To Me, Minneapolis Has it Over Milwaukee in at Least One Major Way--Revisiting "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (On Sale Today, Coming to Boswell on Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm).

One of the most amusing things about moving to Milwaukee many years ago is that most people I left behind in New York were convinced I was moving to Minneapolis. I even remember my first year here when a dateline for an article in Billboard magazine listed Minneapolis for an article that was actually about one of our local radio stations. But I had decided that I'd like Milwaukee better. I loved the fact that Milwaukee was such an underdog that people couldn't even rememember it. I liked the accessibility to but distance from Chicago and while I really like winter, I was scared off a little by the car heater stories.

But there was one way that I thought Minneapolis had it all over Milwaukee. When it comes to television afilliation, I am absolutely a "Mary Tyler Moore" show man over "Happy Days" and "Laverne and Shirley." When one of the latter shows come on rerun, I drift away after a couple of minutes. If I spot the former, I hope for a marathon.

It's hard to believe that there was a time when Saturday night was appointment television. That period with "All in the Family", "The Bob Newhart Show", "The Carol Burnett Show" and whatever that fifth show was that rotated in and out of the slot unsuccessfully are some of my happiest tv memories. And honestly, not as much Archie Bunker, but someday I'll wax a few hours about Bob Newhart, perhaps in conversation with my sister Merrill.

Just an aside about the opening theme, which features not one but two department store images. A shot of Donaldson's disappeared after season one (I think the store might have moved to an ugly downtown mall structure) and after a few seasons, the Daytons image also vanished, but if you're watching the inaugural sesason (where Mary is wearing a wig to change her image from Laura Petrie), you can still spot both of them. Oh, me and my department store rambles. I still kick myself for walking by the Powers Dry Goods going out of business sale and listening to my friend Eric who told me, "Oh, there's nothing left. You don't need to go in there." Oh, the regret.

But back to amazing television. I was so thrilled when Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted was announced. The title is a take on an inconic television history, Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel, by Bart Andrews, which I think I read many, many years ago. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong not only did much research putting together this history of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," she interviewed many of the women writers, Grant Tinker, and the beloved Valerie Harper.

I loved this book! Here's my staff rec that I wrote up after I devoured it.

"Fact: Mary Richards was originally going to be the assistant to a gossip columnist.

"Fact: the initial audience reaction to Rhoda Morgenstern was virulently negative. (And one of the writers made a tiny fix to the first episode that changed that hate to love.)

"Fact: CBS had so little faith in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that they planned to bury it in a bad time slot between “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Hee Haw.”

"Fact: whether you have memories of staying home every Saturday night to catch the greatest lineup in television history, or spent hours watching marathons in the decades following, any fan of Mary Tyler Moore and her eponymous show would adore this new pop culture history.

"Pop culture writer Armstrong went well beyond regurgitating TV Guide stories to go straight to the folks who made the show what it is—from creators James L. Brooks and Allan Burns to writers like Treva Silverman and Gloria Banta, to execs Grant Tinker, Fred Silverman and even the show’s original naysayer, Allan Dann. (And yes, Armstrong also interviewed Valerie Harper.) So much fun, so many stories, and lots more drama than you can imagine—Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted is just about as entertaining and informative as a book like this can be."

So I sent in my rec to Simon, nominated it for the Indie Next List, and moved on. This was one of those books that I really read for myself. I didn't expect there would be a budget for a tour, and I wasn't even sure if my rec would drive sales. Folks would probably find this book due to good reviews and interviews, and Armstrong is decently connected in the media world. There was already an excellent preview of the book in Entertainment Weekly.

And sadly, we've all heard about Valerie Harper's cancer diagnosis, revealed just after the publication of her memoir, I, Rhoda. Sigh.

It turns out that my rec made its way to Armstrong, who let me know that she in fact was going to be staying with folks in Chicago for a few days and had room in the schedule to come up for an event with us on Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm.

Because Armstrong had another book coming out this spring called Sexy Feminism, which she wrote with Heather Wood Rudulph, we decided to call this evening's presentation "Mary Tyler Moore and the Modern Woman." And to add to the fun, Mel read Sexy Feminism and liked that too. Here's her rec.

"Sexy Feminism is an excellent primer for anyone uninitiated in, curious about, or wanting to reconnect with feminism. Fourth wave feminism is complex--this book can help you make sense of the history, current struggles, and possible future of the Feminist Movement. What does being feminist mean at this exact moment in time? Sexy Feminism answers this question with educational and entertaining prose."

Jess Walter Tonight! Holly Black Tomorrow! Dave Luhrssen and Paul McComas also Tomorrow! Plus Jean Thompson, The Dark Days Tour (Elizabeth Norris, Kiera Cass, Aprilynn Pike and Amy Tintera), Barbara Manger and Janine Smith, Best of the Undergrads Part II, Plus Next Week Preview, Locations and Times in the Blog.

Monday, May 6, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins.

Jess Walter is the author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets, the National Book Award finalist The Zero, the Edgar Award-winning Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind, and the New York Times Notable Book Over Tumbled Graves. Beautiful Ruins has been named best novel of the year by Esquire and Fresh Air, and is the #1 trade paperback fiction bestseller in America, according to The New York Times.

National Book Award finalist and Edgar Award winning author Jess Walter returns with his funniest and most romantic novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers, Beautiful Ruins is at once an elegiac romance, a comedy of human foibles, and an incisive meditation on our contemporary obsession with celebrity culture. Spanning fifty years, Walter’s expertly orchestrated narrative takes readers to a tiny coastal village in Italy in 1962 and to modern-day Hollywood, to London, Edinburgh, and the Pacific Northwest—as an endearingly flawed parade of intertwined characters navigate the realities of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Inspired by his wife’s Italian family and the small hillside villages in the Cinque Terre region, Walter imagined a village in its early 1960s La Dolce Vita glory, a place that “would make a great frame for a story about fame and how we all endeavor now to live our lives like movie stars, like celebrities, each of us an eager inner publicist managing our careers and our romances and our fragile self-images.

More about Jess Walter and Beautiful Ruins on an earlier post.

Tuesday, May 7, 6:30 pm, at Cudahy Family Library, 3500 Library Drive, 53110:
Holly Black, author of Doll Bones.

Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, The Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy (with Ted Naifeh), and the Curse Workers series. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award.

Doll Bones is a delightfully spooky novel about a group of friends who take playing with dolls to a ghostly degree. For as long as they’ve been friends, Zach, Poppy, and Alice been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach's father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she's been having dreams about the Queen--and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen's ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?

More from me on Holly Black and Doll Bones on an earlier post.

Tuesday, May 7, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Forties Film Night, featuring David Luhrssen, author of Mamoulian
and Paul McComas, author of Fit for a Frankenstein.

David Luhrssen is the arts and entertainment editor and film critic for the Shepherd Express and cofounder and director of the Milwaukee International Film Festival. He is the author of Hammer of the Gods: Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism and Elvis Presley: Reluctant Rebel.

Paul McComas is the award-winning author of four critically acclaimed books and the editor of two more. Fit for a Frankenstein is his first collaborative novella—and the literary debut of his co-author and longtime friend Greg Starrett.

In Mamoulian, Luhrssen not only reveals the fascinating personal story of an important yet neglected figure, but he also offers a tantalizing glimpse into the extraordinarily vibrant American film and theater industries during the twenties, thirties, and forties. Mamoulian direct the debut Broadway productions of three of the most popular shows in the history of American musical theater: Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), and Carousel (1945), and then moved into film, eventually was awarded him the prestigious D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983 by the Directors Guild of America.

In Fit for a Frankenstein, a body snatcher and hanging survivor, Ygor stops in the village of Kotstadt to obtain a gigantic custom-made suit for his friend, the ever-menacing Frankenstein Monster. The unholy duo’s visit endangers fastidious town tailor Klaus Hauptschmidt and his effervescent teenage daughter, Gretl … and prompts hijinks of monstrous proportions!

Wednesday, May 8, 6:30 pm, at the Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N. Murray Avenue, 53211:
The Dark Days tour.

Prepare to experience romance, suspense, and a touch of darkness when publicist Alison Lisnow moderates a discussion between four of the hottest authors in paranormal teen fiction.

Elizabeth Norris, author of Unbreakable: The sequel to Elizabeth Norris’s Unraveling blends science fiction, mystery, and romance into a thrilling story YA readers won’t be able to put down. Norris briefly taught high school English and history before moving from San Diego to Manhattan. Unbreakable is her second novel.

Kiera Cass, author of The Elite: A must-read for fans of dystopian fiction, fairy tales, and reality TV. This sequel to The Selection will enchant teens who love Divergent and "The Bachelor." Kiera Cass is a graduate of Radford University and currently lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with her family. In addition to The Selection, which was a New York Times bestseller, Cass also self-published her fantasy novel, The Siren.

Aprilynne Pike, author of Life After Theft: A hauntingly clever twist on The Scarlet Pimpernel, this stand-alone novel that offers a humorous twist on ghosts and is perfect for fans of Ally Carter, Rachel Hawkins, and Kiersten White. Aprilynne Pike received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College at the age of 20. She lives in Utah with her family and works with pregnant mothers as a childbirth educator and doula.

And introducing Amy Tintera, author of Reboot: In this fast-paced dystopian thrill ride ideal for fans of The Hunger Games, a seventeen-year-old girl rises from the dead as a “Reboot” and is trained as an elite crime-fighting soldier . . . until she is given an order she refuses to obey. Amy Tintera has degrees in journalism and film. Raised in Texas, she now lives in Los Angeles.

Wednesday, May 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jean Thompson, author of The Humanity Project
with opening reading Wendy Wimmer.

After surviving a shooting at her high school, Linnea is packed off to live with her estranged father, Art, who doesn't quite understand how he has suddenly become responsible for raising a sullen adolescent girl. Art's neighbor, Christie, is a nurse distracted by an eccentric patient, Mrs. Foster, who has given Christie the reins to her Humanity Project, a bizarre and well-endowed charity fund. Just as mysteriously, no one seems to know where Conner, the Fosters' handyman, goes after work, but he has become the one person Linnea can confide in, perhaps because his own home life is a war zone: his father has suffered an injury and become addicted to painkillers. As these characters and many more hurtle toward their fates, the Humanity Project is born: Can you indeed pay someone to be good? At what price?

Jean Thompson is author of The Year We Left Home and City Boy, a National Book Award finalist, as well as five short story collections. Her work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions.”

Opening for Thompson will be Wendy Wimmer is a 2008 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's Creative Writing master's program. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, AWP Intro to Journals and Best New American Voices. Her recent fiction publications include Blackbird, Per Contra, Paper Darts and Drunken Boat literary journals. She is currently refining a short story collection and a novel for publication by fall 2015.

Thursday, May 9, 6:30 pm, at the North Shore Library, 6800 N. Port Washington Road, 53217:
Barbara Manger and Janine Smith, author of Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art.

A prolific and fanciful maker who worked in a variety of media, Milwaukee-born Mary Nohl was both a mysterious figure and an iconic "outsider" artist. Mary Nohl: A Lifetime in Art, a new addition to the kid-friendly Badger Biographies series, captures her life and will capture the imagination of readers, and artists, of all ages.

Nohl, who made her home on the shores of Lake Michigan, decorated the interior of her cottage with bright colors and eye-catching figures in driftwood and glass. During her later years, her home became known as the "Witch's House" — a place of local legend known far beyond Fox Point. Though she died in 2001, Mary's legacy continues. Her art is held at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, and her home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Barbara Manger is an artist who has taught printmaking and drawing for many years. She also founded Artists Working in Education, a nonprofit Milwaukee-based organization that provides art experience for at-risk children.

Janine Smith is an award-winning book designer who owns and operates Designsmith, a graphic design company in Fox Point, Wisconsin.


Friday May 10, at 7:00 pm
Best of the Undergraduate Creative Writers, Part Two: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Mount Mary College, and Carroll University

Come hear some of the up-and-coming writers currently blooming within our own communities; featuring two undergraduate student readers from each university, as selected by their creative writing professors.

From Carroll University, our readers are Jenna Villanova and Karie Vlazny.
From Mount Mary, our readers are Barb Kolb and Megan Mattson.
And from UWM, our readers are Mary Franzen and Sam Pakarske.

And coming up next week,
Monday, May 13, 7:00 pm, at Boswell:
Mary Robinette Kowal, author of  Without a Summer.

Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo winner for her story “For Want of a Nail.” Mary serves on the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. A professional puppeteer and voice actor, she spent five years touring nationally with puppet theaters. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and nine manual typewriters.

Pairing a Regency love affair with fantasy and intrigue, Without a Summer is Hugo winner Kowal’s third book in the Glamourist Histories series. Kirkus Reviews calls it a “creative, elegantly crafted novel” that offers “both a broad and an intimate canvas of human weakness and virtue.” When Jane and Vincent Ellsworth, talented painters who are commissioned to create magical works of art, begin to take an interest in the romantic life of Jane’s younger sister, Melody, the timing simply isn’t perfect. Weather manipulators have forced a cold snap to linger for a long time, affecting not only the crops that finance Melody’s dowry, but also political intrigue that will involve the Ellsworths’ particular skills if an international crisis is to be averted.

The second novel in the series, Glamour in Glass, was recently nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel, and about the first novel, the Jane Austen Center writes “Shades of Milk and Honey could easily fit into Austen’s canon, except of course for the inclusion of magic. Kowal has captured both the style and content of an Austen novel, adding her own speculative fiction twist…hits all the high points of Austen’s dialogue and plotting while still having its own identity.” Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo winner for her story “For Want of a Nail.” Mary serves on the board of directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. A professional puppeteer and voice actor, she spent five years touring nationally with puppet theaters. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and nine manual typewriters.

Boswell Bestsellers for Week Ending May 4--Dueling Royalty Princess Leia and Catherine the Great Come Out Swinging, Claire Messud Has a Big Sales Pop, Maria Semple's Big Event.

Hardcover fiction:
1. Vader's Little Princess, by Jeffrey Brown
2. The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
3. The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
4. Life Afer Life, by Kate Atkinson
5. Z, by Therese Anne Fowler

I admit it. If impulse stuff took over our bestseller lists, I would also segregate it into another category, but I just don't think that's going to happen in the near future. So congrats to Jeffrey Brown, who not only topped our fiction bestseller list with Vader's Little Princess, but whose backlist title also had a nice sales increase. 

Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs turned out to be the high-profile fiction release of the week for us. Liesl Schillinger covered the book in The New York Times Book Review. She writes "It’s exhilarating to encounter such unrestrained vehemence in a work by this controlled, intellectual author. Messud’s previous novels, albeit extraordinarily intelligent and well-crafted, are characterized by rationed or distant emotion. The Woman Upstairs  is utterly different — its language urgent, its conflicts outsize and unmooring, its mood incendiary."

Hardcover nonfiction:
1. Cooked, by Michael Pollan
2. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola
3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris (event is 5/26)
4. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, by Daniel Dennett
5. The Drunken Botanist, by Amy Stewart

Philosopher Dennett offers some mind-stretching thought experiments in his new book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. Troy Jollimore in the Boston Globe argues with Dennett in his review, still noting that the author "can still be read profitably both as a synthesizer of research and as a provocateur. His intellectual curiosity is deep and wide-ranging."

Paperback fiction:
1. Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
2. Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter
3. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitgerald
4. This One is Mine, by Maria Semple
5. The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman

Aside from selling copies of Semple's first novel, in both jacket designs, all four of our other entries in this list are also at the top of the national bestseller lists, which is actually a bit unusual. What a great event Semple's appearance was, and we particularly thank her for her afternoon visit to Riverside University High School. I realized that the new jacket for This One is Mine has been gender neutralized, which I assume happened after the publisher (or agent, or author) noticed that Semple has developed a strong male following for Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, which you could see in the event's attendance.

 One of the interesting things we learned at Semple's event is that she had a one-book deal for This One is Mine. The advance was large and the book didn't work, and it became much tougher to sell the second book and she lost her agent. Her new agent (who got the book, and its international potential) said, "all things being equal, stay with the same publisher," and so the book got sold, but for less than the first one. And then Little, Brown and Hachette fell in love with Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (signed copies available) and the novel's momentum began."

I hope it's ok that we reprinted the Where'd You Go Bernadette? action figure (looking suspiciously like a dolled up American Girl) from Semple's website.

Paperback nonfiction:
1. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
2. Food Rules, by Michael Pollan
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
4. A Merry Memoir of Love, Sex, and Religion, by Daniel Maguire
5. Catherine the Great, by Robert K. Massie

I might have mentioned we hosted an event with Michael Pollan this week. We also sold books at the annual lunch for Ozaukee Family Services, with Barbara Rinella presenting Catherine the Great, based on Robert K. Massie's acclaimed biography. She also does programs on Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra, Isabella Stewart Gardner and The Art Forger, and "From Einstein to Steve Jobs, based on Walter Isaacson's biographies. The only one I'm confused about is "Nora Ephron and the Panama Canal." I assume that was two different programs, but no, The Northbrook Park District is presenting the two together on May 22. Here's a list of her programs and recommended reading list; her recommendation of Caroline Kennedy's poems helped pop it to #1 below.

Books for Kids:
1. Poems to Learn by Heart, edited by Caroline Kennedy and Jon J. Muth
2. Crash, by Lisa McMann
3. The Unwanteds #2: Island of Silence, by Lisa McMann (signed copies available)
4. Wildwood, by Colin Meloy, with illustrations by Carson Ellis
5. A Beach Day for Hannah, by Linda Bunch

No brand new titles released, but Lisa McMann was back in town to do some school evnts in the Milwauke area. I was poking around and saw that two new Lisa McMann titles are scheduled for fall. Island of Fire is #3 in The Unwanteds series, while Bang is the sequel to Crash. While I was at it, I poked around to see if the third title in the Wildwood series was coming soon. No, but Under  Wildwood is due for paperback by fall.

From the Journal Sentinel book pages, Mike Fischer reviews the new Claire Messud novel, The Woman Upstairs, which we've already noted has had a big sales pop. He calls the story a "spellbinding, psychologically acute and deliberately claustrophobic new novel"

From the NYRB Classics series, Journal Sentinel arts editor Jim Higgins imagines that "In some other parallel world, Kingsley Amis' alternate-history novel The Alteration (1976) may already have the wide readership it deserves." It's "a terrific novel that blends the fantasy pleasure of alternate history with Amis' brand of literary satire."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, Marquette's Philip C. Naylor reviews Algerian Chronicles, a new collection of Albert Camus writings. He notes "Critics of Camus claim that the Nobel Prize winner ironically misperceived or underestimated that in his own land, colonized Muslims faced severe metaphysical consequences resulting from an oppressive colonialism. Given the publication of Algerian Chronicles, a chronological collection of Camus' essays from the 1930s to the 1950s, this criticism needs re-examination and reinterpretation."

Daniel and Halley Talk Moms..or Specifically Mother's Day Cards

Halley: There is all this pressure on us to have a good blog.

Daniel: Don't worry. We can all fail, and it's fine. It's not like anyone is paying to read this.  When you're selling your essay collection, then ou can worry. Tell me about a card.

Halley: This penguin one is so cute! And you're helping folks somewhere, either Africa or Asia. (Goes look at card). It's the Philippines.

Daniel: One L or two?

Mel: One L, two P's, one N.

Daniel: And the K's are silent. My rep tried to talk me out of penguin pencil toppers because they are out of season in the summer.

Halley: Penguins are cute year round. Except for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Daniel: And I should also note that she tried to talk me into bunnies post Easter.

Halley: The babushkas are also part of the Sanctuary Spring line. And who doesn't love babushkas? We have a thing for babushkas?

Daniel: Who doesn't? But I think these babushkas are actually matryoshkas. They are babushka matryoshkas. Were you here when we had the matryoshkas for Christmas?

Halley: No, I wish. I heard they were cool.  What's your favorite Mother's Day card?

Daniel: Aside from giraffe card from Hello Lucky, I really love this kauai style card from Maginating.

Halley: They have great cards for all reasons and seasons. And such pretty colors.

Daniel:  It's kauai style, or "Japanese cute", which means you put faces on everything.

Halley: Cute!

Daniel: At left is a card from Fugu Fugu, another card line with Japanese influences. Doesn't the artwork remind you of Bob Staake, author of the lovely new book Bluebird? Ken and Shino named their line after a puffer fish, both cute and dangerous.

Halley: Very accurate! I like the card from Ghost Academy. They also have it for lovers, without "Happy Mother's Day" on it.

Daniel: These cards are block prints.

Halley: It's from your black sheep child. Not anyone can give this card. They have good designs.

Daniel: And it's another tiny little operation too. But I guess you only need one creative person and one business person to make these things work.

Halley: I like the seventies vibe of this one.

Daniel: Seventies? I thought it was fifties.

Halley: I was referring to the color palette.

Daniel: This is from Hammerpress, the line we brought in from Kansas City. I had hoped to visit their operations at Winter Institute, but we left early to beat a blizzard.

Halley: Their cards are gorgeous!

Daniel: Just one more.

Halley: This is the only funny card we have left, from Fresh Frances. Why did you let the Bald Guy card sell out so quickly?

Daniel: I wasn't thinking.

Halley: You've lost your edge.

Daniel: In my defense, we didn't have very good sell through on the edgy Mother's Day cards. Can you imagine cracking wise to your Mom? No dessert for you?

Halley: My mom demands sassy. No heartfelt cards.

Daniel: Something for everyone.

Let's Spend Memorial Day Weekend with David Sedaris.

When I was in college, I spent one Christmas break working in the sub-basement of the Macy's in New York's Herald Square packing hard goods (that means anything but clothing, the workers were segregated by gender, to minimize the hanky panky). It was a strictly regimented environment, where we punched in and out to use our allotted restroom break. The environment was late 1970s hip hop; by the end of December, I too had memorized the lyrics to "Rapper's Delight" from the Sugar Hill Gang.

It was a number of years later that I first heard "The Santaland Diaries" on NPR, and thought back to that strange subculture. And when I first read Barrel Fever, I was almost breathless, as was much of the rest of this country. Who is this man who holds a mirror to us, not only blinding us, but making us laugh through the pain?

The new collection, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, is a mix of personal essays that mix with autobiographical with the humorous. In "I Break for Traditional Marriage", Randolph Denny explains why New York State's decision to allow gay men and lesbians to marry rendered their marriage meaningless, and what the craziness that that led to. "Just a Quick Email" is a note to Robin thanking her for the free pizza certificate that she got for her wedding.

But those pieces are palate cleansers. The meat of the new collection are the personal essays of course, some that reflect on Sedaris's childhood when his father forced him to take part on the country club's swim team, or when he decided to date a poor, heavyset, and rather slow African American female classmate ("Memory Laps" and "A Friend in the Ghetto") for what turned out to be fairly complicated reasons. Other essays cover both the early struggling adult years in Raleigh, New York, and Chicago ("Standing Still") and his current life in West Sussex with Hugh.

The thing that's wonderful about David Sedaris is that we as readers can find them both outrageously different from our own situations and surprisingly identifiable. Perhaps you also didn't have an African American girlfriend at a very young age (I did. Her name was Patricia, but unlike David's friend Delicia, I thought she was smart and beautiful and was a bit taller than me) or get forced to compete on a swim team (my father pushed me into all sorts of athletics against my will, but he was about as different as a father could be from Lou, against competition at all costs) but I think everyone sort of sees their own craziness in the Sedaris world.

And while I don't live in an English cottage, I have had the dubious distinction of being known in my neighborhood as the person who picks up the litter. In fact, I got to know Mike, who once owned Bella's Fat Cat and now sells retail credit card services for Swipeworks (I am plugging him here) because he caught me outside his store picking up garbage while waiting for the bus. "Who wouldn't do this?" I thought. Well, it turns out that I have found a correlation between people who smoke tutti-frutti cigars and littering, because there cannot be so many people smoking grape-and-banana-flavored cigars, can there? If there is, it's a much bigger industry than previously acknowledged. Listen to Mr. Sedaris talk about his similar role in West Sussex with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. If you haven't heard this interview yet, you absolutley must. Gross replayed an interview with Sedaris and asked him why exactly he had to write at night and he replied "because that's when I drank, of course." I'm slightly paraphrasing, but just slightly.

So maybe you aren't picking up litter (though you should be). But you probably have your own weird bond with Sedaris. Perhaps you also obsessively learn a language before traveling there (like my friend Mark) or perhaps you have an aversion to trough bathrooms in places like China (like all my friends aside from Mark). But there's something that connects you, right? If it was just all craziness, his fans would simply have a different kind of bond.

One thing Sedaris notes in Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls is that (and I'm sure he's said this before, but I can't remember it in the five or so Sedaris books that I've read) is that he's been obsessively journaling since he was twenty. This explains how he can still be telling childhood stories in volume eight.

David Sedaris now tours theaters, including regularly scheduled appearances for the Pabst/Riverside folks. It's said he'll have a date there in early November. But he likes his bookstore events as well, and still tours the country for each release. Due to his speaking contract, the events must be at the bookstore itself--no library or theater visits for this. He also likes a free event, and while we probably could have ticketed, there's nothing like a free, open-to-the-public program. That's what our friend Marlena thought he'd like best, and that's what we'd like to do.

Sedaris is coming to Boswell for Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls on Sunday, May 26, 2 pm. We'll have pretty strict guidelines for attendance, ones that seem fair for the most number of people. There are no advance tickets, but we will be giving out line letters starting at 10 am on Sunday. We are not requiring you to buy the book from us, but don't forget that our sales determine if Sedaris and other authors will come back again for an intimate bookstore event.  Just saying.

The big thing to note here is that there are no "holdsies." If we close the doors when we hit capacity and you have left the store to eat lunch, you will not be able to come back in if we've hit capacity. So come when you're ready to stay for the show, not to reserve seats for later. And I should also note that there are no photos or video allowed at this event.

That said, Mr. Sedaris will make sure he signs every book, even folks who did not make it into the store for the presentation. We'll have a line waiting outside and we'll stay as long as it takes. What I said to Jason was, "Please schedule someone with me to stay until forever." Thanks, Jason!

So mark your calendar, come early, and let's all have a great time. See you then (unless you don't like craziness, and then you should wait for the theater tickets to go on sale).

Selections From the 2013 Mother's Day Table

Halley came to me last week with a reminder that we have to do our Mother's Day card post. I'm hoping that my increased card buy will leave us with a bit of a section the weekend of the holiday (May 12). I have bought my card and am sending it off. It features giraffes. That post will be on Saturday. If you like carefully, you can see that I left the "L" off my name when I signed it. This is the shoddy workmanship you get when you rush.

Being that it really is almost time for Day of Moms, I thought it would be nice to mention a few titles that were on our Mother's Day table.  I think I've already brought up Mom and Me and Mom  (Random House, coding makes ampersands a pain when blogging, by the way), by Maya Angelou. Though Angelou has chronicled her life in many volumes, this new book focuses on her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter. Did you know there is a Vivian Baxter Park in Stockton, California?

Several titles were selected from the ABA's Celebrate Indies Mother's Day promotoin. One is Mom Candy: 1000 Quotes of Inspiration for Mothers (Random House Reference), edited by J. Pincott. In it are gems from Agatha Christie ("A mother's love for her child is like nothing in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path") and music artist Jody Watley* ("Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was a about bearing witness to its life.")  Something for everyone, I guess. I feel this is the gift you give to a mom figure that doesn't quite know how to do the job. "Here's a little help with that mothering stuff," it whispers.

Here's a recommendation I can get behind. It's Jeannette Walls' Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel (Scribner). Based on Walls's grandmother Lily, this gal could literally do anything. It's this amazing story of overcoming adversity with wry humor and grace. The publisher called it a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel for adults. And you know of course that the new Walls novel, The Silver Star, is coming June 11 and we'll be hosting Jeannette Walls for visit on Thursday, June 20, 7 pm. Why not make your gift a night out together, dinner and an author?

Another novel that I was less familiar with is  The House at the End of Hope Street (Pamela Dorman Books), by Menna van Praag. In it, a young grad student suffers "the worst event of her life" and finds herself on the doorstep of 11 Hope Street, where she has 99 days to turn her life around. She learns that past residents have included Dorothy Parker and Virginia Woolf, and the current guests seem to be just as interesting. This is the kind of book where it's hard to get traditional reviews, but it's got lots and lots and lots of blogger reviews. Mandy at Literary R&R said "it's a wonderful read that will be enjoyed by millions." And Jen at Miss Book Lovers wrote "The house was my favorite character in the book. I loved reading about the pictures coming to life and talking. I loved reading about the other famous women who stayed at the house. I wish the house was real so I could visit." 

And finally Workman is repromoting the Melissa and Harry H. Harrison books, Mother to Daughter and Mother to Son (Workman), each both subtitled "shared wisdom from the heart." These are also quote books, but they are actually quoted not from famous (or not famous people) but from the authors themselves. So these really are advice books. One page says "explain that if she ever loans money to a friend, she could wind up losing both" and the other offers "make sure he knows that boys can do anything girls can do." So far we've come! Twenty years ago, this would be taken for granted.

If you ask me, I'd still give a book that acknowledges whom you're giving the book to instead of slotting it to the role that person fills. But as I've learned from the past, sometimest the giver knows very, very little about the givee, and that's where these books come in.

 *I'm looking for a new love baby, a new love, yeah, yeah, yeah.

A Day Late and At Least A Dollar Off--New Boswell's Best Titles That Went on Sale Yesterday, Plus Recommendations from Sharon, Mel, Stacie, and Paul, All at 20% Off.

This week's roundup has a little more testosterone than the last few. We've got several new titles on Boswell's best, plus a couple that I overlooked on first release, both with staff recommendations. Don't forget that all five books are 20% off at least through next Monday, May 6.

Claire Messud follows up The Emperor's Children with The Woman Upstairs (Knopf), a psychological thriller about a Cambridge elementary school teacher who becomes involved in the lives of one of her new students and her family. Joe Klein in the Boston Globe wrote that "this is not just a novel of real psychological insight. It is also a supremely well-crafted page-turner with a shocker of an ending. Messud lays down hints of tragedy like a trail of bread crumbs — but the place she leads us is a House of Horrors.

Another new release is Peter Lovesey's The Tooth Tattoo (Soho), the latest Peter Diamond mystery, which this time involves our detective from Bath finding a body in a canal, with the only clue to her identity being a musical tattoo on her tooth, hence the title. If you're thinking rock and roll here, you're barking up the wrong genre. In his enthusiastic review, Patrick Anderson in The Washington Post notes "Lovesey has won many prizes for his crime fiction; we expect fine writing and devilish plots from him. But the wonder of this novel is how deep he carries us into the world of a string quartet. He knows the music, and he makes clear its beauty, its challenges and the passions it arouses in both musicians and their audiences." And just a special shout out to Lovesey folks--we came VERY close to hosting him for this tour, and if we sell a lot of copies of the new book, we might get him next time. That's right--you can make a difference.

Stephen King's son Joe is homaging his dad in this horrifying new novel, NOS4A2 (Morrow), and I mean that in a good way. Charlie Manx drives kids away in his vintage Rolls to a place called Christmasland, and the only one to ever escape was Victoria McQueen (doesn't this remind you a bit of a Pinocchio subplot? So now Victoria is grown up and he's after her son. We've got a rec on this one from our own Sharon. She writes: "Strap yourself in and get ready for a wild ride to Christmasland with Charlie Manx and some distinctly unpleasant children. Joe Hill has outdone himself with his latest offering. Vic McQueen must take on Charlie Manx to get her son back. An epic battle of good versus evil is played out in this mesmerizing story."

I am remiss! I don't think I've et written up Austin Grossman's You (Mulholland), despite gobs of enthusiasm from Boswellians, particularly Mel. The newest from the author of Soon I Will be Invincible is about a videogamer, Russell, who joins a company called Black Arts, and finds that a software glitch has implications that goes back years, traversing, to quote the publisher "real and virtual worlds, corporate boardrooms and high school computer camp, to a secret that changed a friendship and the history of gaming." Mel says "Take a step behind the curtain and meet the Great and Powerful Video Game Designer! See what a wizard does in his free time! Go on a date with the most powerful woman in the multiverse! Bike across town in the sunshine, fantasizing about your latest Commodore 64 coding triumph! YOU get to be the hero, designer, and the spectator in his fun new novel by video game designer Austin. This is a fun, insightful read that takes on the importance of video games in our lives and culture, and the outcome of the quest for the ULTIMATE GAME."

We thought we had an outside chance of hosting Peter Rock too, being that he does have family in Shorewood. Both Paul and Stacie loved his new novel, The Shelter Cycle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Here's what Stacie had to say: "In the 1980s, bunkers were built in Montana that would offer shelter for up to seven years, in case of nuclear war (believed to be imminent). As they prepared, the members of the Church Universal and Triumphant lived their lives in a way they hoped might keep such destruction at bay. Twenty years later, Francine, who grew up in the Church, is preparing to bring her own child into a still-dangerous world. But when a childhood friend—one who understands her strange past—appears on her doorstep, the clear divides between that past, and Francine's present and future, will sharply converge. Anyone who has moved on from a deeply religious upbringing, and yet still felt surprisingly drawn to its flame will recognize the characters in Rock's new novel, which manages to be both brutally compelling and quietly gentle."

Hope to see you tonight at Maria Semple's event, co-sponsored by Local First Milwaukee (May 1, 7 pm).