Coming This Week: Welcome to Night Vale with Patrick Rothfuss, Jessica Hopper, Rainn Wilson with Victor DeLorenzo, Eboo Patel, Gina Athena Ulysse, Michelle Brafman, Renée Rosen.

Tuesday, November 10, 7 pm, at the Turner Hall Ballroom:
Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, authors of Welcome to Night Vale, in conversation with Patrick Rothfuss.

Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, the creators of the #1 podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, have written a novel, also called Welcome to Night Vale, that plays off the podcast, featuring two of the recurring characters, Diane Clayton and Jackie Fierro. This novel has become a huge hit, reaching top five on The New York Times bestseller list.

We're so excited that fantasy star Patrick Rothfuss is appearing with Cranor and Fink, moderating a conversation that gets inside the creation of the story, offering insider details and perhaps a few heretofore unknown secrets about the mysterious town called Night Vale. Charles Barton in the Los Angeles Times perhaps said it best: "Night Vale depicts the sort of place where government conspiracies and unexplained phenomena aren't just possibilities, they're a part of life. Think of A Prairie Home Companion filtered through the anarchic paranoia of Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM with a generous helping of David Lynch.

Tickets are still available for the show, which is at Turner Hall Ballroom on Tuesday, November 10, 7 pm, with doors opening at 6. The cost is $22 plus taxes and fees, and it comes with a copy of the book. Post event, the authors will be signing, as will Rothfuss. You can purchase tickets here. I might come early and hangout, as the neighborhood will be bustling, what with the Republican debate going on at the Milwaukee Theatre nearby.

And yes, we'll also have books from Patrick Rothfuss for sale, and he'll be part of the signing afterwards.

Wednesday, November 11, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. This event is cosponsored by 88Nine, Radio Milwaukee.

You've read her work in Pitchfork, The Chicago Reader, Spin, LA Weekly, and several volumes of the Best Music Writing series from DaCapo. She's a music consultant for This American Life. And now Jessica Hopper's new collection is called The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic and while one of our music-loving booksellers begged to differ, Hoppers title calls out the lack of diversity in this testosterone-fueled field.

As the publisher has said, Jessica Hopper's music criticism has earned her a reputation as a firebrand, a keen observer and fearless critic, not just of music but the culture around it. Spanning her punk fanzine roots to her landmark piece on R. Kelly's past, this compilation is not merely a selection of two decades of her most engaging, thoughtful and humorous writing;it also documents the last 20 years of American music making and the shifting landscape of music consumption.

Championing her work is Boswellian Carly Lenz, who wrote this about The First Collection of Criticism by a Female Rock Critic: "Known for her years of brazen music and culture writing, and especially for her work with Pitchfork, Jessica Hopper's new collection not only offers a series of reviews and commentaries on legendary albums and contemporary artists, but also ruminations on the culture and mores that envelop music and the people active in the industry.. Hopper does not shy away from unpacking artist controversy and scandal, sexism in genre, persona construction, and flagrantly flat records, and her honest writing dazzles with hard facts and compelling detail."

Thursday, November 12, 7 pm, at The Pabst Theater:
Rainn Wilson, author of The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith and Idiocy, in conversation with Victor DeLorenzo, with opening act Nineteen Thirteen.

Tomorrow is the release day for Rainn Wilson's new memoir, The Bassoon King. Jim Higgins noted in his profile in the Sunday Journal Sentinel that the book has many Wisconsin connections. His mom grew up on a farm in Weyauwega, and two of the folks on his list of greatest TV sidekicks are The Fonz from Happy Days and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley. But perhaps the most notable local shout out was to Victor DeLorenzo and The Violent Femmes. So it seemed natural to ask Mr. DeLorenzo to be part of the conversation, with his current band Nineteen Thirteen, opening for Wilson.

The Bassoon King is at once a rich and warm anecdotal memoir of the making of an actor. From a geeky kid who knew how to work Model U.N. to a teenager who, while embracing punk and new wave music, found his own voice through theater. And it's also the story of a kid, brought up in the Baha'i faith, who went through some spiritual struggles as he tried to find himself, and found the answer in the religion of his childhood.

It appears that Mr. Wilson might wind up meeting all of his musical idols by the end of this book tour. Here he is in USA Today talking about Elvis Costello with Jaleesa M. Jones: "I was up there shooting a movie (The Shimmer Lake) and he was doing a book signing so I went by and I got my book signed and got to tell him that he was featured in my book and what a big fan I was. I was kind of nerding out but that was very exciting. I’m going to have to go with "Mystery Dance" off of his first album because that was the song that I performed in front of my acting class and that’s when I knew I wanted to become an actor. I made the whole class laugh just being my normal goofball self."

Tickets to this event are $26.50 plus taxes and fees and include a copy of The Bassoon Artist. There will be a signing following the event for those who wish to wait.

Also on Thursday, November 12, 7 pm, at the UWM Student Union:
Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith and Sacred Ground.

The Distinguished lecture series presents an evening with Eboo Patel, activist, author, and advocate of interfaith cooperation. He is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based international nonprofit that aims to promote interfaith cooperation. IFYC was founded in 2002, when Patel saw a need to create an organization that worked with youth and brought together the ideals of diversity, service, and faith as essential components of civic life. He was inspired to create IFYC based on his own experiences as an American Muslim from Indian descent. The driving belief behind his work is that religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.

Patel's two books are Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation which chronicles his own story, and Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America, which offers his platform of interfaith cooperation. Paul Chaffee, editor of The Interfaith Observer, wrote in the Huffington Post: "This short book goes down like hot chocolate on a cold night. Eboo is a master storyteller, framing his heavy-duty agenda with his own personal story, full of passion, good humor and a transparent vulnerability."

Tickets for this event are free for UWM students with a sliding scale of $8-14 for other attendees, with a discount for UWM faculty and staff, and another discount for buying your ticket in advance at the UWM Box Office. For more information, contact (414) 229-5780 or email csidesk@uwm.edu.

Saturday, November 14, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Gina Athena Ulysse, author of Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle.

Like any city, Milwaukee chases a lot of conferences, and like many bookstores, Boswell takes advantage of these meetings to bring feature talks from interesting authors. With the National Women's Studies Association meeting this week, we are able to host Gina Athena Ulysse, a feminist artist-anthropologist-activist and a self-proclaimed Post-Zora Interventionist, as well as author of Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post-Quake Chronicle.

The thesis of Ullysses's book is that the Haitian earthquake of July 2010 offered news coverage the opportunity to spotlight Haiti, but in the end, they reproduced and upheld long-standing stereotypes and narratives of Haiti and Haitians. Why Haiti Needs New Narratives is a collection of articles that she wrote in response.

Armed with an ethnographic lens, Ulysse delivers a critical analysis of culture, geopolitics, and daily life in Haiti in a series of dispatches, op-eds, and articles on post-quake Haiti. Her aim is to explain how the nation and its subjects continue to negotiate sovereignty and existence in a world where, according to a Haitian saying, "Tout moun se moun, men tout moun pa menm," which means "All people are human, but all humans are not the same." Join us Saturday, November 14, 7 pm, at Boswell.

Sunday, November 15, 4 pm, at the Harold and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center:
Michelle Brafman, author of Washing the Dead.

In the new novel from Michelle Brafman, three generations of women confront family secrets. Washing the Dead examines the experience of religious community, the perilous emotional path to adulthood, and the power of sacred rituals to repair damaged bonds between mothers and daughters. It begins in a wealthy Milwaukee suburb, where Barbara and her family lives their lives as baalei teshura, Jews who have returned to Orthodoxy. But behind this facade, she discovers that her mother has a secret, and it's only years later that she learns the truth about her mother's actions.

Brafman's novel has won raves from many writers. Amy Bloom offered this praise: "Intimate, big-hearted, compassionate and clear-eyed, Brafman's novel turns secrets into truths and the truth into the heart of fiction." And David Bezmozgis writes: "Heartfelt and genuine, Washing the Dead never betrays the complicated truths of family and tradition." There are plenty more recommendations, from writers such as Susan Coll, Faye Moskowitz, and Robert Bausch.

There's nothing like a Packers game to get us to come up with new, creative start times for events, which is why Brafman is appearing at the Harold and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center on Sunday, November 15, at 4 pm, after the game is over. Brafman will be in conversation with Jody Hirsh, director of Judaic Education, as part of their Tapestry: Books and Ideas program. The JCC is located at 6255 N. Santa Monica Dr. in Whitefish Bay.

Monday, November 16, 7 pm reception and 7:30 program, at the Lynden Sculpture Garden:
Renée Rosen, author of White Collar Girl.

We had a great time last year with Renée Rosen last year when she came to Boswell for What the Lady Wants, her historical novel about Marshall Field, the store and the man. Previous to that, she chronicle the Chicago mafia in her novel Dollface. Now, as she slowly becomes the go-to novelist for Chicago historical fiction, her new book, White Collar Girl, goes inside the Chicago Tribune in the 1950s.

Here's a little more about the book. Jordan Walsh, coming from a family of esteemed reporters, wants to be the one to dig up the major stories of Chicago. But it s 1955, and the men who dominate the city room of the Chicago Tribune have no interest in making room for a female cub reporter. Instead Jordan is relegated to society news, reporting on Marilyn Monroe sightings at the Pump Room. But Walsh's struggle to be taken seriously once she establishes a secret source inside the mayor's office, and gets her hands on confidential information. But even if she lands on the front page, there's no guarantee she'll remain above the fold. That's a newspaper joke!

As she has for previous books, Rosen has prepared a wonderful presentation that looks at the fact behind the fiction of White Collar Girl. And because we think White Collar Girl will make a great book club selection, Boswellians Daniel Goldin and Jane Glaser who've each been working with reading groups for over twenty years, will be preparing a lively entertaining presentation on great new books that are perfect for book club discussion.

Tickets are $22 ($18 for Lynden members) and include a copy of White Collar Girl, wine and light refreshments from MKE Localicious. There's a short reception at 7 pm, followed by a presentation at 7:30. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is located at 2145 W. Brown Deer Ave. The Women's Speaker Series is produced by Margy Stratton of Milwaukee Reads, with sponsorship from Bronze Optical. See you on Monday, November 16.

Annotated Boswell Bestsellers for the Week Ending November 7, 2015

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Christmas Bells, by Jennifer Chiaverini (signed copies available)
2. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James (also paper)
3. The Crossing, by Michael Connelly
4. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
5. Slade House, by David Mitchell
6. Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
7. Lobster is the Best Medicine, by Liz Climo
8. Mountain Shadow, by Gregory David Roberts
9. The Rogue Lawyer, by John Grisham
10. A Banquet of Consequences, by Elizabeth George

The Mountain Shadow is the sequel to the very popular Shantaram, a novel published in 2003 about an Australian fugitive working for the Bombay mafia. Roberts also has an interesting backstory, as he was formerly a bank robber who spent a number of years in prison. Of the new book, Tim Roberts of the Financial Times put it in the company of The Alchemist, Eat, Pray, Love, and earlier, the works of Carlos Castaneda, as those kind of books popular with gap year students as they go on their travels. He writes: "Ten years in the writing, The Mountain Shadow is the first of three proposed sequels to Shantaram, and continues its mission to transmit as many conclusions about the universe as the author can get his hands on." The Publishers Weekly review was more upbeat: "This series of robust, retro capers with contemporary trappings will have readers feverishly turning the pages."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda (event 12/2)
2. Dickey Chapelle Under Fire, by John Garofolo
3. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, by Sarah Vowell
4. Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook, 2001-2016, by America's Test Kitchen editors
5. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. 100 Recipes, by America's Test Kitchen editors
7. Binge, by Tyler Oakley
8. My Kitchen Year, by Ruth Reichl
9. The Witches, by Stacy Schiff
10. The Giveness of Things, by Marilynne Robinson

My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes that Changed My life, is Ruth Reichl's first cookbook (to my knowledge), and it is very much a memoir as well as a collection of recipes. I know your are thinking, "No, what about the Gourmet cookbooks?" but in fact they were edited by Reichl but they weren't her recipes. Ironically, Reichl was out promoting the second Gourmet cookbook when Conde Nast made the decision to shut down the magazine. The next year was spent in her Hudson Valley home, and it was the impetus for this book. Amy Scattergood in the Los Angeles Times reviewed it, and noted: "Did the book turn out to be a coping mechanism, a survival handbook, a long object lesson? Sure, it's all of those things. It's also a fun read."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James
2. Shady Hollow, by Juneau Black
3. The Ark, by Patrick Tomlinson
4. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
5. The Book of Night Woman, by Marlon James
6. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
7. Women Who Did, edited by Angelique Richardson
8. Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini
9. The Martian, by Andy Weir
10. Symbiont, by Mira Grant

Five event books this week including Marlon James mania (signed copies of the paperback of A Brief History of Seven Killings still available), but then there's Mira Grant's newest in paper, and how can I resist a series about a society battling a tapeworm takeover? Symbiont is the second book in the Parasitology series has SymbioGen implanting tapeworms as a sort of biotechnology variation of a FitBit. Needless to say, the tapeworms take over and their hosts become zombielike creatures. I was very excited to discover a Scientific American review, but it turned out to be just a plot summary. Publishers Weekly wrote that "Grant allows the moral debate to slow the story's movement following the meeting of Banks and Cale, but the richness of the plot sustains the reader's interest in how the characters will negotiate this strange new world."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Holocaust Representations in History, by Lisa Silverman
2. Milwaukee Mayhem, by Matthew Prigge
3. Ghettoside, by Jill Leovy
4. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stephenson
5. Mindfulness Coloing Book, by Emma Farrarons
6. How to Relax, by Thich Nhat Hanh
7. How Can It Be Gluten Free V2, by America's Test Kitchen Editors
8. The Birth of the Pill, by Jonathan Eig
9. Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook, by America's Test Kitchen Editors
10. Complete Cooks Country TV Show Cookbook, by Cooks Country Editors

Ghettoside has been sitting on our dining room table for a year now, so it was nice to imagine that this kind of important placement can pop a book onto a bestseller list. Am I veering too much into magical thinking? Now out in paperback, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, is Jill Leovy's investigation of one young black man's murder in Los Angeles, distinctive only because he was the son of a police detective. She was part of the team who won the Pulitzer Prize for the original newspaper series in the Los Angeles Times. Jennifer Connerman in The New York Times Book Review observes that "Leovy’s relentless reporting has produced a book packed with valuable, hard-won insights — and it serves as a crucial, 366-page reminder that 'black lives matter,' showing how the 'system’s failure to catch killers effectively made black lives cheap.'"

Books for Kids:
1. Hello?, by Liza Wiemer
2. Need, by Joelle Charbonneau (event at East Library 11/18)
3. All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
4. Old School, Jeff Kinney
5. I Really Like Slop, by Mo Willems
6. When I Was the Greatest, by Jason Reynolds
7. Iqbal, by Francesco D'Adamo
8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay
9. The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
10. Turnip, by Jan Brett

Yes, we're still selling books to the students who went to see Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely on October 14, and Liza Wiemer's goal to visit 100 schools in the school year, will likely keep Hello? on our bestseller lists for a while. Coming up is Need, the new YA thriller from Joelle Charbonneau, the author of The Testing trilogy. She'l be doing a few schools with us the week after next, as well as a public event at the East Library. Beyond that is the newest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. In Old School, Greg Heffley asks the town to take the electronics-free challenge, but complications ensue. Rumor has it that our first shipment is signed by the author.

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Jim Higgins profiles Rainn Wilson, author of the new memoir, The Bassoon King, in conjunction with the Thursday event at the Pabst theater. As Higgins notes, "Wilson will visit Milwaukee's Pabst Theater on Thursday for an evening of talk moderated by Victor DeLorenzo, widely known as the former drummer of the Violent Femmes. Wilson calls himself a 'huge Violent Femmes fan' and was delighted to connect with DeLorenzo for the show." DeLorenzo's musical group Nineteen Thirteen opens the show. Tickets still available for the show, at the Pabst Theater.

Mike Fischer reviews The Big Green Tent, a novel from Ludmila Ulitskaya. He writes: "The novel's center ring is occupied by three Muscovite friends from Ulitskaya's own generation: born during World War II, coming of age during the brief thaw following Stalin, and then enduring the endless, sordid twilight of the Brezhnev era." The novel was published in Russian in 2010 and has now been translated by Polly Gannon.

The paper also gives a shout out to the Woodland Pattern annual fundraiser, this year featuring Alice Notley.

In the print edition., Yvonne Villareal profiles Mindy Kaling for Why Not Me. This interview first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

And there's also a profile of the Welcome to Night Vale creators, from Kirtin Tillotson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She discusses the book, the podcast itself, and the cultural phenomenon behind it: "Then came a happy lesson in the capriciousness of online culture. The podcast began picking up fans with lots of social media followers, including actor Wil Wheaton and musician John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. After chatter about it reached a Tumblr tipping point, downloads spiked and a star was born. In July 2013, Night Vale even beat out Ira Glass — Supreme Ruler of the Pods for This American Life — as the No. 1 podcast download from iTunes. The author-creators will be in conversation with Patrick Rothfus this Tuesday, November 10, at Turner Hall Ballroom.

What Did the Book Club Think of "Boy, Snow, Bird?" (Plus Some Good Book Club Resource Links)

Once upon a time there was a girl named Boy Novak. She grew up in New York, raised by her father Frank, who is a rat catcher and not too pleasant to boot. But then she left home, traveling to the small town of Flax Hill, Massachusetts, just outside of Worcester. Once there, she found that she didn’t quite fit in, as everyone had a specialty, but eventually she found company in a band of outsiders – Mia, the smart one, and Webster, the pretty one. And eventually she was courted by a kind man, Arturo Whitman, a package deal that includes his stern mother Olivia, and his daughter, Snow. But the family has a secret, revealed when their daughter is sent away, and one of the daughters is sent away. Is Boy the heroine of this story or the wicked stepmother villain?

So yes, this month we bit from the apple that is Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi, named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. The first thing we decided is that the connections to Snow White are more subtle than the book's copy promised. I think in this case, we would have been excited to discover the connections, but by being promised that this was a contemporary retelling of Snow White, we imagined a story that would hew closer to the fairy tale.

Speaking of flap copy, we had a bit of a discussion about the revelations about the first plot twist. How fair was this revelation? I read somewhere that we generally think we don't like hearing about plot twists in advance, but we often like a story more knowing the twist. About a quarter of the reviews danced around the twist, while the others took it as intrinsic to the review. And in fact, without the twist, what exactly are you writing about? So yes, the SPOILER is going to be revealed here, which you'd likely only miss if someone tore the cover off Boy, Snow, Bird first or set up your ebook to skip over any descriptive copy. And that spoiler is that the family Boy has married into is passing as white.

To a certain extent, I was reminded by Andrew Sean Greer’s The Story of a Marriage, which had several reversals, not unlike the ones that unfolded in the story, but in that case, the book really was trying to upend reader's expectation,s while Oyeyemi is specifically interested in the concept of "passing." This theme plays out several times, most amusingly by Boy's journalist friend, whose big breakthrough story is as a brunette who puts on a blonde wig and sees how differently she is treated.

The middle section of the story is told through letters between the two half-sisters, Snow and Bird, so one could also consider the story at least partially an epistolary novel. What through me in this section, which is really the only place where we get a perspective other than Boy’s, is that Snow really didn’t seem to have any malice towards Boy for sending her to live with her Aunt Clara. For yes, the wicked stepmother (Boy) sent one of the daughter's away, not to dwarves, but to relatives.

Here are some interesting reviews. Porohista Khakpour notes in The New York Times Book Review, that despite her rejection of the Columbia MFA program, her work places her squarely on the cerebral side of storytelling: "“For years I saw her as something of a literary mystic, reading her with a mixture of awe, confusion and delight, but only now do I feel we’re at a place we can properly receive her, and she’s ready for us too.” Later on she notesthat “She (Oyeyemi) uses the ‘skin as white as snow’ ideal as the departure point for a cautionary tale on post-race ideology, racial limbos and the politics of passing.” Note that the Times does not use the serial comma here, but I have a great desire to add one.

Helen Oyeyemi talked to Arun Rath about Boy, Snow, Bird on Weekend All Things Considered. On passing: “It meant a boost in the social standing. It meant this curious thing where in order to be yourself and to have people leave you alone, you need to pretend to be someone else.” And in a sense, Oyeyemi was doing for Snow White what Gregory Maguire did for The Wizard of Oz: “I wanted to rescue the wicked stepmother. I felt that, especially in Snow White, I think that the evil queen finds it such a hassle to be such a villain." And she talks about why her heroine is a bookseller.

And of course she’s a bookseller!

In the Washington Post, Ron Charles contrasts Oyeyemi's work with Aimee Bender, calling the former "surrealism" and the latter subscribing to a model he coins "magical deniability. "When she mentions giants or unicorns or talking spiders, she’s only talking metaphorically – right? – but the atmosphere of fantasy lingers over these pages like some intoxicating incense.” He compares the book to Eowyn Ivey's The Snow Child, and I have to say, up till this moment, I did not know that The Snow Child was based on the Snow White story. I thought it was based on a Russian fairy tale. Were the two of one origin? Go figure.

Playing off the fairy tale theme, Alex Clark in The Guardian called Boy's father, Frankie, a reverse Pied Piper who drives people away, rather than attracting them. Here's where the Hitchcock references were called out: “Early on, Boy tells us about her white-blond hair, her black eyes and her high forehead - put it together with her surname and you come up with Vertigo, that terrifying exploration of disguise and duplicity, in which Kim Novak plays twin roles. Like Hitchcock, Oyeyemi is interested not merely in what happens when you attempt to pass for someone else, but in the porous boundaries between one self and another.” Not too many reviewers picked up on these Vertigo references, so I asked someone connected to the publication if this was on purpose and she said yes, Oyeyemi is a big fan of Hitchcock.

And finally, Laura Miller in Salon compares Oyeymi's work to that of the late Angela Carter.

So what did the book club think? A few attendees were big fans of the book, but many found it more interesting than lovable.There is really great source material and lots of conversation points. It was definitely a good discussion, but I definitely think it's for a more adventurous or sophisticated group, or one like ours, which is not just adventurous and sophisicated, but one where the leader (in this case me) says "this is what we're reading and we'll all be the smarter for it."

Next up, a wrap-up of our discussion of Brian Morton's Florence Gordon.

Boswell Events: a speculative launch with Patrick Tomlinson, Jennifer Chiaverini inspired by Longfellow's holiday poem, Lisa Silverman on Holocaust representations, woodlands murder with Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Koehler, John Garofolo on Dickey Chapelle.

Here's what's going on this week!

Tuesday, November 3, 7 pm, at the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, 6255 N. Santa Monica Blvd. in Whitefish Bay:
Lisa Silverman, co-author of Holocaust Representations in History, an Introduction.

Silverman, associate professor of history and Jewish studies at UW-Milwaukee, presents an evening discussing her recently published work on film drama, memoir, photography, visual arts, graphic novels, memorials, and museums. This event is cosponsored by the Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at UWM and the Nathan and Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Research Center.

Wednesday, November 4, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Juneau Black (Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Koehler), author(s) of Shady Hollow, a Murder Mystery.

At the start of NaNoWriMo, how fitting to celebrate the release of a book that was conceived of in a previous November. We're so excited to be welcoming current and former Boswellians Sharon and Jocelyn for the launch of Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery.

We already have a great rec from Sarah Lange. "In the sleepy town of Shady Hollow, the woodland creatures mostly get along peacefully, thanks in part to their vegetarian diets. But the resident ornery toad, Otto, is now forever resting in peace. Will the police solve his murder, or will the town's amateur sleuths, news reporter Vera Vixen and her pal Lenore Lee, mystery lover and owner of the bookshop, find enough clues to nab the killer before another creature dies? Anyone who has enjoyed Agatha Christie's books or the quirky whodunits on Masterpiece Mystery! will find plenty to delight in in this charming tale perfect for an afternoon or evening escape. I'm already looking forward to the second installment of this bewitching series."

Thursday, November 5, 6:30 pm, at Greendale Cultural Center at Hose Tower, 5699 Parking St. in Greendale:
Jennifer Chiaverini, author of Christmas Bells.

Jennifer Chiaverini's newest novel, Christmas Bells is inspired by the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, and weaves together Christmases past and present for this heartwarming story, a great kickoff to the holiday season.

Longfellow, the most popular poet of his day, penned the verse known as “Christmas Bells,” at Christmas 1863, bringing hope to a nation enduring the conflict of the Civil War, even as he suffered the sudden loss of his wife and worry for his son in service to a war-torn Union. In present-day Boston, a dedicated teacher is stunned by somber holiday tidings as she prepares for a holiday concert at the church where she volunteers - until she is inspired anew by the glory of Longfellow’s timeless words

We're always looking for an interesting venue and when our cosponsor, Greendale Public Library, proposed the new Greendale Cultural Center at Hose Tower, which just had its grand opening reception on October 25, as a space, it seemed like a perfect match. For more about this iconic structure, visit the Greendale website. Yes, it was a "hose" tower for the Greendale Fire Department, but it almost looks like a bell tower, doesn't it? How appropriate!

Thursday, November 5, 7 pm, at the Shorewood Village Hall, at below the Shorewood Public Library, 3920 N. Murray Ave. in Shorewood:
John Garofolo, author of Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: Photographs by the First American Female War Correspondent Killed in Action.

Dickey Chapelle was raised in Shorewood, Wisconsin, which is why the sponsor of this event is the Shorewood Historical Society. From the publisher: "Dickey Chapelle fought to be taken seriously as a war correspondent and broke down gender barriers for future generations of female journalists. She embedded herself with military units on front lines around the globe, including Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam. Dickey sometimes risked her life to tell the story - after smuggling aid to refugees fleeing Hungary, she spent almost two months in a Hungarian prison. For twenty-five years, Dickey's photographs graced the pages of National Geographic, Life, and other print publications. Her tenacity, courage, and compassion shine through in her work, highlighting the human impact of war while telling the bigger story beyond the battlefield."

There's so much going on about Dickey Chapelle this fall. This esteemed photographer, the first female war correspondent killed in action (as the subtitle on her book says) is being memorialized not just in a book, but in a Wisconsin Public Television documentary called Behind the Pearl Earrings, airing on Milwaukee Public Television's Channel 10 on November 3.

Friday, November 6, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Patrick Tomlinson, author of The Ark.

From the publisher: "Humankind has escaped a dying Earth and set out to find a new home among the stars aboard an immense generation spaceship, affectionately named the Ark. Bryan Benson is the Ark’s greatest living sports hero, enjoying retirement working as a detective in Avalon, his home module. The hours are good, the work is easy, and the perks can’t be beat. But when a crew member goes missing, Benson is thrust into the center of an ever-expanding web of deception, secrets, and violence that overturns everything he knows about living on the Ark and threatens everyone aboard. As the last remnants of humanity hurtle towards their salvation, Benson finds himself in a desperate race to unravel the conspiracy before a madman turns mankind’s home into its tomb."

Patrick Tomlinson has been working on The Ark, his first published science fiction novel (and yes, the first in the series) for a long time*, mostly at 42Lounge, the popular downtown bar and lounge that specializes, as they say, in all things geek. That's where the official after party is. Should be a fun time!

*when he hasn't been perfecting his comic skills. Like fellow author Christopher Buehlhman, Tomlinson juggles the speculative and the profane. You can read more about his work in this area here.

The Post-Boo Report: Annotated Boswell Bestsellers for The Week Ending October 31, 2015

You can tell we're exhausted just from scanning the bestseller lists. Exhausted, but also luxuriating in that dreamy post-event afterglow, right?

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Bream Gives Me Hiccups, by Jesse Eisenberg
2. Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor
3. Banquet of Consequences, by Elizabeth George
4. Slade House, by David Mitchell
5. Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith
6. City on Fire, by Garth Risk Hallberg
7. Lake House, by Kate Morton
8. Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James (event today, 11/1, 3 pm)
9. Rogue Lawyer, by John Grisham
10. Purity, by Jonathan Franzen

One nice pop of sales came after Jane Glaser talked up The Lake House in our email newsletter. It turns out there are many other fans for Kate Morton, who actually did several events in the Milwaukee area (Books and Company and Next Chapter) for a previous novel. Catherine Mallette in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram offers: "Kate Morton’s fifth novel, The Lake House, begins with that wonderful, anticipatory sense of promise that comes at the dawn of something new and special when the world seems ripe with possibility. Unfortunately, for her heroine, Alice, life doesn’t go as she’s hoped but immediately takes a drastic turn for the worse during the Midsummer party. Fortunately, for the reader, that twist of fate is the beginning of a rich and almost magical good old-fashioned tale with themes of love, longing, relationships between mothers and daughters and dark family secrets." Does it drive journalists crazy that I smash together their two-sentence paragraphs? I just can't help it.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Binge, by Tyler Oakley
2. Cooking Like a Master Chef, by Graham Elliot
3. Furiously Happy, by Jenny Lawson
4. Lafayette in the Somewhat United Staes, by Sarah Vowell
5. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
6. Whispers and Shadows, by Jerry Apps
7. Witches, by Stacy Schiff
8. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. Notorious RBG, by Iriin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
11. Wisconsin Agriculture, by Jerry Apps
12. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, by Carrie Brownstein
13. M Train, by Patti Smith
14. My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem
15. Giveness of Things, by Marilynne Robinson

This week's number one non-event book is Stacy Schiff's The Witches: Salem 1692. We'll have a great review from Mike Fischer below, but here's a teaser from Nancy Rommelman's Newsday review: "Why the girls’ elders did not order them to behave – why instead the law saw the devil’s work in even the most pious community members – can be explained by the persecution complex from which the Puritans suffered, the drab toil of their lives finding relief in the theater that was the witch trials. Men of ambition, notably the minister and pamphleteer Cotton Mather, employed the devil as a convenient tool with which to amass power. If dozens of innocents died along the way, well, who was to say they were innocent? More than 300 years later, we are still examining the wounds, which Schiff, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and an indefatigable researcher, offers in compulsively readable form." I dare you not to keep reading!

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James (see above)
2. Shady Hollow, by Juneau Black (event 11/4 at Boswell)
3. Again and Again, by Ellen Bravo
4. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
5. Lila, by Marilynne Robinson
6. Chicago Noir, edited by Joe Meno
7. Guise of Another, by Allen Eskens (event 11/21 at Boswell)
8. The Martian, by Andy Weir
9. Let Me Be Frank with You, by Richard Ford
10. Florence Gordon, by Brian Morton (book club discussion 11/2 with Daniel)

Lots of in-store book club picks in the top ten this week. In addition to our November (Let Me Be Frank With You) and December (Lila) selections for the in-store lit group, we've also got Allen Eskens The Guise of Another, which the mystery group is reading on November 23, in conjunction with Eskens's visit on Saturday, October 21, 2 pm, at Boswell. Eskens was a finalist for the Edgar for best first novel for his previous novel, The Life We Bury. Of his newest, Publishers Weekly's starred review says the second novel is "equally compelling" with "unexpected turns" and "well-crafted characters." What more could you want for those dark evenings ahead?

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Let's Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson
2. Glass, by John Garrison
3. Leaders of the Pack, by Rob Reischel (event today at 2 pm, Zablocki Library)
4. Red Eggs and Good Luck, by Angela Lam
5. Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell
6. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
7. Enchanted Forest, by Johanna Basford
8. Mindfulness Coloring Book, by Emma Farrarons
9. Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
10. Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham

In an unusual turn, there's only one regional title in this week's top ten, Rob Reischel's Leaders of the Pack: Starr, Favre, Rodgers and Why Green Bay's Quarterback Trio Is the Best in NFL History. Reischel will be at Zablocki Library this afternoon at 2 pm (update: this event had to be cancelled, due to a family emergency), where the library will be raffling off a signed copy of Favre, one of said leaders. We'll find out at 7 pm whether the Packers can keep their undefeated record. Thank you to whomever scheduled their game on Sunday night so we could squeeze in two events. You can read an excerpt of the book on the Journal Sentinel website, which also lists the top ten quarterback trios. Who do you think is in second place?

Books for Kids:
1. Hello, by Liza Wiemer
2. Book of Dares for Lost Friends, by Jane Kelley
3. Desperate Adventures of Zeno and Alya, by Jane Kelley
4. Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell
5. The Marvels, by Brian Selznick
6. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
7. Amazing Book is not on Fire, by Dan Howell and Phil Lester
8. Holy Moley, by Lois Ehlert
9. Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, by Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin
10. Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary

Tyler Oakley is not the only YouTube celebrity with a book on our list. The Amazing Book is Not on Fire: The World of Dan and Phil, chronicles the adventures of Londoners Amazing Phil and Dan is Not on Fire. Why Binge, whose sales were almost completely driven by teenage girls, is an adult book, and Dan and Phil's is a teen novel is really a function of which editor/publisher acquires the package. It's my thought that for a book like this, pricing doesn't really matter, and the bestseller lists on the adult side have more visibility. Right now the tour seems limited to London, Nottingham, and Liverpool? What parent who is reading this post is already being asked to pack their bags?

Over at the Journal Sentinel book section, Chris Foran laughs it up with The Comedians: "In his highly readable overview of the comedy business and its colorful practitioners, comic turned showbiz historian Kliph Nesteroff chronicles the challenges of the comedy business from the days of vaudeville, when theater chain owners ruled with an iron hand; to the hip clubs of the 1950s and '60s, when the assembly-line system of comedy writers and joke-tellers was replaced by a more personal, and political, brand of humor; to the comedy-club boom of the 1980s and beyond."

Book editor Jim Higgins pages through a few speculative new releases, including Milwaukeean Patrick Tomlinson's The Ark, who will launching at Boswell next Friday, November 6, 7 pm. He writes: "An enormous generation ship approaches Tau Ceti G, the planned new home for a remnant of humanity after a black hole threatened Earth centuries ago. As if the Flip — the landing and transformation of their vessel into planetary quarters — was not daunting enough, Detective Bryan Benson's missing persons case turns into a suspicious death via airlock. The evidence and his instincts lead Benson to the control center where the privileged crew work, but he's seen more as a nuisance during the perilous Flip than as a diligent lawman."

Higgins calls the at-least-to-his-knowledge unrelated writer C.A. Higgins's debut "smart and moody." His take on Lightless: "Even in the isolation of the Ananke, an experimental space vessel, computer scientist Althea and her colleagues are subject to the discipline of the System, which tightly controls life in their part of the universe. When two possible terrorists are captured after boarding Ananke, a System interrogator arrives to grill them — and make life miserable for the crew."

Cathy Jakicic offers her views on Stephen King's newest, Bazaar of Bad Dreams: "He serves up a potent mix of stories that land in and around the horror genre. Not surprisingly, most are classic King page-turners, but the choicest finds in this bazaar are the stories behind the stories or, more correctly, in front of them." She picks her top five of the twenty, including "Bad Little Kid" and "Mile 82."

Christi Clancy has stuck with Jane Smiley through her "Hundred Year" trilogy. While not veering into King's horror territory, this described tableau from The Golden Age is still on the creepy side: "Imagine that an artist relative you've fallen out of touch with invites you to view an installation of her work. There on the gallery walls, you're surprised to find photographs of yourself that were taken when you didn't know it; maybe you are sitting on your porch drinking coffee, or wandering the aisles of the supermarket. Now imagine that there are similar photographs of many of your relatives — your aunts, uncles, cousins and parents, all caught equally unaware." Yes, one of the characters has hired a detective to take photos of her relatives, caught unawares, and hang them in a gallery. As the character says, "It didn't start out as art."

And as promised, Mike Fischer reviews The Witches, the newest from Stacy Schiff and is very enthusiastic: "...As "The Witches" demonstrates, the more attention one pays to the minute historical details the harder it is to be certain about what exactly happened and why — a problem made worse by mysterious gaps in the documentary record, including any transcripts from the actual trials. Not a problem for a super sleuth who worked with even less in giving us her widely acclaimed biography of Cleopatra; there as here, Schiff reads between the lines by examining the materials at hand, including depositions, indictments, confessions and agonized postmortems."

But wait, there's more. Jim Higgins also talks up three upcoming book festivals - the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books in Waukesha and Murder and Mayhem at the Irish Cultural Center next Saturday, run by our friends at Crimespree Magazine, and the Sterling North Festival in Edgerton. 

Print section bonus! Marion Winik reviews three rock and roll memoirs, reprinted from Newsday. I could find a link but why not just read your print copy? The books are: --M Train, by Patti Smith --Reckless: My Life as a Pretender, by Chrissie Hunde --Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, by Carrie Brownstein --