Greetings!

Welcome to our May events calendar. We're keeping very busy at Boswell, and I'm hoping we've had something of interest to tickle your fancy of late. Perhaps we said hello during our wonderful events with Sarah Vowell, Christopher Moore, or Cheryl Strayed. Maybe you've been in after a movie at the Oriental or Downer. Or perhaps you had a meal at Hollander, Via, Beans and Barley, or Lake Park Bistro.

If you like trade paperbacks, it's nothing short of nirvana, with just about everything from last fall being published in time for summer reading. You've probably noticed that a lot of books are moving from a one-year cycle for paperback release, to something between six and eight months. Every book is different, and The Paris Wife, for example, is now likely to stay in hardcover until 2013. But Caleb's Crossing, The Language of Flowers, Salvage the Bones, and Turn of Mind? They are all now in paperback.

Secrets of the Horse Breeders, with Susan Nusser, on Tues. May 1, 7 pm.

Just in time for the Kentucky Derby, Carroll University professor Susan Nusser offers an insider look into Taylor Made, the acclaimed horse breeding operation. Her new book, Kentucky Derby Dreams: The Making of Thoroughbred Champions, follows foals through the first three years of their lives.

Whether she's setting the serene scene of daily farm life, or trying to keep up with the high pace of a multi-million dollar auction, Nusser captures all the highs and lows, heartache and success, of Thoroughbred business and life, with the entrancing narrative style of a novelist. As noted in the Louisville Courier-Journal, "The modern process of birthing is fascinating. Susan Nusser writes of various foalings with all the tension of a John Grisham thriller, alternating heart-tugging reality with medical minutae. She is a gifted storyteller, and the human and animal players in these dramas become friends for whom the reader genuinely feels elation and concern."

Join us at Boswell on Tuesday, May 1, 7 pm, for a celebratory evening before Nusser heads out to mint julep country. I'm already hearing Dan Fogelberg's Run for the Roses going through my head. The Wikipedia entry notes, however, that the song locates the breeding industry a little west of where it actually is.

Historian Andrew Kahrl on African American Beaches, Wed. May 2.

A century ago, much of the beachfront property along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts were owned and populated by African Americans. Marquette professor Andrew Kahrl traces the social and environmental history of these shores, changing hands as the land went up in value, in his new book The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South.

Kahrl offers an original narrative on the ways in which race is an inescapable factor in Americans' conception and construction of class, and also shines a light on the mechanics of segregation, desegregation, and integration. Join us on Wednesday, May 2, 7 pm, at Boswell. And if you'd like to learn more, here's a short interview with Kahrl from the Franklin Reserach Center of Duke.

Veeck as in Maverick--Paul Dickson Appears Thursday, May 3, 7 pm.

The acclaimed sports historian Paul Dickson is probably best known for The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, but his project of the last few years might someday even eclipse that work. He'll be speaking at Boswell for his new biography, Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick, on Thursday, May 3, 7 pm.

You know Veeck best as the owner of the Chicago White Sox. But local baseball fans also know that his first team was owner of a minor league team dear to our hearts, the Milwaukee Brewers. Veeck was quite the iconoclast. From an interview with Major League Baseball Reports:

"I had always wanted to write a biography and felt that if it were to be a sports biography it had to be about a transformational character in the history of sports which Veeck was. I also wanted to able to tell a story in the context of the subject's time. Because of Veeck's interest in racial equality, his position as a war veteran and amputee, and his genius as a promoter and businessman, he was perfect. He was also witty, provocative and drew outside the lines. He attracted the descriptor 'maverick' more than any other figure in sports before or since." Read the rest of the interview here.

The Best of the Undergraduate Creative Writers, Friday, May 4, 7 pm.

Three years ago we had a wonderful evening of students from UWM and Marquette's undergraduate writing programs. It took place during our grand opening, and continues to be one of my favorite events. All I could think about was some day, one of these kids could come back for a novel, a collection of poems, a memoir. For some reason, it's taken me three years to book a return engagement, but we've got one, on Friday, May 4, 7 pm, at Boswell. I use as my graphic the art from the original literary duel poster, just because it makes me smile.

This year we've expanded to four schools. From Cardinal Stritch, we've got Robyn White representing creative nonfiction, and David Townsend in poetry. On UWM's team, Taylor Campbell is our poetry entry, and Cody McGee is batting fiction. Daniel O'Brien is the prose guard for Marquette, while Christopher Morales's weapon is poetry. And Carroll's fielding Alicia Zuberbier in poetry, and William Reiss in prose. How's that for a mixed metaphor lineup? I assure you that none of these readers will offer something so clunky!

Come out and cheer for your home team on Friday, May 4, 7 pm.

Jenny Lewis on Midwest Baking, at the Milaukee Public Market, on Saturday, May 5, 11 am.

Doughnuts and kringle and whoopie pie, oh my! Jenny Lewis, certified culinary educator, offers us insight into the baked goods of the Midwest. Our proud immigrant heritage offered lots of new ingredients and techniques, and the results were a plethora of sweetness. In Midwest Sweet Baking History: Delectable Classics Around Lake Michigan, Lewis combs family recipes and industry secrets to create a delicious reading experience.

Lewis will be appearing for a demo and talk on Saturday, May 5, 11 am, at the Milwaukee Public Market, which is located at 400 North Water Street. Validated parking is available, but don't forget that street parking is free downtown and in the Third Ward on Saturdays, though hourly limits do apply. And while you are at the Market, why not stop by C. Adams Bakery for some Midwest treats to bring home? The Boswellians swear by the cake bites.

Acclaimed Graphic Novelist Alison Bechdel at Boswell, Mon., May 7, 7 pm.

At one time, Alison Bechdel was best known for her comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For." But in 1996, Bechdel rocked the graphica world with her memoir Fun Home, which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle award.  Now comes her companion memoir, Are You My Mother?, an account of her relationship with her mom. She's already gotten an A from Entertainment Weekly. And Katie Roiphe called it "as complicated, brainy, inventive and satisfying as the finest prose memoirs."

We are honored to be hosting Bechdel on Monday, May 7, 7 pm. And if you'd like to join the in-store lit group beforehand, we'll be discussing Fun Home at 5:30 pm. And if you're one of those people who subscribe to The New Yorker but never feel like they read it, first let me tell you that the key to satisfaction here is to only feel obligated to read three things. And then you should go back and read the Bechdel profile by Judith Thurman in the April 23 issue.

Daniel's Spring Book Club Talk is at the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

You may remember that we cancelled my book club talk in  March, as it was in conjunction with Eleanor Henderson's visit for the paperback release of Ten Thousand Saints. But I'm happy to say that we've rescheduled it to Tuesday, May 8, 7 pm, only it's at at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 West Brown Deer Road. It's $15 ($12 for members) but includes admission to the beautiful grounds, and also wine. Why not come early and stroll?

I'll be presenting not just book club favorites, but some new releases as well. I don't feel comfortable talking up my own presentation, but let's just say that we get a lot of positive feedback. If nothing else, you'll get a good laugh. I'll also have books to sell afterwards. More info on the Lynden website.

Artist/Writer Austin Kleon on Unlocking Creativity, on Wed. May 9 with Two Events, One at 7:30 am at Open MiKE and the other at 7 pm at Boswell.

Join Nancy Atherton, Aunt Dimity, and Boswell for a Field Trip to Mystery One, Where We're Joining Forces for Thursday, May 10, 7 pm.

Nancy Atherton is the bestselling author of seventeen Aunt Dimity mysteries. The first book in the series, Aunt Dimity's Death, was voted one of the "Century's 100 Favorite Mysteries" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. With the release of Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch, we're celebrating with a joint event at Mystery One, 2109 North Prospect Avenue, on Thursday, May 10, 7 pm.

Mystery One will be selling the new book, where Aunt Dimity learns in a diary that her new friend Amelia Thistle may be related to Mistress Meg, the mad witch of Finch, while Boswell will be offering Atherton's backlist, including the new paperback, Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree,  "as cozy and charming as a cup of Earl Grey" (Booklist). Note that you can buy the new book at Boswell beforehand, and bring it to our joint event at Mystery One to get signed.

Celebrate History Night at Boswell with Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen, Friday, May 11, 7 pm.

On Friday, May 11, UWM professor Glen Jeansonne will discuss his new book, The Life of Herbert Hoover: Fighting Quaker, 1928-1933. Born in a Quaker hamlet in Iowa, orphaned at nine, Hoover rose to wealth and world fame as an international mining engineer, the savior of Belgium during the Great War, and Food Administrator under Woodrow Wilson. He combined government with private resources to become the first president to pit government action against the economic cycle, setting precedents and spawning ideas employed by his successor and all future presidents.

Joining Jeansonne will be editor and cultural critic David Luhrssen, speaking about his new book Hammer of the Gods: The Thule Society and the Birth of Nazism. Covering the covert activities of the Thule Society, Hammer of the Gods is the first comprehensive study of the society's activities, its cultural roots, and its postwar ramifications in a historical-critical context.

Moms, Here's Your Present, a Mini-Workshop with Kate Hopper, Saturday, May 12, 1 pm.

Will You be at the Launch for the First Book by Growing Power's Will Allen? Get Your $5 Ticket for Saturday, May 12, 7 pm, at Boswell.

 In 1993, Will Allen cashed out a small retirement package bought a couple acres a few blocks from Milwaukee's largest public housing project. Almost 20 years later, those acres have been developed into the country's finest urban farm. Staffed predominantly by volunteers, Growing Power, Inc. Inc. annually produces forty tons of fresh vegetables and fruits, and raises 100,000 fish, which is then distributed to communities lacking fresh groceries, as well as local restaurants and markets.

Now it's time for the world to read Allen's own story, recounted in The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities. This is a $5 ticketed event, and all ticket proceeds will be donated to Growing Power LLC. Ticket recipients will also get 20% off The Good Food Revolution. Allen's debut goes on sale Tuesday, May 10.

And here's more news about our event. C-SPAN will be covering Mr. Allen's talk for book TV. It's our debut appearance, which is just another reason to celebrate.

Author/Musician Dylan Hicks at Boswell on Monday, May 14, 7 pm.

Food Historian John T. Edge Offers the Dish on Food Trucks on Tuesday, May 15, 7 pm, at Boswell.

Obsessively researched by food authority John T. Edge, The Truck Food Cookbook: 150 Recipes and Ramblings from America's Best Restaurants on Wheels delivers recipes from America's best restaurants on wheels, from L.A. and New York to the truck food scenes in Portland, Austin, Minneapolis, and more. John T. Edge shares the recipes, special tips, and techniques on Tuesday, May 15, 7 pm, at Boswell. And what a menu-board: Tamarind-Glazed Fried Chicken Drummettes. Kalbi Beef Sliders. Porchetta. The lily-gilding Grilled Cheese Cheeseburger. A whole chapter's worth of tacos-Mexican, Korean, Chinese fusion. Plus sweets, from Sweet Potato Cupcakes to an easy-to-make Cheater Soft-Serve Ice Cream.

Director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississipi, John T. Edge has written for The New York Times, the Oxford American, and Gourmet, and has been included in six Best Food Writing anthologies. This event is co-sponsored by Yelp Milwaukee. And yes, we're hoping for a food truck out front.

We Interrupt This Email to Announce $5 Tickets for Appearance by Eva Gabrielsson, Long-Time Partner of the Late Stieg Larsson, Wednesday, June 6, 7 pm, at Boswell.

The author of There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me is coming to Boswell on Wednesday, June 6. This event has a five dollar ticket charge, but attendees will be able to get $5 off a copy of the book, now in paperback. Here's what The New York Times had to say about Gabrielsson's memoir.

"Fans of [Stieg Larsson's] books looking for an intimate peek into the life of a man who summoned a dark scary version of Sweden will not be disappointed. The book is a short, highly emotional tour through a widow's grief and dispossession, and the details of the couple's life together are jarringly juxtaposed with blood feuds and score-settling. People wtih an adjacency to fame often try to glom onto a piece of it, but Gabrielsson is up to something more ambitious and personal."

Gabrielsson is an architect and author in Sweden of books on a variety of subjects including concubinage and architecture. She is the translator of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle into Swedish, and she has been involved with Expo magazine since its founding by her longtime partner, the late Stieg Larsson. Note that tickets for this June 6 event go on sale May 5.

Catch Cabin Fever at the Urban Ecology Center, Wednesday, May 16, 7 pm.

Reversing his minivan out of a garage packed with "a wild tangle of bicycles and strollers and grilling utensils and patio furniture," Tom Montgomery-Fate, a husband and father of three, left behind his four-bedroom house in suburban Chicago and headed to his cabin in the Southwest Michigan woods for a weekend of solitude and writing. Reciting Henry David Thoreau's mantra-"Simplify, simplify"-during his two hour drive, Fate began his journey to the woods and his exploration of how to live "a more deliberate life" in a "high-tech, high-speed culture."

Now in Cabin Fever: A Suburban Father's Search for the Wild, a memoir written from a cabin in the Michigan woods and a house in suburban Chicago, Tom Montgomery Fate contemplates the famous hermit philosopher Henry David Thoreau's relevance in the modern age. Our co-sponsored event is at the Urban Ecology Center, 1500 East Park Place, on Wednesday, May 16, 7 pm. $5 admission, free for UEC members.

Local Writer Harold Eppley at Boswell on Thursday, May 17, 7 pm.

There's no question that life as a pastor offers a great deal of material if your other career is a writer. Harold Eppley has worked as a religious professional in various capacities for 23 years, including four years in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania, where his first novel, Ash Wednesday, is set. It's a comic and sometimes irreverent tale of small-town life, sexual mores, and the decline of mainline religion in contemporary America. Like the fiction of Jon Hassler or Garrison Keillor? Ash Wednesday might be the book for you.

On Thursday, May 17, 7 pm, Eppley will be reading and speaking at Boswell, discussing writing and inspiration. With his wife Rochelle Melander (you may recognize her as the author of Write-a-Thon), he has written seven books, including Our Lives are Not Our Own.

 Former Madison Police Chief David Couper on Saturday, May 19, 2 pm.
 

Author David Couper, chief of the Madison Police Department for more than twenty years, led his officers through the successful handling of hundreds of public protests without incident, integrated the department and began a more collaborative leadership style that he describes as "fair, effective, and humanitarian."

Now in Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation's Police, Couper does more than simply point out shortcomings in the system, he offers seven steps to improving police relations. It's part memoir, part history, part prescription for future success. Couper will be speaking at Boswell on Saturday, May 19, at 2 pm.

John Nichols, with Roger Bybee, at Boswell on Monday, May 21, 7 pm. 

Speaking of Madison, our state continues to be a political battleground. Just two days ago, The New York Times highlighted the implications of the Wisconsin recall vote, while yesterday's paper offered a profile of the influential congressman Paul Ryan. This is to say that Madison protests of a year ago are still playing out, not just at a state level, but a national level too.

On Monday, May 21, 7 pm, John Nichols, author of Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street, will be appearing at Boswell. Opening our program will be Roger Bybee, one of the contributors to It Started in Wisconsin: Dispatches from the Front Lines, for which Nichols wrote the introduction.

Two Nights of Book Club Picks, Starting with Diana Abu-Jaber and Samuel Park on Tuesday, May 22, 7 pm.

If you follow my recommendations, you know that I am a big fan of This Burns My Heart, by Samuel Park, and Birds of Paradise, by Diana Abu-Jaber. Well, both books are in paperback now, and I'm pleased to say that the authors are appearing together, in conversation, on Tuesday, May 22.

Birds of Paradise, set in Miami during the building boom, is about a family reeling from a daughter's decision to leave home and live on the streets. This Burns My Heart, set in South Korea, concerns a woman who despite a bad marriage decision, hopes to build a successful life for herself. Both books it turns out have very strong but untraditional female protagonists. I'm hoping you agree that they are not just good reads, but are meaty enough to talk about.

Pick up a copy of our newest book club picks at Boswell. For this event, we'll give any attendees who buy any of our spring book club picks the 10% book club discount (and you also get the 5% Boswell Benefits rebate credit). Want to read more about these fine novels? Here are my Boswell and Books blog posts on This Burns my Heart and Birds of Paradise.

Bookseller and Critic Favorite Tayari Jones on Wednesday May 23, 7 pm.

Another wonderful novel just coming into paperback is Silver Sparrow, by Tayari Jones. The author of Leaving Atlanta has artfully captured a bigamist and his two families in 1980s Atlanta, with the story told through the eyes of the two teenage girls. Silver Sparrow was the #1 Indie Next Pick in hardcover publication, and reviews have been similarly enthusiastic. Anita Shreve called this "an absorbing novel" with a "vivid cast of characters in The Washington Post.

We're pleased to host Jones for a talk/reading/signing at Boswell on Wednesday, May 23, 7 pm. And we're happy to note that our collaboration with UWM graduate student Todd Wellman, matching featured writers with recently-published opening acts continues. Reading with Tayari Jones will be Ann Stewart McBee, and we'll have another student opening for Alyson Hagy on June 12.

Ben Merens on the Art of Listening, Thursday, May 24, 7 pm, at Boswell.

As a radio talk show host and journalist, Ben Merens has perfected the art of listening. He notes: "Healthy communication is a two-way process where listening is the key to success. The most important aspect to listening well is to be in the moment and focused entirely on the person you are with. This especially applies to how we interact with everyone, from our friends and loved ones, to our colleagues at work, and even to strangers."

On Thursday, May 24, 7 pm, Merens will speak about his audio book, People are Dying to be Heard, at Boswell. He notes the three levels of listening: to yourself, to family and friends, and to strangers. His thoughts are based on the many conversations he has had over the years as a professed "in the moment" listener.