Book of the Week (6/17/2019)

Immunity by Erin Bowman (HarperTeen, 2019).
NH Author and Edgar Award-nominated author Erin Bowman launches Immunity, the sequel to Contagion.

Survivors of a deadly planetary outbreak take on a new, sinister adversary in the white-knuckle sequel to Contagion, which New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman called “gripping, thrilling, and terrifying in equal measures.”
Thea, Coen, and Nova have escaped from Achlys, only to find themselves imprisoned on a ship they thought was their ticket to safety. Now the nightmare they thought they’d left behind is about to be unleashed as an act of political warfare, putting the entire galaxy at risk.
To prevent an interstellar catastrophe, they’ll have to harness the evil of the deadly Achlys contagion and deploy the only weapons they have left: themselves.
Fans of Jonathan Maberry, Rick Yancey, and Madeleine Roux will relish Bowman’s tense, high-stakes conclusion to the events of contagion. -- Publisher's blurb

Join Erin Bowman, along with A.C. Gaughen, in conversation at Gibson's Bookstore on Sunday July 14th at 3 pm.

Dublin Winner Announced

American author Emily Ruskovich has won the 2019 International DUBLIN Literary Award for her novel Idaho. The Award is organized and sponsored by Dublin City Council and at €100,000 is the world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Emily Ruskovich is the fourth American author to win the prize in its 24-year history.
The winning book was selected from the titles nominated by libraries around the world, including the NH State Library.

NH Children's Classics

The Center for the Book at the NH State Library is collecting information about classic children's books set in New Hampshire for an upcoming project. Please share your thoughts by completing a short survey before August 1, 2019 about what makes a book a classic and which titles you think of that way.
The survey is at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NHkidclassics
A summary of the results will be published here in the fall.

Book of the Week (6/10/2019)

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, Volume 2: 1863 by Marek Bennett ([N.H.?] : Comics Workshop, 2019).

Marek Bennett is back with a second volume of Henniker, NH native, Freeman Colby's civil war memoirs. Bennett's comics adaptation of the actual Civil War memoir brings to life the dry humor and grim conviction of teacher-turned-soldier Freeman Colby, in The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, Volume 2: 1863.

"1863: The continuing saga of a Yankee schoolteacher in the Union Army:
Young Freeman Colby joined the 39th Massachusetts Regiment in search of "better returns," but now he just wants to survive the war and return home to his friends & family in New England Marching deeper into the war-torn heart of Virginia, he crosses paths with countless fellow survivors -- widows, poets, volunteer nurses, refugee children, ragged soldiers, brave mothers striving to deliver their families from slavery...

This wide-ranging graphic novel weaves together their stories with Colby's actual letters home, laying bare the day-to-day human struggles that shaped one of the most consequential years in American history." --Gibson's Bookstore website

Marek Bennett is a NH-based cartoonist, musician, and educator. His comics work includes the first installment of Freeman Colby's memoirs, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby: 1862: A New Hampshire Teacher Goes to War, the local history webcomic LIVE FREE AND DRAW!, the graphic novel travel memoir, SLOVAKIA: Fall in the Heart of Europe, and numerous other works.

Join Marek at Gibson's Bookstore on Wednesday, June 26th, 2019 at 6 p.m., where he will be discussing and signing his newest book!

NH's 2019 Route One Read

Route One Reads is a virtual reading trip along Route One. For this year's summer road trip the Center for the Book in each state along Route One was asked to select a cookbook. last fall we asked for input from librarians throughout the state and got quite a few excellent suggestions. After reviewing everything--and getting quite hungry doing so--we selected Black Trumpet by Evan Mallet as our featured book. 

This book celebrates both the cuisine and the community of the renowned Black Trumpet Restaurant, located in the historic seacoast city of Portsmouth, NH. Seasonal recipes, stories of the history and people that have made this restaurant what it is, and and a model for community food activists who want to support local farmers and producers, preserve heritage foods, and advocate for a sustainable, fair, and delicious food ethic. Local foods are featured for all seasons, even the dark cold of late winter when braising meat, stewed roots, and slippery critters from the sea pervade the menu.