Book of the Week #52

The Taking by J. D. Landis (NY: Ballantine Books, 2003)

New Hampshire author J. D. Landis worked in publishing for many years, wrote several kids books, and published his first novel, Lying in Bed in 1995. He was interviewed for the Baltimore City Paper just after that book came out. The Taking is a fascinating tale of love and loss with the history of the Quabbin Reservoir as a backdrop. The writing is lush, but at the same time has the spare flavor of New England about it.

"A haunting story set amid a sylvan cluster of towns, villages, and graveyards in New England-- nestled in a valley that would be purposely flooded in the late 1930s to create the Quabbin Reservoir. Communities would be destroyed, lives uprooted, connections to places of birth severed, and the dead would be exhumed and reburied. The fate of Swift River Valley holds a strange fascination for seventeen-year-old Sarianna Renway, a wayward student obsessed with the life and work of poet Emily Dickinson. Sarianna finds herself drawn to this little world whose end is predetermined and whose time is drawing near. In the small hamlet of Greenwich Village--abandoned, beautiful, doomed--Sarianna takes a job tutoring a minister's son. A man of deep faith, Jeremy Treat strives to instill hope into a town destined to be taken and lost forever. He vows to be the last one in the valley to ensure his remaining flock leaves safely. Eleven-year-old Jimmy, "the perfect representation of God on earth," is a curious and compassionate child prodigy. The matriarch of the household is twenty-six-year-old Una, a voluptuous eccentric who embraces scandal--and pines for the one true love who disappeared almost twelve years ago on the day she became Jeremy's wife. When the mysterious Ethan Vear resurfaces, none will emerge unchanged--especially Sarianna, who finds herself ensnared in a triangle of shifting identities and warring passions. In lush, evocative prose, J. D. Landis takes these vivid characters--their secrets, their temptations, their desires--and creates a stunning New England gothic novel of sexual awakening, profound loss, and thwarted love."     --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week #51

Shortcuts to Inner Peace: 70 Simple Paths to Everyday Serenity by Ashley Davis Bush (NY: Berkley Books, 2011)

Ashley Davis Bush, a writer and psychotherapist who lives in Epping, NH has written a wonderful, practical book to help all of us find our inner serenity. Mixed in with the shortcuts are anecdotes about how the tools have helped the author develop her own path. Bush does not live a calm quiet life--there are 5 kids living at her house--but has found ways to bring serenity to the chaos of modern life.

This book would make a great gift for someone who could use more serenity (you maybe?)

This excerpt explains the premise of the book, it isn't particularly representative of the warm and engaging tone that the author brings to her stories and which make this book a pleasure to read.

"So, can we train ourselves to pause? Can we learn to actually derail the habituated response and proceed intentionally? Can we develop new reactions to stress, new habits that not only lessen our suffering but actually increase our inner peace?
Yes! Practicing Shortcuts, that is, well-being exercises that are linked to established daily patterns, makes our lives more peaceful. Shortcuts (tools linked to triggers) allow us to experience calm and clarity, acceptance and gratitude, love and connection on a regular basis. They help us develop new habits of pausing, habits of redirection away from stress, and habits of "waking up" to life's riches. Moreover, when we're in a potentially downward stress spiral (and it happens to all of us) we can use Shortcuts to react differently ... to respond peacefully." (p. 3)

Calling all teenagers!

The Flume Award committee is looking for nominees and the deadline is January 13, 2012.

 If you are a New Hampshire teenager in grades 9-12 you can nominate books for the 2013 Flume Award with the online nomination form. Nominated titles can be fiction or nonfiction books, with appeal to teens. They must have a publication date within the last two years. If the book is part of a series, it must be able to stand alone, meaning a reader doesn't have to read the other books in the series to understand what's going on.

The 2011 Flume winner was Paper Towns by John Green. The list of 2012 nominees has 13 great books on it if you are looking for something to read.

Best Books of the Year

It's that time again -- when everyone and their cousin comes out with a list of the best books of the year.
Here are a few that I found interesting:

• Library Journal's Top Ten Best Books of 2011
  LJ also has lists by various categories -- some sliced so fine as to be ridiculous-- if you like lists they have lists.
• The Best Business Books of 2011 from Marketplace
  This is an interesting list and the scope of "business books" is broader than I would have expected.
• Slate Writers and Editors Pick Their Favorite Books of 2011
  This is the kind of list that reminds me that there are way more books out there than I can possibly keep up with -- it is fun to try though!
• The 10 Best Books of 2011 from the NY Times
  The first thing they include is the link to the best 100 books, which seems a little like cheating, but I like the graphic they chose for the article.

Tomorrow we will have another list to check out as well, The Exchange is doing their annual Holiday Book Show at 9am with Michael Herrmann of Gibson's Bookstore and Dan Chartrand from Water Street Bookstore.

Book of the Week #50

Dirty Whites and Dark Secrets: Sex and Race in Peyton Place by Sally Hirsh-Dickinson (Durham, NH: University of NH Press, 2011)

Part of the Revisiting New England series, this volume by NHPR host Sally Hirsh-Dickinson investigates the connections between the white identity and the black history of this small New England town and the ways those tensions manifest in the novel.

The first full-length scholarly study of Peyton Place, Grace Metalious’s classic story of New England indiscretion.

In a surprise rereading of the classic Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, Sally Hirsh-Dickinson contends that it scandalized the nation precisely because of the way in which sexuality in the novel is conflated with America’s problematic relationship to race. This charge is buttressed by the oft-forgotten detail that the fictional Peyton Place was founded by one Samuel Peyton, an escaped slave.

Hirsh-Dickinson argues that the town’s inability to come to terms with its black history informs its dysfunctional relationship to sex, power, and justice, mirroring America on the eve of the civil rights movement. She writes of New England in the larger American consciousness, touching on discussions of white studies and the racialized lower classes in American fiction. Dirty Whites and Dark Secrets is a thought-provoking study of a genre classic that will speak to both scholars and students about the deeper truths hidden in popular fiction." (publisher's blurb)

And the Winner is ...

Memoirs of a Goldfish written by Devin Scillian and illustrated by Tim Bowers was selected by New Hampshire children, from preschoolers to third graders, as the winner of the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.


There were 19,8263 votes cast by children across the state this year at over 140 voting sites. A flyer of the voting totals, suitable for posting, is available on the Ladybug Picture Book Award webpage.

Here are the complete voting results for 2011:

Memoirs of a Goldfish (4892 votes)
Interrupting Chicken (4880 votes) The top 2 were super close!
One (2924 votes)
City Dog, Country Frog (2294 votes)
Ugly Pie (1246 votes)
In the Wild (1075 votes)
Hibernation Station (838 votes)
The Cow Loves Cookies (795 votes)
Rubia and the Three Osos (522 votes)
Guyku (360 votes)

Book of the Week #49

All the Stars Came Out That Night: A Novel by Kevin King (NY: Dutton, 2005)

This is New Hampshire writer Kevin King's first novel.

"In the tradition of The Natural, and Shoeless Joe comes a mythic tale about 1930s stars Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, and the greatest game ever played. The date was October 20, 1934, just days after Diz’s Cardinals won the World Series. The place was Boston’s Fenway Park, under portable lights. The money behind it was Henry Ford’s, who yearned to see an all-white (and non-Jewish) team defeat the black all-stars. And the force behind it all was Clarence Darrow, the legal genius who pulled the political levers to make it happen. For Diz’s team there was Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Shoeless Joe Jackson (overweight and still banned from the game), and a lanky minor- leaguer named Joe DiMaggio. Paige’s all-stars featured Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell (the fastest man from first to third), Turkey Stearnes, and Buck Leonard. With a gimlet eye for historical detail and a passionate love for the game, Kevin King chronicles this epic game between Diz’s and Satch’s all-stars—and the epic struggle to put it together. No trophies or championships were on the line, only the two most important things in life to any ballplayer—respect and redemption." (publisher's description)

Let the Counting Begin!

Voting is now closed for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

The winner will be announced on this blog once the huge pile of ballots is counted. I would expect counting to be completed by the end of next week.