http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/articles.sec-29-1-books.html Scott Walker underestimated the people of Wisconsin. He probably imagined the usual dozen activists, plus a handful of trade unionists already dispirited from a quarter-century of retreat, would gather outside his office with the usual brain dead chant...]]> Complex, intimate friendships that span decades are true examples of the power of relationships. In Lauren Fox's new book Friends Like Us, the seasoned friendship between Willa and Jane is at the heart of the story. This duo lives together...]]> With Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (Metropolitan), Thomas Frank continues his corrosive critique of right-wing ascendance in American politics. In What's the Matter With Kansas?]]> Cultural historians usually write off the “chitlin' circuit” that sustained African-American musicians from the 1930s through the '60s as a cruel, exploitative system. Preston Lauterbach thinks otherwise. In his endlessly fascinating and richly evocative account...]]> The 1960s counterculture was certainly anti-technocratic and distrustful of technology, but was it also anti-science? David Kaiser thinks not, and in How the Hippies Saved Physics (W.W. Norton), the MIT physics professor explores a little known convergence...]]> Although he was born in Watertown and continues to live in southeast Wisconsin, Mishka Zakharin often migrates in his thoughts thousands of miles to the east. “I feel I have a Russian soul,” he says, and his spiritual and intellectual wandering has resulted...]]> Ray Bradbury was one of the most significant writers to find his way from science-fiction subculture to mainstream literature. Becoming Ray Bradbury is a detailed, readable account of Bradbury's early years, starting with the sci-fi fanzines whose scope...]]> A dull author makes for dry history; happily, there is nothing dull in David Gilmour's lucid history of a nation created from many parts. Most Americans are vaguely aware of Italy's north-south divide if only from the vogue for “northern Italian...]]> The Fates Will Find Their Way is the haunting first novel by acclaimed short-story writer Hannah Pittard. The unforgettable story centers on the disappearance of 16-year-old Nora Lindell, as told by the neighborhood boys who can't quite let her go...]]> Despite an influx of news reports on the nation's recently departed leader, North Korea remains an unknown entity to most. Indeed, few Americans can imagine the lives of the individuals of that secretive country. Enter Adam Johnson, author of the timely novel...]]> The 20th century was the Age of the Dollar, but the world champion among currencies staggered through the first decade of the new millennium, weakened by the dot-com bust, 9/11, a pair of costly wars, the housing bubble and the Great Recession...]]> Author Ayad Akhtar, a first-generation Pakistani-American who grew up in Milwaukee, graduated from both Brown and Columbia universities. His somewhat-autobiographical debut novel, American Dervish, tells the emotional story of Hayat...]]> David Bellos is an author who could make anything interesting, engaging and informative. In Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, the Princeton professor addresses communication across the lines of language. Bellos points out that in many previous eras and...]]> In the Bogart classic Casablanca, Lisbon is depicted as a portal of escape from Nazi-occupied Europe. In his account of the city during World War II, Neill Lochery shows that the Portuguese capital might have been a better setting than Casablanca for a film...]]> The ukulele, which roughly translates as “the jumping flea” in a Hawaiian language, is that adorable Hawaiian instrument that resembles a miniature guitar. And now, the instrument is the subject of a new book, Ukulele Nation, by renowned local musician...]]> Picturesque images of Mexico as a land of tall cacti and towering volcanoes, adobe dwellings and Aztec ruins, were already circulating by the time German photographer Hugo Brehme traveled...]]> René Blum may not have been one of the great 20th-century cultural figures, but as shown in the first biography of the writer, editor and impresario, he worked with several of them and knew many more. The brother of France's socialist prime minister...]]> Greil Marcus is already regarded as one of the leading rock music critics. With The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years (PublicAffairs)...]]>