Greetings!

I hoped to get this newsletter out to you last week, but duty called, mostly in the form of our annual visit to Book Expo. I've written a blog post about what the show was like from my perspective. How are visitors interacting with the show? Are hot books breaking out? It's also a great barometer of the industry, and surprisingly enough, it was pretty positive, though there continues to be a lot of change, and despite what you sometimes hear in the news media, it's not always rosey for independent booksellers (though surprisingly enough, it's likely to be very Rosie* for booksellers this fall). That said, I feel like the publishers are recognizing that our presence in the market might be more valuable than our market share would indicate, and that's a good thing for everyone. There were also a lot of balloon pets on the floor, as pictured below left. 

Interestingly enough, the book on the tip of many people's tongues that they actually loved is The Son, the new novel from American Rust writer Philipp Meyer. If you regularly attend our events, you know that this book was enthusiastically embraced by Kate Atkinson on her recent visit. It's also the #1 Indie Next Pick for June. Here's our buyer Jason Kennedy's recommendation:

"Philipp Meyer delivers something phenomenal and epic in this violent and nail-biting novel.  It starts with Eli McCullough, born in Texas, kidnapped and then raised by Comanches. His life is full of violence, leading him toward an ever increasing need to assert his own power. His son Peter stands for everything his father is not, and rebels against him in any non-violent way he can. Then there is Jeannie, Eli's great-great granddaughter, who inherits the McCullough estate. Meyer weaves together all three McCullough storylines, giving the reader an interesting peek into a masterfully arranged family saga."

And now, on with the show (and between our events featuring a classic television show, two cult bands, and the circus, I mean that literally.) *The Rosie Project is a novel coming out this fall that seemingly everyone has already read.  

"Mary Tyler Moore and the Modern Woman" with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm. 

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, a longtime writer at Entertainment Weekly whose work now appears in publications as varied as Women's Health and Fast Company, is coming to Boswell to talk about her oral history of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Not only that, but she's got another great book that takes a look at modern feminism from two distinct perspectives--she's got a co-writer on that one who will not be present at our event, alas.  

 Here's my take on Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic: "Fact: Mary Richards was originally going to be the assistant to a gossip columnist. Fact: the initial audience reaction to Rhoda Morgenstern was virulently negative. Fact: CBS had so little faith in The Mary Tyler Moore Show that they planned to bury it in a bad time slot between The Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw. Fact: whether you have memories of staying home every Saturday night to catch the greatest lineup in television history, or spent hours watching marathons in the decades following, any fan of Mary Tyler Moore and her eponymous show would adore this new pop culture history, just about as entertaining and informative as a book like this can be."

And here is Boswellian Mel Morrow's recommendation of Sexy Feminism: "An excellent primer for anyone uninitiated in, curious about, or wanting to reconnect with feminism. Fourth wave feminism is complex--this book can help you make sense of the history, current struggles, and possible future of the Feminist Movement. What does being feminist mean at this exact moment in time? Sexy Feminism answers this question with educational and entertaining prose."

Double the fun, and all on Tuesday, June 4, 7 pm, at Boswell.  

Thrills with Ridley Pearson at the Whitefish Bay Library, Thursday, June 6, 7:00 pm. 

Come meet The New York Times bestselling author with nearly thirty adult suspense novels and over fifteen children's novels (including Peter and the Starcatchers) that have been published in 22 languages in over 70 countries. With a reputation for writing fiction that "grips the imagination," Ridley Pearson's crime novels emphasize dazzling investigative detail, and, all too often, imitate life. His previous novels have helped solve two real-life homicides and helped settle an environmental lawsuit.

Choke Point is the second installment in The Risk Agent series, featuring Grace Chu and John Knox. Just back from Shanghai, they are sent to investigate an Amsterdam-based sweatshop known as a "knot shop" that employs and enslaves young girls as laborers. Knox's cultural knowledge, combat skills, and sympathy for the abused make him right for the job. With Chu, whose more subtle skills for acquiring sensitive tech information help to balance Knox's improvisational style, he heads to Amsterdam in an attempt to dismantle the child labor operation and rescue the girls. In their way is a crime organization that has permeated the neighborhoods with goodwill turning even the victims' parents against their would-be saviors. With enemies around every corner, Knox and Grace can't tell the good from the bad.

We're pleased to be co-sponsoring this event with the Whitefish Bay Library. Join us for an exciting evening in their second floor community room at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 6. The library is located at 5420 N. Marlborough Dr. 53217, south of Silver Spring Drive, on the Green Line.  

Pearson is also at Mystery One at 5 pm. If you wind up going to that event, don't forget to tell Richard and Dave that Boswell sent you. 

David Rhodes Brings the Driftless Area to Boswell, Thursday, June 6, 7 pm. 

What an honor to once again host the incredibly talented writer David Rhodes at Boswell on Thursday, June 6. I'll let our own Sharon K. Nagel tell you about Jewelweed: "After several years away, David Rhodes comes back to the Driftless Region of Wisconsin in his skillfully wrought new novel.  After serving time on a drug charge, Blake Bookchester is paroled to his hometown, to live in his father's house, and try to get his life together.  Blake struggles with his newfound freedom, his relationship with his father, the opinions of the members of his community, and the very real presence of Danielle Workhouse, the woman that he has yearned for these many years. Filled with complex and captivating characters, Jewelweed is told in flawless prose with an endlessly interesting narrative.  My return to Rhodes' world reminds me that it has been too long since my last visit."

As you already likely know, David Rhodes grew up near Des Moines and received his MFA in Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1971. He published three novels in rapid succession to acclaim until a motorcycle accident in 1976 left him paralyzed from the chest down. He continued writing, but did not publish again until 2008 with his novel, Driftless. It received a Milkweed National Fiction prize, was read on Wisconsin Public Radio, and was chosen as an All Iowa Reads selection.

And just to get the perspective of someone who is not a Boswell bookseller, Daniel Dyer in the Cleveland Plain Dealer says Jewelweed is even better than Driftless, calling the new novel "an emotionally exuberant and sometimes unbearably tense tale. Repeatedly, he shows us that it's not mere help we frail humans require of one another. It's rescue."  

Poetry with Traci Brimhall and Paul Scot August, Friday, June 7, 7 pm. 

Traci Brimhall's first poetry collection, Rookery, won the 2009 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her newest, Our Lady of the Ruins was selected for the Barnard Women Poets Prize by Carolyn Forché. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Believer, and Best American Poetry 2013. Brimhall also has been honored with an NEA fellowship She currently teaches creative writing at Western Michigan University where she also serves as editor in chief for Third Coast.

Here's a recommendation from Tracy K. Smith, 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry: "This is a book of devotions: to grief, survival, the ecstasy of hope, and the simultaneous loss and persistence of belief. As in Rookery, her first collection, Traci Brimhall's new work is brutal and blisteringly beautiful. These are poems through which walk saints and assassins, prophets and pilgrims, and woman after woman whose only choice in the face of unrelenting damage is to trust that 'everything will come true, the flood, the famine, the miracle.' Our Lady of the Ruins is dangerously alive."

Our opening reader and event angel is Paul Scot August, who earned his M.A. in English and Creative Writing, from UWM, where he served as poetry editor of Cream City Review. His poems have appeared in Los Angeles Review, Midwestern Gothic, Poetry Quarterly and elsewhere. Our late spring poetry evening is Friday, June 7, 7 pm.

The Perfect Way to Spend a Saturday Afternoon is to Hear About the Girls of Atomic City from Denise Kiernan, June 8, 2 pm, at Boswell.   

Featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, MSNBC's Morning Joe, PBS NewsHour and in O: the Oprah Magazine, The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it is history and science made fresh and vibrant-a beautifully told, deeply researched story that unfolds in a suspenseful and exciting way.

Drawing on the voices of the women who lived it Kiernan traces the astonishing story of the unsung World War II workers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the Manhattan Project's secret cities. Oak Ridge was home to 75,000 residents during WWII, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians-many of them young women from small towns across the South-were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war-when Oak Ridge's secret was revealed.

We have a staff rec for The Girls of Atomic City too, from Halley Pucker: "A must read for history buffs, Kiernan tells the story of women sent to Tennessee knowing only one thing - that they were helping out their country.  Unbeknownst to them was that their work was helping the United States develop atomic weaponry.  The book is a great look at the importance of women during war time, and reads like a novel that the reader won't want to set down."

Boy, we have a great lineup this month, don't we? Denise Kiernan's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Discover. Her interview on The Daily Show was fascinating. If you haven't seen it, watch it now and you'll be sure to show up on Saturday, June 8, 2 pm.  

The Doomed Love of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, From R. Clifton Spargo, Monday, June 10, 7 pm. 

Does everyone have Fizgerald fever? I know we do, as you can see by our book display. We're excited that our favorite of the new crop of these titles, from former Marquette professor R. Clifton Spargo, all undoubtedly released together to ride the coattails of "The Great Gatsby", is coming to Boswell on Monday, June 10, 7 pm.   

Here's a bit about the new novel Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. In 1939 Scott is living in Hollywood, a virulent alcoholic and deeply in debt. Despite his relationship with gossip-columnist Sheila Graham, he remains fiercely loyal to Zelda, his soul mate and muse. In an attempt to fuse together their fractured marriage, Scott arranges a trip to Cuba, where, after a disastrous first night in Havana, the couple runs off to a beach resort outside the city. But even in paradise, Scott and Zelda cannot escape the dangerous intensity of their relationship.

Monte Reel on The Unlikely Explorer Whose Discovery Spurred the Debate on Evolution, at Boswell on Tuesday, June 11, 7 pm. 

Monte Reel's gripping Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, The Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm tells the extraordinary adventure tale of a young man who emerged from the jungles of Africa with the evidence of a mysterious, still-mythical beast, the gorilla, only to stumble straight into the center of the biggest debate of the nineteenth century: Darwin's theory of evolution.

As the buzz built for this fascinating book, particularly after the front page review of Between Man and Beast in The New York Times Book Review from David Quammen of all people ("Attention science nerds!", as Halley would say), we learned that Mr Reel actually lived outside Chicago. So as is the case with several other authors this month, we extended an invitation to speak at Boswell, and we're so grateful he accepted.  

Make Sure You Tell Your Daughter that Lauren Conrad is Coming to Boswell on Wednesday, June 12, 7 pm, for a Ticketed Signing. 

The new book in the Fame Game series by Lauren Conrad, Infamous, lands

Since tickets are to be exchanged for books, and the book doesn't land until the day before the event, we will hold tickets at our front desk, or to put it in theater lingo, all tickets are "will call." Also, everyone attending the signing needs a ticket, unless you are an accompanying small child, or a parent escorting a young person.

 Lauren Conrad is best known for starring in the MTV hit series "The Hills." She is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including the L.A. Candy series as well as Lauren Conrad Style and Lauren Conrad Beauty, her fashion and beauty guides. In 2009 she launched LC Lauren Conrad, exclusively for Kohl's, and the line has since expanded to shoes, accessories, and sunglasses. Conrad has been featured on the covers of Elle, Glamour, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, Shape, and Entertainment Weekly. She lives in Los Angeles. Visit the Kohl's website for more about the LC Lauren Conrad collection.  

Ms. Conrad will sign her other books at this event. In order for everyone to meet Ms. Conrad, books will not be personalized and there will be no posed photos with the author. You may, however, take photos while the line is moving and we will have a bookseller available to snap your picture. Here's another link to the tickets. 

David Nirenberg on Anti-Judaism at Boswell on Thursday, June 13, at a Special Time of 4 pm. 

Why have so many cultures-even those cultures with no living Jews-thought so much about Judaism? What work did thinking about the meaning of Judaism do for them in their efforts to make sense of the world? And how did this history of thinking about Judaism affect the future possibilities of existence for living Jews? How, ultimately, have "Jewish questions" shaped the history of Western thought? Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition synthesizes several thousand years of thinking about Judaism-from the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the great continental philosophers of the twentieth century-to demonstrate convincingly that anti-Judaism had a central role in the construction of the Western intellectual tradition.

Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, probably says it best in his recent column in The Washington Post. "Nirenberg's command of disparate sources and historical contexts is impressive. His account of the development of Christianity and Islam is scholarly yet readable. And his portrayal of the role that Judaism has played as a foil for the consolidation of religious and political groups is, for this Jewish reader, chilling. Nirenberg is not interested, as he repeatedly insists, in arguing that Christianity and Islam are "anti-Semitic." Instead, he is concerned with tracing the work that the idea of Judaism does within Western culture. He shows that many of the important conceptual and aesthetic developments in that culture--from Saint John to Saint Augustine to Muhammad, from Shakespeare to Luther to Hegel --depend on denigrating Jews.That's what's so chilling: great cultural achievements built on patterns of scapegoating and hatred."

David Nirenberg is the Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Our event is co-sponsored by UWM's Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies. It is on Thursday, June 13, and starts at 4 pm, at Boswell.  

Local Favorite Dean Jensen on the Circus, and the Celebrity Romance that Was Bigger than Bennifer and Brangelina Combined, Thursday, June 13, 7 pm. 

Dean Jensen is the proprietor of the well known art gallery downtown. You also probably know that for many years, he was the art critic for the Milwaukee Sentinel (now Journal Sentinel). But he's also written several books that recreate the worlds of the carnival and vaudeville, including a joint biography of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. His newest book, Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love and Tragedy at the Circus, is likely to be his best acclaimed and most popular yet. Here's my complete recommendation.   

"Sometimes it's hard to remember that there was a time before the internet, before television, radio, movies, and recorded music, when the circus was at the forefront of popular culture. In the heyday of aerialists and acrobats, Queen of the Air recreates that world, and possibly the greatest romantic duo of its time, the trapeze artists Leitzel of the Leamy Ladies (daughter of sensation in her own right, Le Belle Nellie), and Alfredo of the Flying Codonas. Each family worked their way up from traveling to small towns to give a show to maybe twenty people where passing the hat might earn the act a few coins or perhaps dinner to such popular prominence that they mixed with the vaudeville sensations, industrial tycoons, and even presidents. Jensen's fine history captures that era-- the excitement, the theatricality, and the specter of death that always hovered in the background."

As Stacie notes, this is a real-life Water For Elephants, with Jensen serving as ring master of this wonderful and heartbreaking story. Come join us for a night of high wire excitement, Thursday, June 13, 7 pm, at Boswell.  

Three Faced Media Launch Party, Co-Sponsored by The Soup House, on Friday, June 14, 7 pm. 

We will have two soups on hand for sampling, including legendary Ivan's chicken tikka masala as well as a vegetarian minestrone. I am constantly talking about the soups of The Soup House. Here's your chance to sample.  

In Ivan Wayne Baker's Flush, Jacob McAlister is institutionalized for an eating disorder. Inside the treatment center, he meets a girl named Ana who tries to teach him that there is more to life than wrestling and food. Jacob must learn the truth about himself before all he holds dear is flushed down the toilet.

Daniel Warschkow's Devil-Dog Death is a fantastical tale of how the human condition deals (or doesn't deal) with the reality of death and the consequences of misdeeds. After coping with the death of his father and the strange changes in his mother, Perseus must deal with the consequences of his misdeeds, the fleeting relationship of his true love, and the safety of a wayward young girl, Abuella. For Abuella is the guardian of her divine sibling, Garuda, who may be the savior of existence.  

The incestuous backstabbing supernatural family that is The Deadly Sins are center stage in Christophor Ricks' Do Diligence, along with their diametrically opposed siblings, The Heavenly Virtues. When Diligence goes missing, the Virtues instantly suspect that the Sins are involved and so begin investigating his disappearance. But all is not as it seems and their usual suspects are apparently not involved, yet a more sinister plot is afoot in this fantasy novel.

Ivan Baker is an avid boxer, backpacker, and guitarist. In addition to his writing, he also coaches hurling. Dan Warschkow is an artist who paints, draws, and cr

The Best Father's Day Present Ever is a Free Event with Jim Gaffigan, Saturday, June 15, 7 pm. 

This year we are lucky to have the perfect Father's Day event with Jim Gaffigan, who is appearing for his new book, Dad is Fat, on Saturday, June 15, 7 pm. Now some comedians might not want to be the spokesman for the holiday, but Gaffigan is pretty clear about it; he's got five kids and isn't shy about expressing his opinion on the subject. I should note that mom and dad and the five kids live in Manhattan, in a two bedroom apartment.

Gaffigan saw himself as a single guy, and his earlier riffs talk a lot about eating and well, being a shlub. But with five kids, one is sort of forced into busy mode. And there's a lot you can learn dealing with kids, which is helpful for future parents. Giving kids gum can create a lot of problems, but aside from the potential of rotted teeth someday (hey, we all play the odds), there seems to be no downside to a lollipop, for kid, parent, or innocent passersby. More on the blog.  

And so we are lucky to have a talk/signing with Gaffigan on Saturday, June 15, 7 pm. It will be just like our recent event with David Sedaris. It's not ticketed, and you are not required to buy the book from us to attend. You can also bring your copy of Dad is Fat from home. Mr. Gaffigan will personalize. No posed photos, but line photos are allowed. And for this event, books only, please.

Like David Sedaris, and several other events in the past, we will close the doors temporarily if we hit capacity. In most cases, enough folks clear out after the talk that we can then reopen to the public. Don't forget, it's Saturday, June 15, 7 pm.

We Have a Knockout Collection of Authors in the Second Half of June.  

Monday, June 17, 7 pm, at Boswell:

Co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Centers, Sarumathi Jayaraman, author of Behind the Kitchen Door. This event is co-sponsored by 9to5, Wisconsin Jobs Now, and Hawks Quindel.   

Tuesday, June 18, 7 pm, at the Brookfield Public Library, 1900 N. Calhoun Road 53005:

An encore engagement with Barry Wightman, author of Pepperland.  

Wednesday, June 19, 7 pm, at Boswell:

Bestselling novelist Peter Heller, author of The Dog Stars, with Ethan Rutherford, author of The Peripatetic Coffin. We have five staff recs on this amazing novel (Cormac McCarthy with heart) and two huge fans of this story collection. Need I say more?  

Thursday, June 20, 7 pm, at Boswell:

The beloved novelist and memoirist Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle and her great new novel, The Silver Star. This event is co-sponsored by 89.7, WUWM, Milwaukee Public Radio. It's free!  

Friday, June 21, 7:30  pm, at Boswell:    

Michael Harvey, author of The Chicago Way and The Innocence Game. Harvey's first stand alone draws on his background as a journalism professor to craft a thriller based on The Innocence Project.     

Sunday, June 23, 2 pm, at Boswell:

Sahar Delijani, author of Children of the Jacaranada Tree. Three generations of a family in post-revolutionary Iran, from an an author born in Iran's Evin Prison. 

Monday, June 24, 7 pm, at Boswell:

Journalist Edward McClelland, author of Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland.  

Tuesday, June 25, 7 pm, at Boswell:

The return of Milwaukee's own Nathan Rabin, author of You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes.

This event is co-sponsored by 91.7, WMSE, Frontier Radio.

Wednesday, June 26, 7 pm, at Boswell:

Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli, The Story of a Marriage, and the new novel, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells. Opening for Greer will be the breakout debut novelist Benjain Lytal, author of A Map of Tulsa.