1. Valiant Vel: Vel Phillips and the Fight for Fairness and Equality
BY JERRAINNE HAYSLETT, ILLUSTRATED BY AARON BOYD | WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS, $20
Last year marked what would’ve been Vel Phillips’ 100th birthday. The pioneering politician, activist and attorney was the first African American and first woman elected to the Milwaukee Common Council, and the first woman elected secretary of state in Wisconsin. This illustrated biography illuminates her long, accomplished career. Directed at readers aged 11-14, it’s replete with historic photographs and eye-catching original artwork.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
2. The Perfect Home
BY DANIEL KENITZ | SIMON & SCHUSTER, $18
Dawn and Wyatt are the charming couple behind a home renovation reality show in this suspenseful thriller. While Dawn shies from celebrity, Wyatt wants to turn them both into stars. After giving birth to twins, Dawn learns that her husband is behind a horrific plot to boost their celeb status through a public tragedy. Author Daniel Kenitz, who lives in Hartford, is making a splash with this debut. “You could easily devour The Perfect Home in one sitting if it wasn’t so nerve-jangling,” says the Associated Press.
3. Funny Because It’s True
BY CHRISTINE WENC (OUT MARCH 18) | HACHETTE, $30
Thousands of hilarious headlines and searing satirical takedowns have their origin in a UW-Madison dorm room. The Onion, the beloved national humor publication, was founded in 1988 by a group of UW students and dropouts “with no editorial stance other than ‘You Are Dumb.’” Now the paper’s Wisconsin origin story is being told by one of its original staffers in this history.
Interested in hearing more from these authors? Boswell Book Co. is hosting author talks with Alice Austen on March 11 and Theresa Okokon on April 10. Learn more at boswellbooks.com.
4. 33 Place Brugmann
BY ALICE AUSTEN (OUT MARCH 11) | GROVE ATLANTIC, $28
In 2019, Alice Austen won the John Cassavetes Award, a prestigious independent film honor, for her first movie, Give Me Liberty, a comedy that she co-wrote and produced about a Wisconsin medical transport driver. Now the Milwaukee-based writer is setting her sights on literature with this debut novel. The story follows the residents of a Beaux Arts apartment house in Belgium on the eve of World War II, as their close-knit community is scattered by the German invasion.
5. Who I Always Was
BY THERESA OKOKON | SIMON & SCHUSTER, $29
This collection of essays follows the author’s life growing up in Wisconsin as the daughter of African immigrants. The memoir hinges on her father’s mysterious death when she was 9 years old, a loss that shaped her future. Okokon, who is now a television host based in Boston, explores family, identity and more.
