The Annotated Boswell Bestseller List for the Week Ending August 15, 2015

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Days of Awe, by Lauren Fox
2. The Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman
3. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Girl on a Train, by Paula Hawkins
5. Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
6. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
7. Paris, He Said, by Christine Sneed
8. Of Irish Blood, by Mary Pat Kelly
9. In the Dark Places, by Peter Robinson
10. The English Spy, by Daniel Silva
11. Barbara the Slut and Other People, by Lauren Holmes (event 9/14)
12. Speak, by Louisa Hall

Alice Hoffman's move to historical fiction has generated her third hit in a row. Per the publisher, The Marriage of Opposites is a love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro--the Father of Impressionism. I love the fact that Hoffman's early novels were called domestic magical realism, and now she's come full circle, with Sarah Mayer in O, The Oprah Magazine comparing the work to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Broadcasting Happiness, by Michelle Gielan
2. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
3. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
4. The Contemporaries, by Roger White
5. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
6. Being Mortal, Atul Gawande
7. Wisconsin Supper Clubs, by Ron Faiola
8. Grain Brain, by David Perlmutter
9. Milwaukee Then and Now, by Sandra Ackerman
10. Going to Hell in a Hen Basket, by Robert Rubin Alden

A former editor at Algonquin (who has also been a journalist and college English instructor)has created a illustrated collection of malapropism, "a word or phrase that has been mistaken for another, usually because of its sound rather than its meaning," per the publisher. Going to Hell in a Hen Basket: An Illustrated Dictionary of Modern Maloproprisms touches on such gems as "without further adieu" and "hone on in," plus the longer journey from "bear-faced lie" to "bald-faced" and finally "bold-faced." And it is also in caps. Here's an excerpt on the Grammar Girl blog.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler
2. Galway Bay, by Mary Pat Kelly
3. Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant
4. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
5. Those Who Save Us, by Jenna Blum
6. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
7. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, by Amy E. Reichert
8. Euphoria, by Lily King
9. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
10. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman

While I still haven't read A Man Called Ove, I've been talking it up for several months, after a fellow bookseller told me he had been handselling it. That and the codger lit table (and all the handselling on the part of that bookseller at the other store) might have given it the momentum needed to get into our top ten. Here's an interesting column in the Huffington Post actually written by the publicist for the book. It's like a pitch letter, no, it is a pitch letter, which is sort of odd, and yet it's also a very good pitch letter, so more power to Ariele Stewart!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Finding Masculinity,edited by Alexander Walker and Emmett J.P. Lundberg
2. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
3. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
4. How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster
5. The Enchanted Forest, by Johanna Basford
6. How to Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh
7. We Should All be Feminists, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
8. The America's Test Kitchen Complete Vegetarian Cookbook
9. North Point Historic Districts, by Shirley du Fresne McArthur
10. Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect, by Jeffrey Gingold

If you are wondering where to find North Point Historic Districts for less than $195 (yes, I'm linking to our online competitor to make a point), I think we have a cheaper option for you.

Books for Kids:
1. What Pet Should I Get?, by Dr. Seuss
2. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
3. Appleblossum the Possum, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Latin, by Jeff Kinney
5. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews
6. Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black
7. Billy's Booger, by William Joyce
8. Pieces and Players, by Blue Balliett
9. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, by Sherri Rinker Duskey and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
10. The Keepers: The Box and the Dragonfly, by Ted Sanders

This week there was a story about Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Commentarii de Inepto Puero) in Latin from Jeffrey Trachtenberg in The Wall Street Journal. A customer called us that morning and said, you have five copies and the bookseller thought, "What is this person talking about that they mentioned how many copies we had" but it turns out I did tell the reporter and it made it into the story. And yes, we found the book as it was on our impulse table up front, just as I promised. But now we've sold out!

Boswellian Barbara Katz has a great rec on Appleblossom the Possum: "Filled with humor, theatrical happenings and perfect expressive illustrations, this book is super special!"Read the entire review and the rest of our email newsletter here.

It's the year of the short story at Boswell, with eight upcoming events celebrating short fiction this summer and fall, and I guess the Journal Sentinel is celebrating too with this review from Mike Fischer of Clarice Lispector's The Complete Stories. He writes: "Clarice Lispector has been called 'a female Chekhov' (Benjamin Moser), 'one of the hidden geniuses of twentieth-century literature' (Colm Tóibin) and 'an artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce' (Edmund White).The newly translated volume of her more than 80 short stories underscores how wary Lispector would have been of this praise, reflecting the suspicion one continually sees in her writing of all such efforts to categorize and define."

In Carole E. Barrowman's Paging Through Mysteries, she gives this month's picks.
--Of The New Neighbor by Leah Stewart, Barrowman notes, "the shrewd sharp voice of one of its main characters kept me reading"
--Her take on Darkness the Color of Snow, by Thomas Cobb: "Cobb has crafted a powerful, poignant novel exploring how grief and anger can too often bury justice."
--Collector of Secrets, by Richard Goodfellow is "a wonderfully detailed chase thriller set in Japan, and it's my distinctive debut choice this month."

--And Barrowman "simply devoured" Malice at the Palace, by Rhys Bowen, "set in London in 1934 against the backdrop of affairs of state (the rise of Hitler) and affairs of the heart (the Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson scandal)."

Also in the Journal Sentinel, from Kevin Lynch, a profile of Tom Witosky, who is coming to Boswell on Friday, August 21, to talk about his book, Equal Before the Law: How Iowa Led Americans to Marriage Equality. Lynch writes tha the narrative "spotlights the human players and streamlines the legal complexities of a case that boils down to this: What should disqualify a same-sex Iowa couple from legally forming a family? Nothing, the courts finally ruled. And a child played a crucial role in legal proceedings that had never before considered the most vulnerable. One day young McKinley heard about her parents' situation, asked 'Why aren't you married?' and burst into tears."

And finally, if you missed it, here's the Chef Chat in the Journal Sentinel with Cara Nicoletti, author of Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through the Great Books.

What Did the In-Store Lit Group Think of Elena Ferrante's "My Brilliant Friend"?

There are lots of reasons why I pick books for the in-store lit group. Sometimes we have an event coming up and I want to read the author's book and also encourage others, like our August 31st selection of Richard Ford's Canada. Sometimes I already own the book and it keeps staring at me on the bookshelf, whispering "Read me, already." And other times I walk through the store or run a report in an attempt to find something interesting and different, and that's how I chose
for October 5.

But when it comes to our most recent book topic, My Brilliant Friend, it was classic word of mouth. It was one of those books that customers would start talking about at the front register, and be so passionate about the series, now numbering three books. Or maybe I still recalled the James Wood profile in The New Yorker some two years ago. Profile's a bit of an odd word because Elena Ferrante the author hasn't been spotted. Her publisher, E/O (the Italian parent company of her American publisher Europa) received her first manuscript, L'Amore Molesto (Troubling Love) and published it in 1992 with the specific notes that she would not appear in public, not even to accept awards. 

Her second novel ten years later, I giorni dell'abbandono, was the first book published in the United States as Days of Abandonment, and before this series, was her best known work to date.

And while some of her other books have taken a long time to come out Stateside (we note that the fact that all of an Italian writer's work would be translated and published here is an amazing feat in itself), the Neopolitan Novel cycle (originally said to be a trilogy, but as of now a quartet) is translated with some speed by Ann Goldstein. The fourth novel, The Story of a Lost Child, comes out September 1.

Knowledgeable readers will already know the story. It's told from the perspective of Elena Greco, who is also called Lenú, growing up in a rather poor neighborhood of Naples as the daughter of a porter. Her friend Rafaella Cerullo, also known as Lina and sometimes Lila, is from a family of shoemakers. Yes, at one point I got a little irritated with the War-and-Peace like multiple names for characters. In primary school they are more competitive than anything else, but as their fates start to diverge (Elena's parents pay for middle school and Lina's do not), they become more intricately bound, as Lina continues to read and study and help Elena.

But there are other pressures on the two girls--violent, sexual, economic. And while the neighborhood can be eccentrically charming, it's also claustrophobic and dangerous. At one point when Elena is sent away for the summer, it seems like she's on an exotic island in another country, whereas really it is just a bus ride away to another neighborhood.

So what did the book club think of My Brilliant Friend? Yes, we had a few attendees who fell in love with the book in textbook-style form. They had already read the second and third books in the series. Many of the rest of the attendees liked the book, and of course several did not. Would it be a good discussion otherwise?

We had an interesting discussion about the ending of the story, which without giving anything away, was a bit polarizing. If you were planning to read the whole series, it sort of gave you no choice but to start reading The Story of a New Name immediately. If you wanted closure, the audience was divided. Some felt left hanging, while others thought it ended on a clever twist and they felt comfortable writing the endings for the characters themselves.

Martha is one of the folks who loved the book, and noted that while these stores are actually toned down from the previous works from Ferrante, the violence against women is definitely an undercurrent in the story. We thought there was at least one implied rape, and in another case, a young character had to fend off the sexual advances of a much older man. And yes, he's the father of the boy she's fond of, which makes it a little difficult to see him.

Gail loved the friendship in particular. It was so complicated and nuanced. They were often dependent on each other. Who is "My Brilliant Friend"? is a question that came up several times in the discussion. The answer was probably that they both were at different times. (At right is the book in Turkish!)

We also talked about the significance of clothes in the story, and not just the shoes that Lina designs, though they have a fairy tale like significance to the story. Especially because Elena is looking back on the story from a sixty-something year old, these are memories and the clothes are probably akin to Madeleines (which I really don't want to capitalize, but the internet insists). We just had Madeleines at Christine Sneed's talk for Paris, He Said, so that's probably why I bring them up.

And then I should note that some of the attendees were bored. Albert and Juli bonded over this, but after thinking their tastes were in sync, they found they diverged greatly for our next bonus book discussion, for Rebecca Makkai's The Hundred-Year House. One of them loved, loved, loved it, the other not so much.

There are lot of interesting pieces on Elena Ferrante, but this long piece in The New York Review of Books from Rachel Donadio should satisfy your Ferrante fever until the new book comes out on September 1. I should note that one rumor that follows the author is that the books are actually written by the man, or that she's already a well-known person writing under a pseudonym. Her writing denies this, but of course that could be part of the ruse.

Well, actually this essay by Rebecca Falkoff in Public Books really lays it on the line, including offering the two schools of thought in Italy, as Ferrante's work has finally become an important topic, now that her popularity has grown (some say "exploded") in the United States, coming to a head as they discussed whether her work should be nominated for the Strega Prize. The two groups are either self-flagellating or condescending. Italy has been beset by fraudulent Ferrante letters. It's really fascinating. She discusses who they think is actually Ferrante, and why the works of Christa Wolf come into play.

So anyway, we're discussing Makkai's The Hundred-Year House on Thursday, August 20 at a special time of 6 pm. It's a spoiler zone, so please only come if you've finished the book. And yes, Makkai will come at the end to answer questions. And then she'll appear with Aleksandar Hemon in the back of the store for Music for Wartime, while Hemon's newest is The Making of Zombie Wars. Don't forget, 6 pm.

On Monday, August 31, 7 pm, we're discussing Richard Ford's Canada.
--This is the September meeting, moved away from Labor Day, when Boswell is closed in the evening.
--Richard Ford is coming to Boswell on Thursday, October 15. It's a ticketed event but there's no discussion group. Feel free to organize your own.

On Monday, October 5, 7 pm, we meet to discuss Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird. Perhaps you need a little prodding to pick this up.
--Here's the front-page New York Times Book Review feature
--And Ron Charles in The Washington Post loves it.

The Senior Lit Table? The Codger Table? Or Should I Call it Harriet Chance's Corner? More About the Rise of Senior Heroes and Our Event with Jonathan Evison on Tuesday, September 29, 7 pm.

One trend that you cannot miss in publishing, but has not really been written about fully (or at least I haven't been able to find a definitive story on this) is the steady rise in novels with senior citizen heroes. And we're not talking sixty-somethings here, but seventy and eighty-somethings.

What do they have in common? They are generally comedies, or have comic elements. One would call them quirky. And for some reason, we tend to really like them.

Right now, our most popular book of this sort has been Etta and Otto and Russell and James, by Emma Hooper, but looking around, we know that a lot of people are in love with A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman.  I bought it on a recent trip to visit my sister and gave it to her when she complained that I was only sending her sad books. Nancy Quinn, former Schwartian and now at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, recommended this one to me as well. 

One book coming in paperback that Jane has been hot on is Florence Gordon, by Brian Morton, and I've picked this as our November selection for our in-store lit group. The paperback is out on September 1 Here's her review.

"Finally, at 75 years of age, New York women's rights activist and celebrated writer, Florence Gordon, has reached the time of life to set her no-nonsense insights into a memoir, only to have that plan interrupted by the sudden retirement of her longtime editor, the impertinent demands of an ex-husband and the marital squabbles of a returning son and daughter-in-law. When an unexpected diagnosis further intrudes on Florence's plans, and she is forced to make life altering decisions, it is to her trusted granddaughter Emily that Florence looks for assistance. Readers will be both captivated and annoyed by this family's attempt to resolve their conflicts and by a fascinating matriarch who is all the more valued for her inherent straightforwardness. Florence Gordon is one literary character I would love to meet for lunch!" (Jane Glaser)

One book that had a good run at Boswell is The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. Her follow up, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy also qualifies. The Hundred-Year-0ld Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, by Jonas Jonasson recently played at the Downer and had renewed sales. And while they might be on the sad side of quirky, I also included Astrid and Veronika, by Linda Olsson, and Plainsong, by Kent Haruf.

Here's Jane Glaser's review on The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy: "Miss Queenie Hennessy is dying and she starts writing an extended letter that takes readers into the backstory of her relationship with former brewery colleague, Harold Fry, who is walking a 637 mile trek to see her, sending postcards along the way, asking her to 'wait for me.' As simultaneous quixotic journeys are taken, one by foot along the open roads and one with pen on paper from the confines of hospice, this gracefully written story reveals Queenie's life and what led to her sudden move away, 20 years ago, from Harold's friendship to the consolation of a sea garden cottage in the north of England. Reminiscent in tone, with a supportive cast of well-drawn characters who are a blend of heartbreak, humor, and joy, Queenie's journey is storytelling at its best. Read as a companion to the Man Booker shortlisted title The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or as a stand-alone compassionate portrait of one woman's life filled with selfless love and steadfast hope, this is an engaging story that will stay with readers long after the last page is turned. I loved it!"

One book that crosses quriky senior with psychological thriller is Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest. I read it and can vouch that it stands at the intersection of quirky and creepy.

Can you think of other books in this sub-genre? I think Honore de Balzac's Old Goriot fits the bill. And I'm thinking Ernest Gaines' The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman might qualify as well. I haven't read the book so I'm not sure if the character is really present in the novel as 110, or it's simply a framing device.

Other recent books that fit in this genre include the recently long-listed for the Man Booker, A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler, and Let Me Be Frank with You, by Richard Ford, who will be coming for a ticketed event at Boswell on Thursday, October 15, cosponsored by Osher.

Here's Boswellian Jannis Mindel's rec for Tyler's latest: "Anne Tyler's new book delves into the inner workings of multiple generations of the Whitshank family. The narrative moves back and forth through the decades examining the various members of the family as they gather for vacations and live changing events. Abby and Red live in the house that Red's father Junior built back in 1936. Eventually the couple's adopted son Stem moves in with his family after Abby suffers one too many bouts of forgetfulness. Older son Denny, always the one to drive a wedge into situations, decides to move back in as well, causing further strife. Tyler is spot on when she shines her lens on families and her hometown of Baltimore. A Spool of Blue Thread is another thoroughly engaging novel by a master storyteller."

The first book I came across and loved is alas, now out of print. It's a novel by Alice Adams called Second Chances. But looking back, they felt they were so old but I'm now suspecting the characters were too young to qualify for this piece. I'll bet they weren't even 70. Now I've got to reread it and find out.

But the new book that's got us thinking about this, because there's always something new that has me take up the pen, and most likely there's an event too, is Jonathan Evison's This is Your Life, Harriet Chance. We've already had three great reads on this book and we're so looking forward to his event at Boswell on Tuesday, September 29.

Here's Boswellian Sarah Lange, to tell us a little more about the book: "After Harriet's husband dies, she takes his place on an Alaskan cruise. But is he really gone, and can Harriet forgive him when she finds out his secret? As her daughter joins her on the trip in another unwelcome surprise and Harriet's present story unfolds, Evison makes use of a series of smart, engaging flashbacks--this is Harriet's life, after all. Filled with charm, humor and hope, Harriet Chance will appeal to the author's many fans and those of Wally Lamb. It will also earn Evison new admirers, as there's plenty to love in this insightful, feel-good story."

Evison also got a great advance (starred!) review in Kirkus. The anonymous critic writes "Evison writes humanely and with good humor of his characters, who, like the rest of us, muddle through, too often without giving ourselves much of a break. A lovely, forgiving character study that's a pleasure to read."

This is Your Life, Harriet Chance has a pub date of September 8, so we expect to see the book arrive at Boswell in the next few weeks In the meantime, why not preorder a copy with us or your favorite independent bookstore?

Then join us on Tuesday, September 29 and celebrate the life of Harriet Chance with Jonathan Evison and Boswell. And in the meantime, do you have a favorite entry in the flourishing codger lit genre? Please share it with us!

Boswell's Annotated Bestsellers for the Week Ending August 8, 2015, Plus Links to the Journal Sentinel Reviews.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Days of Awe, by Lauren Fox (event 9/15 at Shorewood Public Library)
2. Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
3. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
4. The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins
5. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
6. Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain
7. Barbara the Slut and Other People, by Lauren Holmes (event 9/14 at Boswell)
8. Brush Back, by Sara Paretsky
9. Armada, by Ernie Cline
10. Fishbowl, by Bradley Somer

Things are heating up on the event front, as we had a nice first week for Barbara the Slut, whose author is coming to Boswell on September 14. But one breakout with no track or event on the horizon appears to be The Fishbowl, which had a great read from Boswellian Sharon and is an Indie Next Pick as well. Sharon's take: "Ian is a goldfish who lives on the 27th floor of a large apartment building. One day, he escapes from his bowl and finds himself in a precarious position. As he plunges to the street below, life goes on as usual around him. It may seem that Ian’s descent is going on for an amazingly long time, but all of the events are occurring in seconds. It’s the telling that takes some time. This first novel is unique and fun, covering the daily lives and activities of the residents of Seville on Roxy, an apartment building. Birth and death, betrayal and secrets are all taking place in the brief moments that it takes Ian to fall 27 floors."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
3. The Road to Character, by David Brooks
4. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
5. Red Notice, by Bill Browder
6. Pirate Hunters, by Robert Kurson
7. The Quartet, by Joseph Ellis
8. The Birth of the Pill, by Jonathan Eig
9. Stoned, by David Casarett
10. The Theft of Memory, by Jonathan Kozol

A Friend of Boswell came up to me this week and asked me about selections for their nonfiction book club, asking in particular about Joseph Ellis's The Quartet, which had a small pop in sales this week. It's Ellis's premise in his newest book that the United States truly became a nation through The Constitution, and profiles the four (get it?) figures at the center of the process--George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Monroe. Sam Jacobs writes in the Miami Herald: "Joseph J. Ellis says he got the idea for his latest book while listening to some middle school students struggling to recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: 'Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation…' Suddenly Ellis realized that Honest Abe’s math was wrong. The new nation really wasn’t created in 1776 but rather in 1787 when the Constitution was written — or maybe two years later, when it had been ratified and George Washington took office as the first president of the United States of America."

Also on their list was Between the World and Me, which I thought would be a great selection for the group.

Paperback Fiction:
1. Euphoria, by Lily King
2. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (event 9/28 at Boswell)
3. Nora Webster, by Colm Toíbín
4. The Hundred-Year House, by Rebecca Makkai (event 8/20 at Boswell)
5. Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi
6. Etta and Otto and Russell and James, by Emma Hooper
7. The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
8. Listen and Other Stories, by Liam Callanan
9. The Secret Place, by Tana French
10. The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant

One of the generalizations I've noticed of late is that women tend to outnumber men on the paperback fiction bestseller list, while men have 9 of the top 10 slots on hardcover nonfiction. One author whose book just popped on to the top ten is Anita Diamant's The Boston Girl, which came out August 4. The book had a strong run in hardcover, probably her best since The Red Tent. I think we will easily beat our numbers for her last, Day After Night. I read that one but The Boston Girl probably had an even better indicator of success, my mom, who gave it this good recommendation: "It's good!" Joan Frank in the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a crisp, lively, clear, wry, affectionate, compulsively readable and very entertaining young adult novel." Now of course many would say it's not a young adult novel, but you'll have to read the review to hear her argument, and I should note, it's quite a positive review.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. People Tools, by Alan Fox
2. The Thriver's Edge, by Donna Stoneham
3. Tangible Things, by Sarah Anne Carter
4. Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect, by Jeffrey Gingold
5. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
6. The Secret Lives of the Supreme Court, by R. Schrakenberg
7. On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
8. Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book, by Garrison Keillor
9. The Delorme Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer
10. Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain

You may recognize four of the top five by past events, but somebody's obviously doing something with The Secret Lives of the Supreme Court, but I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know what. The book is about six years old with minimal stock at our wholesalers, but we've had about five months of decent sales, sales that dwarf our track record for years one through five. I have no references to this book to offer, but here's a Toledo Blade column about why so many courthouses have stone statues of The Ten Commandments, using Schnakenberg's The Secret Lives of the Great Filmmakers as a reference. Schankenberg's most popular book to date at Boswell has been Old Man Drinks.

Books for Kids:
1. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak (paperback)
2. What Pet Should I Get, by Dr. Seuss
3. The Little Blue Truck board book, by Alice Schertle
4. The Nutshell Library, by Maurice Sendak
5. Paper Towns, by John Green
6. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak (hardcover)
7. The Day The Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt, with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers
8. In Mary's Garden, by Tina Kugler, with illustrations by Carson Kugler
9. Home, by Carson Ellis
10. Dinoblock, by Christopher Franceschelli, with illustrations by Peskimo

Only two more weeks to see the Maurice Sendak exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Library. You can see that while many of Sendak's titles have been popular, Where the Wild Things are been one the big bestseller, both in hardcover and paperback. We even sold several copies in Spanish. Maurice Sendak: 50 Years Works Reasons is open Mondays from 12 to 5, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 5, and Saturdays from 10 to 4.

Over at the Journal Sentinel book page, Jim Higgins reviews The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. He writes that the book "blows my mind with its big-picture storytelling, hard-science speculation and fiendish conundrums that confront mere mortal humans." This is the second book in a trilogy by China's "most beloved" science fiction writer. Aliens embark on a quest to take over earth; the one advantage of humans as that the folks from the dying planet of Trisolaris are incapable of lying, and thus do not understand deceit of subterfuge. To be fair, you really need to read The Three-Body Problem first, in order to tackle this.

One doesn't often think of Milwaukee as being influential in African American culture (where's our Milwaukee sound?) but in fact, one of the most influential writers of the 70s, and even today, is Iceberg Slim whose life is chronicled in Justin Gifford's Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim. Jim Higgins explains: "Milwaukee started Robert Beck on the path to selling millions of books, though not in a way that chambers of commerce like to brag about. While incarcerated in the Wisconsin State Reformatory and later Waupun in the late 1930s and early '40s for crimes he committed in Milwaukee, Beck learned the psychological tricks of pimping from older inmates. After his release, he became a rich pimp in Chicago and elsewhere, when he wasn't dodging potential Mann Act prosecution and other threats." Read more in the reivew about how he transformed this into a series of popular books, though like many African American artists, he didn't get his a very good deal.

This Town is Not Our Town, It is a Completely Different Town: Reading During Presidential Political Campaign.

With the presidential race in full swing, I find myself unable to avoid being drawn into reading about politics. I was just talking to my fellow Boswellian Jane about this, and she said she liked the presidential races as it gave her a chance to recommend not just the last political platforms, but books that offered insight into Washington and the political process.  I remember one season she was very hot on Kati Marton's Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages that Shaped Our History.

I don't really think about me reading politics but I do like books about media, which is not surprising since I am an On the Media Junkie. The confluence of these two areas was Matt Bai's All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, which is coming out in paperback on September 15. You can read more about my thoughts on that book in this earlier post.

And that sort of seques into another recent read. Just over two years ago, I went to the District of Columbia for me nephew's wedding. Of course I paid homage to Politics and Prose with Kirk and my brother-in-law. I feel naked if I don't leave a bookstore I like with something, and what better a souvenir than a quintessentially Washington book like Mark Leibovich's This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral - Plus Plenty of Free Parking - In America's Gilded Capital.*  While that subtitle may be amusing, it's a pain to write out correctly.

Like any book lover, I get more books than I can read, and my feeling that I should make a purchase at any bookstore I enjoy visiting means the night stand can fill with books that are not necessarily my highest priority to read, namely upcoming event books, in-store lit group selections, and advance copies with Indie Bound deadlines. I always get at least one call or email from a self-published author after an appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio, asking me to read their book. I can frankly say that I can't do it; did I mention that I'm down to reading five books a month? It just seems pathetic.

So I'm trying to work my way through older books on my shelf, sort of a "read me or else" moment, and I decided it was time to read Leibovich. Political season is one reason, and I was also aware that the book is also about politics and the media, and the third point of the triangle, lobbying. Plus I had just finished Sarah Vowell's Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, which is coming out in October and as I result I hadn't much talked about yet, but because we're doing an event with Vowell at the Milwaukee Public Library (on Halloween!), it's time to at least start chatting about it--it's free but we're going to have a program called "preorder signing priority," where folks who special order the book in advance will get an early line letter when they purchase their book.

Vowell had me thinking about the myth of increasing polarization in Washington, One of her points is that it's always been around. But Leibovich almost takes a an opposing but complimentary point; much of the polarization is for show! In fact, there's no way to get around the insularity of Washington.

One of the problems with politics books is that they can date fast, but This Town's point is that the verses change but the melody stays the same. If nothing else, the triumvirate of politics, media, and lobbying have become more incestuous. There is far more jumping from one point of the triangle to the other, as Leibovich pointed out in the dramatic increase of politicians of all political stripes who wind up staying in the DC area after their term of office to talk a private interest job.

This Town turned out to be both amusing and gossipy on the surface level, but also a reminder to take grand political pronouncements with the grain of salt. It certainly doesn't hurt to schmooze and it doesn't even hurt to be caught in a scandal.

As one of the working titles pronounced, "You'll Always Eat Lunch in This Town Again."

*Kati Marton, whose book is referenced above, turns out to be a player in Leibovich's tale, as she was married to Richard Holbrooke, who was in Obama's cabinet. We also hosted her at Boswell for her Paris: A Love Story, which is about life after Holbrooke.

How Did Aleksandar Hemon and Rebecca Makkai Wound Up Reading Together at Boswell on August 20?

I whine a lot about how few books I am able to read, so you know I must be excited about a pairing when I've actually read both new books by the authors. But that's the case for Rebecca Makkai and Aleksandar Hemon, who are coming on August 20. And I should note that I've been working on this a long time, hence the not-exactly-new pub dates.

First Hemon. This is our third time hosting Mr. Hemon, following visits for Love and Obstacles, his second excellent collection of short stories, and one for The Book of My Lives, his collection of personal essays. For the first event, we also did an in-store lit group discussion of The Lazarus Effect, so that led me to three of his books. So finally we're promoting a novel, but it's a bit of a change of pace work for him compared to his first two novels. his first being Nowhere Man.

While Mr. Hemon is definitely a funny writer, The Making of Zombie Wars is his first flat-out comedy. It's about Josh Levin, a Chicago ESL teacher, who in his spare time is a budding screenwriter. Alas, most of his projects are terrible but "Zombie Wars" shows the most promise. In this case, the zombie outbreak is due to chemical weapons we inflicted on the Mideast that created a bit of collateral damage back in the United States, notably zombie apocalypse. 

Levin's personal life is not going that well either. He's got a pretty sweet girlfriend but his living situation is a bit off, considering his landlord has either PTSD or some drug-induced equivalent. And then he messes up his love life by accepting the advances of one of his students, a married Bosnian refugee. And of course his real life sort of bleeds into the screenplay too. One of the things about comedies is that they almost call for house-of-cards plots and The Making of Zombie Wars is no exception. It's a bit crazed, but so are zombies, after all.

I never know how much it is ok to excerpt from a review. I usually figure two sentences. But what a fascinating reading of The Making of Zombie Wars in The New York Times Book Review. "Two epigraphs set up the dialectic: one from Baruch de Spinoza, the great philosopher of the self, the other from George W. Bush, the great miscommunicator of the unself. Spinoza tells us we are all one, while Bush insists they are all other. And in 2003, the year in which The Making of Zombie Wars is set, the United States seemed to be all brainless gut, a zombie nation feeding on revenge without thinking of consequence. The Bosnian characters remind us of the aftereffects, of Joshua’s blindly tripping into action, of the dangers of the thirst for flesh. For the most part, the book does not wear this theme heavily (though there are a few unfortunate references to the phrase 'let’s roll'). It is history, as one character says, as 'badly translated joke.' This funny, free-flowing, gloriously imperfect book has the impression of an important writer in transition, of moving from the dead toward the living, of trying to have some fun despite this land so crowded with the lost and the lamented. In the end, we are all fighting our zombie wars, and we all need stories to keep us moving."

How can you not want to hear more? But wait, there's more.

Rebecca Makkai has heretofore published two novels but while she was writing them (and probably beforehand), she was also writing short stories. In fact, she was featured in four consecutive editions of Best American Short Stories. My guess is that her publisher said, let's wait on the short story collection until you have more books under your belt. And it's possible they might have even passed. But something happened this year that has opened the floodgates of short story collections, and I'm guessing it actually goes back to January 8, 2013, when George Saunders released Tenth of December. 

This fall alone we're hosting, in addition to Makkai's Music for Wartime, we're featuring short story collections from Lauren Holmes (Barbara the Slut, just out and very hot and coming September 14), Luis Alberto Urrea (The Water Room, coming September 17), Bonnie Jo Campbell (Mothers, Tell Your Daughters, October 22), and Adam Johnson (Fortune Smiles, October 23). We were also going to host Nickolas Butler (Beneath the Bonfire) but his publisher would really like to see the second novel, and so would we and all his fans, so we think it's a good idea for him to focus on writing.

One of our resident short story readers (I would say there are as many as six of us who will read short fiction), Carly Lenz, had this to say about Makkai's new collection: "For lovers of the short story genre, please see Rebecca Makkai's collection Music for Wartime. The characters in these tales are so original and imaginative, and the various worlds that Makkai portrays are riddled with aspects of history, folklore, and contemporary thought. The stories and situations are so diverse -- a touring cellist comes home to find a memorial in her front lawn for the recent death of a teenage motorcyclist, the beloved elephant of a traveling circus suddenly dies and must be buried by a small-town minister who is doubting his faith, a college professor teaching Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ironically shoots an albatross -- and the range of topics and people and detail that Makkai masterfully conveys is undeniably impressive."

Noah Cruickshank wrote in Shelf Awareness: "As the title implies, nearly every piece in Rebecca Makkai's Music for Wartime involves a musician or survivor of conflict. But the title also suggests an underlying theme throughout the stories: the all-too-human attempt to make order and beauty out of chaos. Music, for all its flurry and improvisation, does just that." And that's why I found it interesting that the stories are more connected with Hemon's work than the novels. But you can also see how The Hundred-Year House is connected to the academic shenanigans that happen in "Painted Ocean, Painted Ship," the story of the guy who shoots the albatross.

So one thing that made me curious was that Makkai told me beforehand (we were both at a party at the home of the agent for both authors at this year's Book Expo) that they'd be a great pairing.  Well it turned out that reading Music for Wartime brought their connected interests and overlapping themes into sharper focus.

Had we waited a little longer, Aleksandar Hemon would have had another new book out, a nonfiction work called Behind the Glass Wall: Inside the United Nations. Hemon was appointed the United Nations first writer in residence. The book is once again edited by Sean McDonald, who seems to have edited him all the way back to his first books at the Nan A. Talese imprint and through Riverhead. Here's McDonald talking about both books in an Library Journal column. And there was yet another book, only in electronic form, last year called The Matters of Life, Death, and More: Writing on Soccer.

Oh, and don't forget, we're discussing The Hundred-Year House at in the magazine area at 6 pm. Its a spoiler zone for the book, so please only come to this pre-event if you've finished The Hundred-Year House. For the rest of you, joing us for the main event on Thursday, August 20, 7 pm.

Announcing Brian Selznick on Tour for "The Marvels." Yes, That's the Author of "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." Mark Your Calendar for Monday, October 12, 7 pm, at Alverno's Pitman Theatre.

The news just went out in our email newsletter. Boswell is hosting an event with Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, as part of the launch tour for The Marvels. Yes, Brian Selznick is the Caldecott-Award-winning author whose best known work was adapted to become the beloved film Hugo. And yes, because this is a book about theater, we're having the ticketed event on Monday, October 12, 7 pm, at the classic Pitman Theatre on the Alverno College campus, 3431 South 39th Street, at Morgan Avenue. Tickets are $35 and include admission plus a copy of The Marvels. All taxes and fees are included in this price. And while we generally don't have gift card options for offsite author events, we're making the option of a $20 gift card available on the night of the event only. Honestly, I can't imagine why someone would take the gift card. What a great gift a signed copy of The Marvels would make. Purchase your ticket on Brown Paper Tickets. This event is cosponsored by Scholastic Book Fairs.

We're over the moon about this book. Here's a recommendation from Boswellian Todd Wellman: "Selznick makes a structural departure from Hugo and Wonderstruck, placing panels as bookends to text and reworking the role of the drawn story. The books offers a compelling take on diversity, and in addressing diversity, shows the mix of healing, realization, and confusion that comes from helping others. The drawings in the first two-thirds of the book tell the story of how generations of a family came to be surrounded by the stage, whether at sea or grounded under a proscenium arch, until a fire threatens their legacy. The text, which makes up most of the remaining pages, offers a tale of a boy who runs away from boarding school to find his mysterious uncle. He hopes his uncle may help him find a lost friend, but he finds his uncle in mourning. In short time, the boy becomes obsessed with discovering his uncle’s secrets. Young readers will find the late-arriving twist that reveals the function of the pictures to be charming and captivating."

And here's a recommendation from Boswellian Jannis Mindel: "Brian Selznick's newest book The Marvels is a gem! As in Selznick's previous books, he blends both wordless pictures and written text to tell a complete story. The first part of the book uses the beautiful drawings to convey the story of a theatrical family, the Marvels, from the 18th through to the beginning of the 20th century. The second half of the narrative starts in 1990 as Joseph has run away from his boarding school to London to find his uncle Albert Nightingale. He not only finds his uncle but an enchanting and unique house filled with as many rooms as there are mysteries. These mysteries as well as Joseph's budding relationship with Albert are what eventually brings the two stories together into an ultimately beautiful and moving book. Brian Selznick has created a stunning and moving testament to the power of family and love."

There are so many reasons to attend this event, one of them being I saw a preview of the event at New York's Book Expo and was completely captivated. This is Brian Selznick's first visit to Milwaukee ever, at least according to our collective memory, and he's a delightful and charming entertainer. And if that isn't enough, Scholastic has promised us a special bonus for all event attendees, a special map of London that plays such an important part of The Marvels. Educators should contact their Scholastic Book Fair rep about an additional benefit if you use the special password they'll provide for you.

What more can I say? This is truly a special evening. Brian Selznick's Marvels tour at Alverno College's Pitman Theatre, Monday, October 12, 7 pm; get your tickets now. There are two great ways to get there via freeway, either take the Holt exit on I43/94 and go west to 39th Street (Holt merges into Morgan) or take the Miller Park Way exit on I94, which turns into South 43rd Street.

The Annotated Boswell Bestseller List for the Week Ending August 1, 2015.

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee
2. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
3. The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George
4. The Girl on a Train, by Paula Hawkins
5. Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson
6. Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain
7. Brush Back, by Sara Paretsky
8. The Novel Habits of Happiness, by Alexander McCall Smith
9. A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson
10. The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah

The newest V.I. Warshawski mystery is as Chicago-y as it gets. Lloyd Sachs writes in the Chicago Tribune: "Let's be honest: It will take a reader with a certain kind of fortitude to stay on Paretsky's urban tour bus until all the secrets are spilled in her latest mystery, Brush Back — particularly since North Sider Warshawski herself is reluctant to get on board to return to her old haunts and grievances in the gritty South Chicago neighborhood in which she grew up. What keeps her, and you, from spending the day gardening instead is the unquenchable need to know whodunit, and why — particularly since the story hits so close to home."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Between The World and Me, by Ta-Nahisi Coates
2. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
3. The Road to Character, by David Brooks
4. Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande
5. H is for Hawk, by Helen MacDonald
6. One Man Against the World, by Tim Weiner
7. Modern Romance, by Aziz Ansari
8. Dead Wake, by Erik Larson
9. On the Move, by Oliver Sacks
10. Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan

One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon, by Tim Weiner has been released into a sea of Richard Nixon books, but it does not plan to be the ultimate full-scale biography (per a group review in The New York Times) but a look at one point in his life. NPR reports" "'Nixon was consumed by fear, Weiner tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. That fear 'turned into anger and that anger turned into self-destruction and every hour of these new tapes and these released transcripts adds to the record of a man committing political suicide day-by-day,' he says."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (event 9/28 at Boswell)
2. Nora Webster, by Colm Toíbín
3. Euphoria, by Lily King
4. Etta and Otto and Russell and James, by Emma Hooper
5. The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henríquez
6. The Betrayers, by David Bezmozgis
7. Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler
8. The Vacationers, by Emma Straub
9. The Pigeon and the Boy, by Meir Shalev
10. The Martian, by Andy Weir
11. The Mersault Investigation, by Kamel Daoud
12. Almost Crimson, by Dasha Kelly
13. The Hundred-Year House, by Rebecca Makkai (event 8/20 with Aleksandar Hemon)
14. Delicious, by Ruth Reichl
15. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake, by Amy E. Reichert

David Bezmozgis appeared at Boswell in paperback for the hardcover edition of The Betrayers, but since then, he's won the National Jewish Book Award. He's one of several books that had a pop this week that we recommended to one of our larger book clubs. David Ulin in the Los Angeles Times looks at the real-life underpinnings of the story: "The story of an Israeli politician who, on the losing side in a dispute over settlements, flees Tel Aviv with his young girlfriend for Yalta, in the Ukraine, where as a boy he spent a glorious summer with his parents. In the real world, of course, Israel exploded in conflict in recent months, as did the Ukraine. On the one hand, this means The Betrayers couldn't be more timely, but on the other, timeliness is not what fiction does. As Bezmozgis (a New Yorker '20 Under 40' writer who has written one previous novel, The Free World, as well as the collection Natasha) acknowledges, 'I felt frustrated that world events conspired to undermine my design for the book.'"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Tunnel, Smuggle, Collect, by Jeffrey Gingold
2. Mozos, by Bill Hillmann
3. The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown
4. You are Doing a Freaking Great Job, from Workman Publishing
5. The Enchanted Forest, by Joanna Basford
6. Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
7. Mary Nohl: Inside and Out, by Barbara Manger and Janine Smith
8. Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain
9. The Pope and Mussolini, by David Kertzer
10. I am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai

Testament of Youth is already gone from the Downer Theatre, but the the sales pop often lingers a bit for folks who want to read the book afterwards. Here's what Stephen Holden said in The New York Times. "Testament of Youth, James Kent’s stately screen adaptation of the British author Vera Brittain’s 1933 World War I memoir, evokes the march of history with a balance and restraint exhibited by few movies with such grand ambitions. Most similar films strain at the seams with bombast and sentimentality. This one, with a screenplay by Juliette Towhidi (Calendar Girls), is consciously old-fashioned — or should I say traditional? — while maintaining a sober perspective." At the Downer now are Mr. Holmes and The Wolfpack.

Books for Kids:
1. What Pet Should I Get?, by Dr. Seuss
2. Where's Waldo: The Totally Essential Travel Collection, by Martin Handford
3. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss
4. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
5. The Squishy Turtle Cloth Book, by Roger Priddy
6. Fuzzy Bee and Friends, by Roger Priddy
7. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
8. Paper Towns, by John Green
9. Where's Waldo, by Martin Handford
10. Little Bear, by Else Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak

The big release this week was actually Dr. Seuss's What Pet Should I Get? It actually outsold Go Set a Watchman at Boswell. The New York Times's Michiko Kakutani used her review time to compose this poem. Pasha Malla in The Toronto Globe and Mail takes the book a bit more seriously. From Malla: "To those cynics who suggest that the publication of a dead (or dying) author’s bottom-drawer material is often nothing more than an unrepentant cash grab, I offer the following. Discovered shortly after Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) passed away in 1991, What Pet Should I Get? was likely written in the early-1950s and either purposefully shelved or forgotten. Though perhaps the world simply wasn’t ready for it – until now. Rarely are the essential ideologies of our time, including those of race, class, gender, animal rights, late capitalism and “ginger pride,” examined with such acuity and precision. Simply put, What Pet Should I Get? is the most important work of cultural criticism of the year."

On to the Journal Sentinel book page. First up is Jim Higgins' review of Lauren Fox's Days of Awe. He writes: "Like that lethal dude Liam Neeson plays in the movies, Shorewood novelist Lauren Fox ("Still Life With Husband, Friends Like Us) has honed a very particular set of skills. She takes women who are falling apart and pulls wit, snark, pith, and occasional insight out of them. No contemporary novelist makes me stop as often to mark or admire one of her sentences. Plenty of people can write limpid or fancy prose, but Fox ladles out one flavorful reduction of human angst and misery after another."

Mike Fischer reviews Vu Tran's Dragonfish, a book that blends a Vietnam story with a hardboiled frame. His Journal Sentinel review begins: "Although we're never actually given the date, the time scheme within Dragonfish, Vu Tran's debut novel, places this story in the year 2000 — a portentous marker dividing yesterday from tomorrow. It's an apt choice, as we'll come to see once we've settled in with Tran's two narrators." Fischer wasn't exactly a fan, but others disagree; here's an excerpt from the starred review in Kirkus: "The Vietnam of the past and the Las Vegas of the present are vividly evoked in this debut novel in which hard-boiled noir is seamlessly blended with reminiscences of exile. A two-fisted policeman from Oakland, California, finds both his life and sense of certainty upended by Suzy, the Vietnamese wife who abandoned him with thwarted desires and unanswered questions. It turns out he’s not the only ex-husband looking for her."

Also in the print edition is a profile of Ta-Nahisi Coates from Mary Carole McCauley in the Baltimore Sun, discussing Between the World and Me.