6/30/10

Tory Hill Readers Series

The Tory Hill Readers Series is four summer evenings with nationally known authors and is being presented by the Warner Historical Society. The readings will be held at 7pm at Warner Town Hall and will be followed by a Dessert Buffet and Live Music with Paul Bourgelais and Ben Goss. Admission is $7.00 or $20.00 for a Series Pass. Visit the website or find them on Facebook.

Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Leah Hager Cohen and Maxine Kumin
Saturday, July 24, 2010 - Michael Stein and Hester Kaplan
Saturday, August 7, 2010 - David Elliott and Jane Brox
Saturday, August 21, 2010 - David Carroll and Katherine Russell Rich

6/25/10

Weekend Book Events Sampler

Friday, June 25, 2010
  • Gloria Allen will sign her memoir Life's Too Short and So am I at Water Street Books at 7pm
  • Ashlyn Chase will be at Barnes & Noble, Nashua talking about her novel Strange Neighbors at 7pm
  • At RiverRun at 7pm Jackson Kaguri will talk about The Price of Stones
Saturday, June 26, 2010
  • Poet Rodger Martin will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough at 11am reading from The Battlefield Guide
  • Kevin Flynn will talk about Our Little Secret at Borders, Concord at 2pm
  • Amy McCoy, author of Poor Girl's Gourmet will be at WaterStreet Books at 7pm
Sunday, June 27, 2010

6/24/10

Summer Book Show on NHPR

On The Exchange Thursday Laura Knoy talked to local booksellers Dan Chartrand, Michael Herrmann, and Jeff Smull about what they are reading and recommending this summer. Lots of good books were mentioned, including several that have been books-of-the-week recently.

Had they asked me, I would add to the discussion about Sy Montgomery's Birdology that if the idea of birds evolving from dinosaurs interests you another local author's work to check out is Lita Judge's new book, Born to Be Giants.

6/22/10

Center for the Book Directors and Politicos Share a Meeting Place

There is a long-standing tradition among the Directors of the Centers for the Book. When we go to Washington, DC each spring for our Idea Exhange meeting there is a dinner the night before the official meeting at a Capitol Hill Chinese restaurant. Apparently it is a hot-spot for politicians as well: Mass. delegation comes together over Chinese - The Boston Globe

6/20/10

Book of the Week #25

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry (Harper Collins. 2009)

"In over his head with two pigs, a dozen chickens, and a baby due any
minute, the acclaimed author of Truck: A Love Story gives us a humorous, heartfelt memoir of a new life in the country. "
Wisconsin author Michael Perry is currently on a book tour and will be visiting the Granite State this week:

6/19/10

Geraldine Brooks 2010 Hale Award Winner

The Trustees of the Richards Free Library and the Judges of the Sarah Josepha Hale Award have announced that Geraldine Brooks is the 2010 Hale Award Medalist. She will accept the award on October 9, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. at the Newport Opera House.

Geraldine Brooks trained as a journalist and was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for eleven years. Her fiction works are: March, Year of Wonders, and People of the Book. Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for March in 2006. She has written two non-fiction books: Nine Parts of Desire and Foreign Correspondence for which she won Nita B. Kibble Award for women’s writing. She continues to write magazine articles. Australian by birth, she and her family have homes in Australia and Massachusetts.

For over fifty years, the Sarah Josepha Hale Award has been given by the trustees of the Richards Free Library, Newport, NH, in recognition of a distinguished body of written work in the field of literature and letters. The award honors Sarah Josepha Hale, author, poet, and essayist, who as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Magazine shaped the opinion of nineteenth century American women.
NOTE: Photo is by Randi Baird.

6/18/10

Weekend Book Events

Tonight, Friday June 18, 2010
  • Ken Schalhoub will be signing The First at Barnes & Noble, Manchester at 6:30pm and at 7pm Jeremy Robinson will be signing Instinct: A Chess Team Adventure
  • Lee Rourke will be at River Run at 7pm reading from his novel The Canal
  • Kevin Flynn will be at Borders, West Lebanon at 7pm talking about Our Little Secret

Saturday, June 19, 2010

6/17/10

Dublin Award Winner Announced

The Twin, a debut novel by Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker, has won the 2010 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award.

The NHSL Dublin Committee was one of 163 libraries, representing 123 cities and 43 countries that made nominations for the 2010 award.

6/16/10

Hyla Brook Reading Series Returns to Frost Farm

Diane Lockward is the featured poet for the Hyla Brook Reading series at Robert Frost Farm. Here is the press release with the details:

DERRY, NH – The Hyla Brook Reading Series returns to its summer home at the Robert Frost Farm at 122 Rockingham Rd (Rt 28) this month. The first reading of the season will take place on Thursday, June 17, 2010, 6:30-8:30pm, with a special appearance by award-winning poet Diane Lockward. Hyla Brook Poet Midge Goldberg of Derry is also featured. The Reading Series is free and open to the
public.


“Hearing poetry at the Frost Farm is an experience all its own,” said Robert W. Crawford, co-founder with Bill Gleed, of the Hyla Brook Poets group and reading series. “This season, we are fortunate to host celebrated poets such as Diane, Maxine Kumin, and Rhina P. Espaillat and we welcome everyone to attend. During the winter months, the Hyla Brook Reading Series is held at BeanTowne Coffee House & CafĂ© in Hampstead. From June through September, the readings take place at the Frost Farm. Except for this June, readings are on the second Thursday of each month.


Diane Lockward is the author of three poetry books, most recently, Temptation by Water. Her previous books are What Feeds Us, which received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize, and Eve's Red Dress. Her poems have been included in such anthologies as Poetry Daily: 360 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry
Website
and Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times, and have been published in such journals as Harvard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Her work has also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writers Almanac. She lives in northern New Jersey and works as a poet-in-the-schools for both the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.


Midge Goldberg's poetry has appeared nationally and internationally, in such
journals as First Things, Measure, Light, Alehouse Press, The Atlanta Review, and Cadenza. Most recently, one of her poems was included in Poetry Speaks Who I Am, a poetry anthology aimed at teenagers, from the editor of the Poetry Speaks series. Another was selected by the McGowan Art Gallery in Concord, NH, to be displayed in the window during their February Love, Lust, and Desire art exhibit. She was a finalist in the 2008 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award Contest. Poems and
translations of hers have appeared in the anthology European Romantic Poetry, published by Longman; the Powow River Anthology; and Rhyming Poems, among others. Her first book, Flume Ride, was published in 2006 by David Robert Books. She was the first recipient of an MFA from UNH, and she has taught poetry at Chester College of New England. She works as a web designer and lives in Derry.


An Open Mic will follow the readings and all audience members are invited to share their work.


The Hyla Brook Poets group organizes the monthly reading series as well as a monthly writing workshop, which meets on the third Saturday of the month at
10am. The next workshop takes place on Saturday, June 19, 2010, at the Frost Farm in Derry. For questions, please contact Robert Crawford.

Poor Girl Gourmet in the Granite State

Amy McCoy, blogger and author of Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare-bones Budget is on a book tour and she will be making a couple of stops in the the Granite State.

6/15/10

James Sullivan in NH

James Sullivan, author and pop-culture critic, will be visiting local bookstores to sign and discuss Seven Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin. According to Booklist, "Sullivan's focus is on exploring the man himself, with a sharp critical eye and a good feeling for the socio-historical context of Carlins comedy. An excellent account of the life and work of an important and greatly missed artist."

Book of the Week #24

Everlasting by Angie Frazier (NY: Scholastic, 2010)


Angie Frazier lives in New Hampshire and the librarian at Gay-Kimball Library brought this book to my attention. This is Ms. Frazier's first young adult novel. She will publish a middle-grade novel, The Midnight Tunnel: A Suzanna Snow Mystery in 2011.

"Sailing aboard her father’s trade ship is all seventeen-year-old Camille Rowen has ever wanted. But as a girl of society in 1855 San Francisco, her future is set: marry a man she doesn’t love, or condemn herself and her father to poverty. On her final voyage before the wedding, the stormy arms of the Tasman Sea claim her father, and a terrible family secret is revealed. A secret intertwined with a fabled map, the mother Camille has long believed dead, and an ancient stone that wields a dangerous - and alluring - magic. The only person Camille can depend on is Oscar, a handsome young sailor whom she is undeniably drawn to. Torn between trusting her instincts and keeping her promises to her father, Camille embarks on a perilous quest into the Australian wilderness to find the enchanted stone. As she and Oscar elude murderous bushrangers and unravel Camille’s father’s lies, they come closer to making the ultimate decision of who - and what - matters most."

6/11/10

Bass & Brooks at RiverRun

RiverRun Bookstore will be hosting authors Brooks Sigler and Hyatt Bass reading from their recent novels on Monday, June 14, 2010 at 7pm.

6/10/10

Weekend Book Events

There are a lot of authors visiting NH bookstores this weekend!



FRIDAY, June 11, 2010

SATURDAY, June 12, 2010

SUNDAY, June 13, 2010

  • Ingrid Grenon will be signing her book Lost Maine Schooners: From Glory Days to Ghost Ships at Barnes & Noble, Portsmouth at 1pm
  • David Fagelson will sign and talk about his first novel, Y. Bindel? at Toadstool Books, Keene at 2pm
  • At MainStreet BookEnds of Warner the Book Club will be hosting author Nicole Chaison discussing her laugh-out-loud book The Passion of the Hausfrau at 3pm

6/9/10

Book of the Week #23

Adventures with Grapenut by John M. Rockwood (Auburn, NH: Polhemus Press, 2009)

Grapenut is a loon who was born at Lake Massabesic in Manchester. He was befriended (from a proper photographic distance) by John Rockwood who created this volume documenting Grapenut's childhood. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to The Loon Preservation Committee in Moultonborough, NH and to The Audubon Society of New Hampshire.

At Gibson's on Thursday, June 10, 2010 (7pm) Rockwood, joined by "the loon lady" will be talking about everything "loon" including this new book and will present a slide show based on the book.

6/8/10

Howard Frank Mosher in New London

Morgan Hill Bookstore and the Tracy Memorial Library will be hosting Howard Frank Mosher at the Library at 7pm on Thursday, June 10, 2010. Mr. Mosher will present his slide show and talk entitled "Transforming History into Fiction: The Story of a Born Liar."

6/7/10

It's a busy week at River Run

There are several great events going on this week --and over the next several weeks-- at River Run Bookstore in Portsmouth.
  • Monday, June 7, 2010 (7pm) is Local Author's Night featuring Michael Cormier reading from his novel, Sumner Island and David Mauriello performing a play (with Mary Shapiro) from the anthology two of his plays are included in, Short Plays to Long Remember.
  • Tuesday, June 8, 2010 (7pm) Novelists Dan Chaon and Emily St. John Mandel read from their most recent novels, Await Your Reply and The Singer's Gun.
  • Thursday, June 10, 2010 (7pm) Ann Beattie reads from her new novella, Walks with Men.

6/5/10

Can't Wait for the World Cup?

If you are counting down the hours until the first 2010 World Cup match on Friday you might want to get ready by going to Gibson's on Monday, June 7 at 7pm to meet Steven and Harrison Stark and hear about their book World Cup 2010: The Indispensable Guide to Soccer and Geopolitics .

6/4/10

Linda Greenlaw in NH

Linda Greenlaw will be visiting New Hampshire this summer to talk about her newest book, Seaworthy: A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea.


"

Ripe and one sliver shy of full, the cantaloupe moon shone a flashlight beam along our path as we steamed east through the Gulf of Maine. It was glassy calm, and running lights glowed dimly on the stabilizing birds at the ends of the booms, rounding their edges to appear like jet engines under wings, red on port and green on starboard. This breathless night allowed us to haul the birds out of the water and gain a full knot in speed, as they normally ride below the surface to retard the roll of the boat and they slow us down in the process. The steady drone of the diesel two decks below added a soothing hum to the slow, gentle rocking of mysterious origin. The last of the lime green landmass had crept from the edge of the radar screen as the faded umbrella of city lights closed over our wake. At sea—it’s more a feeling than it is a place. It was this feeling, the state of being at sea, that I hadn’t experienced in ten years. This
sensation is the result of living the total contradiction of burden and freedom.
I am the captain, I thought. The freedom to make all decisions, unquestioned and
without input, was something that I had missed during my sabbatical. To be held
ultimately, although not solely, responsible for the lives and livelihoods of a loyal and capable crew was strangely exhilarating and empowering. But high hopes and expectations were weighty loads. It’s the willingness, and not the ability, to bear that burden that separates captains from their crew." (chapter 3, "Outward Bound")

6/3/10

2010 Nero Award Nominees Announced

Announced yesterday:

The Nero Award is presented each year to an author for the best mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories. It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. The Nero Award celebrates literary excellence in the mystery genre.

This year, the nominees are:

1. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch.

2. Crack in the Lens by Steve Hockensmith.

3. Faces of Gone by Brad Parks.

All three titles are published by St. Martin's Minotaur. Past winners have included Tess Gerritsen, Lee Child, and Martha Grimes, among many others.

The Wolfe Pack, the literary society that celebrates all things Nero Wolfe, also presents the Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA) in partnership with Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the Novella format popularized by Rex Stout. The BONA is also announced at the Black Orchid Banquet in December.

The Wolfe Pack, founded in 1977, is a forum to discuss, explore, and enjoy the 72 Nero Wolfe books and novellas written by Rex Stout. The organization promotes fellowship and extends friendship to those who enjoy these great literary works of mystery through a series of events, book discussions, and a journal devoted to the study of the genius detective, Nero Wolfe, and his intrepid assistant, Archie Goodwin. The organization has more than 450 members worldwide.

6/2/10

Author Events this Week

6/1/10

Book of the Week #22

Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders: A True Story by Kevin Flynn (Far Hills, NJ: New Horizon Press, 2009)

Hopkinton, NH resident and award winning journalist Kevin Flynn became Sheila LaBarre's confident and broke the story of what really happened on LaBarre's Epping farm. This true crime tale --some names have been changed and identifying characteristics altered to safeguard the privacy of individuals-- reads like a thriller and was described by New Hampshire Magazine as "a tale about far more than just the facts of the case. It is an insightful exploration of the forces that drive many aspects of human behavior…Well worth a read."

Flynn recently published another true crime story, Our Little Secret co-authored with Rebecca Lavoie, and will be appearing at several local venues over the next few weeks: