Hello!
Our next two Readings from Oconomowaukee events found their origins in bookseller love at both Boswell and Books & Company.
At Books & Company, Lynn read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt when the galley first arrived. She loved it! Lynn kept talking about this charming book with an octopus as a central character, how it might seem odd, but was a wonderful story of friendship, second chances, and community. She kept talking about it, and talking about it...and, finally, I read it. She was right! It is all of those things, plus amazing information about octopuses.
Following on the theme of second chances, it was Chloe who read The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon. She made it her mission to get everyone on staff to read it! A story about a small village in Italy that has a serious plumbing problem and the town's self-appointed mayor / vacuum repairman's madcap solution. She kept telling me it was the perfect book to read THIS summer. Oh, how right she was! I even gave it to my dad for Father's Day (he loved it, reminded him a bit of Alexander McCall Smith).
It didn't take long for other booksellers to read these books, fall in love, and start recommending them to others. Good stories are like that. As a reader there is this compulsion to passionately share stories with others, especially those that hit a sweet poignant note that connects us, as these two books do.
Bring together booksellers and bookstores buzzing about the same books and you have that unique Indie Bookstore glow. In this case you have Boswell Book Company and Books & Company humming together for our July and August Readings from Oconomowaukee events. Register to watch our conversation with Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures on July 11 HERE and with Christine Simon author of The Patron Saint of Second Chances on August 18 HERE.
I have a big shout out for Boswell's event with Jean Thompson, author of The Poet's House, in conversation with Christina Clancy on July 20, 6:30pm in person at Boswell. The Poet's House is one of my favorite novels this year. Thompson captures perfectly the moment you fall in love with something that feels so molecular to your being that you can't believe you didn't always know it. In this case it's poetry, but it could be anything - painting, cooking, theater, dance, etc. It is a delightful and unexpected story of a young woman finding her way and an older woman's sage understanding of comprises made. Wise, funny, and satisfying.
Stop by the bookstore for more summer reading suggestions, great regional guide and activity books, as well as new Wisconsin vinyl stickers!
Cheers and Happy Reading!
Lisa with Katrina, Ken, Chloe, Genavieve, Toni, Kristen, Elisabeth, Beth, Lynn, Judy, Emma, Lizzy, Connie, Susie, Grace, and Jewell
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Current Store Hours
Monday - Friday 9:00 - 7:00 Saturday - Sunday 9:00 - 5:00
Curbside pick up and shipping still available.
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Readings from Oconomowaukee
SHELBY VAN PELT
Monday, July 11th
7:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
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Readings from Oconomowaukee presents a virtual evening with Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, a charming, witty, and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. Van Pelt will be in conversation with Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Company and Lisa Baudoin of Books & Company.
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RESCHEDULED DATE!
ADRIANA TRIGIANI
Saturday, July 30th
2:00 p.m.
at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center
3270 Mitchell Park Dr
Brookfield, WI 53045
Boswell Book Company and Books & Company of Oconomowoc present an afternoon with New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, who visits with her latest book The Good Left Undone- a lush, immersive novel about a hardworking family of Tuscan artisans with long-held secrets.
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Readings From Oconomowaukee
CHRISTINE SIMON
in conversation with
Daniel Goldin & Lisa Baudoin
Thursday, August 18th
7:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
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Join Boswell Book Company and Books & Company for August's Readings from Oconomowaukee event featuring Christine Simon, author of The Patron Saint of Second Chances- a charming, hilarious, and heartwarming debut novel.
Books & Company Bookseller Chloe introduced us to this lovely novel and she says "When a small Italian village is in danger of closing down forever, a little white lie about a movie star coming to shoot his latest takes on a life of its own when everyone in town wants to get in on the action! I had the best time reading this gem!"
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Pre-Order these signed copies at 20% off! |
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Books & Company Book Groups |
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Wednesday, July 27th
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Eileen Garvin
registration required-
limited seating available
Wednesday, August 24th
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Steven Rowley
registration required-
limited seating available
link coming soon.
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Wednesday, July 20th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Anna Carey
Wednesday, August 17th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Robin Benway
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Tuesday, July 26th
6:00 p.m.
via Zoom
by Fabian Nicieza
registration coming soon
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Sunday, July 31st
3:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS - hardcover |
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FICTION
New and Favorites in Hardcover!
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by Riley Sager
Casey Fletcher has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears...
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by Jennifer Close
An irresistible comedy of manners about three generations of a Chicago restaurant family and the deep-fried, beer-battered, cream cheese-frosted love that feeds them all. Bookseller Lynn says " Can family drama be a fun read? In this instance, the answer is a resounding YES! With the backdrop of a long-standing family restaurant, the siblings try to work out their own personal issues and their relationships, complicated by working together. And it was fun finding out the meaning of the title!"
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by Otessa Moshfegh
In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test. Bookseller Katrina says "This story, set in medieval times, centers around a shepherd's son and the other characters in the village of Lapvona as they deal with a drought and sequential famine that tests their faith and endurance. It's dark and disturbing, which Moshfegh writes so well, and I was unable to put it down or stop thinking about it."
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NONFICTION
New and Favorites in Hardcover!
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by Ed Yong
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery.
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by Steve Brusatte
Beginning with the earliest days of our lineage some 325 million years ago, Brusatte charts how mammals survived the asteroid that claimed the dinosaurs and made the world their own, becoming the astonishingly diverse range of animals that dominate today’s Earth. Brusatte also brings alive the lost worlds mammals inhabited through time, from ice ages to volcanic catastrophes. Entwined in this story is the detective work he and other scientists have done to piece together our understanding using fossil clues and cutting-edge technology.
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by Leslie McFarlane
As millions of boys and girls devoured the early adventures of the Hardy Boys, little did the young readers and aspiring sleuths know: the series' author was not Franklin W. Dixon, as the cover trumpeted. It was Leslie McFarlane, a nearly penniless scribbler, who hammered out the first adventures while living in a remote cabin without electricity or running water in Northern Ontario. McFarlane was among the first bestselling ghostwriters and this, at last, is his story--as much fun as the stories he wrote.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS - paperback |
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FICTION
New and Favorites in Paperback!
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by Timothy Janovsky
Wren Roland has never been kissed, but he wants that movie-perfect ending more than anything. Feeling nostalgic on the eve of his birthday, he sends emails to all the boys he (ahem) loved before he came out. Morning brings the inevitable Oh God What Did I Do?, but he brushes that panic aside. Why stress about it? None of his could-have-beens are actually going to read the emails, much less respond. Right? Bookseller Genavieve says "So sweet it's almost sticky with subplots that almost steal the show!"
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by Emma Stonex
Inspired by a haunting true story, a gorgeous and atmospheric novel about the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote tower miles from the Cornish coast--and about the wives who were left behind.
What strange fate befell these doomed men? The heavy sea whispers their names. Black rocks roll beneath the surface, drowning ghosts. And out of the swell like a finger of light, the salt-scratched tower stands lonely and magnificent.
Find this on bookseller Beth's staff favorites shelf!
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by Kira Jane Buxton
Bookseller Katrina says "I cannot contain the excitement and passion that pours out of me when talking about Hollow Kingdom, and now Feral Creatures. I have pushed it on all of my friends and have received only positive feedback. This book is superb- a second read proves it may be my favorite book ever. And the follow up, Feral Creatures, is simply perfect as well. Spectacularly written, funny, devastating, brutal, and unforgettable. I am absolutely obsessed with Kira Jane Buxton's books. S.T. is my very favorite and I will love him forever."
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NONFICTION
New and Favorites in Paperback!
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by Dara McAnulty
From Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it. Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara's Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring--when "the sparrows dig the moss from the guttering and the air is as puffed out as the robin's chest"--these diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are vivid, evocative, and moving.
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by Suzanne Simard
Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths--that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.
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Some writers define a generation. Some a genre. Joan Didion did both, and much more. But as a bicoastal writer of fiction and nonfiction whose writing ranged from personal essays and raw, intimate memoirs to reportage on international affairs and social justice, Didion is much harder to pin down than her reputation might suggest. This collection encompasses it all.
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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS - kids/teen |
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by Josh Lacey
Potatoes can't do anything a pet should. They can't learn tricks, or go for walks, or snuggle up with Albert. But to Albert's surprise, his potato begins to grow on him, and soon he can't imagine having any other pet. When the potato begins to rot, Albert is devastated. He buries it in his garden, and with a lot of care and a bit of patience, he discovers that his potato can do a great trick after all.
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by Helen Cooper
From an award-winning author and a talented debut illustrator comes a profound story about child refugees healing and building new lives. When rescuers meet the boat, there are only two people left—a big child and a little one. The big one, remembering the trip across the dark sea, hides indoors. The little one ventures out, making friends, laughing, growing strong. When he brings the outside in, in the form of a butterfly, will his sister find the courage to guide the winged creature back into the world where it belongs?
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by Troy Cummings
Arfy is a reading buddy, visiting schools and helping kids who are learning to read. One day, upon arriving home, Arfy notices a stowaway in his vest pocket--a turtle! Arfy must write letters to each of the teachers--and even the principal!--to find the classroom whose terrarium is missing this little terrapin. Can Arfy get this little lady back to her rightful class?
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by Gordon Korman
The story of a middle-school "band of brothers" -- five friends who need to stick together after they set up a hideout in an abandoned bomb shelter and discover that the only way to be true friends is to reveal their secrets and help each other out. In order to save the shelter, the friends must keep its secret... and in order to save themselves, they’re going to have to share their individual secrets, and build the safest place they can.
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by Bruce Hale
Cooper just wants to spend the summer before 7th grade drawing and having adventures with his best friend, Nacho. Anything to keep his mind off the fact that his dad’s new girlfriend and his mom’s announcement that she’s going to start dating. But when one of his adventures with Nacho goes too far, Cooper’s parents freak out. Either he joins the Boy Rangers, a dorky club that’s all about discipline and rules, or that dream cartooning camp at the end of his summer? Will get erased.
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by Kekla Magoon
Chester Keene takes great comfort in his routines. Afterschool Monday to Thursday is bowling, and Friday, the best of days, is laser tag! But besides Friday laser tag, Chester has one other very special thing—he gets secret spy messages from his dad, who must be on covert government assignments, which is why Chester has never met him. Then one day at lunch, Chester’s classmate, Skye, approaches him with a clue. They’ve been tasked with a complex puzzle-solving mission.
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by Melissa Albert
The suburbs, right now...
Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. The city, back then...
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.
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by Victoria Aveyard
In the sequel to Victoria Aveyard’s Realm Breaker, a divided world must rally, an unstoppable enemy must be defeated, and the fate of the world rests on a blade’s edge. Andry, Dom, Sorasa, Valtik, and Corayne. Together they must assemble an army to face Queen Erida and Taristan’s wicked forces. But something deadly waits in the shadows, something that might consume the world before there’s any hope for victory.
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by Jason Reynolds
& Jason Griffin
Once upon a time in America, there were two Jasons. Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin. One a poet. One an artist. One Black. One white. Two voices. One journey in mind: to move to New York, the city of dreams, to make their own dreams come true. Willing to have a life not un-hard, so long as it wasn’t unhappy. Willing to let the city swallow them whole, so long as it gives them their chance. They had each other. Books & Company booksellers love this book! You may find us reading it aloud to each other at random parts of the day!
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Summer Reading at the Oconomowoc Library |
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Dive into oceans of fun this summer with programs, prize drawings, and more! Open to kids, teens, and adults.
Event registration opens June 1!
Reading Program registration opens June 6!
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Upcoming events from our friends at Boswell Book Company! |
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In Person Event
Jean Thompson
in Conversation with Christina Clancy Boswell Book Company
Wednesday, July 20
6:30 pm
National Book Award finalist and author of the New York Times bestseller The Year We Left Home joins us at Boswell for an in-person conversation about her new novel, The Poet’s House, an unforgettable, lighthearted story about a young woman who discovers the insular world of writers. In conversation with Wisconsin’s Christina Clancy, author of Shoulder Season and The Second Home.
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In Person Author Event
Patricia Skalka
In-Person at Boswell Book Company
Tuesday, July 26
6:30 pm
Wisconsin mystery author Patricia Skalka returns to Boswell for an evening featuring the latest installment of her popular Dave Cubiak mysteries, which follow Sheriff Cubiak on his murder investigations throughout Door County.
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Take a look at our previous newsletters, now conveniently archived on our website!
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