Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books

The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books will be held Friday  and Saturday, Nov. 3-4 at UW Waukesha.  Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentenal mentioned an author we’ve read, Larry Watson (Montana 1948) will be part of a panel on Nov. 4.  There will also be a presentation on. Louise Erdrich’s novel, The Round House, which we’ve also read, on Nov. 4.  There looks like lots of other interesting stuff too!
See the website http://www.sewibookfest.com/print-program-2017/ for more information (go to “menu”,  “current Festival”, “print program 2017” to see the whole program).

Anyone interested in going?

Local Authors

An interesting article about a local authors, and an unusual approach to writing!  Thanks, Jean
https://www.mydigitalpublication.com/display_article.php?id=2913442&view=445781

Women Code Breakers of WWII

If you liked Hidden Figures, you might be interested in this book about women cryptographers who played a crucial role in ending World War II.
https://smile.amazon.com/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316352535/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1508780069&sr=8-1

Devil in the White City and Most Famous Book that Takes Place in Every State

Tests Confirm Gravesite of 1800s Serial Killer H.H. Holmes

Tests show that the exhumed remains from a suburban Philadelphia grave are indeed those of a 19th century serial killer, quelling rumors that he'd conned his way out of execution and escaped from prison.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/pennsylvania/articles/2017-09-01/tests-show-exhumed-remains-are-those-of-19th-serial-killer





Thought this was very interesting too.

The most famous book that takes place in every state

http://www.businessinsider.com/famous-book-set-in-every-state-2016-4/#wisconsin-little-house-in-the-big-woods-by-laura-ingalls-wilder-50

Rules of Civility YouTube

Here's a link to an interview with the author of Rules of Civility, which we're reading for bookclub on Sept 7th at Bette's.  I hope it gives you some insight into his writing.  It turns out that I can't be there, but Bette has my research.

https://youtu.be/K82gLgMitBg

Alexander McCall Smith

For those of you who do not receive the email newsletter from Boswell's, this was announced today:

1 of 5 results

    

sho    

From	Boswell Book Company daniel@boswellbooks.comhide details
To	schnell3 schnell3@aol.com
Cc
Bcc
show image slideshow

Boswell Book Company 2559 North Downer Avenue at Webster Place Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211 (414) 332-1181, www.facebook.com/boswellbooks Our Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 am to 9 pm, Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm We're open Labor Day from 10 am to 5 pm We close early to the general public on Saturday, September 19 for our ticketed event with Nancy Pearl and Kathleen Dunn Boswell announces very special ticketed event with Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and other titles featuring Precious Ramotswe, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, 44 Scotland Street, and many other beloved titles. This very special evening will be at Boswell on Thursday, November 16, 7 pm. Tickets are $29, including admission to the event, all taxes and fees, and a copy of The House of Unexpected Sisters. $5 from each ticket to this event will be donated back to the Milwaukee Public Library Foundation. And yes, there is a $19 Boswell gift card option in lieu of the book, available on the night of the event only. In The House of Unexpected Sisters, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are approached by their part-time colleague, Mr. Polopetsi, with a troubling story: A woman, accused of being rude to a valued customer, has been wrongly dismissed from her job at an office furniture store. Never one to let an act of injustice go unanswered, Mma Ramotswe begins to investigate, but soon discovers unexpected information that causes her to reluctantly change her views about the case. Other surprises await our intrepid proprietress in the course of her inquiries. Mma Ramotswe is puzzled when she happens to hear of a local nurse named Mingie Ramotswe. She thought she knew everybody by the name of Ramotswe, and that they were all related. Who is this mystery lady? Then, she is alerted by Mma Potokwani that an unpleasant figure from her past has recently been spotted in town. Mma Ramotswe does her best to avoid the man, but it seems that he may have returned to Botswana specifically to seek her out. What could he want from her? With the generosity and good humor that guide all her endeavors, Mma Ramotswe will untangle these questions for herself and for her loved ones, ultimately bringing to light important truths about friendship and family - both the one you're born with and the one you choose. This event is the launch of the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library Fill the Shelves program. Fill the Shelves is a wonderful way to donate a book into library circulation, complete with a bookplate indicating you as the donor. Purchase one of the selected titles at Boswell, featured from November 16 through the end of 2017, and we'll handle the details. You'll even get a donation acknowledgement from the Friends.  Mr. McCall Smith is just about the most charming author you'll meet! Tickets go on sale today at mccallsmithmke.brownpapertickets.com. There are only 300 spaces available for this event.

Stolen books

There's been a lot written about books burned and art stolen by the Nazis during WWII.  But many books were stolen, and not burned.  Follow the trail.   http://www.cetusnews.com/life/On-the-Trail-of-Books-Stolen-by-the-Nazis.ByQzSmukvW.html

Rest In Peace Jane Austin

Is that possible for Jane Austin who continues to be copied and written about 200 years after her death?   Here's a list of some of the books based on her novels.  Have you read any of these or others?  What did you think?  
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/books/jane-austen-inspired-books-movies-more-1.11709830

Little Free Library

Mary mentioned that the Little Free Library by her place needs books.  She said it had a copy of the US Constitution, but not much else!  If you have anything you could donate, bring it to the pool party at Jean's  or next bookclub at Bette's.  Thanks!

Wisconsin authors and books

There's another book with a similar name, Driftless, by aWisconsin author (or at least midwestern author),  David Rhodes, which is set (guess where?) in the driftless area of Wisconson.  Chapter a day  on WPR read a follow up to Driftless, Jewelweed, in March/April.  Here's a link  https://www.wpr.org/programs/archives/chapter-a-day/2017-04

Michael  Perry, Population 485, has a new book coming up this month, Danger Man Working.  He's  got a lot of other stuff going on.  Here's a link to his Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/sneezingcow/
Sneezing cow??  He has a sense of humor for sure!

Any updates of other local authors or books set in Wisconsin?

Something for the Guys

Peter Bruce and Susie Dunn have both recommended a book by Milwaukee author NIcholas Petrie titled The Drifter.  Rick has started and is enjoying it too.  The action takes place in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. 
Here's a link to Nick's website:  http://www.nickpetrie.com/about/
And one to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Drifter-Peter-Ash-Novel/dp/0425283259/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501899015&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+drifter+nicholas+petrie

Coming up

Pool Party at Jean's on Tuesday August 29", 6 p.m.. The book is Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin

Bette's on Thursday, Sept. 7, 1 pm.  The book is Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.  Are there rules that would still be useful today?

More Boys in the Boat

if  you haven't seen the PBS show The Boys of '36 based on Boys in the Boat you can stream it at American Experience.  The visuals are really good!

Nancy Pearl's New Novel

Here's an interesting event at Boswell's.
A special ticketed evening with "America's Librarian" Nancy Pearl, in conversation with beloved Wisconsin Public Radio host Kathleen Dunn, on Saturday, September 9, 7 pm, at Boswell.

 

If you enjoy Kathleen Dunn's book shows with Nancy Pearl, you're going to love Nancy Pearl and Kathleen Dunn live at Boswell. Tickets are $29, and include admission and a copy of Nancy Pearl's new novel, George & Lizzie. $5 of each ticket will be donated back to Wisconsin Public Radio.

 

From Nancy Pearl comes George & Lizzie, an emotionally riveting debut novel about two people with radically different understandings of what love and marriage should be. With pitch-perfect prose and compassion and humor to spare, George and Lizzie is an intimate story of new and past loves, the scars of childhood, and an imperfect marriage at its defining moments.

 

From the starred Booklist review: "Through knotty predicaments both sorrowful and hilarious, Pearl dramatizes a complicated and deeply illuminating union of opposites and conducts profound inquiries into the self, family, empathy, and love. The result is a charming, edgy, and many-faceted novel of penetrating humor and resonant insight."

 

Here's more on ticketing. We'll have a $19 Boswell Book Company gift card available in lieu of the book on the night of the event only, but don't forget, a signed Nancy Pearl book makes a great gift. Pearl will sign backlist and pose for photos. And if you're not able to come, we'll hold your copy of George and Lizzie for up to six months.

 

Boys in the Boat

The Greendale Library is hosting the daughter of

Joe Rantz  (one of the boys in the boat) to discuss the

book.  The event is in the Community Room of the Greendale Library on Thursday, June 29, 10-11 am.  It's free, but you need to register with the library by calling 414 423-2136.

Thanks to Karen Francisco for this information (the daughter attends her church in Greendale).

Another favorite

From Margaret
Another vote for Wild Swans.  This is becoming the run away favorite.
Any more votes?

Upcoming events

Bookclub at Martha's, Jackie hosting, on June 22, 1 p.m.  We're reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  Patty is the discussion leader.

Pool party at Jean's on August 29, 6 p.m.  The book is Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin.  Tim is leading the discussion.

Little Free Library updste

the Little Free Library along the Riverwalk is full, thanks to donations from Mary, MaryBeth, Jane and Rich.  And I have some books left.  Does a library near you need books?  Let me know and I'll bring books to our next bookclub.

Osher's Big Read

Has anyone read Evicted?  I plan to attend some of these events.  You do have to be an OSHER member, but  its cheap and they have a lot of interesting short classes- not book related. Countdown to the Big Read! 63 Days ! What is the Big Read? The Osher Institute at UWM developed a thematic two semester program based on Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Evicted offers an analysis of the ceaseless cycles of evictions, ubiquity of substandard housing, homelessness, property loss, educational calamity for children, and the emotional, financial, and psychological consequences of the upheaval and turbulence for several families living in Milwaukee.  Programs, courses, and events supporting themes within the book will be available to the Osher community starting in Fall 2017 and continuing in Spring 2018. Here is a “sneak peek” at some of the programs this Fall that support the Big Read.  The Big Read Launch Event -  August 3, 2017, 4:00pm-5:30pm at SCE Book discussions on Evicted (SIG) Film class on homelessness (Short Course) Landlord Games Watchdog Updates (Potpourri) Big Read: Poverty and Housing, 3-member Panel with Moderator, September 14 (Osher Talk) Big Read: Poverty and Health, 3-member Panel with Moderator, November 9 (Osher Talk) Salvation Army Emergency Lodge (Go Explore) Each month, June through August, one Osher Member’s name will be randomly selected and awarded a $25 Boswell gift card.

More favorites

From Jean: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Doriss
From Sara:  Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Good adventure book

If anyone likes true adventures, I just read In the Kingdom of Ice, by Hampton Sides.  It's the story of an Arctic expedition, in the days when they still believed that the Arctic was a warm water sea surrounded by a ring of ice.  It's quite an amazing and difficult story.  Had a hard time putting it down.

Favorite books

Do you have favorites from our 30+ years?  Off the top of my head, I'm picking Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart Rølvaag.

Icelandic Dessert

Here's the link to the Icelandic dessert that I made for our meeting.  With so many desserts to choose from, I decided on an Icelandic dessert since I was picking an Icelandic book. Mondlukaka

Charlotte Bronte Biography

I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Elizabeth Gaskell who wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte published in 1857 named "The Life of Charlotte Bronte."

"Elizabeth Gaskell's astonishingly vivid biography of Charlotte Bronte is written with all the sweep, color and fullness of a great Victorian novelist, which is exactly what Gaskell was.  She was also a shrewd journalist.  Based on her own interviews with Charlotte Bronte and a cache of 400 letters from Charlotte's intimate childhood friend Ellen Nussey, the book opens up the strange family life of the (then) obscure Haworth Parsonage. We see the original of Charlotte's Jane Eyre magically emerging but also the haunting, enigmatic figure of Charlotte's sister Emily; the tender Anne Bronte; the opium wrecked brother Branwell; the deeply eccentric father, Rev. Patrick Bronte, who fired guns in his churchyard.  If you wish to get the flavor, just read the chapters that describe Charlotte's fraught relationship  with Emily and Emily's savage handling of her terrifying bull mastiff, Keeper. Charlotte's modern biographer, Claire Harman, says rightly that Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte" first made biography "an imaginative creation," with the force of myth.

A different take on Jane Eyre

Because the Milwaukee Rep is going to be performing Jane Eyre, I thought this might be fun to take a look at a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's book.  It's called Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys.  It was written in 1966.  There was also a 2006 movie.  Here's what a BBC commentator had to say about it in 2016, the 50th anniversary of its publication

"As any English literature student will tell you, Rhys’s iconic prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is rich in motifs and devices both modernist and postmodernist. In giving a voice and an identity to Mr Rochester’s first wife, Antoinette – aka Bertha, the madwoman in the attic – the novel has become a gateway text to post-colonial and feminist theory."

For the entire article go to http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161019-the-book-that-changed-jane-eyre-forever

Author of Medicine Walk dies

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/books/richard-wagamese-dead-native-canadian-writer.html

Little Free Library

When I was walking the other day I noticed that the Little Free Library along the riverwalk in Schultz Park has no books!  If you have a couple of books that you could donate, bring them to bookclub and I'll deliver them.  Thanks!  Jackie

A Favorie Detective Returns

You can go to Boswell's website for more info.  Thanks to Mary for this information!

The Friends of the UWM Golda Meir Library presents a special evening with the great Sara Paretsky at the Golda Meir fourth floor Conference Center on Thursday, May 11, 7 pm. This event is free, but registration is requested. She will be appearing in conjunction with Fallout, the 18th novel in the V.I. Warshawski series, or the 19th if you include a collection of Warshawski stories.

Murder and Mayhem

Learned of an event in Milwaukee for mystery lovers that will occur later this year: Murder and Mayhem.  It will occur November 4, 2017.  This will be its 13th year.  Last November they had 26 authors.  Something for us to think about.  Here's a link to their site:
http://www.murdermayhemmilwaukee.com

Why Reading Is Important

From biligualmonkeys.com

1. A book is a gift you can open again and again. —Garrison Keillor

2. Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. —Kofi Annan

3. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. —Frederick Douglass

4. Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him. —Maya Angelou

5. There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not foun d the right book. —Frank Serafini

6. Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. —Emilie Buchwald

7. One of the greatest gifts adults can give—to their offspring and to their society—is to read to children. —Carl Sagan

8. You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me. —Strickland Gillian

9. Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty.  It should be offered to them as a precious gift. —Kate DiCamillo

10. Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. —Vera Nazarian

11. Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. —Groucho Marx

12. There is no substitute for books in the life of a child. —May Ellen Chase

13. To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. —Victor Hugo

14. It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations—something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own. —Katherine Patterson

15. When you learn to read you will be born again…and you will never be quite so alone again. —Rumer Godden

16. We read to know we are not alone.—C.S. Lewis

17. So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky. —William James

18. There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. —Jacqueline Kennedy

19. The greatest gift is a passion for reading. —Elizabeth Hardwick

20. There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book. —Marcel Proust

21. Fairy tales in childhood are stepping stones throughout life, leading the way through trouble and trial. The value of fairy tales lies not in a brief literary escape from reality, but in the gift of hope that goodness truly is more powerful than evil and that even the darkest reality can lead to a Happily Ever After. Do not take that gift of hope lightly. It has the power to conquer despair in the midst of sorrow, to light the darkness in the valleys of life, to whisper “One more time” in the face of failure. Hope is what gives life to dreams, making the fairy tale the reality. —L.R. Knost

22. Read, read, read. —William Faulkner

23. Read. Everything you can get your hands on. Read until words become your friends. Then when you need to find one, they will jump into your mind, waving their hands for you to pick them. And you can select whichever you like, just like a captain choosing a stickball team. —Karen Witemeyer

24. Books are a uniquely portable magic. —Stephen King

25. Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. —E.P. Whipple

26. A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say, “How to Build a Boat.” —Stephen Wright

27. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Richard Steele

28. There is a wonder in reading Braille that the sighted will never know: to touch words and have them touch you back.—Jim Fiebig

29. A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time—proof that humans can work magic. —Carl Sagan

30. A house without books is like a room without windows. —Heinrich Mann

31. A parent or a teacher has only his lifetime; a good book can teach forever. —Louis L’Amour

32. Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything. —Tomie dePaola

33. It is books that are the key to the wide world; if you can’t do anything else, read all that you can. —Jane Hamilton

34. I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. —Anna Quindlen

35. A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read. —Mark Twain

36. Comics are a gateway drug to literacy. —Art Spiegelman

37. He that loves reading has everything within his reach. —William Godwin

38. Let us read and let us dance—two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. —Voltaire

39. Wear the old coat and buy the new book. —Austin Phelps

40. I will defend the importance of bedtime stories to my last gasp. —JK Rowling

41. Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier. —Kathleen Norris

42. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish. —S.I. Hayakawa

43. I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. —Jorge Luis Borges

Books about books and bookstores

A Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
In the spirit of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Gabrielle Zevin’s enchanting novel is a love letter to the world of books—and booksellers—that changes our lives by giving us the stories that open our hearts and enlighten our minds. 

MPL Literary Lunch

Friends Welcome Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer Prize winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author is the featured speaker at Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library’s Spring Literary Luncheon.
Join us Friday, May 5 at the Wisconsin Club, 900 West Wisconsin Avenue. 

Strout will present her new novel Anything is Possible at the event. 

11:00 a.m. Author Signing & Raffle - Win a chance to lunch with Ms. Strout.
Lunch and Program Noon to 1:30 p.m.

RSVP Seating is limited. Please reply by April 27. Reservations will be held at the door. Tickets include lunch and our author’s new release in hard cover.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US

Individual seat $70; Friends member seat $60; Patron Sponsor $150 (includes Friends Membership, preferred seating, and mention in the program).
Corporate Sponsor $1,000 (includes a table for 8 guests, Friends Memberships, preferred seating, and mention in the program).

Ideas for Choosing a Book

From the Elm Grove Library
A Pulitizer Prize Winner
A book with a color in the title
A book by a new author
A futuristic book
A book based on a true story
A book that became a movie
A book that was banned
A mystery
A book of short stories
A book set in school

This is our new bookclub blog