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Buy Local. Live Local. A Report from Our Milwaukee.
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By Nancy Quinn
 Did you know that when a consumer spends $100 with a local business, $45 stays in the local economy, versus $13 staying in the local economy when the consumer spends that same $100 at a chain business*? Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops is pleased to be a founding member of Our Milwaukee - a local business alliance dedicated to keeping Milwaukee unique through advocating for locally owned businesses.
The other founding businesses are: Alterra Coffee Roasters, Beans and Barley, Brewery Credit Union, Laacke & Joys, Outpost Natural Foods Cooperative and The Pabst Theater/The Riverside/Turner Hall Ballroom.
After formally organizing and opening its doors to new members, Our Milwaukee quickly doubled its membership with the following businesses joining: Bilt Rite Furniture, The Boelter Companies, Circore Business Solutions, Fein Brothers Inc., Kashou Carpets, Pizza Shuttle, Shepherd Express Alternative Publications, Soaps & Scents and Stephanie Bartz Photography.
The organization held its first annual meeting Wednesday night at Lakefront Brewery. Pam Mehnert, Our Milwaukee President and General Manager of Outpost said, "It's rewarding to see how a small group of individuals can take a dream from casual conversations to a vibrant and professional local business organization in less than two years. This meeting was a celebration of that work and an invitation for other great local businesses to find out what we're all about."
About forty people, representing current members and other business owners who were interested in hearing about the group, were in attendance. After the business portion of the evening, the floor was opened for ideas, and a passionate discussion was held about the future of Our Milwaukee and the importance of supporting local independent businesses.
Four more business joined the group at Wednesday's meeting: Atomic Records, Loop Yarn Shop, Murray Hill Pottery Works and Wasco Windows.
If you are a local business interested in learning more, visit Our Milwaukee website or contact me directly at nquinn@schwartzbooks.com. If you are not a business owner, but care about Milwaukee's future, tell your favorite local businesses about Our Milwaukee. The more members we have, the stronger we will be.
As always, the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, Milwaukee's independent bookseller for over 80 years, appreciates your support! You can make the difference today by supporting our network of vibrant and authentic locally owned businesses.
- Nancy Quinn, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops marketing director and Our Milwaukee membership committee chair.
*From Economic Impact Analysis: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers, December 2002, by Civic Economics, Austin IBA
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Schwartz Live at Alverno Presents:
Jodi Picoult · author of Change of Heart
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Wednesday, March 12 · 7 p.m. · The Pitman Theatre
By Rebecca Bialek
 Regular readers of this newsletter and visitors to our bookshops know by now that Jodi Picoult is coming to Alverno as part of our Schwartz Live at Alverno Presents series on Wednesday, March 12. Hundreds have responded so far, and we're expecting a large and enthusiastic audience. So why tell you again? Well, because first and foremost, we want to make sure we did everything we could to tell everyone about this event. Nothing breaks a bookseller's heart more than to hear "Oh! I wish I knew about that event!" from a customer the day after hosting a fantastic event. Nothing.
Perhaps some of you are on the fence. You're a fan, but not a superfan. It's a weeknight. It might not be the most pleasant weather on the day of the event. All of that may be true, but guess what? Events with Jodi Picoult are fun and after putting up with this winter you deserve a nice night out, don't you? You'll leave the event energized, informed about the serious subjects she takes on in her books, enlightened about her writing process, (and if you're lucky about what she's working on now), and with a signed copy of her latest novel, Change of Heart. Maybe you'll wind up being a superfan after all!
Finally, we're telling you again because with all the snow and ice and freezing rain we've had for months on end, you might not have realized March has crept up on us so quickly. If, back in January, you thought you'd wait until a little closer to the event to buy your tickets, wait no longer! Bring a friend, your mom, or your book club and join us for a wonderful evening with author Jodi Picoult.
$33 includes admission and a signed copy of Change of HeartEvent takes place at the Pitman Theatre at Alverno College, 3401 S. 39th St., Milwaukee Purchase tickets online or by calling the box office at 414-382-6044. There is a $5 handling fee for each order placed (per order, not per ticket). A Schwartz Bookshops gift card may be requested in place of book.
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Get it Right at Shorewood
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Get it Right:
A Revision Workshop for Nonfiction Writers
Do you have a manuscript that needs to be revised? Author and writing coach Rochelle Melander will lead a four-week workshop at our Shorewood location. If you have a nonfiction article, essay, or book chapter manuscript and are looking for a supportive and constructive critique of your work from an experienced editor, this workshop is for you! Your tuition of $75.00 includes the classes and a copy of Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer by Moira Anderson Allen.
Classes meet every Tuesday in April from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. beginning April 8.
Each class will include 30 minutes of teaching and 90 minutes of roundtable critique. Each group member will present and receive feedback on his/her work at least once during the four-week course.
Space is limited! Sign up in person at our Shorewood shop (4093 N. Oakland Ave.), or by phone at (414) 963-3111.
$75.00 includes:
· Four weeks of class at Shorewood
· Paperback copy of Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer
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| Live at Schwartz
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Here
is a list of the authors coming to a Schwartz Bookshop in the next few
weeks. For a complete list of upcoming author appearances visit
our new events page.
 Dennis
McCann
Rough Stuff
Thursday, March 6 * 7:00 p.m.
talk * Shorewood
Former Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Sunday Travel columnist
Dennis McCann is a golf nut. When he's not writing about golf
in the pages of Wisconsin Golfer, he's playing golf.
Or watching golf. Or thinking about golf. For a change of pace he'll be
speaking about golf when he visits to discuss the best of his columns
about the game available now in his new book, Rough Stuff.
 Andy
Mozina
The Women Were Leaving the Men
Friday, March 7 * 7:00 p.m. reading
* Downer Ave.
The first full-length fiction collection from Milwaukee native Andy
Mozina, recently named winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association
Award for fiction, draws you into the everyday lives of his characters
who are familiar yet intriguingly flawed. Knocked beyond the brink by
departed family members, curious obsessions, and unruly physical attributes,
his characters climb and scrape their way toward intimacy, sanity and
redemption against the often-absurd odds of their lives.
  Aryn
Kyle * author of The God of Animals
Eileen Favorite * author of The Heroines
Saturday, March 8 * 2:00 p.m.
reading * Shorewood
Meet the author of the bestselling novel The God of Animals,
Aryn Kyle when she appears at our Shorewood shop with Eileen Favorite,
author of The Heroines.
In Kyle's novel, Alice Winston
is torn between dreams of escaping the loneliness of her duty-filled
life and longing to help her father mend their family and the ranch.
In this bittersweet coming-of-age tale, Alice discovers the different
guises of love and the steep tolls on the road to adulthood.
Favorite's debut novel is an imaginative story that finds literature's
leading ladies, from Scarlett O'Hara to Franny Glass, escaping
the pain of their storylines to find refuge at a special bed and breakfast
run by Anne-Marie Entwhistle and her thirteen-year-old daughter, Penny.
As the heroines recuperate and her mother lavishes attention on them,
Penny strikes out for an adventure of her own.
 Joshilyn
Jackson
The Girl Who
Stopped Swimming
Sunday, March 9 * 2:00 p.m.
reading * Mequon
Meet the author of the #1 Book Sense Picks Gods
in Alabama and Between, Georgia.
Her latest finds Laurel Gray Hawthorne shaken by a devastating discovery
in her own backyard. Though her life seems neat and on track with
a passionate marriage, beloved daughter, lovely home, and family skeletons
safely buried, everything Laurel holds dear is threatened when the
body of her teenage neighbor is found in the family swimming pool.
 Richard
C. Longworth
Caught in the
Middle
Monday, March 10 * 7:00 p.m.
talk * Downer Ave.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and longtime Chicago Tribune reporter
Richard Longworth explores the Midwest in a new globalized age. The
Midwest has always been the heart of America, but as factory farms
and global forces displace old ways of life, the United States is
literally being transformed from the inside out. Ranging from the
manufacturing collapse that has crippled the Midwest to the biofuels
revolution that may save it, Longworth addresses what's right
and what's wrong in the region and offers a prescription for
how it must change if it is to survive.
 Charles
Baxter
The Soul Thief
Friday, March 14 * 7:00 p.m.
reading * Downer Ave.
The latest novel by the acclaimed author of Feast
of Love finds Nathaniel Mason, a new graduate student in upstate
New York, drawn into a tangle of relationships with people who seem
to hover just out of his reach. One of those people is Jerome Coolberg
who seems to have taken parts of Nathaniel's past as his own.
It's Jerome who triggers Nathaniel's total breakdown,
and it's Jerome who shows up at his door thirty years later
to suggest that Nathaniel's identity may not be his own.
 Scott
Simon
Windy City
Friday, March 21 * 7:00 p.m.
reading * Shorewood
The host of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition offers a
wise and funny novel of politics Chicago style in Windy City. Alderman
Sonny Roopini, a widower and transplant from India, finds himself
thrust into the spotlight when the gluttonous mayor apparently eats
himself into a fatal heart attack. But soon, Sonny begins to suspect
that the mayor's death has a more human and malicious cause
than cholesterol!
 
Kevin
Brockmeier * author of The View from the Seventh Layer
Tod Wodicka * author of All Shall
Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well
Thursday, March 27 * 7:00 p.m.
reading * Downer Ave.
Literary fiction takes center stage at this event featuring two innovative
authors. Kevin Brockmeier, whose recent novel, A Brief History of
the Dead, was a bookseller favorite, offers a collection of inventive,
emotionally complex stories that reveal his remarkable range as a
writer. He will be joined by Tod Wodicka, whose debut novel introduces
Burt Hecker, a tunic-wearing medieval re-enactor and a man seemingly
at war with the modern world. The story unfolds to reveal the tragic
details of his life and it becomes clear why he prefers living in
a time other than his own.
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Schwartz Bestseller-30%Off
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 A Prisoner of Birth Jeffery ArcherThis internationally bestselling author returns with a poignant novel of deception, hatred and revenge. If Danny Cartwright, a cockney garage mechanic, had proposed to his girlfriend a day earlier he wouldn't have been arrested and charged with murder. It's his word against four witnesses from society's upper-crust-and who'd believe a mechanic over an aristocrat? He's sentenced to twenty-two years in the toughest prison in the land. Nobody has ever escaped, but everyone has underestimated Danny's determination to seek revenge. Publisher Price $27.95 Schwartz Price $19.57 |
| Schwartz Select: Fiction
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 And Sometimes Why
Rebecca Johnson
In her debut novel, Vogue contributor Rebecca Johnson
captures the fragile rhythm and unpredictable drama of family life. When
Sophia and Darius say good-bye to their children one ordinary morning
they are unaware that a decision made around the breakfast table will
change all of their lives forever. Fans of Ann Patchett will enjoy this
honest, moving novel about how quickly life can change and how we must
change with it.
$24.95
 The Translation of Dr. Appelles
David Treuer
This lush, playful Native American romance tucked within a wily postmodern
novel finds Dr. Appelles, a translator of ancient texts, making an unsettling
discovery. He has found a manuscript written in a language only he speaks.
Moving back and forth between the scholar and his text to a pair of young
Indian lovers in an unspoiled land, David Treuer deftly weaves together
two love stories, redefining the Native American novel. Paperback
$14.95
 City of the Sun
David Levien
Part of the screenwriting team behind Hollywood blockbusters Oceans
13 and Rounders introduces detective Frank Behr in his debut
novel. Behr, an imposing former cop, agrees to take the case of a boy
who's been missing for over a year. His unrelenting quest for answers
is dangerous, haunting, and crackling with suspense.
$24.95
 Friend of the Devil
Peter Robinson
When a young woman is found murdered in her wheelchair one cold morning,
Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot draws the case. That same morning, Detective
Chief Inspector Alan Banks is pondering another brutal attack. Banks has
leads, but Cabbot is getting nowhere-until a breakthrough spins
her case in a shocking new direction.
$24.95
 We
Disappear
Scott Heim
In this dark, compelling novel of addiction, obsession, love and family,
the murder of a teenage boy sparks a suppressed childhood memory in
a hard-luck woman named Donna. Hoping to uncover clues about her past,
she recruits her son to help her find out more about "disappeared"
people. He has his own demons-including drug addiction-but
helping his mother may be his ticket to salvation. What he discovers
in his mother's basement leads him to questions about his mother's
past, and his own.
Paperback
$13.95
 Luncheon
of the Boating Party
Susan Vreeland
Just as she did in Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland paints
a portrait of an artist and an era by focusing on a single painting. In
her latest, she opens up the world of Auguste Renoir's masterpiece,
which depicts a gathering of the artist's friends who are enjoying a summer
Sunday along the Seine. Narrated by Renior and seven of the models, Vreeland
illuminates the gusto, hedonism and art of the era.
Paperback
$15.00
 Staff
Pick
A Fraction of the Whole
Steve Toltz
"Loaded with eccentric characters and people with a past, this novel
set in Australia could be this year's Special Topics in Calamity
Physics. The story centers around a single father with endless 'projects'
designed to educate his son, who-when not involved in a shouting
match with his father-is nonplussed by the whole experience. Steve
Toltz is an author to watch!"--Anne Wilde, Mequon
$24.95
 Staff Pick
The Testament of Gideon Mack
James Robertson
"After a disappearance and miraculous recovery, a Scottish minister
begins acting strangely: admitting he doesn't believe in God, and
claiming he's met with the Devil. Different periods in his life
weave in and out of his story, revealing a fairly ordinary life of a man
who, despite doubts about God and the Church, became a minister like his
father. It's a well-crafted joy to read that leaves you contemplating
humanity's relationship with the divine and the significance of
how we spend our lives."--Wil Tietsort, Shorewood. Paperback
$15.00
 Staff Pick
An Incomplete Revenge
A Maisie Dobbs Novel
Jacqueline Winspear
"Maisie Dobbs is such an interesting character, and in this book
you learn a little more about her family history. She is investigating
a problem that involves a gypsy encampment in a rural village, and behind
this investigation lies the story of Maisie's own great grandmother.
A good read!"--Anne McMahon, Shorewood
$24.00
 Staff
Pick
Monster,
1959
David Maine
"Here is the King Kong story, re-told with a completely new monster --
a hybrid of about eight different monsters, named 'K.' It
takes place in the late '50s and parallels the original story except
for one enormous twist: it's told through the thoughts of the monster.
K doesn't have a whole lot going on up there, but that's what
makes it such a refreshing hoot to read."--Jerry Kannel, Brookfield
$21.95
 Staff
Pick
Moral
Disorder and Other Stories
Margaret Atwood
"In this latest work, short stories-each with their own theme
and arc -- weave us through the entire life of a simple woman. Margaret
Atwood's manipulations of plain characters in space and time are
rendered into extraordinary writing-again!"--Stacie Williams,
Downer Ave. Paperback
$13.95
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| Schwartz
Select: Nonfiction |
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 Nim Chimpsky
The Chimp Who Would Be Human
Elizabeth Hess
If ever a chimp could be said to have charisma, it was Nim Chimpsky.
As the subject of Project Nim, an experiment aiming to refute Noam Chomsky's
claim that the capacity for learning language is uniquely human, Nim charmed
everyone and proved to be a good student of sign language. But when the
project's funding ran out, Nim's problems began. Moving and
entertaining, his dramatic story raises questions about what it means
to be human and what we owe the animals who enrich our lives.
$23.00
 High Crimes
The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed
Michael Kodas
Climbing Mount Everest has never been easier-or more dangerous.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Kodas discovered this firsthand
when he attempted to reach the summit himself. On Everest, he and his
climbing partners found themselves in camps filled with theft, fraud and
violence. Originally written as a series for the Hartford Courant,
here is his full account of his experience in a place where man is as
deadly as Mother Nature.
$24.95
 1001
Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die
Edited by Matthew Rye
Selected by a team of twenty-two leading music critics from around the
world, the 1001 classical recordings described here are absolute must
hear pieces that will delight music fans who take pleasure in exploring
lesser known composers as well as beginning listeners who are just discovering
the joy of unforgettable classics. From Medieval madrigals to Philip
Glass, this treasury puts the world's finest classical music at
your fingertips.
$36.95
 Lose
Weight Now!
Diet Journal & Organizer
Alex A. Lluch
Keep track of your weight loss goals, plans and achievements with the
Lose Weight Now Diet Journal & Organizer. The comprehensive
journal will help you monitor what you eat and drink and the attached
accordion file keeps important information like your meal plans, menus
or shopping lists, handy. It's a helpful tool designed to work with
popular diet programs and it's packed with 100 weight-loss tips!
$16.95
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Great Books at Bargain Prices
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This is a sampling of the terrific deals we have on good books. Stop in to
any of our shops to pick up any of these titles or browse our bargain section.
The Russian Concubine
Kate Furnivall
Publisher $15.00
SCHWARTZ: $5.99
Bride Island
Alexandra Enders
Publisher $14.00
SCHWARTZ: $5.99
Rereadings
Edited by Anne Fadiman
Publisher $22.00
SCHWARTZ: $5.99
Elmo's Favorite Things
Margaret Snyder
Publisher $12.99
SCHWARTZ: $6.99
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Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops
Milwaukee's Very Own Independent Bookshop Since 1927
Downer Ave., 2559 N. Downer Ave., 414-332-1181, ondowner@schwartzbooks.com
Bay View, 2262 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., 414-481-3401, bayview@schwartzbooks.com
Brookfield, 17145 W. Bluemound Rd., 262-797-6140, brookfield@schwartzbooks.com
Mequon, 10976 N. Port Washington Rd., 262-241-6220, mequon@schwartzbooks.com
Shorewood, 4093 N. Oakland Ave., 414-963-3111, shorewood@schwartzbooks.com
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