Boswell bestsellers, week ending May 3, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending May 3, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Great Big Beautiful Life, by Emily Henry
2. Big Chief, by Jon Hickey (signed copies)
3. Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
4. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
5. This Book Will Bury Me, by Ashley Winstead
6. How to Read a Book, by Monica Wood
7. James, by Percival Everett
8. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue
9. The Mighty Red, by Loiuse Erdrich
10. Dungeon Crawler Carl, by Matt Dinniman

Another self-publishing success story, in this case one that's sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Dungeon Crawler Carl came out last August, with the paperback arriving this July and several other volumes released in the meantime. The Eye of the Bedlam arrives May 13. From the publisher: "You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Medicine River, by Mary Annette Pember
2. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Who Is Government?, edited by Michael Lewis
4. Ginseng Roots, by Craig Thompson (Boswell May 27 event) 

5. The Book of Alchemy, by Suleika Jaouad
6. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
7. Garden to the Max, by Terese Woodard
8. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
9. The Fate of the Day, by Rick Atkinson
10. Lorne, by Susan Morrison

The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life from Suleika Jaouad, author of Between Two Kingdoms, had a great first week. We were out for a few days. This primer on journaling includes entries from everyone from Kiese Laymon to Lena Dunham and has blurbs from Adam Grant, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Elizabeth Gilbert, who writes: "This book is not only beautiful but exceedingly helpful. I recommend it to every dreamer, with the highest respect and joy."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt (MPL event May 8)
2. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
3. Table for Two, by Amor Towles
4. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
5. Trust, by Hernan Diaz
6. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K Le Guin
7. Strange Pictures, by Uketsu
8 I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
9. Forth Wing V1, by Rebecca Yarros
10. The Paris Novel, by Ruth Reichl

Uketsu appears on video in a white mask and black body stocking with the voice visually distorted. His novel Strange Pictures is a big hit in Japan and based on the Edelweiss numbers, it's doing well here too. The novel, translated by Jim Rion, is explained thusly: "Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Reading for Our Lives, by Maya Payne Smart
2. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
3. Evicted, by Matthew Desmond
4. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
5. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
6. The Devil's Best Trick, by Randall Sullivan
7. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
8. The Dumb Bird's Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever, by Matt Kracht
9. Rand McNally Large Scale Road Atlas 2026
10. The Man Who Organized Nature, by Gunnar Broberg (out of stock at all Ingram wholesale warehouses!)

The Devil's Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared is from Grove, so it's got a May 20 pub date, not an on-sale date. The publisher calls Randall Sullivan's latest "part true crime story, part religious and literary history, an investigation into the nature of evil and the figure of the Devil." BookMarks offers one rave, four positives, and a big old pan from Carl Hoffman at The Washington Post whose byline notes he once lived in Indonesia. The rave is from Clancy Martin in The New York Times, who writes: "The prose has wonderful momentum even when he’s writing about arcane debates in the early Christian church. Each chapter is a turn, a surprise. The writing is never clichéd, nor is the thinking. Sullivan knows a great lede, and he’s just as good with cliffhangers."

Books for Kids:
1. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
2. Peekaboo Dog, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
3. Wil the Pigeon Graduate?, by Mo Willems
4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
5. Valiant Vel, by Jerrianne Hayslett, illustrations by Aaron Boyd
6. Hot Dog, by Doug Salati
7. The Man Who Didn't Like Animals, by Deborah Underwood, illustrations by Leuyen Pham
8. Little Bird Laila, by Kelly Yang, illustrations by Xindi Yang
9. When We Ride, by Rex Ogle
10. How to Spot a Mermaid, by Jane Yolen, illustrations by Sally Deng

Will the Pigeon Graduate? is a graduation gift book for all ages. From Kirkus: "An earnest graduation gift: sweet for lifelong fans, cheerfully encouraging for striving, future graduates. And guess who attended? Gerald the Elephant and Piggie! If you didn't hear, Union Square, formerly Sterling, was just sold by Barnes and Noble to Hachette Book Group.

I am playing with not italicizing titles. I think you can figure it out from context. We'll see if I continue with this.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 26, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 26, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Great Big Beautiful Life, by Emily Henry
2. James, by Percival Everett
3. Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones
4. Dream Count, Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
5. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
6. We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida
7. Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt (MPL May 8 event)
8. Big Chief, by Jon Hickey (Boswell April 30 event)
9. Wedding People, by Alison Espach
10. Wide Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy

Dream Count is Chimananda Ngozi Adichie's first novel since 2013's Americanah and was a #1 bestseller in the UK. It's been out since March 4. The tally on BookMarks is rather mixed - seven raves, two positives, a mixed, and two pans, the last of which you generally only see when there is some sort of backlash to the writer. One of the raves is from Ron Charles in The Washington Post: "Adichie is back to fiction with “Dream Count,” a rich, complicated book that spans continents and classes. The story jets between America and Nigeria while rotating, section by section, through the experiences of four Black women. Moving through a comedy of manners and a hall of horrors, their stories overlap and intersect in ways that suggest the vast matrix of the African diaspora."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Food for Thought, by Alton Brown
2. Accidentally on Purpose, by Kristen Kish
3. Prism, by Laura Day
4. Desperately Seeking Something, by Susan Seidelman
5. The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt
6. The World Is Your Office, by Prithwiraj Choudhury
7. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
8. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
9. Medicine River, by Mary Annette Pember (Boswell May 1 event)
10. Notes to John, by Joan Didion

Notes to John is a posthumous collection of essays - its BookMarks score is one rave, ten positive, two mixed and a pan, which I thought would, like the Adichie pans, critique the author herself, but no this one is saying that the new collection, which were summaries of psychiatric sessions, have none of the style of Didion's best work. The rave, from Publishers Weekly: "More than mere notes, Didion’s fly-on-the-wall reports recap the therapy sessions word-for-word, offering an unvarnished look into the personal life and psychology of the oft-enigmatic writer. "

Paperback Fiction:
1. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
2. Funny Story, by Emily Henry
3. Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica
4. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown
5. The Paris Novel, by Ruth Reichl
6. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
7. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
8. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
9. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, by J Ryan Stradal
10. Strange Pictures, by Uketsu

It's the first week of sale for The Paris Novel the second novel from Ruth Reichl. It was an Indie Next pick in hardcover. From a profile in Eater, on Reichl's first Paris visit: "Eating Joël Robuchon’s food for the first time and literally thinking, I’ve never had food like this before. We had French restaurants in the United States, but we didn’t have anything of that caliber here. And it was really exciting. I remember the first bite of food at Jamin, Robuchon’s first restaurant. I thought, this wasn’t made by human hands. The technique was so impressive."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Wisconsin Idols, by Dean Robbins
2. No Straight Road Takes You There, by Rebecca Solnit
3. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
4. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
5. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
7. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
8. Bad Feminist anniversary edition, by Roxane Gay
9. A Book of Noises, by Caspar Henderson
10. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade

Independent Bookstore Day was good for a lot of titles. Almost all or week's sales for I Who Have Never Known Men came on Saturday, as was the case for Rebecca Solnit's No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain, which officially publishes on May 13, but that's pub date, not laydown. The Kirkus was very enthusiastic, calling it "A buoyant, historically astute appreciation of political persistence." The Publishers Weekly appeared to find it repetitive in its thesis. Oh well. From my perspective, I applaud a white-on-yellow jacket.

Books for Kids:
1. My Return to the Walter Boys, by Ali Novak
2. Sunrise on the Reaping V5, by Suzanne Collins
3. The Deadliest Spider, by Eleanor Spicer Rice, illustrated by Max Temescu
4. The Deadliest Cat, by Eleanor Spicer Rice, illustrated by Max Temescu
5. Peekaboo Dog, by Camilla Reid, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius
6. My Life with the Walter Boys, by Ali Novak
7. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Renée Graef
8. Paper Hearts, by Ali Novak
9. Saying Goodbye to My Best Friend Teddy, by Maureen McNally
10. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd

Ali Novak appeared at Boswell on Friday for My Return to the Walter Boys. Eleanor Spicer Rice had a virtual school visit to make up for school visits cancelled by a snow day - she was here but the kids were home. And a local program for kids books picked up a few new titles among their backlist, like

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 19, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending April 19, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
2. James, by Percival Everett
3. The Perfect Divorce V2, by Jeneva Rose
4. Broken Country, by Clare Leslie Hall
5. Dream Count, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
6. The Wedding People, by Alison Espach
7. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
8. Say You'll Remember Me, by Abby Jimenez
9. The Butcher's Masquerade, by Matt Dinniman
10. A Place Called Yellowstone, by Randall K Wilson

The Perfect Divorce is the follow up to The Perfect Marriage, a Booktok favorite. The sprayed edges have dripping blood own the sides. There was a limited signed editions and at least one retailer got a cover that was red instead of white. There's also a plot involved, but when it comes to thrillers, I'm not sure what counts as a spoiler, so I will just note that Karin Slaughter calls Jenva Rose's latest "a riveting he said/she said thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat right from the very first page.”

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams
2. Who Is Government?, edited by Michael Lewis
3. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
4. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
5. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
6. Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton
7. Funny Because It's True, by Christine Wenc
8. Erasing History, by Jason Stanley
9. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks
10. One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, by Omar El-Hakkad

I think I have already written up most every book here. I thought I hadn't done One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, but no, it was the highlighted book on the first week of sale. I'm also pretty sure I highlighted Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, but I'm not going to go back to last September. I should note that the author recently moved from Yale to the University of Toronto, per The Guardian.

Paperback Fiction:
1. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
2. Table for Two, by Amor Towles
3. The Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica
4. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
5. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
6. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
7. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
8. The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris, by Evie Woods
9. Tender Is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica
10. The Secret War of Julia Child, by Diana R Chambers

Not only is The Unworthy selling well off our new paperback table, but Austina Bazterrica's 2020 novel, Tender Is the Flesh, hits our top 10 off of Jeremy's rec shelf. The new novel, translated from Spanish by Sarah Moses, From the starred Booklist: "Bazterrica's absorbing feminist literary horror novel...stars an unnamed narrator who documents her deplorable situation in an illicit diary as a survivor living in a converted monastery. Climate chaos and environmental deterioration coupled with lawlessness have forced many to fend for themselves." At least one of our customers bought it for the bookmark!

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
2. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
3. How Life Works, by Philip Ball
4. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
5. They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer
6. A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Egan
7. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
8. Wisconsin's Idols, by Dean Robbins (Boswell April 23 event)
9. Bisexual Men Exist, by Vaneet Mehta
10. Your Brain on Art, by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology, has a pub date of February 25, but we didn't get our copies invoiced until March 26. I'm not sure what was going on with that. From Publishers Weekly: "Science writer Ball (Beautiful Experiments) explains how advances in biology have upended traditional understandings of how organisms develop and reproduce. The most revelatory material pushes back against the notion that DNA constitutes the blueprint for life...Provocative and profound, this has the power to change how readers understand life's most basic mechanisms.:

Books for Kids:
1. You and Me and the Land of Lost Things V1, by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Bill Hope
2. The Very Last Leaf, by Stef Wade, illustrated by Jennifer Davison
3. A Place for Pluto by Stef Wade, illustrations by Melanie Demmer
4. The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
5. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
6. The 13-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton
7. The 169-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton
8. My Return to the Walter Boys, by Ali Novak (Boswell April 25 event)
9. Chooch Helped, by Andrea L Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz 

10. Fearless V3, by Lauren Roberts

I don't think I've yet highlighted this year's Caldecott winner, Chooch Helped. From the Horn Book: "This picture book by creators who are both citizens of the Cherokee Nation highlights the joys and challenges that many older siblings face as the baby of the family grows up and begins to mimic them. Kunz's striking mixed-media art complements this loving family story."

Boswell bestseller blog, week ending April 12, 2025

Boswell bestseller blog, week ending April 12, 2025

Hardcover Fiction (and poetry, even when the poetry is on a nonfiction subject I guess):
1. Twist, by Colum McCann
2. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
3. The Sequel, by Jean Hanff Korelitz (signed copies)
4. Homicide in the Indian Hills, by Erica Ruth Neubauer
5. Poems of Parenting, by Loryn Brantz
6. The Antidote, by Karen Russell
7. The Dream Hotel, by Laila Lalami
8. James, by Percival Everett
9. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue
10. We'll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida

Apparently Poems of Parenting is hitting the nerve. Loryn Brantz's humorous and often insightful collection is out of stock at three of the four Ingram warehouses. Here's Brantz talking to Deepa Fernandes on NPR's Here and Now: “I didn't really think of it as a book at first. It was more like my children kind of broke me open and all these poems started pouring out,” she said. “It was like mind, body, and spirit – broke.” An early Happy Mother's Day to you!

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (signed copies)
2. Dear Miss Perkins, by Rebecca Brenner Graham (signed copies)
3. Who I Always Was, by Theresa Okokon (signed copies)
4. Who Is Government?, edited by Michael Lewis
5. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
6. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
7. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
8. Funny Because It's True, by Christine Wenc
9. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan
10. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins

If you've ever wondered how much a local setting affects book sales, James Marten's latest history, The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War has sold more than five times the copies of his last book that had a Boswell event, America's Corporal: James Tanner in War and Peace. From Lawrence Mello in Library Journal: "Marten's account offers a detailed exploration of the war's long-term impact. The book's literary quality is exceptional, presenting a well-researched and engaging narrative that captivates from start to finish."

Paperback Fiction:
1. The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
2. The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz
3. North Woods, by Daniel Mason
4. The Familiar, by Leigh Bardugo
5. Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
6. Gothikana, by RuNyx
7. Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man, by Jesse Q Sutanto
8. Funny Story, by Emily Henry
9. Table for Two, by Amor Towles
10. Letter to the Luminous Deep V1, by Sylvie Cathrall

For some reason, I had not one but two discussions about dark romance in the last two weeks. I guess I could have showed them Gothikana, which hits our paperback bestseller list after a run in hardcover. From Publishers Weekly: "RuNyx balances this epic romance with danger: students at Verenmore have been dying by suicide for years, while others go missing at the school's infamous Black Ball, a fabled masquerade dance. Could Corvina be next? The author's delight in all things gothic is clear, and she leans into both the romance and the darkness. Her unflinching examination of mental health, suicide, alienation, and sexual power dynamics is especially commendable. This brazen, page-turning love story is a winner." Once we're out of signed copies, there's a new ISBN.

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. While You Were Out, by Meg Kissinger
2. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
3. God Human Animal Machine, by Meghan O'Gieblyn
4. On Tyranny graphic edition, by Timothy Snyder
5. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. Wisconsin Death Trip, by Michael Lesy
8. Struggle for the City, by Dreek G Handley
9. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe
10. A Dumb Birds Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever, by Matt Kracht

From the publisher, on A Dumb Birds Field Guide to the Worst Birds Ever: "The irascible unnamed narrator of The Field Guide to Dumb Birds series returns to highlight the horrific, disturbing, and annoying behavior of 50 of the worst birds around the world. First he berates them personally, then rates them scientifically, using his new Bird Universal Mathematical Modeling and Ranking system (BUMMR), which is based on his groundbreaking Framework for Universal Karmic Ratings (FUKRs)."

Books for Kids:
1. Daphne Draws Data, by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
2. You and Me and The Land of Lost Things V1 Adventures Unlimited, by Andy Griffiths, illustrations by Bill Hope
3. Sunrise on the Reaping V5, by Suzanne Collins
4. The 13-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths, illustrations by Terry Denton
5. Fearless V3, by Lauren Roberts
6. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd
7. 169-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths, illustrations by Terry Denton
8. The Cartoonists Club, by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud
9. Goodnight Moon board book, by Margareet Wise Brown, illustrations by Clement Hurd
10. My Seder Plate shaped board book, by Kristen Weber, illustrations by Yaara Cellier

We had several preorder inquiries (not just orders, but folks making sure we were getting copies) for Lauren Roberts Fearless, the latest entry in The Powerless Trilogy, a romantic fantasy about Elites and Ordinaries in the Kindom of Ilya who compete in the Purging Trials. From Publishers Weekly, which reviewed Powerless, the first book in the series: "Paedyn and Kai's alternating POVs skillfully juxtapose steamy romantic encounters with heart-pounding action and gory violence, delivering a tale of political and personal intrigue"

Boswell Book Company bestsellers, week ending April 5, 2025

Boswell Book Company bestsellers, week ending April 5, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue (signed copies)
2. The World's Fair Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini (signed copies)
3. Say You'll Remember Me, by Abby Jimenez
4. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
5. James, by Percival Everett
6. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry, by Elinor Lipman (signed copies)
7. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
8. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones
9. A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett
10. The Snowbirds, by Christina Clancy

Our buyer Jason and I were talking about the fantasy/mystery hybrid series like Robert Jackson Bennett's Shadow of the Leviathan series, which combines speculative worldbuilding with the procedural plotline of a thriller. He expects to see more of them. Marlene Harris reviews A Drop of Corruption in Library Journal: "This Holmes and Watson-like investigative duo are compelling to follow, and the truly epic fantasy world where the series is set, with its falling empire, corrupt politics, and magic pharmacopeia engineered from monster blood, takes the familiarity of mystery and creates a truly fantastic fever-dream of a world and a story."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin
2. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
3. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
4. Miracles and Wonders, by Elaine Pagels
5. Funny Because It's True, by Christine Wenc
6. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
7. The Little Frog's Guide to Self Care, by Maybell Eequay
8. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El-Akkad
9. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
10. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (Boswell April 8 event)

I'm proud to say that not only did Boswell once host Elaine Pagels along with the Milwaukee Public Library, but also I drove her around! Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus has received four raves, four positives, and a mixed on BookMarks. From Adam Gopnik's rave in The New Yorker: "Pagels’s larger point is that the most improbable Gospel tales serve to patch a fractured narrative - using familiar tropes and myths to smooth over inconsistencies that believers struggled with from the beginning. We repair the rips in memory’s fabric with the filler of fable. (And so, within a decade of George Washington’s death, his undocumented childhood produced the enduring myth of the chopped-down cherry tree.)"

Paperback Fiction:
1. Cemeteries and Galaxies, by John Koethe (signed copies)
2. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

3. Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar
4. The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
5. The Museum of Lost Quilts, by Jennifer Chiaverini
6. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
7. Switchboard Soldiers, by Jennifer Chiaverini
8. Any Trope but You, by Victoria Lavine
9. The Secret War of Julia Child, by Diana R Chambers
10. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey

This week, in between our other events, I did a book club talk at the Woman's Club of Wisconsin on Kilbourn. I'm doing a fairly similar talk at the bookstore on April 17, which is open to the public - you can register here. I like to read at least one book especially for the talk, and since I've had my eye on The Secret War of Julia Child, and I know the audience there likes historicals, that was my focus title. The thing you have to remember is that because the files are not public, Chambers had to speculate on what Child's life might have been during her World War II service. Officially she was a file clerk. 

Cheryl McKeon at the Book House, an Albany-area independent, praised the book in Shelf Awareness  as "a riveting novel set in World War II's Southeast Asian theater imagines critical contributions by the United States's most unlikely intelligence officer...well-documented historical fiction that pays credit to Child's brave and clever intelligence work for the Office of Strategic Services."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
2. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
3. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
4. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
5. Wisconsin Idols, by Dean Robbins (Boswell April 23 event)
6. Grief Is for People, by Sloane Crosley
7. A Fever in the Heartland, by Timothy Ferris
8. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
9. Judaism Is About Love, by Shai Held
10. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Madison-based Dean Robbins is a very popular author of books for kids. We've hosted Robbins at area schools for many of his titles. Now he has a book for adults - Wisconsin Idols: 100 Heroes Who Changed the State, the World, and Me. This is from Tim's staff rec: " I've watched Dean use his picture books to gracefully teach groups of young children about heroes like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. I sat with stunned admiration for his ability to explain the complex. This book is my new reason to admire Dean Robbins. It's moving, inspirational, and so much fun!"

Books for Kids:
1. Risky Game V2, by Alyson Gerber
2. Sunrise on the Reaping V5, by Suzanne Collins
3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins
4. Peekaboo Dog, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
5. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd
6. Oh the Places You'll Go, by Dr Seuss
7. Peekaboo Love, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
8. Good Night Gorilla board book, by Peggy Rathmann
9. The 13-Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths (Boswell April 12 event)
10. The Deadliest Spider, by Eleanor Spicer Rice

Peekaboo Dog is the latest board book from the team of Camilla Reid and Ingela P Arrhenius. And I quote: "Peekaboo doghouse, peekaboo pup, peekaboo tail wag, peekaboo up!" We love this series, which has all the excitement of a lift-the-flap book but with a much lower chance of tearing the pages.

Boswell bestsellers, week ending March 30, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending March 30, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. Homicide in the Indian Hills, by Erica Ruth Neubauer (signed copies)
2. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen (signed copies)
3. Tongues V1, by Anders Nilsen
4. James, by Percival Everett
5. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue (CelticMKE March 31 event)
6. The Antidote, by Karen Russell
7. When the Moon Hits Your Eye, by John Scalzi
8. The Wedding People, by Alison Espach
9. Sons and Daughters, by Chaim Grade
10. The Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy

What would happen if the moon turned to cheese? That's the premise of When the Moon Hits Your Eye, the latest from John Scalzi. From Publishers Weekly: "The narrative takes the reader on a day by day journey through this unprecedented lunar cycle, with each day focusing on the perspective of a different character. This structure provides a comprehensive view of the transformation's effects, from the expected (astronauts are disappointed that their upcoming lunar mission has been canceled) to the wildly unanticipated (including the actions of an Elon Muskesque billionaire, who seizes the moment for personal gain), while also returning to enough of the established characters to keep the potential apocalypse from feeling impersonal. Scalzi's ability to balance scathing satire with heartfelt optimism shines."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Sweet Farm, by Molly Yeh (signed copies)
2. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
3. Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
4. Stargazer, by Kate Desiderio
5. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn Williams
6. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (Boswell April 8 event)
8. Funny Because It's True, by Christine Wenc
9. The Demon of Unrest, by Erik Larson
10. Who Is Government?, edited by Michael Lewis

Who Is Government: The Untold Story of Public Service, is a new anthology edited by Michael Lewis, with entries from Casey Cep, Sarah Vowell, W Kamau Bell, Geraldine Brooks, John Lanchester, and Dave Eggers. From Garrett M Graff in The Washington Post: "The book, an outgrowth of a project led by The Washington Post’s now-departed Opinions editor David Shipley, examines some of the remarkable people who make up the federal workforce — career civil servants who have accomplished the extraordinary in quiet ways, people whose jobs are normally buried layers below any partisan rancor.... What fills me with dread reading this book is that the next reminder we will get about the importance of government in our daily lives will come not in a laudatory, artful profile but in a crisis, when we find out that the person who should have been watching or monitoring or doing this one very specific task we’ve never thought about is no longer there."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar
2. The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
3. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown
4. The Portable Feminist Reader, edited by Roxane Gay (okay, maybe this is nonfiction)
5. The Parabale of the Sower, by Octavia E Butler
6. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, by Benjamin Stevenson
7. The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
8. The Husbands, by Holly Gramazio
9. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman
10. Real Americans, by Rachel Khong

New in paperback is Holly Gramazio's The Husbands, which my friend Margret has convinced me to read. It's also a Read with Jenna book club pick, but in an unusual (and I think, perfectly justified) move, they didn't stamp the icon on the delightful paperback jacket. Two raves and three positives from BookMarks. I am also delighted to find a review from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from Sharon Skeel, who compares the book to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, of all books: "Gramazio uses the attic as a device to playfully explore her very millennial protagonist’s attitude toward marriage. As each husband offends in some way, Lauren tricks him into the attic, hoping for a superior replacement. With her endless array of choices, she struggles to decide what she prizes most in a mate: Good looks? Money? Companionship?"

Paperback Nonfiction:
1. Solito, by Javier Zamora
2. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
3. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
4. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond (UWM April 30 event)
6. Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. On Tyranny graphic edition, by Timothy Snyder
8. Changing My Mind, by Julian Barnes
9. Bismarck's War, by Rachel Chrastil
10. Eve, by Cat Bohannon

Changing my Mind is a collection of essays from Julian Barnes, commissioned for a radio series and repackaged from Notting Hill Editions. I could have sworn that this came out years ago, but I fear I am confusing it with several other nonfiction collectons from the author. I also have no idea what Notting Hill Editions was, so investigations showed me it's an independent publisher that mostly does all text jackets, but they put a little design on this one, for which I'm grateful. On the plus side, they do their jackets in a lot of colors, unlike. Fitzcarraldo Editions, which is all blue on white (nonfiction) or white on blue (fiction). BookMark review archive here.

Books for Kids:
1. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
2. The Very Last Leaf, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Jennifer Davison
3. A Place for Pluto, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Melanie Demmer
4. Q and U Call It Quits, by Stef Wade, illustrations by Jorge Martin
5. The 13 Story Treehouse, by Andy Griffiths (Boswell April 12 event)
6. Lulu and Rocky in Milwaukee, by Barbara Joosse, illustrations by Renée Graef
7. Peekaboo Farm, by Camilla Reid, illustrations by Ingela P Arrhenius
8. Our Infinite Fates, by Laura Steven
9. Home, by Matt de la Peña, illustrations by Loren Long
10. My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda, by Bib Dumon Tak, illustrations by Annemarie Van Haeringen and translated by Nancy Forest-Flier.

My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda in translated from the Dutch, which is something I don't get to say very often on this blog. This is one of Jen's picks and its got great advance reviews as well. From the starred Booklist: "In a series of presentations that teachers will find as hilarious as their young charges will, an earthworm, a zebra, and 18 more animals deliver oral reports on - other animals...Questions and reactions to each talk from the multispecies audience add further opportunities for banter and fact-dropping so that, along with fairly substantial doses of actual natural history, receptive readers will effortlessly absorb practical advice about researching, organizing, and delivering effective oral presentations of their own."

Boswell Bestsellers, week ending March 22, 2025

Boswell Bestsellers, week ending March 22, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, by Stephen Graham Jones
2. The Paris Express, by Emma Donoghue (CelticMKE March 31 event)
3. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
4. James, by Percival Everett
5. The Antidote, by Karen Russell
6. The Tomb of Dragons, by Katherine Addison
7. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
8. The Human Scale, by Lawrence Wright
9. The Dream Hotel, by Laila Lalami
10. The Bones Beneath My Skin, by TJ Klune

Top honors this week go to The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, the latest novel from Stephen Graham Jones. From the publisher: "A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice." Four raves from BookMarks, including Randy Boyagoda in The New York Times: "None of this will be any surprise to readers of Jones’s past fiction, which has confidently mashed up various horror genres with pointed explorations of Native American experience...He has created a novel that invites us to reflect on how the stories we tell about ourselves can be at once confessions and concealments. At the same time, he’s using this framework to set up some scary, big reveals."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. Funny Because It's True, by Christine Wenc (signed copies)
2. Everything Is Tuberculosis, by John Green
3. Abundance, by Ezra Klein
4. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams
5. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (Boswell April 8 event)
6. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
7. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
8. Who Is Government?, by Michael Lewis
9. Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton
10. Dear Miss Perkins, by Rebecca Brenner Grahm (Boswell April 6 event)

The BookMarks round up (two raves, a positive, and two mixed) doesn't really capture the demand for Abundance, the new book from Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. From the publisher: "This is not just another book that breaks down the many ways our elected leaders on the right or left have failed us. Like Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, this book names and diagnoses an important macro trend, one that lives at the heart of America's biggest problems and the global question of progress: that progressives are too focused on demand while they block innovation and supply; and that too many groups preserve scarcity when they ought to build abundance. Klein and Thompson hope to change the way people think about politics and law in the way that a book like Jane Jacobs's The Life and Death of Great American Cities reshaped policy-thinking for a generation, or longer." From Henry Grabar in Slate: "If the book’s vision of a world after abundance seems distant, its optimism is also compelling, even joyous."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
2. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante
3. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Hardman
4. The Paradise Problem, by Christina Lauren
5. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. The Vegetarian, by Han Kang
7. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
8. The Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E Butler
9. Funny Story, by Emily Henry
10. Unworthy, by Agustina Bazterrica

It's a bit unusual for a Belgian Science Fiction author from 1997 with a current edition from 2022 to take off, but sales this year for I Who Have Never Known Men at Boswell are almost double 2024, and that's without any group sales. Transit Books, an indie press, uses the tagline: "Ursula K. LeGuin meets The Road in a post-apocalyptic modern classic of female friendship and intimacy." Its' a selection of the Dua Lipa Service95 Book Club. What do you know? They just read The Bee Sting.

Nonfiction Paperback:
1. On Tyranny graphic edition, by Timothy Snyder
2. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
3. Murdle V1, by GT Karber
4. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
5. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
6. This Is How a Robin Drinks, by Joanna Brichetto
7. A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
8. Elemental, by Stephen Porder
9. Grief Is for People. by Sloane Crosley
10. Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo

This Is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature hasn't been on the new paperback table but with more than one sale in a week and a nice blurb from Margaret Renkl ("Profoundly beautiful, desparately necessary), perhaps it will take off. From Booklist: "Certified Tennessee Naturalist Brichetto, who shares her nature writing on the website Sidewalk Nature, compiles a series of humorous and educational short essays. 'This is my almanac: sketches arranged by season, set in the backyard, the sidewalk, the park, the parking lot, connected by urgent wonder.'"

Books for Kids:
1. Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins
2. Giving Good, by Aaron Boyd
3. Our Infinite Fates, by Laura Stephen
4. The ABCs of Spring board book, by Jill Howarth
5. Every Monday Mabel, by Jashar Awan
6. Dog Man V13: Big Jim Begins, by Dav Pilkey
7. Peek Inside Springtime, by Anna Milbourne, illustrations by Stephanie Fizer Coleman
8. Grumpy Monkey Spring Fever, by Suzanne Lang, illustrations by Max Lang
9. Peek a Flap Grow, by Jay Garnett, illustrations by Bao Luu
10. Under the Same Stars, by Libba Bray

No question, the book book for this week was Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping. No reviews on the Ingram website, but we've already had several great reads. Can't wait a staff rec to be written down!

Boswell bestsellers, week ending March 15, 2025

Boswell bestsellers, week ending March 15, 2025

Hardcover Fiction:
1. 33 Place Brugmann, by Alice Austen
2. The Trouble Up North, by Travis Mulhauser
3. Onyx Storm V3, by Rebecca Yarros
4. James, by Percival Everett
5. Dream State, by Eric Puchner
6. The Bones Beneath My Skin, by TJ Klune
7. Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
8, Somewhere Beyond the Sea V2, by TJ Klune
9. Stag Dance, by Torrey Peters
10. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan

Torrey Peters, the author of Detransition Baby, has a  new collection of a novel and stories, Stag Dance, that hit our top 10 this week. BookMarks tabulates eight raves and a mixed. One of the raves is from Dan Kois at Slate, who praises the title piece in particular: "'Stag Dance' is a gender comedy both ribald and aching, a story of a person discovering new and wondrous uses for their own body and a backwoods gothic in which that poor Minnesota donkey puncher’s skull isn’t the last to shatter."

Hardcover Nonfiction:
1. The Broken Rung, by Kwellin Ellingrud, Lareina Yee, and Marína del Mar Martínez
2. Nature's Best Hope, by Douglas W Tallamy
3. Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams
4. The Let Them Theory, by Mel Robbins
5. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El-Akkad
6. The Nature of Oaks, by Douglas W Tallamy
7. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks
8. Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton
9. The Serviceberry, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
10. The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War, by James Marten (Boswell April 8 event)

The publishing event this week was the release of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sarah Wynn-Williams, which announced publication very late in the process, probably to avoid Meta blocking the publication. Two raves and two positives, so far, including this widely circulated review from Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times: "Careless People is darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world. What Wynn-Williams reveals will undoubtedly trigger her former bosses’ ire. Not only does she have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods."

Paperback Fiction:
1. Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
3. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon
4. The Murderbot Diaries V1, by Martha Wells
5. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
6. Starter Villain, by John Scalzi
7. I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger
8. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
9. The White Book, by Han Kang
10. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

The White Book is just out in paperback, after a 2019 hardcover publication at a very reasonable $14 price point. My guess is they could have published this at $18, despite its 160 pages and only $4 cheaper than the hardcover. But certainly other publishers are doing that. Five raves, five positives, and a mixed for the current Nobel Prize winner. From Michael Schaub on the NPR website: "The latest of Han's novels to be translated into English, The White Book, has almost nothing in common with its predecessors except for its stunningly beautiful writing and its preoccupation with mortality. It's a book that defies genre and challenges the reader to make sense of its unusual structure. The White Book isn't likely to appeal to fans of the traditional novel, but will reward readers with a taste for more unconventional narratives."

Paperback Nonfiction:
1 Better Living Through Birding, by Christian Cooper
2. On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
3. Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond
4. The Truth About College Admission, by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark
5. The Wager, by David Grann
6. The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel
7. The Truth About College Admission Workbook, by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark
8. Mutual Aid, by Dean Spade
9. You: The Story, by Ruta Sepetys
10. Bringing Nature Home, by Douglas W Tallamy

Christian Cooper was already in the news when  Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World was released in 2023, and this year the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences brought him to Wisconsin, with a stop in Milwaukee thanks to the help of Milwaukee Public Library and Urban Ecology Center.  Here's a nice recommendation from Sy Montgomery: “Funny, brave, kind, and eagle-eyed, Cooper brings into focus not only the spectacular winged creatures he loves, but also the glorious messiness, prejudice, courage, and passion of our own species - and how birding can show us all how to lead better lives.”

Books for Kids:
1. Mermaids Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
2. Yetis Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
3. The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
4. Unicorns Are the Worst, by Alex Willan
5. New Kid, by Jerry Craft
6. School Trip, by Jerry Craft
7. Urban Owls, by Christian Cooper, illustrations by Kristen Adam
8. Class Acts, by Jerry Craft
9. Impossible Escape, by Steve Sheinkin
10. Fallout, by Steve Sheinkin

We had a day of schools with Alex Willan, whose new book is Mermaids Are the Worst. After confronting unicorns, dragons, yetis, and elves, Gilbert the Goblin goes on vacation where he discovers his beach is mermaid central. From Kirkus: "As with previous installments, Willan has crafted an enticing setting filled with saucer-eyed characters and rendered in a candy-colored palette; big-eared, exasperated Goblin's particularly endearing, and readers will love spotting the protagonist's slug sidekick on each page, as well as a crab who's magically been turned into a taco.