Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 30, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 30, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
3. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
4. Starter Villain, by John Scalzi (Books and Beer Book Club selection Jan 15 - more info here)
5. Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch
6. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
7. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
8. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
9. Roman Stories, by Jhumpa Lahiri
10. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

Ariel Lawhon's fifth solo novel, The Frozen River, has now sold the most copies of her five releases at Boswell in hardcover, though we did beat that number with the paperback of I Was Anastasia, as she appeared at the Lynden Sculpture Garden in 2019. Her latest is a historical mystery based on the real-life case of Martha Ballard, which our rep Jason told us was also the inspiration for the Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book, The Midwife's Tale. The starred Booklist noted that "Lawhon's first-rate tale should entrance readers passionate about early America and women's history."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
4. Democracy Awakening, by Heather Cox Richardson
5. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
6. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
7. Wisconsin Supper Clubs 2E, by Ron Faiola
8. Best Minds, by Jonathan Rosen
9. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
10. Correction, by Ben Austen (Register for Boswell January 23 event)

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, which has been a steady presence on our bestseller list since its October 24 release, finally takes the lead in the week after Christmas. From the publisher: "Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and from the worlds of theatre, history, and education, to present a hopeful approach to human connection. Along the way he offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception." It's not listed on BookMarks - a quick search explains why. That said, Kirkus called it "a hands-on guide to making meaningful human connections."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
2. Ex-Wife, by Ursula Parrott
3. All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Mathews
4. A Court of Silver Flames V5, by Sarah J Maas
5. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
6. The Last to Vanish, by Megan Miranda
7. Big Swiss, by Jen Beagin
8. Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St John Mandel
9. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
10. Circe, by Madeline Miller

A sales record broken in the psychological suspense field. This week Megan Miranda scores her biggest paperback to date at Boswell with The Last to Vanish, besting 2016's All the Missing Girls, which went into paperback in 2017. The latest had raves from Booklist, Bookpage and Publishers Weekly. From Booklist: "This eerie thriller, in which the setting itself may be actively malevolent, can stand next to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Stephen King's The Shining."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen
2. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda
3. All About Love, by bell hooks
4. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi
5. Think Again, by Adam Grant
6. Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke
7. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
8. Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman
9. Everything I Know About Love, by Dolly Alderton
10. Stay True, by Hua Hsu

Another book that has been floating around since this summer is Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman, which got a rave and three positives from BookMarks. From Barbara Spindel in The Wall Street Journal: "Mr. Burkeman’s overarching goal is to convince readers to confront their finitude. Unlike traditional time-management techniques—which turn on an unrealistic promise of doing it all - Mr. Burkeman, citing the work of Buddhist scholars, meditation teachers, philosopher Martin Heidegger and others, argues instead that 'the only route to psychological freedom is to let go of the limit-denying fantasy of getting it all done and instead to focus on doing a few things that count.'”

Books for Kids:
1. Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
2. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
3. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
4. Something Someday, by Amanda Gorman, illustrations by Christian Robinson
5. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
6. Cat Kid Comic Club V5: Influencers, by Dav Pilkey
7. The Eyes and the Impossible McSweeneys edition, by Dave Eggers
8. Peekaboo Love, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
9. Bluey: Christmas Swim, edited by Gabriela Taboas Zayas
10. Ruthless Vows V2, by Rebecca Ross

This is a great interview with Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson for Something Someday on the Today Show, back when the book was published in September. I was looking at the visual and thought, that book is bulked up like middle grade fiction, not a 40-page picture book. Check the 20 second mark. 

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 23, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 23, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
3. The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray
4. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
6. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
7. The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
8. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
9. Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch
10. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
11. The Iliad, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
12. Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
13. Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward
14. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
15. Absolution, by Alice McDermott

Starter Villain, one of Rachel C.' picks for the holiday season, is also the featured title of our Books & Beer Book club on January  15. Here is the upcoming meeting schedule for Boswell-run book clubs. From Library Journal: "Readers of humorous fantasy are sure to love Scalzi's latest as much as those cats; it's also for those who enjoy seeing superhero stories folded, twisted, and mutilated and anyone wishing for a righteous villain lair surrounded by intelligent sharks. Highly recommended."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Wager, by David Grann
2. Why We Love Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
3. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
4. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
5. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
6. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
7. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
8. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
9. Democracy Awakening, by Heather Cox Richardson
10. My Name Is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand
11. Wisconsin Supper Clubs 2E, by Ron Faiola
12. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
13. The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby
14. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
15. Start Here, by Sohla El-Waylly

We usually see a nice pop on cookbooks in the fourth quarter and there are two on this week's list. Wisconsin Field to Fork has been strong all season, what with its seasonal ties, and it's nice to see Start Here from Sohla El-Waylly, Jason cookbook pick on Lake Effect. We got a very nice note back from Aly Miller, the book's Wisconsin illustrator. Very nice to have a local tie-in to this great cookbook.  From Publishers Weekly: " As tasty and appealing as it is informative, this is the ideal handbook for those starting out in the kitchen." Listen to the Lake Effect interview here. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
2. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan
3. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig
4. Wizard's Dream, by Louisa Loveridge Gallas
5. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab
6. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt (per Jason, trending on Tiktok)
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
8. Best American Short Stories 2023, edited by Min Jin Lee
9. The Maid V1, by Nita Prose
10. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q Sutanto
12. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
13. Godkiller V1, by Hannah Kaner
14. Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, edited by Lisa Unger
15. The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

Selling off Jen's rec shelf is Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Jesse Q Sutanto, who is based in Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, has written a cozy mystery set in San Francisco's Chinatown. You don't usually see paperback original mysteries getting indexed on LitHub, but with one rave and three positives, I'm glad to see it got that extra help. 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda
2. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen
3. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
4. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
5. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
6. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
7. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
8. Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke
9. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
10. Penny, by Karl Stevens
11. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
12. The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine, by Michael Scott Baumann
13. Murdle V2, by GT Karber
14. Lyrics, by Paul McCartney 

15. How We Live Is How We Die, by Pema Chõdrõn

The outdoor world continues to captivate Boswell customers, at least on the new and noteworthy tables. I still can't understand why other stores haven't put piles of A Year in the Woods and A Philosophy of Walking on their front tables or displays. We're not the only store selling these books week after week, but it appears that a lot of stores that could sell these books well without much work are carrying either one spined out in a section or not carrying them at all.

Books for Kids:

1. Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
2. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
3. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko
4. Cat Kid Comic Club V5: Inflencers, by Dav Pilkey
5. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
6. The Eyes and the Impossible McSweeneys edition, by Dave Eggers
7. How to Catch a Polar Bear, by Stacy DeKeyser
8. Heartstopper V5, by Alice Oseman
9. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
10. What You Need to Be Warm, edited by Neil Gaiman
11. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
12. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Renée Graef
13. Diary of a Wimpy Kid V18 No Brainer, by Jeff Kinney
14. Winter Turning graphic novel editionV7, by Tui T Sutherland
15. Peekaboo Car, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius

A late add from a Neil Gaiman collab is selling well off our impulse table. What You Need to Be Warm. With the help of multiple illustrators, Gaiman, Goodwill Ambassador for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, has taken responses to the question and woven them into a poem. From Booklist: " A moving meditation on what it means to be safe and warm in a difficult world. "

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 16, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 16, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
3. A Death in the Dark Woods V2, by Annelise Ryan
4. The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
5. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
6. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
7. Good Night, Irene, by Luis Alberto Urrea
8. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
9. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
10. Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward

Deacon King Kong (2020) had a huge increase (quadrupled) in sales for us in 2020 over his previous novel The Good Lord Bird (2013), but The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store is already has double that, and with lots of life left in the book. It wouldn't be surprising to see the novel on the 2024 holiday bestseller lists, much like Lessons in Chemistry and Demon Copperhead are holdovers from 2022.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Areté, by Brian Johnson
2. The Wager, by David Grann
3. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
4. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
5. My Name Is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand
6. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
7. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
8. The Best Minds, by Jonathan Rosen
9. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
10. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions place in the top 10 books of the year both for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It also has eight raves and a positive on BookMarks. It's kind of the Stay True of 2023. From Alexandra Jacobs in The New York Times: "Behind most performances, in other words - most lives - lies some measure of mess and violence, and exposing this can be uncomfortable. But Rosen’s own memoir is the opposite of ruinous. It’s an inch-by-inch, pin-you-to-the-sofa reconstruction of his long friendship with Michael Laudor, who made headlines a decade after the Ginsberg reading: first in The New York Times, as a Yale Law School graduate destigmatizing schizophrenia; then pretty much everywhere, after stabbing his pregnant girlfriend, Caroline Costello, to death with a kitchen knife, confusing her with a windup doll."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Death in Door County V1, by Annelise Ryan
2. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
3. Before We Were Innocent, by Ella Berman
4. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
5. Bookshops and Bonedust, by Travis Baldree
6. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
7. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa
8. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doer
9. The Enigma of Room 622, by Joël Dicker
10. Under the Whispering Door, by TJ Klune

It's the second week out and first week in our top 10 for Ella Berman's Before We Were Innocent, which was a Reese's Book Club pick in hardcover. From the publisher: "A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman." No BookMarks for this one (one suspects they don't often track Berkley), but a nice Kirkus: "With evocative and astute prose, Berman's sophomore effort is a slow but searing portrayal of the intoxicating power of privilege, youth, and female friendship."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda
2. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen (Register for December 27 Boswell event)
3. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
4. Walking Milwaukee, by Royal Brevvaxling and Molly Snyder
5. Brewtown Tales, by John Gurda
6. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
8. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
9. The Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
10. Murdle V1, by GT Karber

Now that's the kind of list we expect from paperback nonfiction - four books about Milwaukee. Seasonally speaking, however, they seem like summer books - three of the four are guidebooks. That and three four more of the books would be classified as nature titles, which I should note, often dominate this list, whatever the season.

Books for Kids:
1. Death's Door, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
2. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Jon Klassen
3. Something Someday, by Amanda Gorman, illustrations by Christian Robinson
4. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
5. Peekaboo Love, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
6. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
7. Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
8. Winter Tales, by Dawn Casey, illustrations by Zanna Goldhawk
9. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
10. Heartstopper V5, by Alice Oseman

I guess the winner in the holiday-themed picture book sweepstakes is Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? From Kirkus: "For all that it leans heavily on absurdity, this book exhibits some serious heart. In the market for an understated Christmas classic? Behold! A Christmas miracle!" We also had a late Jon Klassen holiday card edition from Red Cap of Santa's reindeer going down the chimney one at a time. I don't normally bring in new Christmas cards in December, but how could I resist?

Find all books mentioned here on the Boswell Books website.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 9, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending December 9, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
2. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
3. The English Understand Wool, by Helen Dewitt
4. The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray
5. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
6. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
7. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
8. The Door-to-Door Bookstore, by Carsten Henn
9. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
10. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
11. Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch
12. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
13. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
14. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
15. The Vulnerables, by Sigrid Nunez

Who are the influencers of the holiday season?  1) The New York Times and Washington Post together are clearly driving The Bee Sting and North Woods, being in both their top tens. 2) Ann Patchett recommendations are the clear driver of The English Understand Wool (hey, it's a year old) and have influence on Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (it's also top 10 Washington Post, plus book of the year for B&N and Amazon) and Absolution and The Comfort of Crows in nonfiction. Here is the Ann Patchett recommends page. 3) The newsletter landing has given a sales pop to Jason's back-page pick of The Door-to-Door Bookstore. 

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
2. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
3. Oath and Honor, by Liz Cheney
4. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
5. The Wager by David Grann
6. Lula Cafe, by Jason Hammel
7. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
8. Why We Love Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
9. My Name Is Barbra, by Barbra Streisand
10. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
11. Wisconsin Supper Club, by Ron Faiola
12. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
13. The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby
14. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
15. Fire Weather, by John Vaillant

Supper Club 2023 continues with Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club joining Wisconsin Supper Clubs in the top 10.  The Oath and Honor demand was not quite expected by Hachette - Ron Charles noted in his Washington Post newsletter that it was very hard to find copies in the Beltway. In terms of celebrity memoirs, My Name Is Barbra (Streisand) is doing the best for us. The Woman in Me (Spears) had the biggest first week pop but has since calmed, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (Perry) resurgence was quite, and is out of stock anyway, and Being Henry (Winkler) is the staff favorite because two of us read it. It was also on a friends top three - her reading focuses on disability narratives, and Winkler discusses his dyslexia at length. Her other two were The Country of the Blind and Leg. 

Paperback Fiction:
1. Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
2. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
3. Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
4. The Death of Us, by Lori Rader-Day
5. This Is Happiness, by Niall Williams
6. The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett
7. State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett
8. Woman of Light, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (upcoming Boswell book club meetings here)
9. A Death in Door County, by Annelise Ryan (register for December 14 Boswell event)
10. The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett

Four Patchetts, two Patchett recommendations (Our Town and This Is Happiness), two events, one former (The Death of Us - these are signed) and one upcoming, plus one book club pick (Woman of Light) and one prizewinner (Trust). 

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. John Gurda's Milwaukee, by John Gurda (pre-order for December 16 Boswell signing)
2. Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen (Register for December 27 Boswell event)
3. These Precious Days, by Ann Patchett
4. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett
5. Truth and Beauty, by Ann Patchett
6. Good Arguments, by Bo Seo
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Perseopolis, by Marjane Satrapi
9. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
10. Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke

Three Patchetts, two Milwaukee books, one movie tie-in, one past event, one high school required reading book, and two books off the new and noteworthy table, Dopamine Nation, from a big publisher, which is selling everywhere (we're #30 on Edelweiss), and A Year in the Woods, which should but is not (we're #3 on Edelweiss), perhaps because it is from the Canadian indie Greystone. If you are store that could sell a book like this, maybe you need to have 5 on display?

Books for Kids:
1. Patchwork Prince, by Baptiste Paul
2. The Field, by Baptiste Paul
3. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko (January 23 virtual event registration)
4. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
5. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
6. How Does the Santa Go Down the Chimney, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
7. Cat Kid Comic Club V5: Influencers, by Dav Pilkey
8. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
9. The Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
10. Winter Tales, by Dawn Casey, illustrated by Zanna Goldhawk

Our next-to-last school visit of 2023 was with Baptiste Paul, whose new picture book, The Patchwork Prince, was a hit with students and teachers alike. It's a book inspired by his own life growing up in St. Lucia. From Publishers Weekly: "It's a loving portrait of a child embracing their innate value, taught by the queen who loves them best." 

I should also note that fully half the top ten are either holiday or winter-themed. 

Visit https://www.boswellbooks.com/ to read more about these books and perhaps purchase them from us.

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 2, 2023

Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 2, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
2. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
3. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (ticketed event December 6)
4. The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
5. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
6. The English Understand Wool, by Helen Dewitt
7. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
8. The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray
9. The Mystery Guest V2, by Nita Prose
10. The Last Binding V3, by Freya Marske

The announcement of The New York Times ten-best list has an impact this week, as three of the top five fiction books show up in our top ten - North Woods, The Bee Sting, and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. Perhaps The Washington Post is also helping, as Daniel Mason and Paul Murray also showed up on that list. They are not on The Wall Street Journal list, but that paper only designated three fiction titles, as opposed to the traditional half and half. We'll see if North Woods can catch up to our success with The Winter Soldier in hardcover, which had several reads and an author visit. Sales for his new book are great, but we still have a long ways to go.

In addition to Tom Lake being in our top ten, despite a book-with-ticket event next week, Patchett's enthusiastic recommendation of The English Understand Wool on NPR gave the book a top-ten-worthy pop in sales at Boswell.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. A Very Chinese Cookbook, by Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Pang
2. Wisconsin Supper Clubs 2E, by Ron Faiola
3. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
4. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
5. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
6. The Wager, by David Grann
7. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
8. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
9. Surely You Can't Be Serious, by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abra
10. Democracy Awakening, by Heather Cox Richardson

In addition to sales pops for last week's events, three books see continued sales weeks after their appearances, including World Within a Song, Surely You Can't Be Serious, and The Comfort of Crows. We are particularly excited because even though our event with Margaret Renkl was virtual (you can watch it here), we are holding our own against stores who hosted her in person (#4 on Edelweiss), as long as you don't look at Nashville!

Paperback Fiction:
1. Tannenbaum Arms, by Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski
2. The Thursday Murder Club V1, by Richard Osman
3. A Marvellous Light V1, by Freya Marske
4. Bookshops and Bonedust, by Travis Baldree
5. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, by Satoshi Yagisawa
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
7. Sun Dog Memory, by Douglas Armstrong
8. The Employees, by Olga Ravn
9. The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon
10. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

Could it be possible to have two New Directions books on this week's bestseller list? In addition to The English Understand Wool, The Employees, pops as a particularly popular selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, meeting December 11. Though it's not at Comfort of Crows levels, we're still #21 in sales on Edelweiss, so we're punching a bit above our weight. Here's a link to the upcoming Boswell-run book club selections.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1 .Secret Milwaukee, by Jim Nelsen (Boswell event December 27)
2. Masterminds and Wingmen, by Rosalind Wiseman
3. Holy Food, by Christina Ward
4. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
5. Kodachrome Milwaukee, by Adam Levin
6. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
7. Dirtbag, Massachusetts, by Isaac Fitzgerald
8. Queen Bees and Wannabees, by Rosalind Wiseman
9. Persepolis V1, by Marjane Satrapi
10. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Selling off the new and noteworthy paperback table is Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional, a New York Times bestseller in hardcover (per the jacket - I'm not bothering to check) and the winner of the New England Book Award with blurbs from Roxane Gay, Min Jin Lee, and Marlon James. BookMarks has the book as six raves, five positives. From Publishers Weekly: "A marvelous coming-of-age story that's as wily and raunchy as it is heartfelt."

Books for Kids:
1. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
2. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
3. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Jon Klassen
4. Something Someday, by Amanda Gorman, illustrations by Christian Robinson
5. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
6. Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas, by Matt Tavares
7. The Fisherman, the Horse, and the Sea, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
8. Peekaboo Love, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
9. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
10. Before, Now, by Daniel Salmieri

He's not just the illustrator of the Dragons Love Tacos series. Daniel Salmieri has written and illustrated Before, Now, which was just named to The New York Times best illustrated kids books list. From Kirkus Reviews: "A series of moments, mundane and meaningful, capture the wonder of a life well lived. Each spread in the book offers a set of opposites... This meditation on the patterns of life shines with reminders of what we carry with us as we grow."

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 25, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 25, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
2. Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano
3. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
4. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
5. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
6. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
7. The Future, by Naomi Alderman
8. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
9. What You Are Looking for Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama
10. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
11. The Secret Book of Flora Lea, by Patti Callahan Henry
12. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
13. Day, by Michael Cunningham
14. Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward
15. Murder Your Employer, by Rupert Holmes

It's likely that being named book of the year by Amazon and Barnes and Noble is giving a sales bump to The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for independents too. It was also just named to the top ten-best by The Washington Post, as was North Woods. 

But let's also give a shout out to The Future, the follow-up to The Power, which was popular with a number of Boswellians. For The Future, our buyer Jason notes: "If the heads of those (social media) platforms don’t have the best intentions for the world in their ethos, then the world is truly doomed." From Ilana Masad in the Los Angeles Times: "It harbors a stubborn sense of optimism, theorizing that if only people of conscience helmed the richest and most powerful companies, they might be able to steer the ship of humanity to safety."

Last week I gave a shout out to The Door-to-Door Bookstore, a big-hearted, book-related, novel in translation. This week another title hits the list, What You Are Looking for Is in the Library. Michiko Aoyama's book is translated from Japanese by Alison Watts, who gets a rare translation credit on the book jacket. It's about a librarian who gives life-changing book recommendations. For a bookseller or even most book readers, this premise never gets cold!

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. The Wager, by David Grann
4. Why We Love Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
5. A Very Chinese Cookbook, by Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Pang (Boswell event November 28)
6. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
7. Wisconsin Supper Clubs 2E, by Ron Faiola (Boswell event November 30)
8. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
9. The Mysteries, by Bill Watterson and Jon Kascht
10. My Name Is Barbara, by Barbra Streisand

One doesn't always think about promoting baseball books in fall/holiday season, but hey, that's when people buy books. So for a title like Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, the publisher hoped for a bit of promotion around the World Series (the book came out in September), which could position the book for later gift giving. The good news is that BookMarks shows only raves - three of them! The bad news is that they are all from trades: Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. 

Breaking news: I found The Wall Street Journal review from Ben Yagoda that wasn't indexed by BookMarks: "Not everybody loves baseball and I imagine the minutiae and panegyrics herein will be boring or puzzling to those who don’t. But if you were that kid who felt a surge of gladness when Baseball Digest turned up in the mailbox, and if the game has continued to hold a place in your heart, well, I’ve got just the book for you."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Twilight Falls V4, by Juneau Black
2. The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa
3. A Death in Door County V1, by Annelise Ryan (Boswell event 12/14)
4. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
5. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
6. A Court of Thorns and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
7. The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
8. The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides
9. Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro
10. Hedge, by Jane Delury (Lit Group 12/4, Virtual Event 1/17)

Several authors have hot releases coming in 2024. We already started seeing preorders for Sarah J Maas's House of Flame and Shadows, volume 3 in the Crescent series and booksellers have been talking about The Fury, the new book (out January 16) from Alex Michaelides. But being that both that The Silent Patient and A Court of Thorn and Roses are still in our top 10, both authors are still have readers to entice.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
2. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
3. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
4. Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. All About Love, by bell hooks
7. Murdle V2, by GT Karber
8. Lyrics, by Paul McCarthy
9. Frank Lloyd Wright's Wisconsin, by Kristine Hansen
10. Endurance, by Alfred Lansing

The Murdle (volume 1 and volume 2 - the next one is due April 2024) series reminds me of the Dell Logic Puzzles that are still in the variety puzzle magazines that sometimes pop up at Boswell. You get a bunch of clues about how to match people to occupations and their favorite pies or something like that and there is an accompanying grid to help figure things out. My mother would buy these pocket editions at the grocery store and we would use tracing paper so we could both try to solve them*. Many of the Murdle puzzles have such grids, though I'm told (by Jason, who loves them) that they come with a better story.

Books for Kids:
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid V18: No Brainer, by Jeff Kinney
2. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
3. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
5. Bluey: Hooray It's Christmas, by who know who?
6. The Skull, by Jon Klassen
7. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
8. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats
9. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney?, by Mac Barnett, illustrations by Jon Klassen
10. Wombat, by Phiip Bunting

I would like to dedicate this space to my hand-selling of Wombat (two presentations last week that showed up this week's holiday lists) but I have to give a shout out to Jon Klassen, who has two new books in our top ten, his middle grade The Skull and his illustrated collaboration with Mac Barnett for How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? Kirkus on the latter: "For all that it leans heavily on absurdity, this book exhibits some serious heart. In the market for an understated Christmas classic? Behold! A Christmas miracle!"

*And no, the idea that we would buy two copies never came up.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 18, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 18, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. A Very Inconvenient Scandal, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (Tickets for December 6 event)
3. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
4. System Collapse V8, by Martha Wells
5. Swimming with Ghosts, by Michelle Brafman
6. Fourth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
7. The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese
8. The Door-to-Door Bookstore, by Carsten Henn. translated by Melody Shaw
9. The Secret Book of Flora Lea, by Patti Callahan Henry (Register for November 21 virtual event)
10. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
11. The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss
12. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal

Jason generally has a quirky-sweet story as one of his holiday picks, slotted on the back cover of our holiday newsletter. The books can be varied, but one thing they almost always have in common is that they are books in translation. Japanese, French, and at least once, Icelandic. Carsten Henn's The Door-to-Door Bookstore is a German bestseller, and is about an older man whose job hand-delivering books to customers is complicated by the interest of a young girl. Also his job is in peril. No BookMarks posting yet, but Der Spiegel's reviewer called it "The feel-good novel for all book lovers," while Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung  (it's a newspaper) called it "a warm-hearted story without kitsch with lovingly described protagonists. The right book for a dark rainy day, which immediately becomes a little brighter when you read it."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
2. The Messy Truth, by Alli Webb
3. Misfit, by Gary Gulman
4. It's Not You, It's Capitalism, by Malaika Jabali
5. Teaching the Invisible Race, by Tony DelaRosa
6. The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby
7. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
8. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl (Register for November 20 virtual event)
9. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
10. The Wager, by David Grann
11. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
12. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond

I did two book talks today - it's a nice way to figure out what hand-selling works and what falls flat. One book that is working is The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft, by Peter Bellerby, a Tim rec that is also featured in our holiday gift guide. We generally do very well with map books and this is a different take - one person's attempt to make a handmade globe. From Publishers Weekly: "While this sometimes reads as an extended advertisement for the author's business, readers will be fascinated by Bellerby's reverential and sometimes existential musings , which are enriched by stunning photos of the globemaking process. It's a fascinating deep dive into an arcane art."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Tandem, by Andy Mozina
2. The Neorealist in Winter, by Salvatore Pane
3. Twilight Falls V4, by Juneau Black
4. Ex-Wife, by Ursula Parrott
5. The Good Son, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
6. Last Summer on State Street, by Toya Wolfe
7. Dearborn, by Ghassan Zeineddine
8. The Deep End of the Ocean, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
9. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
10. The Whalebone Theatre, by Joanna Quinn

One suspects the massive sales at some stores for Ex-Wife might be from McNally Jackson, who are also the publisher of McNally Editions. But I am proud to say we are the #1 store in both the Great Lakes and Midwest regions for Edelweiss. Ursula Parrott's first novel was brought to my attention with the biography Becoming the Ex-Wife, and it comes with a swell backstory that helps sell the book. For a republication, McNally Editions did a spectacular job on press, with seven BookMarks reviews, including three raves and three positives. But perhaps the publisher says it best: "An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife is the story of a divorce and its aftermath that scandalized the Jazz Age - and still resonates today."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2. Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
3. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
4. Jews in the Garden, by Judy Rakowsky
5. Kodachrome Milwaukee, by Adam Levin
6. How We Live Is How We Die, by Pema Chödrön

Sadly, I supersized the hardcover lists because the books in the teens were outselling the bottom half of our paperback nonfiction list by more than two-to-one. I probably should have brought copies of Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Likes to Walk Outside with us to the Pabst last weekend - I only learned after the fact that Nick Offerman's latest chronicles a journey to Glacier National Park with Jeff Tweedy.

Books for Kids:
1. Death's Door, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
2. Mine, by Candace Fleming, illustrations by Eric Rohmann
3. Oh No, by Candace Fleming, illustrations by Eric Rohmann
4. Red and Green, by Lois Ehlert
5. The Eyes and the Impossible (McSweeney's edition), by Dave Eggers
6. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
7. Chalice of the Gods V6, by Rick Riordan
8. Dasher Can't Wait for Christmas, by Matt Tavares
9. Dogtown, by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko
10. The Snowy Day board book, by Ezra Jack Keats

Guess what holiday is coming? Topping the Christmas titles is Lois Ehlert's posthumous Red & Green, a classic Ehlert-style take on The Night Before Christmas. Booklist called it "A playful picture book that offers a familiar Christmas story and striking, distinctive art." The Milwaukee Art Museum is celebrating Ehlert with a series of story times and a talk that already happened. I'm sure most of you knew about it. More here.

Boswell bestsellers for Tweedolini week (November 5-11, 2023)

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 11, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Iron Flame V2, by Rebecca Yarros
2. Fourth Wing V1 special edition, by Rebecca Yarros
3. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
4. Wellness, by Nathan Hill
5. Fractal Noise V2, by Christoper Paolini
6. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt
7. Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus
8. Recipes for Murder, by Karen Pierce
9. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
10. Holly, by Stephen King

Rebecca Yarros's decision to pivot from romance to fantasy, or rather to the hybrid romantasy, was apparently the best decision since Rick Riordan pivoted from adult mysteries to middle-grade fiction. I suspect we'll see some news write-ups of Iron Flame's first week numbers. Congrats to the Red Tower imprint of Entangled.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. World Within a Song, by Jeff Tweedy
2. Infertilities, edited by Elizabeth Horn and Maria Novotny
3. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl (Register for virtual event November 20)
4. The Last Supper Club, by Matthew Batt
5. Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, by Curtis Chin
6. How to Write One Song, by Jeff Tweedy
7. Wisconsin Field to Fork, by Lori Fredrich
8. Activate Your Heroic Potential, by Brian Johnson
9. Prequel, by Rachel Maddow
10. Hidden Potential, by Adam Grant

Speaking of breakouts, Margaret Renkl's latest book, The Comfort of Crows, is also going crazy, and much as I'd like to say it's due to our upcoming virtual event with Urban Ecology Center, this appears to be a nationwide phenomenon. I don't know if the new incarnation of Spiegel & Grau has hit the national bestseller lists before, but they will now.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Twilight Falls V4, by Juneau Black
2. The Deluge, by Stephen Markley
3. Tandem, by Andy Mozina (Register for November 15 Boswell event)
4. Bookshops and Bonedust, by Travis Baldree
5. Hedge, by Jane Delury
6. Shady Hollow V1, by Juneau Black
7. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, by Christopher Paolini
8. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
9. A Court of Thorn and Roses V1, by Sarah J Maas
10. A Visit, by Shirley Jackson, illustrations by Seth

Take two of our big events from last week, Christopher Paolini's Murtagh and Juneau Black's Twilight Falls, cross 'em, and you might come up with Travis Baldree's Bookshops and Bonedust, often termed a cozy fantasy. From Kirkus: " As a prequel (to Legends and Lattes), it can stand alone, but will certainly satisfy fans as well. Warm and wonderful."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. A Crowded Hour, by Kevin Abing
2. Let's Go So We Can Get Back, by Jeff Tweedy
3. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
4. The Storyteller, by Dave Grohl
5. How We Live Is How We Die, by Pema Chodron
6. Butts: A Backstory, by Heather Radke
7. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund 

8. 111 Places in Milwaukee You Must Not Miss, by Michelle Madden
9. Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake
10. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann

I was curious where we stood on sales of our perennial paperback sellers, A Philosophy of Walking and A Year in the Woods, being that they are probably great pairings for The Comfort of Crows. It turns out we're #3 for one book on Edelweiss's inventory sharing system (Woods), and #5 for the other (Walking). According to my publishing source, anytime we're in the top 30, we're punching above our grade level, but when it's not about a major rec or event or regional interest, it's just that other stores are ignoring these indie-publisher books' potential.

Books for Kids:
1. Murtagh V5, by Christopher Paolini
2. Mine, by Candace Fleming, illustrations by Eric Rohmann
3. Oh No, by Candace Fleming, illustrations by Eric Rohmann
4. Eragon: The Illustrated Edition, by Christopher Paolini, illustrated by Sidharth Chatruverdi
5. Every Day's a Holiday, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Husna Aghinya
6. Minerva Keen's Detective Club, by James Patterson and Keir Graff
7. Eragon V1, by Christopher Paolini
8. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, by Mo Willems
9. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
10. No Brainer V18, by Jeff Kinney

Aside from one big event (Paolini - we still have signed copies of Murtagh) and three school visits (Fleming/Rohman, Stef Wade, Keir Graff), the biggest trend was how many holiday books we sold this week, led by Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh. School Library Journal called the latest by Willems " A good choice for a Santa-centric and Christmas-specific collection."

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 4, 2023

Boswell bestsellers, week ending November 4, 2023

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Midnight Is the Darkest Hour, by Ashley Winstead
2. The Vaster Wilds, by Lauren Groff
3. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
4. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett (Tickets for December 6 theater event)
5. Absolution, by Alice McDermott
6. Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward
7. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride
8. When I'm Dead V3, by Hannah Morrissey
9. Foster, by Claire Keegan
10. Armor of Light V5, by Ken Follett

Absolution is the latest from one of my fave authors, Alice McDermott - her first novel in six years. Its release brings back memories of selling books with my late colleagues Anne, Elly, and Beverly, whose love for McDermott goes back to the days of At Weddings and Wakes; it was one of those novels that the Book Nook sold like crazy.

From Jennifer Egan's New York Times review: "Although she opens with an epigraph from The Quiet American, Graham Greene’s 1955 indictment of catastrophic American blundering in post-colonial Vietnam, McDermott asserts her revisionist focus in the novel’s third sentence: 'You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.' She then delves into the lives and activities of the blunderers’ wives during the last era in American life in which being a husband’s 'helpmeet' was widely seen as a worthy fulfillment of feminine ambition." Bookmarks round-up yields five raves and a positive.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Surely You Can't Be Serious, by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abra
2. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
3. Being Henry, by Henry Winkler
4. The Woman in Me, by Britney Spears
5. How to Know a Person, by David Brooks
6. Remember Love, by Cleo Wade
7. Start Here, by Sohla El-Waylly
8. Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, by Curtis Chin (Registration for November 5 event - that's today) 

9. Democracy Awakening, by Heather Cox Richardson
10. The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl (Register for November 20 virtual event)

It is unusual for Macmillan to distribute the top three titles on any of our lists, and even more so that two of the three come from the same division Celadon. In addition to our steady sales of While Your Were Out, we have our first week of sales for Henry Winkler's Being Henry. No, I don't know why the publisher skipped Milwaukee as a tour stop. No, I don't know if any of these other cities have Fonzie statues in their downtown. Thank you for calling.

Four positives on BookMarks. From Mark Kennedy at Associated Press: "Winkler’s 245-page book charts his course chronologically from the Fonz to Barry - and the frustrating fallow periods in between - painting a portrait of a man trying to overcome a bitter, loveless childhood and a disability that made reading impossibly hard and simply trying to become a better man."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Dish Best Served Hot, by Natalie Caña
2. The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga
3. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
4. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by VE Schwab
5. The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sosuke Natsukawa
6. Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett
7. A Proposal They Can't Refuse, by Natalie Caña
8. The Boyfriend Candidate, by Ashley Winstead
9. The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang
10. Circe, by Madeline Miller

We had a nice event with Natalie Caña for her second novel, A Dish Best Served Hot. Many people think she is from Chicago because her series is set in the historically Puerto Rican Humboldt Park neighborhood, but that's partly because Milwaukee doesn't have such a neighborhood, with the community first centered on the Lower East Side, then Riverwest, then the South Side. That said, the community center in the novel is based on Milwaukee's UCC.

From Kirkus: "The latest in Caña's Vega Family Love Stories series is full of all of the dynamics that made A Proposal They Can't Refuse so irresistible, from a comedic cast of supporting characters to an emphasis on the importance of community. Saint and Lola's relationship is explored through both past and present timelines, emphasizing just how deep their history runs and providing an illuminating comparison between the people they were before and the ones who are much better equipped to pick up where they left off. A vibrant second-chance love story about repairing community and romantic connection."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
2. The Switch, by Jason Puskar
3. An Immense World, by Ed Yong
4. The Indigenous Continent, by Pekka Hämäläinen
5. How We Live Is How We Die, by Pema Chödrön
6. The Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
7. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, by Nick Offerman
8. The Grandest Stage by Tyler Kepner
9. A Year in the Woods, by Torbjorn Ekelund
10. All About Love by bell hooks

Jason Puskar, author of The Switch: An Off and on History of Digital Humans is Professor of English at UWM. A blurb from Mark Goble: "In this deeply ambitious and sophisticated book, Jason Puskar invites us to think more seriously about what happens almost every time we touch one of our devices and turn it on or swipe or click. From the technologies at our fingertips to the vastly larger networks of politics and language that they operate and represent, The Switch provides a fascinating cultural history of how we have made the modern world, and been remade in turn, by the simplest of human actions and the connections they enable."

Books for Kids
1. The Hour of Need, by Ralph Shayne, illustrations by Tatiana Goldberg
2. Let Me Finish, by Minh Lê, illustrations by Isabel Roxas
3. Minerva Keene's Detective Club, by James Patterson and Keir Graff
4. Lift, by Minh Lê, illustrations by Dan Santat
5. Curses Are the Worst V1, by Elizabeth Eulberg
6. Zombie Wedding Crashers V2, by Elizabeth Eulberg
7. Real to Me, by Minh Lê, illustrated by Raissa Figueroa
8. Tiny Mansion, by Keir Graff
9. You Are Here: Connecting Flights, by Ellen Oh
10. No Brainer V18, by Jeff Kinney

Minh Lê was recently in town doing an area school visit. Her most recent picture book is Real to Me, which was featured on the May/June Indie Next List. From Kirkus: "The imaginary-friend trope gets turned on its head. Told mostly in first person, this story follows a large furry green creature and a small Black girl who are engaged in a series of adventures...Together the two laugh and play, are brave together, and get in trouble. Others say that the friend is imaginary, but our narrator isn't so sure. And then, one day, the friend is unexpectedly gone. Now it becomes clear that the narrator wasn't the girl but the newly morose and lonely monster."