|
"Rain, rain go away! Come again another day!" I'm sure that many of us have sung that ditty during the past month. And many of us have had our umbrellas turned inside out during the windy downpours we've been having. One evening in New York when Lisa and I were headed to the subway during a particularly dreadful monsoon, my umbrella gave out (I almost flew away) and I ended up throwing it in the trash. Hope it was recyclable. I have a friend who doesn't own an umbrella and walks through the raindrops saying, "Well, I'm not going to melt!" I swear I looked out the window one rainy day and saw the SS Minnow going by on it's way to "Gilligan's Island".
And what better way to spend a rainy evening than reading in your favorite chair. Books like STORMY WEATHER by Paulette Jiles, THUNDER AND RAIN by Charles Martin, THE STORMCHASERS by Jenna Blum, DISTANT THUNDER by Stuart Woods and DEEP STORM by Lincoln Child.
I've chosen two memoirs and two novels for this month. I hope you enjoy them.
Happy Reading!
Ken
kenbksco@gmail.com
| |
 | |
THE FELLOWSHIP OF PUZZLEMAKERS
by Samuel Burr
Lisa and I had a lot of fun with this delightful novel set in England. You don't have to be a puzzle master to enjoy this book. Pippa Allsbrook creates crossword puzzles for the newspaper. It's her desire to find a group of smart and eccentric folks who are master puzzle makers. She offers a home for them in her childhood estate where they can use their imagination and skill to invent puzzles that are challenging and life-affirming. On a gray day a baby is left on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. Pippa is overjoyed to have a baby to take care of. What follows is the crux of a great story. Author Alexander McCall Smith calls the book "a lovely read---warm, amusing and engaging. There is abundant pleasure on offer here." Author Beth Morrey says the novel is "a ripping yarn full of warmth and wonder, with a splendidly oddball cast; Samuel Burr has created a delightful conundrum that he unpicks with with empathy. A puzzle that's a treat to complete."
| |  |
 | |
INHERITANCE
by Dani Shapiro
Our afternoon reading group read Dani Shapiro's novel SIGNAL FIRES last month and had a great discussion. I thought it might be a good idea to read one of her memoirs, INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love. As the back of the paperback reads: "In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had casually submitted her DNA for analysis, she received the stunning news that her beloved deceased father was not her biological father. Over the course of a single day, her entire history---the life she had lived--- crumbled beneath her." Her memoir is a book about secrets, as was SIGNAL FIRES. It truly is an amazing story and Dani writes with compassion and honesty. Author Jennifer Egan says "INHERITANCE is Dani Shapiro at her best: a gripping genetic detective story and a meditation on the meaning of parenthood and family." Author Anthony Doerr says the book is "a compulsively readable investigation into selfhood that burrows to the heart of what it means to accept, to love, and to belong."
| | |
 | |
SHE'S NOT THERE
by Jennifer Finney Boylan
This is Pride Month and I thought it would be a good time to revisit Jennifer Finney Boylan's touching and thoughtful memoir SHE'S NOT THERE about her journey changing genders. Perhaps you've read the novel MAD HONEY in which she collaborated with Jodi Picoult. Although Jim Boylan grew up as a man, something always seemed wrong to him... he felt more female than male. He went on to become an English professor at Maine's Colby College, sharing an office with writer Richard Russo (EMPIRE FALLS). They became the best of friends. Jim eventually married Deirdre Grace Finney and they had two boys. Although he loved his family, his secret self was hard to ignore. So he told Grace and came out to the college. He would become a female. And through a long transition of hormone pills and doctor visits he had the operation to make him Jennifer Finney Boylan. In 2013, Jenny wrote a new forward for the paperback of SHE'S NOT THERE. In it she says, "My own identity, after all these years, has wound up less altered than I had expected. It should not have been a surprise, perhaps, but in some ways the most shocking revelation after ten years in the female sex is that mostly I am the same person I always was, gender notwithstanding. It has been a long journey, made possible by my loving spouse, my remarkable sons, and the creation of these tales. It is only because of these gifts that I have left a phantom's life behind, and have at last become something solid."
| | |
 | |
THE FUNERAL LADIES OF ELLERIE COUNTY
by Claire Swinarski
This novel set in Northern Wisconsin is not about supper clubs or the goats on Al Johnson's rooftop. Claire Swinarski writes about a group of church ladies who provide after-funeral meals for the mourners. Esther Larson has been cooking for funerals for seventy years. Her cherry pie is to die for. But when she falls for an internet scam and gives away most of her life savings, she panics. But the funeral ladies are ready to come to Esther's assistance. They decide that they'll put together a community cookbook where casseroles have their own section and cream of chicken soup mix is the most frequently used ingredient. Proceeds from the book will hopefully help Esther's dilemma. This is when famous TV chef Ivan Welsh arrives in Ellerie County with his two children to bury his ex-wife Annabelle. Could there be a connection between the famous TV chef and the community cookbook? Read this entertaining novel and find out! Bookseller Chloe says "I loved the honest way the characters show affection and annoyance with each other, but the real magic lies within the recognizable tight-knit Northwoods community and the Midwest joy sprinkled throughout."
| | |
BOOKS & COMPANY BOOK GROUPS
Open to the Public
| |
|
Wednesday, June 26th
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
The Sweetness of Water
by Nathan Harris
Registration required-
limited seating available
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Wednesday, July 24th
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
The Nurse's Secret
by Amanda Skenandore
Registration required-
limited seating available
link to come
| |
|
Wednesday, June 19th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
The Extraordinaries #1
by TJ Klune
No registration required for PRADAS book group meetings.
Wednesday, July 17th
6:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Thieves' Gambit
by Kayvion Lewis
| |
|
Tuesday, June 18th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Squatter
by Yolanda Deloach
No registration required for Reading Wisconsin book group meetings.
Meetings are every other month.
Tuesday, August 20th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
How to Walk on Water and Other Stories
by Rachel Swearingen
| |
|
Tuesday, June 25th
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
Last Call at the Nightingale
by Katharine Schellman
No registration required for Mystery book group meetings.
Tuesday, July 23rd
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
The Appeal
by Janice Hallett
| |
|
In Person Author Event
Readings from Oconomowaukee
CLAIRE LOMBARDO
Monday, June 17th
2:00 p.m.
Books & Company
| |
Join us for a lovely afternoon start of a double feature edition of Readings from Oconomowaukee with author Claire Lombardo for her new novel Same As It Ever Was- a brilliantly observed family drama in which the enduring, hard-won affection of a long marriage faces imminent derailment from events both past and present. Lombardo will be in conversation with bookstore proprietors Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin. Please register for this free event!
Can't make this afternoon event? We're taking this event on the road and will be at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee at 6:30 p.m. Click here to register for the evening event!
| |
|
Ticketed In Person Author Event
EMILY GIFFIN
in conversation with
AMY E. REICHERT
Monday, July 22nd
7:00 p.m.
at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center 3270 Mitchell Park Dr.
Brookfield, WI 53045
| |
Books & Company, Boswell Book Company, and the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts present an evening with author Emily Giffin for her new novel The Summer Pact. Giffin will be in conversation with author Amy E. Reichert.
Tickets are $36 and include admission, book, and facilities fee. There is a separate internet ordering fee.
Stock up on sunscreen and mix a fresh batch of iced tea - it’s never too early to start getting into a summer reading frame of mind. And what better way to get into the spirit of prose-and-porch swing season than with a fun and enlightening event with authors Emily Giffin and Amy Reichert?
Click here for more info!
| |
We support over 50 private book groups with their monthly selection available on the Book Group shelf in store. If your book group is registered with us, we offer 15% off of the book group title each month. To register your book group, just let us know what your book group name is and what you're reading, as well as a contact name for the group. As long as we have an updated list of your books, we will have them on the book group shelf in the store and listed on our website. |
Books & Company
1039 Summit Ave Oconomowoc, WI
262-567-0106
HOURS
Mon-Fri 9:00-7:00
Sat-Sun 9:00-5:00
| | | | |
