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To Bear Judgment
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We're celebrating the great bears of literature in our Shorewood shop windows! What? Are you saying that you didn't know that Harry Potter and Captain Underpants were members of the Ursine Nation? Well, they are, at least according to kids who dressed up the plush bears for a contest sponsored by the Shorewood Public Library. Here's a report from our bookseller Carl McCorkle:
To Bear Judgment...
by Carl A. McCorkle
Dateline: Shorewood
It was a warm, yet gloomy, day when I hopped onto the number 15 bus heading southbound from my apartment. I was giddy. In my excitement I got off the bus a few blocks too soon. But, that was okay, because it was a decent day and I was going to judge a contest. I happily trudged the six blocks to the library, only to find it was the wrong one. Somewhere in the sea of chaos that is my mind, I got Shorewood Public Library confused with Milwaukee Public Library. It probably didn't help that we worked the Kevin Henkes event there the week prior. So, after ten minutes of confusion, four more city blocks, and one reverse bus ride, I was at the proper location.
I chatted with Heidi, the event coordinator, got my voting packet, and got to work. Imagine two bookshelves of bears, an amalgamation of characters from the very popular to the slightly obscure, and all of them, pretty darn cute. The contestants ranged from third to sixth grade. That can be a pretty big age gap, but for some, age was no factor. It was going to be a tough one to judge. My first reaction to the whole thing was, Impressive. The detail these kids put into their bears was spectacular. They were spot on in capturing the likeness and/or essence of the characters. The caliber of work forced me to be a somewhat harsh judge. There was a range from one to ten that I had to use to make my judgments, and I had to judge based on originality, craftsmanship, and likeness. That being said, it was pretty much down to creativity and attention to detail. I was more likely to give a child more points if they created fairy wings instead of using store-bought wings, or if a child put the Griffindor colors on "Harry's" tie, instead of the child who did not. After an hour and a half of scoring and commenting, I was finally done. I felt kind of bad being so nit-picky with elementary school kids. But, all of them were so good that they left me no choice.
So, here's to the contestants and all the kids of Shorewood. Don't stop with this competition; keep crafting. Don't stop your artistry; keep creating. And, never, never, stop reading. You never know-some time, in the future, some kid in some town a thousand miles away could be spending hour upon hour trying to get the likeness just right of some creation you spent hour upon hour on writing about or drawing, thus creating a cycle of inspiration and art. My hat is off to you, children of Shorewood. Great job!
You can see the bears in all their glory from now until Sunday, June 15.
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Schwartz News Roundup
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An Offer Your Book Club Can't Refuse!
Schwartz Bookshops, in partnership with Random House, is offering a fabulous opportunity for your book club to meet an author and discuss her book. (And if you aren't in a book club don't worry-you can still get in on the fun).
First, you or your book club coordinator chooses a book to read. You can choose Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex, or Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz, both critically acclaimed, beloved reads. Let us know which book your club is adding to the roster by emailing Nancy Quinn at nquinn@schwartzbooks.com.
Then, get a book! Your designated book club representative will receive a review copy of your chosen title, and a galley copy of your chosen author's newest book: Stealing Athena by Karen Essex, or So Long at the Fair by Christina Schwarz.
Finally, meet the authors! Participating book clubs will be eligible to have your chosen author join your club's discussion via telephone. Then, everyone-whether you're in a book club or not-is invited to our joint event with Karen Essex and Christina Schwarz on Tuesday, July 22 at 7 p.m. at our Mequon shop.
Five Skies: Two Formats. One Book. One Fantastic Price!
Schwartz booksellers fell in love with Ron Carlson's Five Skies when it was released last year. It is now available in paperback, and as a special treat, we are also offering the hardcover for the same price as the paperback, $14.00.
Our booksellers are still raving about Five Skies:
"Ron Carlson's novel explores the private heartache of three strangers from different generations who are brought together for a summer. As they grudgingly tell their stories, they slowly turn toward healing, each finding solace in the company of the other men's pain. Five Skies should be a book club favorite with a special appeal to men."-Bishop Hadley, Buyer
"An oh-so-quiet novel loaded with a building intensity that makes like a low-moving summer thunderstorm bound for a spectacular, wrenching finish. Ron Carlson has written a strong, beautiful novel of love, hope and just doing what comes next."-Stacie Williams, Downer Ave.
"Three broken men search for new meaning in their lives while building a ramp to nowhere on the edge of a canyon. Sound existential? It is. More importantly though, Five Skies is a joy to read as spare and beautiful as the landscape it inhabits. You will not forget this magnificent novel."-Dave Mallmann, Brookfield
"Three men with trouble in their recent pasts come together to work on a highly unusual construction project in the desert of Idaho. The isolation of their circumstances allows them to draw each other out and help to heal their souls. This is a story of 'men in tool belts' but it's absolutely not just for guys! The humanity of this novel is astounding."-Carl Hoffman, Downer Ave.
Pop Art Cards
Bring back the lost art of note writing with a card bursting with modern art! David Carter, the artist behind more than 70 pop-up books for children including the Dr. Seuss pop-up Horton Hears a Who!, has created a line of bold, fun, brilliantly engineered Pop Up Note Cards. They're wonderful notes to send your friends and family or to keep for your own collection. Amaze your pen-pals with the Curlycue card, a pop-up note card with a surprise coiled up inside. Make waves with your message when you send the Wave design, or send a bouquet without picking a flower when you choose the Blossom card.
Each box costs $18.95 includes 8 cards and envelopes in four bright colors.
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New Releases
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A
selection of this week's new releases from our friends at Shelf
Awareness:
 The
Enchantress of Florence: A Novel by Salman Rushdie chronicles Florence
and the Mughal empire during the Renaissance. Rushdie will be reading
at our Shorewood shop on Wednesday, July 9.
Shadow
of Power: A Paul Madriani Novel by Steve Martini the newest crime
thriller with defense attorney Paul Madriani. - Schwartz
Bestseller - 30% off
Panic
in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge
of Science by Richard Preston chronicles the most bizarre and horrifying prospects of modern science.
Your
Government Failed You: Beaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters
by Richard A. Clarke examines and offers solutions to the country's
national security disasters.
Blood
Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton is the 16th novel with vampire hunter
Anita Blake.
Chasing
Harry Winston:A Novel by Lauren Weisberger follows a trio of Manhattan
friends who decide to change their lives.
Now out in paperback:
In
the Woods by Tana French
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| Live at Schwartz: Calendar of Events
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Here
is a list of the authors coming soon to the Schwartz Bookshops. For a complete list of upcoming author appearances visit
our events page.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Candy Everybody Wants
Friday, May 30 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Downer Ave.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Milwaukee-area native and author of I Am Not Myself These Days. makes his fiction debut with Candy Everybody Wants, a story that follows a young man from the Midwest as he seeks his fame, fortune and freedom in the flamboyant and wacked-out worlds of New York and Los Angeles-and everywhere in between. From a kidnapping mystery to a Hollywood sitcom set, his bumpy journey from worshipping pop culture to becoming a part of it is shared with a revolving door of quirky characters.
Steven Faulkner
Waterwalk: A Passage of Ghosts
Monday, June 2 ·
7:00 p.m. program ·
Downer Ave.
Tired, hungry, lost, fogbound, shipwrecked and unable to make their way in the darkness, Steven Faulkner and his teenage son are having the time of their lives. They're on an epic journey, retracing the historic route of French explorers Marquette and Joliet along Lake Michigan's shore to Green Bay, up the Fox River, then down the Wisconsin River to the mighty Mississippi. Share in their amazing adventure!
Alexander Germanis
Monarchy's Shadow
Monday, June 3 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Shorewood
Shorewood author Alexander Germanis puts you in the middle of the action in his science-fiction thriller set in an unbelievable world. What began as a young student's escape as he passed the time recovering from an accident has become this story of the third "war to end all wars," which has destroyed nations and left behind only a group of deserters known as the Shadows, the innocents they've sworn to protect, and a society known as the Monarchy.
Jim Crace
The Pesthouse
Wednesday, June 4 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Downer Ave.
Meet National Book Critics Circle-Award-winner and Schwartz bookseller favorite Jim Crace. His affecting and engrossing love story is set in a surreal America which has become sparsely populated and unstable. The last hope of many is escape via a ship bound for Europe. As one man makes his way, he finds a sick woman left to die. During the course of their journey, their tentative alliance is replaced by trust and intimacy neither has ever experienced. Paperback.
Lori Tharps
Kinky Gazpacho
Friday, June 6 ·
7:00 p.m. talk ·
Shorewood
Born and raised in the comfortable but mostly white suburbs of Milwaukee, Lori Tharps (Hair Story) always dreamed of making her home in Spain, a place where, she thought, race wouldn't matter. But when she arrived as an optimistic college student her dreams were shattered. That might have been the end of her story, but she met and married a Spaniard, that's when her adventure really begins.
Daniel C. Maguire
Whose Church?
Tuesday, June 10 ·
7:00 p.m. talk ·
Downer Ave.
In his guide to progressive Catholicism, Marquette University Professor of Moral Theological Ethics Daniel Maguire shows how far some conservative Catholics have strayed from Catholic social preaching. With humor, passion and an intolerance for injustice, Maguire offers informed and insightful theological arguments for gender equality, affirmative action, opposition to war and the fight against poverty, and shows a way forward at a critical juncture in the U.S. Catholic Church.
Shauna Singh Baldwin
We Are Not in Pakistan
Tuesday, June 10 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Shorewood
Critically acclaimed Milwaukee author Shauna Singh Baldwin returns with an outstanding collection of ten stories featuring an unforgettable cast of characters. From Central America to the American South, from Metro Toronto to the Ukraine, each story, marked by indelible images, contains a world all its own. She is also the author of What the Body Remembers.
Carole Barrowman
Anything Goes
Wednesday, June 11 ·
7:00 p.m. talk ·
Downer Ave.
If you've seen the movies The Producers or De-Lovely, then you've seen the award-winning actor John Barrowman, currently starring in the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. He also happens to be Alverno College English Professor Carole Barrowman's brother, with whom he collaborated to write his memoir. Carole Barrowman traces John's life and career with heart and charm.
Alan Furst
The Spies of Warsaw
Thursday, June 12 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Shorewood
The bestselling author of The Foreign Correspondent offers a new spy novel set in World War II-era France and Poland.Twenty-one spies are at war on the espionage-filled battlefront that was Warsaw, 1937. Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier is drawn into a world of betrayal and intrigue in the city's drawing rooms and back alleys. At the same time, he's drawn into a love affair with a lawyer for the League of Nations.
VITAL Source
Short Fiction Contest Winners Reading
Thursday, June 12 ·
7:00 p.m. reading ·
Downer Ave.
Join the winning authors of VITAL's annual short fiction contest for a special reading. Enjoy complimentary appetizers by Times Square Pizza and Bistro and register to win Super Passes to both screenings of the 48 Hour Film Project June 25 at the Oriental Theater. Sponsored by VITAL Source Magazine and Schwartz.
John Gilman
representing Loss, Love and Longing
Friday, June 13 ·
7:00 p.m. program ·
Shorewood
Love, Loss and Longing, published by the Latin America Working Group and Washington Office on Latin America is a photo exhibit highlighting the affect of the travel ban on Cuban Americans. John Gilman, a representative of LAWG will join us to discuss the book and the travel ban.
Cathy Sultan
Tragedy in South Lebanon
Monday, June 16 ·
7:00 p.m. ·
Shorewood
Catherine Sultan combines compelling history and vivid personal interviews to relate the lives of the oft-ignored civilians of southern Lebanon and northern Israel during the July war of 2006. Their stories are intertwined with Sultan's take on the media treatment of the war, and her urgent call for government officials on all sides to act with foresight, compassion and responsibility.
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| Schwartz
Select: Fiction |
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Child
44
Tom Rob Smith
Russia 1953: KGB officer Leo Demidov is a man who never questions the
Party Line. He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the
horrific death of a young boy because he is told to; because he believes
the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo
is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that
everything he does serves a greater good is shaken when he is forced
to watch a man he knows to be innocent is brutally tortured. Then he's
told to arrest his wife. To save his life and the lives of his family
he must confront the vast resources and reach of the security forces
to stop a criminal the state won't even admit exists.
$24.99
 A
Hollywood Ending
Robyn Sisman
American starlet Paige Carson is off to London to try her hand at Shakespeare.
She's going to prove that she deserves more than bimbo roles and
Hollywood hunks who can't see beyond their own reflections. But
stage acting is not quite what she expected. Neither is her landlord,
Ed Hawkshead, a highfalutin documentary filmmaker who seems far from the
charming, floppy-haired Brit of her dreams.
Paperback
$14.00 |
| Schwartz
Select: Nonfiction |
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An
Incomplete and Inaccurate History of Sports
Kenny Mayne
Wisecracking sports broadcaster Kenny Mayne keeps dubious score of sports'
absurdities, true and unsubstantiated history, off-the-wall trivia,
and all things real and possibly made-up involving everything from tackle
football and tetherball to golf attire and childbirth. Think you know
sports? Let the world's top (okay, perhaps only) sports surrealist
bring you up to speed.
$24.95
Urawaza
Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks From Japan
Lisa Katayama
Illustrations by Joel Holland
Filled with "secret lifestyle tips and techniques" Urawaza
teaches how to clean your toilet with mouthwash, water your plants using
a wet diaper or how to turbocharge your sled with nonstick cooking spray.
The subject of popular TV shows and books in Japan, these unusually clever
solutions to everyday problems are now available for the first time ever
in English.
Paperback
$14.95
Fodor's
Green Travel
The World's Best Eco-Lodges & Earth-Friendly Hotels
Go green on your next getaway! Featuring 100 clean, green accommodations
that are not only environmentally friendly, but work to support local
communities as well, Green Travel celebrates the growing availability
of green travel experiences. It also tackles some of the more difficult
issues that ethical travelers face-questions about poverty, the
politics of boycotting certain destinations, and the environmental impact
of travel.
Paperback
$21.95
 Golda
Elinor Burkett
A brilliant and tenacious leader who lived part of her young life in Milwaukee and later helped found and defend a Jewish
homeland against dogged enemies and skittish allies, Golda Meir was the
first female head of state in the western world and one of the most influential
women in modern history. In this masterful biography, Elinor Burkett looks
beyond Meir's well-known accomplishments to the personal and contradictory
sides of this legendary woman, placing her with the framework of Russian
pogroms, the Holocaust, and the single-mindedness of a generation that
carved a nation from its own nightmares and dreams.
$27.95 |
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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.
 
Eat,
Shoots & Leaves
Lynne Truss
Illustrated by Bonnie Timmons
Publisher $15.99
SCHWARTZ: $8.99
Vicious
Circle
Robert Littell
Publisher $24.95
SCHWARTZ: $7.99
The
Field
Lynne McTaggart
Publisher $13.95
SCHWARTZ: $6.99
War
for the Oaks
Emma Bull
Publisher $13.95
SCHWARTZ: $4.99
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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
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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