwaukee native Sanford D. Horwitt appears at Boswell to discuss his biography of the influential Chicago politician’s long life and career of public service with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff reporter Mary Spicuzza.

Abner Mikva's memoir chronicles his career in Chicago and nationally and details the many controversies he faced as a member of the US House and as a judge: battles with the NRA, the Nazi march in Skokie, Congressional gridlock, and US Supreme Court activism. His career culminated in a Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by a young politician he once mentored, Barack Obama.

Conversations with Abner Mikva lets us listen in as the veteran political reformer and unreconstructed liberal reflects on the world as it was, how it’s changed, and what matters. Mikva is eloquent, deeply informed, and endlessly interesting. In this intimate, unfiltered encounter, he remains an optimist, inspired and inspiring to the very end of a remarkable life of public service.

Sanford D. Horwitt is author of Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy and Feingold: A New Democratic Party. Horwitt served as a speechwriter for Congressman Mikva and senior congressional aide. A graduate of Northwestern, he is policy advisor to civic engagement organizations. Horwitt is a native of Milwaukee.

Wednesday, December 5, 6:30 PM, at Whitefish Bay Public Library, 5420 N Marlborough Dr:
Douglas Armstrong, author of Color of The Sun

Former reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for The Milwaukee Journal, Whitefish Bay author Douglas Armstrong appears at Whitefish Bay Public Library with the latest novel in his series about newsroom life in the era of love beads, tear gas, and manual typewriters.

The murder of a newspaper reporter in 1967 pulls his colleagues deep into the contentious issues of race in America and the secrets of a troubled family. Did a nine-year-old boy pull the trigger? Alternately solemn and irreverent, Color of The Sun looks back at an era when the civil rights movement rocked the social underpinnings of a nation, including newspaper journalism.

Critics call Douglas Armstrong’s Life on The Sun “authentic, frenzied, and suspenseful.” In 2010, his debut novel,.0417 won the Council for Wisconsin Writer’s Award.

Douglas Armstrong was a reporter, critic, and columnist for The Milwaukee Journal who was on the scene during the anti-war and civil rights protests of the 1960s. He is author of two novels in The Sun series as well as Even Sunflowers Cast Shadows. His short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Ellery Queen and Boys Life. He serves on the board of his local library and school district and is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the Council for Wisconsin Writers, and the Milwaukee Press Club.


Thursday, December 6, 6:30 PM, at Boswell:
Jessica Hische, author of Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave

Boswell presents a special evening with graphic artist and award-winning illustrator Jessica Hische for her debut picture book, which encourages kids to try new things, do their best, and be brave. For bibliophiles, Hische's art will be instantly recognizable from her work creating the beautiful Penguin Drop Caps classic series.

Registration is free at bravemke.bpt.me. An upgrade to a book-with-ticket option is also available for $19 and includes admission, a copy of Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave, and all taxes and fees.

At a time with so much uncertainty, this simple and uplifting book of beautiful illustrations reminds children to be positive and active in making each day the best that it can be. Journey through a world filled with positive and beautifully hand-lettered words of widsom, inspiration, and motivation. As this book reminds readers, tomorrow is another day, full of endless opportunities - all you have to do is decide to make the day yours.

Jessica Hische works as a letterer, illustrator, type designer, and relentless procrastiworker who’s twice been named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Clients include Wes Anderson, The New York Times, and Chronicle Books.

Friday, December 7, 7:00 PM, at Boswell:
Mark Concannon, author of Mettle and Honor: Wisconsin Stories from the Battlefield

Former Fox 6 Milwaukee journalist and four-time Emmy Award winner Mark Concannon debuts his book, Mettle and Honor, which shares the battlefield stories of Wisconsin veterans.

Concannon captures the myriad emotions of war - a clear sense of duty, the fear of young soldiers in combat, the humor resulting from the absurdities of military life, and the unique sense of pride that one can only realize from serving their country. His book is part of the WMC, Wisconsin War Memorial Center’s Veterans Story Project, which features interviews with dozens of vets that capture an important oral history and provides a remarkable anthology of the exceptional experiences of Wisconsin soldiers.

Mark Concannon is a four-time Emmy Award winning journalist who spent 23 years as a decorated journalist with Fox 6 in Milwaukee. Mark is now President of Concannon Communications.

Saturday, December 8, 11:00 am, at Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N Murray Ave:
A holiday book talk with Daniel Goldin

The Friends of Shorewood Public Library present Boswell Book Company's proprietor Daniel Goldin, offering gift suggestions for the holiday season. This talk will feature fiction and nonfiction, books for adults and kids, from national bestsellers and award winners to Boswell discoveries.

The mission of the Friends, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is to provide financial and volunteer support to the Shorewood Public Library. As an advocate for the library, the Friends strives to ensure that it remains a vital and essential part of village life.

This talk will be held at the Shorewood Village Center, one floor down from the Shorewood Public Library. No registration required. A percentage of sales at the talk will be donated back to the Friends of the Shorewood Public Library for future projects.