Book of the Week #21

A Little Murder by Cindy Davis (Spring, Texas: L & L Dreamspell, 2009)

"When a fishing trip hooks more than a few trout, ER nurse Angie Deacon and her husband find themselves unexpected suspects in a murder investigation. Who amongst the other five aboard Little One could have had a vendetta against the boat's owner—especially one strong enough to see Nolan Little dead? Will Angie live to regret her decision to aid Nolan's aggrieved wife once she learns the woman harbors secrets of her own? Untruths aren't the only cause for alarm as the lethal pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, leaving Angie wondering just exactly how her husband fit into the deadly equation…and if she is next on the killer's list." (publisher's blurb)

This is the first book in Granite State author Cindy Davis's Angie Deacon series. It is set on Lake Winnipesaukee.

Book Events Sampler

Wednesday, 5/25/2011

• China Meiville will read from Embassytown at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 7pm
• David Livingston Smith will discuss Less Than Human at 7pm at River Run Bookstore
• Toadstool Bookshop, Keene is hosting a Local Authors Night beginning at 7pm, Nancy Kilgore, author of Sea Level, and Paul Brogan, author of Was That a Name I Dropped? are scheduled to appear

Thursday, 5/26/2011

• Lama Surya Das, author of Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now, will be speaking at Gibson's at 7pm

Friday, 5/27/2011

• MainStreet BookEnds of Warner will host David Carroll talking about snapping turtles at 7pm
• River Run will host Put This In Your Gun!! An Evening of Reading and Performance with Tennessee Jones and Michelle Embree starting at 7pm

Saturday, 5/28/2011

• David Livingston Smith will read from Less Than Human at 2pm at Barnes & Noble, Portsmouth
• Toadstool Bookshop, Keene will host Jim Beard author of White Mocs on the Red Road at 2pm

Sunday, 5/29/2011

• The authors of the new cookbook Maine Classics will hold a signing at River Run at 1pm

Book of the Week #20

High Spirits: A Bennett-Straker Ghost Hunter Mystery by Mary J. Carter (Seventh House Press, 2007)

"As part of her divorce settlement, forty-something Harley Straker is granted ‘reasonable’ financial support while writing an American history romance novel. Imagine Harley’s surprise when the ‘replacement’ wife writes it first! Imagine also the town’s shock and surprise when an eighteenth century spirit materializes just in time to promote the new Mrs. Straker’s book." (publisher's website)

Author Mary J. Carter (whom you may know from her work at Fiske Free Library) set this tale of a recently divorced aspiring novelist in the fictional town of Newmont, New Hampshire.

"Our hometown of Newmont, with a population around twelve thousand, consisted mostly of working class families. Up in our neck of New Hampshire, people get married young. It's too cold most of the year to even think of doing anything else. The guys who could nail down anything but a spouse after Vo-Tech were now wasting their lives at the library posting phony pictures on internet dating sites and drooling over eligible gals with photos as equally fake as their own. The roster of available men in Newmont is about as appealing as week-old road-kill." (p. 9)

Book of the Week #19

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott (Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2009).

"From her birth, Abisina has been an outcast—for the color of her eyes and skin, and for her lack of a father. Only her mother’s status as the village healer has kept her safe. But when a mythic leader arrives, Abisina’s life is ripped apart. She escapes alone to try to find the father and the home she has never known. In a world of extremes, from the deepest prejudice to the greatest bonds of duty and loyalty, Abisina must find her own way and decide where her true hope lies." (publisher's blurb)

I haven't had a chance to read this yet, but as it is the first novel by a former student of Liz Whaley (of WaterStreet Books fame) and has received excellent reviews I thought it deserved some attention. Ellen Jensen Abbott, who grew up in New Hampshire, will be at Water Street Bookstore on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 1pm for a meet-and-greet event.

Weekend Book Events

Friday, 5/13/2011

• Stephen Saint-Onge will be at Barnes & Noble, Nashua at 7pm talking about No Place Like Home: Tips & Techniques for Real Family-friendly Home Design

Saturday, 5/14/2011

• Jeannie Brett, author of My Cat, Coon Cat will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene at 11am and at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 3pm
• At 11am Vicki Stiefel will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough talking about 10 Secrets of the Laid Back Knitters: A Guide to Holistic Knitting, Yarn, and Life (She will be at the Milford store at 7pm on Monday, 5/16)
• Barnes & Noble, Manchester will host a reading with Scott Appleton from his book Swords of Six at 11am
• As part of the Fifth Annual Spring Into Warner Arts & Crafts Festival, a bunch of great NH authors will be talking about their books for kids beginning at noon at MainStreet BookEnds
• Jessie Crockett will be reading from Live Free or Die at Well Read Books at noon
• Water Street Bookstore is holding a Read and Bead event (perfect for ages 10-13) with I, Emma Freke author Elizabeth Atkinson at 2pm
• Kathryn Loconte will sign and talk about her book Searching for Saffron starting at 2pm at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene
• Melissa Coleman will read from This Life is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough starting at 2pm
• Howie Carr will be at Barnes & Noble, Portsmouth at 7pm talking about Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano, Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld
  
  Sunday, 5/15/2011

• Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will have a reading by poet Andrea Cohen at 1:30pm
• White Birch Books will host Doug Gladstone talking about Bitter Cup of Coffee: How Major League Baseball & the Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve from 2-4pm
• Kevin Behan will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene to sign and talk about his new book, Your Dog is Your Mirror at 2pm
  
  

NH Nominees for the Dublin Award

The NH Dublin Committee has selected its nominees for the 2012 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. These are fictional works of high literary merit published in English during 2010. After reading and discussing many excellent books, the committee selected these titles for nomination:

Great House, by Nicole Krauss, challenges us to understand loss as both personal and historical. The novel connects--in complex and surprising ways--the stories of characters shattered by the past.


Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray, combines teen angst, faculty politics, and Irish history in a multi-layered examination of contemporary Irish boys’ prep school life, in prose ranging from gritty to lyrical.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, is a grand historical adventure and an insightful exploration of the clash of East and West at the end of the 18th century.

Book of the Week #18

The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth; illustrated by Louis Darling (Little Brown and Company, 1956)

In case you were thinking that interesting things only happen in big cities, here is a classic children's book to prove otherwise.

"My name is Nate Twitchell, but I can't help that. It's kind of a funny name, but I've had it for twelve years, and I'm pretty much used to it by now. And I guess a lot of other folks have got used to it too, after the thing that happened up here in Freedom last summer. That's the name of the town I live in--Freedom, New Hampshire. It's just a little town, with a few houses all along one street, and a store and a church, and not much else. Oh yes, and a school. I almost forgot that. We're only about three miles from the Maine state line, but Pop says Freedom's just as much a part of our state as Concord is, and somebody has to live near the state of Maine." (p. 3)

Author Oliver Butterworth attended Dartmouth. He and illustrator Louis Darling both lived mainly in Connecticut.

Katherine Paterson is coming to NH!

Acclaimed author Katherine Paterson will be in New Hampshire on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 as part of the New Hampshire Humanities Council's Connections literacy program. Paterson will offer a talk on her work at 7 p.m. at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. This event is free and open to the public but preregistration is suggested. Contact the NH Humanities Council to reserve your seats.



Katherine Paterson received the Newbery Medal for Bridge to Terabithia (one of the best and saddest books of all time!) and Jacob Have I Loved. She won National Book Awards for The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins. Her most recent novel, The Day of the Pelican, tells the story of a refugee family from Kosovo. Paterson has spoken at the National Book Festival and is the current Ambassador for Young People's Literature. This promises to be a great event!

Book Events Sampler

Tuesday 5/3/11

• Gibson's will host Henry Homeyer talking about Organic Gardening, Not Just in the Northeast beginning at 5:30pm
• Bruce Levine, author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated and Battling the Corporate Elite will be speaking at Water Street Bookstore beginning at 7pm

Thursday 5/5/11

• Shonna Milliken Humphrey will be reading from her novel Show Me Good Land at Gibson's at 7pm

Friday 5/6/11

• Toadstool Bookshop, Milford will host poet Hilde Oleson reading from Dreams Reward at 7pm

Saturday 5/7/11

• Isabeau Esby will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford beginning at 11am to talk about her book Cracking Open: Adventures of a Reluctant Medium
• Jeremy Robinson will be reading from Threshold at Barnes & Noble, Portsmouth at 1pm

Sunday 5/8/11

• Howie Carr, author of Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano: Whitey Bulger's Enforcer and the Most Feared Gangster in the Underworld will be at Barnes & Noble, Nashua at 2pm

Edgar Award Winners 2011

Mystery Writers of America  has announced the winners of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010.
BEST NOVEL
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur Books)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva (Tom Doherty Associates – Forge Books)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam)

BEST FACT CRIME
Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press – Bison Original)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvouz with American

History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton)

BEST SHORT STORY
"The Scent of Lilacs" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn (Dell Magazines)

BEST JUVENILE
The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie Price (Farrar, Straus, Giroux Books for Young Readers)

BEST PLAY
The Psychic by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre – Burbank, CA)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Evan Lewis (Dell Magazines)

RAVEN AWARDS
Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois
Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Children's Book Week is May 2-8, 2011

Since 1919, Children's Book Week has been celebrated countrywide with author & illustrator appearances, parties, storytelling, and other book-related events in schools, libraries, bookstores, clubs -- anywhere where kids and books connect.

How can you celebrate Children's Book Week?

• Visit your local library -- story times, programs with special guests, games to play, movie showings, and LOTS of books and other great stuff you can check out are among the things kids (& their adults) will find at their public library.
• Visit your local bookstore -- or take a field trip to a store you haven't visited before. Check out our list of NH Booksellers for inspiration.
• Visit the Library of Congress's Read.gov Kids Page where you will find lots of info about books for kids and the latest installment of The Exquisite Corpse. Not a kid? Visit the Teens Page or the Adults Page instead.
• Monday, May 2 is the last day to vote in several NH book awards so if you haven't done so yet, get to the library and cast your vote for The Isinglass Award, The Flume Award, or the Great Stone Face Award (depending on your age).
• Pick up a book and read it with a child. Or have a child read a book to you. No children around? Really? Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Nobody? OK, read a children's book yourself and remember how much fun reading can be.