Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 25, 2021

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 25

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
3. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
4. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
5. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
6. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart
7. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
8. Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult
9. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny
10. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
11. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
12. Beautiful World, Where Are You?, by Sally Rooney
13. Shoulder Season, by Christina Clancy
14. Bewilderment, by Richard Powers
15. Gold Diggers, by Sanjena Sathian

It's easy to look at some of this year's top hits and see them as a bit of a pale comparison to their previous works in sales, but one has to remember that both Cloud Cuckoo Land and The Lincoln Highway only had one season - it took years for All the Light We Cannot See and A Gentleman in Moscow to hit their sales totals.  

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
2. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
3. Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown
4. Taste, by Stanley Tucci
5. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner (best reviewed nonfiction of the year on Book Marks)
6. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
7. The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
8. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens (we still don't have copies)
9. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
10. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris
11. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
12. Empire of Pain, by Patrick Radden Keefe
13. How I Became a Tree, by Sumana Roy
14. Lyrics: 1956 to Present, by Paul McCartney
15. Atlas of the Invisible, by James Cheshire

Our top sales performer in nonfiction hardcover (which also dwarfed all fiction contenders) proved to be Giannis, just like we expected. We passed a landmark number when Jason found stock at a wholesaler's alternate warehouse. It turned out that there's not the same kind of demand for a Milwaukee Bucks star player at Ingram's Oregon warehouse.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier
2. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
3. Send for Me, by Lauren Fox
4. Dune V1, by Frank Herbert
5. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
6. Circe, by Madeline Miller
7. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
8. The Searcher, by Tana French
9. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
10. Murder at the Mena House V1, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (new book in March!)
11. The Drifter V1 (two editions), by Nick Petrie
12. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
13. When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut
14. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
15. Dune Messiah V2, by Frank Herbert

The big story is that while the hardcover list was short on sleepers, Jason's been able to position and hand-sell The Anomaly into our #1 slot. Hey, he got me to read it. We had a nice discussion over whether this novel, about a group of airline passengers who, three months after they landed in an electrical storm, land again, and how the world confronts this strange occurrence, is a thriller or not. Jason said no, and I said yes, it had enough elements to qualify. Judge for yourself!

Another nice development - I've been noticing sales of The Drifter substantially up over the last two years (we were down a little in 2020 over 2019, but that should be no surprise) - the trade paperback is holding pretty steady, but mass market sales were up a third over 2019. His new book, The Runaway, debuts January 18- register here for this event, in person or broadcast.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Gray Matters, by Ellyn Lem
2. The Best of Me, by David Sedaris
3. Milwaukee River Greenway, by Eddee Daniel
4. Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
5. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
6. Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World, by Matt Kracht
7. Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi
8. Sapiens a Graphic History V1, by Yuval Noah Harari
9. Sapiens (the non-graphic version), by Yuval Noah Harari
10. New York Times Cooking No Recipe Recipes, by Sam Sifton

Of interest #1: So that's where the cookbooks are. This is not the first week on our bestseller list for Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love: Recipes to Unlock the Secrets of Your Pantry, Fridge, and Freezer, but being that paperback nonfiction has our weakest numbers in general, it's the first week with substantial sales. Sales are just a fraction of last year's Ottolenghi Flavor, but I don't think the expectations were as high either.

Of interest #2: Remember how avian (bird-filled) last year's bestseller list was? Much like jigsaw puzzles, interest is still there, but sales are back down to earth. This year's late entry is The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World, which I guess you give as a joke to all the folks who took up birding in 2020. It's the follow-up to Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America, which is also still selling.

Books for Kids:
1. Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives V2, by Dav Pilkey
2. Change Sings, by Amanda Gorman, illustrations by Loren Long
3. Big Shot V16: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
4. Tales of Fearless Girls, by Isabel Otter
5. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall
6. Stuntboy: In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds, illustrations by Raul the Third
7. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
8. Turtle in a Tree, by Neesha Hudson
9. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
10. Every Day Amazing, by Mike Barfield
11. Aaron Slater, Illustrator, by Andrea Beaty, illustrations by David Roberts
12. The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne, by Jonathan Stroud
13. Twas the Night Before Christmas, by Clement C Moore, illustrations by PJ Lynch
14. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renee Graef
15. The Mitten board book, by Jan Brett

One kids book that we really took to (it's a Jenny pick) is Turtle in a Tree, by Neesha Hudson. She wrote: "Not only is the story charming, important, and slyly hilarious, but Neesha Hudson’s whimsical artwork does a beautiful job expressing the many emotions of her characters. Turtle in a Tree will be among my favorite picture books of the year." This is Neesha Hudson's first book that she wrote and illustrated - she illustrated Walk Your Dog for Elizabeth Stevens Omlor in 2018. I also see she has prints for sale - and as this is part of my job, I did check on greeting cards.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 18, 2021

Here's what's selling at Boswell. No annotations this week - just glad to get the list out.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
2. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Ballerinas, by Rachel Kaplke-Dale (signed copies still available)
5. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
6. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
7. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
8. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny
9. Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult
10. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab (both editions)
12. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
13. Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney
14. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart
15. The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
2. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
3. Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown
4. Taste, by Stanley Tucci
5. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
6. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
7. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens (we don't have copies!)
8. Lyrics: 1956 to Present, by Paul McCartney
9. Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
10. World Travel, by Anthony Bourdain, Laurie Woolever
11. The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber/David Wengrow
12. The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl
13. Baking with Dorie, by Dorie Greenspan
14. North American Maps for Curious Minds, by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek
15. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
2. The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier (just finished this this morning!)
3. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
4. Circe, by Madeline Miller
5. When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut
6. The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
7. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
8. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
9. Dune V1, by Frank Herbert
10. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
11. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
12. Send for Me, by Lauren Fox
13. The Every, by Dave Eggers
14. The Thursday Murder Club V1, by Richard Osman
15. The Overstory, by Richard Powers

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
2. New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes, by Sam Sifton
3. Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Humankind, by Rutger Bregman
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
7. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
8. The Best of Me, by David Sedaris
9. Hiking Wisconsin, by Kevin Revolinski
10. 111 Places in Milwaukee You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
11. Vanguard, by Martha S Jones
12. Little Pieces of Hope, by Todd Doughty
13. Tacky, by Rax King
14. Field Guide to Dumb Birds of the Whole Stupid World, by Matt Kracht
15. Milwaukee River Greenway, by Eddee Daniel

Books for Kids:
1. Cat Kid Comic Club Perspectives V1, by Dav Pilkey
2. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
3. Clarice the Brave, by Lisa McMann
4. Change Sings, by Amanda Gorman, illustrations by Loren Long
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
6. Dream Street, by Tricia Elam Walker, illustrations by Ekua Holmes
7. Tales of Fearless Girls, by Isabel Otter
8. Woodland Dance, by Sandra Boynton
9. Aaron Slater, Illustrator, by Andrea Beaty, illustrations by David Roberts
10. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
11. Turtle in a Tree, by Neesha Hudson
12. Stuntboy: In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds, illustrations by Raul the Third
13. Frozen Moutain: Decide Your Destiny, by Emily Hawkins
14. Crayon's Christmas, by Drew Daywalt, illustrations by Oliver Jeffers
15. Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate

One week to go!

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 11, 2021

Here's what is selling at Boswell this week.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult (signed tip-in copies available)
2. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
5. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
6. The Ballerinas, by Rachel Kapleke-Dale (Register for in-December 15 in-store or broadcast event here)
7. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab (2 editions)
8. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
9. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
10. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny
11. Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara
12. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
13. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart
14. Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout
15. The Kindest Lie, by Nancy Johnson

I decided to expand fiction this week, mostly because I like these four runners up - I read four of the five. Both Clark and Division and The Kindest Lie are novels set partly in Chicago, which might be why I gravitated to them. Johnson recently told me that she is working on her next book, which is exciting. And I should note that it's recommended by Jodi Picoult, this week's #1: "The Kindest Lie is a deep dive into how we define a family, what it means to be a mother, and what it means to grow up Black. This beautifully crafted debut will keep asking you these questions and more."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris
2. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
3. The 1619 Project, created by Hannah Nikole-Jones and The New York Times
4. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
5. Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown
6. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner (our signed copies have taken off!)
7. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens (we're out through Christmas if you haven't already ordered this)
8. North American Maps for Curious Minds, by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek
9. The Storyteller, by Dave Groh
10. Atlas of the Invisible, by James Cheshire
11. The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
12. How the Word Is Passed, by Clint Smith
13. Best Wishes, Warmest Regards, by Dan Levy and Eugene Levy
14. History Makers, by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
15. All About Me, by Mel Brooks (I think this also might be gone for the season)

This time of year I'm caught between reading ahead (what's good for the book) and reading 2021's highlights that I missed. On the fiction list, I caught up with Oh William! and Small Things Like These. Yes, you can call out that they are both relatively short books, but reading them has helped me sell them, particularly Keegan. On the nonfiction side, I spent part of my day finishing Clint Brown's How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slaves Across America. I liked that it was structured as a travel narrative, with Smith visiting places like Monticello, Angola Prison, and a walking tour of lower Manhattan.

Follow up to last week - I learned that Matthew Bucklan of North American Maps for Curious Minds lives in the Milwaukee area! Nobody tells me anything.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier
2. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
3. The Thursday Murder Club V1, by Richard Osman
4. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
5. Dune, by Frank Herbert
6. The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
7. Once and Future Witches, by Alix E Harrow
8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
9. Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie
10. When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West

When We Cease to Understand the World is one of The New York Times's top 10 books of 2021 and was shortlisted for the National Book Award for translated literature. Per the publisher, it's "a fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining." From The New York Times review by Corinna da Fonesca-Wollheim: "In any case, the individual characters are merely vehicles for Labatut. His true subject is the ecstasy of scientific discovery and the price it exacts — from the individuals who sacrifice everything in its pursuit, and from the human species, which gains ever more powerful tools to master a world that keeps eluding comprehension."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Best of Me, by David Sedaris
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris
4. On Story Parkway, by Jim Cryns
5. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
6. Calypso, by David Sedaris
7. When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris
8. Cain's Jawbone, by Edward Powys Mathers
9. Milwaukee River Greenway, by Eddee Daniel
10. Theft by Finding, by David Sedaris

Guess who came to Milwaukee? Thanks to Mr. Sedaris (who actually did bring snacks to his event, a lovely and quite large box of chocolates), I was able to keep the nonfiction paperback list to ten slots. The list is a couple of regional titles (On Story Parkway, Jim's biggest hit at Boswell), Milwaukee River Greenway, a couple of national standards that continue to work at Boswell (Braiding Sweetgrass and The Body Keeps the Score) and one sleeper (Cain's Jawbone), which might well be selling at bestseller levels (not the first week on this list) but the NYT is probably excluding it because it's a puzzle - that advice list is brutal.

Books for Kids - Picture Books and Board Books
1. Dream Street, by Trista Elam Walker, with illustrations by Ekua Holmes
2. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
3. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
4. Change Sings, by Amanda Gorman and Loren Long
5. Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, edited by Fiona Waters
6. The 1619 Project: Blood on the Water, by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson, illustrated by Nikolas Smith
7. The Mitten Board Book, by Jan Brett
8. Aaron Slater Illustrator, by Andrea Beaty with illustrations by David Roberts
9. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse with illustrations by Renée Graef
10. The Story Orchestra: The Magic Flute, by Jessica Courtney Tickle (and Mozart, sort of)

Named one of the New York Times best books of the year, Dream Street is, per the publisher "a magical story from the critically acclaimed author of Nana Akua Goes to School and a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winning illustrator. Illuminating this vivid cast of characters are vibrant, joyful illustrations that make this neighborhood - based on the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston where the author and illustrator grew up together as cousins - truly sing." We just hosted a virtual event with Walker.

Books for Kids - Middle Grade, Graphic Novels
1. Clarice the Brave, by Lisa McMann
2. The Unwanteds V1, by Lisa McMann
3. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Sophie Blackall
4. Kaleidoscope, by Brian Selznick
5. Pony, by RJ Palacio
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
7. Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives V2, by Dav Pilkey
8. Bird and Squirrel on the Run V1, by James Burks
9. Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea, by Ben Clanton
10. Tales of Fearless Girls, by Isabel Otter, with illustrations by Ana Sender

I had YA categorized with middle grade/graphic novel, only to realize that there were no YA, graphic or otherwise, in our top 10. I find that adults get a little nervous buying books for teens, and I've also noticed there is nothing hot that's crossing over to us at the moment. The section almost always has people browsing it, but it looks like, at least for us, they are not coalescing around anything in particular as in past years.

Both The Beatryce Prophecy and Kaleidoscope might cross over to the younger demos of YA, so that's something. Kaleidoscope, the latest from Brian Selznick, is one of Amie's picks. Here's what the publisher had to say about this one: "A ship. A garden. A library. A key. In Kaleidoscope, the incomparable Brian Selznick presents the story of two people bound to each other through time and space, memory and dreams. At the center of their relationship is a mystery about the nature of grief and love which will look different to each reader." It's hitting a number of best-of-the-year lists. Still remember that magical night we hosted Selznick - it's so long ago I think it was at Alverno College, back when they had the Alverno Presents series.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, we've got the top books of the year from Jim Higgins and Carole Barrowman. Jim's picks include two of my favorites, Send for Me and Squirrel Hill. Access the whole list here.

Carole's got a great selection of mysteries and thrillers including two books I really liked, which I read at her suggestion - Clark and Division and Razorblade Tears. plus Kent Krueger's Lightning Strike, which we recently recommended not once but twice on Larry Meiller's recent Wisconsin Public Radio show.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 4, 2021

Boswell Bestsellers, week ending December 4, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult (Tickets for December 8 OAC event here)
2. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
3. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
4. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
5. Leviathan Falls V9, by James SA Corey
6. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone V9, by Diana Gabaldon
7. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
8. Bewilderment, by Richard Powers
9. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
10. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny

While you might not know James SA Corey if you weren't into science fiction, we have enough fans on staff for me to know that this Leviathan Falls (out of stock - more expected) is the final installment in the Hugo-award-winning Expanse series. Today I also learned that Corey is the work of two collaborators, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. From the Publishers Weekly starred review: "This fully satisfying resolution renders the entire series an all-time genre classic." Needless to say, if you're intrigued, start with Leviathan Wakes, not this one. By the way, James and Corey are the authors' middle names while S.A. is Abraham's daughter. In Germany, they leave out the middle initials. Oh, and Franck was George RR Martin's personal assistant - that's from Wikipedia, so take this all as you will.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens (not in stock - we're taking orders)
2. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
3. The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times
4. Atlas of the Heart, by Brené Brown
5. North American Maps for Curious Minds, by Matthew Bucklan
6. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett (Tickets for December 7 virtual event here)
7. Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
8. The Book of Hope, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams
9. Atlas of the Invisible, by James Cheshire
10. The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
11. World Travel, by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
12. Baking with Dorie, by Dorie Greenspan
13. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris 
14. The Secret History of Food, by Matt Siegel
15. Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten House, by Nicholas D Hayes

The lists are a bit lopsided during the holiday, so I grabbed five slots from paperback nonfiction and gave it to the hardcover list. Not as many cookbooks as you sometimes see on this list (we had four in the top 15 last year this week), but there are two map books, which also seems to be a holiday staple.

We've got North American Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the Continent, the follow-up to 2019's Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds, which I should note was written by a different author. And then there's Atlas of the Invisible: Maps and Graphics That Will Change How You See the World, by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti, which itself is the next project after 2017's Where the Animals Go: Tracking Wildlife with Technology in 50 Maps and Graphics. It just goes to show, if you have one map book in you, there's probably a follow-up somewhere. From Dave Pugl at the Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich, via Library Journal: "The resulting atlas will enable readers to better understand the world and its challenges. Furthermore, as the authors express eloquently in the epilogue, it is designed to inspire readers to act." 

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
2. The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier
3. Dune V1, by Frank Herbert
4. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
5. The Drifter V1, by Nick Petrie
6. Circe, by Madeline Miller
7. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
8. The Thursday Night Murder Club V1, by Richard Osman
9. The Witch's Heart, by Benevieve Gornichec
10. A Deadly Education V1, by Naomi Novik

Things are feeling a bit more normal on the paperback tables when we can see sales pops with paperback new releases. The Witch's Heart, inspired by Norse mythology, sold almost as many copies in its first week in paperback that it did life of book in hardcover. Bookmarks shows a lot of raves for the book, including Tom Shippey's in The Wall Street Journal, which noted: "Ms. Gornichec subverts the mythology from inside, knowledgeably and provokingly. Whatever the Elder Edda may say, the heroines of The Witch’s Heart will not be a delight to 'wicked women' alone." 

This is the February selection of the Books and Beer Book Club. More about upcoming book club discussions here.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kemmerer
2. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
3. New York Times Cooking No Recipe Recipes, by Sam Sifton
4. Humankind, by Rutger Bregman
5. An Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake

Not much new here, but I don't think I've highlighted An Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures since it was in hardcover. Since then, I think it won the Royal Society Science Book Prize, whose finalists included Breath by James Nestor and The Last Stargazers by Emily Levesque, both of which have made appearances on this list. Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running, offered this praise: "Entangled Life is a must-read for citizen scientists hoping to make a positive difference on this sacred planet we share," but I should note he's obviously part of the mushroom lobby.

Books for Kids:
1. Tales of Fearless Girls, by Isabel Otter with illustrations by Anna Sender
2. Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspectives V2, by Dav Pilkey
3. Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan
4. Change Sings, by Amanda Gorman with illustrations by Loren Long
5. Mindful Mr Sloth, by Katy Hudson
6. What's Up, Construction Truck?, by Matthew Reinhart
7. Stuntboy: In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds with illustrations by Raul the Third
8. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Sophie Blackall
9. Aaron Slater, Illustrator, by Andrea Beaty, with illustrations by David Roberts
10. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins

So excited to see the release of Jason Reynold's Stuntboy: In the Meantime, a collaboration with illustrator Raul the Third. Booklist offers a starred review: "Through 10 slice-of-life episodes interspersed with breaks for life rules ('1. Run up and down the hallways. All the hallways. Always.') and full-color inset panels recapping oddly parallel plotlines in a beloved sci-fi show that invariably climax with 'An Explosion of Great Magnitude,' the narrator records his growing anxiety over the 'meantime' arguments his parents have been having lately about their possessions - a sign, he twigs at last, of their impending separation. For a time he feels (and the illustrations depict literally him as) split in half, unrecognizable to friend and foe (ex-foe by the end: Herbert the 'Not So Bad After All') alike."

*I excluded some older school orders that we wound up needing time to process. But allow me to give a shout out to Stef Wade's Q and U Call It Quits.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, a piece from Kendra Meinert at the Green Bay Press Gazette about how Charlie Behrens's Midwest Survival Guide hit The New York Times Bestseller list.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending November 27, 2021

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending November 27, 2021

People are really taking the advice to shop early this year. We're out of a number of items that are in high demand; many we expect to come back into stock, but there are plenty more which are gone for the season. Like most other stores, we did stock up on a number of titles. Fortunately, the publishers put in place a lot of dating offers to help bookstores make this happen. That said, it's always a bit of a crapshoot.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
2. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
3. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
4. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone V9, by Diana Gabaldon
5. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart
7. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
8. Oh William!, by Elizabeth Strout
9. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
10. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny

The Washington Post picked its top 10 for the year, and of the five fiction titles, two made our top ten - Klara and the Sun and Crossroads.

The top debut in hardcover fiction was Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, by Diana Gabaldon. I learned its been seven years since the last major Outlander novel, which has now run to six seasons on Starz. It is clearly the middle of a series, because if you are an outsider, your first question is, why do the bees want to know you're gone? When asked by Maureen Lee Lenker in Entertainment Weekly why it took so long, she answered: "In my own defense, I must note that I wrote four other books during this time period, which I don't normally do. The other thing was that the show started right when the eighth book was published. I'm a consultant on the show, which means that they show me everything and invite my comment on it, which means while they're filming, I get all of the scripts and eight iterations or so of each script as they come in, and I read them all."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett (Tickets for December 7 virtual event here)
2. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens (Tickets for January Riverside events here - provided as a service)
3. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
4. The 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones
5. Taste, by Stanley Tucci (Fresh Air interview here)
6. The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl
7. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris (Tickets for December 10 event here)
8. Baking with Dorie, by Dorie Greenspan (Register for December 1 event here)
9. Gastro Obscura, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras
10. The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola

I don't recall linking to quite so much programming in December. Leading the pack, at least for us, is the first week of Ann Patchett's These Precious Days. You don't have to buy the book to join our event (there's a $5 option, with the proceeds going to BINC, the nonprofit to help booksellers in need - including comic book employees, by the way), but many people have. From Michele Filgate's review in The Washington Post: "To read this piece is to be suspended in the intimacy and connection and collaboration of a friendship between two artists inhabiting the liminal space of terminal illness. Every second is, indeed, precious, and Patchett’s prose is as welcoming and comforting as the chickpea stew Sooki cooks for her."

Paperback Fiction: 

1. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich (a double category number one this week!)
2. The Anomaly, by Herve Le Tellier
3. The Searcher, by Tana French
4. Dune, by Frank Herbert
5. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
6. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
7. Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
9. Best American Short Stories 2021, edited by Jesmyn Ward
10. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller

No less than five of this week's top 10 fiction are at least three years old - so much for immediate paperback reprint success. But our top debut, The Anomaly, is actually a 2020 publication in its original French - that's pretty fast for a translated title (thank you, Adriana Hunter!) - and it's even a Prix Goncourt winner. This speculative thriller, one of Jason's top picks for the year, is set in an alternate 2021 and concerns a mysterious Paris-to-New-York flight. From the Kirkus review: " Hunter's brilliant translation from the French - her fifth collaboration with Le Tellier - transforms Le Tellier's distinct French voice into a distinct English one. More importantly, Hunter captures the playful exhilaration with which Le Tellier marries his audacious plot to a deep concern for existentialist philosophy."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. 111 Places in Milwaukee That You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
2. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
4. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
5. Tacky, by Rax King
6. Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville, by Sandra E Jones
7. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, by Katherine May
8. Sapiens a Graphic History V2, by Yuval Noah Harari
9. Wisconsin Farms and Farmers Markets, by Kristine Hansen
10. Humankind, by Rutger Bregman

What do you know? Humankind: A Hopeful History is a relatively recent paperback on the list selling of the new paperback table. Frans de Waal explains it best: "Humankind is an in-depth overview of what is wrong with the idea is that we humans are by nature bad and unreliable. In vivid descriptions and stories, Rutger Bregman takes us back to the questionable experiments that fed this idea and offers us a more optimistic view of mankind." The book, translated from the Dutch (original title: De Meeste Mensen Deugen) by Erica Moore and Elizabeth Manton, was named the Sapiens of 2020, with the book appearing on several year-end best-of lists. Weirdly enough, that pronouncement from The Guardian is accompanied by the book's only bad review on Bookmarks - also from The Guardian.

Books for Kids:
1. The Fastest Girl on Earth, by Dean Robbins, with illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley
2. Thank You Dr Salk, by Dean Robbins, with illustrations by Mike Dutton
3. Mambo Mucho Mambo, by Dean Robbins, with illustrations by Eric Velasquez
4. Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
5. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
6. The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson, with illustrations by Nikkolas Smith
7. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo, with illustrations by Sophie Blackall
8. The Ones We're Meant to Find, by Joan He (register for December 1 event here)
9. Pony, by RJ Palacio
10. Woodland Dance, by Sandra Boynton

Dean Robbins dominates the top 3 with new picture books connected to a recent series of virtual school visits. The fourth isn't quite out yet. Read the Journal Sentinel piece on Dean's productive year here). The Fastest Girl on Earth is about Kitty O'Neil, a deaf, part-Cherokee stunt driver who broke the woman's land speed record and held it until 2019. From School Library Journal: "Young race fans and car enthusiasts will appreciate these details. There are also author's notes which, like the facts and details, are written with young readers in mind. With exciting prose and positive representation, this book would be an excellent addition to biography collections."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Carole E Barrowman highlights three new mysteries: 

--My Sweet Girl, by Amanda Jayatissa 

--The Ghost Tracks, by Celso Hurtado 

--Death Under the Perseids, by Teresa Dovalpage

Up tomorrow - We've got events again.

Thanksgiving - Ann Patchett, Jodi Picoult, Charles Baxter, Jo PIazza

Thanksgiving gives me the chance to catch my breath and write a post. 

The tidal wave of new releases slows down by mid-November. One gets the feeling that if you release too late, you won't make roundups. For example, Charles Baxter's The Sun Collective just made the New York Times notable books of 2021 - the link is to the paperback. The reason that is odd is that the book came out in November 17, 2020. I remember - we hosted Mr. Baxter virtually. But the review for the book came out in the December 13 print issue of The New York Times, after the deadline for their notable books roundup, and rather than ignore those books altogether, they feature them the next year. But other roundups basically ignore books they got to too late.

Our buyer Jason told me that about six 2020 titles wound up on the 2021 list. It reminds of when I followed Billboard and some of the biggest titles on the yearend roundup to my mind were from the prior year. 

This week's notable new release for us was Ann Patchett's collection of essays, These Precious Days. You'll see its presence on Sunday's bestseller list roundup. I like to say that the book starts out like This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage and then morphs into Truth and Beauty. It's a lovely book and if I hadn't read it already, I'd say it's a great book to read on Thanksgiving if you don't want to watch football. Just beautiful! (More on our shared December 7 event here). It could be a notable book of 2022.

We've continued our COVID policy of offering bundled event books before the event, so if you ordered These Precious Days from us and you haven't picked it up yet, you can this weekend. We're trying something new - we've always bagged paid purchases to distinguish them from unpaid holds. But with us doing this for close to two years, and a 20% increase in our paper bag prices, we're experimenting with just having a paid bookmark in them. We're hoping to expand this to all prepaid purchases of one book. And then when you pick them up, if you want a bag, just ask. 

A big release next Tuesday is Jodi Picoult's Wish You Were Here. Picoult generally releases every two years, but she had a little time on her hands and was inspired to write a novel set during COVID-19. This might be one of the reasons why there seem to be so many heavy hitters this fall. We also think there were a number of titles delayed from 2020, with good reason.

We're doing an event (tickets here) with Ms. Picoult as well, a joint program with Books & Company at the Oconomowoc Arts Center on December 8, the day after Ms. Patchett. This one's in person - our first big thing we're running that's not virtual. It's been an interesting season - virtual attendance has declined, but in-person attendance, we're told, is also not at the levels it was pre-pandemic. While we might not equal her previous numbers, ticket sales for Picoult's event are going well, so that's a relief. Alas, because the event is in person and run jointly, we cannot facilitate picking up books in advance.

I was just talking about Wish You Were Here with Jo Piazza, who was visiting family for Thanksgiving. You might know Piazza from her many novels and works of nonfiction. We just hosted her with Christine Pride for We Are Not Like Them - you can watch that wonderful event here. Jo also signed our stock, if you were thinking of buying a copy. Piazza and Picoult were touting each other's novels. I really love the way Picoult champions up-and-coming writers. 

Patchett does as well. Speaking of which, I think I promised I'd read Sorrow and Bliss. Maybe by the end of 2021.

Have a great turkey/tofurkey day.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending November 20, 2021

Here's what is selling at Boswell for the week ending November 20, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
2. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart
5. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
6. Bewilderment, by Richard Powers
7. Oh William, by Elizabeth Strout
8. Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson
9. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny
10. The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah

While the bulk of fall releases had November 9 release dates or earlier, there are still high profile titles schedule going forward. The top first week fiction release for us is Termination Shock, said to be Neal Stephenson's return to the technothriller genre. It's got a rec from Boswellian Kay Wosewick who says, "Termination Shock is set about two decades out, when climate change is wreaking havoc in nearly all corners of the world. Someone must take action ASAP, right?! Politics are messy, technology is clever, and the characters are an eclectic lot. This is top-notch Stephenson, though he leaves us hanging. Speed it up Neal!!"

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine
2. The Midwest Survival Guide, by Charlie Berens
3. Lead with Me, by Simon Mainwaring
4. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
5. The Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape, by Joe Pera
6. Gastro Obscura, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras
7. How Magicians Think, by Joshua Jay
8. The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
9. Lyrics, by Paul McCartney
10. The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wingrow

Two huge books for us out of the gate, one that probably had similar sales at many bookstores (1619 Project) and the other that might have had an edge in Wisconsin (The Midwest Survival Guide), being that Charlie Berens has the popular Manitowoc Minute web series. We have more copies of hot title #1 (1619 - though no signed copies left) and we should have more of #2 (Berens) shortly. We're still taking orders for this this. Fox6 has a story on the book and Berens three January 2022 shows at the Riverside Theater.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Dune V1 (two editions), by Frank Herbert
2. Churchill's Secret Messenger, by Alan Hlad
3. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
4. Dune Messiah V2 (also two editions), by Frank Herbert
5. The Drifter V1 (two editions), by Nick Petrie
6. The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune
7. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
8. The Christmas Bookshop, by Jenny Colgan
9. Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
10. Send for Me, by Lauren Fox

Nick Petrie's Peter Ash series no longer has dual trade/mass editions as of #6 The Breaker, but we're still selling both of The Drifter. While I'm not mourning the loss of the trade editions of the later titles, I'm hoping that trade edition of The Drifter stays available, being that the book works as a stand-alone, a book club selection, and the entry point to the series. We continue to backlist the further adventures of Dune, with a lot of folks wondering if they will shoot the film that would be the second part of Dune plus Dune Messiah (#2) at the same time, much as they did for Lord of the Rings. Final box office will likely be a factor in that.

2021 is very different from 2020 - it's much harder to make a sleeper book work, but we're still getting sales on Leonard and Hungry Paul, plus now we have some book clubs picking it up. I looked at Edelweiss and there are definitely more stores doing well with the paperback than were with the hardcover. The big question is, who will publish Panenka, Hession's follow up, in the US?

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Watergate Girl, by Jill Wine-Banks (some signed copies available)
2. Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville, by Sandra E Jones (same)
3. Cain's Jawbone, by Edward Powys Mathers
4. The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk
5. Tacky, by Rax King

No, we don't have Cain's Jawbone in stock. And once again I am stumped - is this a novel (fiction) or a book of puzzles (nonfiction?) And while it's fun (and featured on BookTok), the prize is already claimed. In fact, this is a reissue of a book from 1934! But our publisher notes say the prize of £1,000 for the first reader to solve the puzzle within a year of publication was awarded to the actor and comedy writer John Finnemore. Or maybe he has film rights with Neil Gaiman. I'm completely confused. (Time passes) Update - according to The Guardian, he did actually re-solve the puzzle, as it had been solved a few times before, only the answer had been lost for decades. I'm still a little confused.

Up next, a run on Who Killed the Robins Family? If only we'd had BookTok back then, maybe the paperback would have worked (released after the prize was given out), says my former publicist self.

Since our 6-10 numbers are pretty small in this category, I gave the shelf space to the remaining list with the best 11-15 numbers, and that happens to be hardcover nonfiction.
11. Betrayal, by Jonathan Karl
12. Best Wishes Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt's Creek, by Daniel and Eugene Levy
13. World Travel, by Anthony Bourdain
14. Carnival of Snackery, by David Sedaris (Tickets for December 10 Riverside show here)
15. Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg

Books for Kids:
1. Roxy, by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (signed copies available - real ones!)
2. 1619 Project: Born on the Water, by Nikole Hannah-Jones
3. Aaron Slater, Illustrator, by Andrea Beaty, with illustrations by David Roberts
4. Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
5. The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo
6. Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate
7. African Icons, by Tracey Baptiste
8. It Fell from the Sky, by The Fan Brothers
9. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
10. The Snowy Day Board Book, by Ezra Jack Keats

In Aaron Slater, Illustrator, the new Questioneers book (Ada Twist, Scientist, et al), Aaron Slater doesn't let his dyslexia stand in his way of becoming a storyteller. The story is informed by illustrator David Roberts's dyslexia. From the starred Kirkus review: "In the illustration, a tableau of colorful mythological beings embodies Aaron's tale. The text is set in a dyslexia-friendly type. Empathetic art and lyrical text blend for a touching and empowering tale"

Jim Higgins unveils his holiday picks in the Journal Sentinel!

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 13, 2021

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 13, 2021

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich
2. Our Country Friends, by Gary Shteyngart (Register for November 17 virtual event here)
3. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles
5. Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead
6. Oh, William!, by Elizabeth Strout
7. Crossroads, by Jonathan Franzen
8. State of Terror, by Hilary Clinton and Louise Penny
9. Shoulder Season, by Christina Clancy (Clancy is conversation partner for Rachel Kapelke-Dale on December 15)
10. Invisible Life of Addie Larue special edition, by VE Schwab

We had a very strong week for Louise Erdrich's The Sentence, but it wasn't a runaway #1, beating out Gary Shteyngart's Our Country Friends by one copy. Ron Charles is among the raves, this from The Washington Post: "The coronavirus pandemic is still raging away and God knows we’ll be reading novels about it for years, but Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence may be the best one we ever get. Neither a grim rehashing of the lockdown nor an apocalyptic exaggeration of the virus, her book offers the kind of fresh reflection only time can facilitate, and yet it’s so current the ink feels wet."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Woodrow on the Bench, by Jenna Blum
2. Giannis, by Mirin Fader
3. The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
4. Red Roulette, by Desmond Shum
5. Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story, by Ron Faiola
6. Taste, by Stanley Tucci
7. Gastro Obscura, by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras (Register for November 15 virtual event here)
8. Shape, by Jordan Ellenberg
9. Lyrics: 1956 to Present, by Paul McCartney
10. Powers and Thrones, by Dan Jones

Top new nonfiction honors go to Woodrow on the Bench, which was the subject of an event at Shully's in Thiensville. Runner up is The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, written by anthropologist David Graeber (recently lost to necrotizing pancreatitis) and archeologist David Wengrow. From Jennifer Schuessler's profile in The New York Times: "In a video interview last month, Wengrow, a professor at University College London, slipped into a mock-grandiose tone to recite one of Graeber’s favorite catchphrases: 'We are going to change the course of human history - starting with the past.' More seriously, Wengrow said, The Dawn of Everything - which weighs in at a whopping 704 pages, including a 63-page bibliography - aims to synthesize new archaeological discoveries of recent decades that haven’t made it out of specialist journals and into public consciousness."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell
2. Dune, by Frank Herbert (two editions)
3. Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Rónán Hession
4. There There, by Tommy Orange
5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
6. Send for Me, by Lauren Fox
7. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich
8. Circe, by Madeline Miller
9. The Overstory, by Richard Powers
10. The Chanel Sisters, by Judithe Little

This week's top ten honors includes the National Book Critics Circle Awards winner (Hamnet), two Pulitzer winners (The Overstory and The Night Watchman) and the runners up in the TikTok Choice Awards (Circe and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo), which of course lost to "anything by Colleen Hoover." But the only new book on the list is The Chanel Sisters, by Judith Little, subject of the Ozaukee Family Services brunch with Barbara Rinella at Shully's (yes, we were there twice this week). Susan Meissner said this story, about Antoinette and Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, is "beautifully told to the last page.”

Book dramatist Barbara Rinella started honing her skills when she was a teacher at New Trier High School, in order to engage her students. More here.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Life in Short, by Dasha Kelly Hamilton
2. Milwaukee River Greenway, by Eddee Daniel
3. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
4. Being Adopted, by Amy Wilkerson
5. Tacky, by Rax King
6. Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, by Noor Murad and Yotam Ottolenghi
7. Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville, by Dr Sandra E Jones (Register for November 18 in-store event here or register for virtual broadcast here)
8. Talking to Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell
9. Radical Ambivalence, by Angela O'Donnell
10. On Story Parkway, by Jim Cryns

Our newsletter landed this week and while most of the focus is on hardcovers, we have a page of featured paperbacks, including Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer, by Rax King. Praise comes from Kristin Arnett, Samantha Irby, and Hanif Abdurraqib, who notes "The meditations in the book are equal parts comical, heartbreaking, and revelatory. A monument to uplifting the parts of popular culture that might otherwise be shrugged off and/or dismissed by those who don't have the imagination to celebrate what they might consider mundane." Plus it's a Madi rec.

Books for Kids:
1. The Fishermen, the Horse, and the Sea, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Renée Graef
2. Change Sings, by Amanda Gorman, with illustrations by Loren Long
3. Norman Didn't Do It, by Ryan T Higgins
4. Mindful Mr Sloth, by Katy Hudson
5. Just Be Claus, by Barbara Joosse, with illustrations by Kimberley Barnes
6. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
7. Roxy, by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (Register for November 16 in-store event here, or watch it virtually by registering here)
8. The Animals' Santa board book, by Jan Brett
9. Big Shot V16, by Jeff Kinney
10. The Story Orchestra: The Magic Flute, by Jessica Courtney-Tickle

Top honors for the week go to Barbara Joosse, who actually has two new releases (including Just Be Claus), both in our top 10. We've just had a virtual school visit with her, but she was also a hit at Ozaukee Family Services, being that so many of the attendees have worked with her over the years. The Fishermen, the Horse, and the Sea, is based on a story about young Lester Smith who helped with a dramatic rescue at sea (in the book) and went on to found Smith Brothers (not part of this story), the beloved Port Washington fish eatery. I went there with my parents!

Tomorrow - one last packed week of events before our Thanksgiving event break.

this week: Uwem Akpan, Tracey Baptiste, Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen, Joshua Jay, Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras

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

Monday, November 8, 7 pm
Uwem Akpan, author of New York, My Village
in Conversation with Elias Rodriques for a Virtual Event
Register for this event here.

Boswell hosts an evening with Uwem Akpan, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You’re One of Them, winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa Region), the PEN Open Book Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, for a conversation about his new novel, which melds humor, tenderness, and pain to explore the myriad ways that tribalism defines life everywhere, from the villages of Nigeria to the villages within New York City. Akpan will chat with Elias Rodriques, author of All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running.

From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to begin the opportunity of a lifetime: to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry from its incandescent epicenter. While his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to a colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly. Reckoning with the recent history of the devastating Biafran War, in which Ekong’s people were a minority of a minority caught up in the mutual slaughter of majority tribes, Ekong’s life in New York becomes a saga of unanticipated strife.

Here's a staff recommendation from Jenny Chou: "It is the rare work of literary fiction that leaves readers wondering if the war against those stealthy little insects known as bed bugs can ever really be won. After finishing Uwem Akpan’s shrewd, heartfelt, and ultimately delightful novel New York, My Village, I turned that question over in my mind for a while before shifting my thoughts to war in general and the scars left behind even if the battles end and a victor is declared..." (read the rest of the review on the New York, My Village website page.)

Uwem Akpan's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the Nigerian Guardian, and O, The Oprah Magazine. His story collection Say You're One of Them was a 2009 Oprah Book Club selection. Elias Rodriques has published in venues such as The Guardian and The Nation, and he is Assistant Editor at n+1. He is Assistant Professor of African American Literature at Sarah Lawrence College.

Tuesday, November 9, 1 pm
Tracey Baptiste, author of African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History
in Conversation with Peace Adzo Medie for a Virtual School Visit
Register for this event here.

We’re happy to host a daytime event featuring New York Times bestseller Tracey Baptiste, author of The Jumbies series and the forthcoming novel Because of Claudette, for a conversation about her new history book for young readers, African Icons, with Peace Adzo Medie. This will be a virtual, schools-inclusive conversation between two authors, so it’s perfect for anyone interested in Baptiste’s book as well as teachers who’d like to register their classrooms to see the presentation.

Black history began long ago with the many cultures and people of the African continent. Through portraits of ten heroic figures, Baptiste takes readers on a journey across Africa to meet some of the real-life kings, queens, inventors, scholars, and visionaries whose vision built a continent and shaped the world.

Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist, says, “In African Icons, Baptiste engages in the hard work of unveiling the myths about the African continent to young readers… This is a great beginner’s guide to pre-colonial Africa.” And from School Library Journal’s starred review: “Baptiste sheds light on the rich and complex pre-enslavement history of the African continent… A spellbinding collection… An impeccably researched revelation that fills a too wide gap in collections; it’s unfair how long it’s taken for these histories to be made public to young readers.”

Tracey Baptiste is author of The Jumbies series, Minecraft: The Crash, and the forthcoming novel Because of Claudette. Baptiste is a former teacher who works as a writer and editor. Peace Adzo Medie is author of the novel His Only Wife. She is a Ghanaian writer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol in England.

Wednesday, November 10, 7 pm
Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen, authors of Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
A Virtual Event with the two authors in conversation
Register for this event here - ask for your signed bookplate

Pub date may have moved to November 16, but we're still on board to host a virtual evening with Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen. Enjoy a virtual evening with the co-authors of Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything, who with their latest offer a history of disease outbreaks (and their patient zeros) and an overview of the science, culture, and cures for different types of epidemics and pandemics.

Kang and Pedersen tell the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks - how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Learn the tragic stories of Patient Zeros throughout history, such as Mabalo Lokela, who contracted Ebola while on vacation in 1976, and the Lewis Baby on London’s Broad Street, the first to catch cholera in an 1854 outbreak that led to a major medical breakthrough. Interspersed are origin stories of a different sort, like how a rye fungus in 1951 turned a small village in France into a phantasmagoric scene reminiscent of Burning Man. Plus the uneasy history of human autopsy, how the HIV virus has been with us for at least a century, and more.

From the Flatwater Free Press/The Reader: "In late 2019, well before the pandemic became a daily thought in our minds, I had been chatting with my editor and co-author about writing a new book to follow Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything in 2017. Nate Pedersen and I felt ready to write a new book, and together with our editor, we set our eyes on the subject of pandemics." And then we were in the midst of one!

From Publishers Weekly: "Kang and Pedersen's conversational tone keeps things moving, and they're magnificent at reminding readers that, although pathogens will probably continue to "consume ravenously, kill what's in their way, and adapt," medicine has come a long way from recommending blood baths, drinking urine, and consuming mercury as treatments. Readers will be swept away by this energetic and enlightening survey."

Lydia Kang, MD, is a practicing internal medicine physician and author of YA novels including Control, Catalyst, and the upcoming The November Girl, plus A Beautiful Poison, her debut novel for adults. Her nonfiction has been published in JAMA, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Nate Pedersen is a librarian, historian, and freelance journalist with over 400 publications in print and online, including in The Guardian, The Believer, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

In person! Sunday, November 14, 4 pm
Joshua Jay, author of How Magicians Think: Misdirection, Deception, and Why Magic Matters
in Conversation with Mark Pocan for a Hybrid Event at Boswell
Register for the in-person event here, or register to watch the virtual broadcast here.

Masks required for attendees to this event. Please note that our author and conversation partner will likely not wear masks during the conversation.

The door to magic is closed, but it’s not locked. Jay's fascinating book of essays opens that door to reveal the artistry and obsessiveness, esoteric history, and long-whispered-about traditions of a subject shrouded in mystery. Jay offers an inside look at how the very best magicians think about magic, how they practice and put together a show, what inspires them, and the psychology behind creating wonder and being tricked when we expect both, as well as why we seek magic in the first place.

David Copperfield says, “Joshua Jay is a superb, innovative conjurer with an unrelenting love of the art. This captivating book is proof of that passion.” And from Teller of Penn & Teller fame, “A loving, behind-the-scenes map of the world of magic, by someone who knows and lives the art. Swift, funny, honest, and alive with enthusiasm. And he has the good sense to quote me a lot.”

From Booklist: "The book is delightful in being both a how-to book for aspiring artists and an in-depth view of the world of magic and its artisans. Jay is refreshingly candid in how he views his work, often self-deprecating, but always serious about his passion for his trade. An entertaining book from start to finish."

Joshua Jay is author of MAGIC: The Complete Course and, for children, Big Magic for Little Hands. Jay has performed in more than 100 countries, is a former World Champion in Sleight-of-Hand, and helped the US Postal Service with their "Art of Magic" postage stamps. Jay has performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, fooled Penn & Teller on their show, Fool Us, and starred in his own off-Broadway magic show, Six Impossible Things. Mark Pocan is the U.S. Representative for Wisconsin’s second congressional district.

Monday, November 15, 7 pm
Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras, authors of Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide
A Virtual Event with the two authors in conversation
Register for this event

Boswell presents a virtual evening with Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras. The curious minds behind Atlas Obscura turn to the hidden curiosities of food in Gastro Obscura, a gateway to fascinating stories about human history, science, art, and tradition.

Truly a feast of wonders, this breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history, culture, far-off travel, and hidden gems that might be right around the corner.

Chef, restauranteur, food activist, and Top Chef cohost Tom Colicchio writes: "Like a great tapas meal, Gastro Obscura is deep yet snackable, and full of surprises. This is the book for anyone interested in eating, adventure and the human condition." And Alice Waters says, "This captivating book celebrates the incredible global diversity of food, ingredients, and cooking practices. What could be more important in this moment in time than to be so delightfully engaged in the many ways food cultivates - through sometimes eccentric means! - a profound sense of togetherness." Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.

From Zebulin Evelhoch in Library Journal: "Pick a region, pick a page--you can't go wrong. Armchair travelers and foodies will be left hungry, nostalgic, more knowledgeable about dishes from all over, and, most importantly, ready to try something different, whether it's found around the corner or across the world."

Cecily Wong is a writer at Atlas Obscura and author of the novel Diamond Head, recipient of an Elle Readers' Prize. Dylan Thuras is Cofounder and Creative Director of Atlas Obscura.

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Photo credits!

Uwem Akpan by UNLU Photo Services

Tracey Baptiste by Latifah Abdur

Peace Adzo Medie by Sylvernus Darku

Cecily Wong by Heather Hawksford

Dylan Thuras by Timothy Shivers