Here's what is selling at Boswell, week ending October 15, 2016

Here's what selling at Boswell.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
2. The Trespasser, by Tana French
3. Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. Today Will Be Different, by Maria Semple
5. Jerusalem, by Alan Moore
6. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
7. Small Great Things, by Jodi Picoult
8. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
9. The Mothers, by Brit Bennett
10. Lady Cop Makes Trouble, by Amy Sttewart

Brit Bennett's The Mothers is the #1 Indie Next pick for October. It was recommended by Jamie Thomas of Chicago's Women and Children First: “The ‘mothers’ of this book’s title refers to the gaggle of elderly churchgoing women who comment on the congregation around them, especially the trio of Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey. But The Mothers is about more than that — it refers to the concept of motherhood, whether biological, lost, aborted, adoptive, or conflicted. The three young people at the heart of this story are all flawed, but their portrayals are realistic and they are easy for readers to support. This is a book about salvation — not the spiritual salvation that the gossiping, but well-intentioned mothers seek, but the kind that comes with self-acceptance and growth. The Mothers is an honest, modern, and triumphant book.”

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Belly Art Project, by Sara Blakely
2. Be Obsessed or Be Average, by Grant Cardone
3. The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need, by Anthony Iannorino
4. By the People, by Charles Murray
5. Portfolio Society, by Ivan Ascher
6. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
7. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
8. Upstream, by Mary Oliver
9. My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
10. Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky

Those who get an early mailing of our bestsellers will know that I inadvertently moved Mary Oliver's Upstream to the fiction list from nonfiction, which is where we generally slot poetry. But Oliver's newest, Upstream, is a collection of essays. In The Washington Post, Elizabeth Lund writes: "The richness of these essays — part revelation, part instruction — will prompt readers to dive in again and again as Oliver reveals more about what she feels is the responsibility to live, observe and write with careful attention, passion, and an abiding awareness that hope is 'a fighter and a screamer.'”

Paperback Fiction:
1. Hostile Takeover, by Phyllis Piano
2. Home, by Toni Morrison
3. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
4. A Planet for Rent, by Yoss
5. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
6. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
7. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
8. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
9. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
10. Super Extra Grande, by Yoss

Cuban science fiction writer Yoss made a last-minutes top at Marquette to deliver two lectures, one in English and another in Spanish. Apparently Cuba has a storied tradition in science fiction and fantasy and Restless Books is tapping into it by publishing the work of Yoss, including A Planet for Rent and Super Extra Grande, and two works by Agostín de Rojas, The Year 200 and A Legend of the Future. Here's an NPR piece from Juan Vidal. We have signed copies of Yoss.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. As You Wish, by Cary Elwes
2. Between Truth and Time, by Christine Evans
3. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
4. The Road to Character, by David Brooks
5. You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero
6. Ottoman Endgame, by Sean McMeekin
7. My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem
8. Shallow Grave, by Gavin Schmitt
9. Reclaiming Conversation, by Sherry Turkle
10. The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf

David Brooks has been a regular talking head during the election season, and The Road to Character has been popping into our top ten with some regularity. Is it a coincidence that his current work discusses his attempt to "transcend shallow punditry," as Rebecca Mead in The New Yorker wrote? Here's a telling quote within the review: "I’m paid to be a narcissistic blowhard, to volley my opinions, to appear more confident about them than I really am, to appear smarter than I really am, to appear better and more authoritative than I really am. I have to work harder than most people to avoid a life of smug superficiality.”

Picture Books and Board Books:
1. Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Hat, by Marilyn Sadler with illustrations by Eric Comstock
2. Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice, by Marilyn Sadler with illustrations by Eric Comstock
3. Miss Paul and the President, by Dean Robbins with illustrations by Nancy Zhang
4. Two Friends, by Dean Robbins with illustrations by Susan Qualls
5. Everything I Know I Learned from a Star Wars Little Golden Book, edited by Geof Smith
6. A Porcupine Named Fluffy, by Helen Lester with illustrations by Lynn Munsinger
7. Eek Halloween, by Sandra Boynton
8. I Dissent, by Debbie Levy with illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley
9. We Found a Hat, by Jon Klassen
10. Because of Thursday, by Patricia Polacco

A day with illustrator Eric Comstock, he of Charlie Piechart and the Missing Hat and Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice, was much enjoyed by kids at several area schools. Comstock told us that the current series, which teaches math concepts to picture book readers, could run for seven books, with a mix of picture books and early readers. The newest uses the cone-shaped hat to explore shapes. We noticed that Mr. Comstock's artwork appeared on one of our Calypso Cards. In addition to the books, they are also now signed!

Middle Grade and YA Books:
1. Gertie's Leap to Greatness, by Kate Beasley
2. Mighty Jack, by Ben Hatke
3. The Secret Keepers, by Trenton Lee Stewart
4. Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke
5. The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart
6. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart
7. Thor's Hammer, by Rick Riordan
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets illustrated edition, by J.K. Rowling
9. Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqeline Woodson (event Fri 10/21, 6:30, at Centennial Hall)
10. Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke

Another author who did school visits (though she had a public event at Books and Company that we encouraged you to vist) was Kate Beasley, author of Gertie's Leap to Greatness. It's not common for a middle grade book by a non celeb to be reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, by Alison Sadlier takes on the job and offers a B+, writing: "Gertie is both entertaining and exceptionally realistic, and Beasley handles the character’s insecurities about her place in the world in a way that kids can relate to and sympathize with. Though sometimes it feels like there are one too many heartbreaking embarrassments bearing down on Gertie, the precocious grade-schooler is one readers will love to root for, and her zany antics make the lengthy 256-page tale worthwhile."

We should also note that Kate Beasley's sister wrote Circus Mirandus, another popular book at Boswell!

Over at the Journal Sentinel TAPBooks section, Jim Higgins profiles Jennifer Weiner, who is coming to Boswell on Tuesday, October 18, for a ticketed event for Hungry Heart. He writes: "With the fluid, feisty and funny voice she cultivated as a feature writer before turning to novels, Jennifer Weiner's first nonfiction book could have been a punchy collection of essays and commentaries, and everyone would have gone home happy. But, Weiner said during a telephone interview, as she dug into the writing, she checked in with her gut. 'I want to write it for women who don’t see their stories a lot, women who maybe don’t see themselves a lot on the page or on the screen," she said. "I want to tell my stories to make those readers feel less alone and more visible in the world.'" Buy tickets here.

Chris Foran, Journal Sentinel editor, looks at the history of Esperanto in Esther Schor's Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language. Foran notes how the language was created to bridge cultures: "Initially, Zamenhof pitched the language as an efficiency measure, 'an official and commercial dialect' that would cut through cultural and language barriers. But Zamenhof, a former Zionist who had given up on the idea of a Jewish state as an antidote to anti-Semitism, also saw Esperanto's potential as a universal language that could break down barriers."

And finally, special to the Journal Sentinel, it's Carole Barrowman's Paging Through Mysteries roundup. Here are this week's picks.

Hold a Scorpion, by Melodie Johnson Howe features an actor slash amateur detective. Barrowman: "I adore Diana and this series with its southern California settings and its Hollywood insider vibe. And Johnson Howe knows this world intimately. The author was once an actor. According to IMDB.com, she’s the woman in the bathtub with Clint Eastwood in the opening scenes of Coogan’s Bluff."

Victim Without a Face, by Stefan Ahnhem is "a stellar debut" about a detective who discovers that his school classmates are being punished for their childhood sins. Barrowman: "Victim Without a Face is an all-encompassing crime novel: a compelling character study, a relentless plot exploring the nature of revenge, and a taut mystery."

The Oslo Conspiracy, by Asle Skredderberget features a financial crimes expert investigating the death of a scientist. Barrowman: "Turns out, the scientist is the sister of a boy murdered in a gang slaying in a playground years before. Cavalli is determined to discover the connection and find the killer. The plot whisks readers from Oslo to Rome to New York and back in a tale of corporate espionage and family secrets."

One last thing! Also in the Journal Sentinel is Duane Dudek's profile of Bryan Cranston, who is coming to the Pabst for an event sponsored by Kansas City's Rainy Day Books. Tickets are $35 plus taxes and fees and include a copy of A Life in Parts.

Don't forget, our event with Patricia Polacco is cancelled this coming Saturday, due to illness.

Daniel's Reading List: eating in Japan and sorting out the Mitford sisters

Yes, I read books that are not for upcoming events.

Super Sushi Ramen Express: One Family's Journey Through the Belly of Japan, by Michael Booth.
European*-based journalist Booth, whose previous works chronicled travels in Scandinavia, and retracing the steps of Hans Christian Andersen, takes the family to Japan for a giant serving of sushi, tempura, ramen, and many other Japanese delicacies. One thing you learn is that while there are many regional specialties, the country is mostly divided in cuisine between East (Kanto, centered in Tokyo) and West (Kansei, represented by Kyoto and Osaka), particularly after the revered cookbook writer Shizuo Tsuji died in 1993. For just one example, the West is into udon while the East does soba. The focus in the story is on food, with the story told in fairly short bursts about, say, takoyaki, a popular street food which is like a savory donut with bits of octopus inside. Wasabi, dashi, bonito, and fugu, the potentially dangerous puffer fish made popular stateside by Home Simpson, get their moment, and Booth’s kitchen tour brings him to many obscure and invitation-only places, such as the restaurant where your noodles are tossed in a spring and you catch and eat them downstream. The personal narrative is a bit more muted than Bill Bryson and the focus is more on food than funny, but then you’ll get his take on the burgeoning Japanese wine industry: “I’ve tasted it, so you don’t have to.” In the end, Super Sushi Ramen Express did the trick, making me curious, hungry, and more forgiving of MSG.

The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters, by Laura Thompson.
A helpful hint in sorting out the Mitford sisters suggested listing them like the wives of King Henry VIII: novelist, countrywoman, Fascist, Nazi, communist, Duchess. What this group biography does is explain how their fates were much tied to their relationships – Unity’s Nazi leanings were probably enhanced by Diana falling in with Fascists, while Jessica’s jump to the Left was also probably exacerbated as a reaction against the other sisters move to the Right. In other words, everything was personal, and many of their later stories were a reaction to Nancy chronicling their lives in the bestselling The Pursuit of Love**. When I told my fellow bookseller that I was reading a group biography of the Mitford sisters, she wondered if it was The Sisters, a 15-year-old group biography from Mary Lovell, and that led to a discussion about how much had already been written about the family, but that said, this new addition is both a great introduction for Mitford novices and according to critics (I bow to them because I wouldn’t know), a welcome addition for experts. You never know when you’ll see a Mitford connection. Just after I finished the book, I noticed that Robert Gottlieb, in a review for Avid Reader, was the editor for Jessica Mitford’s breakout bestseller, The American Way of Death. I still have a very distinct memory of my sales rep Tom selling The American Way of Birth to me over 20 years ago***. I have no idea why. I also don’t understand why the publisher changed the title from the British edition, which was called the Michael-Aptedy Take Six Girls. The book had already been reviewed widely in British press, and in the days of the Internet, the title change just confuses the issue.

*Bios had him living in both Denmark and France, so I went cautious.

**Which I now want to read.

***It did not do as well as the publisher hoped.

Ten Things to Know About Jennifer Weiner's Ticketed Event at Boswell on Tuesday, October 18, 7 pm.

Ten things to know about our ticketed event with Jennifer Weiner on Tuesday, October 18, 7 pm, in addition to the regular things to know, like her new book is Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing, and that tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets are $28 including the book.

1. Bibliography! Jennifer Weiner's been pleasing fans since the release of her first novel, Good in Bed, in 2001. She followed that up with In Her Shoes, which became a beloved movie starring Camron Diaz and Toni Collette. Her most recent novel for adults is Who Do You Love. She has ten novels in print altogether, plus one collection of stories, The Guy Not Taken. As a bookseller, I don't pay much attention to ebooks (as we can't sell them very well, with apologies to Kobo). But if you are hungry for more Weiner, there is Good Men, which is a prequel  to Good in Bed, and five other stories.

Jennifer Weiner has also just released her first novel for kids, The Littlest Bigfoot. It's going to be a movie!

2. Jennifer Weiner's been standing up for people since she was in college and protested same-sex eating clubs. You'd know this if you read her new book. She's used traditional and new media to make the argument that women and men don't get treated equally when it comes to book coverage. For those who argue that chick lit and romance aren't worthy of serious coverage like literary novels, why do equally escapist thriller, predominantly written by men, get serious attention in mainstream media that eludes not just romance and chick lit, but the softer genre mysteries written more often by women?

3. I'm not very good at social media, but Weiner is a Twitter phenom with 135,000 followers, particularly for a writer who doesn't have her own line of clothing and a reality show (yet). To put it in perspective, we have 3000 followers. Lately we've been focusing on Instagram, where we have...65 followers.  Check out Weiner's Instagram feed too.

4. I love memoirs in the form of essays. Two of my previous favorites are Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of My Lives and Elinor Lipman's I Can't Complain*. What I  like about these kinds of books, including Jennifer Weiner's new Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing, is take nonfiction works that were written for all sorts of reasons and published in all sorts of places, and lay them out so that it becomes the writer's life. Weiner's parents grew up in Detroit but they moved to a town outside Hartford, Connecticut. Her dad eventually abandoned the family, and much later than that, her mom came out.

Weiner went through what a lot of kids go through, and some things that not every kid goes through, and sadly, some things that we now accept go on a lot more than we think, like bullying and weight shaming, particularly from her dad. One really great essay in Hungry Heart shows that at least for her, acceptance came with not really caring what other people thought. It's a tough lesson, sort of like the one where people tell you that you'll fall in love when you're not looking.

5. What else is in Hungry Heart? Other essays deal with having having a working journalism and then writing career, marriage and divorce, raising her two daughters, watching a film get made of one of her books, watching it not do as well as everyone hoped. I don't know if you're aware of this, but we're in a romantic comedy drought. What's happening? Can we have a comedy where people don't have bodily fluid issues? Has psychological suspense taken away this market? No more When Harry Met Sallys, no more Sleepless in Seattles, no more Knocked Ups. I can't find the article that I read about this, but here's one from L.A. Weekly in 2014.

That's too bad, because I often opined the difficulty in having a successful romantic comedy become a bestseller, but I always thought, at least there's film possibilities. But now, not so much.

6. Critical Reception. Daniel, what are folks saying about this book?

From Wild author Cheryl Strayed: “Hungry Heart is a fiercely funny, powerfully smart, and remarkably brave book. With candor, wit, and insight, Jennifer Weiner writes beautifully about her darkest struggles and brightest triumphs, about growing up and getting on with it, about gaining and losing, about herself and also—ultimately—about all of us. I was spellbound by Hungry Heart from the first page to the last.”

From Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Eligible and American Wife: "“Haven't we all wondered exactly how the many-splendored Jennifer Weiner became so many-splendored? This candid, poignant, and very funny memoir tells all, and I'm confident other readers will be as fascinated and moved by it as I was.”

From Publishers Weekly's starred review: "“In this generous, entertaining memoir, novelist Weiner known for her plus-size heroines, authentic voice, and hilarious one-liners, offers her fans and others a front-row seat to the drama of her life. Weiner doggedly pursues her dream of becoming a writer who speaks to women's lives, insisting—and proving— that women's stories matter.“

7. Will I enjoy my evening with Jennifer Weiner? Why not take a test drive. Watch a little of this great interview on CBS News with Gayle King. They talk about the first time her daughter used the "f" word, and by that, I mean "fat."

8. Do we have a great interview partner or what? We have so many great folks to work with in Milwaukee for our events, but when Journal Sentinel Assistant Entertainment/Features Editor (we're also allowed to call him the Book Editor) and I began chatting, I realized he was the perfect fit for Weiner. What I love about Higgins is that he is a true book lover and a great critical thinker, but his interests go far and wide. He can write about poetry and genre fantasy with equal conviction. He understands that every kind of writing has its own guidelines for success and has never fallen into that critical trap of treating women writers as second class citizens. While we don't always agree, I always respect his opinions. Let's hear it for discourse!

It's also important to know that Jennifer Weiner's earlier career was in the newspaper business, and that Higgins in his career used some of her pieces at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

9. The history of Jennifer Weiner at Boswell. This is Weiner's first visit to Boswell but she actually appeared once at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop on Downer Ave. All I know is that I had a car and I didn't know the neighborhood and I got there late and I had trouble parking...and so I didn't attend.

Don't let this happen to you! For one thing, nobody told me what I can now tell you. When parking, don't do what most visitors do and head north (lots of restaurants) and west (apartments with relatively few off-street options) of the store, and instead head east (houses with alleys and garages) and south. The best spots are on Downer Avenue, south of Bradford, near the Gilman Triangle and Eastcast Place Senior Living Why didn't I understand this?

I should also note that there's now a parking garage across the street where there was a small lot previously. It's not a cheap lot and we don't reimburse for parking, but the truth is that the roof parking is actually quite cheap.

10. When we were working to set up the event, we were told that Jennifer Weiner likes a little treat at her event. Now I have quite the sweet tooth and could probably write for months on Milwaukee's dessert history, but for this event, we decided to get a tray each of two of my current favorites. The first is the incredible Outpost Natural Foods brownie (no nuts, chocolate chunks, a hint of coffee, said to be passed down from a famous now-closed bakery) and the other is the Beans and Barley poppy seed torte, which we're serving as mini cupcakes. It's got the richest butter cream frosting and is dense with poppy seeds, so dense that I'd advise not eating one before a drug test.

Tickets are still available for our event on October 18, 7 pm, so I'm making another plug. Is there a $20 Boswell gift card option in lieu of the book on the night of the event? Yes, there is.

*Sorry about the typo! I blame the two other folks in my life with the other (wrong) spelling.

Event Forecast: Cuban Science Fiction with Yoss, Political Science with Ivan Ascher, Soviet History with Christine Evans, Contemporary Romance with Phyllis Piano and a Preview of Tula Connell's 1950s Milwaukee Politics.

Tuesday, October 11, 7 pm, at the Raynor Memorial Library Conference Center Beaumier Suite BC, 1355 W Wisconsin Ave:
Yoss, author of Super Extra Grande and A Planet for Rent.

In a distant future in which Latin Americans have pioneered faster-than-light space travel, Dr. Jan Amos Sangan Dongo has a job with large and unusual responsibilities: he's a veterinarian who specializes in treating enormous alien animals. Mountain-sized amoebas, multisex species with bizarre reproductive processes, razor-nailed, carnivorous humanoid hunters: Dr. Sangan has seen it all. When a colonial conflict threatens the fragile peace between the galaxy's seven intelligent species, he must embark on a daring mission through the insides of a gigantic creature and find two swallowed ambassadors who also happen to be his competing love interests.

Funny, witty, raunchy, and irrepressibly vivacious, Super Extra Grande is a rare specimen in the richly parodic tradition of Cuban science fiction, and could only have been written by a Cuban heavy-metal rock star with a biology degree: the inimitable Yoss. Marquette University presents Voss in two presentations, first up "Utopias and Distopias in Cuban Science-Fiction Literature." Our buyer Jason is a big fan of Voss's, having read both Super Extra Grande and A Planet for Rent and calls his work "bleak and brilliant."

Please note that while this event is in English, Voss and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo will be giving a talk in Spanish on Wednesday, October 12, 3 :30 pm called "Trends in Cuban Narratives." This event is a Lalumiere 172 and is also open to the public.

Wednesday, October 12, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Ivan Ascher, author of Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction, in conversation with UWM Associate Professor of Political Science Kennan Ferguson.

UWM Assistant Professor of Political Science Ivan Ascher will discuss with UWM Associate Professor Kennan Ferguson about his new book, which his publisher, Zone Books, describes as a persuasive critique of contemporary culture, politics, and economy. Resituating Marxian analysis in a landscape thoroughly transformed by and through financial instruments, Ascher argues that consumers, and more specifically consumer debt, is the new worker capital capital to be exploited by the markets.

As Frank Pasquale, author of The Black Box Society, notes: "Portfolio Society is a brilliant account of what happens when those at the commanding heights of the economy shift their focus from production to prediction. Rather than bother with the nitty-gritty of making things or providing services directly, they engage in bets on and scoring of those who do. Ascher exposes how this mode of investment transforms risk takers into risk shifters."

If you are a fan of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, this event is for you.

Thursday, October 13, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Christine Evans, author of Between Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television.

In the first full-length study of Soviet Central Television to draw extensively on archival sources, interviews, and television recordings, UWM Assistant Professor of History Christine Evans challenges the idea that Soviet mass culture in the Brezhnev era was dull and formulaic. Tracing the emergence of play, conflict, and competition on Soviet news programs, serial films, and variety and game shows, Evans shows that Soviet Central Television’s most popular shows were experimental and creative, laying the groundwork for Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms and the post-Soviet media system.

Diane Koenker of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers this recommendation: “This engagingly written book will be of great interest to those interested in late socialism (inside and outside the USSR), and media more generally. It intersects with conversations about late socialism, the role of intellectuals in the USSR, youth, media technology, celebrity, class, cultural politics, and the question of political legitimacy in authoritarian regimes.”

Note that you might remember Evans from our event earlier this year when she was in conversation with Simon Sebag Montefiore, who appeared at Boswell for his recent bestseller, The Romanovs, 1613-1918.

Friday, October 14, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Phyllis Piano, author of Hostile Takeover: a Love Story

Long lost love, a hostile corporate takeover, and the death of her beloved husband turn attorney Molly Parr's life into a tailspin that threatens to ruin everything she has ever worked for. Parr's job is to take over companies, but when her first love appears from nowhere and tries to take over her business, long-hidden secrets (some of them passionate) are exposed.

Kris Radish, bestselling author of The Elegant Gathering of White Snows and The Sunday List of Dreams, of writes: "Piano has done a great job of marrying the corporate world with the complicated world of the heart. Love and business collide in this novel, where the intricate dealings of business intersect with one woman's past and changes everything about her future. Fun and entertaining, Hostile Takeover will definitely make you a believer in true love."

Phyllis Piano was a long-time Milwaukee-based corporate communications expert. Through it all, she managed to maintain her sense of adventure, her love or writing, and a passion for life and the people she cares about.

Monday, October 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Tula A. Connell, author of Conservative Counterrevolution: Challenging Liberalism in 1950s Milwaukee.

In the 1950s, Milwaukee's strong labor movement and socialist mayor seemed to embody a dominant liberal consensus that sought to expand the New Deal. In this new book which is part of the University of Illinois Press's The Working Class in American History series, Tula A. Connell explores how business interests and political conservatives arose to undo that consensus, and how the resulting clash both shaped a city and helped redefine postwar American politics.

Labor writer and historian Connell focuses on Frank Zeidler, the city's socialist mayor, whose broad concept of the public interest at times defied even liberal expectations. At the same time, a resurgence of conservatism with roots presaging twentieth-century politics challenged Zeidler's initiatives in public housing, integration, and other areas. Connell's thesis is that the organized backlash campaign undermined notions of the common good essential to the New Deal order. It also sowed the seeds for grassroots conservatism's future success.

Choice Magazine writes that "Connell's account is readable and sound" and compares it to Detroit's Cold War: The Origins of Postwar Conservatism, from Colleen Doody. Connell returns to Milwaukee after being part of the Zeidler lecture series last spring.

Annotated Bestsellers including the new Tana French, a publishing memoir from Robert Gottlieb, a new film at the Downer, and a whole bunch of events

Greetings from Boswell at the end of a very exciting week. Here are our annotated bestsellers.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Mercury, by Margot Livesey
2. The Trespasser, by Tana French
3. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett (event sold out)
4. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
5. Another Brooklyn, by Jacqueline Woodson (event 10/21, 6:30 pm, at Centennial Hall)
6. Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer
7. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
8. The Wonder, by Emma Donohue
9. Rain in Portugal, by Billy Collins
10. Perfume River, by Robert Olen Butler

In retrospect, we were lucky to host Tana French back at Boswell (at the Shorewood branch, I went!) for one of her early crime novels, as we've been told she no longer tours to the United States. Her new release, The Trespasser, has this excellent review from Mark Lawson in The Guardian that also explains her process: "In the closest that French has got to a conventional followup, The Trespasser allows a second successive case to Detectives Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran, who investigated the killing of a teenage boy within the grounds of an exclusive girls’ private school in The Secret Place, the book that gold-plated French’s reputation in both the UK and US.Typically, though, the novelist now hands the narrative from Moran to Conway, so that the partnership is viewed through a fresh lens."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Hero of the Empire, by Candice Millard
2. Is This the End?, by David Jeremiah
3. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
4. As You Wish, by Cary Elwes
5. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
6. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
7. Avid Reader, by Robert Gottlieb
8. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer
9. In the Coumpany of Women, by Grace Bonney
10. My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

We have another good week with Bob Gottlieb's publishing memoir, Avid Reader. Whereas books about books tend to do pretty well in bookstores, I think this took us a bit by surprise. Thomas Mallon's New York Times Book Review essay writes "The long Simon and Schuster chapter, a love song that is the best stretch of the book, includes Gott­lieb’s great editorial successes with Jessica Mitford’s gleeful muckraking of the funeral industry (The American Way of Death) and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 — “still the book I’m most closely associated with,” one whose author showed a “total lack of defensiveness” while being edited."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
2. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
3. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
4. Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh (book club discussion 11/7, 7 pm)
5. The Improbability of Love, by Hannah Rothschild (book club discussion 12/5, 7 pm)
6. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
7. Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, by Bradley Beaulieu
8. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
9. The Drifter, by Nicholas Petrie
10. The Japanese Lover, by Isabel Allende

Down the block at the Downer Theater is the film version of A Man Called Ove, or in Swedish, En man som heter Ove. Alissa Simon in Variety notes: " Music Box Films, which has spun popular Swedish literature-into-film fare such as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window And Disappeared into box office gold, surely has another winner here. In Sweden, the pic netted more than 1.6 million admissions, making it the fifth most popular local feature of all time." She notes that the acting is excellent, particularly that of the character playing Ove and his Iranian neighbor Parvaneh. And we've also been getting great feedback from attendees coming into Boswell after seeing the film.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. As You Wish, by Cary Elwes
2. Ottoman Endgame, Sean McMeekin
3. The Road to Character, by David Brooks
4. Sheet Pan Suppers, by Molly Gilbert
5. Swimming Studies, by Leanne Sharpton
6. Destiny of the Republic, by Candice Millard
7. Why not Me?, by Mindy Kaling
8. Old Farmers Almanac 2017
9. Flying Couch, by Amy Kurzweil
10. The River of Doubt, by Candice Millard

The Riverside Theater hosted Cary Elwes as part of their screening of The Princess Bride, with Elwes in conversation afterwards with Lake Effect's Mitch Teich. Salon's Gary M. Kramer profiled Elwes and his memoir, As You Wish, on the hardcover's release. Of the film, he wrote: "When it was released in 1987, The Princess Bride may not have stormed the box office like the film’s characters storm the castle, but this charming, timeless adaptation of William Goldman’s novel has become a cult favorite, one that exceeded everyone’s expectations. It also defies some classification. Most folks tend to think of it as a children’s film, but it is one of those films adults love perhaps more than their kids." I worked at Warner when they published Adventures in the Screen Trade and the novels The Color of Light and Heat, and I read all three, but I've never read this. I did see Marathon Man, however, and I don't want to talk about it.

Picture and Board Books for Kids:
1. Click, Clack, Surprise, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
2. Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
3. Animals and Their Young, by Pamela Hickman
4. Click, Clack, Moo, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
5. Click, Clack, Peep, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
6. I Took a Walk, by Henry Cole
7. When Winter Comes, by Nancy Van Laan, illustrated by Susan Gaber
8. The Story of Snow, by Mark Cassino
9. Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke
10. Room on the Broom board book, by Julia Donaldson

One of the nice things about school visits is that it really does give everyone something to talk about afterwards. A librarian who was helping coordinate a visit from Laurie Halse Anderson told me that her son had become a big fan of Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, reading Duck for President aloud to the family. And as a reception for Margot Livesey, another writer told me that her son went to our Trenton Lee Stewart school visit and then back to the public event (with his Dad, Mom went to Livesey) as he's a big fan of the series and is likely now a fan of The Secret Keepers. We have signed copies of both books, and also Click, Clack, Surprise.

Middle Grade and YA Books:
1. Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye, by Tania Del Rio and Will Staehle
2. The Secret Keepers, by Trenton Lee Stewart
3. Ashes V3, by Laurie Halse Anderson
4. Chains V1, by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
6. Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson
7. Forge V2, by Laurie Halse Anderson
8. The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart
9. Holding up the Universe, by Jennifer Niven
10. Mighty Jack, by Ben Hatke

This list is 100% event driven, including #1's Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye, written by Tania Del Rio and illustrated by Will Staehle. The author/illustrator team visited three schools in Whitefish Bay, Greenfield, and Wauwatosa (actually two schools, who gathered at the library) and charmed close to 1000 kids. Of the book, which was released in late 2015, George O'Connnor wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "Tania del Rio, who is best known for writing and drawing an impressive run of over 40 issues of Sabrina the Teenage Witch gives Warren and his friends an engaging mystery to unravel, with a few nice twists and surprises along the way...As drawn by his creator, Will Staehle, Warren the 13th is a grotesque yet appealing creature, a gaptoothed gargoyle dressed like Buster Brown, complete with luxuriant blond curls." For those who'd like to preorder #2 from us, here's info about Warren the 13th and the Whispering Woods.

Over at the Journal Sentinel TapBooks page, Mike Fischer reviews Much Ado, Michael Lenehan's chronicle of the American Players Theatre's "stellar production of the 2014 production of Much Ado About Nothing. He writes: "Early chapters set the stage, giving us a brief overview of APT; succinct but informative biographies of leads Colleen Madden and David Daniel; and background on “Much Ado” itself, presented without fuss or pretension. That’s true of this wonderful book as a whole, which is written in clear, accessible prose and takes nothing for granted. One need not be an APT fan, Bard lover or theater geek to enjoy it (although all will). Lenehan describes what theater artists do much as one might describe athletes engaged in a similarly collaborative quest to field a winning team with defined characteristics."

Don't forget, Michael Lenehan will be at Boswell discussing Much Ado on Monday, December 5, 7 pm.

In the print edition (original published in Newsday), Marion Winik offers a review on Emma Donoghue's The Wonder. The review opens: "Again with the room! As in her 2010 best-seller Room, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and turned into an Oscar-nominated film, Emma Donoghue has confined the action of a novel within four close walls — and again, she has populated that little universe with a sharply contrasting assortment of moral types, ranging from pure as the driven snow to nasty as can be. Unlike Room, The Wonder is historical fiction, inspired by accounts of fasting girls over the centuries."

And also original from Newsday, the print edition also boasts an interview with Anne Trubek, author of The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting. Here's his take: "Anne Trubek gives a compelling and entertaining history of humanity’s relationship to the physical act of writing, and points toward where it may be headed. Trubek — an author, publisher and academic — draws connections between writing’s growth and the evolution of the idea of the self, with historical asides about the lives of monks, scribes and scriveners. It’s an extremely readable book on a subject you didn’t know you were interested in."

And from October 6's Green Sheet, the Journal Sentinel's Jim Higgins reviewed Susan Quinns's Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped the First Lady. From the review: "Interest in Hick, as friends called her, has grown since the FDR Presidential Library opened the Eleanor Roosevelt-Hickok correspondence to researchers in 1978. Quinn frequently quotes from letters in which they freely expressed affection for each other." For another take, Stacy Schiff in The Washington Post wrote: "Quinn has produced an intimate book, tender and wise. She is strangely silent on only one count: She offers no sense of what, if anything, FDR knew or whether it mattered."

Event Forecast: Sister Carrie Book Club with Florentine Opera, Ben Hatke, Robert Olen Butler, Laurie Halse Anderson, Candice Millard, Jennifer Niven and Kathleen Glasgow, Trenton Lee Stewart, and Margot Livesey

Monday, October 3, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Book club discussion of Sister Carrie with Florentine Opera

Join us and the in-store lit book club in discussion of Theodore Dreiser’s classic Sister Carrie. We will be joined by UWM’s professors Jason Puskar and Amanda Seligman, along with Kelly Schlicht from the Florentine Opera. We'll have a discussion about the book and the opera, and a short video clip will be shown.

Sister Carrie will be performed at Uihein Hall, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts October 7 and 9.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016, 6:30 pm at Cudahy Family Library, 3500 Library Dr, just south of Layton Ave:
Ben Hatke, author of Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl.

In addition to the books above, Ben Hatke is the author and illustrator of the picture books Julia's House for Lost Creatures and Nobody Likes a Goblin, and the graphic novel Little Robot.

Now Hatke returns to middle-grade fantasy-adventure with the first of two graphic novels retelling Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack might be the only kid in the world who's dreading summer. But he's got a good reason: Summer is when his single mom takes a second job and leaves him at home to watch his autistic kid sister, Maddy. It's a lot of responsibility, and it's boring too, because Maddy doesn't talk. Ever.

But then, one day, she does talk. Maddy tells Jack in no uncertain terms to trade their mom's car for a box of magic beans. It's the best mistake Jack has ever made. The little garden behind his house is about to become home to tiny onion babies running amok, dangerous biting cabbages, and, in a fiery cliff-hanger at the end of this first volume, a dragon.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Robert Olen Butler, author of Perfume River in conversation with David Riodan of Cardinal Stritch University.

Robert Olen Butler is the author of sixteen novels, including the Pulitzer-Prize winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel, and the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series. He is also the author of six short story collections and a book on the creative process, From Where You Dream. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and received the 2013 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature.

Robert Quinlan is a seventy-year-old historian teaching at Florida State University, where his wife Darla is also tenured. Their marriage, forged in the fervor of anti-Vietnam-war protests, now bears the fractures of time, both personal and historical, with the couple trapped in an existence of morning coffee and solitary jogging and separate offices. For Robert and Darla, the cracks remain under the surface, whereas the divisions in Robert’s own family are more apparent: He has almost no relationship with his brother Jimmy, who became estranged from the family as the Vietnam War intensified. Robert and Jimmy’s father, a veteran of WWII, is coming to the end of his life, and aftershocks of war ripple across their lives once again, when Jimmy refuses to appear at his father’s bedside. And an unstable homeless man Robert at first takes to be a fellow Vietnam veteran turns out to have a deep impact not just on Robert, but on his entire family.

Wednesday, October 5, 6:30 pm at West Allis Public Library 7421 W. National Ave:
Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Ashes.

Laurie Halse Anderson is bestselling author known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity. Her work has earned numerous ALA and state awards. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Chains also received the 2009 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and Anderson was chosen for the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award.

In her new novel Ashes, the long-awaited completion to the Seeds of History trilogy, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Forge but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel’s little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state where bounty hunters are thick as flies.

Heroism and heartbreak pave their path, but Isabel and Curzon won’t stop until they reach Ruth, and then freedom, in this grand finale to the acclaimed Seeds of America trilogy.

Wednesday, October 5, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Candice Millard, author of Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill.

In addition, Candice Millard is the author of two other acclaimed bestsellers, The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic. This event is cosponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio.

At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become Prime Minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.

Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits.

Thursday, October 6 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
A pizza party with Jennifer Niven, author of Holding Up the Universe and Kathleen Glasgow, author of Girl in Pieces featuring pizza from Pizza Man

In addition to Holding up the Universe Jennifer Niven is the author of bestselling All the Bright Places. She has also written four novels for adults as well as three nonfiction books. Kathleen Glasgow writes for The Writer's Almanac. Girl in Pieces is her first novel

Here's a little more about Holding Up the Universe. Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one has taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin too. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: He can’t recognize faces; even his own brothers are strangers to him.When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game which lands them in group counseling and community service Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel.

And here's more about Girl in Pieces. Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.

Registration is requested but not required, so that we know how much pizza to order.

Friday, October 7, 6:30 pm at Shorewood Public Library 3920 N Murray Ave:
Trenton Lee Stewart, author of The Secret Keepers and The Mysterious Benedict Society

Acclaimed and bestselling author Trenton Lee Stewart delivers a dazzling and heart-pounding mystery-adventure that will thrill fans of his Mysterious Benedict Society series as well as entice a whole new generation of readers.

When Reuben discovers an extraordinary antique watch, he soon learns it has a secret power and his life takes an intriguing turn. At first he is thrilled with his new treasure, but as one secret leads to another, Reuben finds himself torn between his innately honest nature and the lure to be a hero. Now he is on a dangerous adventure full of curious characters, treacherous traps, and hairsbreadth escapes as he races to solve the mystery before it is too late. Even with fearless Penny, mighty Jack, and the wise Mrs. Genevieve on his side, can Reuben outwit and outmaneuver the sly villain called The Smoke and his devious defenders the Directions and save the city from a terrible fate?

Friday, October 7, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Margot Livesey, author of Mercury, in conversation with UWM’s Liam Callanan.

This event is cosponsored by UWM's English Department Creative Writing Program. Livesey will be in conversation with Liam Callanan, UWM Associate Professor of English and author of The Cloud Atlas, All Saints, and Listen, a collection of stories. Margot Livesey is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Flight of Gemma Hardy, The House on Fortune Street, and Banishing Verona. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, and The Atlantic, and she is the recipient of grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The House on Fortune Street won the 2009 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award.

In the new novel, Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optometrist in suburban Boston, he is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children, and to each other. Then Mercury, a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past arrives at Windy Hill and everything changes.

Hilary, a newcomer to town, has inherited Mercury from her brother after his mysterious death. When she first brings Mercury to board at Windy Hill, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she harbored before she settled for a career in finance. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession. Donald may have 20:20 vision, but he is slow to notice how profoundly Viv has changed and how these changes threaten their quiet, secure world.

Up next: Wednesday, October 12, 7 pm, at Boswell: Ivan Ashcer, author of Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction, in conversation with UWM's Kennan Ferguson.