Book of the Week (5/5/2025)

Rolling Hills and the Lost Key of Peachtree Palace by Michaela Horan (Self-published, 2021)

Hattie Hills is far from a picture perfect princess. But then again, nothing about her rule so far has been picture perfect. Forced to take over her parents' kingdom at seven because of their disappearances, Hattie is stuck in a role that not everyone is happy she's had to take on. But at the age of sixteen, Hattie begins to wonder if maybe there's more to the mystery of how her parents disappeared. They left her with only a book, a book Hattie soon realizes is much more than an ordinary collection of legends. When things start appearing, and more people vanish, Hattie and her friends are faced with the terrifying fact that something is coming to destroy their kingdom unless they're brave enough to stop it. A young princess desperate for answers. A lonely guard determined to forget her past. A best friend with unwavering loyalty. A clever assistant with a keen eye for knowledge. Their adventures will leave lives at stake, new powers discovered, and almost nothing as it seems. Michaela Horan's debut novel will have you guessing at who you can really trust, and just how far is too far to discover the truth about a perfect kingdom. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Michaela Horan is the author of two books in the “Rolling Hills” series, including "Rolling Hills and the Lost Key of Peachtree Palace" as well as her newest book, “Rolling Hills and the Sword of Alvara”. Michaela is a recent graduate of Londonderry High School in NH. Besides writing novels, she also enjoys creating music.

3 on a Theme: Home

Home at Night by Paula Munier

Free to a Good Home by David F. Lambert

Go Home by Terry Farish

Book of the Week (4/28/2025)

Tales of a Not So Tiny House by Chloe Barcelou & Brandon Batchelder (Rizzoli, 2025)

Visually lush, this is the story of the lavish custom steampunk caravan in the wilds of New England that became a dark cottagecore TikTok sensation.

If you take a fortuitous wrong turn in the primeval mountains of New Hampshire, you'll stumble across this 300-square-foot handmade home. A bewitching mix of fairy tale cottage, steamer trunk, and pirate ship, it is built by Chloe and Brandon almost entirely from their recycled film sets, thrift, flea market, and junkyard finds. Originally featured on HGTV’s Tiny House, Big Living, it went on to garner international attention in print and online, going viral multiple times.

The book takes readers on a journey through Chloe and Brandon’s story of building and decorating their home, which they have completely redesigned in the last few years. Like the house, every inch of this richly ornate book is packed with innovative ideas for small space living, including foldable sections of the house used as “his and hers” wings with custom-built wardrobes, desks, chairs, and vanity; a bathroom with a composting toilet and folding sink; even a guest bed. Chloe and Brandon share the joys of day-to-day small-space living: creating storage in every nook and cranny, baking pies in the tiny kitchen from fruit they’ve gathered; climbing into the dramatically curtained bed loft by candlelight.

Sumptuously designed and illustrated, this book is a wildly original take on small-space living. --Publisher's blurb

About the authors:

Partners in life and in business, Chloe Barcelou and Brandon Batchelder design and build props and sets for short and feature films, along with commercial and editorial photography as well as residential and commercial interior design. Chloe is also the fashion editor of New Hampshire Magazine.

Book of the Week (4/21/2025)

Tying My Shoes by Stephen Redic (Covenant Books, 2023)

Tying my Shoes is a collection of poems covering a wide spectrum of experiences occurring over the last twelve years. It comments on love and hate and old and new traditions and provides the reader with a unique perspective on life around them. It will make you laugh, cry, and question the world's problems with new insights. The variety of styles and voices found in the poems gives each one a unique flavor while highlighting the writers' versatility and storytelling abilities.

Whether the reader finds themselves absorbed by the descriptive quality of his ekphrastic poetry or plunged into a moment of first-person history or laughing out loud at some native New England wit, there is something here for everyone. Even if you never liked poetry before, these poems for the common man will give you a new appreciation and delight in what poetry can be. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Stephen Redic is a retired writer, humorist, public speaker and teacher living in Candia, New Hampshire. Born in Concord, New Hampshire, and raised in Caribou, Maine, Stephen is a true New England product. An avid sports fan, historian, musician, and writer, Stephen maintains an active lifestyle and considers himself extremely blessed, having met every President since Eisenhower, beaten cancer twice, and having six great-grandchildren.

Book of the Week (4/14/2025)

EMU BLIS, BUMS LIE, BLUE-ISM by Michael Brosnan (Broadstone Books, 2024)

In his dazzling new collection poet Michael Brosnan literally and figuratively deconstructs the "sublime" in every way imaginable.

"This world of us --

it seems only capable of revealing hints of care

in slant rhymes and odd enjambments.

And I'm wondering why we don't cry more,

knowing there's so little we

control."

In this profound volume of experimental poetry, Michael Brosnan exhibits exquisite control as he employs (and invents) tools of verse language (far beyond mere "odd enjambments") to interrogate - and deconstruct, literally - the word sublime, in all of its senses. "Excellence? Grandeur? Beauty? Inspiring unavoidable awe?" No mere exercise in linguistics, however, his enterprise provides the opportunity to consider no less than the entirety of human existence in the face of "the nagging matter of / the coming Sixth Extinction -- hurried along / by superciliousness and / human hunger for what cannot be obtained." "I want to find less in meaninglessness," he declares; "I want to know if knowing can save us from ourselves," and this book is the record of his search for that answer and hope. Many sublime companions (real and imaginary) are along for the ride - Mozart, Coltrane, Jimmy Page, Moby-Dick, Dr. Philosophy - while erasures of Wordworth poems frame and intersperse the work (an act of distillation that serves as a model for the book as a whole); and the titles of a library's worth of books whispering from their shelves attests to his extensive reading. Impossible to describe in brief, it must be read to experience the sweep of Brosnan's vision and venture. As for the payoff: in the end he is after "a small wave of contentment" as expressed in the craft of "Origami" - "Today, I'm seeking new possibilities / in a small illusion with unambiguous lines. // Look, world, look. / Our story is in tatters. // Here's a 'dove' for you to hold. / I give it in peace. Make it fly." In the closing Wordsworth erasure, an old man rises and hoists up his load, a fitting image for the service Brosnan performs for us in undertaking this poetry and philosophical enquiry. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Poet, writer, and editor Michael Brosnan was born and raised in Port Washington, New York. He earned a BA from Boston College and an MA from the University of New Hampshire’s writing program. Brosnan is author of the poetry collections EMU BLIS, BUMS LIE, BLUE-ISM (Broadstone Books, 2024), Adrift (Grayson Books, 2023), and The Sovereignty of the Accidental (Harbor Mountain Press, 2017). Brosnan’s poems have been published in many literary magazines. For over two decades, he served as the editor of an award-winning magazine on education and writes often on the topic. He lives in Exeter, New Hampshire.

Join the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, along with Michael Brosnan at Gibson's Bookstore on Wed., May 21, 2025 from 4:30- 6 pm. Michael will be the headliner, followed by an open mic. 

Book of the Week (4/7/2025)

Floor Burns: A Wild Journey Across the Forgotten Backroads of NAIA Basketball in New England by Mike Whaley (Bondcliff Books, 2025)

Floor Burns is a sprawling small-college basketball odyssey that begins in the 1940s in New Britain, Connecticut, and finishes up in present-day Boston at tiny Fisher College. In between, Mike Whaley, who was also a player himself at Lyndon State in Vermont, winds his way along New England’s backroads. He tells the stories of schools that no longer exist like Nathaniel Hawthorne in New Hampshire, Westbrook in Maine, and Windham in Vermont. Future NBA coaches Stan Van Gundy and Steve Clifford cut their teeth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), while others like Bill Detrick, Bruce MacGregor, Skip Pound, Bruce Kirsh, Kissy Walker, Red Downes, Glenn Theulen, and Rick Simonds made their mark and their living there. Buckle up for a bumpy but exhilarating ride that chronicles the highs and lows of the NAIA in New England as intimately and colorfully told by the players and coaches who were there and some who still are. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mike Whaley is a veteran sportswriter with over 30 years of experience in New Hampshire and Maine. He has been recognized as New Hampshire Sportswriter of the Year twice. Whaley played college basketball at Lyndon State College (now Vermont State University-Lyndon) from 1979 to 1983. He currently resides in Portland, Maine, with his wife, Jill Rosenblum.

Join Mike at The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH on Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 11:00 am where he will be discussing his new book.

3 on a Theme: Portsmouth

 A Small City by the Sea by Sue Ann Bottomley

 A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects by Steve Butzel, et al.

Maritime Portsmouth: The Sawtelle Collection by Richard M. Candee (editor)