BOOK GROUP NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 2023
I love to read quotes about books, writing, libraries and bookstores written by famous folks. I compiled a list of quotes quite a few newsletters ago and I received positive responses from some of you. I thought I'd do it again. These are all quotes from a great book we just received in the store: A LITTLE BOOK ABOUT BOOKS: QUOTES FOR THE BIBLIOPHILE IN YOUR LIFE. It might be the perfect gift for the bibliophile in your life.  

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."---Stephen King

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly"--- Sir Francis Bacon

"Classic---a book which people praise and don't read."--- Mark Twain

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

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."---Jhumpa Lahiri

"Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." ---Louis L'Amour

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them." --- Emma Thompson

"We don't need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever."---Phillip Pullman

"Of course, anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper." --- David Quammen

"Libraries will get you through times of money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."---Anne Herbert

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

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." --- P.J. O'Rourke

"Let's be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading." --- Lena Dunham

"I love walking into a bookstore. It's like my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me." --- Tahereh Mafi

LET'S GIVE A BIG SHOUT OUT TO BOOKS AND READING!!!

Hope you've had fun with the quotes. More can be found in A LITTLE BOOK ABOUT BOOKS. I'll have copies on the Reading Group Newsletter shelf.  

I hope you enjoy the four titles I've picked for you this month. 

HAPPY READING!
Ken 
by Laird Hunt

Nominated for the National Book Award, this illuminating short novel set in the Midwest follows Zorrie Underwood's life as she mourns for the death of her parents; lives with a strict aunt "who has drunk too deeply from the cup of bitterness"; and eventually finds a job at the 
Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois painting the numbers on clock faces with radium paint. She eventually journeys back to her home in Indiana and becomes a farmer's wife. Laird Hunt uses beautiful prose to describe the tragedies and joys of her life. New York Times reviewer Alyson Hagy says, "What Hunt ultimately gives us is a pure and shining book, an America where community becomes a 'symphony of souls,' a sustenance greater than romance or material wealth for those wise enough to join in." The National Book Award judges call the book "a satisfying orb of a novel, fully contained, perfectly calibrated with love and disappointment, grief and transcendence. Each sentence has the clarity of crystal." For fans of Willa Cather, Kent Haruf and Marilynne Robinson.  
by Julia Bryan Thomas

The 1940 German occupancy of Guernsey island in the English Channel has always fascinated me. In this heartfelt novel Julia Bryan Thomas examines the occupancy and the evacuation of children from the island. As she says in her Author's Note, "One day, as I was doing some research, a single fact stood out to me: 5,000 children from the island of Guernsey had been evacuated to the southern coast of England with their teachers in June, 1940. As a teacher myself, I found the idea shocking and it piqued my curiosity. Further study showed that the government of Guernsey, a self-ruled British Crown dependency, had given the islanders a mere twenty-four hour notice of the evacuation, disrupting everyone's lives. A mere ten days after the evacuation, Germans made landfall on the Guernsey shore. FOR THOSE WHO ARE LOST is a story of love, loss and courage, exploring the choices we make in a moment and the reverberations that echo long after those choices are made," Author Kelly Mustian says, "Julia Bryan Thomas has ensured that readers will never forget the children of Guernsey displaced during World War II. This is a captivating and complex story about the power of love to both damage and heal."
by Bethan Roberts

This 2012 novel is the basis for the movie starring Harry Styles, Gina McKee, and Emma Corrin. It's in 1950s Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier and Marion falls in love with him---determined her love alone will be enough for both of them. But a few years later, Tom meets Patrick, a curator at the Brighton Museum and Patrick is totally smitten. Since Tom is a policeman, and homosexuality is against the law, it is safer for him to marry Marion and meet Patrick in secret. A love triangle develops and Marion and Patrick must share their love for Tom, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed. The Guardian calls the novel, "a humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance." Kirkus Reviews says, "Roberts beautifully captures the devastation of being unable or unwilling to live in one's truth...a melancholy story about love, loss and unnecessary suffering." Vanity Fair calls the novel "a powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true self."
by William Landay

This unforgettable legal thriller first debuted in 2012. I don't usually suggest thrillers for this newsletter, but I couldn't put this book down. And that was after I saw the 2020 AppleTV+ miniseries. It's filled with complicated characters and a plot that you won't forget. Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is well respected and admired in the courtroom. Then Andy's quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a park. And an even greater shock. The accused is Andy's own son--shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. Andy and his wife believe in Jacob's innocence. But how well can a parent really know a child? The Huffington Post says the novel "comes to you out of the blue and manages to keep you reading feverishly until the whole thing is completed... Landay has written a stunning novel and it is one that should draw attention to the possibilities it raises."
BOOKS & COMPANY BOOK GROUPS
Open to the Public
Wednesday, Feb 22nd
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Registration required-
limited seating available


Wednesday, March 22nd
1:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Sarah Winman
Registration required-
limited seating available
link to come
Tuesday, Feb 28th
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by E. Lockhart



Tuesday, March 28th
4:00 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Camille Aubray



No registration required for Mystery book group meetings.
Wednesday, Feb 15th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Elizabeth Acevedo


Wednesday, March 15th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Stephanie Kuehn


No registration required for PRADAS book group meetings.
Wednesday, February 16th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Susanne Pari



Wednesday, March 16th
6:30 p.m.
in person at Books & Co.
by Kim Fay
registration link to come


UPCOMING EVENTS!
Readings from Oconomowaukee

EDWARD CHISHOLM

In Conversation with
Daniel Goldin
and Lisa Baudoin 

Thursday, February 16th
2:00 p.m.
via Zoom
Join Boswell Book Company and Books & Company for our February Readings from Oconomowaukee event, cohosted by Alliance Française de Milwaukee.

This month will feature Edward Chisholm in conversation with Daniel Goldin and Lisa Baudoin, for Chisholm's memoir A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City- an evocative portrait of the underbelly of contemporary Paris as seen through the eyes of a young waiter scraping out a living in the City of Light.

Readings from Oconomowaukee

JENNY JACKSON

In Conversation with
Daniel Goldin, Lisa Baudoin,
and author Lauren Fox 

Thursday, February 16th
2:00 p.m.
via Zoom
Boswell Book Company and Books & Company present a special Readings from Oconomowaukee event with Jenny Jackson, author of Pineapple Street- a deliciously funny, sharply observed debut of family, love, and class, this zeitgeisty novel follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan. Jenny Jackson will be in conversation with Daniel Goldin, Lisa Baudoin, and author Lauren Fox.