1. Hope You Are Satisfied, by Tania Malik
2. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
3. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
4. Mastering the Art of French Murder, by Colleen Cambridge
5. Yellowface, by RF Kuang
6. Happy Place, by Emily Henry
7. The Making of a Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, by Tom Hanks
8. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
9. In the Lives of Puppets, by TJ Klune
10. When in Rome, by Liam Callanan
Top debut of the week goes to RF Kuang's Yellowface, her follow-up to Babel. BookMarks has logged five raves, a positive, mixed, and a pan. It's also the #1 Indie Next Pick for June. The advances were all among the raves - this is from Kirkus: " An incredibly meta novel, with commentary on everything from trade reviews to Twitter, the ultimate message is clear from the start, which can lead to a lack of nuance. Kuang, however, does manage to leave some questions unanswered: fodder, perhaps, for a new tweetstorm. A quick, biting critique of the publishing industry."
1. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond (Tuesday event is at capacity)
2. A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan
3. King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig
4. Milwaukee Rock and Roll, by David Luhrssen, Philip Naylor, Bruce Cole
5. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
6. Pathogenesis, by Jonathan Kennedy
7. The Wager, by David Grann
8. The Devil's Element, by Dan Egan
9. Bread Head, by Greg Wade (Rescheduled event! Register for June 13 here)
10. Smitten Kitchen Keepers, by Deb Perelman
While I would have expected King: A Life to come out in either January for MLK Day and Black History Month or fall for holiday and year-end max exposure, Jonathan Eig's biography makes an impact whatever the release date. Eight raves and a positive on BookMarks. From Dwight Garner in The New York Times: "Eig’s is the first comprehensive biography of King in three decades. It draws on a landslide of recently released White House telephone transcripts, F.B.I. documents, letters, oral histories and other material, and it supplants David J. Garrow’s 1986 biography Bearing the Cross as the definitive life of King, as Garrow himself deposed recently in The Spectator."
1. Trust, Hernan Diaz
2. The Boyfriend Candidate, by Ashley Winstead (Register for May 30 virtual here)
3. Ten Keys West, by Howard Seaborne
4. Last Summmer on State Street, by Toya Wolfe
5. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
6. Divisible Man, by Howard Seaborne
7. One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle
8. The Employees, by Olga Ravn
9. The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley
10. Fowl Eulogies, by Lucie Rico
The days of big books exploding even bigger in paperback are in the past, but that said, Matt Haig's The Midnight Library earned a spot on The New York Times bestseller list as well as the Boswell top ten in its second week on sale. Back in 2020, we hosted Matt Haig virtually for one of our early Readings from Oconmowaukee sessions. you can watch it here. And don't forget to tune in for our latest, with Holly Goldberg Sloan, discussing Pieces of Blue on Wednesday afternoon - Register here.
1. Quietly Hostile, by Samantha Irby
2. The Climate Action Handbook, by Heidi Roop
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, by Dan Egan
5. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
6. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
7. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
8. Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes
9. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
10. Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin, by Kristine Hansen (Register for June 9 event here)
Today would have been our event with Samantha Irby with Lindy West, only a number of the programs had to be cancelled for personal reasons. Quietly Hostile has earned two raves and three positives from BookMark for her humorous essay collection. Per Booklist: "Don't be fooled, though - there's tons of emotional depth hidden under the layers of comedy, especially in the essays about the author's family and her mother's death from MS. Some readers might get bogged down in the chapter about rewriting episodes of Sex and the City or the one about Irby's favorite Dave Matthews songs, but Irby's many fans, and anyone whose anxiety and hermit-like qualities ramped up during the pandemic, will celebrate and identify with her latest."
Books for Kids:
1. The One and Only Ruby, by Katherine Applegate
2. Gertie the Darling Duck of World War II, by Shari Swanson, illustrated by Renee Graef
3. LOL 101, by David Roth and Rinee Shah
4. She Persisted: Kaplana Chawla, by Raakhee Mirchandani
5. The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate
6. When Clouds Touch Us, by Thanhha Lai
7. Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai
8. The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
9. The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers
10. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Renee Graef
The tail of sales from our virtual event with Katherine Applegate for The One and Only Ruby continues. There's at least one more book in the series - can you guess which animal will be featured? From Publishers Weekly: "Lovable baby elephant Ruby is the delightful narrator of this follow-up to The One and Only Bob, which further chronicles the animal's difficult journey to the wildlife park and sanctuary where she now lives...Applegate details dire circumstances facing elephants in the wild, including climate change and poaching, while elucidating their fierce loyalty and highlighting, via the three protagonists' unforgettable bond, myriad interspecies relationships."
Alas, my alt key is working so it has becomes difficult for me to include accents. Hope this is fixed soon!
6. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
7. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
8. Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes
9. Birds of Wisconsin Field Guide, by Stan Tekiela
10. Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin, by Kristine Hansen (Register for June 9 event here)
Today would have been our event with Samantha Irby with Lindy West, only a number of the programs had to be cancelled for personal reasons. Quietly Hostile has earned two raves and three positives from BookMark for her humorous essay collection. Per Booklist: "Don't be fooled, though - there's tons of emotional depth hidden under the layers of comedy, especially in the essays about the author's family and her mother's death from MS. Some readers might get bogged down in the chapter about rewriting episodes of Sex and the City or the one about Irby's favorite Dave Matthews songs, but Irby's many fans, and anyone whose anxiety and hermit-like qualities ramped up during the pandemic, will celebrate and identify with her latest."
1. The One and Only Ruby, by Katherine Applegate
2. Gertie the Darling Duck of World War II, by Shari Swanson, illustrated by Renee Graef
3. LOL 101, by David Roth and Rinee Shah
4. She Persisted: Kaplana Chawla, by Raakhee Mirchandani
5. The One and Only Bob, by Katherine Applegate
6. When Clouds Touch Us, by Thanhha Lai
7. Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai
8. The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani
9. The Eyes and the Impossible, by Dave Eggers
10. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Renee Graef
The tail of sales from our virtual event with Katherine Applegate for The One and Only Ruby continues. There's at least one more book in the series - can you guess which animal will be featured? From Publishers Weekly: "Lovable baby elephant Ruby is the delightful narrator of this follow-up to The One and Only Bob, which further chronicles the animal's difficult journey to the wildlife park and sanctuary where she now lives...Applegate details dire circumstances facing elephants in the wild, including climate change and poaching, while elucidating their fierce loyalty and highlighting, via the three protagonists' unforgettable bond, myriad interspecies relationships."
Alas, my alt key is working so it has becomes difficult for me to include accents. Hope this is fixed soon!
