North Conway is Book Country!

This July, North Conway, NH will host several great book-related events:

Tuesday, July 1
Flatbread Pizza will donate money to the North Conway Library for every pizza/flatbread sold that day! The benefit will begin at 4 p.m. and goes all day until closing and includes both eat-in and take-out items. The Polaris String Trio will be providing entertainment in the lobby from 5-7 pm for your dining pleasure. The restaurant is located at the Eastern Slope Inn at the northernmost end of the North Conway Village.

Thursday, July 10
In anticipation of her visit later in the month, Linda Greenlaw's first mystery, Slipknot will be read and discussed by The White Birch Books Mystery Book Club. They meet beginning at 7pm.

Tuesday, July 15
White Birch Books has arranged an evening with Lisa Gardner at the Red Jacket Mountain View Resort beginning at 7pm to celebrate the release of Lisa's newest thriller, Say Goodbye. This is Lisa's first big summer release since she has lived in this neck of the woods.

Saturday, July 19 & Sunday, July 20
The annual gigantic book & yard sale will be held on the North Conway Library property and will begin at 9 a.m. both days - rain or shine. There will be books from every category (adult, children, fiction, nonfiction, antiques, rare books, coffee table books, hardcover and paperbacks). In addition, there will be a huge yard sale on the front lawn. Many other NH libraries will also host book sales in July.

Thursday, July 24
Chris Bohjalian will be at White Birch Books beginning at 6:30pm to talk about his latest book, Skeletons at the Feast.

Saturday, July 26
Linda Greenlaw will be at White Birch Books beginning at 6pm talking about her newest mystery, Fishermen's Bend, the follow up to Slipknot.

Book of the Week #26

Daughter of Statues: A Fable by Phil McGrail (Portsmouth, NH: Osiail Publishing, 2008)

“Did I ever tell you about the time I found the end of the rainbow?”
So begins the story of Kae Elsu, a young girl, torn from the small life she knew and thrown into a far wider world than she could ever imagine. Her family turned to stone, and the only home she had ever known burned down around her by an angry King, Kae must find the strength within herself or die trying. Through both dark forests and fields of flowers, over the sea and through the realm of dreams, Kae wanders, trying to find her way; her only guidance, the visions of an old mystic: follow the setting sun. So Kae does, chasing the last desperate rays of day to adventure and romance, to people and places beyond imagining, to redemption, and to womanhood. She is the Daughter of Statues.

Phil McGrail lives in Northwood, New Hampshire and this is his first novel. It was reviewed recently on the blog Maelstrom.

2008 Dublin Winner

DeNiro's Game by Rawi Hage (House of Anansi Press, Canada) was selected as the winner of the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

From the publisher's description:
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide."
In Rawi Hage's astonishing and unforgettable novel, this famous quote by Camus becomes a touchstone for two young men caught in Lebanon's civil war. Bassam and George are childhood best friends who have grown to adulthood in wartorn Beirut. Now they must choose their futures: to stay in the city and consolidate power through crime; or to go into exile abroad, alienated from the only existence they have known. Bassam chooses one path: Obsessed with leaving Beirut, he embarks on a series of petty crimes to finance his departure. Meanwhile, George builds his power in the underworld of the city and embraces a life of military service, crime for profit, killing, and drugs. Told in the voice of Bassam, De Niro's Game is a beautiful, explosive portrait of a contemporary young man shaped by a lifelong experience of war. Rawi Hage brilliantly fuses vivid, jump-cut cinematic imagery with the measured strength and beauty of Arabic poetry. His style mimics a world gone mad: so smooth and apparently sane that its razor-sharp edges surprise and cut deeply. A powerful meditation on life and death in a war zone, and what comes after.

Book of the Week #25

An Outline of Trail Development in the White Mountains 1840-1980 by Guy Waterman (NH: Randolph Mountain Club Archive, 2005).

The purpose of the Randolph Mountain Club is to promote enjoyment of the Randolph, New Hampshire area through hiking, trail development, upkeep of camps and shelters, and sharing the collective knowledge of its members.

This book, available from the Club Archive, takes you through the history of the development of hiking trails in the White Mountains decade by decade. There is a map for each period showing the trails that existed then and indicating the changes made in the period. Commentary on these developments, and a bibliography for further reading are also included.

Book of the Week #24

Lake News by Barbara Delinsky (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999)

Given our recent heat wave, what better place to be than a New Hampshire lake? This novel takes us to the fictional town of Lake Henry, NH where singer and teacher Lily Blake seeks refuge from a big city scandal. If you love the setting you can return to Lake Henry in Accidental Woman.

"Like everything else at the lake, dawn arrived in its own good time. The flat black of night slowly deepened to a midnight blue that lightened in lazy steps, gradually giving form to the spike of a tree, the eave of a cottage, the tongue of a weathered wood dock - and that was on a clear day. On this day, fog slowed the process of delineation, reducing the lake to a pool of milky glass and the shoreline to a hazy wash of orange, gold, and green where, normally, vibrant fall colors would be. A glimpse of cranberry or navy marked a lakefront home, but details were lost in the mist. Likewise the separation of reflection and shore. The effect, with the air quiet and still, was that of a protective cocoon." (Lake News)

Book of the Week #23

Women of Granite: 25 New Hampshire Women You Should Know by Janet Buell and the Write Sisters; illustrated by Lisa Greenleaf. (Bedford, NH: Apprentice Shop Books, 2008)

This collection of essays about the accomplishments of 25 New Hampshire women -- including politicians, writers, lawyers, artists, and business leaders -- is written for students and includes bibliographic and web references for further reading. I am a day or two past the age of the target audience for this book, but I learned quite a bit from it. It was written by The Write Sisters, a group of NH authors who work to "reveal, unravel, and introduce the world of children's writing to an inquiring public. "

Happy Birthday Maxine Kumin!

Pat Fargnoli sent me an email this morning that reminded me that birthday wishes are in order for one of New Hampshire's great poets: Maxine Kumin turns 83 today.

What Pat actually sent me was a post from the blog One Poet's Notes. The links (including the Birthday's of Poets blog) and info on Maxine Kumin are worth checking out.

I love the idea, mentioned at the beginning of the birthday post, of choosing your reading based on author's birthdays. Systems that lead you to read things in an order that is somehow random intrigue me. I think it can broaden your perspective in a way that following your own tastes, instincts, etc. about what to read next cannot.