Three events, plus Independent Bookstore Day! Steven Wright for Shorewood Reads, Jennifer Close with Lauren Fox, and Adriana Trigiani at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center

Wednesday, April 27, 7 pm

Steven Wright, author of The Coyotes of Carthage
in-person at Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N Murray Ave

The Friends of the Shorewood Public Library and Boswell Book Company present a special event to cap the 2022 Shorewood Reads program featuring Steven Wright, author of the community read novel The Coyotes of Carthage.

Click here to visit the Shorewood Library website for more information about this event and the Shorewood Reads program. Shorewood Reads is Shorewood’s version of what many other communities nationally, and even globally, have done: a community-wide event centered on reading one book. The goal of Shorewood Reads 2022 is to unite our community through a shared reading experience. In addition to this special event, there are also book club discussions of Wright’s novel planned and more. 

I don't know if I can live up to Chris's fabulous virtual conversation when the book came out, but I will try to come close!

The Coyotes of Carthage is a blistering and thrilling debut - a biting exploration of
American politics, set in a small South Carolina town, about a political operative running a dark money campaign for his corporate clients. To save his career as a political fixer, Dre has a quarter million in dark money to convince a small town in South Carolina to let a company dig for gold (yes, really), strip mining the local nature preserve and poisoning the water.

Wright’s novel was shortlisted for the Ernest J Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. From John Grisham: “With this splendid debut, Steven Wright announces his arrival as a major new voice in the world of political thrillers. I enjoyed it immensely.” Boswellians love this book, too! Daniel Goldin says: “I’m just completely blown away.” And Chris says: “A bracing portrait of a man trying to untangle the political from the personal to see if he can save what scraps of decency he might have left.”

Steven Wright is a Clinical Associate Professor at the UW-Madison Law School, where he codirects the Wisconsin Innocence Project. From 2007 to 2012 he served as a trial attorney in the Voting Section of the United States Department of Justice. He has written numerous essays about race, criminal justice, and election law for The New York Review of Books.

Friday, April 29, 6:30 pm

Jennifer Close, author of Marrying the Ketchups
in conversation with Lauren Fox in-person at Boswell Book Company for a hybrid event. Click here to register for either in-person or virtual broadcast!

Boswell presents an evening with bestselling author Jennifer Close to discuss her latest, Marrying the Ketchups. For this event, Close will be interviewed by Milwaukee author Lauren Fox, whose most recent novel is Send for Me.

One of my favorite books of spring!

Here are three things the Sullivan family knows to be true: the Chicago Cubs will always be the underdogs, historical progress is inevitable, and their grandfather, Bud, founder of JP Sullivan's, will always make the best burgers in Oak Park. But when, over the course of three strange months, the Cubs win the World Series, Trump is elected president, and Bud drops dead, suddenly everyone in the family finds themselves doubting all they hold dear. Outrageously funny and wickedly astute, Marrying the Ketchups is a delicious confection by one of our most beloved authors.

Daniel Goldin says: "This first-rate fractured family free-for-all is Chicago-infused and food forward, from sandwich loafs to sliders. So glad I finally read a Jennifer Close novel - I can’t wait to read another!” And from Ann Napolitano, best-selling author of Dear Edward: “This novel is laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply resonant to our times. I was so happy to be in the Sullivan family’s Chicago bar, caught in the swirl of three generations of grudges, love affairs and fraught personal decisions. Jennifer Close has written a smart, hilarious book that I was delighted to escape into."

Jennifer Close is the best-selling author of Girls in White Dresses, The Smart One, and The Hopefuls. She is a graduate of Boston College and received her MFA in Fiction Writing from the New School. She now teaches creative writing at Catapult.

Saturday, April 30, 2 pm

Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone
in-person at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, 3270 Mitchell Park Dr

Boswell Book Company and Books & Company of Oconomowoc present an afternoon with New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, who visits with her latest book, a lush, immersive novel about a hardworking family of Tuscan artisans with long-held secrets.

Tickets are available now on the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center website, so click right here and get yours now! Each ticket costs $35 and includes admission and a copy of The Good Left Undone.

So excited to welcome back Adriana Trigiani!

Matelda, the Cabrelli family’s matriarch, has always been brusque and opinionated. Now, as she faces the end of her life, she is determined to share a long-held secret with her family about her own mother’s great love story: with her childhood friend, Silvio, and with dashing Scottish sea captain John Lawrie McVicars, the father Matelda never knew.

Early readers are loving Trigiani’s latest. Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins says, "The Good Left Undone is at once epic and intimate, a delightful novel about the mysterious lore of an unforgettable Italian family whose characters walk right off the page." And Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds says, "Adriana Trigiani is a gifted, natural storyteller and The Good Left Undone is her at the top of her game. This beautiful, sweeping historical epic about three generations of women paints an exquisite portrait of love, loss, the ravages of time and the price a family pays for its secrets. Brava!"

Adriana Trigiani is author of twenty books, including The Shoemaker’s Wife. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture adaptation of her novel, Big Stone Gap. Trigiani is Cofounder of the Origin Project and serves on the New York State Council on the Arts.

Independent Bookstore Day
Saturday, April 30, 10 am – 5 pm at Boswell

Stop in Boswell and participate in the national one-day party that celebrates independent bookstores across the country. We’ll feature a selection of exclusive books and literary items that are only available at independent bookstores and only on Independent Bookstore Day. This is one literary party you don’t want to miss!

Why celebrate independent bookstores? Independent bookstores are not just stores - they’re community centers and local anchors run by passionate readers. They are entire universes of ideas that contain the possibility of real serendipity. In a world of tweets and algorithms and pageless digital downloads, bookstores are living, breathing organisms that continue to grow and expand. This year, the Independent Bookstore Day Author Ambassador is Angie Thomas, the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of the novels The Hate U Give, On the Come Up, and Concrete Rose. Click here to watch a special video message from Thomas.

Don't forget about tonight's event with Jeff Deutsch for In Praise of Good Bookstores. Details on last week's blog. 

Photo credits: 
Steven Wright by Nick Wilkes
Jennifer Close by Michael Lionstar

Lauren Fox by Rachel Dickman