The bookseller ramble - Ask Again, Yes, from Mary Beth Keane

Title/Author: Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane

Previous books: The Walking People and Fever, both novels. Fever is based on the life of Typhoid Mary. Both books draw on Irish American culture.

The setup: Two New York City cops, one just over from Ireland, the other second generation, meet on the job and befriend each other. They wind up becoming neighbors in Gillam, a suburb that I think is in Rockland County. If I had taken better notes, I might know better. Something bad happens that drives the familes apart, but it can't keep away the next generation, who are doomed to inherit the burdens of addiction and mental illness.

Did I like it?: Yes, and you can ask again. After all, I'm writing this really long blog post, and we're not even hosting the author. Here are the stores on the tour.

Who would read this book: Of course, the answer that every writer and publisher wants to hear is, "Who wouldn't?" But there are a few key names that come up, most notably J. Courtney Sullivan and Matthew Thomas, whose recent books, Saints for All Occasions and We Are Not Ourselves, would be great matches (and I read them both, so I'm not fudging). Both gave quotes for this book too. Thematically, you can certainly add Alice McDermott and Colm Tóibín, though to me, they are a bit different stylistically.

How the book and I collided: My rule of thumb is that when I go to a publisher dinner with authors, it's my responsibility to read one of the books beforehand. For the life of me, I do not know how other attendees seem to have read all of them. Several options run through my head - they are incredibly fast, they don't actually work at a job, they are either fibbing or doing that thing where you say "I read it," but you really are saying "I read 50 pages."

I started reading a couple of other books for the Winter Institute Dinner in Albuquerque, but I didn't connect with either of them. So I contacted Wendy at Simon and Schuster and asked her what I should do. She told me to read Ask Again, Yes. She's a long-time bookseller and has a good handle on matching people and books.

Was anybody impressed that I read the book?: Not really. I wound up seemingly talking to everyone but Keane at the dinner. I really liked all my dining companions, one so much that I went back and read her book, even though it was out of my comfort zone. After the dinner, I got her to sign my book and moved on. I could tell she had just interacted with forty some booksellers, and unless she's the most extroverty of extroverted writers, that was probably enough for the day.

How have I done with hand-selling it so far?: It's only been out a day! In advance, I set my sites on getting early reads from two authors. The first (recommended via correspondence) always has a lot on her plate, but at least one of the quotes was from someone she knows and admires. That can sometimes help. The other author was visiting and we were chatting about books, and she had read all my comparison titles. And then she realized she already had a copy. I don't know how that turned out, but I really feel like I might have won her over. In my brain, I'm batting .500. In reality, TBD.

What did I learn from the acknowledgments?: What, you don't read the acknowledgments? I now get irritated if they are missing from a book. I'd like to know the editor, the agent, the writing teachers, the friends, and who gets thanked in the family. Was a bookseller thanked? Now that this has happened to me a couple of times, I know this is possible, and I sort of like it when our profession gets a shout out. Chris Calhoun was the agent, Nan Graham and Kara Watson were the editors (the acquirer and the shepherder, so to speak). Eleanor Henderson gave her quotes for both Ask Again, Yes and Fever and is also thanked. If they are not best friends, they should be!

Cover treatment: I can't help but think that the art director was hoping for a Little Fires Everywhere connection. Not just because of the imagery of suburban houses, but also with the very similar blue-green color story. That story looms large for me because on the day of our Celeste Ng event, Olivia noted that I had dressed to match the book.

What's the best quote?: Louis Erdrich clearly gets top billing. "Mary Beth Keane takes on one of the most difficult problems in fiction – how to write about human decency. In Ask Again, Yes, Keane makes a compelling case for compassion over blame, understanding over grudge, and the resilience of hearts that can accept the contradictions of love."


Would I read another book by Keane: Yes, I would. I would also read this book again if she were visiting and I was doing the conversation. Sometimes I change the facts in my head in novels, and it takes another read to sort that out.

Our best chance for the author to come to Milwaukee: Our friends at the Irish Fest Literary Tent should invite Keane. They do ask you to hang out there a long time, but you do sell a lot of books, or so I'm told. We just hosted Carl Baehr for his book, From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City: A History of the Irish in Milwaukee: A History of the Irish in Milwaukee.

Boswell events this week: Michael Koryta, Thomas Sweetser, Gregory Lee Renz at Boswell - plus registration may still be open for David Maraniss and Yossi Klein Halevi

Special Memorial Day Hours - we're open until 5 pm.

Tuesday, May 28, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Michael Koryta, author of If She Wakes, in conversation with Nick Petrie

Michael Koryta, the author Stephen King called a master of thriller writing, chats with Milwaukee’s Nick Petrie about If She Wakes, Koryta’s electrifying new novel about two women fighting for their lives against an enigmatic killer. Cosponsored by Crimespree Magazine.

From Colette Bancroft in The Tampa Bay Times: "Imagine waking in a hospital bed, aware of what’s going on around you but unable to move or communicate in any way. Imagine you can’t even blink. Imagine you don’t know how you ended up trapped inside your own head. Terrifying, right? Now imagine that you begin to figure out what happened to you - and realize that someone is still trying to kill you."

A horrific car crash leaves Tara in a vegetative state. Or so her doctors think. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone wants her dead, but what can she do, lying in a hospital bed? Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired to look into Tara's case. Despite the fog of her own trauma, Abby can tell Tara's car crash was no accident. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man hard on her heels. More from my Saturday post about If She Wakes.

Michael Koryta is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen novels, most recently, How It Happened. His previous novels, including Last Words, Those Who Wish Me Dead, and So Cold the River, were New York Times notable books and nominated for numerous awards, including having won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Koryta is a former private investigator and newspaper reporter. Nick Petrie is the Milwaukee-based author of the award-winning Drifter series of thrillers, including The Drifter, winner of the ITW Thriller Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and most recently, Tear It Down.


Wednesday, May 29, 11:00 am, at Wisconsin Club’s City Club:
David Maraniss, author of A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father

This year's Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Literary Luncheon features the Pulitzer-winning journalist David Maraniss, author of the classic biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered. Tickets may still be available by calling (414) 286-8720.

A Good American Family is a riveting book that captures the pervasive fear and paranoia that gripped America during the Red Scare of the 50s through the chilling story of his own family's ordeal. Elliott Maraniss, David’s father, a WWII veteran who had commanded an all-black company in the Pacific, was spied on by the FBI, named as a communist by an informant, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, fired from his newspaper job, and blacklisted for five years. Yet he never lost faith in America and emerged on the other side with his family and optimism intact. More on NPR's Morning Edition.

David Maraniss is an Associate Editor at The Washington Post and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and was a finalist three other times. Among his bestselling books are biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Roberto Clemente, and a trilogy that includes RFK Book Prize-winner Once in a Great City and They Marched into Sunlight, winner of the J. Anthony Lucas Prize and Pulitzer Finalist in History.

Signed copies of A Good American Family may be available after this event.

Wednesday, May 29, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Thomas Sweetser, author of Can Francis Change the Church?: How American Catholics Are Responding to His Leadership

Jesuit Thomas Sweetser has worked for more than 35 years with Catholic faith communities on evaluation and renewal. In 2011, he set out to interview a broad range of American Catholics about their relationship with the Church. A few years into the new papacy, Sweetser asked the same people again. Had anything changed with Pope Francis? The answers are enlightening for the church's future.

Based on before/after interviews, Can Francis Change the Church? is a helpful resource for everyone concerned about the Church. The value of this book lies in the direct conversations with people from very different walks of life between 20 and 80 years old which touch on hot button questions such as hierarchy, women in the church, and sexual abuse, and offer insights into the nature of a deep desire for authentic spirituality.

Thomas P Sweetser is Founder and Director of the Parish Evaluation Project. He has taught at the Institute of Pastoral Studies, at Loyola University of Chicago, at the University of Dayton in Ohio, Boston College, University of Seattle, Retreats International, and Loyola University in New Orleans. He is author of numerous books and his articles have appeared in National Catholic Reporter, Commonwealth, and Chicago Studies, among others

Thursday, May 30, 7:00 pm, at Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun:
Yossi Klein Halevi, author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Milwaukee Jewish Federation presents Yossi Klein Halevi for a dessert reception, book talk, and signing. Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Community Read. Register online to attend this free event.

Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the Wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of “the enemy.” In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is now desperate to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.


Yossi Klein Halevi is an author and commentator on Jewish and Israeli affairs. He is a senior fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he co-directs, together with Imam Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim Leadership Initiative. His book, Like Dreamers, won the 2013 Jewish Book Council’s Everett Book of the Year Award. He lives in Jerusalem.

Friday, May 31, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Gregory Lee Renz, author of Beneath the Flames, in conversation with Liam Callanan

Gregory Lee Renz served as a firefighter for 28 years, retired as Fire Captain, and was inducted into the Police and Fire Hall of Fame. Now Renz appears at Boswell with his debut novel, a story of love, race, and life as a firefighter.

When young farmer and volunteer firefighter Mitch Garner blames himself for a fire’s tragic outcome, he becomes convinced his only hope for redemption is to journey to Milwaukee’s inner city to prove himself as a professional firefighter.

Mitch is assigned to the busiest firehouse in the heart of one of the most blighted areas of Milwaukee, and soon, he’s ready to quit. Then he meets Jasmine Richardson, a brash adolescent. Despite Jasmine’s contempt toward Mitch, her courage and devotion to her little sister inspire him to stay and dedicate himself to helping her and the neighboring children overcome the hopelessness of growing up in poverty.

More upcoming events on Boswell's upcoming events page. Why not sign up for our email newsletter?

Photo credits:
Michael Koryta - Jonathan Mehring
David Maraniss - Lucian Perkins David
Yossi Klein Halevi - Ilir Bajraktari /The Tower

Boswell bestsellers, week ending May 25, 2019

Boswell bestsellers, week ending May 25, 2019

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverini
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
3. The Satapur Moonstone V2, by Sujata Massey
4. The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake
5. Courting Mr. Lincoln, by Louis Bayard
6. The Stone Circle V11, by Ruth Galloway
7. Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwan
8. Disappearing Earth, by Julia Phillips
9. Normal People, by Sally Rooney
10. Orange World and Other Stories, by Karen Russell

Who remembers Sarah Blake's last-minute visit to Boswell for The Postmistress? Though I don't have every event scenario memorized, this sticks out because we picked up the event when Borders announced the closing. It turns out there were already three other book events going on in town. The good news is that we got some extra press and had a very nice turnout. Her latest, The Guest Book, is a historical saga centered in Maine that was the #1 Indie Next Pick for May. Booklist called it "brilliant and ravishing;" Library Journal compared it to The Winds of War, which I think would have been considered an obscure reference if Wouk had not just passed away. But prior to his passing, did The Winds of War still have significant library circulation that you would comp it?

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Tribe, by Sebastian Junger (paperback moved to 2020)
2. The Hot Young Widows Club, by Nora McInerny
3. The Brisket Chronicles, by Steven Raichlen (see below)
4. Special Brew, by Tom Haudricourt
5. Bad Choices, by Ali Almossawi
6. No Happy Endings, by Nora McInerny
7. Educated, by Tara Westover
8. Furious Hours, by Casey Cep
9. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
10. Howard Stern Comes Again, by Howard Stern

Talk about a concept! As soon as Knopf introduced Casey Cep at our Winter Institute bookseller conference, to talk about Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, it had to be a hit if it was as well done and promised. And it is - Michael Lewis wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "She’s written the true-crime story that Harper Lee never figured out how to write." I so wanted to read it before publication, but this Boswell stuff keeps getting in the way, and I only say that because a legendary bookseller just stopped by the store this morning, and the only book-related question she and her husband had for me was whether Nick Petrie was as wild as Peter Ash in his novels. Did I mention Petrie is in conversation with Michael Koryta on Tuesday, May 28, 7 pm?

Paperback Fiction:
1. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
2. There There, by Tommy Orange
3. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
4. The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
5. The Widows of Malabar Hill V1, by Sujata Massey
6. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
7. Milkman, by Anna Burns
8. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
9. Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

Sourcebooks is in the news, and not just because they have two books in this week's top five paperback fiction. Penguin Random House bought 45% of the company, keeping control with CEO Dominique Raccah. Stuart Turton's The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has been one of their many successes - our Books and Beer Book Club is discussing it on Monday, June 17, 7 pm, at Downer's Cafe Hollander. Lots of bookseller and fellow author love on this one - A.J. Finn called it "Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day." But it's more than smart escapism - Turton's book won the Cost First Novel Prize. Last year's winner was Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. The Costa is considered the more populist equivalent of the Booker Prize, but unlike that prize, Americans still can't win a Costa, even though their sponsor is now owned by Coca Cola.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Brisket Chronicles, by Steven Raichlen
2. Moving Mountains Every Day, by Dan Steininger
3. Crash, by Rich Redmond
4. The Future Is History, by Masha Gessen
5. The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
6. It's Okay to Laugh, by Nora McInerny
7. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
8. Master of the Grill, by America's Test Kitchen
9. The Barbecue Bible, by Steven Raichlen
10. The Mueller Report, by the U.S. Department of Justice and The Washington Post 

Several appearances on the lists for both Steven Raichlen and Nora McInerny this week. McInerny appeared at Boswell for The Hot Young Widows Club, but it was only several months since her last book, No Happy Endings. While I am not one to judge whether someone or not is hot (I think in today's world, you get to decide your own hotness), but their were a lot of widows in the audience, and even a widower. We have signed copies of Raichlen's The Brisket Chronicles.

Books for Kids:
1. Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, by Pamela Cameron, with illustrations by Renée Graef
2. City of Ember V1, by Jeanne Duprau
3. The Land of Permanent Goodbyes, by Atia Abawi
4. The Fourteenth Goldfish V1, by Jennifer L. Holm
5. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd
6. Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea
7. The Storm Runner V1, by J.C. Cervantes
8. The Sword of Summer: Magnus Chase V1, by Rick Riordan
9. Aru Shah and the End of Time V1, by Roshani Chakshi
10. Calling the Water Drum, by Latish Redding, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd

We had some classroom purchases this week. As you can see, the new Rick Riordan Presents imprint has been quite popular, with new series from J.C. Cervantes and Roshani Chakshi. In The Storm Runner, Zane, who lives near a live volcano in New Mexico, accidentally unleashing a Mayan God. And then the new girl at school turns out to be a shape shifter. In Aru Shah and the End of Time, young Shah, whose mom does archeological digs for the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, unwittingly frees a demon from the Lamp of Bharata. As the publisher notes, the only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Barbara VanDenburgh of the Arizona Republic (USA Today network) reviews The Farm, the new novel from Joanne Ramos (signed copies still available) about a resort that hosts women with wombs for hire. VanDenburgh writes: "What’s so striking about The Farm isn’t that it imagines a frightening dystopia. This isn’t a hundred years in the future, it’s next week. This is reality, nudged just a touch to its logical extreme. Its very plausibility is a warning shot." It gets worse - Ramos was at an event when someone came up to her and thought the book's premise was a great idea for a business.

Ragan Clark of the Associated Press reviews Ani Difranco's memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream: "No Walls and the Recurring Dream is unapologetic, steadfast and vulnerable. It’s as if DiFranco has invited you into the living room of her New Orleans home to have a long discussion about how she got to where she is, from creating her first record to meeting Prince and recording in his home. I still think of her as a Buffalonian. She's at the Pabst Theater on June 5.

And here's a lovely profile of Worzalla Publishing, who prints the Wimpy Kid series, and most recently, Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal. Caitlin Shuda of The Stevens Point Journal writes: "Worzalla is very familiar with Kinney and his books. The company has published every domestic copy of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book since the first batch of 25,000 copies in 2007. Last year, Kinney made a special stop at the Stevens Point plant to celebrate the 200 millionth copy of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series." Whenever they finish the first printing, the plant has a pizza party.

Michael Koryta, what are you doing to me? - a little more about his new novel, If She Wakes

To be clear, sometimes I think my staff recommendations, should be color coded, like emails. If you liked my recommendation for Park Avenue Woman, I'm hoping you don't think that means you will automatically like There There. I consider myself a reader of wide-ranging tastes, and judge books based on how what I think the author was trying to write. So today I'm writing about a thriller, but even then, that doesn't tell everything. I think the scare quotient is higher for thrillers than mysteries, and if you're not in noir territory, so is the violence. But a lot of what I'd call thrillers (not in series, you know who the villain is, it's more about the chase than the puzzle) can be downright civilized, with a relatively low body count, let alone splatter count.

Michael Koryta's just-out If She Wakes is, warning to those who just took my advice to read Sujata Massey, high on the body count. It's not necessarily that graphic, but it will certainly have readers questioning their own safety, including people I know, because Tara Beckley, the person at the center of the story, is what we call a media escort. Beckley is bringing a speaker to a talk at a college in rural Maine. After the dinner (there's often a dinner, which is why a lot of our authors show up just before start time), Amandi Oltamu asks Tara to take him on a detour, and at a not-particularly-picturesque bridge, asks her to stop the car and take some photos.

Things go downhill from there. There's a terrible accident. Beckley is in a coma. An insurance claims adjuster named Abby Kaplan is called in - is Hammel College to blame? Well, that's the tip of the iceberg, because pretty soon Kaplan knows too much and the chase is on to find the phone that holds the secret that Oltamu stashed away.

One thing that's very different for me about reading these kinds of thrillers is the way I go about the reading process. When I read a family drama, or a comedy, or a historical, or even a more traditional mystery, I usually stop reading every 50 pages or so to get a drink, load the dishwasher, or check my phone. Then there comes a certain point, for usually the last 100-150 pages, where I read the book straight through. But for this sort of thriller (how do you distinguish a more pulse-pounding, threat-of-violence-lurks story from the others?), I am constantly stopping, pushing the book away, taking a walk to clear my head, and then heading back for another 10-20 pages. Even moreso as the book comes to a climax. Is that common? Is that why so many books of this type have short chapters?

Like many a mystery-thriller, the lead, and I guess Abby the insurance adjuster is the lead, there's a backstory in there. I feel like this is particularly important in psychological suspense, where there's always the question, "What is this quasi-protagonist running away from?" In this case, Kaplan was a race car driver, who had an unfortunate accident that led to the death of her boyfriend, an up-and-coming actor. Yes, she was that good a driver that she ran with celebrities. She's suppressed that drive, such that at one point, she takes a long train ride into Boston for a hospital visit - she's got great reasons not to drive. Great ones. But those driving instincts are still there and they will be at the heart of some chase scenes. And its really her knowledge of the road that first unlocks the cover up.

Needless to say, there's a terrible conspiracy going on. Because all the killers are at least one step removed, we don't get that much more than a short recap of the why. I refer back to the beginning of the book where Tara Beckley wonders what exactly her charge does, anyway? Something about batteries.

One other thing of note about If She Wakes is the sociopath assassin. I can't exactly call him the villain because there are several villains, but he certainly is the prime adversary (goes by Dax), and I'm not giving much away as you'll figure this out pretty quickly. He's very young - in fact, I'd call this my first encounter with a millennial sociopath assassin. He's got all the tropes of that generation on top of his killer instincts. And he's got those killer instincts from being raised by his dad and uncle, also assassins. It's a case where nature and nurture work together.

It seems like Michael Koryta sells production rights on just about every novel. Here's The Prophet, here's Cypress House, her's So Cold the River. Most recently, there's been a flurry of news about Those Who Wish Me Dead with Angelina Jolie being attached.  I wouldn't be surprised if a deal is in the works for his latest. He'll likely hint at one when he visits Boswell on May 28*, when he'll talk to fellow pulse-pounder, Nick Petrie.

--Marilyn Stasio's review of If She Wakes in The New York Times Book Review
--Starred Kirkus - Michael Koryta has never been better
--Oline Cogdill's Associated Press review in Chicago Daily Herald - Dax is the son of the villain in Those Who Wish Me Dead
--Colette Bancroft in The Tampa Bay Times, who notes that this "inventive" new thriller "accelerates like one of Abby's beloved race cars"

Photo credit for Michael Koryta is Jonathan Mehring.

*May 28, 2019, to be exact, at 7 pm. Hope to see you at Boswell! More on our upcoming event page.

Retail report from Taiwan

As readers of the blog know, I love visiting bookstores and getting ideas from other booksellers. Sometimes, however, inspiration can travel beyond the bookstore, and even beyond the border, as this note from my sister Claudia reveals. She was recently in Taiwan for a conference and visited her long-time friends. When she was a grad student in Chinese, you weren't able to go to mainland China for study.

"Yesterday I spent the evening with my old friends from Taiwan, Tsungling and Hsinming, along with their daughter. When I had visited two years ago, Hsinming was following his dream and had opened a small record store in Keelong, a port city north of Taipei. It didn't work out, and he opened a small bakery in Taipei with some friends. As he has developed the business, he has been taking inspiration from you. He told me he reads your bookstore newsletter regularly.

"The bakery has begun hosting community events such as a tea tasting (he and Tsungling know a lot about Chinese tea) and music events featuring seniors who revive traditional music. Recently they've re-opened the record store within the bakery. He seems really happy with the direction things have moved in.

"The last time I saw the daughter she was nine years old and spent the whole day giving me a detailed plot summary of Frozen. Now she is a young lady, and we talked about popular music. She knows the K-pop groups and I showed her videos of Beyoncé** and some other American singers. Hsinming confirmed that they were important American pop singers, and she was dutifully impressed."

If I were writing a business book (or perhaps I have caught business inspiration fever after selling books for Daniel Steininger's Moving Mountains Every Day this week*), my take-away from this would be that inspiration is everywhere. Hsinming, hope to someday visit you in Taiwan!

*Hey, you know I have to link to at least one book.

**Shout out to Teasha. Don't say I never mention Beyoncé in this blog.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending May 18, 2019, plus Journal Sentinel summer reading picks

And we're off!

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Resistance Women, by Jennifer Chiaverini (event today at Boswell, 3 pm - registration has closed by walk-ups are fine)
2. Orange World and Other Stories, by Karen Russell
3. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. Normal People, by Sally Rooney
6. Moby Dick Pop-Up, by Herman Melville and Gerard Lo Monaco
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James
8. The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah
9. The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake
10. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles (because signed books are still available)

I tend to not mention when our top five books are written by men because I'd probably get in trouble, but I'm guessing that citing a female sweep is fine. Our big debut is Orange World and Other Stories, by Karen Russell, the rare young novelist who despite the acclaimed Swamplandia, might be even better known for her New Yorker stories. I feel compelled to buy it because I haven't gotten a pretty orange book since There There last year. Booklist writes: "Heir to Shirley Jackson and a compatriot of T. C. Boyle, virtuoso Russell, gifted with acute insights, compassion, and a daring, free-diving imagination, explores the bewitching and bewildering dynamic between the voracious appetite of nature and its yawning indifference and humankind's relentless profligacy and obliviousness."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Guardian, by Thomas Pecora
2. Outer Order, Inner Calm, by Gretchen Rubin
3. My Darling Winston, edited by David Lough
4. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
5. Howard Stern Comes Again, by Howard Stern
6. A Good American Family, by David Maraniss (MPL lunch reservations for 5/29 here)
7. The Four Tendencies, by Gretchen Rubin
8. Educated, by Tara Westover
9. UWM The First Sixty Years, by John Schroeder
10. The British Are Coming, by Rick Atkinson

I could talk history, as there's a lot of it on this top ten (Pecora and Lough had events in town, while McCullough and Atkinson and flexing for Dad Day), but I'm more intrigued by the sales pop for Howard Stern Comes Again. Who knew he had an evolution? Terry Gross was so fascinated her interview aired over two days on Fresh Air. The things you don't know when you don't subscribe to Sirius radio. Per Janet Maslin in The New York Times, this book is "hefty all-star tutorial on the art of the interview."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng
2. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
3. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
4. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
5. Murder Knocks Twice V1, by Susanna Calkins
6. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
7. Park Avenue Summer, by Renée Rosen
8. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
9. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
10. There There, by Tommy Orange

Dang! I missed reading our entire top 10 by one book, and it's one I promised to read at one point - The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. No lie, once I was told she wasn't traveling, I put it away for a bit to concentrate on our event titles.But we've still got something like six enthusiastic fans on staff without me, and so, even without a read, I've been doing some hand-selling. It's nice to see that the book is selling well enough that Ingram has reordered copies, the limited edition hardcover (for libraries) looks like it sold out, and the book has been showing up on the top 50 list of Bookscan for Milwaukee fiction. Publishers Weekly called it "a gem of a historical" noting that the history part isn't its strongest asset, instead noting that "readers will adore the memorable Cussy and appreciate Richardson's fine rendering of rural Kentucky life." I told the publisher we could sell 100 copies by Christmas - who doesn't love a challenge? - but I think at one point I better come back to it.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. The Mueller Report, by US Department of Justice and the Washington Post (Scribner)
2. Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin
3. How to Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
4. The Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern
5. Healing The Thyroid with Ayurveda, by Marianne Teitelbaum (event Mon 6/10, 7 pm, at Boswell)
6. Writing Fiction, tenth edition, by Janet Burroway (event Wed 6/19, 7 pm, at Boswell)
7. The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls
8. Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
9. The Fire Next Time, by James A Baldwin
10. Drawdown, by Paul Hawken

From Michael Pollan comes a nice paperback pop for the release of How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. It's sometimes harder for big hardcover bestsellers to have a strong paperback showing but it seems like if they do hit again, they never leave. Who's placing bets that Educated will be in the top 10 for ten years, excluding a major scandal, and perhaps even in spite of one. What you generally won't see as much in paperbacks, bestseller or not, is an updated jacket. Pollan's paperback just adds the popular contrasting stripe and The New York Times seal of approval. It's rare that a book like this is proclaimed thrilling, but The Guardian did just that. It also has quotes from everyone from Andrew Weil to Errol Morris. I guess the former was more expected.

Books for Kids:
1. The Unbelievable Oliver and the Four Jokers V1, by Pseudonymous Bosch
2. Dactyl Hill Squad V1, by Daniel José Older
3. The Order of the Majestic V1, by Matt Myklusch
4. Freedom Fire: Dactyl Hill Squad V2, by Daniel José Older
5. Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, by Pamela Cameron with illustrations by Renée Graef
6. Dactyl Hill Squad V1 (hardcover), by Daniel José Older
7. Look Up, by Annette LeBlanc Cate
8. Tomorrow Most Likely, by Dave Eggers
9. Extraordinary Birds, by Sandy Stark McGinnis
10. Rabbit and Bear: Rabbit's Bad Habits, by Julian Gough

Who wants to start a middle-grade series? It turns out that everyone does! In addition to the authors who appeared for a public event as well as school visits, Matt Myklusch was also in town visiting schools for his new series, The Order of the Majestic. I don't normally quote the publisher pitch (as opposed to the copy), but hey, I'm speaking to adults I think would be more fascinated by this than just explaining how Joey Kopecky lands at a school with a minor in magic: "Fantasy has always provided metaphor for looking at society. The central conflict occurs between heroes who want to share hope and human connection, and an enemy who wants to control and hoard magic. The underlying theme of this action-packed plot is the message that regular kids have a magical ability of their own: they too can be forces of change in society and the world."

Over at the Journal Sentinel it's the book issue you've been waiting for, 81 books for Summer Reading, from Jim Higgins, with baseball and pop culture picks from Chris Foran. Here are the most important selections, the editor's picks
--An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, by Alex Kotlowitz
--Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers, by Fred Rogers
--Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, by Benjamin Dreyer
--A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father, by David Maraniss
--Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy
--Murder by the Book, by Claire Harman
--The Satapur Moonstone, by Sujata Massey
--Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: Stories, by Sarah Pinsker
--Tear It Down, by Nick Petrie
--The Vanishing Man, by Charles Finch

Read the rest on the Journal Sentinel website.

Historical Fiction - Novels from Sujata Massey and Jennifer Chiaverini

What is it about historical fiction? The last two high-profile contemporary novels I read were both lauded, but I just found I had nothing interesting to say about them. But when my taste ventured historical, I felt compelled to follow up on a previous post where I wrote about Murder Knocks Twice and Park Avenue Women. If you're reading this on May 16, Calkins will be at Boswell tonight in conversation with Erica Ruth Neubauer. If you're reading this afterwards, I'm brainstorming the idea of a 1920s Chicago night with both Calkins and Rosen, who would focus on her Dollface novel. Somebody up for partnering with us? Let me know.

Having decided that we have an awful lot of great mystery novelists coming to Boswell (that's for another post), I thought I better catch up on them. Being that Sujata Massey's latest novel, The Satapur Moonstone, it seemed timely to read one of her books. And here's the question on mysteries - do you dive right into the latest book or do you head back to #1 in the series, The Widows of Malabar Hill? One thing I have realized is that when I was reading mysteries in my twenties, I never paid attention to series order. What has changed - my reading or authors writing?

Being that Widows just received the Mary Higgins Clark Award as part of the Edward Awards, that seemed to be the best choice, especially because I could pass the book on to Anne, who is reading the novel for our Boswell Mystery Book Group in July. I also so enjoyed Massey's presentation when she came to the Lynden Sculpture Garden for book #1.

The Widows of Malabar Hill is about Perveen Mistry, the first female lawyer in Bombay. The story takes place in the 1920s and the character is based on Cornelia Sorabji, which Massey talks about here. There are some important differences - Perveen's family are practicing Zoroastrians, whereas Sorabji was the daughter of a Hindu mother and a Parsi (Zoroastrian) father who converted to Christianity. Sorabji, like Mistry, earned her degree at Oxford, but she wasn't granted it until 30 years after she took the exam.

In this case, Mistry law has a longtime family client whose patriarch has died. He leaves behind three widows, and curiously enough, the agent has documents saying they all want to leave their dowries to the wakh, or charity. Only the charity, which previously helped veterans of all religions, is now going to refocus to helping build a madrassa, or Muslim boys school. Something seems funny, especially in the signatures.

Now the key here, and I think this may be a twist that shows up again, is that in order for the firm to investigate, they need to talk to the widows, only they practice purdah, living in seclusion from men. Even the agent talks to them through a curtain. Perveen is the only woman who can get answers, but those answers lead to more questions. And then! And then! I'm not going to give much away here.

In this case, I'm glad I read the The Widows of Malabar Hill because there's a lot of backstory. Perveen, in her travels, spots someone who looks like her estranged Calcutta husband, and that opens the story of how she met him and exactly what happened that she is now back working with her family in Bombay (Mumbai). And there's no question for me that Massey's novel works equally well for historical fiction and mystery fans.

The Satapur Moonstone, just released, is won raves from all the advance trade publications, with Julie Ciccarelli saying Massey did a superb job combining the history with a "top-notch mystery" in Library Journal.

On the subject of historicals, I just finished Jennifer Chiaverini's latest novel, Resistance Women. It's hard to believe that Chiaverini has now written eight historical novels, being that many still think of her as the author of the twenty-book Elm Creek Quilts series (soon to be twenty-one). For a while, her focus was on the Civil War era, featuring women were often footnoted and marginalized in historical retellings. Now that we are highlighting the accomplishments of women and people of color, their stories, like that of Ada Lovelace in The Enchantress of Numbers, are becoming better known.

For her latest, she's turned to World War II, and the story of Mildred Fish Harnack, the only American executed by the Germans under explicit orders from Hitler. For many years, her accomplishments were minimalized as a Communist sympathizer, but as Chiaverini notes, records have been released since then that tell a very different story.

And while there are actually four women at the core of Resistance Women, we give an extra shout out to Harnack because she was raised in Milwaukee* and then attended UW-Madison. Harnack's story rotates with Greta Kuckhoff, a German translator, and Martha Dodd, the daughter of the United States Ambassador to Germany who is well-known to readers from Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts. Joining them is Sara Weitz, a fictional character drawn from several Jewish women in the Resistance movement. I was a little sad that Sara was fictionalized, but I've read enough historical fiction to know that this is something you just have to do, just like sometimes you have to play with facts and timing. Every author has a different philosophy of what their line is that they will not cross. And I do sometimes have to remind people that it's historical fiction, not history.

Of course it's hard to not be transfixed by a World War II narrative, but I think Chiaverini did a particularly excellent job telling the stories of these women, particularly when there were a lot of other characters to keep track of. And the book is a relative doorstopper at over 580 pages. But the story compellingly moves along, and is neither overly reliant on dialog or that way that some writers have of overly focusing on things like clothing details.

Every so often I hear from a customer saying they can't read another novel about World War II. But there are so many stories left to tell, and I think that Resistance Women really highlights the dangers of fascism and dictatorships and how our liberties can be lost in incremental ways that many of us don't notice what we've lost until it's too late. And then of course one can see The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Lost Girls of Paris both ensconced on the bestseller lists for multiple weeks.

And from a booksellers's perspective, it does something one hopes every great book will do - it left me hungry to read more - not just In the Garden of Beasts for the Dodds, but Julie Orringer's The Flight Portfolio. I loved The Invisible Bridge, but it newest hasn't gotten to the top of my pile. Hey, I'd love to read more but I have a bookstore to help run.

Speaking of which...

Jennifer Chiaverini will be at Boswell on Sunday, May 19, 3 pm, to discuss Resistance Women. Register for our event at resistancewomenmke.bpt.me and give me a better handle on how many chairs to put out. Thank you in advance. She'll then be at Books and Company in Oconowoc on Thursday, May 30, 7 pm.

Sujata Massey will be at Boswell on Tuesday, May 21, 7 pm, to discuss The Satapur Moonstone, as well as The Widows of Malabar Hill. No registration for this one - I'm winging it.

*Alas, I should note there is not much about Milwaukee in Harnacks's story.

Photo credits:
--Susjata Massey credit Jim Burger
--Jennifer Chiaverini credit Michael Chiaverini

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending May 11, 2019

Here's what sold at Boswell last week.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Farm, by Joanne Ramos
2. Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
3. The Flight Portfolio, by Julie Orringer
4. The Guest Book, by Sarah Blake
5. Circe, by Madeline Miller
6. The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See
7. Spring (V3), by Ali Smith
8. Exhalation, by Ted Chiang
9. Lost Roses, by Martha Hall Kelly
10. The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, by Juliet Grames

Our buyer Jason is a big fan ("amazing and heart-rendering") of Julie Orringer's The Flight Portfolio, her long-awaited follow-up to The Invisible Bridge. It's a historical novel inspired the life of Varian Fry, an American journalist who helped run a network that helped Jews and other refugees escape from Nazi Germany. Cynthia Ozick wrote about the novel in The New York Times Book Review, who wrote: "If the young Varian Fry once resembled a type of dramatically evolving character in fiction, he has now become, in Julie Orringer’s sympathetic and prodigiously ambitious novel, a fictional character himself."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. What it Takes, by Raegan Moya-Jones 2. Bailey, No Ordinary Cat, by Erin Merrin
3. A Craftman's Legacy, by Eric Gorges
4. Nanaville, by Anna Quindlen
5. Educated, by Tara Westover
6. Becoming, by Michelle Obama
7. The Pioneers, by David McCullough
8. Save Me the Plums, by Ruth Reichl
9. The Matriarch, by Susan Page
10. The Furious Hours, by Casey Cep

It's Mother's Day and that means, here come the books that work well not just for moms but for Dads too (as Father's Day is in five weeks). One newcomer is David McCullough's latest, The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West, and hey, it's about the Northwest Territory, which includes Wisconsin. In this Smithsonian interview, McCullough notes his inspiration was born of a commencement address at Ohio University (in Athens).

Paperback Fiction:
1. Milwaukee Noir, edited by Tim Hennessy (event at Tippecanoe Library, Mon May 13, 6 pm)
2. The Gown, by Jennifer Robson
3. The House of Broken Angels, by Louis Alberto Urrea
4. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson
5. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
6. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
7. The Milkman, by Anna Burns
8. Paris by the Book, by Liam Callanan
9. There There, by Tommy Orange
10. The Widows of Malabar Hill (V1), by Sujata Massey (event at Boswell Tue May 21, 7 pm)

Several award-winning titles are in this week's top 10. The Overstory received the Pulitzer Prize, The Milkman won both the Man Booker and the National Book Critics Circle Award, There, There also had a double dose of awardness, winning the PEN/Hemingway and John Leonard Prizes. Add to that Paris by the Book, just was named winner of the Council for Wisconsin Writers Edna Ferber Prize, and The Widows of Malabar Hill, which was received the Mary Higgins Clark Award at the Edgars. And prize season isn't over yet! And a thank you to Vintage, for keeping Tommy Orange's jacket in paperback.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Keep Going, by Austin Kleon
2. The Mueller Report, by US Department of Justice and the Washington Post (Scribner)
3. Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
4. Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
5. Sisters First, by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush Pierce
6. The Mueller Report, by US Department of Justice (Melville)
7. The Milwaukee Anthology, edited by Justin Kern
8. The Brisket Chronicles, by Steven Raichlen (event 5/20 sold out)
9. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
10. 100 Things to Do in Milwaukee Before You Die, second edition, by Jenna Kashou

It's getting towards summer and that means an increase in regional titles, as more people stop by to get Milwaukee keepsakes. This week we've got three - The Milwaukee Anthology and 100 Things to Do in Milwaukee Before You Die, now in its second edition by Jenna Kashou - the first edition was from Jennifer Posh. In fiction, there's Milwaukee Noir. The contributors will be at Tippecanoe Library on Monday.

Books for Kids:
1. Fables, by Arnold Lobel
2. Luigi and the Barefoot Races, by Dan Paley, illustrations by Aaron Boyd
3. Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr. Seuss
4. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
5. The Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal, by Jeff Kinney
6. Babu's Song, by Stephanie Stuve, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd
7. The Story of Civil Rights Hero John Lewis, by Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Aaron Boyd
8. If I Was the Sunshine, by Julie Fogliano, with illustrations by Loren Long
9. Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes, by Pamela Cameron, with illustrations by Renée Graef
10. Who Lives Where, by Stephanie Babin, with illustrations by Kiko

Hey, a new hardcover picture book debuts this week with If I Was the Sunshine, from Julie Fogliano and Loren Long. Kirkus writes: "Younger readers will wrap themselves in Long's art while older kids strive to parse the meaning behind each of these gentle rhymes.Gentle on ear and eye, a keen display of relationships bound together in love and complexity." And from Publishers Weekly: "Elements of the landscape (the mountains, the ocean) and the creatures that inhabit it (bear cubs, squirrels) are seen interacting in ways that mirror the relationships described in the poem. The word love never appears in Fogliano's text, but it can be felt on every page."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Kerry Lengel interviews E.L. James, whose new novel is The Mister. Originally from the Arizona Republic comes James talking about her influences: "I used to love reading a good historical romance, and this book is kind of a homage to all of those writers that I read. And they’re generally American, actually, people like Johanna Lindsey and Judith McNaught and Catherine Coulter and Brenda Joyce and Laura Kinsale, all of these extraordinary romance writers who have a huge body of work."

Steph Cha (USA Today) reviews Jennifer Cody Epstein's Wunderland, novel about two girls in 1930s Germany. It was People Magazine's Book of the Week: "The title of this searing account of life in Nazi Germany alludes to Alice’s Adventures—and the surreal feeling of watching what you thought was true exposed as false...Inspired by the memoir of a Hitler Youth member, it’s a heartbreaking page-turner."

Tembi Locke's From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home is reviewed by Kim Curtis (Associated Press). This cross-cultural love story is another story of finding love amidst the food and romanticism of Europe (well, France and Italy): "Yes, the literary debut from the Houston-born actress is the no-longer - unique combination of travelogue, recipe book and love story. And, yes, it’s primarily set in Sicily." But Curtis goes on to note that as Locke is a Black woman building a career as an actress, she has a different spin on many of the other memoirs.  Read the rest in the Racine Journal Times.

For the mystery writer who likes historicals or the historical reader who wants a whodunit - Park Avenue Summer and Murder Knocks Twice

I was speaking to Anne about upcoming mystery novels recently, and she asked me when there would be a follow up to Ghost Talkers, the novel about mediums in World War I. "Now that was a good mystery," said* Anne. "Well," I replied, "she followed that novel up with two novels in another series called Lady Astronaut, but what I didn't say was that I don't think the publisher meant the novel to be in the mystery genre - they certainly didn't position it that way.

You're think such novels would be a boon to publishers, but from what I've heard, it's quite the opposite. If lots of different audiences come to a novel, it's great, but they when it comes to marketing, they see it as a problem. It's best for a novel to have strong positioning, and that leads to books being very different on the outside turning out to be not so different on the inside.

Take, for example, Renée Rosen's latest novel, Park Avenue Summer. I've been read several of Rosen's novels now, starting with What the Lady Wants, her historical about Marshall Field and his longtime mistress. That one was a bit of an outlier, as the woman at the center of the novel was a real person. In her other books, Dollface, White Collar Girl, and Windy City Blues, her heroine is generally a fictional creation, birthed into a historical situation surrounded by real people. They tend to be relatively naive but strong-willed, and willing to break boundaries to get what they want.

That's the case with the heroine at her latest novel, with Rosen moving to a Big Apple setting after her string of Chi-Towners. In this case, Alice Weiss has moved from Youngstown, Ohio to New York, to pursue the dreams that passed by her late mom. She really wants to be a photographer, but sets are sites on the more attainable goal of office work. And since her mom had a friend at Bernard Geis and Associates, she's got an in - and get an interview with Helen Gurley Brown, who has just taken on reviving Cosmopolitan for Hearst. And let's just say, the boys at Hearst don't have her back.

Rosen brings 1960s New York to life in Park Avenue Summer, from the bars and restaurants to old-style publishing. During the course of the book, the folks at Geis, which published Brown's Sex and the Single Girl (hence the connection) are readying their next blockbuster, Valley of the Dolls. And at one point Alice goes on a photo shoot for Francesco Scavullo. But at the heart of the story is Alice's quandary about liberation - should she have an affair with the office lothario or instead have a more traditional friend-mance with a free-lance photographer. Is Brown truly liberated if she continues to depend on the support of her wealthy and influential producer husband, and is the true liberation for Alice to follow her sexual passion or her career passion?

It was kind of fun to read this after the real-life magazine adventures so breathtakingly brought to life in Ruth Reichl's Save Me the Plums. The frugality of the Hearst bosses (fictional as it was) was a fascinating counterpoint to the sky-high budgets of Condé Nast under SI Newhouse.

There's not question that Park Avenue Summer is positioned firmly in the historical novel category, and I don't mean the highbrow British period work of Hilary Mantel. These historicals have sort of picked up  the higher end audience of traditional romance, now that that has moved mostly online. Historical writers tend to stick to one book a year, sometimes one book every two years, whereas a romance writer might publish two or three, so there is more time to research, develop characters and story, and go through more rounds of editing.

I like a straightforward story that's well told. I can't always jump around in time and place, with multiple perspectives, and not every book I read can be stream of consciousness. After I spend two weeks reading a book that needs lots of notes, a family tree, and a creative way of keeping straight all the characters that have no names in the story, it's nice to read a book where things are spelled out for me. And that's also a reason why I tend to read a decent amount of mysteries and thrillers.

There are a few other reasons, of course. We have an audience of customers who will take some direction in terms of recommendations, which is not true for every kind of book. And we have a decent number of author events in the area, and it's always easier for me to sell a book to the right people if I've read it. Mind you, I can't read everything, and there are some genres, like YA, where I have several other folks on staff who can fill the role of store champion.

One author whose latest is published firmly in the mystery genre is Susanna Calkins, Her latest,  Murder Knocks Twice, comes after a series of novels set in 17th century London (the first is Murder at Rosamund's Gate). For her latest, she's turned to 1920s Chicago. At the center of this story is Gina Ricci, a young woman whose mother has passed away and whose father is stricken with palsy. A neighborhood pal tells her about a gig as a cigarette girl at a local speakeasy, and she goes for it, even after figuring out that the woman she's replacing was murdered.

Gina slowly learns the ropes at this bar operating during prohibition's heyday. She takes shifts at the cover operations, a tea room and a pharmacy, where she befriends a young African American man who hopes to one day be a doctor. She watches the cops being paid off. She avoids the advances of the heavy-drinking piano player. And she notices the photographer who takes photos of the guest. When she strikes up a conversation with her, it turns out he's her late mom's cousin, but a family fallout has kept them apart. And then, well, there's another murder and Gina finds herself in the center of the drama.

And how exactly did she wander into this situation anyway? Was her invitation to apply accidental? Is her father involved? And how is this independent operation going to survive with Al Capone's mob taking over Chicago?

No question this is structured as a mystery and it lives up to its billing. For those who like crime stories, but find cozies to soft and noir too violent, this is the baby bear of the genre, right in the middle. And there is quite a bit of crossover to historical fiction as well, and particularly that of Renée Rosen's novels. So much overlap! For one thing, Gina is a classic Rosen character, the naif put in the middle of a situation that she has to think her way out of. She needs to find out what happened, but she's also anxious to figure out what she really wants to do in life.

Rosen even covered this period in Dollface. And yes, Rosen did give Calkins a quote on the book, calling it "a page-turning romp." But I think they could not have predicted they would both have an April 30 pub date - but they did! It's kismet. Really, it almost feels like they were playing off each other in writing these novels, positioned so differently, but really intended for a similar reader. I would love to know what other readers think about this, and I'd also love to know their thoughts on this. Hoping someone had (or is having) the two in conversation**.

I will be ask them myself as both are doing events with Boswell, only separately. Calkins will be at Boswell on Thursday, May 16, 7 pm, where she'll be in conversation with Erica Ruth Neubauer. Renée Rosen is not doing a public event with us this time, but she will be the featured author at the Woman's Club of Wisconsin annual book club luncheon they do every spring. It's being held on Tuesday, May 14, and if you belong or have friends who belong, ask them make a reservation for you.  I'll be presenting book club picks for about 30 minutes before Rosen does her presentation. I've seen her talks, at both Boswell and the Lynden Sculpture Garden, and they are great fun. And I try to be fun too. So that's a lot of fun.

*That's not what she said. But it was close.

**They in fact did an event together at Book Stall in Winnetka last week.

Photo credits
Renée Rosen - Charles Osgood
Susanna Calkins - Lisa Bagadia