Book Event Sampler

Here's a sample of the NH book events going on this week:

• Gibson's will host Michael Levy, author of Kosher Chinese at 7pm tonight, 7/28/11
• Tory Hill Readers Series will feature M.T. Anderson and Pat Fargnoli on Saturday, 7/30/11 at 7pm. If you want a preview, check out Anderson's talk at last year's National Book Festival.
• Also on Saturday, 7/30/11 Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will host two authors: Hari Kirin, author of Art & Yoga: Kundalini Awakening in Everyday Life, at 11am and Ann Lammers, discussing and signing The Jung-Kirsch Letters at 2pm.

Book of the Week #30

Still Life by Louise Penny (New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2006)

There will be a launch party for the latest installment in Louise Penny's Armand Gamache series, A Trick of the Light, at Gibson's on Tuesday 8/30/2011 at 7pm. If you haven't read this excellent series yet, start with this first novel.

"Canadian Penny's terrific first novel, which was the runner-up for the CWA's Debut Dagger Award in 2004, introduces Armand Gamache of the Sorete du Quebec. When the body of Jane Neal, a middle-aged artist, is found near a woodland trail used by deer hunters outside the village of Three Pines, it appears she's the victim of a hunting accident. Summoned to the scene, Gamache, an appealingly competent senior homicide investigator, soon determines that the woman was most likely murdered. Like a virtuoso, Penny plays a complex variation on the theme of the clue hidden in plain sight. She deftly uses the bilingual, bicultural aspect of Quebecois life as well as arcane aspects of archery and art to deepen her narrative. Memorable characters include Jane; Jane's shallow niece, Yolande; and a delightful gay couple, Olivier and Gabri. Filled with unexpected insights, this winning traditional mystery sets a solid foundation for future entries in the series."  (Publisher's Weekly review)

Ladybug Materials Now Available

Voting materials for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award are now available. Voting should be held in November 2011--to coincide with elections--and all tally sheets must be received at the NH Center for the Book by 5pm on Monday, December 5, 2011 in order to be counted.

In addition to the picture ballot and the tally sheet, this year there is a promotional flyer you can use that lists the nominated books and tells a little bit about each one.

Book of the Week #29

Button Hollow Chronicles #1: The Leaf Peeper Murders by Loni Emmert and P.I. Barrington (Wethersfield, Conn.: Mainly Murder Press, 2010)

Life in idyllic Button Hollow, New Hampshire, is beginning to unravel for Sheriff Jeff Ramsey. A series of suspicious deaths has the elderly members of the volunteer Citizens’ Brigade up in arms, and their zealousness is complicating the Sheriff’s already intricate investigation. His personal life is also threatened when his wife receives a tempting job offer in Boston.


As Jeff attempts to solve Button Hollow’s mysterious crime wave and protect the Citizens’ Brigade members from themselves, he learns that beautiful fall foliage cannot hide the corruption that lies close to home, and protecting his beloved town’s citizens may prove easier than saving his marriage. (publisher's blurb)

I enjoyed this mystery by sisters (and California natives) Lori Emmert and P. I. Barrington. The character of Mrs. Anne Jolie Watson, member of the Citizens' Brigade, was particularly entertaining.

Borders

Earlier this week Borders, which at last count had bookstores in Concord, Keene, and West Lebanon, and Borders Express stores in North Conway and Salem, announced that it would be liquidating. (The Nashua store was part of the round of closures announced earlier this year.) This is sad news for book-lovers, particularily ones (mostly outside the Granite State) who are now without a bricks & mortar bookstore in their town. There is a quick overview of the situation on Wired . Michael Herrmann, owner of Gibson's, wrote a very thoughtful assessment of this turn of events. NECN coverage of the issue included the perspective of the owner of MainStreet BookEnds of Warner.

Book of the Week #28

The Penny by Andy Cutts, illustrated by Katherine Roy (New Hampshire, 2011)

New Hampshire author Andy Cutts tells us the story, in the form of a bedtime tale for 6-year-old Annie, of The Penny a wooden sailboat that "waltzed the wave-tops of Lake Winnipesaukee."
Vermont illustrator Katherine Roy has done a beautiful job of bringing the story to life with black and white illustrations highlighted by touches of nautical blue.

Readings in Warner

The Tory Hill Readers Series kicks off the 2011 season on Saturday, July 16 with Christina Shea and Brian Bouldrey. The roster for this summer includes M.T. Anderson and Patricia Fargnoli (July 30); Edie Clark and Rebecca Rule (August 13); and Tom Wessels (August 27). Admission is $7.00 or $20.00 for a Series Pass. Readings are at 7:00 PM at the Warner Town Hall and are followed by a dessert buffet and live music.

Late breaking news from White Birch Books

I just got this press release on a Poetry Reading at White Birch Books -- it was scheduled at the last minute, but sounds like a good program:

Former Valley resident Lauren Tivey to celebrate her first book of poetry

North Conway, NH – Listening to poetry is a wonderful way to spend a summer afternoon and White Birch Books is pleased to offer that opportunity with Lauren Tivey on Sunday, July 17, beginning at 3 p.m.

A former Valley resident, Tivey is making a brief return from her travels abroad for the reading. Currently living in China, where she works as an English Literature teacher in the American Program at a Chinese high school, her travels over the past two years have taken her all the way from Peru and Bolivia, and on to China and Tibet. This travel is featured prominently in her poetry chapbook, The Breakdown Atlas & other poems, released this month from Big Table Publishing Company to glowing reviews.

Tivey received her undergraduate degree in poetry and literature from Granite State College, and her MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she was the recipient of the 2008 Jack Myers Grant for Outstanding Poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Literary Burlesque, Deuce Coupe, Blue Lake Review, The Legendary, Message in a Bottle, Gutter Eloquence, SPARK, The Montucky Review, Word Salad, Snakeskin, and Sierra Nevada Review, among many other publications, both online and in print over the years. She has also written a number of travel stories, which appear on mightymercury.com and expatwomen.com.

White Birch Books is located in North Conway Village just south of the park, across from TD Bank. This is event is free and open to the public. For more information, call White Birch Books at 356-3200 or visit them online at www.whitebirchbooks.com.

A Week of Book Events

Here is a sample of the book events going on in the Granite State this week:

• Monday, 7/11/11 White Birch Books will host an evening of White Mountain History with Bruce Heald and Megen McPhaul beginning at 7pm
• Tuesday Brendan DuBois will be at Water Street Bookstore at 7pm talking about his latest Lewis Cole mystery.
• Gibson's Bookstore will host Jane Brox, author of Brilliant at 7pm on Thursday, 7/14/11.
• Tess Gerritson will be in Portsmouth on Friday at 7pm (at Barnes & Noble) reading from The Silent Girl.
• Toadstool Bookshop, Keene will host Annamarie Pluhar, author of Sharing Housing: A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates at 2pm on Saturday, 7/16/11.
• Sunday, 7/17/11 at 2pm Sara Belanger will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford talking about her new novel, Imaginary Demons.

Book of the Week #27

The Remarkable John Weeks by Iris W. Baird (Lancaster, NH: The Friends of the William D. Weeks Memorial Library, 2011)

This year marks the centennial of the Weeks Act and the W. D. Weeks Memorial Library published this title to bring the story of Mr. Week's life to the attention of it's patrons (and others). This brief volume includes a selection of photos, both current and historical as well as information about both John Weeks and his family. If this volume whets your appetite for a more extensive bibilography you may also want to read The Life of John W. Weeks by Charles G. Washburn (1928).

Heralded as one of the most successful pieces of conservation legislation ever passed, the Weeks Act has helped to protect nearly 20 million acres of forestland—including the White Mountain National Forest. To commemorate the signing of this act a free series of lectures will be held on six successive Tuesday nights in July and August at the Mount Washington Observatory in North Conway. The first program in the series will be Rebecca Weeks Sherrill More (Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Brown University) on "The Impact of North Country Community and Collaboration in the Weeks Act of 1911" on Tuesday, July 12, 2011, at 7pm.

Some poetry news

Here is the latest on the Frost Farm’s Hyla Brook Reading Series:

June 28, 2011, DERRY, NH – On Thursday, July 14, 2011, the Frost Farm’s Hyla Brook Reading Series features Lee Briccetti, poet and executive director of Poets House in New York City, a poetry library and meeting place for poets and readers. Also appearing is Hyla Brook Poet Marla Landers-Renouf. The reading takes place on from 6:30-8:30pm. Held at the Frost Farm at 122 Rockingham Rd (Rt 28), the Reading Series is free and open to the public.

In addition to her long-held position at Poets House, Ms. Briccetti has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Award for Poetry and has been a Poetry Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her first book of poems, Day Mark, was published in 2005 by Four Way Books.

Ms. Landers-Renouf is from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and has lived in New Hampshire since 2007. She has a degree in English from Acadia University and a diploma in Scriptwriting from Algonquin College. She has been published in several online and print periodicals as well as on a coffee can label and had a personal essay featured on the CBC radio program "First Person Singular." She dabbles in children's writing and short fiction and in May began a blog on which she is attempting to post one haiku per day for a year. She also writes poems for everything from product labels to weddings as part of a small business called Short-Order Verse. She and her husband were married at Frost Farm in 2007 and live in Derry with their 2-year-old daughter.

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

The group’s monthly writing workshop meets on the third Saturday of the month at 10am. The next workshop takes place on Saturday, July 16, at the Frost Farm.

David Ferry, recent Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize Winner, Lifetime Achievement, will appear as part of the Hyla Brook Reading Series on Thursday, August 11.

For questions, please visit http://www.facebook.com/HylaBrookPoets.