Owning a bookstore means reading is serious business.
Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, has a goal to read 100 books each year. That’s about two books each week. He estimates others on his staff read more than 150 titles in a year.
Goldin also reads book reviews. For example, he said the nonfiction family saga “The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty” by John Seabrook got “very good” ratings.
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All of that reading gives Goldin a good idea of what he wants on his bookstore’s shelves and what to recommend.
“Honestly, I didn’t recommend any books that got terrible reviews,” Goldin said.
Which types of books are catching readers’ interest?
“The explosion of genre continues,” Goldin said. Romantasy, a blend of romance and fantasy, is popular but also plateauing. Goldin said elements of romance are making their way into other genres.
Interest in the horror genre continues to increase. Nonfiction books about personal growth are also trending.
Goldin recently joined WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show” to share his top 20 books of 2025. The following are titles included on that list.
Fiction
‘When the Cranes Fly South’
Goldin crowns Lisa Ridzén’s “When the Cranes Fly South” the Boswell Book of the Year. It’s also the Swedish Book of the Year.
The book is translated from Swedish, but don’t let that scare you, Goldin said. It’s a heartfelt collection of letters written by an elderly man to his wife in memory care. Ridzén’s research on rural masculinity informs her examination of the relationships in the book.
“By the end of the book, you’re crying,” Goldin said. “But as I always like to say, I love crying, but you’re not crying for what you think you’re going to cry for, you’re crying a little joy.”
‘I Don’t Know How to Tell You This’
Marian Thurm’s writing has captivated Goldin for decades, ever since Thurm published her first book in 1984.
“I think she is so perceptive about people’s personalities and characters and life situations,” Goldin said.
The main character of Thurm’s latest, “I Don’t Know How to Tell You This,” is a family court judge, and like a “late-60-something Mary Tyler Moore,” Goldin said.
Thurm’s writing blends serious family and relationship issues with dark comedy.
‘The Last Assignment: A Novel of Dickey Chapelle’
Dickey Chapelle was a war photographer and writer. Born in Shorewood, Chapelle was one of the first women to cover World War II from the Pacific Theater.
“The Last Assignment,” by Erika Robuck, is a historical novel based on Chapelle’s missions to Hungary, Cuba and Vietnam. The reader glimpses into Chapelle’s personal life, including her tumultuous marriage.
“(Chapelle) is a really important person in Wisconsin history,” Goldin said. “And I enjoyed it a lot — it is solid historical fiction.”
Non-fiction
‘The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty’
In “The Spinach King,” John Seabrook traces his family’s history in the frozen vegetable business. You can thank New Jersey-based Seabrook Farms for creamed spinach. Goldin said the book is full of drama.
“The generations sort of double-cross each other,” Goldin said. “One of the generations kind of steals the business away from his dad and then screws over his kid. And here is John Seabrook, the fourth generation, who is a contributing writer for The New Yorker.”
‘Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy’
The human body is amazing, but it’s not indestructible. At some point, it fails or falls apart. Mary Roach’s “Replaceable You” dives into the world of body part technology.
There are printable kidneys, a stem cell “hairy nursery” and more. Roach even spends time in an iron lung from the 1950s.
“It has got her trademark humor and lots of interesting science in the story,” Goldin said.
‘The Gales of November: The Untold Story of Edmund Fitzgerald’
Looking to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald? Consider reading “The Gales of November” by John U. Bacon.
The first two-thirds of the book look at the events leading up to the wreck, including the lives of the people affected by the tragedy. Bacon dives into the history and economics of Great Lakes commerce. It’s narrative prose.
“By the time you get that last third, the amazing voyage, you know everybody so deeply that it’s much more meaningful. And (Bacon) goes into what may have gone wrong,” Goldin said.
