Events
Want to catch one of our previous Crowdcast events?
You can watch them here!
Check out our book clubs!
Item Search:
March
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Everyone learns to accept life’s twists and turns as they live out the daily rituals of their lives. But what happens when an event completely alters one’s understanding of everything about the world in which they live, including who they are? Forbidden Roots brings the audience into the author’s inner most thoughts as he sees his foundation swept away with a simple slip of the tongue at the age of 41 while attending a large family gathering with his children and wife. This gripping true story about suddenly being unexpectedly thrust into the world of adoption explores the expected and the unexpected as the author seeks to understand his new identity and re-frame his past.
Things like this aren’t supposed to happen, but they do. From being dealt with the unexpected to dealing out the unexpected, ride along with the author on his journey of twists, turns and bomb shells.
About the author
Fred Nicora has followed a path of unexplained restlessness ignited by undisclosed triggers in his efforts to find the right fit for his own identity and seek truth in his life. Careers explored on his journey include health care administration, architecture, business consulting, teaching, and his own entrepreneurial endeavors including a startup fitness-based company and now authoring his story of being thrust into the adoption triangle.
Fred holds a B.S. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Management Technology, a master’s in architecture and a secondary lifetime Teaching license via a master’s program. Following a traumatic life altering event, Fred struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, eventually finding sobriety and his need for spiritual, mental, and physical health.
A father of three grown children, Fred currently lives and maintains a small hobby farm in Southeastern Wisconsin.
Time: 6:00p
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Alabama governor George Wallace ran for president four times between 1964 and 1976. In the Badger State, his campaigns fueled a debate over constitutional principles and values. Wallace weaponized states’ rights, arguing that the federal government should stay out of school segregation, promote law and order, restrict forced busing and reduce burdensome taxation. White working-class Wisconsinites armed themselves with Wallace’s rhetoric, pushing back on changes that threatened the status quo. Civil rights activists and the Black community in Wisconsin armed themselves with a different constitutional principle, equal protection, to push for strong federal protection of their civil rights. This clash of ideals nearly became literal as protests and counterprotests erupted until gradually diminishing as Wallace’s political fortunes waned. Historian Ben Hubing reveals the tensions that embroiled Wisconsinites as Wallace took his struggle north of the Mason-Dixon line.
About the author
Historian Ben Hubing, a high school educator and educational consultant, has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the James Madison Foundation Fellowship and the Herb Kohl Teaching Fellowship. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a master's in teaching from Cardinal Stritch University. He also earned a master's in history at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, with a focus on intersections of civil rights, politics and constitutional history. Hubing lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin, with his wife, Nickie, and their three children.
April
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
Join us for an evening with Bent Paddle Press Poets!
About B.J. Best
B.J. Best is a poet, writer, interactive fiction creator, game designer, artist, and musician. He has published seven collections of poetry, most recently “Everything about Breathing” from Bent Paddle Press. He teaches at Carroll University in Waukesha.
About In Everything about Breathing
In Everything about Breathing, B.J. Best transmutes the quotidian into the extraordinary through the lens of everyday weather. Here, thunderstorms record in the studio, gas stations explode into love, and lawn mowers and puddles might whisper prayers. Through deft imagery and figurative language, Best asks how holiness thrums beneath the daily cycles of our lives.
About Thomas Erickson
Thomas J. Erickson grew up in Kohler, Wisconsin. He received a B.A. in English Composition from Beloit College and a law degree from Marquette University. He is an attorney in Milwaukee where he is a member of the Hartford Avenue Poets. HIs most recent book of poetry is “Cutting the Dusk in Half” (Bent Paddle Press, 2022).
About Cutting the Dusk in Half
“Cutting the Dusk in Half” is full of crisp little stories: courtroom stories, travelling stories, love stories, dog stories and even an incantation to the Gods. One is called “True Stories,” but I suspect they all are that (with room for a little poetic truth stretching, of course). Erickson is candid, philosophical and down-to-earth. He weaves his signature dry humor throughout, knowing exactly how to end a poem with a perfect punch.
About Mark Kraushaar
Mark Kraushaar’s work has been included in Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, and Yale Reviewwas well as the web site Poetry Dailyand Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, and has been a recipient of Poetry Northwest’s Richard Hugo Award. A full-length collection “Falling Brick Kills Local Man” was published by University of Wisconsin Press as the winner of the 2009 Felix Pollak Prize. His collection, “The Uncertainty Principle” (Waywiser Press), was chosen by James Fenton as winner of the Anthony Hecht Prize. His newest work is “The Ring Toss Lady Breaks a Five (Bent Paddle Press).
About The Ring Toss Lady Breaks a Five
As the poet Alan Shapiro put it, Kraushaar’s work “is the best counterargument to the specious claim that narrative poetry is either old fashioned, ‘linear’ or predictably ‘conventional.’ His poems have all the excitement and complexity of life as we live it now, together with a depth of speculation that is positively stunning in the light it casts on the intimate nooks and crannies of social experience that all of encounter but either fail to notice or find words for.”
About Richard Merelman
Richard Merelman is Professor of Political Science, (Emeritus) University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has published four volumes of poetry including “Sensorium” (Bent Paddle Press) and “A Door Opens” (Fireweed, 2020), which received an Outstanding Achievement Award in 2021 from the Wisconsin Library Association.
About Sensorium
In “Sensorium,” Merelman finds a way into the human condition with storied, deeply layered poetry. Merelman cares about his poems the way an expert woodsmith does his cabinets. He is an adept wordsmith and exquisite craftsman and polishes his works till they shine.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
When my eyes creaked open and tried to find focus, I didn’t know where I was. The room was dim, my wrists were tied to the bed rail, and the dull ache of a needle in my hand throbbed through the fog. Motionless and silent, I lay staring at the ceiling until everything started coming back to me—the hallucinations, my teeth were melting, the menacing trolls teetering around the bedroom; uncontrollable shaking while my wife, Robin, helped me take a shower; and the catatonic ride to the emergency department of Meriter Hospital. After being ushered into an exam room, my memory was a void until this silent, dim awakening moment.
Alcohol withdrawal can kill you, and I would have been a statistic had I not made it to the ER. I drank almost every day for nearly two decades and an obscene amount for a few years leading to this point. This is my story. Now twenty-nine years sober, I’m one of the lucky ones who lived to fight another day. Join me as I chronicle my journey through coming of age, rock and roll debauchery, a downward spiral into the depths of substance abuse, and then like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, the joy and accomplishments in my ongoing recovery.
If I can help encourage just one of those among you who are struggling or someone you love to see that it’s possible to make the change, to find your way out of that rabbit hole of alcoholism, and feel how beautiful life can be above ground, it will all have been worth it.
About the author
Michael Massey is a composer, singer, songwriter, pianist, performer and producer who has a story to tell. He has written or collaborated on over 350 rock, pop, country and instrumental songs as well as the score for the full length, Dracula, Rock Ballet. He has 5 critically acclaimed solo albums including Pop Album of the year 2006 and Unique Albums of the Year 2014 and 2018 at the Madison Area Music Awards. Michael has also won Instrumentalist; Piano at the same awards 2009, 2019 and 2020 as well as numerous ADDY, TELLY and WAVE awards for excellence in original music for advertising.
Musical accomplishments include five solo albums released to critical and popular acclaim. The first is an instrumental piano album, “Be Careful How You Say Pianist”, second, twelve fully produced pop songs in “Attack of the Delicious”, which won Pop Album of the Year 2006 at the Madison Area Music Awards, third, “The Present” which is piano arrangements of traditional Christmas pieces, fourth, the soundtrack to Dracula, A Rock Ballet, recorded live with a 7 piece band at the Overture Center in Madison Wisconsin and garnered Unique Album of the Year honors at the 2014 MAMA’s and most recently, “Naked”, 13 songs stripped to minimal production and the Unique Album of the Year winner at the 2018 MAMA’s.
Three other records, “Rainy River,” a five song EP by Massey, Ripp and Magellan, “Gifted At The Hula” by Americana band, “stop the clock,” the ten song 2019 release by rock band “Chaser” find Michael intimately involved with production, writing and performing.
Michael has recently published a memoir with an emphasis on recovery from alcoholism and life beyond substance abuse. He is performing with chanteuse Francie Phelps, with the dueling piano show, Piano Fondue, solo piano bar and vocals and keys with the rock band Chaser.
While maintaining a busy performance schedule, Michael is also known for his ability to write in virtually any musical genre including scoring, post, long form, theater, radio spots and television commercials. Clients for radio and television commercials include New Balance, Oscar Mayer, United Way, Jones Dairy Farm, Metra Chicago, Badgerland Financial, Summit Credit Union, Mercury Marine, UW Hospital and Clinics, Culver’s and many more.
Other accomplishments include original scores for short films, a score produced with Jack Letourneau for the computer animated feature, “Time, Space” for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and a score for the University of Michigan Alumni, broadcast at the “Big House” in Ann Arbor. Michael is currently co-writing a sexy musical theatrical production with actor, writer, producer/director Suzan Kurry.
Time: 11:00a CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
There are big things and little things in the world, and everything in between. Caldecott Medal winner and #1 New York Times bestseller Kevin Henkes encourages young readers to be curious about the world around them in this timeless, beautifully illustrated, and masterful picture book. The World and Everything in It belongs in every child’s library, and illuminates key social and emotional concepts such as belonging, self-awareness, and community.
In the world, there are little animals, tiny flowers, and things so small you can’t see them. In the world, there are giant waves, a large sun, and things so big you can’t wrap your hands around them. There are big things and little things in the world. And everything in between—including you!
A masterful picture book from Caldecott Medal winner and #1 New York Times bestseller Kevin Henkes, The World and Everything in It explores concepts such as curiosity, self-awareness, belonging, and size. Combining a precise, evocative, and lovely text with exquisite illustrations, Kevin Henkes deftly captures the wonders and mysteries of the world for any reader just beginning to wonder about how they fit in.
A brilliant picture book to spend time with, discuss, and think about, The World and Everything in It is an excellent choice for social and emotional development as well as a lovely book to give to readers of any age.
About the author
“I’ve been writing and illustrating children’s books for thirty years. It’s the only real job I’ve ever had.
When my work is going well, it’s transformative. I feel as if I’ve been removed from ordinary time and am living in some parallel universe, a world of grace and wonder.
Books are often the first exposure to art that children have. Keeping that in mind urges me to make the very best books possible. I know how important the books from my childhood were (and are) to me. Without them, I might not be a writer and artist today.
Sometimes I’ll hear from a parent about how a book of mine has insinuated itself into the heart of his or her child, or how a phrase from one of my books has become part of the family’s daily jargon. I love that. But most of all, I love sitting alone in a quiet room drawing and painting and writing. I love my job.”
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
THE DEVIL’S ELEMENT: PHOSPHORUS AND A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE is an insightful exploration of one of earth’s most significant and dangerous natural resources. Since it was first refined from human urine in a seventeenth-century alchemist’s laboratory, phosphorus has been used to help burn down entire cities as well as to create the modern chemical fertilizers that have allowed the global population to nearly quadruple in the past hundred years. With a journalist’s ability to translate meticulous research into a thrilling story, Egan brings phosphorus’s checkered history to life. Today, with phosphorus at the center of an increasingly dire environmental disaster poisoning freshwater sources all over the globe, its history has taken on renewed significance. Egan convincingly makes the case that we can no longer afford to be ignorant of our phosphorous use and the damage it is causing.
About the author
Dan Egan is the Brico Fund Journalist in Residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Water Policy, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Death and Life of The Great Lakes. From 2002 to 2021, he covered the Great Lakes as a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award; Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award; AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award; and J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. Dan lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and children.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Detective Susan Ford notices a missed call on her phone from a number she doesn't recognize, and when Madison García, a woman with past ties to the town of Monticello, New York, is found stabbed to death the next morning, Susan realizes that Madison was the one who had called her. But why?
Susan teams up with her father, retired Detective Will Ford, to find the killer, and their investigation soon threatens to uncover the García family's secrets—an inheritance, accidental death, money laundering, extramarital affairs, and family rivalries, just to name a few—and they don't appreciate the Fords digging into their business.
As the investigation twists and turns, the Fords discover that Madison was planning to confess to a long-kept secret, but someone brutally silenced her. Everyone she knew is a suspect. Anyone could be her killer.
About Marcy McCreary
Marcy McCreary is the author of The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion 2022 Finalist in Best Investigative category. After graduating from George Washington University with a B.A. in American literature and political science, she pursued a career in the marketing field, holding executive positions in marketing communications and sales at various magazine publishing companies and content marketing agencies. She has two daughters and two stepdaughters who live in Brooklyn, NY, Nashville, TN, Madison WI, Seattle, WA. She lives in Hull, MA with her husband, Lew, and black lab, Chloe.
About Nick Chiarkas
Nick Chiarkas grew up in the Al Smith housing projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Nick became a writer, with a few stops along the way: a U.S. Army Paratrooper (101st Airborne Division); a New York City Police Officer; the Deputy Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; the Deputy Chief Counsel and Research Director for the President’s Commission on Organized Crime; and the Director of the Wisconsin State Public Defender Agency. On the way he picked up a Doctorate from Columbia University; a Law Degree from Temple University; and was a Pickett Fellow at Harvard.
Time: 11:00a CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
This epic poem tells the legendary tale of Steve "Stick" Vizage, a young boy who loves to express himself—and not always pleasantly—by making faces. Stick learns about the consequences when he comes face to face with his babysitter, the imposing Madame Mugg, who warns him that his facial features could freeze in place, given a certain situation. Adventure ensues as she decides to teach him an important lesson about manners, mannerisms, and treating others with respect. Come along for the ride of a lifetime with The Isle of Stuck Faces, a book for kids and adults of all ages with maturity issues.
About the author
Brooke Saucier has been molding and twisting the English language to suit his needs—prose, poetry, puns, Dad jokes—for most of his life. Born and raised in Memphis, Brooke ventured north for his education at the University of Illinois, where he acquired his first of many winter coats. He has been cold ever since, with a three-decade stop in Chicago and Evanston as a precursor to his settling with his wife, cat, and two dogs in Madison, Wisconsin, where he found a closet large enough for his collection of coats and jackets, which are suited for many climes. Over the years, Brooke has held many titles—banker, membership director, distiller, brand ambassador, preschool teacher, property manager—but his absolute favorite is used only by his amazing daughter, Julia: Dad
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About My People Redux
In My People Redux, Angela Trudell Vasquez creates in vivid images and musical language a world where children “cycle, talk, sing—” run, dangle from tree limbs, hunt, peer, trample, and search. In their joyful activity they realize, “This is where my power / started flowing.” It is not a trouble-free world. Children played in the DDT- laced cornfields; refugees are turned away at the border. Sometimes a person “crawls to the finish line.” But it is also a world where “Everybody is somebody’s child” and there are people “who will throw open their doors/ and let them in, let them in.” It is also a world where “pen can tap into my brain, // reveal what is hiding, // not to court friends or foes, // but to keep from disappearing. In these compelling poems, Vasquez welcomes us to recover with her what the great grandfather knew, “the original place of green grace.” –Margaret Rozga, author of Holding My Selves Together, New & Selected Poems and 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate
About Angela Vasquez
Angela (Angie) Trudell Vasquez is a poet, writer, editor, publisher, and activist. She is the current City of Madison Poet Laureate (2020-2024) and the first Latina to hold the position. Angie received her MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2017. Recently, her poems have appeared in The Slow Down, Yellow Medicine Review, Poem-a-Day, About Place Journal and in several anthologies.She has poems on the Poetry Foundation’s website, and was a Ruth Lilly Fellow while at Drake University. In 2018 she was a finalist for the New Women’s Voices series and her book, In Light, Always Light, her third collection of poetry, was published by Finishing Line Press in May 2019. She guest edited the Spring 2019 edition of the Yellow Medicine Review with Millissa Kingbird, and co-edited a collection of poetry with Margaret Rozga, then 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, entitled Through This Door, that was released in late 2020 through her small press Art Night Books. Finishing Line Press published her fourth collection of poetry, My People Redux, in January 2022. Active nationally too, she has read poems, been a panelist, and presented at Split This Rock and AWP. In the summer of 2021 she became a Macondo Fellow or a Macondista. Current Chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, she helps select the state poet laureate. (angietrudellvasquez.com & artnightbooks.com)
About Holding My Selves Together
In Holding My Selves Together: New and Selected Poems, her fifth volume of poetry, Margaret Rozga brings together some of her best-loved poems about Milwaukee's fair housing marches and her concern for issues of peace and social justice, with new poems that identify with Alice in Wonderland and imagine new Alice adventures. New poems also grapple with issues of recent political turmoil and pandemic-induced uncertainty. These deeply written poems find in language the glue that may hold our selves together.
About Margaret Rozga
Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dr. Margaret Rozga is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee at Waukesha. Her poems and essays reflect her ongoing concern for social justice issues. Her first book, 200 Nights and One Day presents the story of Milwaukee’s open housing marches. She was a participant in those marches and has coordinated events commemorating their 20th, 40th and 50th anniversaries. She married civil rights leader Father James Groppi in 1976. Their three children, now all adults, continue to live in Wisconsin.
Rozga has published four additional collections of poems, most recently Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems(Cornerstone Press 2021). As Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2019-2020, Rozga and Madison Poet Laureate Angie Trudell Vasquez co-edited a poetry anthology, Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems. This anthology includes work by the nine Wisconsin Poets Laureate and the wonderfully diverse voices of Black, Latinx and white poets from throughout the state.
Rozga’s current work-in-progress is Restoring Prairie, a volume of poems inspired by her 2021 term as Artist in Residence at the UWM at Waukesha Field Station.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
In Defense of Sovereignty tells the story of the Oneida Nation’s struggles for self-determination. Since the removal of the Oneida people from New York in the 1820s to what would become Wisconsin, the nation has been engaged in legal conflicts to retain its sovereignty and its lands. Legal scholar and former Oneida Nation senior staff attorney Rebecca M. Webster traces this history, including the nation’s treaties with the US but focusing especially on its relationship with the village of Hobart, Wisconsin. Since 2003 six disputes have led to litigation between the local government and the nation. Central to these disputes are Hobart’s attempts to regulate the nation and relegate its government to the position of a common landowner, subject to municipal authority.
As in so many conflicts between Indigenous nations and local municipalities, the media narrative about the Oneida Nation’s battle for sovereignty has been dominated by the local government’s standpoint. In Defense of Sovereignty offers another perspective, that of a citizen directly involved in the litigation, augmented by contributions from historians, attorneys, and a retired nation employee. It makes an important contribution to public debates about the inherent right of Indigenous nations to continue to exist and exercise self-governance within their territories without being challenged at every turn.
About Rebecca M. Webster
Rebecca M. Webster, an assistant professor in the American Indian studies department at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, is a former senior staff attorney for the Oneida Nation. She is the coeditor of Tribal Administration and Governance Handbook, and her articles can be found in American Indian Quarterly, Planning Theory and Practice, Wisconsin Lawyer, Ethnohistory, and the Journal of American Indian Education.
About Richard Monette
Richard Monette was twice elected to serve as Chairman and CEO of Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe. Richard is Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where he teaches Federal Indian Law, Conflict of Laws, State Constitutional Law, and Water Quantity Law. For thirty years Richard has served as the Faculty Director of the Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center. At the start of his career, Richard served as Staff Attorney for the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs under the leadership of Senators Dan Inouye (D-HI), John McCain (R-AZ), and Dan Evans (R-AZ).
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Barriques on Monroe St
We will be reading The Witch and the Vampire by Francessca Flores
About the book
A queer Rapunzel retelling where witch and a vampire who trust no one but themselves must journey together through a cursed forest with danger at every turn.
Ava and Kaye used to be best friends. Until one night two years ago, vampires broke through the magical barrier protecting their town, and in the ensuing attack, Kaye’s mother was killed, and Ava was turned into a vampire. Since then, Ava has been trapped in her house. Her mother needs her: Ava still has her witch powers, and Eugenia must take them in order hide that she’s a vampire as well. Desperate to escape her confinement, Ava needs to reach the vampires that live in the forest and to stop her mother’s plans for the town. When there is another attack, she sees her opportunity and escapes.
Kaye, now at the end of her training as a Flame witch, is ready to fulfill her duty of killing any vampires that threaten the town, including Ava. On the night that Ava escapes, Kaye follows her and convinces her to travel together into the forest, while secretly planning to turn her in. Ava agrees, hoping to rekindle their old friendship, and the romantic feelings she'd started to have for Kaye before that terrible night.
But with monstrous trees that devour humans whole, vampires who attack from above, and Ava’s stepfather tracking her, the woods are full of danger. As they travel deeper into the forest, Kaye questions everything she thought she knew. The two are each other's greatest threat—and also their only hope, if they want to make it through the forest unscathed.
Time: 11:00a CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Grab your boots--it's time to explore life on a farm! In joyful verse, follow a diverse cast of farming families as they work and play in boots, all year long. Whether it's springtime puddle-splashing, riding at the summer fair, or herding sheep into the barn in winter, there's a type of boot for every kind of weather and activity.
About the author
Lisl H. Detlefsen is the author of a growing number of picture books. Her first, TIME FOR CRANBERRIES (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press, illustrated by Jed Henry) was a Junior Library Guild selection, a 2016 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People (K–2), and the 2017 Wisconsin Ag in the Classroom Book of the Year.
IF YOU HAD A JETPACK (Penguin Random House/Knopf, illustrated by Linzie Hunter) was a Spring 2018 Kids’ Indie Next pick, an ALA LITA 2019 Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Picture Book and listed on the 2019 Edition of the Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year.
Other titles include RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE (Feeding Minds Press, illustrated by Renée Kurilla), which was named the 2019 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s Book of the Year, and 1, 2, 3, JUMP!, a humorous book about swimming lessons (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press, illustrated by Madeline Valentine).
Her most recent titles include CATKWONDO (Capstone, illustrated by Erin Hunting), in which Kitten persistently practices taekwondo, and ON THE GO AWESOME, a picture book for the vehicle-obsessed (Penguin Random House/Knopf, illustrated by Robert Neubecker) which is a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year choice for kids under five.
Lisl has more books on the way, including FARM BOOTS (March 2023, Feeding Minds Press, illustrated by Renée Kurilla), a lyrical celebration of work and play on a variety of farms throughout the four seasons, and AT THE END OF THE DAY (Spring 2024, Knopf, illustrated by Lynnor Bontigao), a free-verse story about how even in a day filled with frustration, there's always the promise of tomorrow.
Lisl lives on a family-owned cranberry marsh near Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin with her husband, two sons, and two cats. When not in her office or on the marsh, you can find Lisl on the web at www.lislhdbooks.com, on Twitter and Instagram @lislhd, or on Facebook @lislhdbooks. She is represented by agent Jennifer Mattson of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Minneapolis socialite Lilly Schmidt thought she had her life figured out... until her world came crashing down with the one-two punch of divorce papers and news of her grandparents' deaths.
Suddenly single and the new owner of her family's farm, Lilly finds herself thrust back into the old life she'd left far behind in her rural hometown of Lone Tree, Minnesota. The simple restart Lilly looks for on the farm is anything but when she is caught up in the fight between land developers hoping to bring new business and growth to the town, and the locals who want to keep their country life simple. She also, begrudgingly, must keep the peace with the farm's hired hand Ryan, who also happens to be her old high school boyfriend—and is he still nursing a grudge!
When one of the land developers is found dead on her farm, Lilly faces a mix of small-town feuds and family secrets that proves deadlier with each turn. Can Lilly figure out the killer before she "buys the farm" permanently?
About the author
Amy Gregg is the Minnesota Book Award-nominated author of Relic Chosen: Magic and Madness from North Star Press. She is also the author of Through the Woods and Next Weekend, from Lulu Publishing, and Farmed & Dangerous from Fox PointePublishing, LLP.
She began her writing journey in middle school and never thought to stop. Save for those four years while attending Concordia University, St. Paul to get her B.A. in Psychology. And that handful of years to start a family. Somewhere in there, she sleeps. When not writing she enjoys watching movies, reading, spending time with family, and spirited discussions of all things Marvel. A native Minnesotan who grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, this "city girl" lives with her daughter and 15lb cat west of the Twin Cities.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About Epidemic of Nostalgia
Poached eggs, flittering sparrows, a tiny Buddha, and mysterious words coexist lusciously in this playful Epidemic of Nostalgia by Sujash Purna.
Flexible language reminds us of the magic we daily dwell in…”We knew life was going to be short” or, to a grandfather, “…you and I are the same body, just one earth away” — luminous truths rising through time blurs, rich blends of appealing images. An utterly delicious, original voice speaks here – welcome this wonder!
–Naomi Shihab Nye
About Sujash Purna
Sujash Purna is a Bangladeshi poet and photographer based in Madison, Wisconsin. A first-year PhD fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is the author of “Biriyani” (Poet’s Haven) and "Epidemic of Nostalgia'' (Finishing Line Press). His poetry has appeared in California State Poetry Quarterly, Reed Magazine, South Carolina Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review, Kansas City Voices, Poetry Salzburg Review, Gutter, Stonecoast Review, and others. A 2022 Anaphora Residency Fellow and Moon City Review Creative Nonfiction Award Winner, Sujash is the poetry editor for Pyre Magazine. His “Azans for the Infidel” and “Simple Fantasies” are forthcoming from Mouthfeel Press’s CLASH! Books and Finishing Line Press in 2023. His photography piece “Enamored with the Unknown” is forthcoming in the Ilanot Review. Sujash and his photography can be found on Instagram @poeticnomadic
About Shahayra Majumder
Majumder is originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, and is an alumnus of the University of Florida. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin working remotely as a Solutions Engineer for a Silicon Valley startup focused on improving health equity. Poetry is her reprieve, along with travel.
May
- Finding facts
- Informing your decisions with the truth
- Where to go for "good" sources and how to spot the fakes
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
The seventeen unrelenting stories in Steve Fox's debut story collection, Sometimes Creek, traverse a sub-zero trail of plausible magic and grit from a kaleidoscope of broken ice at a hockey rink in Wisconsin that coils through haunted rivers and around dangling legs of jamón serrano in sweltering Spanish bars and back again to a place where Kafka and Carver meet up on the page. Fox's clean prose takes you by the hand and weaves a tapestry of tenderness, dissonance, indifference, dystopia, and charm into that gauzy space that collectively takes shape in your hands as Sometimes Creek.
About the author
Steve Fox is the winner of the Rick Bass Montana Prize for Fiction, The Great Midwest Writing Contest, The Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Contest, the Jade Ring Award, and a Midwestern Gothic Summer Flash Contest. His fiction has appeared in New Ohio Review, Orca, a Literary Journal, Midwest Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Midwestern Gothic, Whitefish Review, and others. He holds a Master of Arts in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has lived and worked in four continents. Steve now resides in his home state of Wisconsin with his wife, three boys, and one dog. Steve can be found at stevefoxwrites.com.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Garth's Brew Bar
For our May book club we will be reading A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
About the book
Few books have had a greater impact than A Sand County Almanac, which many credit with launching a revolution in land management. Written as a series of sketches based principally upon the flora and fauna in a rural part of Wisconsin, the book, originally published by Oxford in 1949, gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere; a final section addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation. Beloved for its description and evocation of the natural world, Leopold's book, which has sold well over 2 million copies, remains a foundational text in environmental science and a national treasure.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
A Change of Heart is the sequel to In The Secret Heart
The small town of Farmerton is finally back to normal—or is it? After recovering from the shock of murder and scandal, it feels like it's getting back to its quiet self. But just when everything seems normal again, the community, and especially Sgt. Joe Zimmerman, are stunned once more by an unexpected and frightening event, making Joe and the townspeople wonder if Farmerton ever be the same again.
About Kathy Jacobson
Kathy J. Jacobson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wartburg Theological Seminary. Kathy worked with troubled youth in the juvenile justice system for ten years in Dane and Rock County, and later in campus and rural ministry, as well as volunteering as a hospice chaplain. A native of Columbus, Wisconsin, currently living in Monona, Kathy has resided in many diverse areas of the state over the years. She and her husband have three grown children and five very young grandchildren.
An avid traveler, Kathy has recorded adventures in six continents and all fifty states. In addition to traveling, she loves hiking, the theater, the Wisconsin Badgers, and most of all—writing!
About Christine DeSmet
Christine DeSmet is a writer, writing coach, and an award-winning author and scriptwriter. For many years she helmed the Writers' Institute and the Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Retreat as well as online writing courses at University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was a Distinguished Faculty Associate of writing. She writes the Fudge Shop Mystery series and the Mischief in Moonstone novella series. She is a member of Blackbird Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Writers Guild of America East, Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and Wisconsin Writers Association. Christine shares writer education and news posts regularly on Facebook.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
The Unreliable Narrator Wakes Up is a series of free-form prose poems in a debut chapbook by Shahayra Majumder. Over 28 entries, Majumder delivers an intimate perspective on navigating the trials of adulthood and the pressures faced by marginalized communities and trauma victims. Written over the course of the early 2020s, she writes unabashedly through pain, triumph, love, spirituality, and growing independence. Unreliable Narrator challenges the reader to face society's harsh truths, yet also encourages marveling at the risks we take to live fulfilling lives, humor at the wonderfully paradoxical, and feel pride as we rediscover and settle into ourselves.
About Shahayra Majumder
Majumder is originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, and is an alumnus of the University of Florida. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin working remotely as a Solutions Engineer for a Silicon Valley startup focused on improving health equity. Poetry is her reprieve, along with travel.
About Carrie Voigt Schonhoff
Wisconsin-based author and poet Carrie Voigt Schonhoff has self-published two books of poems titled, 'The Liminal Space' and 'The End of the Beginning.' She was widowed in 2012 and that life challenge has taught her many things, some of which she writes about in her books. This work will resonate deeply with readers from the Midwest and pull at the heartstrings of those that continue to face challenges but never stop dreaming. Her books address the importance of healing, moving on, and being ready to face a new beginning. Carrie's work is also a continuation of beliefs that we can heal by connecting and understanding one another on a deeper level through poetry. She has recently completed her first Book Tour and is excited to continue to share her poetry with the world. Carrie enjoys spending time with her two adult children and two Italian greyhound dogs in Wisconsin. Visit LiminalArtistry.com to learn more.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Barriques on Monroe St
We will be reading Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley!
About the book
#1 New York Times bestselling author Angeline Boulley takes us back to the world of Firekeeper's Daughter in this high-stakes mystery about the power of discovering and reclaiming your stolen history.
Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is - the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won't ever take her far from home, and she wouldn't have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.
In order to reclaim this inheritance for her people, Perry has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. She can only count on her friends and allies, including her overachieving twin and a charming new boy in town with unwavering morals. Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot - will not - stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Suspended from her job in the DA’s office, Detective Shea Sommers travels to the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin to investigate the mysterious death of her mentor Pat Donegal. Shea learns Pat was investigating the murder of a young woman, Michaella Paxton, who was shot and burned to death in the 1980s. Shea needs to dig into that case to find out what happened to Pat. As she searches for clues, one name keeps popping up. Chanz Loman is a reclusive poet and handyman who arrived in the area shortly after the woman was murdered. Shea’s probe into Paxton’s death and Loman’s involvement reveals dark secrets tied directly to a bloody civil war in Nicaragua during the 1980s. Only Loman knows the truth, but will he reveal his secrets to a nosy out-of-town detective? In the end, Shea is forced to confront the truth about her friend Pat Donegal. The ending will shake you! Featuring characters from the award-winning novel A DRIFTLESS MURDER.
About the author
Born in the driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin, Jerry McGinley has been publishing poetry and fiction for many years. His most recent book GHOSTS OF DHARMA HILLS is a mystery set primarily in fictional Kickapoo County. His previous novel A DRIFTLESS MURDER won the 2022 Midwest Book Award for Fiction/Mystery. For over thirty years, McGinley taught in Wisconsin at the high school and college levels, earning teaching awards from the Kohl Foundation, Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English, Newsweek Magazine, and the Wisconsin Department of Education. He founded and edited three creative writing magazines: Yahara Prairie Review, Lake City Lights, and Yahara Prairie Lights. He currently lives in Waunakee with his wife Gail.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
At age twenty-four, Sara Alvarado bought a one-way ticket from the midwest to Mexico determined to heal from years of hard partying and sexual trauma. In this raw and inspiring memoir, Sara takes readers on a journey as she struggles with being newly sober, unexpectedly in love - and then suddenly, terrifyingly pregnant. Guided from afar by her wise and loving mother and her emerging spiritual connection, Sara confidently (yet full of self-doubt) faces the complexity of a multicultural marriage and motherhood in a foreign country. In vivid, storytelling prose, Sara shares the messy dance between cultures, classes, languages, traditions, white privilege, and a desire to belong. This epic love story confronts tough topics and uncertainty in an honest voice that is refreshing and witty.
About the author
SARA ALVARADO is a white woman married to a native Mexican man with two multicultural, bilingual children. She is a writer, speaker, and fierce advocate for racial equity in real estate. Sara published her first book, Dreaming In Spanish in 2023, the Racial Justice Toolkit for Real Estate Professionals, a Guide for Change Agents, and numerous articles and essays. Sara and her husband, Carlos, own Alvarado Real Estate Group and feel most at home in Madison, Wisconsin, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. www.SaraAlvarado.com
June
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
In The Devil Particle, scientists have discovered that evil can be extracted from everyone and contained in a vessel, but that vessel has to be human.
Seventeen-year-old Paul Salvage wants to be the human vessel to prove to the world, and himself, that he is good, but first, he must compete in the Vessel Trials against forty-nine other candidates, including his girlfriend. During the trials, Paul must climb to the top of a 52-story abandoned skyscraper while suffering thirst and starvation, reason his way out of a trap, cope with revealed family secrets, and confront his dead mother. When Paul sacrifices one of the candidates to save himself and his girlfriend, he realizes he’ll do anything to win.
About the author
Kristin A. Oakley is the author of two award-winning suspense thrillers, Carpe Diem, Illinois and God on Mayhem Street. She is writing a four-book young adult thriller series called The Devil Particle Series, which will be released on June 6th, 2023. Kristin teaches writing workshops, has critiqued manuscripts through the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, and has helped writers hone their agent pitches at the Division’s Writers’ Institute. As a Chicago Writers Association board member, Kristin was the managing editor of The Write City Magazine and The Write City Review and is currently assisting with educational programming. Additionally, she reviews books and writes about being a novelist in her bi-monthly newsletter, available at kristinoakley.net.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Garth's Brew Bar
For our June book club we will be reading An Extraordinary Union
About the book
1861. Elle Burns is a former slave with a passion for justice. She also possesses a photographic memory. She has the rare fortune—a human right—to live a free life. But to spy for the Union Army, she is willing to risk the brutal indignity of the slave system deeply entrenched in the South.
Malcolm McCall is a seasoned detective for Pinkerton's Secret Service. His latest mission is his riskiest yet: to infiltrate and embed himself within a Rebel Virginia enclave. Together with Elle, these two brave spies stumble across a plot that could turn the tide of the war in the Confederacy's favor. Caught in a tightening web of wartime intrigue, Malcolm and Elle must make their boldest move to preserve the Union at any cost—even if it means losing each other . . .
July
Time: 11:00a CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book:
Meet fifteen remarkable athletes who use adaptive equipment in this beautiful and truth-telling picture book.
A downhill skier whose blindness has sharpened her communication skills. An adaptive surfer who shreds waves while sitting down. A young man who excels at wheelchair motocross--but struggles with math. Tenacious tells their stories and more, revealing the daily joys and challenges of life as an athlete with disabilities.
These competitors have won gold medals, set world records, climbed mountain peaks, claimed national championships, and many more extraordinary achievements. Get to know them in Tenacious!
About the author:
Paralympian Patty Cisneros Prevo (she/her/ella) is a proud disabled Latina, diversity, equity, and inclusion professional, and picture book writer. In 2015, as a parent and 4th grade teacher, she saw a huge gap in children's literature when it came to diversity. There were few characters of color in the pictures books she read to her children and her Black and Brown students. And there were even fewer disabled characters. With her connections to the disabled community and adaptive sports, she decided to bring those disabled characters to the forefront.
In 2019, Patty received the Lee & Low Books New Voices Award Honor for Tenacious: Fifteen Adventures Alongside Disabled Athletes. Coming out in June 2023, just in time for Disability Pride Month, the book highlights 15 disabled individuals and their major life and athletic accomplishments. Patty herself is a five-time National Wheelchair Basketball Association Championships winner, a three-time Paralympian, and a two-time Paralympic gold medalist. In 2021, she was appointed to the Congressional Commission on the State of the U.S. Olympics & Paralympics.
With a degree in education from Valparaiso University and a Master of Education from the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, Patty currently lives in Wisconsin and works in as a Program Manager for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for UW Health. She spends her free time training for half marathons and loving on her family—Tony, Elliana, Elliot, and Canela.
Patty Cisneros Prevo is represented by Ana Crespo.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Garth's Brew Bar
For our July book club we will be reading The Reading List
About the book
Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London, after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.
Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.
When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again.
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book
Petal Woznewski is content with her quiet, introverted life in New York City: she has her junk food, her movies, and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Gus. That peace is shattered when her name appears on the dedication page of an anonymously written thriller with a cryptic note: "I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will too."
As she reads, Petal realizes the story is rooted in a secret she buried thirty years earlier. A secret involving the tragic death of her friend, Megan. A secret that only one other person knows—their old friend, Jenny. Armed with a copy of the book and her own suspicions, Petal returns to her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. There, she discovers more questions than answers. Jenny has disappeared, and Petal's old high school crush, Ben, doesn't know anything about the book—at least not anything he's telling.
As sinister clues pile up, and the thriller's plot detours dangerously from the facts, Petal has no choice but to confront her past and solve the mystery of who wrote it—before her very real life ends as tragically as the novel.
About the author
Cayce Osborne is a writer and graphic designer from Madison, WI. When not writing, she spends her time hanging out with her husband and two sons, reading library books, walking her dog, subscribing to way too many streaming services, and attempting arts and crafts. Her short fiction has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Exposition Review, Atlas + Alice Literary Magazine, and Pizza Parties and Poltergeists. I Know What You Did is her debut novel. Learn more at cayceosborne.com.
August
Time: 6:00p CT
Where: Mystery to Me (seats are limited, Get Tickets)
Livestream: Crowdcast (RSVP)
About the book:
Rosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own in New York Times bestselling novelist Jennifer Chiaverini's lively and illuminating novel about the "munitionettes" who built bombs in Britain's arsenals during World War I, risking their lives for the war effort and discovering camaraderie and courage on the soccer pitch.
Early in the Great War, men left Britain's factories in droves to enlist. Struggling to keep up production, arsenals hired women to build the weapons the military urgently needed. "Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun," the recruitment posters beckoned.
Thousands of women—cooks, maids, shopgirls, and housewives—answered their nation's call. These "munitionettes" worked grueling shifts often seven days a week, handling TNT and other explosives with little protective gear.
Among them is nineteen-year-old former housemaid April Tipton. Impressed by her friend Marjorie's descriptions of higher wages, plentiful meals, and comfortable lodgings, she takes a job at Thornshire Arsenal near London, filling shells in the Danger Building—difficult, dangerous, and absolutely essential work.
Joining them is Lucy Dempsey, wife of Daniel Dempsey, Olympic gold medalist and star forward of Tottenham Hotspur. With Daniel away serving in the Footballers' Battalion, Lucy resolves to do her bit to hasten the end of the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballer's wife, they invite her to join the arsenal ladies' football club, the Thornshire Canaries.
The Canaries soon acquire an unexpected fan in the boss's wife, Helen Purcell, who is deeply troubled by reports that Danger Building workers suffer from serious, unexplained illnesses. One common symptom, the lurid yellow hue of their skin, earns them the nickname "canary girls." Suspecting a connection between the canary girls' maladies and the chemicals they handle, Helen joins the arsenal administration as their staunchest, though often unappreciated, advocate.
The football pitch is the one place where class distinctions and fears for their men fall away. As the war grinds on and tragedy takes its toll, the Canary Girls persist despite the dangers, proud to serve, determined to outlive the war and rejoice in victory and peace.
About the author:
Jennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed historical novels, including Mrs. Lincoln's Sisters and Resistance Women, as well as the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin.
We will be reading Station Eternity
About the book
From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide.
But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board….
September
Time: 6:00p
Where: Garth's Brew Bar
We will be reading The Twyford Code
About the book
Forty years ago, Steven “Smithy” Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. When he showed it to his remedial English teacher Miss Iles, she believed that it was part of a secret code that ran through all of Twyford’s novels. And when she later disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy becomes convinced that she had been right.
Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Smithy decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. In a series of voice recordings on an old iPhone, Smithy alternates between visiting the people of his childhood and looking back on the events that later landed him in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code holds a great secret, and Smithy may just have the key.
October
Time: 6:00p
Where: Garth's Brew Bar
We will be reading The Physicists' Daughter
About the book
New Orleans, 1944. Justine Byrne works at a small factory in the bayous of New Orleans to keep her head above water. Soon though, Justine begins to suspect that the carbon parts she assembles on the factory line might have something to do with a top-secret government initiative—The Manhattan Project. But Justine is not the only one to realize that the factory is much more than it seems, and German saboteurs will do anything to put the factory out of commission. With no one to trust, it will be up to Justine to figure out who is responsible and protect her coworkers, her factory, and her country from a war that is suddenly very close to home.