Hello!
We can't wait for the next Readings from Oconomowaukee! Alexander McCall Smith will be joining us on for a virtual conversation on Wednesday, January 27 at 2pm (cst). Daniel Goldin from Milwaukee's Boswell Book Company and Lisa Baudoin from Books & Company will be chatting with Alexander McCall Smith about his new book Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind, in which he turns to old photographs as inspiration for stories about everyday people during extraordinary times. In each story he captures that aha moment when you see the affects and consequences of a larger event on our every day lives, the ones you hadn't noticed or considered before. I've spent hours looking through boxes of old snapshots at antique stores pondering the stories behind each one. Alexander McCall Smith brings both the richness of history and the sweetness of connections to his stories in such a way that you will linger a bit longer over those boxes of old photos.
Cheers and Happy Reading!
Lisa with Katrina, Ken, Chloe, Genavieve, Kristen, Elisabeth, Beth, Joseph, Maureen, Jewell, Toni, Lynn, and Judy
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Current Store Hours
Monday - Friday 9:00 - 6:00 Saturday- Sunday 9:00 - 5:00
Masks required. Limit of 10 customers
Curbside pick up, local delivery, and shipping available.
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ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
in conversation with
Daniel Goldin & Lisa Baudoin
Wednesday, January 27
2:00 p.m.
Via ZOOM
(out now!!)
Pictures capture moments in time, presenting the viewer with a window into another life. But a picture can go only so far. In the fourteen delightful tales in this collection, Alexander McCall Smith imagines the lives and loves of some of the everyday people pictured in these twentieth-century photographs. There are big stories behind these simple images. With his indomitable charm, Alexander McCall Smith takes us behind the lens to explore the hidden lives of those photographed; in so doing, he reveals the humanity in us all.
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REBECCA SACKS
in Conversation with
Daniel Goldin & Lisa Baudoin
Tuesday, February 16th
7:00 p.m.
Via ZOOM
Join us for this lively conversation with debut novelist Rebecca Sacks in conversation with Boswell's Daniel Goldin and Books & Company's Lisa Baudoin for the February installment of Readings from Oconomowaukee!
(on sale 2/2/21)
Brave and bold, this gorgeously written novel introduces a large cast of characters from various backgrounds in a setting where violence is routine and where survival is defined by boundaries, walls, and checkpoints that force people to live and love within and across them. City of a Thousand Gates brilliantly evokes the universal drives that motivate these individuals to think and act as they do--desires for security, for freedom, for dignity, for the future of one's children, for land that each of us, no matter who or where we are, recognize and share.
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LAUREN FOX
in Conversation with
Lisa Baudoin & Ken Favell
Friday, February 26th
2:00 p.m.
Via Zoom
Join us for a special event with author Lauren Fox and Books & Company's Lisa Baudoin and Ken Favell!
(on sale 2/2/21)
Bookseller Ken has been a fan of this novel from the beginning and his review is in the February 2021 Indie Next List! He says: “I was deeply moved by this beautifully written and fascinating novel about four generations of Jewish women, based on a series of letters written by Fox’s great-grandmother in Germany to her grandmother in Milwaukee between 1938 and 1941. Annelise leaves Germany with her husband and child at the cusp of World War II and emigrates to Milwaukee, where a new life awaits. But she leaves behind her parents, who desperately wait for visas to join her. Memories play a deep part in the novel, as do the (sometimes) rocky relationships between mothers and daughters. I’m sure that this excellent novel will find a place on many reading group lists.”
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AMY E. REICHERT
in Conversation with
Daniel Goldin & Lisa Baudoin
Monday, April 19th
7:00 p.m.
Via ZOOM
Join us for what will be an absolutely lovely evening for our April Readings from Oconomowaukee! Local favorite Wisconsinite Amy Reichert will be in conversation with Boswell Books' Daniel Goldin and Books & Company's Lisa Baudoin for Reichert's newest novel, The Kindred Spirits Supper Club!
(on sale 4/20/21)
Jobless and forced home to Wisconsin, journalist Sabrina Monroe can tolerate reunions with frenemies and kisses from old boyfriends, but not the literal ghosts that greet her in this heartwarming tale of the power of love and connection from acclaimed author Amy E. Reichert.
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BOOKS & COMPANY BOOK GROUPS
Open to the Public- all meetings via Zoom
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Wednesday, January 20th
6:30 p.m.
ZOOM MEETING
by Marissa Meyer
Wednesday, February 17th
6:30 p.m.
ZOOM MEETING
by Mary H.K. Choi
Registration coming soon.
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Friday, January 29th**
1:00 p.m.
ZOOM MEETING
by Kristin Harmel
*note date change
Wednesday, February 24th
1:00 p.m.
ZOOM MEETING
by Marjan Kamali
Registration coming soon.
There is a limit of 15 people per meeting.
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Sunday, January 31st
3:00 p.m.
ZOOM MEETING
by Maureen Callahan
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Tuesday, January 26th
6:00 p.m.
Zoom Meeting
by Lisa Jewell
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BOOKSELLER PICKS- NOW IN PAPERBACK |
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by Pam Jenoff
1945. Marta Nederman has barely survived the brutality of a Nazi concentration camp, where she was imprisoned for her work with the Polish resistance. Lucky to have escaped with her life, she meets Paul, an American soldier, who gives her hope of a happier future. The two make a promise to meet in London, but Paul is in a deadly plane crash and never arrives. Finding herself pregnant and alone in a strange city, Marta finds comfort with a kind British diplomat, and the two soon marry. But Marta's happiness is threatened when the British government seeks her help to find a Communist spy...
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by Cathleen Schine
The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980's Manhattan, this love of words, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition.
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by Matthew Vesely
"Oh man. This is so, so much more than a zombie story. It's a story of a married couple coming to term's with a terminal illness one of them is suffering from. It is a story of a married couple, how they survive together, and then what happens after. It's beautiful and full of emotion, love, and devastation. My heart aches for Lyle and Jude."
Fond remembrances of young love meet the challenges of navigating a partner's terminal illness in this bittersweet tale that explores both how we fall in love and how we say goodbye when the time comes far too soon.
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by Logan Smalley
& Stephanie Kent
The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book is an interactive illustrated homage to the beautiful ways in which books bring meaning to our lives and how our lives bring meaning to books. Carefully crafted in the style of a retro telephone directory, this guide offers you a variety of unique ways to connect with readers, writers, bookshops, and life-changing stories. Booksellers Chloe and Katrina had fun calling the phone numbers and finding out that pages 183-184 feature Wisconsin bookstores. Books & Company is listed! This is a fascinating book that is hours upon hours of celebrating the love of books.
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by Michael Perry
A collection of brief essays on memorials and mercy, storms and farewells, family and fowl, barnyard ballets, the Sunday night sads, the wisdom of roadies, cucumbers and kindness, quotidian asparagus, appropo malaprops, pickleball, sushi boats and weird TV, the poetics of garlic, contrails, Mobius mind-grooves, quietude, Christmas tree injuries, cats, waffle houses, puffy partridges, bonfire bonhomie, dating in a hearse, and a weird evening involving Neil Gaiman, the aforementioned sushi, and Suze Orman. Includes columns originally published between April 2018 and March 2020.
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by Jerry Apps
In this updated edition of a classic, Apps examines tumultuous changes in the business over the past twenty years, including the impacts of corporate megafarms and the rise of artisanal producers. Vivid historical photographs and striking portraits of modern family-operated factories reveal the delicate balance between art and science that goes into the process of turning ordinary milk into a wide variety of flavors, from the ubiquitous cheddar to sublime delicacies. Through these stories, we can come to better appreciate the remarkable farmers and producers that shaped cheesemaking into the thriving industry it is today.
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BOOKSELLER PICKS- NEW IN HARDCOVER |
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by Max Gross
Bookseller Lynn says "Imagine, if you will, a village lost in time. Then imagine the complications when the world finds you. Everything has changed - language, money, morality, even history itself. How do you adapt? Do you adapt? Great story and cover!" For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.
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by Maggie O'Farrell
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, and impossible to put down. Bookseller Ken calls it "One of the best novels I read during 2020. Little is known about Shakespeare's son who died at an early age. O'Farrell's prose is absolutely beautiful and her imagination never stops. Excellent!"
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by Richard Osman
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late? Bookseller Beth has this witty mystery on her staff favorites shelf!
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by James Patterson
With the Beatles, John Lennon surpasses his youthful dreams, achieving a level of superstardom that defies classification. “We were the best bloody band there was,” he says. “There was nobody to touch us.” Nobody except the original nowhere man, Mark David Chapman. The greatest true-crime story in music history, as only James Patterson can tell it. Enriched by exclusive interviews with Lennon’s friends and associates, including Paul McCartney, The Last Days of John Lennon is the thrilling true story of two men who changed history: One whose songs enliven our world to this day—and the other who ended the beautiful music with five pulls of a trigger.
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by Lauren Redniss
Oak Flat is a serene high-elevation mesa that sits above the southeastern Arizona desert, fifteen miles to the west of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. For the San Carlos tribe, Oak Flat is a holy place, an ancient burial ground and religious site where Apache girls celebrate the coming-of-age ritual known as the Sunrise Ceremony. In 1995, a massive untapped copper reserve was discovered nearby and plans to mine quickly began. Bookseller Katrina highly recommends it and says "This book is stunning and so full of color, spirit, and emotion. It's moving, unforgettable and important. The art really makes the book come alive in your hands."
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by Andrew Rubenfeld &
Terry Tempest Williams
Featuring some of America's greatest writers and poets, this landmark anthology is a one-of-a-kind field guide to the American literary imagination. Americans have always been fascinated by birds and from the beginning American writers have captured this keen interest in a variety of genres: poems, journals, memoirs, short stories, essays, and travel accounts. This collection gathers evocative and surprising writings on birds and our fascination with them from an astonishing array of American poets and writers. The result is a literature of singular depth and beauty, with occasional flights of fancy in the mix.
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BOOKSELLER PICKS- KIDS TITLES |
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by Madeline Kloepper
This charmingly illustrated book is perfect for a snowy day read! Pine Marten loves watching Human doing peculiar things in its log nest in the woods. One day, she notices Human putting colors on a board using a furry stick. Pine Marten learns from Chickadee that Human is actually "an artist" and is busy "making art." But what is art? Soon all of the animals in the forest are wondering: why is Human doing this? Is it a warning? Is there any meaning at all? And if Human can make "art," why can't the animals do it too?
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by Patricia Hegerty
A forest full of sleepy animals can be found beneath the remarkable, detailed cut-outs on every page of this stunning good night picture book. As the sun goes down on Sleepy Hill, the animals are settling in for the night. This beautifully illustrated picture book with intricate, peek-through cut-outs throughout is sure to enchant any little one getting ready for bed. The soft, rhyming story is perfect for bedtime reading and along the way, kids will learn about animal habitats and behavior.
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by Erin Dealy
When the kids in Room 5 write to Earth asking what they can do to help save our planet, they are delighted to get a letter back. This beautiful picture book is a celebration of every child’s ability to connect with the environment and make a positive impact. There is even a reversible jacket cover that features a poster printed on the inside with twelve months of Earth Hero activities. These fun and interactive activities will encourage children to help protect our planet year-round.
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by Greg Van Eekhout
Five robots. One unforgettable journey. Their programming will never be the same. Cog looks like a normal twelve-year-old boy. But his name is short for “cognitive development,” and he was built to learn. But after an accident leaves him damaged, Cog wakes up in an unknown lab—and Gina, the scientist who created and cared for him, is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by scientists who want to study him and remove his brain, Cog recruits four robot accomplices for a mission to find her. Bookseller Chloe is a fan of this novel- now out in paperback!!
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by Gordon Korman
As the son of the world’s most famous tech billionaire, spoiled Jett Baranov has always gotten what he wanted. So when his father’s private jet drops him in the middle of a place called the Oasis, Jett can’t believe it. He’s forced to hand over his cell phone, eat grainy veggie patties, and participate in wholesome activities with the other kids. As the weeks go on, Jett starts to get used to the unplugged life and even bonds with the other kids over their discovery of a baby-lizard-turned-pet, Needles. But he can’t help noticing that the adults at the Oasis are acting really strange and he vows to get to the bottom of it!
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by Joseph Bruchac
A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Okwaho's life has suddenly changed. While out hunting with his best friend, his friend is kidnapped by marauders from a neighboring tribe. Okwaho barely escapes back to his village where everyone lives in fear of raids and killings: The five tribes of the Iroquois have been at war with each other for far too long. It's up to him to teach the power of peace.
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by Anna Meriano
A loose retelling of Cinderella, about a high-school graduate who--after getting grounded for the whole summer--joins a local Quidditch league and finds her footing, perfect for fans of Dumplin', Fangirl, and everyone who's read and adored Harry Potter. 17-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke has one summer left before college. She plans to spend every last moment with her two best friends before they go off to school. But when Ellen is grounded for the entire summer by her (sometimes) evil stepmother, all her plans are thrown out the window. Determined to do something with her time, Ellen convinces her parents to let her join the local muggle Quidditch team. An all-gender, full-contact game, Quidditch isn't quite what Ellen expects...
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by Alexandra Bracken
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to seize their divine power and immortality. Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man-now a god-responsible for their deaths. Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek her out: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed to be dead, and Athena, one of the last of the original gods, now gravely wounded...
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by Frederick Joseph
Writing from the perspective of a friend, Frederick Joseph offers candid reflections on his own experiences with racism and conversations with prominent artists and activists about theirs—creating an essential read for white people who are committed anti-racists and those newly come to the cause of racial justice. Speaking directly to the reader, The Black Friend calls up race-related anecdotes from the author’s past, weaving in his thoughts on why they were hurtful and how he might handle things differently now. Backmatter includes an encyclopedia of racism, providing details on relevant historical events, terminology, and more.
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We have puzzles!
Books & Company booksellers have been relaxing with jigsaw puzzles and we know that our customers have as well. Please give us a call at 262-567-0106 to check the selections.
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Antiracist Reading Lists
We've put together lists of antiracism titles, as well as fiction, poetry, and essays with more representation of Black Voices. Whether you're looking for adults, kids, or audiobooks- we've got selections for you!
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View audiobooks on Libro.fm. There are many playlists and recommendations for kids and adults to listen to! Purchasing through Libro.fm helps support Books & Company too!
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We are open for browsing and shopping!
We do require face masks to be worn in the bookstore.
Children 24 months and older need to wear a mask.
Don't forget to sanitize your hands when you enter.
We ask that you keep your visit to 30 minutes or less. While in the bookstore, remember to social distance with booksellers and other customers.
We can have 10 shoppers in the bookstore at one time.
We continue to offer curbside pick-up and shipping. Orders can be called in or placed on our website.
Both are great option if you are unable to wear
a mask in the bookstore.
At this point, our bathrooms are not open to the public.
Thank you for your understanding as we adapt and adjust during these unusual times.
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