Harvey J. Kaye challenges us to remember what conservatives don't generally acknowledge and liberals have all too often forgotten: that the Greatest Generation was also America's most progressive one. Franklin Roosevelt, their iconic and beloved president, endowed Americans with the promise of the "Four Freedoms:" freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In their spirit, the United States confronted the Great Depression and pursued the labors and struggles of the New Deal. Those Four Freedoms became the aims that mobilized Americans to defeat the Axis Powers and strengthen America's prosperity after the Second World War.

Now Kaye calls on America to take up the Four Freedoms again. Here's Bill Moyers' take: "Harvey Kaye has done it again. The Fight for the Four Freedoms reaches back into history--to Franklin Roosevelt's vision of a truly just and fair America--for inspiration about how we can re-imagine a progressive future. Just as he did with his important work on Thomas Paine, Kaye shows how the victories and defeats of the 1930s and 1940s,  the struggle of our parents and grandparents, contain the bricks and straw for rebuilding democracy. Once again, he tells a spirited story written for you and me."  

You can watch Moyers' full interview with Kaye here. 

Jessica Vealitzek appears at the Milwaukee Sculpture Garden for the latest event in the Woman's Speaker Series. Produced by Milwaukee Reads and co-sponsored by Bronze Optical and Localicious, an evening of light refreshments and conversation (at 7 pm) is highlighted by the author of The Rooms are Filled at 7:30 pm. 

Set in 1983, The Rooms are Filled is the heart-wrenching story of two castaways brought together by vastly different circumstances. Boswellian Jen found The Rooms are Filled to be "a touching, character-driven story."

A former communications director for a gubernatorial candidate and an exhibit writer, Jessica Vealitzek writes for Rebellious magazine, Great New Books, and PDXX Collective. The Rooms are Filled is her first novel.

Tickets are $22 ($18 for Lynden members) and include a copy of The Rooms are Filled. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is located at 2145 W. Brown Deer Road. It's the time of the year when we can say that the ticket includes admission to the grounds.   

Boswell Book Company and Alliance Française de Milwaukee are proud to welcome internationally bestselling author Joël Dicker, author of the international bestselling thriller, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. Swiss, with detours to New England, Dicker's latest is a fast-paced thriller, perfect for that person waiting for the next Dan Brown-like sensation.    

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair starts with the disappearance of a fifteen-year-old New Hampshire girl and, thirty years later, a young American writer's determination to clear his mentor's name while finding the inspiration for his next bestseller. To save his mentor Harry, his writing career, and eventually even himself, Marcus Goldman must answer three questions, all of which are mysteriously connected: Who killed Nola Kellergan? What happened one misty morning in Somerset in the summer of 1975? And how do you write a successful and true novel?

The book has been a European phenomenon, with the greatest laurels coming from France, where it was awarded three literary prizes. Le Figaro writes: "Dizzying, like the best American thrillers . . . Rich in subplots and twists, moving backwards and forwards in time, containing books within books."  

And this from L'Express: "A master stroke . . . A crime novel with not one plot line but many, full of shifting rhythms, changes of course and multiple layers that, like a Russian doll, slot together beautifully . . . In maestro form, Dicker alternates periods and genres (police reports, interviews, excerpts from novels) and explores America in all its excesses-media, literary, religious-all the while questioning the role of the literary writer."

Boswell Book Company is excited to welcome Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes, authors of Studying Wisconsin: The Life of Increase Lapham, Early Chronicler of Plants, Rocks, Rivers, Mounds, and All Things Wisconsin, for a talk and signing in the Rare Books Room on the second floor of the Milwaukee Public Library, located at 807 W. Wisconsin Ave. 53233.  

In this long overdue tribute to Wisconsin's first scientist, Milwaukee-area authors Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes explore the remarkable life and achievements of Increase Lapham (1811-1875). Lapham identified and preserved thousands of botanical specimens. He surveyed and mapped Wisconsin's effigy mounds. He was a force behind the creation of the National Weather Service, lobbying for a storm warning system to protect Great Lakes sailors. Lapham's ability to observe, understand, and meticulously catalog the natural world marked all of his work, from his days as a teenage surveyor on the Erie Canal to his last great contribution as state geologist.  

Self-taught, Lapham mastered botany, geology, archaeology, limnology, mineralogy, engineering, meteorology, and cartography. A prolific writer, his 1844 guide to the territory was the first book published in Wisconsin. Asked late in life which field of science was his specialty, he replied simply, "I am studying Wisconsin."

After her retirement from teaching English at MATC, Martha Bergland took a short break from fiction to write an article on Lapham for Milwaukee Magazine. This break became five years of studying Increase Lapham. Bergland has written two novels, A Farm Under a Lake and Idle Curiosity and is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize.  

During 33 years at The Milwaukee Journal, science reporter Paul G. Hayes often relied on the work of Increase A. Lapham, whose home had been three blocks north of the newspaper office. After retiring in 1995, Hayes continued to write, often referring to Lapham and his contributions. This biography is a fitting finale to a fifty-year acquaintance. Don't forget, Monday, June 9, 6 pm, at the Milwaukee Public Library's Rare Books Room, 807 W. Wisconsin Ave., 2nd floor.  

Please join us at the Greenfield Public Library for the Dork Diaries Tour on Tuesday, June 10, starting at 4 pm. We welcome celebrated author and illustrator, Rachel Renée Russell, and her daughters, Erin and Nikki, for a signing of the latest in the series, Dork Diaries 7: Tales from a Not-So-Glam TV Star. This event is a signing only; but we'll have lots of activities for while you're waiting, including a DJ, a photo-booth, and a white-board locker, where you can write your own note to Rachel, Erin, and Nikki.  

You'll be able to get two books signed per attendee, and of course, books will be available or sale at the event. Alas, while cameras are welcome, there can be no posed photographs, so that we can get as many fans as possible to meet the Russells. Line letters will be available at the Greenfield Library, starting at 3 pm. And while we normally do not include end times, we can say that the Russells will be at Greenfield Public Library through 7 pm, giving you enough time to get to the library, located at 5310 West Layton Ave., just off route 894, whenever you or your kids get out of school. 

In Tales from a Not-So-Glam TV Star, Nikki Maxwell is in the spotlight! A reality TV crew will follow her and her friends for the whole month of March as they record their hit song together. But will the excitement also cause unexpected problems, now that cameras are everywhere Nikki and her friends go? The blockbuster Dork Diaries series featuring the adventures of Nikki, Chloe, and Zoey has more than 13 million copies in print worldwide. You can read more about the Dorkalicious gang on their website. 

Boswell Book Company, Wisconsin Public Radio, and the Milwaukee Business Journal are excited to present a ticketed Father's Day Celebration at Boswell with Daniel James Brown, bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Tickets for this event are available on the Brown Paper Tickets website. Ticket cost is $18 (this includes all taxes and fees) and includes admission for two people and an autographed paperback copy of The Boys in the Boat. Did we mention that our event is three days before Father's Day? What perfect timing! 

The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible, dramatic, and poignant story behind one man's personal quest with the University of Washington rowing crew, and their triumph, which stunned the world at Hitler's Olympics. The University of Washington's 1936 crew was a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans in the depths of the Depression. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities, and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic Games in Berlin.

Winner of the American Booksellers Association Indies Choice award for nonfiction, The Boys in the Boat has won raves from readers, writers, and critics. We've heard from customers that this is the best book they've read in the past year, and don't worry if you aren't well versed in crew. The Boys in the Boat has been compared to Laura Hillenbrand, Jon Krakauer, and Hampton Sides. James Bradley says that "Daniel James Brown has written a robust, emotional snapshot of an era, a book you will recommend to your best friends" while Nathaniel Philbrick calls this "not only a great and inspiring true story; it is a fascinating work of history."   

And yes, there's a local connection. The daughter and grandson of one of the team members will be at our event. 

When one of our favorite authors comes to us to put together a special program, we jump. Remember when Jane Hamilton brought us Karen Joy Fowler? Her novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, went on to win the Pen/Hemingway award and was shortlist for a Nebula award. Now Elizabeth Berg came to us with the news that she was putting together a midwest swing for Leah Hager Cohen. How could we say no? (That's Cohen top right and Berg bottom right, by the way.) 

You may recognize Leigh Hager Cohen from her insightful essays in The New York Times Book Review. She's also the author of The Grief of Others, shortlisted for The Dayton Peace Prize and the Orange Prize (now known as the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction), as well as the new novel, No Book but The World. It's the tale of Ava and her autistic brother Fred, who has been accused of murder. Leah Hager Cohen brings her trademark intelligence to a psychologically gripping, richly ambiguous story that suggests we may ultimately understand one another best not with facts alone, but through our imaginations.

Cohen's newest is a haunting, morally complex new story, a powerful exploration of familial love and responsibility. Ava and Fred are siblings, raised in a "free" environment by their progressive parents, who gave little guidance and overlooked Fred's serious development