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Registration is requested at all Boswell events, and required if we reach capacity. Some events are ticketed. See specific program for details, particularly with cosponsored events.
Freya Marske, author of A Power UnboundBoswell Book Company presents a virtual event with Freya Marske, author of the A Power Unbound, the final book in the Last Binding Trilogy, which began A Marvellous Light and continued with A Restless Truth. In conversation with booksellers Rachel Copeland and Oli Schmitz.
Please click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of A Power Unbound as well.
After the death of his twin sister, Jack Alston thought he was done with magic for good. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual hanging over every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world. Now Jack is helping an unlikely group of friends track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. When a plot to seize unimaginable power comes to a head at Cheetham Hall (Jack’s ancestral family estate) Jack and his allies will be entangled in a night of champagne, secrets, and bloody sacrifice... and the foundations of magic in Britain will be torn up by the roots before the end.
Boswellians love this series! From Rachel Copeland: "Do yourself a favor and read all three books, then start a group chat with your friends so you can all-caps scream at each other about how Freya Marske has both ruined and saved your life." And from Rachel Ross: "This is everything you could want from a final volume, leaving you with possibly the worst book hangover of your life (in the best way)."
Freya Marske is author of A Restless Truth and A Marvellous Light, winner of the Romantic Novel Award for Fantasy. Her work has appeared in Analog and has been shortlisted for three Aurealis Awards. She is also a Hugo-nominated podcaster and won the Ditmar Award for Best New Talent.
Ron Faiola, author of Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old Fashioned Experience, Second EditionMilwaukee’s own supper club guru Ron Faiola visits Boswell with the brand new edition of his Wisconsin Supper Clubs book – the ultimate guide to fine Midwestern dining. The new edition features updated stories, new photographs, and several new venues shaking up the supper club tradition.
Please click here to visit ronfaiolamke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of the new edition of Wisconsin Supper Clubs now, too.
Wisconsin Supper Clubs, Second Edition is a resource for and about supper clubs throughout Wisconsin that includes charming photographs of the unique supper club interiors, proprietors, and customers, as well as fascinating archival materials. In this new edition, Faiola revisits many of the clubs across the Dairy State that starred in his first edition, recording their struggles and triumphs in the years following pandemic shutdowns. New to this edition are fifteen extra clubs that have entered the scene in the past decade, striving to be a part of this custom that is hugely popular with Wisconsin locals and regularly frequented by Midwestern foodies in the know.
The Chicago Tribune declares: "A glorious look at a Wisconsin tradition… just might make your mouth water."
Milwaukeean Ron Faiola is author of Wisconsin Supper Clubs, Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round, and The Wisconsin Supper Clubs Story. He is also a filmmaker who has produced and directed numerous critically acclaimed documentaries and president and founder of Push Button Gadget Inc.
Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski, author of Tannenbaum ArmsBoswell hosts an evening with Milwaukee author and historian Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski featuring her new novel, Tannenbaum Arms. Draw from her own experiences as well as research into the local newspapers of the time, Rzezotarski has written a novel that brings to life the transformative and uncertain Vietnam War era in Milwaukee.
Please click here to visit darlenerzezotarskimke.eventbrite.com and register for this event now. And be sure to order your copy of Tannenbaum Arms as well.
In the style of Alexander McCall Smith's Corduroy Mansions, Rzezotarski’s new novel explores the uncertain world of the Vietnam War Era. Within an aging red-brick apartment building near a Midwestern university campus, characters from age three months to 87 years experience the Chicago 7 trial, the December 1st Draft Lottery, the first Earth Day, student boycotts, the Kent State murders, and My Lai protests.
The novel is full of love, war, humor, and uncertainty. Students Lily and Jay inhabit the basement apartment with their toddler son and rescue dog, living rent-free in exchange for their services as building caretakers. Beginning the year as strangers, they face rollicking disruptions, ranging from drains clogged and ashtray fires to lost souls fleeing in the night. For those who lived through the era, the novel is a touchstone of the times, while younger readers can experience life in the 60s.
Author and historian Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski has a master's degree in comparative literature and many years of teaching and research experience.
Gabriel Bump, author of The New NaturalsBoswell welcomes Gabriel Bump, the Ernest J Gaines award-winning author of Everywhere You Don't Belong, for an evening featuring his second book, The New Naturals, a touching, timely novel about an attempt to found an underground utopia and the interwoven stories of those drawn to it.
Please click here to visit gabrielbumpmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order a copy of The New Naturals now, too.
In an abandoned restaurant off the highway, a young Black woman bereft after the loss of her child creates a place to start over. She and her husband construct a society underground, where everyone can feel safe, loved, and accepted, a place where everyone has an equal shot. With the help of a Benefactor, the utopia takes shape. As its members yearn for a sanctuary from the existential dread of life above the surface, they must confront a question: what happens if this new society doesn’t work?
The New Naturals is fresh and deeply perceptive, perfect for readers of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House. From Pulitzer finalist Percival Everett: "A Blithedale Romance for the 21st century, only less naive and more complex. Race, class and gender collide in all the ways they do in the so-called real world. Bump's prose is fresh and frequently surprising. This is funny, sad, sad-funny and funny-sad and just plain smart."
Gabriel Bump is author of Everywhere You Don’t Belong, a New York Times Notable Book, and winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award for Fiction, the Heartland Booksellers Award for Fiction, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association's First Novelist Award. Bump teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up in South Shore, Chicago.
Ann Patchett, author of Tom LakeBoswell hosts a very special event with the one and only Ann Patchett at the Oriental Theatre. Cohosted by Milwaukee Film. Patchett is the author of beloved novels such as Bel Canto and The Dutch House, memoir/essay collections such as These Precious Days, and the owner of Parnassus Books of Nashville. She visits with her latest, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Tom Lake.
Tickets for this event cost $40 each and include admission and an autographed copy of Tom Lake. Already have a copy? The holidays are coming, and an autographed Ann Patchett novel makes a wonderful gift. Click here to visit mkefilm.org/ann-patchett and purchase tickets right now.
When Lara's three daughters are home for the harvest at the family's cherry orchard in Northern Michigan, the girls beg their mother to tell them the story of the famous actor with whom she once shared a stage and a romance at a theater company called Tom Lake where they performed Our Town. A hopeful meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives our parents had before they had us, Tom Lake explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.
From the Guardian: "Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature." From Oprah Daily: "A swoony, luminous reminder about the endurance of love and happiness in a broken world." From the Washington Post: "Tom Lake is about romantic love, marital love and maternal love, but also the love of animals, the love of stories, love of the land and trees and the tiny, red, cordiform object that is a cherry... This generous writer hits the mark again with her ninth novel." And from the Boston Globe: "A searching reflection on the relationships between theater and life, romance and realism, Tom Lake is perhaps Patchett’s finest novel yet."
Ann Patchett is author of nine novels and five books of nonfiction. She has been the recipient of the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. President Biden awarded Patchett the National Humanities Medal.
Jason Hammel, author of The Lula Cafe Cookbook: Collected Recipes and StoriesBoswell welcomes chef Josh Hammel for an evening featuring his debut cookbook, The Lula Cafe Cookbook, which showcases the all-day seasonal food and arty vibe of his iconic Chicago restaurant. In conversation with Milwaukee food essayist and culinary historian Kyle Cherek.
Please click here to visit jasonhammelmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of The Lula Cafe Cookbook now, too.
Beloved by loyal clientele, Lula is a meeting place for locals, gourmands, artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians, and the intensely personal recipes and stories in this book are infused with their creative spirit. Hammel tells the story of 20 years of cooking, love, friendship, and community. Each recipe takes a particular moment in time as its inspiration. Hammel offers vibrant insights into the food and story of this iconic restaurant and community.
Ira Glass of This American Life says: "This book feels just like Lula Cafe’s food, nourishing and friendly and made with care." And from chef Ignacio Mattos: "The rare warmth, heart, and deliciousness that have kept Lula Cafe vital for over two decades are in these pages. Jason isn't the kind of chef that is out to impress, though he always does. His passion is to nourish and bring joy - and this book effortlessly shows you how to do the same, for yourself and for those you love."
Jason Hammel is executive chef and owner of Lula Cafe. He has also opened Marisol at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. He has received numerous awards and presented widely, including at MAD, the pioneering biannual food festival and organization. He graduated from Brown University and received a master’s degree in writing. He is a mentor for cooks in the Midwest and founded the nonprofit food education program Pilot Light.
Lori Rader-Day, author of The Death of UsBoswell welcomes back Lori Rader-Day, the award-winning author of novels like Death at Greenway and The Lucky One, for a conversation about her chilling new suspense novel, The Death of Us, in which the discovery of a young mother's car submerged for fifteen years reveals betrayals and family secrets that will tear a small town apart. In conversation with Erica Ruth Neubauer, author of the Jane Wunderly mysteries.
Please click here and visit loriraderdaymke.eventbrite.com to register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of The Death of Us now as well.
One rainy night years ago, Ashley Hay stood on Liss’s front porch and handed over her brand-new baby. She was never seen or heard from again. When Ashley appears fifteen years later, it’s not in the way Liss expected. Ashley’s car is found in a quarry pond, and the discovery dredges up more questions than answers. What really happened on the night of Ashley’s disappearance? Was it a tragic accident, or something far more sinister? Someone in town knows the truth, and they’ll go to great lengths to keep it quiet.
Mary Kubica says: "Lori Rader-Day hits it out of the park with The Death of Us, which has everything I love in a suspense thriller: unreliable characters, family secrets and plenty of unexpected twists and turns. Atmospheric and unputdownable, this should be on everyone's to-read list."
Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar Award nominated and Anthony, Agatha, and Mary Higgins Clark Award winning author of Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, and Little Pretty Things. She is cochair of Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. She has also served as the national president of Sisters in Crime.
James Martin, author of Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus's Greatest MiracleBoswell hosts a virtual evening with the New York Times bestselling author of books such as The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Learning to Pray James Martin, who joins us for a conversation with Milwaukee religious scholar Jon M Sweeney. They’ll chat about Martin’s latest book, Come Forth.
Click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of Come Forth as well.
With his compassionate new book, James Martin explores the story of Jesus’s greatest miracle - raising of Lazarus from the dead - and contemplates what Jesus means when he calls people to "come forth." Meditatively and carefully, Martin offers profound reflections on Jesus’s lessons on love, family, sadness, frustration, fear, anger, freedom, and joy.
Martin’s new work combines insights about the historical setting of the story with meditations on Lazarus in art and culture. As he explores these strands in depth, Martin helps readers let go of the limiting beliefs, suggesting readers need only open themselves to the transformative story of Lazarus.
James Martin is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of numerous books, including Jesus: A Pilgrimage and My Life with the Saints, a Publishers Weekly best book of 2006. Martin is a frequent commentator in the national and international media, having appeared on all the major networks, and in such diverse outlets as The Colbert Report, NPR's Fresh Air, and the New York Times.
Annelise Ryan, author of Death in the Dark WoodsBoswell hosts an evening with Annelise Ryan, the bestselling Wisconsinite author of many mystery novels, for an event featuring Death in the Dark Woods, the second installment of her Door County-set Monster Hunter Mysteries. Bookseller / skeptical cryptozoologist Morgan Carter is once again on the case when it turns out the suspect of a murder has particularly large feet.
Click here to visit anneliseryanmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event, please. And be sure to order your copy of Death in the Dark Woods now, too.
In the follow up to Ryan’s novel A Death in Door County, business is booming at The Odds and Ends bookstore. It has been ever since Morgan Carter solved the case of the monster living in Lake Michigan. Recently, there have been numerous sightings of a Bigfoot-type creature in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest area of Bayfield County, Wisconsin. When a man is found dead from a vicious throat injury in the forest, the conservation warden asks Morgan to investigate.
The X-Files meets Murder, She Wrote in this quirky series, which is sure to please sci-fi lovers, mystery fans, and anyone who "wants to believe." The charming Wisconsin bookstore setup and delightful cast of characters will most certainly satisfy cozy readers, too.
Annelise Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of multiple mystery series, including the Mattie Winston Mysteries. A retired ER nurse, she now writes full time from her Wisconsin home. Wisconsin's Patricia Skalka is author of the Dave Cubiak Door County mysteries.
Jim Nelsen, author of Secret MilwaukeeMilwaukee educator, author, and local historian Jim Nelsen visits for an evening of Cream City secrets, which he’s collected in his new book, Secret Milwaukee. Please note that this event was rescheduled from November due to a publication delay.
Please click here to visit jimnelsenmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of Secret Milwaukee now, too.
Milwaukee’s image is one of quaint nostalgia: beer, bratwursts, and bowling. Nelson undoes those stereotypes as he presents his book of Milwaukee tales that even long-time residents may not know. Which president of the United States was almost assassinated in Milwaukee? What is the city's connection to The Exorcist? Which buildings are haunted? What are Milwaukee's connections to the mafia? Is there buried treasure here? And yes, there’s also plenty more to learn about beer, bratwurst, bowling, and Laverne & Shirley, along with the history of frozen custard, Milwaukee-style pizza, and a whole lot more.
Jim Nelsen is author of A History Lover’s Guide to Milwaukee and Educating Milwaukee. He earned a PhD in Urban History from UWM. A lifelong resident of Milwaukee, he finds the history of the city fascinating, from its early days in the mid-nineteenth century to the modern challenges of urban life today.
Katherine Center, author of Hello StrangerBoswell hosts a virtual event with Katherine Center, author of books such as The Bodyguard and Happiness for Beginners, for a conversation with Boswellian Rachel Copeland. They’ll chat about Center’s latest, Hello Stranger, a novel about finding love, confronting a haunting past, and figuring out what, and who, really matters.
Please click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of Hello Stranger now as well.
Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry. Portrait artist Sadie Montgomery is struggling to cope with a "probably temporary" condition known as face blindness. As she tries to hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into - love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life? - with not one man but two very different ones. If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But some things you can only find when you aren’t looking.
Here’s Rachel’s take: "After a seizure leads to brain surgery to repair the same congenital condition that killed her mother, portrait artist Sadie Montgomery can no longer see faces. The pieces are there, but they no longer make sense - she can't recognize her best friend, her evil stepsister, her probably handsome veterinarian, or even her probably cute and definitely helpful neighbor - and she has scant weeks to paint a portrait in time for a portrait competition worth ten thousand dollars. Katherine Center does it again! She takes a condition that a surprising number of people cope with every day and turns it into a meditation on how we truly relate to each other - how do you recognize somebody, how can you trust your own instincts, when one major sense is taken away? You'll cry, you'll laugh, you might do a ton of research on prosopagnosia, and it's worth every minute."
Katherine Center is the New York Times bestselling author of over a half dozen novels, including What You Wish For, Things You Save in a Fire, and How to Walk Away. Her work has appeared in USA Today, Redbook, and People magazine.
Tracy Clark, author of FallBoswell welcomes award-winning Chicago crime author Tracy Clark for an evening featuring the latest installment of her Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, which weaves a twisted journey into the underbelly of Chicago as Harriet and her team work to unmask a serial killer stalking the city’s aldermen. In conversation with Wisconsin mystery author Patricia Skalka.
Please click here to visit tracyclarkmke.eventbrite.com and register to attend this event. And be sure to order a copy of Fall as well.
The Chicago PD is on high alert when two city aldermen are found dead: one by suicide, one brutally stabbed in his office, and both with thirty dimes left on their bodies - a betrayer’s payment. With no other clues, the question is, Who else has a debt to pay? Detective Harriet Foster is on the case before the killer can strike again. But Harriet has little to go on and a lot at risk. Harriet and her team will have to examine what the victims had going on behind the scenes to determine who could be tangled up in this web of betrayal, and who could be out for revenge.
From Lori Rader-Day: "Clark’s not-so-hidden talent is for conjuring characters who are engaging and achingly real. Detective Harri Foster is a stellar recruit to her new team and to our crime fiction shelves."
Tracy Clark is author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series. She has received Anthony and Lefty Award nominations and her book Broken Places was shortlisted for the American Library Association's RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of The WatersBoswell hosts an evening with National Book Award finalist Bonnie Jo Campbell, a master of rural noir, who will chat with Jim Higgins about her latest novel, The Waters, a fierce, mesmerizing novel about exceptional women and the soul of a small town.
Please click here to visit bonniejocampbellmke.eventbrite.com and register now for this event. And be sure to order your copy of The Waters now, too.
On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp - known as ‘The Waters’ to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan - herbalist Hermine “Herself” Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three daughters. The youngest, beautiful and inscrutable Rose Thorn, has left her own daughter, eleven-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, to grow up wild.
Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love, and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood. An elegant antidote to the dark side of masculinity, celebrating the resilience of nature and the brutality and sweetness of rural life.
Bonnie Jo Campbell is author of books such as Once Upon a River, Mothers, Tell Your Daughters, and American Salvage. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of the AWP's Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and a Pushcart Prize.
Andrew J Graff, author of True NorthBoswell welcomes back Andrew J Graff, author of Raft of Stars, for an evening featuring his heartfelt new novel, True North. Set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Graff’s big-hearted novel combines family drama and whitewater adventure as a couple tries to keep their rafting business afloat through historic floods.
Please click here to visit andrewjgraffmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of True North now, too.
Summer, 1993. Hoping for a fresh start, Sam and Swami Brecht roll into Thunderwater, in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, with a twenty-six-foot camper van, their three young kids, the deed to Woodchuck Rafting Company, and plenty of money worries. Soon Sam and Swami learn they are not the only ones looking for change and profit on the river. A competing rafting outfit, clashing raft guides, stubborn townsfolk, and an exploratory mining company begin to threaten their tenuous livelihood.
Then nature intervenes, in the form of historic floods throughout the Midwest. Before the summer draws to a close, the Brechts must learn to face the floodwaters together in order to create a sustainable future for their family, the town, and the pristine river from which it all flows.
Andrew J Graff is author of novel Raft of Stars, and his writing has appeared in Image and Dappled Things. Andrew grew up fishing, hiking, and hunting in Wisconsin's Northwoods. After a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Jane Delury, author of HedgeReadings from Oconomowaukee, the event series presented by Boswell and Books and Company, presents a virtual event with Jane Delury. She’ll chat about her latest, Hedge, a richly observed novel of a woman balancing the demands of motherhood and marriage with her own needs. People says: “As lush and inviting as the gardens created by its heroine.” For this conversation, Delury will be joined by bookstore proprietors Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin as well as special guest Liam Callanan, author of Paris by the Book and When in Rome.
Please click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of Hedge as well. Click here to order from Boswell. Alternatively, click here to order from Books & Company.
Maud is a talented garden historian and devoted mom to daughters Ella and Louise. Motivated to reignite her career and escape her troubled marriage, she accepts a summer job restoring the garden of a lush, 19th-century estate in the Hudson Valley. What happens next is a seismic shock that profoundly changes Maud's life, as well as the lives of everyone she cares about.
From Joan Frank, writing for the Washington Post: "A great portion of [Hedge’s] magic lies in how it turns a radical corner, gaining speed and burning urgency - then slowly becoming something else: deeper, denser, wiser. Readers will (and should) trust it to take us where we need to go - even if not where we expected." And from Daniel Goldin: "Can a novel be both serene and turbulent at the same time? In the case of Hedge, yes, as it counterpoints a woman and family in crisis with the serene tranquility of nature. Can Maud come out of this without destroying herself? That is the question in this provocative, passionate, and philosophical novel."
Jane Delury the author of The Balcony, winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Granta, The Sewanee Review, and The Southern Review, and her awards include a PEN O Henry Prize, a Pushcart Special Mention, and grants from the Maryland State Arts Council. A Professor at the University of Baltimore, she teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts and directs the BA in English.
Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs DriveBoswell hosts an evening with Chicago author Lindsay Hunter, who visits with her new novel, Hot Springs Drive, the third book from Roxanne Gay’s new publishing imprint. Perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, Leila Slimani, and Celeste Ng, Hunter’s new book is a riveting novel of shocking betrayal and its aftermath, told with elegant precision.
Please click here to visit lindsayhuntermke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of Hot Springs Drive now, too.
Jackie’s best friend is dead, and everyone knows who killed her. A dark, heart-pounding exploration of one woman’s deepest desires and how the consequences of betrayal can ripple outward beyond the initial strike point, Hunter’s latest and fiercest novel deftly peels back the fragile veneer of two suburban families and the secrets roiling between them.
Kristen Arnett says: "Lindsay Hunter at her finest. Suburbia is rendered here in all its bleakness and not-so-hidden dysfunction, the rot secreted inside the picture-perfect shell of a home. Hunter is a deft hand at writing the mysterious inner workings of the family: everyone shares a story, but who holds onto the truth? Hot Springs Drive is gritty and propulsive, a true page-turner; I couldn’t put this book down.”
Lindsay Hunter is author of five previous books, including Eat Only When You’re Hungry, a finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award and an NPR Great Read, Ugly Girls, and Don’t Kiss Me. Hunter received her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko, coauthors of DogtownNewbery medalists Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko appear together for a virtual presentation and conversation about Dogtown their funny, moving new middle grade novel about a shelter that houses both stray dogs and robot dogs. There will be a special school-visit oriented presentation followed by a conversation with Boswellian Jenny Chou. This event is open to the public and great for teachers, homeschoolers, and anyone who loves funny, fun books for kids.
Please click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of Dogtown now as well.
Dogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, misbehaving dogs, and discarded robot dogs whose owners have outgrown them. Chance, a real dog, has been in Dogtown since her owners unwittingly left her with irresponsible dog-sitters who skipped town. Metal Head is a robot dog who dreams of being back in a real home. And Mouse is a mouse who has the run of Dogtown, pilfering kibble, and performing clever feats to protect the dogs he loves. When Chance and Metal Head embark on an adventure to find their forever homes, there is danger, cheese sandwiches, a charging station, and some unexpected kindnesses along the way.
From beloved authors Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko, Dogtown is at once an uplifting story and a page-turning adventure, sure to find a forever home in readers’ hearts. Kirkus Reviews says: "Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings." And the starred Library Journal review adds: "When Applegate and Choldenko collaborate, readers win."
Katherine Applegate is author of Wishtree, Crenshaw, and The One and Only Ivan, winner of the Newbery Medal. Gennifer Choldenko is creator of the Tales from Alcatraz series, which includes Al Capone Does My Shirts, a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of twenty other awards.
John Duffy, author of Rescuing Our Sons: 8 Solutions to Our Crisis of Disaffected Teen BoysClinical psychologist and parenting expert John Duffy appears at Boswell for a conversation about his latest book. Rescuing Our Boys is a collection of positive parenting tops for raising responsible, confident boys and helping them grow into happy, successful, capable adults. He’ll be joined in conversation by Molly Fay of TMJ4’s The Morning Blend. This event is cohosted by REDgen.
Please click here to visit johnduffymke.eventbrite.com register for this event. And be sure to order a copy of Rescuing Our Boys, too.
John Duffy, the bestselling author of Parenting the New Teen in the Age of Anxiety, chats about his new book, which offers practical solutions for dealing with our national crisis of disaffected boys and young men. Recent decades have shown that boys are simply not thriving the way they should be. Duffy offers practical steps to improve the understanding of teenager boys, equip them with life skills to improve the present and the future, and bringing families together.
Giuliana Rancic says: "John is the real deal… He knows what kids are dealing with, what their struggles are, where their strengths lie, what they know, and what they need."
John Duffy’s writing has appeared in CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, he has been a regular contributing expert on NewsNation and Steve Harvey, and made frequent appearances on CNN, Today, and The Morning Blend.
Amina Gautier, author of The Best That You Can Do: StoriesMarquette Professor Amina Gautier appears with her new collection, The Best That You Can Do, winner of the Soft Skull-Kimbilio Publishing Prize, a collection of short stories that elaborate the realities of a diasporic existence, split identities, and the beautiful potency of meaningful connections.
Please click here to visit aminagautiermke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of The Best That You Can Do now, too.
Gautier’s stories explore the cultural confusion of being one person in two places - of having a mother who wants your father and his language to stay on his island but sends you there because you need to know your family. Loudly and joyfully filled with Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, and budding romances, these stories place readers at the center of the table to enjoy family traditions. Interrogating Black and Latinx, Gautier's stories feature New York neighborhoods made of island nations living with seasonal and perpetual displacement.
Here’s Daniel Goldin’s take on the book: "Gautier has written three previous award-winning collections of stories. In her fourth, flash fiction pieces (generally two-to-three-page stories) are clustered together (as few as six and as many as 27) to form a powerful larger narrative. One of my favorites is ‘Quarter Rican,’ which focuses on a woman (and her children and grandchildren), who falls in love with and is then abandoned by her friend’s brother. Another is ‘Caretaking,’ about a homebound woman, her caregiver, and the folks in the greater orbit. Her best stories can be simultaneously humorous, empathetic, and politically pointed - they play with time, place, and perspective, giving the larger narratives an almost three-dimensional quality.”
Amina Gautier is author of the story collections At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, and The Loss of All Lost Things. Gautier is the recipient of the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, and the PEN/MALAMUD Award for Excellence in the Short Story. She is the Marquette AMUW Women’s Chair in Humanistic Studies.
Adam Plantinga, author of The AscentFormer Milwaukee Police Officer Adam Plantinga, author of two nonfiction works, appears with The Ascent, his debut thriller about a down-on-his-luck cop and the governor’s daughter trying to escape a prison in chaos. Nick Petrie calls it, “a red hot blast of crime and punishment.”
Please click here to visit adamplantingamke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order a copy of The Ascent now as well.
Kurt Argento is an ex-Detroit street cop who can’t let injustice go. When he saves a young girl in a small corrupt Missouri town, he’s brutally beaten and thrown into a maximum-security prison. Julie Wakefield - a grad student who just happens to be the governor's daughter - is about to tour that very same prison. But when a malfunction in the security system releases a horde of prisoners, a fierce struggle for survival ensues.
Lots of early praise for Plantinga’s novel is coming from thriller genre faves. Harlan Coben says: "The Ascent is jaw-dropping, authentic, and absolutely gripping." Robert Crais says: "Terrific - a brutal portrait of a tough cop in an unforgiving world. I loved it." And Lou Berney says: "I had to hold onto this one for dear life. Outstanding."
Adam Plantinga is author of two works of nonfiction: 400 Things Cops Know, an Agatha Award nominee, and Police Craft. Plantinga began his career in law enforcement as a Milwaukee police officer and is currently a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department.
Nick Petrie, author of The Price You PayWe are so excited to host a launch celebration for Nick Petrie and his latest thrilling novel, The Price You Pay. The propulsive eighth installment in Petrie’s bestselling and award-winning series tags along with Ash as he follows his friend Lewis into a criminal underworld, where secrets from the past threaten everything Lewis and Peter hold dear.
Click here to visit nickpetriemke.eventbrite.com and register now for this event. And be sure to preorder your copy of The Price You Pay now as well.
Lewis has helped Peter Ash out of more trouble than Peter cares to remember, so Peter doesn’t hesitate when Lewis asks a favor. Lewis has left his criminal past behind, but now someone has stolen notebooks full of evidence about Lewis's long-ago crimes.
Lewis and Peter must find the notebooks. With Peter's longtime girlfriend, June Cassidy, they begin the search, facing ruthless and violent foes at each turn, including one powerful person who will stop at nothing for revenge. Will Peter and Lewis be able to keep that dark past buried? Or will they need to step into the darkness to save the people they love most?
Nick Petrie is the author of eight novels in the Peter Ash series, most recently The Runaway. His debut, The Drifter, won both the ITW Thriller award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and was a finalist for the Edgar and the Hammett Awards.
Talia Dutton, author of M Is for MonsterBoswell hosts an evening with Milwaukee-based cartoonist Dutton, an Assistant Professor at MIAD, for a chat about her new graphic novel. M Is for Monster puts a queer, YA spin on the classic Frankenstein story to explore ghosts, identity, and family. In conversation with Boswellian Oli Schmitz. This event his cohosted by our friends Lion’s Tooth.
Please here to visit taliaduttonmke.eventbrite.com and register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of M Is for Monster as well.
When Doctor Frances Ai’s younger sister Maura died in a tragic accident six months ago, Frances swore she would bring her back to life. However, the creature that rises from the slab is clearly not Maura. This girl, who chooses the name “M,” doesn’t remember anything about Maura’s life and just wants to be her own person. Frances expects M to pursue the same path that Maura had been on, but M wants nothing to do with Frances’s attempts to change her into something she’s not. In order to face the future, both Frances and M need to learn to listen and let go of Maura once and for all.
Dutton’s Frankenstein-inspired graphic novel is a story about ghosts, identity, and family. Dutton takes a hard look at what it means to live up to other people’s expectations - as well as our own. It is one of the titles on our Surely list, which is dedicated to showcasing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual creators and stories.
Talia Dutton is a queer, biracial Asian cartoonist and illustrator. She received a BA from Brown University and an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts.
Ben Katt, author of The Way Home: Discovering the Hero's Journey to Wholeness at MidlifeMeditation leader and transformational life coach Ben Katt visits Boswell with his new book, The Way Home. Katt’s new work offers a guidebook for those at midlife struggling to find themselves. Katt deftly applies Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to the modern reader’s quest for wholeness. Cohosted by our friends at Porchlight Book Company, of which conversation partner Sally Haldorson is Managing Director.
Please click here and visit benkattmke.eventbrite.com to register for this event. And be sure to order your copy of The Way Home now as well.
Those reaching midlife are often bombarded by messages from society telling them who they should be and what their life should look like. While chasing the three-headed monster (achievement, perfection, and the approval of others), author Ben Katt realized that he had lost himself along the way. The Way Home is a book for those at midlife struggling to find their way back to themselves. Anyone – ordinary, extraordinary, or somewhere in between – can embark upon the Hero’s Journey, leaving the familiar, falling into the unknown, and ultimately rising to wholeness. This book serves as a reminder to those at a transition point in their life that the most important task is to stay connected with their own heart.
New York Times bestselling author Krista Tippett says: "A fantastically written, powerfully wise offering from Ben Katt to his generation, especially to men of his generation – and thus a gift to our world of pain and promise."
Ben Katt led The On Being Project and is an expert at adapting ancient personal development wisdom and tools for modern contexts. He holds a Master of Divinity degree and was an ordained minister for over a decade.
Cass R Sunstein, coauthor of Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always ThereBoswell Book Company and Porchlight Book Company join forces for a virtual event featuring Harvard Law Professor Cass R Sunstein, an author and researcher working at the forefront of behavioral economics. Sunstein will chat about Look Again, the groundbreaking book that he has coauthored about disrupting habits. In conversation with Sally Haldorson, Porchlight’s Managing Director, this is a great event for readers of The Power of Habit and Thinking Fast and Slow.
Please click here to register now for this virtual event. And be sure to order your copy of Look Again as well.
Look Again takes, yes, another look at the ways that disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives. Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. But what if we could find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also to the terrible things you stopped noticing and so don’t try to change?
From famed biographer Walter Isaacson: "One trait of history’s most creative thinkers - from Leonardo da Vinci to Albert Einstein - is that they are able to look anew and marvel at everyday things that most people have quit noticing: the alluring blueness of the sky, the passage of time, the way a light beam creates a spot of luster on a leaf. Look Again can help us all look in a fresh way at things around us. It’s a smart and fun read, and a valuable way to revitalize your life."
Cass R Sunstein is the nation’s most-cited legal scholar. He has served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, worked with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. He is coauthor of Nudge, and was the recipient of the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities.
Trish O’Kane, author of Birding to Change the World: A MemoirProfessor, activist, and UW-Madison alum Trish O’Kane appears to share her uplifting new memoir. In Birding to Change the World, O’Kane considers what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment. Cohosted by Urban Ecology Center.
Registration link coming soon. Be sure to order your copy of Birding to Change the World now.
Trish O’Kane never expected to be a birder. But after Hurricane Katrina shattered her life in New Orleans, watching birds thrive throughout the devastated city became her salvation. Soon O’Kane found herself pursuing an environmental science PhD in Wisconsin, where she became a full-on bird obsessive - logging hours and hours in a stunningly diverse urban park, filling field notebooks with observations of bird doings and dramas, and volunteering in a wildlife rehabilitation center bird nursery. But it wasn’t until that park, her bird-watching haven, was threatened with development that O’Kane became an environmental activist. Taking her cues from the birds, she mustered a mighty flock of fellow human park lovers to raise their voices and save the park.
In Birding to Change the World, O’Kane recounts the astonishing science of bird life and shows what birds can teach us and how that education can be a transformative force for social change. O’Kane’s is a feel-good book about transformation, action, and the joy of the natural world.
Trish O'Kane is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Vermont, where she teaches the course Birding to Change the World. Before studying the natural sciences, O’Kane worked as a human rights investigative journalist for a decade in Central America and five years in the Deep South. She has written for Time, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times.
Please visit our Boswell-Run Book Club page for an updated schedule of our book club discussions.
Please remember that while we try to update this page as frequently as possible, all events are subject to change. If you have any concerns, please contact Boswell. Also note that ticketed events do sell out, and all events are subject to capacity. It never hurts to arrive early.
