Laura Moriarty
The Rest of Her Life
Wednesday, July 9 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Mequon
If you're a fan of Jodi Picoult, Jane Hamilton or Alice Sebold, you'll feel right at home at our event with Laura Moriarty. Her acclaimed novel, now in paperback, is a provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the damage they inflict on one another. The story of a tragic mistake and the effect it has on two families will have you asking yourself "what would I do?"
Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence
Wednesday, July 9 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Shorewood
Join us for an evening with critically acclaimed, award-winning author, Salman Rushdie. His latest is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world, and of two cities, unknown to each other: Florence during the High Renaissance and the hedonistic Mughal capital ruled by Akbar the Great.
Your admission ticket to the event is included with Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence only when you purchase your copy from Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops or online. One ticket will grant admission for up to two (2) people. Tickets will be available May 30. Arrive early—seating is limited. Due to this special event, our Shorewood location will close to the general public at 5:30 p.m.
Darin Strauss & Rae Meadows
More Than It Hurts You
No One Tells Everything
Thursday, July 10 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Brookfield
Enjoy an evening with two critically acclaimed authors, Darin Strauss and Madison, Wisconsin's Rae Meadows. Strauss, the bestselling author of Chang and Eng, tells the story of a family pushed to its breaking point by a doctor's stunning diagnosis of Munchausen by Proxy, when a mother intentionally harms her baby. No One Tells Everything follows a young writer who is plunged into covering a murder. Meadows explores the slippery nature of truth and a friendship between two unlikely people.
Susan Quinn
Furious Improvisation
Thursday, July 10 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Shorewood
Find out how the Federal Theater Project (FTP), part of the Works Progress Administration became a platform for some of the most inventive and cutting edge theater of its time. With Hallie Flanagan at the helm, the project electrified audiences with controversial productions and performances by some of the greatest figures in twentieth century art including Orson Welles and Sinclair Lewis.
Lois Ehlert
Oodles of Animals
Saturday, July 12 •
2:00 p.m. reading •
Mequon
Kids, meet the creator of some of your favorite picture books, Lois Ehlert! Her latest book celebrates the animal kingdom with quirky, playful rhymes and bold collage illustrations that capture the spirit of each animal. Sixty-four of her favorite animals, including monkeys, hamsters, geckos and mountain goats, are there along with fun facts that teach you all about our animal friends. For kids
Robert Crais
Chasing Darkness
Monday, July 14 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Mequon
Fan favorites Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are back in the latest thriller by Robert Crais. Hired by a defense attorney, Elvis's discovery of a videotape helped clear an innocent man of murder and made Elvis a hero. But now that "innocent man" is found dead holding photos of the murder victim and Elvis finds himself on trial.
Robert Crais talks about Chasing Darkness
Mark Engler
How to Rule the World
Tuesday, July 15 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Downer Ave.
Journalist Mark Engler lays out a new way of understanding globalization politics and describes the conflict between Clinton-era vision of corporate controlled global economy and a Bush-era vision based on U.S. military dominance. He explains how they overlap, when they clash with each other, and why the author hopes neither vision prevails.
James Rollins
The Last Oracle
Wednesday, July 16 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Brookfield
What if scientists could engineer the next world prophet? Formed during the Cold War, a think tank of scientists has discovered a way to manipulate children who show savant tendencies. In James Rollins's latest thriller, a rouge group of scientists begins their own experiments. To stop them before they engineer extinction, Commander Grey Pierce of SIGMA force races against time to solve a mystery that dates back to the Oracle of Delphi, but can the past save the future?
Lin Enger
Undiscovered Country
Wednesday, July 16 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Shorewood
Seventeen-year-old Jesse Matson's life is forever changed when he finds his father dead, apparently by his own hand. But there are too many unanswered questions, not the least of which is, would his father actually kill himself? With simple elegance Lin Enger tells a story of betrayal, revenge and the possibilities of forgiveness in this riveting portrait of a young man trying to hold his family together in a world tipped suddenly upside-down.
Maggi McCormick Gordon
American Folk Art Quilts
Thursday, July 17 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Mequon
Maggi McCormick Gordon shares her enthusiasm and devotion to the art of quilting with American Folk Art Quilts. The twenty-five quilts in the book are from the Wisconsin State Historical society collection, each with its own unique history and story. Quilters inspired to create their own version of the lovely historical quilts can do so with the aid of patterns and block layouts included in the book.
Christina Schwarz
So Long at the Fair
Tuesday, July 22 •
7:00 p.m. presentation •
Mequon
Wisconsin author Christina Schwarz (Drowning Ruth) weaves past and present into a portrait of a marriage on the brink of collapse where the secrets of the past refuse to be ignored. A great night out for your book club!
Meg Waite Clayton
The Wednesday Sisters
Wednesday, July 23 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Brookfield
Friendship, loyalty and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton's novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family. As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers' circle to express their dreams and hopes. Along the way they experience history from Vietnam to the moon landing, to a women's movement that challenges their beliefs.
David Maraniss
Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World
Thursday, July 24 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Shorewood
Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss gets you in the Olympic spirit with the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Learn more about legendary athletes, politics at the games where Cold War propaganda and spies, drugs and sex, money and television, civil rights and the rise of women superstars all converged to forever change the essence of the Olympics.
Daniel Silva
Moscow Rules
Friday, July 25 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Mequon
The violent death of a journalist leads agent turned art restorer Gabriel Allon to Russia. The stakes are high; he's playing by "Moscow Rules" now. The grim Moscow of Soviet times has been replaced with a city awash in oil and bulletproof Bentleys, where a former KGB agent and current arms dealer is about to deliver Russia's most sophisticated weapons to terrorists unless Allon can put a stop to it. But the clock is ticking!
Tana French
The Likeness
Tuesday, July 29 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Shorewood
The author of the Schwartz bookseller favorite In the Woods is back with a follow-up, The Likeness. Detective Cassie Maddox has quit the murder squad, too shaken up to continue her work. But when a young woman, (who happens to look a lot like Cassie and who was carrying an I.D. with Cassie's old undercover name), is found dead, she can't resist the perfect opportunity to go back undercover to draw out the killer.
Jennifer Haigh
The Condition
Wednesday, July 30 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Mequon
The McKotch family's deepest fears, hopes and hostilities collide within the walls of their rambling retreat on Cape Cod in Jennifer Haigh's latest novel. Long divorced, Frank and Paulette hide a mountain of grievances from their three adult children who are busy with crises of their own. As summer approaches, events in their lives force them to confront themselves, their choices, and opportunities for reconciliation and love that may still await. Haigh is also the author of Mrs. Kimble.
Lynn Spencer
Touching History
Wednesday, July 30 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Shorewood
We may think we know the story of 9/11, but Lynn Spencer's moving account of the response by pilots, controllers and military commanders who found themselves on the front lines shows there is much more to the story. Spencer, an airline pilot, offers a riveting account of 9/11 that takes you behind the scenes and shows you the defense launched that day like you've never seen it before.
Rick Perlstein
Nixonland
Thursday, July 31 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Downer Ave.
Richard Nixon's landslide victory in 1972 marked the divide in America into the red-state, blue-state division which still dominates our political landscape. Rick Perlstein depicts Nixon as a troubled and dangerous man who turned the hatred his enemies felt for him into political capital. Filled with details and based on deep research, Perlstein documents the shift in political winds as well as Nixon's calculated response to those changes.
Prem Sharma
Escape from Burma
Thursday, July 31 •
7:00 p.m. talk •
Brookfield
With special guests Sandra and Mya Swe
Based on the true story of Sandra and Mya Swe, the novel Escape from Burma is the story of their attempt to flee their country during the turmoil of the 1960s. Milwaukee author Prem Sharma will be joined by the Swes for a discussion of his book, their journey, the political climate in Burma today as well as the devastating cyclone that hit the area earlier this spring.
Lesley Kagen
Land of a Hundred Wonders
Tuesday, August 5 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Mequon
Join Mequon author Lesley Kagen and celebrate the publication of her second novel. Would-be reporter Gibby McGraw, brain damaged after a car accident that took both of her parents, stumbles on the dead body of the next governor of Kentucky. She may have gotten her big break, but she got a lot more than she bargained for too! Good thing she's also learning that some things are more important than all the brains in the world, and that miracles occur in the most unexpected moments.
Ellen Baker
Keeping the House
Wednesday, August 6 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Shorewood
Set in the conformist 1950s in Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, Ellen Baker's novel is the story of a newlywed who falls in love with a grand abandoned house, and begins to unravel dark secrets woven through the generations of a family. Baker explores the courage it takes to shape a life and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another persons' desires. Paperback
David Ebershoff
The 19th Wife
Thursday, August 7 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Shorewood
In this suspenseful novel David Ebershoff explores the mysteries of love, history and faith in two intertwined narratives: a historical thread about Brigham Young's expulsion of his own 19th wife, Ann Eliza Young, from the Mormon church, and a modern-day murder mystery set on a polygamous compound in Utah.
Dirk Wittenborn
Pharmakon
Monday, August 11 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Downer Ave.
Pharmakon is an epic novel about family secrets and the consequences of ambition perfect for fans of John Irving. William Friedrich is a professor at Yale in 1952 who has stumbled upon a drug that promises happiness and could make him a famous man. But, his experiment goes awry and the results haunt his family forever. Wittenborn captures the quirks of an American family and the formative moments of the 20th century.
Jess Riley
Driving Sideways
Wednesday, August 13 •
7:00 p.m. reading •
Mequon
Leigh Fielding wants a life. She's been on dialysis for the past five years and just wants to make it to her 30th birthday. Thanks to a kidney transplant it looks like her wish may really come true. To celebrate she embarks on a road trip from Wisconsin to California, but her trip takes an unexpected detour when she picks up a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker. Jess Riley's novel is a journey of friendship, hope and discovery.
