We discuss "The Portable Veblen" at our In-store Lit Group, in advance of Elizabeth McKenzie's visit on January 23, 7 pm

I know what you're thinking. We chose The Portable Veblen as our In-Store Lit Group discussion book for January because there was a charming squirrel on the cover. You're thinking that with my obsession with woodland creatures from my gift buying, I couldn't say no. But the truth is that the squirrel was passed over for the fox, and never even got as much traction as the raccoon, and if you want to ask us which animal icon is ascendant in the gift world, we'd have to say it's the llama.

Or maybe it was the aqua cover. I've mentioned before that aqua has become a bit of a signifier for smart comic novels, what with the success of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and Emma Straub's The Vactioners.

Or maybe because the original Veblen, who our heroine is named after, has Wisconsin roots. The economist/sociologist Thorstein Veblen was born in Cato, and his parents lived in Milwaukee before moving to the Manitowoc area, after which they settled on a farm in Minnesota. Veblen is well-known for popularizing the idea of conspicuous consumption.

Or maybe because it's set in Palo Alto, which you'd think would be rather commonsplace, with the number of great writers graduating from Stanford every year, and the town being a bit a synechdoche for Silicon Valley, an important part of any modern person's consciousness. Am I using synechdoche correctly? My favorite Palo Alto novel contines to be Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate, with that stanza dedicated to the late Printers Inc. bookstore.

Or maybe it's the award nominations. The Portable Veblen was longlisted for the National Book Award and shortlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize. That certainly led to me buying a copy of the hardcover at Volumes Bookcafe in Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.

When Penguin asked us to be on the paperback tour (our event is Monday, January 23, 7 pm), all these things came into play. And because of the awards, the book was moved up to November, giving us enough time to discuss The Portable Veblen in January.

So now more about the book (McKenzie at left). Veblen Amundsen-Hovda lives in a very small but still affordable cottage on Tasso Street in Palo Alto. She's working at a science lab where she meets Paul Vreeland, a researcher. They hit it off, but Paul is soon lured away to a for-profit for his device that he's testing, a skull punch that can relieve brain injuries and possibly save lives.

Of course there are a few problems. There are her parents, who are a bit of a mess (as Scarlett Thomas noted in The Guardian**, "the most horribly accurate portrait of a narcissist hypochondriac I have ever read"). There's Paul's stress from the job, which is sort of compromising his integrity. And there's Veblen, who seems to have befriended the squirrel that is terrorizing her home.

They say (well, someone says...my customer Carl says) that any two books can be connected by the reading experience, and I was sort of taken aback by the ways in which last month's selection, Hannah Rothschild's The Improbability of Love and this month's, The Portable Veblen. were linked).

1. Each novel was set in a world where money had taken something with good intentions (art in the first, drug research and care for veterans in the second) and shown how absolutely corrupted it could be.

2. Both novels have themes that weigh heavily on the psychological burden that parents put on their children. In the case of Rothschild, both heroine (Annie) and anti-heroine (Rebecca) must come to terms with their parents shortfallings, and Veblen and to a lesser extent, Paul, must do so as well. In the case of McKenzie's novel, Jennifer Senior sums it up in The New York Times: "For all its charm, bounce, radiant eccentrics and diverting episodes involving drug companies and squirrels, that is what The Portable Veblen is about: shaking the demented ghosts of our youth so that we can bind with clean spirits to someone in our adulthood."

3. And that's another connection. Both Improbability and Veblen were reviewed by Jennifer Senior in The New York Times, and knowing that she also loves All My Puny Sorrows, I'm waiting for her to review and love something else in this way, so I can read it. Alas, she wasn't as crazy about History of Wolves as I'd hoped, but many other people are loving it.*

4. And finally, both books have something seemingly talking that shouldn't be - a painting or a squirrel.

Did I mention that both books were finalists for the Bailey's Women's Prize in 2016? What won? It was a first novel called The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney, which hasn't done well with us at all, despite being featured in our awards case. I think it's the cover.

LitHub asked McKenzie "What about Veblen’s medication? Melanie and Linus, her stepfather, ask her if she’s taking them several times, but they’re not specified" and McKenzie replied "I’ve never really talked about Veblen’s modalities and antidepressants. She has struggled with depression, but it wasn’t my intention to go into a lot of detail about the illness itself." But while I was reading this book, Maria Bamford's television series Lady Dynamite came to mind. I would definitely recommend The Portable Veblen to someone who enjoys this series.

Another artist whose work was called to mind while reading McKenzie's novel was Laurie Colwin. I was particularly reminded of Happy All the Time, which is also about what makes a relationship work, and had a similar fairytale quality about it. I would greatly excite me if more talented authors were inspired by this much beloved, still missed writer. Amie and I agreed that our favorite is Goodbye Without Leaving. My friend John's favorite is Another Marvelous Thing, and Marcy's is definitely the aforementioned Happy All the Time, which I should note that I liked enough to read twice. Another book that Marcy recommended to me decades ago that seemingly has had a resurgence if Barbara Trapido's Brother of the More Famous Jack. I'm just saying that you should probably listen to her when she tells you to read something.

As long as we're discussing book tie ins, there is the aforementioned Thorstein Veblen-penned The Theory of the Leisure Class, which is discussed in earnest in the novel. Another book that has a good amount of play is Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. Are you surprised?

So what did the book club think? It's so interesting that what order we weigh in can really affect the tone the discussion takes. In this case, the most negative people spoke first, and while it got much more positive by the time we got to the halfway point of the table. Like Eileen, anyone in the helping professions seemed to like it more, and I also suspected that fans of the book might skew younger than our group. One attendee actually compared it to Eileen, which I was surprised about - I didn't think the books could be more different, but I thought her points, when raised, were valid.

One argument that was raised again was how we felt about satire. One of our most enthusiastic attendees loved the skewiering of the medicula industrial complex and thought the book was filmed with sharp humor. i should note that Elizabeth Rosen in the San Francisco Chronicle offered agreement: "I can’t help finding within these pages some strong echoes of Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., which is to say, literary forebears who dared to map the landscape of dark humor in modern warfare, and others like them who were early to expose the perversity of corporate-style hospitalization."

And McKenzie has noted that The Portable Veblen, which was written over a number of years, was originally meant to be more of an anti-war novel. As she noted to Bethanne Patrick in the LitHub interview: " While some of those characters were inspired by families and people I observed and met at the Menlo Park VA hospital, I’m also blending in something that concerned me from the beginning: The issue of being a participant in a clinical trial. One of my family members was in a clinical trial. I’m one of the people I’m describing and creating. One of those people waiting to hear the good news. Unfortunately, we didn’t understand that the trial wasn’t going to do anything for our loved one. We had a lot of regret: Why did we put everyone through this?"

And another one of our enthusiastic participants compared the book to A Confederancy of Dunces.

But I'll give one of our negatives a little more space. She didn't like any of the characters and wished she was at home reading Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life.

Why squirrels, one participant asked? Squirrels are an animal that live in close proximity to but completely independent of humans. Of course they are not the only animals like this. Perhaps they are not as scary as rats or as cute as rabbits. Every so often we spot raccoons and opossums in our yard, and we've even seen a few coyotes. In London, the fox is the most talked about urban prowler. But McKenzie chose the squirrel and aside from one of our booksellers having a very strong hatred for squirrels and so she wouldn't read it, there doesn't seem to be any harm in that.

I have no idea how you'll feel about reading The Portable Veblen after reading this essay, but I'm hoping you are intrigued enough to try it. I enjoyed it a lot and think it makes for a great discussion. Other interesting reviews to check out are Jeff VanderMeer's in the Los Angeles Times and Maureen Corrigan's essay on Fresh Air, which gets extra points for calling the novel "squirrelly."

For the next few months, we'll be meeting at 6 pm, due to event scheduling.

On Monday, February 6, we'll be discussing Brit Bennett's The Mothers at 6 pm. We'll start off sans author, but Bennett will join us for a little spoiler question-and-answer at around 6:40, before doing her talk/reading to the general public at 7.

And on Monday, March 6, we'll discuss Paul Beatty's The Sellout at 6 pm. At 7 pm, we'll break so that we can attend Will Schwalbe's presention of Books for Living. Looks like we'll be talking about satire again.

On Monday, April 3, we'll be back to a 7 pm start for Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies, held in conjunction with the Milwaukee Public Library's The Big Read. I believe we'll have at least one attendee from the Library to talk with us about the book and discuss the Big Read process.

 *Emily Fridlund will be at Boswell for History of Wolves on Friday, January 13, 7 pm, in conversation with Daniel Goldin.

**It is interesting to note that while I wouldn't instinctively recommend The Portable Veblen to our buyer Jason, the fact that Scarlett Thomas and Jeff VanderMeer, two authors he really likes, reviewed it enthusiastically, makes me think he might enjoy it.

More on Clinton Kelly's (ticketed) visit to Boswell on Saturday, January 14, 7 pm.

Before we get started, here's the ticket link to our event on Saturday.

I have this surreal feeling whenever we book someone for an event at Boswell that I never expected to be hosting. If you ever said to me ten years ago that one day Clinton Kelly of What Not to Wear and The Chew would be visiting, I probably would have laughed hysterically. For one thing, I would have told you I'm not hosting anyone - I'm buying books for Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops and I'm afraid of speaking in front of a crowd of more than 10. I did in fact occasionally host events at Schwartz, but my specialty was for groups of...10. And I wouldn't know what The Chew was.

Reading Mr. Kelly's new book of essays, I Hate Everyone, Except You, I'm guessing he also would have been surprised at the turn his life has taken. He started out in the world of magazine publishing, just before the fashion journalist turned into the newest breed of celebrity. His first job in front of the camera was for a QVC spinoff shot in Astoria, Queens (which we used to go to regularly, but our only stop was Uncle George's Greek restaurant, which was a favorite of my father). And like many career paths, his was filled with a number of twists and turns. Often it seems like it was fate that got him to the next rung of the ladder of success, but of course it also takes drive and talent, and for the path he chose, charisma too.

What fun this book is! Like Kelly, I grew up Long Island (well, Queens, but I could and did walk over the border). I also had the desperate desire to go to glamorous amusement parks, and when I first went, I went with my parents, also like Kelly. Once we got to the park, I became frightened of all but the gentlest of rides. It wasn't until my twenties when something snapped in me and I became rollercoaster obsessed. But perhaps part of my 20-something obsession with amusement parks was my interest in counting couples in matching outfits. They were mostly male-female couples but sometimes three or four women would attend the park dressed alike. Many of the outfits looked like shorty pajamas, or baseball uniforms that were emblazened with the names of football teams. When people discuss late eighties and early nineties fashion, you rarely see mention of matching shorty pajama style leisurewear, but believe me kiddies, it really happened.

After a number of years in fashion judgment, Kelly moved to cooking and crafts. But whatever he's talking about, he has a delightful sense of humor, and that all comes back in I Hate Everything, Except You. This new collection of autobiographical pieces touches on his blended family upbringing on Long Island, singleton New York adventures, life with his always understanding husband Damon, and of course a little small screen gossip. There are a few fictional pieces (featuring characters named Clayton and Chetley) and while some details can be a little racy, I know you can handle them.

Here's the table of contents:
Kamikaze (a trip to Action Park)
Brilliant Ideas (Trying for a job at Marie Claire)
Auditions, The Universe, and Other Whatnot (that fateful day)
Memorizing Porn (the dialogue is underrated)
Turd in the Punchbowl (Paula Deen's jellied chicken wings)
Freakin’ Fabulous, the Sitcom (What Not to Wear)
The Switch (how he met Damon Bayles)
Clinton for President (medicinal marijuana)
You Young, Me Restless (a Miami story)
Textbook Penis (stranger than fiction)
Stockholm Syndrome (Clinton and Damon go to Stockholm)
The Way it Went (a shopping channel story)
I’m Waiting (waiter stories)
Your a Psychopath (a little hate mail, and the misspelling is on purpose)
Salad Days (competitive salading)
Rich and Famous (giving a commencement address)

Tickets are $26 and include admission to the event and a copy of I Hate Everyone, Except You. On the night of the event only, an $18 Boswell gift card is available in lieu of the book. Kelly will personalize your book, will sign books brought from home, and will pose for photos. You can also order by phone by calling (800) 838-3006. It's event #2716017.

If you haven't been to one of our ticketed events, don't worry! There's a decent amount of street parking, and a parking garage across the street. The top floor is priced like the surface lot it replaced. There's a surface lot about two blocks north of us When you enter the store, you'll get a line letter that is like your ticket to let you back in if you leave. And if you come early, there are four places to eat within a block of us--Pizza Man, Cafe Hollander, Bel Air, and Henrys.

Event preview: Nick Petrie in conversation with Jon Jordan, Emily Fridlund in conversation with me, Kevin Henkes, and Clinton Kelly, which is ticketed

It's a clean sweep this week, as I've read all the books we're featuring at events this week. It's harder to do than you think.

Tuesday, January 10, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Nick Petrie author of Burning Bright, in conversation with Crimespree's Jon Jordan

From Daniel: "Peter Ash is still on the run from his PTSD, but this time he’s in the redwoods wilderness of Northern California. Escaping from from a bear, he finds an investigative reporter hiding from a surprisingly violent group of government agents, who started pursuing her after the sudden death of her mom, an academic researcher in technology. Do they think that her mother passed info to daughter, and will they bother to let her live if they get it? Ash is always up for a challenge, and it doesn’t hurt that an attraction is brewing between our couple on the run. Burning Bright may not have the gritty Milwaukee setting of his first novel, The Drifter, but it makes up for it in thrills. It’s a heart-stopping chase, filled with all the paranoia that ensues in this age of the easily hacked and traced. "

We have had so much fun hand-selling The Drifter this past year and it's great to see that Burning Bright is building on the succcess of the previous novel featuring Peter Ash. At Murder and Mayhem, The Drifter was our bestselling book, what with half the coordinators of the program talking it up. It's such a great start to a series, and though Peter Ash titles will take place all over the country (and perhaps outside of it), book #1 in the series will always be right here in Milwaukee.

Burning Bright is featured on Entertainment Weekly's Must List this week. And David Martindale in the Fort Worth Star Telegram had great things to say about the new book: "The first quarter of the book is a roller-coaster adventure in an almost literal sense, a fast and dangerous chase that begins with a zip-line ride from tree to tree and ends with a wild auto pileup and shootout along a desolate forest road. It’s what Peter thinks of as 'a pretty interesting day.'

Nick Petrie will be at Boswell for the launch on Tuesday, January 10, 7 pm, where he'll be in conversation with Crimespree Magazine's Jon Jordan. After he does some touring, he'll be back to do two more library events, on Friday, January 20, 6:30 pm, at Greendale's Hose Tower, and Saturday, January 21, 1 pm, at the Whitefish Bay Library. He'll be at our friends at Books and Company in Oconomowoc on Thursday, January 19, 7 pm.

Friday, January 13, 7:00 pm at Boswell:
Emily Fridlund author of History of Wolves in conversation with Boswell's Daniel Goldin

Daniel Goldin writes: "In a small town in the Minnesota North Woods, Linda stumbles through high school (or maybe middle school). Her parents are refugees from a commune and are not particularly great at socializing. At school, Linda’s teacher is fired for possessing inappropriate materials. The rumor is that he also was spending time with a classmate, but it’s not like Linda is ever going to spend the real story. The only people she spends time with is her neighbors, who hire her to take care of her son Paul. He’s an odd kid, but he and Linda bond, which only makes things tougher when Linda figures out what’s going on with the family. This is a coming-of-age novel that ponders how a kid can make sense of the world in the face of trauma. The moody wilderness setting could easily be Wisconsin as much as Minnesota, and this is the kind of book that makes me wish that Midwesterners had more of a regional sensibility, like Southerners, so that we would cheer on great fiction writers like Fridlund, whose only sin is that they are writing on the other side of a river."

From Megan Hustad in The New York Times Book Review: "It is not giving away too much to reveal that after ratcheting up the tension, Fridlund does not take readers to the sunless place many might guess — a warren of child pornographers deep in the woods, an inconvenient hole in the ice. That I was relieved at the slow-motion tragedy that does unfold is testimony to Fridlund’s daring. An artful story of sexual awakening and identity formation turns more stomach-churning; child sacrifice takes many forms, and sometimes the act doesn’t require bloodshed but simply adults too wedded to their ideals."

Emily Fridlund has had her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, Zyzzyva, and Five Chapters. She holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Fridlund’s story Catapult was a finalist for the Noemi Book Award for Fiction and the Tartts First Fiction Award. The opening chapter of History of Wolves won the 2013 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction.

Should be a great event. Join us! One last pitch: a profile in Bookselling This Week, from the American Booksellers Association.

Saturday, January 14, 2:00 pm at Boswell:
Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes comes to Boswell for Egg.

Kevin Henkes picture books have taken a bit of a turn towards the metaphorical, what with Waiting and now Egg. Kirkus Reviews also noticed the connection between the two books: "In Waiting, he used white space to great effect to give the figurines space as their attention was directed outward, to the moon, the stars, the wind. Here, pages are framed, and some are divided into four or 16 squares, which then open to full-page spreads depicting surprise, wonder, and newfound companionship. The frames and boxes complement the idea of containment in eggs, especially of the something enclosed in that fourth egg. When the four friends float off into the sunset, the sun itself morphs into an egg shape, with a hint of a new surprise in their lives. Another stunner from Henkes, who is able to evoke so much with few words and such seemingly simple illustrations."

What I love about these books are the sense of wonder they inspire, returning me, even as an adult, to my childhood. And I love the panel designs, which remind me of my favorite comics strips. They so remind me of some of my very favorite Sunday strips from Peanuts, no less. I might be off base here, but if you don't believe me, maybe you should check your memory by rereading some old collections.

More raving from School Library Journal: "Fans of Henkes will delight in his use of line, simple forms, and a gentle palette, all of which clearly portray feelings, depict action, and suggest character. The concise text and straightforward illustrations, however, belie a more complicated tale. Is it simply a story of waiting--perhaps one of friendship? Or does it suggest the cyclical nature of young choosing their actions and flying out into the world? This is a book that readers will want to pore over and talk about and read again and again."

We're so excited to be hosting Mr. Henkes, but please note, there are signing restrictions for this event. To enter the signing line you must purchase a copy of Egg. There are also no posed photos, videos, or flash photography.

Saturday, January 14, 7:00 pm, at Boswell
A ticketed evening with Clinton Kelly, author of I Hate Everyone, Except You

Daniel's take: "Though he’d already been exposed to the glamourous world of television hosting when he fronted a short-lived, upmarket QVC spinoff, life truly changed for magazine editor Clinton Kelly when he auditioned for a makeover reality show called What Not to Wear. Now as one of the moderator of The Chew, the hit television show, Kelly has moved from clothes to cooking and crafts. But whatever he’s talking about, Clinton Kelly has a wicked sense of humor and that all comes out in I Hate Everyone, Except You, a new collection of autobiographical pieces that touch on his blended family upbringing on Long Island, singleton New York adventures, life with his always understanding husband Damon, and of course a little small screen gossip. There are a few fictional pieces (featuring characters named Clayton and Chetley) and while some details can be a little racy, it’s nothing more than you’d catch on an average episode of Will and Grace. There’s a lot of funny stuff in here and a number of pieces are quite moving. If you’re a fan, you won’t be disappointed."

From Amy Scribner at Bookpage: "No matter how you know Kelly, you will know him infinitely better after reading I Hate Everyone, Except You, his hilarious, wise and revealing new memoir. It seems no topic is off-limits for Kelly (except his beloved grandma), who grew up gawky and gay on Long Island. He writes warmly of his family, including his stepfather, who gamely took on him and his sister when he married their mom. He recalls his time on What Not to Wear with just the right dash of gossip, and writes candidly about meeting his future husband, psychologist Damon Bayles."

Tickets are $26 and include admission to the event and a copy of I Hate Everyone, Except You. On the night of the event only, an $18 Boswell gift card is available in lieu of the book (though why you're not taking the book is beyond me). Kelly will personalize your copy of I Hate Everyone, Except You, will sign books brought from home, and will pose for photos.

In addition to their website, you can purchase your ticket at Brown Paper Tickets or by phone at 800-838-3006. And if you need us to help, come to the store and we'll walk you through registration.

Photo credits!
Emily Fridlund: Doug Knutson
Kevin Henkes: Michael Corpora
Clinton Kelly: Heidi Gutman

Boswell Bestsellers, week ending January 6, 2017

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Moonglow, by Michael Chabon
2. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
3. The Mothers, by Brit Bennett (event at Boswell Mon Feb 6, 7 pm)
4. Another Brooklyn, by Jacqueline Woodson
5. News of the World, by Paulette Jiles
6. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
7. The Nix, by Nathan Hill
8. A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
9. The Trespasser, by Tana French
10. History of Wolves, by Emily Fridlund (event at Boswell Fri Jan 13 7 pm)

It may be a new year but this week's top 10 looks surprisingly like holiday 2016, with the addition of Emily Fridlund's History of Wolves. The Minneapolis Star Tribune features a review from Peter Geye, whom has coincidentally been one of the comparison authors we've been using as we promote the book and event on January 13. He writes: "When a young family moves in across the lake, she finds herself babysitting the family’s young boy, Paul. If their bond does not evolve into love, it certainly takes on the blush of a deep and curious friendship. Over the course of a year, as their bond forms, Linda and Paul learn to coexist in a house most notable for its strangeness."

 I understand Geye wanting to pull out the factual errors in a fictional book as I almost threw a novel against a wall several years ago when an author who set a book in Milwaukee listed street names in the wrong order and incorrect zip codes. By all means change a place for the sake of the book, but if you're going to use real details, please get them right for the locals. You wouldn't put have a character cross Madison Avenue between First and Second in Manhattan, would you? But I digress.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. America's War for the Greater Middle East, by Andrew J. Bacevich
2. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
3. The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis
4. Upstream, by Mary Oliver
5. Classic German Baking, by Luisa Weiss
6. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
7. The Case Against Sugar, by Gary Taubes
8. Books for Living, by Will Straube (event Mon 3/6, 7 pm)
9. The Making of Milwaukee, by John Gurda
10. Mary Astor's Purple Diary, by Edward Sorel

When your losing faith in print reviews, along comes Woody Allen's take on Mary Astor's Purple Diary (already recommended by Jen Steele at Boswell) in The New York Times Book Review, which gives Edward Sorel's biography a nice bump: "I believe it was Sartre who said all lives were of equal value and who am I to argue the point, but some lives are so much more fun to read about than others, and Sorel has told Astor’s story with great flair and energy. I hope he gets his wish and over time Mary winds up commemorated on a postage stamp. Until then, I’m going to have another look under my linoleum. Maybe among all that schmutz there’s an idea I could take to the bank."

Paperback Fiction:
1. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
2. The Drifter, by Nicholas Petrie (event Tue Jan 10, 7 pm)
3. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
4. Selected Stories, by Anton Chekhov
5. The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
7. The Improbability of Love, by Hannah Rothschild
8. The Fishbowl, by Bradley Somer
9. The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
10. City on Fire, by Garth Risk Hallberg

The Fishbowl is the story of one goldfish's plunge down 27 stories of apartment building as life goes on around it. The rumor is that Bradley Somers's novel worked much better in independent bookstores than other channels. If other booksellers are as enthusiastic as Boswell's Sharon Nagel, the paperback will break out! We're now close to 20 copies sold, on top of the 10 we sold in hardcover. It might be time for some of the rest of us to get our hand-sell groove on and help Sharon, who called the story "unique and fun."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. On Air, by Katrina Kravy (event at Boswell Thu Jan 19, 7 pm)
2. We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
3. Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly
4. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
5. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
6. Nonstop Metropolis, by Rebecca Solnit
7. Milwaukee in the 1930s, by John D. Buenker
8. The Road to Character, by David Brooks
9. My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem
10. Bob Burgers Adult Coloring Book, by Loren Bouchard

With the opening of Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterley's nonfiction account has gone to the top of the national charts. One of the strange things that happens when the film rights are sold quickly is that the hardcover only really got a few months before paperback release. From Cara Buckley's New York Times profile: "Ms. Shetterly happened upon the idea for the book six years ago, when she and her husband, Aran Shetterly, then living in Mexico, were visiting her parents here. The couple and Ms. Shetterly’s father were driving around in his minivan when he mentioned, very casually, that one of Ms. Shetterly’s former Sunday school teachers had worked as a mathematician at NASA, and that another woman she knew calculated rocket trajectories for famous astronauts."

Books for Kids
1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by J.K Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone illustrated by J.K. Rowling/Jim Kay
3. Pax, by Sara Pennypacker, Jon Klassen
4. Dog Man Unleashed V2, by Dav Pilkey
5. The Warden's Daughter, by Jerry Spinelli
6. Double Down V11, by Jeff Kinney
7. Dog Man V1, by Dav Pilkey
8. We Found a Hat, by Jon Klassen
9. The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak
10. Pat the Zoo, by Dorothy Kunhardt

Who doesn't love a new release in January? The publisher calls The Warden's Daughter a knockout story of a girl who must come to terms with her mother's death from inside the walls of a prison. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro covers this novel, which has origins in a real-life woman he met in Norristown, Pennsylvia, his hometown: NPR notes: "Spinelli tells the story of Cammie O'Reilly, who lost her mother when she was a baby. Cammie has grown up in the Hancock County Prison, where her dad is the warden. With her 13th birthday approaching, Cammie decides it's time to find a mom, so she seeks out maternal support from the female inmates."

Over at the Journal Sentinel TapBooks page, Nick Petrie is featured for his second novel. Jim Higgins notes: Burning Bright (yes, titled after William Blake's famous poem) moves from California redwoods to the high-tech, caffeinated world of Seattle. 'Part of the DNA of Peter is that he moves from place to place, and that's a lot of fun for a writer,' Petrie said during a recent interview. Petrie said those dramatic scenes among the redwoods were partly inspired by his reading Richard Preston's The Wild Trees, a nonfiction account of the ecosystem among the treetops — and of the unusual scientists and explorers who climb up there."

From Lauren Patten comes a review of Chris Bohjalian Sleepwalker, the story of the disappearance of Annalee Ahlberg. The author of Before You Know Kindness and The Sandcastle Girls keeps us guessing: "Along the way, Bohjalian educates us about the scientific explanations for sleepwalking. At first they seem merely interesting. Then Bohjalian leads us into a darker topic, sexual behavior in sleep (SBS). At that point, we realize that by his offering the matter-of-fact scientific evidence behind sleep disorders, Bohjalian has been slowly conditioning us to willingly enter a somewhat alarming and deviant place. The SBS angle only deepens the plot."

Christi Clancy takes on Roxane Gay's new collection of short stories, Difficult Women. She notes: "Many of Gay’s primarily female characters are haunted by painful memories of abuse and loss. Some are loved and some are lonely, although these categories are not mutually exclusive. They are horny. They are not nice. They are calloused and bruised and yet, somehow, they endure. Endurance, however, comes at a cost. The constant friction in their lives is a source of quiet anger — an anger you hardly notice in one story, but then you read another, and another, and, taken together, the low hum of discontent in this collection rises to an alarming shriek."

Oh,  and one last link! Ayad Akhtar will be in town for the Milwaukee premiere of Disgraced at the Milwaukee Rep. In this profile, Jim Higgins notes in the Journal Sentinel notes: "Since winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2013, Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced, featuring an explosive dinner-party argument about Islam, has become a bit less shocking but even more relevant. When a future president banters with reporters about the idea of a Muslim registry or lashes out at the Muslim parents of an American soldier killed in Iraq, it's not hard to imagine an increase in public arguments resembling the private one in Disgraced. Akhtar will be speaking at Boswell on Saturday, January 21, 11 am.

Boswell's bestselling titles for kids for 2016

My mind changes on how to sort out kids books all the time, but this morning I woke up and thought, "I've got to slice and dice this six different ways to make sense" so instead I'm just making a single list.

Boswell's Bestselling Kids Books of 2016
1. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by J.K. Rowling/John Tiffany/Jack Thorne
2. Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
3. Dog Man, by Dav Pilkey
4. Masterminds V1, by Gordon Korman
5. Click, Clack, Surprise, by Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin
6. Two Friends, by Dean Robbins/Sean Qualls/Selina Alko
7. Warren the 13th and the All Seeing Eye V1, by Tania Del Rio/Will Staehle
8. The Book Thief tenth anniversary edition, by Markus Zusak
9. Hello?, by Liza Wiemer
10. Hollow Earth V1, by John Barrowman and Carole E. Barrowman
11. The Boy in the Black Suit, by Jason Reynolds
12. I Am a Bunny, by Ole Risom/Richard Scarry
13. Gertie's Leap to Greatness, by Kate Beasley
14. I Survived the Hindenburg Disaster 1937, by Lauren Tarshis
15. Masterminds V2: Criminal Destiny, by Gordon Korman
16. Gingerbread Christmas, by Jan Brett
17. One Plastic Bag, by Miranda Paul/Elizabeth Zunon
18. Keeper of the Lost Cities V1, by Shannon Messenger
19. The Secret Keepers, by Trenton Lee Stewart
20. Pax, by Sara Pennypacker/Jon Klassen
21. Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin
22. Bad Kitty, Scaredy Cat, by Nick Bruel
23. Whose Hands Are These?, by Miranda Paul/Luciana Navarro Powell
24. Ungifted, by Gordon Korman
25. Bad Kitty for President, by Nick Bruel
26. I Took a Walk, by Henry Cole
27. Summerlost, by Ally Condie
28. Stick Dog Tries to Take the Donuts V5, by Tom Watson
29. When Winter Comes, by Nancy Van Laan/Susan Gaber
30. Doodle Adventures: The Search for the Slimy Space Slugs!, by Mike Lowery
31. Mighty Jack, by Ben Hatke
32. Booked, by Kwame Alexander
33. The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill
34. Click, Clack Moo, by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
35. The Story of Snow, by Mark Cassino
36. Will Wilder V1: The Relic of Perilous Falls, by Raymond Arroyo
37. The Thickety V1: The Path Begins, by J.A. White
38. The Reckoners V3: Calamity, by Brandon Sanderson
39. Sophie's Squash Go to School, by Pat Zietlow Miller/Anne Wilsdorf
40. Bad Kitty Goes to the Vet, by Nick Bruel
41. Water is Water, by Miranda Paul/Jason Chin
42. Seven Wonders V1: Colossus Rising, by Peter Lerangis
43. The Haters, by Jesse Andrews
44. Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Hat, by Marilyn Sadler/Eric Comstock
45. The Thickety V3: Well of Witches, by J.A. White
46. Because of Thursday, Patricia Polacco
47. Click, Clack, Peep, by Doreen Cronin/Betsy Lewin
48. Wing and Claw V1: Forest of Wonders, by Linda Sue Park
49. Ashes V3, by Laurie Halse Anderson
50. The Thank You Book, by Mo Willems
51. Diary of a Wimpy Kid V11: Double Down, by Jeff Kinney
52. A Is for Activist, by Innosanto Nagara
53. Maybe a Fox, by Kathi Appelt/Alison McGhee
54. Chains V1, by Laurie Halse Anderson
55. A Study in Charlotte, by Brittany Cavallaro
56. Rump, by Liesl Shurtliff
57. 10 Little Ninjas, by Miranda Paul/Nate Wragg
58. The Mysterious Benedict Society V1, by Trenton Lee Stewart
59. Goodnight Moon board book, by Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd
60. The Adventures of Captain Underpants V1, by Dav Pilkey

and now, the books from authors that don't have additional titles higher on the list do to sales at events:
68. The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, by Levar Burton/Susan Schaefer Bernardo/Courtney Fletcher
71. Penguin's Christmas Wish, by Salina Yoon
74. Stories from Bug Garden, by Lisa Moser/Gwen Millward
75. Explore MKE, by Adam Carr
76. Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty/David Roberts
78. Rad Women Worldwide, by Kate Schatz
79. We Found a Hat, by Jon Klassen
82. The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
85. The Snowy Day (paperback), by Ezra Jack Keats
88. Wonder, by R.J. Palacio
89. Where's Addie?, by Donna Luber
91. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? board book, by Bill Martin Jr/Lois Ehlert
93. The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey
94. The Body in the Woods V1, by April Henry
95. Behind You, by Jacqueline Woodson
98. The Very Hungry Caterpillar board book, by Eric Carle
99. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier

It just sort of got repetitive, and I thought it was more intersting to see what was selling out of the bookstore, though I did include the top-selling title from school event authors like April Henry and Salina Yoon, who had great school events but didn't make the top 60.

Bestselling nonfiction titles of 2016 at Boswell

Boswell Hardcover Nonfiction 2016 Bestsellers
1. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
2. Celebrate, by Lauren Conrad
3. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
4. Presence, by Amy Cuddy
5. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
7. Gunslinger, by Jeff Pearlman
8. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
9. Hungry Heart, by Jennifer Weiner (now that's a coincidence!)
10. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
11. Good Stock, by Sanford D'Amato
12. Hero of the Empire, by Candice Millard
13. Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky
14. City of Thorns, by Ben Rawlence
15. My Son Wears Heels, by Julie Tarney
16. The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis
17. Upstream, by Mary Oliver
18. Dogs As I See Them, by Lucy Dawson
19. Dark Money, by Jane Mayer
20. Atlas Obscura, by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton
21. Seinfeldia, by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
22. Much Ado, by Michael Lenehan
23. My Own Words, by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
24. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
25. Start Here by Eric Langshur
26. The Life-Changing Habit of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
27. Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Mirand and Jeremy McCarter
28. Speaking American, by Josh Katz
29. Meathead, by Meathead Goldwyn
30. Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
31. In the Company of Women, by Grace Bonney
32. The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee
33. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer
34. Ten Ways to Not Commit Suicide, by Darryl DMC McDaniels
35. Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round, by Ron Faiola (one of five cooking and entertaining books, all of which were events)
36. The Book of Joy, by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
37. Mamaleh Knows Best, by Marjorie Ingall
38. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli
39. Listen Liberal, by Thomas Frank
40. Drink Like a Woman, by Jeanette Seal
41. The Romanovs, by Simon Sebag Montefiore
42. At the Existentialist Cafe, by Sarah Bakewell
43. Gratitude, by Oliver Sacks
44. People Get Ready, by John Nichols and Robert McChesney
45. Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
46. Terror in the City of Champions, by Tom Stanton
47. The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, by Sarah Knight
48. The Humane Economy, by Wayne Pacelle
49. The Making of Milwaukee, by John Gurda
50. Wisconsin on the Air, by Jack Mitchell

Paperback Nonfiction 2016 Bestsellers
1. Gumption, by Nick Offerman
2. You're Never Weird on the Internet Almost, by Felicia Day
3. As You Wish, by Cary Elwes
4. H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
5. Grace and Style, by Grace Helbig
6. Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook, by Mary Bergin
7. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
8. Hold Still, by Sally Mann
9. We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
10. Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
11. Cream City Chronicles, by John Gurda
12. Project Smoke, by Steven Raichlen
13. You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero
14. Fast and Easy Five Ingredient Recipes, by Philia Kelnhofer
15. Milwaukee in the 1930s, by John D. Buenker
16. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
17. LGBT Milwaukee, by Michail Takach
18. We Gotta Get Outta This Place, by Craig Werner and Doug Bradley
19. World War II Milwaukee, by Meg Jones
20. Destiny and Power, by Jon Meacham
21. Playing Through the Fence, by Mary J. Dowell
22. White Dresses, by Mary Pflum Peterson
23. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
24. Sit Stay Heal, by Mel Miskimen
25. Descent into Happiness, by David Howell
26. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
27. Milwaukee Frozen Custard, by Kathleen McCann and Robert Tanzilo
28. Unmeasured Strength, by Lauren Manning
29. Life on the Loose, by Cari Taylor-Carlson
30. Black Earth, by Timothy Snyder
31. The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
32. Conservative Counterrevolution, by Tula Connell
33. Happy Felsch, by Thomas Rathkamp
34. Ghettoside, by Jill Leovy
35. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris
36. I Am Malala, by Malal Yousafzai
37. How to Bake Pi, by Eugenia Cheng
38. Dog Medicine, by Julie Barton
39. First They Killed my Father, by Loung Ung
40. Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris
41. Bettyville, by George Hodgman
ae42. Kitchen Hacks, by America's Test Kitchen
43. Old Records Never Die, by Eric Spitznagel
44. My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor
45. The Residence, by Kate Andersen Brower
46. Accidental Saints, by Nadia Bolz-Weber
47. Night, by Elie Wiesel
48. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, by Jennifer Teege
49. Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay
50. The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

A fundraiser for Syrian refugees, the follow-up to our second biggest kids book of 2016, and other Boswell bestsellers for the week ending December 31, 2016, plus links to Journal Sentinel TapBooks page

Here are our bestselling titles for the week ending December 26, 2016

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
2. Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett
3. Swing Time, by Zadie Smith
4. The Mothers, by Brit Bennett
5. Ruler of the Night V3, by David Morrell
6. Christmas Days, by Jeanette Winterson
7. Moonglow, by Michael Chabon
8. The Nix, by Nathan Hill
9. The Trespasser V6, by Tana French
10. The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware

I don't expect much more of a sale for Christmas Days from Jeanette Winterson, at least for this season, even though the 12 days of Christmas should go through the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, right? That said, we should have another pop next year. Winterson has been writing an annual Christmas story for years, and this collection was praised by Booklist: "Spooky, clever, funny, and poignant, Winterson's supernatural tales refresh our appreciation of what it truly means to give, to love, and to share joy." And yes it has recipes.

 Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Hillbilly Elegy, by J.D. Vance
2. Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky
3. The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis
4. Atlas Obscura, by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thomas, and Ella Morton
5. Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
6. Thank You for Being Late, by Thomas L. Friedman
7. Book of Joy, by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
8. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
9. Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods, by John Gurda
10. Soup for Syria, by Barbara Massaad

Soup for Syria is a book distributed by Interlink that popped in demand late in the holiday season, though the book actually came out in October of 2015, Sheryl Julian offered the story in The Boston Globe last January. But it was this piece on NPR's All Things Considered which drove folks into the store on December 16.

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Drifter, by Nick Petrie
2. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivald (happy 1st birthday to this book!)
3. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4. The Sellout, by Paul Beatty
5. A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
6. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
7. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, by Fredrik Backman
8. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur
9. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
10. My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout

Yes, The Drifter is our #1 book for this week. Perhaps everyone wants to read it before #2 comes out. We're counting down to the release of Nick Petrie's Burning Bright, the second novel featuring Peter Ash. He'll be doing an event at Boswell on Tuesday, January 10.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. How to Bake Pi, by Eugenia Cheng
2. One Pan Wonders, by Cooks Country
3. The English and Their History, by Robert Tombs
4. Milwaukee in the 1930s, by John D. Buenker
5. Adventures in Human Being, by Gavin Francis
6. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stephenson
7. You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero
8. The Clothing of Books, by Jhumpa Lahiri
9. The Politics of Resentment, by Katherine J. Cramer
10. Milwaukee Frozen Custard, by Kathleen McCann and Bobby Tanzilo

One of my favorite books of 2015 has sold very well in paperback too, but I hardly expected Eugenia Cheng's How to Bake Pi to be our #1 bestseller the week after Christmas. Keep a watch, as Cheng's next book is due for release in 2017. Yes, you can preorder a copy of Beyond Infinity, but it doesn't release until late March.

Books for Kids:
1. Dog Man Unleashed V2, by Dav Pilkey
2. Some Writer, by Melissa Sweet
3. Double Down V11, by Jeff Kinney
4. Du Iz Tak, by Carson Ellis
5. Rad Women Worldwide, by Kate Schatz
6. Where's Addie?, by Donna Luber
7. Peekaboo, by Giuliano Ferri
8. Sleepyheads, by Sandra J. Howatt
9. The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats
10. Under Earth/Under Water, by Daniel and Aleksandra Mizielisnki

I'm so excited about the second Dog Man book, Dog Man Unleashed. School Library Journal called this new release "an entertainingly zany addition to graphic novel collections; for series fans and newcomers alike."

Over at the Journal Sentinel, Mike Fischer reviews Selection Day, the new "scathingly satiric novel of modern Indian life" from Man Booker winner Aravind Adiga. It's the story of two boys, Radha and Manju, raised by an abusive father and manipulated by a cricket coach and local entrepreneur. Fischer observes they "struggle to forge an identity in a culture corroded by cynicism and punishing originality."

Journal Sentinel editor Jim Higgins, a Steel City Transplant, is the perfect fellow to review How to Speak Midwestern and Speaking American, two reviews on regional vernacular. He likes Speaking American, except for the essay on "How to Pretend You're From Wisconsin," and his critique notes that like Connectictut, we're at the intersection of three distinct speech patterns. I also agree that bubbler is rarely said without quotation marks in most contexts, but the real problem to me is...where are the water fountains in public space? I hardly ever see any.

Speaking American has trouble explaining why there are differences. It could have noted that Milwaukee says "freeway" as opposed to Chicago's "expressway" because that is what our government named them when they were built. It's a top down regionalism. Sports is another example of marketing-driven regionalism, sucheesehead.

How to Speak Midwestern does more in the way of explanation. Both books had very different trajectories at Boswell. Speaking American was one of our bestselling books for the holiday, while we've found it very difficult to get copies of How to Speak Midwestern. It could have been a bigger hit with us if they'd made any effort. I'm glad Higgins told yins about them both.

And finally, TapBooks reprints Mary Ann Gwinn's assessment of The Art of Beatrix Potter, which originally appeared in The Seattle Times. Emily Zach notes that Potter was an early self-publisher. Before Frederick Warne picked them up, Potter printed 200-300 copies of The Tale of Peter Robbit herself.