Book Notes New Hampshire

Book of the Week #5

2012-02-03T11:50:00.000-05:00

Recollections: Ten Women of Photography by Margaretta K. Mitchell (New York: Viking Press, A Studio Book, 1979)

When it was published in 1979 this book, and the exhibit it was a companion to, was looking at the work of photographers whose place in the history of 20th century American photography was still to be adequately understood. (to paraphrase the introduction). Brief profiles, based on interviews, of ten American photographers provide insights into what brought them to create the work they did and the book includes reproductions of several of each woman's works.

"Aside from gender, their only tie to one another is that of age: all these photographers were born around the turn of the century. Their work reflects a panorama of life experience and more than seventy-five years of photographic history. Thier generation lived thoruhg drastic social change and observed extremes in social mores, ethical values, andthe definition of good taste in art as well as life. The world they knew as children was abruptly upended by World War I and thier adult lives were disrupted by World War II. Seen as a group, thier photographs form a bridge of perceptions moving through these shifts in style." (p. 8)

Among the women profiled here is Lotte Jacobi, a photographer who championed fine art photography and who made her home in New Hampshire in 1955. She was active in local political causes as well as artistic ones. Ms. Jacobi's work, as well as that of her sister, is part of an exhibit, A New Vision: Modernist Photography, opening at the Currier Museum this week and running through mid-May 2012.

Book of the Week #4

2012-01-26T11:03:00.000-05:00

MacCullough's Women by Kathleen Ferrari (Nashua, NH: Roskerry Press, 2011)

Kathleen Ferrari lives in New Hampshire and has just published this, her first novel in a planned series set in the fictional city of Lynton, NH. She has previously published essays in The Boston Globe and in the Northern New England Review. She also writes a blog on her website.
On Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 11am Ms. Ferrari will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford reading from and signing MacCullough's Women.

"How well do I really know my husband?” When Drew MacCullough dies suddenly in a place he is not supposed to be, this is one of the questions that his widow, Franny, asks herself. In her search for answers, she enlists the help of Drew’s oldest friend and attorney, Neil Malone who is caught between helping her find the answers to her questions while at the same time protecting the memory of his friend." (from the publisher)

Book of the Week #3

2012-01-19T11:05:00.001-05:00

Winter Light: Photographs by Fletcher Manley (Lancaster, NH: Fletcher Manley Imaging, 2010)

Photographer and Lancaster resident Fletcher Manley has gathered an exquisite collection of images for this book. They are black and white photographs he made between 1967 and 2010 and they capture the magical qualities of snow in scenes from around the world. Many of the images include skiers, Powder-8's is a particularly striking skiing image, but city-scapes and country woods are also included.

"Growing up among hills and mountains helped shape my appreciation of the vertical landscape. Winter held a particular fascination with its low, glancing light, long shadows, and crisp accentuated textures, where snow sculpted and redefined familiar forms. So, it was not so much as a mountaineer, but more a rambler among the peaks and valleys, that I came to frame light and shadows, shapes and forms inherent in the mountain landscape." --Fletcher Manley

Book Events Sampler

2012-01-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, 1/18/2012

Barbara Brown Taylor, author of An Alter in the World will be speaking at Red River Theatre at 6pm, hosted by Gibson's and St. Paul's School.
Poetry Society of New Hampshire, will meet at 7pm at Gibson's.
Strictly Open Mic: so bring your villanelles, your sonatelles, sonnets, triolets, haiku or couplets, anything 19 lines or less. Bring a number of poems to share, yours or someone else’s.

Thursday, 1/19/2012

Tom Fiztgerald, author of Poor Richard's Lament will be at Gibson's at 7pm
Toadstool Bookshop, Keene will host Local Authors Night beginning at 7pm.
Featuring some of the areas best writers sharing their latest books. Scheduled to appear are Linda French, author of The Lilac Room, Karren Hoyt, author of Prayers From the Heart, Prayers from the Mind: A Collection of Modern Prayers, D.C. Legendre, author of Clams in Cups: Legends of the Heart, and Melissa Mannon, author of The Unofficial Family Archivist. They will read from and discuss their books and take questions from the audience. Come support local authors and find out about great new books written in our region.

Saturday, 1/21/2012

Jane Roy Brown will be autographing and discussing One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough at 11am.

Book of the Week #2

2012-01-12T14:13:00.000-05:00

Poor Richard's Lament: A Most Timely Tale by Tom Fitzgerald (Brookline, NH: Hobblebush Books, 2012)

Hobblebush, a NH based publisher, doesn't usually publish fiction. The foreword that Benjamin Franklin scholar Michael Zuckerman wrote convinced them to take a look at the manuscript and the extraordinary work of author Tom Fitzgerald convinced them that this book needed to be brought to as wide an audience as possible. From the West Wing of the White House to the “Celestial Trial” of Ben Franklin, to the slums of Philadelphia, Poor Richard’s Lament takes us on a whirlwind tour of time and space.

"But the beauty of this book is not just in its verbal pyrotechnics, ravishing though they are. It is, still more, in the constant breath of humane inspiration that guides a steady succession of searing, soaring triumphs of communion and caritas. Fitzgerald is that rarest of birds: a great writer and a great soul. He has summoned from unfathomable depths of despair an imagining of the greatest of Americans that is not only better than the original but also worthy of his own remarkable spirit." (Foreword, p. xiv)

Author Tom Fitzgerald will be at Gibson's for a reading and book signing on Thursday, January 19, 2012 beginning at 7pm.

Book of the Week #1

2012-01-03T11:11:00.000-05:00

The Talk Funny Girl: A Novel by Roland Merullo (NY: Crown Publishers, 2011)

Anita Shreve called this "One of the best novels I have ever read. A book for the ages." Set in a made-up version of rural New Hampshire this novel tells the story of Marjorie, a girl whose family is so isolated from society that they speak their own dialect and who are sinking deeper into economic ruin and the world of a sadistic cult leader.

"I am a grown woman now, married and raising children, and happy enough most of the time. Underneath that happiness, though, showing its face every now and again, is a part of me still connected to a time when I was a girl living with her parents in the New Hampshire hills. That girl was not treated well, and when anyone is hurt like that--especially a child--the hurt burrows down inside and makes a kind of museum there, with images of the bad times displayed on every wall. Some people try to forget the museum exists and keep their mind occupied with drink or drugs or food, or by staying busy with work, or they chase one kind of excitement after another, while the memories fester there in the dark. I understand all that, and I don't lay a judgement, as we used to say, over any of it. Some people use their own hurt as an excuse for hurting others, or for soaking in self-pity, or for a sharp anger that knifes up through the surface whenever something reminds them of what happened long ago. Some people spend thier lives trying never to do what was done to them." (p.1)

Book of the Week #52

2011-12-27T07:23:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-21T08:54:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-12-14T16:43:00.006-05:00

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

2011-12-13T16:33:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-13T08:17:00.001-05:00

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 ...

2011-12-09T14:09:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-08T17:13:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-12-05T17:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Book of the Week #48

2011-11-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

Delirious by Daniel Palmer (NY: Kensington Books, 2011)

This first novel by New Hampshire resident Daniel Palmer is, according to Booklist, a "solid, well-constructed thriller, nicely convoluted and definitely suspenseful."
Delirious is the story of Charlie Giles, an electronics superstar who sold his startup to a giant Boston firm, and is at the top of his game until the day everthing starts going terrifyingly wrong. As he struggles to save his own life, Charlie races to find the truth and realizes nothing can be trusted--including his own fractured mind.
Palmer's next novel is expected in January 2012.

Sending Ladybug Tally Sheets

2011-11-29T13:24:00.001-05:00

Voting for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award should be wrapping up this week as all votes must be recieved at the Center for the Book at the NH State Library no later than 5pm on December 5, 2011.

I have had several inquiries about faxing tally sheets. You may fax your votes, but if you don't get through before the deadline your votes won't be counted. Because of construction here at NHSL one of our fax machines has been unplugged and packed away, this leaves only one fax machine (603-271-2205). The original tally sheet posted on the website had the now disconnected fax number on it. The working number is on the version currently on the website.

You're best bet is to put your tally sheet in the mail. The address is in large type at the top of the tally sheet.

Deadlines are Approaching

2011-11-22T16:02:00.001-05:00

Several NH Center for the Book projects have deadlines coming up:

Applications for Granite State Reads Grants are only being accepted by mail for the 2012 grant cycle and must be postmarked by December 1, 2011
Votes for the Ladybug Picture Book Award must be recieved at the NH Center for the Book by 5pm on December 5, 2011
Letters About Literature entries must be postmarked no later than January 6, 2012 and must be recieved at LAL Central no later than 1/17/2012. Each entry must have an official entry coupon attached.

Book of the Week #47

2011-11-21T10:50:00.002-05:00

Walking the Dog's Shadow by Deborah Brown (Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2011)

This book of poetry from UNH Manchester professor Deborah Brown was chosen out of nearly eight hundred submissions as the winner of the ninth annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. It was also the winner of the 2011 NH Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Poetry.

Read "Reprise" for a sample of Brown's poetry.

Book of the Week #46

2011-11-15T10:46:00.001-05:00

A Different Time, A Different Man: The Story of John L. Sullivan, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for FDR and Truman's Sectretary of the Navy by Stephen Clarkson (Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2011)

Stephen Clarkson, a resident of Rye, NH and author of Patriot's Reward, has written the first biography of John L. Sullivan. Sullivan served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Franklin D. Roosevelt and was President Truman's Secretary of the Navy. He played a key role in the financing of World War II and then fought after the war to preserve a strong Navy and save the Marine Corps from being folded into the Army.

"Throughout his life, John Lawrence Sullivan was a devoted New Hampshire man. He was born and raised in Manchester and practiced law there. He managed several political campaigns and ran for governor twice. Over the years he became a respected political operative both in New Hampshire and nationally. He always kept his domicile in New Hampshire, although he continued to reside in Washington in the winter months after his government service. During the summers he and his family stayed much of the time at their other home on the coast, at Little Board Head in North Hampton, New Hampshire, next to Rye Beach." (p.7)

It seems to happen every couple years

2011-11-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

Time got away from me and I realized today that I missed posting a book of the week for the last 2 weeks. There is a book posted for this week (#46), but week #44 and week #45 had no books posted. After a slow start in 2007 I missed 2 weeks in 2009. As it has happened again in 2011 I clearly need to be careful in 2013.

And the winners are...

2011-11-04T22:48:00.001-04:00

The New Hampshire Literary Awards were held this evening at the NH Institute of Art in Manchester. It was a wonderful night for NH's literati and I am very glad that I didn't have to choose the winners from among all the wonderful nominees!

Outstanding Children's Literature Award -- Joseph Monninger for Wish
Outstanding Book of Poetry Award -- Deborah Brown for Walking the Dog's Shadow
Outstanding Work of Nonfiction Award -- Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country, edited by John R. Harris, Kay Morgan, and Mike Dickerman
Donald M. Murray Award for Outstanding Journalism -- Meg Heckman, "Living with Hepatitis C," Concord Monitor
Outstanding Book of Fiction Award -- Ann Joslin Williams for Down from Cascom Mountain
Charles Simic was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award
Readers' Choice Awards
Katherine Towler, Island Light (fiction)
Mary Carroll Moore, Your Book Starts Here (nonfiction)
Liz Ahl, Luck (poetry)
David S. Rawding, Lucas the Traveling Crab (children's literature)

Go to RiverRun this week and buy books

2011-11-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

There are several excellent reasons why a visit to RiverRun Bookstore should be on your calendar this week:

On Wednesday 11/2/2011 at 7pm author Kevin Brockmeier will be there reading from his latest novel, The Illumination
On Friday, 11/4/2011 at 7pm Colson Whitehead will be there (If you haven't read his books yet, start with The Intuitionist which is amazing)
If RiverRun is going to remain Portsmouth's independent bookstore, it needs your support! The Los Angeles Times is concerned about this, and we should be too.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-10-28T07:09:00.016-04:00

Bear goes wandering through the woods --which are full of colorful detail thanks to the illustrations of Heather Solomon-- in search of ugly pie. He finds several friends with pies to offer, (pumpkin, honey, and rhubarb) but none are ugly enough to suit him. Each friend gives him an ugly ingredient and when he gets home he sets to "a-choppin' and a-mixin' and a-stirin' and a-fixin' and a-rollin', and a-makin' an ugly pie just fit for bakin'!" Author Lisa Wheeler provides the recipe at the end of the story.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Ms. Wheeler's work has been nominated before: One Dark Night was nominated in 2004.

2011 Readers' Choice Awards - Outstanding Children's Literature

2011-10-27T07:39:00.021-04:00

This year, for the first time, as part of the NH Literary Awards, the NH Writers' Project will also give a Readers' Choice Award. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favorite book from among the titles nominated in each category. The Readers' Choice Awards will be presented at the Literary Awards ceremony on November 4, 2011 at the NH Institute of Art.

Here are the nominees for The Readers' Choice Award for Outstanding Children's Literature:
(Note, hyperlinked titles have been NH Center for the Book books-of-the-week, hyperlinked authors have had other work featured on our blog.)

Let It Fall, Maryann Cocoa-Leffler
The Memory Bank, Carolyn Coman
The Penny, Andy Cutts
Jigsaw, Terri A. DeMitchell
Wish, Joseph Monninger
The Gator Pit, Janey Morneau
Lucas the Traveling Crab, David S Rawding
The Christmas Mink and other December Tales from the North Woods, John-Richard Thompson

Vote for your favorite in each award category!

The winners will be announced next week -- do you have your tickets for the NH Literary Awards ceremony?

Book of the Week #43

2011-10-25T11:08:00.000-04:00

The Vaults: A Novel by Toby Ball (NY: St. Martin's Press, 2010)

"In a dystopian 1930s America, a chilling series of events leads three men down a path to uncover their city’s darkest secret. At the height of the most corrupt administration in the City’s history, a mysterious duplicate file is discovered deep within the Vaults---a cavernous hall containing all of the municipal criminal justice records of the last seventy years. From here, the story follows: Arthur Puskis, the Vault’s sole, hermit-like archivist with an almost mystical faith in a system to which he has devoted his life; Frank Frings, a high-profile investigative journalist with a self-medicating reefer habit; and Ethan Poole, a socialist private eye with a penchant for blackmail. All three men will undertake their own investigations into the dark past and uncertain future of the City---calling into question whether their most basic beliefs can be maintained in a climate of overwhelming corruption and conspiracy." (publisher's summary)

Toby Ball is a novelist and the Business Manager at the Crimes against Children Research Center and the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire. He lives in Durham, NH, with his wife and two children. His second novel, Scorch City, was published in 2011 and he is currently working on a third. The Vaults is also available as an audiobook.

Grants Available for NH Literacy Projects

2011-10-24T15:40:00.000-04:00

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is pleased to announce that the Granite State Reads program is currently accepting applications for the 2012 grant cycle. Those interested in applying for a Granite State Reads grant should visit http://granitestatereads.org/ for details on how to apply. You can contact Granite State Reads at gsr@dcr.nh.gov.

Granite State Reads offers financial support to New Hampshire organizations that provide literacy assistance to New Hampshire residents. An organization with a project that improves the literacy skills of New Hampshire children or adults is eligible to apply for a Granite State Reads grant of $500 or more. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2011. Grant recipients will be notified of funding decisions by February 6, 2012.

Since 2003, nearly $97,000 has been distributed to New Hampshire literacy programs through Granite State Reads. Previously funded projects include a program that provided books to babies and toddlers, several family reading initiatives, guided reading groups, and literacy programs for people with learning challenges. Granite State Reads is a program of the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

Barnes Wins Man Booker

2011-10-21T16:42:00.000-04:00

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes was selected as the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize. This is the 4th time that a Barnes novel has been shortlisted for the Prize.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-10-21T07:07:00.046-04:00

The three osos leave their house for a walk before dinner and Little Miss Rubia (with her curls of oro) comes along and helps herself to sopa, sits in the sillas, and settles in for a nap in the littlest cama. If you know about Goldilocks you probably think you know what happens when the bears come home, but you might be surprised. Susan Middleton Elya has retold this classic tale in rhyme with Spanish vocabulary mixed into the story and translated at the back of the book. The fun and colorful pictures in this book were created by Melissa Sweet.

Both the author and the illustrator have games and activities on their websites. Not specificially about this book though.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Ms. Elya's work has been nominated before: Bebe Goes Shopping was nominated in 2008.

2011 Readers' Choice Awards - Outstanding Work of Poetry

2011-10-20T07:37:00.028-04:00

Here are the nominees for The Readers' Choice Award for Outstanding Work of Poetry:
(Note, hyperlinked titles have been NH Center for the Book books-of-the-week, hyperlinked authors have had other work featured on our blog.)

Luck, Liz Ahl
Walking the Dog's Shadow, Deborah Brown
In the Cat's Eye, Glenn K. Currie
Then, Something, Patricia Fargnoli
Working in Flour, Jeff Friedman
Seasons and Shadows, John T. Hitchner
The Battlefield Guide: Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Gettysburg, Rodger Martin
Flinch of Song, Jennifer Militello
Lid to the Shadow, Alexandria Peary
From the Box Marked Some Are Missing, Charles W. Pratt
Earth Listening, Becky D. Sakellariou
The Ambiguity of Autumn, Jeff Volk
Slipstream, Carol Westberg

Vote for your favorite in each award category!
Next week I will feature the titles nominated for Outstanding Work of Children's Literature.

Book of the Week #42

2011-10-18T13:25:00.000-04:00

When Cuba Was Lost: A Novel by Phil Jones (Hancock, NH: Norway Hill Press, 2010)

This novella by Hancock resident Phil Jones tells the story of Esperanza Ramirez, the daughter of an American industrialist who visits Cuba in 1935 and falls in love with a Cuban Naval Cadet, Carlos Mesa. Carlos is a member of the Cuban Youth Movement, a radical organization determined to overthrow the government, and the young lovers are swept up in the violence that brought Fulgensio Batista to power as they struggle to save the life of resistance leader Antonio Guiteras. The book was reviewed recently by Steve Sherman for the Keene Sentinal.

"It was even better than she had imagined. Catching the light from rows of torches lining the drive, the new limousines glinted blacks and greens and reds in sparkling reflections of color among the flashes of gleaming chrome. Polished to perfection, each car drove through a gate guarded by several soldiers and preceded slowly around the circular drive up to the marbled stariway that marked the entrance to the Havana Yacht Club. Within each car were representatives of Cuba's elite. Before the night was out, everybody who was anybody in Cuba in 1935 would be present--all scrubbed and perfumed, resplendent in their finest suits and gowns." (p. 13)

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-10-14T07:05:00.021-04:00

Red is a bully and all the colors are scared of him until 1 shows up and shows them all a better way. Kathryn Otashi is the author and illustrator of several books for children. One has recieved numerous awards since it was published in 2008.
This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award

2011 National Book Awards Finalists

2011-10-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

The finalists for the 2011 National Book Awards were announced this week.

Poetry Tomorrow

2011-10-13T11:34:00.001-04:00

In case you haven't already heard about it (I hope you have) here is the schedule of poetry readings planned for tomorrow around the state. Thanks to Walter Butts for reminding me!

Prior to this weekend's NHWP Poetry & Politics Conference at NHTI Concord, visiting State Poets Laureate will join New Hampshire Poets on a statewide tour of readings on Friday, October 14th. The events are free and open to the public.

Poets Laureate: Walter E. Butts (NH) and Dick Allen (CT)
Local Poets: Faculty and student poets
Venue: New England College
Time: Noon to 3 p.m.

Poets Laureate: Walter E. Butts (NH), Richard Allen (CT), Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda (VA) and Marie Harris (NH)
Local Poets: Faculty and student poets
Venue: Southern New Hampshire University
Time: 4 p.m. followed by reception

Poets Laureate: Julie Kane (LA) and Lisa Starr (RI)
Local Poet: Catherine O’Brian
Venue: Concord Public Library (Auditorium)
Time: 10:15 a.m. to Noon

Poets Laureate: Bruce Dethlefsen (WI) and Karla Morton (TX)
Local Poet: Maudelle Driskill
Venue: Abbie Greenleaf Library (in downtown Franconia)
Time: 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Poet Laureate: Dave Parsons (TX)
Local Poets: Rodger Martin, Jim Duffy, Bill Doreski and Jeff Friedman
Venue: Keene State College, Mountain View Room, 3rd floor, Student Union Building
Time: 1 to 2:30 p.m. followed by refreshments

Poets Laureate: JoAnn Balingit (DE) and Caryn Miriam Goldberg (KS)
Local Poets: Peter Money and April Ossman
Venue: Lebanon Community College Auditorium
Time: 1 to 3 p.m.

Poet Laureate: Pat Fargnoli (NH)
Local Poets: Pam Bernard and Martha Carlson-Bradley
Venue: Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough
Time: 1 p.m.

Poets Laureate: Betsy Sholl (ME) and Marjory Wentworth (SC)
Local Poets: S. Stephanie and Sid Hall
Venue: Toadstool Bookshop, Milford
Time: 1 p.m.

2011 Readers' Choice Awards - Outstanding Work of Nonfiction

2011-10-13T07:34:00.054-04:00

Here are the nominees for The Readers' Choice Award for Outstanding Work of Nonfiction:

(Note, hyperlinked titles have been NH Center for the Book books-of-the-week, hyperlinked authors have had other titles featured on our blog.)

Lie After Lie: The True Story of a Master of Deception, Betrayal, and Murder, Lara Bricker
Was That a Name I Dropped?, Paul E. Brogan
States of Grace: Encounters with Real Yankees, Edie Clark
Granite Grumblings: Life in the 'Live Free or Die' State, Glenn K. Currie
Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country, John Harris, Kay Morgan, and Mike Dickerman, editors
Command Influence, Robert Shaines
Visible Voices: Literacy and the Invisible Homeless, Melissa M. Juchniewicz
Crosswise to the Government: Memoir of an Innocent Spouse, Meg Ledgeway (Katharine Lofgren)
Turn & Jump, Howard Mansfield
Your Book Starts Here, Mary Carroll Moore
Jefferson's Dream, The Ballad of the Declaration of Independence, John Perrault
Franco-American Life & Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire, Robert B. Perreault
Mothers of Scouting, Edward L. Rowan
Headin' for the Rhubarb! A New Hampshire Dictionary (well, kinda), Rebecca Rule
Violence, Veils and Bloodlines: Reporting from War Zones, Louis J. Salome
Bad Blood: Freedom and Death in the White Mountains, Casey Sherman
The Nature of New Hampshire: Natural Communities of the Granite State, Dan Sperduto and Ben Kimball
Roads Less Traveled: Visionary New England Lives, John Walters

Vote for your favorite in each award category!
Next week I will feature the titles nominated for Outstanding Work of Poetry.

Book of the Week #41

2011-10-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country edited by John R. Harris, Kay Morgan & Mike Dickerman (Littleton, NH: Bondcliff Books in partnership with Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce University, 2011)

"Beyond the Notches records the pulse of the North Country in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Its authors share an interest in close observation and the articulation of a storied relationship with the land. They scrutinize Coos, Carroll, and Grafton counties from a variety of perspectives, including archaeology, psychology, art, history, ecology, photography, journalism, and literature. Several writers explore what makes the region distinctive; others examine tensions that vex its inhabitants, or posit remedies that address its most serious ills. The majority acknowledge that the North Country can no longer rely on weather, terrain and distance to hold back influences like new arrivals with increased expectations, new technologies for communication and recreation, and new attitudes that call into question local traditions. North Country residents have begun to recognize that their way of life has evolved "beyond" the notches, and many appear interested in new approaches, several of which are outlined in this volume." (Introduction, p. 10)

A diversity of voices and an interesting collection of images, both old and new, made this volume a pleasure to read.
The included essays are collected into five parts, each begun with a quote from Robert Frost. The volume begins with "First Stories" which "reveal the primacy of the land and its features," but are also first in the sense of chronology, the competitive sense of "first place" and the sense of being essential or primal. Part 2 covers "Transformation and Change" and includes a fascinating essay by Rebecca Rule about the people who made the Berlin paper mills run. Part 3, "Working the Land" includes essays on the working life of (among others) loggers, bootmakers, and farmers as well as the local innovations and outside forces that have shaped the North Country economy and the Stark Prisoner of War camp. "Conservation and Recreation" is the theme of part 4 which includes essays on the places those of us from "below the notches" visit the North Country for (Storyland, The Public Forests, Lake Umbagog, etc.) The final section focuses on "Competing Visions" of what the future of this region might look like.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-10-07T09:20:00.019-04:00

The simple, calm existence of a goldfish is disrupted by the introduction of a lot of companions. He doesn't like it one bit! Or does he? You will have to read the book and hear his thoughts as events unfold. Devin Scillian has written (would that be fish-written?) and Tim Bowers has illustrated these Memoirs of a Goldfish. The pictures bring the trauma of overcrowding vividly to life, and are delightful in their detail. I especially love the beach umbrella.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award

2011 Readers' Choice Awards - Outstanding Work of Fiction

2011-10-06T07:17:00.027-04:00

This year, for the first time, as part of the NH Literary Awards, the NH Writer' Project will also give a Readers' Choice Award. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favorite book from among the titles nominated in each category. The Readers' Choice Awards will be presented at the Literary Awards ceremony on November 4, 2011 at the NH Institute of Art.

Here are the nominees for The Readers' Choice Award for Outstanding Work of Fiction:
(Note, hyperlinked titles have been NH Center for the Book books-of-the-week, hyperlinked authors have had other titles featured on our blog.)

My Name is Jane, Don Bourassa
Live Free or Undead, Rick Broussard, editor
Lights from Monadnock, Jack Coey
Angels of Venice, Tom Foster
Hunter Huntress, Darcy Scott
Dance Lessons, Aine Greaney
Mutual Aid, Ruth Doan MacDougall
Sing You Home, Jodi Picoult
Passing Time, Ron Roy
Corruptions, A Novel of Washington, James T. Shea
The Wycked Falls: Descent into the Maelstrom, Robyrt Snyder
The Cloak and the Parchments, Frank P. Spinella, Jr.
Island Light, Katherine Towler
Jadine, Julie Bigg Veazey
Soul Proprietorship: Women in Search of Their Souls, Dianalee Velie
Templates, Ronna Flaschner
Down from Cascom Mountain, Ann Joslin Williams

Vote for your favorite in each award category!
Next week I will feature the titles nominated for Outstanding Work of Nonfiction.

Book of the Week #40

2011-10-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

Franco-American Life & Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire: Vivre la Difference by Robert B. Perreault (The History Press, 2010)

This collection of essays by Manchester native and St. Anselm College modern language professor Robert B. Perreault provides a look back at the French side (both literally and figuratively) of the city of Manchester.

"A strong sense of unity and tradition frames a fascinating history of Manchester, New Hampshire’s Franco-American community. Author Robert B. Perreault presents this story through compelling vignettes, including the triumphant success of photographer Ulric Bourgeois, the undeniable conflict between the French and Irish immigrants and a colorful profile of book collector and author Adélard Lambert. Featuring vintage images from Perreault’s private collection, this work is a stunning visual narrative of the French-Canadian contributions to local culture." (back cover)

NH Literary Awards 2011

2011-10-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

The New Hampshire Literary Awards will be presented Friday evening, November 4, 2011 at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester. You can buy tickets for the award ceremony from the NH Writers' Project (NHWP). Tickets cost $25 and include the reception, hors d'oeuvres and libations. WZID Radio personality Mike Morin will emcee.

The NH Literary Awards recognize Outstanding Children's Literature, an Outstanding Book of Nonfiction, an Outstanding Book of Fiction, an Outstanding Book of Poetry. The Donald M. Murray Award for Outstanding Journalism and a Lifetime Achievement award (given to someone selected by the NHWP Board of Trustees) will also be announced at the event. These award winners will be selected from the list of 2011 finalists.

This year, for the first time, NHWP will also give a Readers' Choice Award. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favorite book from among the titles nominated in each category.

Book Events Sampler

2011-10-02T07:57:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, 10/4/2011

Kevin Flynn and Rebecca Lavoie will be at Gibson's at 5:30 talking about their latest tale of true crime, Legally Dead.
Water Street Books is hosting novelists Toby Ball and Gerry Boyle starting at 7pm

Wednesday, 10/5/2011

Spend your lunch hour with Chris Bojalian who will be at Barnes & Noble, Nashua signing The Night Strangers at 12:30pm

Thursday, 10/6/2011

Gibson's will host 3 Great Writers on the Outdoors (It looked like 4 writers to me, but math is not my strong suit) starting at 7pm

Friday, 10/7/2011

Tom Ryan, author of Following Atticus, will be at Barnes & Noble, Portsmouth at 7pm

Saturday, 10/8/2011

Joni Cole will be at Morgan Hill Bookstore from 11-12:30 to sign Another Bad-Dog Book

Sunday, 10/9/2011

Dava Sobel will be speaking at The Capitol Center for the Arts at 7pm as part of the Writers in the Spotlight Series. This is a ticketed event ($6) hosted by Gibson's Bookstore.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-09-30T10:17:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you just can't help it. The characters in your storybook are headed for trouble, you can see it coming, and they can't. What is a sympathetic litttle red chicken supposed to do?

In this charming book by David Ezra Stein chicken jumps right in to warn them and wraps up the story before anyone gets hurt. Papa thinks this is interrupting.

This Caldecott Honor book is among the titles in the Candlewick Read to Us! Story-hour Kit.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Book of the Week #39

2011-09-27T15:54:00.000-04:00

The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America's Mountain Domes, from Acadia to Yosemite by Tom Wessels; illustrations by Brian D. Cohen (Woodstock, Vt.: The Countryman Press, 2001)

How does the ocean floor to the east of Bermuda relate to the age of New Hampshire's granite? What is rock outcrop succession? What does Henry David Thoreau have to do with it? What does the composition of the headstones tell you about New England cemeteries? These questions, and many more, are answered in terms easily understood by non-geologists (that would definitely include me!) by New Hampshire author Tom Wessels. The focus of the book is granite domed mountains, like Mount Chocorua.

"To truly understand and appreciate these unique mountain domes, there are certain things we need to know: why granite is distinct among rocks; how it is created; why all mountains have a granite core; why granite weathers to form smooth, rounded domes, how plants colonize these harsh, dry, acidic environments; and how disturbance perpetually keeps these domes open and exposed. By examining the origins of granite, glaciation, outcrop succession, and the role of disturbance, the four chapters of part One lay the geological and ecological foundations for the features that are common to all exposed granite domes. Part Two then explores the particular natural history of granite domes found in the various mountain ranges in our northern states."(p. 17)

Book of the Week #38

2011-09-23T17:08:00.000-04:00

J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski (NY: Random House, 2010)

J.D. Salinger lived in Cornish, N.H. for many years, and was nearly as famous for his reclusive life as for his writing. Kenneth Slawenski, a huge fan of Salinger recently published this new life of the creator of Catcher in the Rye. Whether or not he has made a useful contribution to our knowledge of Salinger is under debate. The Washington Post thought well of the book, one reviewer for the New York Times found value to it. Jay McInerney, writing in the New York Times Book Review had major concerns about the book and Slate's reviewer was very displeaased. Salinger raised controversy in his life and is continuing to do so in his lives. This is a very readable work, so consider what the critics have to say, and judge the book for yourself.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-09-23T10:39:00.019-04:00

New Hampshire author David Elliott has created a collection poems about wild animals which have been beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by Holly Meade. Elliott's verses are clear and straitforward, nothing to confuse his readers, but they contain references to larger issues (extinction, evolution, even a nod to William Blake) that add depth to the collection.

The Panda
You're a bamboo bandit;
you're a piebald dream.
You're a bear in silk pajamas;
you're cookies and cream.
You're the wizard of the mountains;
you're pres-ti-di-gi-ta-tion!
You're nature's best example
of bear imagination.
Reproduced here with permission of the poet.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Celebrate Your Right to Read at RiverRun

2011-09-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

RiverRun Bookstore is inviting you to Celebrate Free Speech by reading your favorite Banned Book at the store on Wednesday, September 28th at 7pm.

Here are details from their announcement:

September 26th-October 2nd is National Banned Books Week, and libraries and bookstores all over the country will be promoting and celebrating beloved books that have found their way at one time or another on to a restricted list at a library or been challenged in a school. These books range from Catcher in the Rye to the Gossip Girls. Some were banned for language, some for depictions of homosexuality, some for religious reasons.

RiverRun Bookstore in downtown Portsmouth believes that in the Live Free or Die state of New Hampshire, people should be able to make their own decisions about what they read. On Wednesday, September 28th at 7pm RiverRun Bookstore will throw a Celebrate Uncensored Reading Party. A member of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union will speak about the importance of freedom of expression, and then local personalities will be reading from some their favorite banned books. Readers include Portsmouth Poet Laureate John-Michael Albert, New Hampshire Public Radio Host Virginia Prescott, The Executive Director of The Music Hall Patricia Lynch and others.

If you'd like to do a short reading during the event, or for further information, contact RiverRun Bookstore at 20 Congress St, Portsmouth NH. Call 603-431-2100 or email info@riverrunbookstore.com

Are you planning an event for Banned Books Week? Add a comment to this post to let us know what's planned.

Book Events this Week

2011-09-19T16:00:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, 9/20/2011

Jonathan Dixon will talk about his memoir, Beaten, Seared, and Sauced, at the The Hollis Social Library at 6:30pm. Registration is required for this event.
White Birch Books will host a book launch party at 7pm for Tom Ryan's book Following Atticus
Christiana McEwan will be holding a Creativity Workshop at Water Street Bookstore at 7pm
Beginning at 7pm RiverRun Bookstore is having a Maine Mystery Night with Julia Spenser Fleming and Paul Dorion

Wednesday, 9/21/2011

Mary Johnson will be talking about An Unquenchable Thirst at 7pm at Water Street
Ellen Fitzpatrick will be talking about Letters to Jackie at RiverRun at 7pm
The Poetry Society of NH will meet at Gibson's starting at 7pm for their monthly open mic. The featured readers will be Robert Crawford and New Hampshire Poet Laureate Walter Butts

Thursday, 9/22/2011

From 3-5pm White Birch Books will host Hank Parrott, author of Seven Steps to Financial Freedom in Retirement
Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The 4 Voyages will be speaking at Gibson's at 7pm
At 7pm Daniel Rasmussen will be at Nashua Public Library talking about American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt
Mary Johnson will be talking about An Unquenchable Thirst at 7pm at RiverRun

Saturday, 9/24/2011

Joann Snow Duncanson will read from her book 8 Crayons at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough beginning at 11am
Also at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, Mary Johnson will be talking about Unquenchable Thirst at 2pm
At 2pm Ray Glabach will sign and discuss his book The Last Village Smithy: Memories of a Small Town in the New England Hills at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene
Joni B. Cole, author of Another Bad-Dog Book will be at Water Street starting at 4pm

Sunday, 9/25/2011

Joni B. Cole, author of Another Bad-Dog Book, will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene at 2pm
Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will host Tom Ryan, author of Following Atticus (along with Atticus), at 2pm

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-09-16T10:15:00.039-04:00

Winter is coming and it's time to get on the train for Hibernation Station. The animals, "big to little," arrive ready for bed and the bears, in railroad caps and train PJs, lead them to sleep for the winter.

Author Michelle Meadows explains that "Hibernation Station is a story about animals snuggling in for winter sleep. I wrote it because I have always wanted to hibernate in the winter. Give me blankets, pillows, books, and hot chocolate. I would be okay until Spring!" Her website includes projects and activities related to her books.

Illustrator Kurt Cyrus provides the fabulously detailed pictures--including an adorable turtle in bedroom slippers who reminds me of someone I know. If you want to become a book illustrator, Cyrus offers a cautionary tale in his How Not to Make a Book.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Mr. Cyrus's work has been nominated before: Tadpole Rex was nominated in 2009.

Letters About Literature 2012

2011-09-15T08:06:00.000-04:00

A Reading Promotion Grant of $10,000 for your school or community library is the national prize in Letters About Literature, a writing contest sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores and coordinated in New Hampshire by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

To enter, readers in grades 4-12 write a personal letter to an author, explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves. State winners will advance to national competition and the first-place winner for New Hampshire at each of three competition levels will receive a $100 cash prize.

Deadline for entries is January 6, 2012. To obtain the required entry coupon visit http://lal.nhbookcenter.org/. While you’re there, sign up to get email updates on the NH competition and check out the complete contest rules, a teaching supplement, winning essays from previous years, and other details.

Man Booker Shortlist 2011

2011-09-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

The shortlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize was announced this week. Personally, I was pleased to see that I am more current in my reading than usual. I knew about several of these and actually finished one of them already. If you are looking for current, high-caliber fiction this is a list to consider.

Book of the Week #37

2011-09-14T07:56:00.098-04:00

World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwen (Peterborough, NH: Bauhan Publishing, 2011).

This is a lovely book in which McEwen gathers together "poetry and art and literary history, Buddhism and contemplative practice, along with a smattering of sociology and statistics." (p.13) as well as insights from a variety of practicing artists. This is a book that can (of course) be read strait through from the introduction to the extensive bibliography at the end. However, in keeping with the spirit of the thing, it also lends itself quite well to browsing. Individual sections and anecdotes are headed in a way that makes them easy to find and intriguing--I wanted to know why 'Silence is Goldfish-blue' and what is 'The trouble with poetry.' Each chapter ends with 'tactics' which are questions, tasks, and quotes that relate to the chapter and give your own thoughts a place to begin.

One of the key elements of what librarians call "readers' advisory" is that you do not push books on people, you help them find out what books exist that might be of interest to them and match their reading preferences and then you let the reader choose their own book. I find this difficult. Some books just compel me to get everyone I possibly can to read them. This is one of those books.

"Expert or apprentice, maker of whatever kind, writer or gardener, artist or teacher: my hope is that this is a book that will be of practical use to you, and to which you will return again and again. It was written for my friends and students, which is to say, for a wide-ranging general audience, most of whom remain chronically over-worked. But it was written with the fierce conviction that despite the daily onslaught of racket and distraction, it still remains possible, even now, to turn these things around: to spin straw into gold, time into eternity, anxiety into ease and inspiration." (p.14)

Christian McEwen will be leading mini-workshops on creativity at several New Hampshire bookstores in the near future:

9/17/11 at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough from 11am-12:30pm
9/20/11 at Water Street Bookstore beginning at 7pm
9/26/11 at White Birch Books from 7:00-8:30pm

Upcoming Book Events

2011-09-13T11:17:00.000-04:00

Tonight, 9/13/11

Brendan DuBois will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 7pm signing Deadly Cove

Wednesday, 9/14/11

Charles C. Mann will be talking about 1493 at Red River Theatres, hosted by Gibson's, at 6pm (note time)
RiverRun is hosting a writing workshop with Wendy Call and Midge Raymond. (Free, Reservations needed)
Poet Ewa Chrusciel will be the featured reader at Water Street's open mic beginning at 6:30pm

Thursday, 9/15/11

Gibson's is hosting a night of mystery with Brendan DuBois and Toby Ball at 7pm
Sandra Garson, author of the cookbook Veggiyana will be speaking at RiverRun at 7pm

Saturday, 9/17/2011

Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will host a mini-workshop with Christian McEwan, author of World Enough and Time, at 11am.
Ray Glabach, author of The Last Village Smithy, will be speaking at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 2pm

Monday, 9/19/2011

RiverRun will host William Sargent, author of The Well From Hell, at 7pm
Lois Lowry will be at Gibson's at 7pm talking about her latest book, Bless This Mouse. Plan to get there early -- this is Lois Lowry!

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-09-09T10:01:00.000-04:00

According to illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, he and author Bob Racza put together this collection of illustrated haiku as "an invitation for boys to swim in the 'poem pond.'"
The Guyku web site includes info on writing guyku, teacher's resources, and a gals protest section.

The wind and I play
tug-of-war with my new kite.
The wind is winning.

When you’re a guy, nature is one big playground—no matter what the season. There are puddles to splash in the spring, pine trees to climb in the summer, maple seeds to catch in the fall, and icicles to swordfight with in the winter.

Nature also has a way of making a guy appreciate important stuff—like how many rocks it takes to dam up a stream, or how much snow equals a day off from school.

So what kind of poetry best captures these special moments, at a length that lets guys get right back to tree-climbing and kite-flying? Why, guyku, of course!

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Terry Brooks in NH!

2011-09-08T11:37:00.000-04:00

Terry Brooks will be at Gibson's on Saturday, 9/10/11 at 11am.

This is a rare chance to meet a rock star of fantasy fiction. Brooks doesn't tour a lot and rarely makes repeat visits to the same places. He will be talking about his new novel, The Measure of the Magic, which is the sequel to his first Legends of Shannara novel, Bearers of the Black Staff. If you haven't read Brooks' work check out his advice on reading order to figure out where to begin.

Book of the Week #36

2011-09-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

Ocean-born Mary: The Truth Behind a New Hampshire Legend by Jeremy D'Entremont (The History Press, 2011)

D'Entremont, an expert on lighthouses and a Portsmouth resident, has turned his attention to the story of Ocean-born Mary for his latest book. He will be reading from this new book at RiverRun Bookstore on Thursday, 9/8/2011 at 7pm.

Meet Mary: ocean-born and named by an infamous pirate. Her birth saved a group of Scottish immigrants aboard a ship bound for New England in 1720. Halfway through the grueling voyage, pirates intercepted and captured the vessel. Upon hearing a baby’s cry, the pirate captain promised to spare the lives of all on board if the mother named her newborn Mary, possibly after his beloved mother. The ship arrived safely in Massachusetts, and Mary lived most of her long life in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Discover the house in Henniker, New Hampshire, that Mary is said to haunt and where a pirate purportedly stashed his treasure. Join historian Jeremy D’Entremont as he separates the facts from the fantastic legends shrouding one of New England’s most enduring folk tales.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-09-02T08:22:00.039-04:00

Karma Wilson was inspired by a Christmas gift she chose for her agent to create this fun rhyming story about who eats what on the farm. Artist and musician Marcellus Hall created the pictures.

"As a farmer makes his daily rounds, readers learn what he feeds his animals and how often. ... In a twist, readers are reminded after each animal's feeding, "But the cow loves cookies." As the cumulative story progresses, what each creature eats is repeated in successive fashion. "The geese munch corn; it tastes so fine./The hogs think slop is just divine./The dog adores his doggy treats./But Cow would rather eat things sweet.." The story ends with Farmer and Cow sharing cookies and milk. The cleverly rhyming text and pace of the story make it perfect for a read-aloud. The whimsical ink and watercolor illustrations add to the humor. An instant storytime crowd pleaser." School Library Journal review

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Ms. Wilson's work has been nominated before: Bear Snores On (2003) and Moose Tracks! (2007) were past Ladybug Picture Book Award nominees.

Book of the Week #35

2011-08-31T17:01:00.001-04:00

Warrior of the Three Moons: Book I of The God Wars of Ithir by J. Michael Robertson (Authorhouse, 2010)

J. Michael Robertson is a student of ancient military civilizations and mythology --particularly the Celts and Romans--and a member of the NH Writers' Project, who writes both fantasy fiction and poetry. This is his first novel and it tells the story of Ciarán, a young highland clansman, who must fulfill a fateful and unwanted destiny: become the mythical Warrior of the Three Moons and lead a desperate search for an ancient weapon hidden in a city lost to the sight of men for three thousand years.

"The Wheel of the year has turned four thousand times since the gods defeated thier brother, the Khem Uru, the Dark God, in the God Wars. A thousand years have passed since the Battle Druid Cuhulain, the last Warrior of the Three Moons, was slain at the Raven Stone. In that desperate time the mythical Sunspear forged in the God Age by the Smith God again reaches out to the world. With his stirring, the Long Night begins to fall over Eirinn, sacred land of the Celtae.

The boy crept stealthily to the edge of the ticket of maple and hemlock lining the riverbank. He cast a quick look up and down the fast moving Eiraen and then scrambled down to the shoal of pebbles below. This trip, with the help of old Angus MacRaibh, a travelling tinker, he had sneaked a sword, bow case, and horn bow out of Sky Stone. By leaving before morn had chimed and hiding in Angus' wagon, he had eluded the young Ainnir who had been shadowing his every waking moment." (p. 1-2)

Hugo Awards 2011

2011-08-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

The Hugo Awards, presented annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”), which is also responsible for administering them. The list of 2011 winners was recently announced.

Where are the Book Reviews?

2011-08-30T08:54:00.000-04:00

Jane Ciabattari, president of the National Book Critics Circle from 2008 to 2011, has put together a great overview of the current state of book reviewing. She includes links to lots of different book review sources and a summary of where each one is coming from editorially. In reading this article I discovered that Sara Nelson, former PW editor, is now Book Editor at O. This is probably old news, but I hadn't heard where she had landed.

Book Launch Events Tomorrow

2011-08-29T13:31:00.000-04:00

Two great authors are launching new books at events at Granite State bookstores on Tuesday 8/30/2011. Unfortunately, timing and geography require that you pick just one to attend. Luckily, you can still read both books.

A launch party for Louise Penny's new Armand Gamache mystery, A Trick of the Light will be held starting at 7pm at Gibson's in Concord.

Toby Ball launches his new novel, Scorch City at River Run in Portsmouth at 7pm

Ladybug Nominee Profile

2011-08-26T08:47:00.001-04:00

Author Mo Willems wrote this story about friendship through the seasons which was beautifully illustrated by painter John J. Muth

"Muth sets a limpid rural scene for Willems's two unlikely friends in this tranquil tale of change. ...Willems's concise sentences, paired with joking illustrations in his other works, lose their hilarity-but gain significant emotional weight-when matched with Muth's watercolors. Pink blossoms and red maple leaves allude to Japanese art; Muth pictures Country Frog as a wise tutor who tosses a stick for his apprentice and, in a rain shower, protectively holds a leaf over the dog. The understated episodes acknowledge the transitory nature of the seasons and of life itself." (Publisher's Weekly review)

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Mr. Willem's work has been nominated before: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale was nominated in 2005.

Book of the Week #34

2011-08-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

Strega Nona written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1975; produced in braille for the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, by the American Printing House for the Blind, 2008)

Strega Nona, a character with a magic touch, has been a favorite with children for several generations and is the creation of New Hampshire's own Tomie dePaola. This edition of this classic story about what can happen when you don't do as you're told is one of many Twin Vision Books available from NH's Talking Books Services.

"Judged by their covers, the Twin Vision versions of "Bambi," "Five Little Firemen" and thousands of other children's books are normal. But these books, through an ingenious alteration allow blind people to participate in one of the most hallowed institutions of childhood--the bedtime story.
Facing each page of text inside a Twin Vision book is a page of Braille transcription, allowing a blind parent to read a story to a sighted child and the child, if old enough, to follow along by reading the text. Conversely, a blind child can read to parents, siblings or friends."

Reader's Resources: Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes

2011-08-24T07:10:00.001-04:00

Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes: A blog by Mark Athitakis on (mostly) U.S. novelists and short-story writers features, as one might guess from the lenght of its title, long-form writting about American fiction. What you can't tell from the title though is what good long-form writing it is. Posts are often insightful, have lots of links to other stuff you might have missed, and make it clear how thoroughly Athitakis knows his books. I often find his writing to be quite funny, but that is a really subjective thing and might just be me.

Athitakis has been publishing this blog since 2008 and it includes discussions about specific books; comments on what others have said about books; collections of interesting bits of book talk; and interviews with authors. It doesn't generally include actual book reviews, but it does have an explanation of why they aren't included. Specific authors who are mentioned in posts are linked from the side panel, so it is easy to see everything Athitakis has said about a specific writer (Mark Twain and Joyce Carol Oates both seem to come up a lot.) A listing of upcoming D.C. area author events is also maintained on the site.

Ladybug Picture Book Award 2011

2011-08-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

Beginning this week -- ten weeks before November -- I will be profiling each of the ten picture books nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. The profiles will be done in alphabetical order by title.

Voting for the Ladybug Picture Book Award takes place at schools, libraries, day care centers, and homes throughout New Hampshire during November. If you want to be a Ladybug polling place here's what you need to do:

Get copies of the ten nominated books (from your bookseller, from your library, borrow them from a friend, whatever works for you). If you want to give the list to your patrons there is a promotional flyer you can use for this.
Find some kids who are in the third grade or younger and read the books to them, or with them.
In November 2011 have the kids you read the books to/with vote for their favorite. If you want to use the Ladybug Picture Ballot that's great, but you can do the voting however it works best for your group of kids. (Attention parents - one kid is a valid group for voting.) You can also order stickers to give to the kids who have voted, but that is not required. (They are really cute stickers!)
Total all the votes cast at your site using the Ladybug Tally Sheet -- this is not optional, this form is strongly preferred because otherwise counting the votes becomes impossible -- and send your tally sheet to us so we RECEIVE it before 5pm on December 5, 2011.
Visit this blog to find out which book is the winner. Results will be posted as quickly as possible, and definitely before Christmas.

Book of the Week #33

2011-08-18T16:38:00.001-04:00

Season We Can't Resist: Poems by Martha Carlson-Bradley (WordTech Editions, 2007)

In this volume New Hampshire poet Martha Carlson-Bradley shows us how she sees the natural world using words to create lasting images for her readers.

"Carlson-Bradley … writes as directly and meticulously about nature and its wonders as any writer you'll find. … What can close examination of the natural world tell us about ourselves? A lot. Carlson-Bradley affirms this in poem after poem." ~ Rebecca Rule, Sunday (Concord, NH) Monitor

Carlson-Bradley has just published, in a 250-copy printing, a new chapbook, If I Take You Here, which she will be signing at Gibson's on Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 7pm.

Do You Love Your Librarian?

2011-08-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award! Nominations for 2011 stay open through September 12, 2011.

There are more than 122,000 libraries nationwide, and librarians touch the lives of the people they serve every day. The award encourages library users (like you!) to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians. This is your chance to explain how you think your librarian is improving the lives of the people in your school, campus or community.

Up to ten winners will be selected this year and receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and $500 travel stipend to attend an awards reception in New York hosted by The New York Times. The award is administered by the American Library Association with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times.

2011 PEN Literary Award Recipients Announced

2011-08-12T10:14:00.011-04:00

This week the winners and runners up of the 2011 PEN Awards, the most comprehensive literary awards program in the country, were announced. Next year will mark PEN’s 90th anniversary. For more than 50 of those years, PEN’s Literary Awards program has honored many of the most outstanding voices in literature.

This year, PEN will present 17 awards, fellowships, grants, and prizes—including one that has been revived after a five-year hiatus, the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and three awards offered for the first time ever: the PEN Emerging Writers Awards, the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. With the help of its partners and supporters, PEN will confer nearly $150,000 in 2011 to some of the most gifted writers, editors, and translators working today.

Award winners and runners up will be honored at the 2011 PEN Literary Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, October 12, 2011, at CUNY Graduate Center’s Proshansky Auditorium in New York City.

Librarian of Congress Appoints Philip Levine Poet Laureate

2011-08-11T10:10:00.000-04:00

Apparently today is a day for news of poets laureate. This just in from the Library of Congress:

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has announced the appointment of Philip Levine as the Library’s 18th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2011-2012.

"Philip Levine is one of America’s great narrative poets," Billington said. "His plainspoken lyricism has, for half a century, championed the art of telling ‘The Simple Truth’—about working in a Detroit auto factory, as he has, and about the hard work we do to make sense of our lives."

Philip Levine succeeds W.S. Merwin as Poet Laureate and joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, Rita Dove and Richard Wilbur.

Levine is the author of 20 collections of poems, including most recently "News of the World" (2009), which The New York Times Sunday Book Review describes as "characteristically wise." Levine won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for "The Simple Truth," the National Book Award in 1991 for "What Work Is" and in 1980 for "Ashes: Poems New and Old," the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1979 for both "Ashes: Poems New and Old" and "7 Years From Somewhere," and the 1975 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for "Names of the Lost."

Born in Detroit, Mich., on Jan. 10, 1928, Levine received degrees from Wayne State University and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and in 1957 was awarded the Jones Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford. As a student, he worked a number of industrial jobs at Detroit’s auto-manufacturing plants, including Detroit Transmission—a branch of Cadillac—and the Chevrolet Gear and Axle factory. Levine has said about writing poems in his mid-20s during his factory days: "I believed even then that if I could transform my experience into poetry, I would give it the value and dignity it did not begin to possess on its own. I thought, too, that if I could write about it I could come to understand it; I believed that if I could understand my life—or at least the part my work played in it—I could embrace it with some degree of joy, an element conspicuously missing from my life."

Levine taught for many years at California State University, Fresno, where he is professor emeritus in the English Department. He has also taught at New York University as Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, as well as at Columbia, Princeton, Brown and Tufts universities, the University of California at Berkeley and elsewhere.

Levine’s nonfiction books include "The Bread of Time: Toward an Autobiography" (1994); "Don't Ask" (1981); and "So Ask: Essays, Conversations, and Interviews" (2002). He also has edited "The Essential Keats" (1987) and translated collections of Spanish poet Gloria Fuertes and Mexican poet Jaime Sabines.

Additional awards include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize, the Frank O’Hara Prize, two Guggenheim Foundation fellowships and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (for which he served as chair of the Literature Panel). In 1997 Levine was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2000-2006.

You can find Levine's work at your library or local bookstore.

Readings by our Poet Laureate

2011-08-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the publication of his latest book, Radio Time, New Hampshire Poet Laureate Walter Butts wiill be doing readings and book signings at the following venues:

Wednesday, August 17th, 7:00 p.m. at Water Street Bookstore
Thursday, August 18th, 7:00 p.m. at The Poetry Institute (Connecticut)
Wednesday, September 21st, 7:00 p.m. at Gibson's Bookstore
Saturday, September 24th, 7:00 p.m. at The Piano Factory (Boston)

Reader's Resources: NewPages

2011-08-09T13:48:00.001-04:00

The NewPages Blog has been publishing since 2006 and it covers "Literary Magazines & Publishing, Alternative Media, Links to Good Reading." If you are trying to keep up with the comings and goings of literary magazines this is a blog for you. It also includes, among other things, contest announcements and "what I'm reading" posts.

This is a well-written, informative blog. What makes it a standout though, is the website behind it.

NewPages.com bills itself as "the Portal of Independents" and it includes reviews of books and magazines; a magazine stand with recent issues; directories of independent publishers (they are missing the NH ones though), independent booksellers (a good NH list for stores selling new books, a visit to the NHABA site would flesh out their used books listings), book review sources, literary magazines; and a tremendous list of internet resources for readers and writers (which didn't include this blog, but seemed otherwise very comprehensive).

If you are interested in books or writing, NewPages has a lot to offer.

Reader's Resources

2011-08-09T11:20:00.000-04:00

Photo by W00kie via Flikr

There are a LOT of blogs, websites, podcasts, etc. about books. Some of them are very comprehensive and speak with authority about the book world. Some of them are one reader's thoughts about books (not that that can't make for a great blog). Some of them are a little bit of both.

In writing book-of-the-week posts I often come across these sites--the good, the bad, and the bizarre--and I have decided to start posting information about some of them as part of Book Notes. Reader's Resources (RR) will not be a regular feature (I learned my lesson with book-of-the-week). It will be occasional reviews of book-related internet sites that I find useful, or interesting, or just too quirky not to share. I have added a blog-roll to this site to which I will add the blogs as I write about them.

If you have a book site you love, send me an email about it and it might turn up in a future Reader's Resources post.

Book of the Week #32

2011-08-08T15:12:00.000-04:00

The Summer Visitors by Karel Hayes (Down East Books, 2010)

Watercolor artist and New Hampshire resident Karel Hayes tells the story of two families sharing a cabin at the lake. One family is human, and the other is bears and the sharing may be a surprise to the human family.

"The Summer Visitors seems like one of those childhood treasures you discover on a musty bookshelf in a furnished summer timeshare: unexpected yet perfectly seasonal, a small pleasure that ends up somehow intrinsic to the vacation experience. Once again, as in 2007’s clever “Winter Visitors,” Karel upends the idea that it’s bears who intrude on human space. Here, finely drawn pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations, often appearing in panels, tell the story; the economical text is almost unnecessary." (NY Times, 7/20/11)

White Birch Books will be hosting a signing with Karel Hayes on Saturday, 8/13/2011 from 3-5pm.

Library of Congress Coming to Concord

2011-08-03T07:42:00.004-04:00

On August 30 and 31, 2011 The Library of Congress Gateway to Knowledge Travelling Exhibition will be at the New Hampshire State House (107 North Main Street, Concord, NH) and will be open for visitors from 10am-6pm each day.

The exhibition outlines the history of the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson's role in re-establishing the Library after the burning of the U.S. Capitol in 1814, and his classification system of Memory, Reason, and Imagination. These three categories define the organization of the content inside the exhibition.

The visit is being co-hosted by the New Hampshire State Library and Concord Public Library.

Book of the Week #31

2011-08-02T07:58:00.037-04:00

Stieglitz: A Beginning Light by Katherine Hoffman (Yale University Press, 2004)

"Stieglitz was American, born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1864. His early work in both the United States and Europe formed a significant foundation for his later, more well-known work. During much of his career, Stieglitz fought tirelessly for the recognition of photography as a significant fine art, in his own work as a photographer, as a collector, as a gallery director, and as a writer and speaker about photography. In the May 1999 issue of ARTnews, Stieglitz was listed as one of the twentieth century's most influential artists.
This book is about the early work of Stieglitz, his first fifty-three years, from 1864-1917. ... This book is not a straight biography, nor a technical guide to photographic experiments of the last century. Rather it is an attempt to understand the early Stieglitz in the context of his times and to explore more fully his life and work as they were intertwined during those early years, both in the United States and in Europe." (Prologue, p. xi-xii)

Katherine Hoffman continues the story of Stieglitz's life and work in Stieglitz: A Legacy of Light. She will be at the Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough on Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 11am to sign and discuss this latest work.

Book Event Sampler

2011-07-28T08:25:00.033-04:00

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

2011-07-27T11:17:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-25T14:29:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-22T08:10:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-21T11:57:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-13T13:46:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-11T16:13:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-08T14:11:00.000-04:00

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

2011-07-07T08:52:00.001-04:00

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.

2011 Meetinghouse Readings - Frontiers of Love, Language, and American History

2011-06-29T08:01:00.002-04:00

Canaan Town Library is presenting the 22nd year of thir Meetinghouse Readings series. Here's the announcement:

Four Evenings Of Storytelling and Poetry By Great Authors!

This year's edition of the Meetinghouse Readings features outstanding poets Major Jackson and Carol Westberg, the go-for-broke short stories of Creston Lea and the deep family drama of Katharine Britton's debut novel, Her Sister's Shadow. Groundbreaking narrative histories by Neil Goodwin and Tom Powers retell, respectively, the Revolutionary War raid on Royalton, Vermont and the end of effective Native American resistance in the far West with the killing of Crazy Horse. Cultural historian Howard Mansfield looks at how time and place are coming undone in our ultra-mobile Internet era, and Sally Brady's memoir, A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage looks at ties that bind even when trust is broken.

It's going to be a great season of readings at this unique, grassroots literary festival. Join us!

July 7, 2011

MAJOR JACKSON Holding Company: Poems

HOWARD MANSFIELD Turn and Jump: How Time & Place Fell Apart

July 14, 2011

CRESTON LEA Wild Punch

NEIL GOODWIN We Go As Captives: The Royalton Raid and the Shadow War on the Revolutionary Frontier

July 21, 2011

KATHARINE BRITTON Her Sister's Shadow

SALLY BRADY A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage

JULY 28, 2011

TOM POWERS The Killing of Crazy Horse

CAROL WESTBERG Slipstream

In The 1793 Meetinghouse In Canaan, N.H.'s Historic District, Opposite The Beach On Canaan Street Lake. SUPERB ENTERTAINMENT BY SOME OF THE NATION'S FINEST WRITERS.
FREE ADMISSION AND REFRESHMENTS.

Sponsors include James Laffan, Esq., Timothy J. Caldwell Estate Planning!!!

Authors' Books For Sale, courtesy of the Norwich Bookstore

Hosted By William Craig

ALL READINGS BEGIN AT 7:30 P.M..

Please, No Infants, Toddlers or Squirmers!

Directions: Route 4 to the blinking light in Canaan; 2 miles up Canaan Street to the Old Meetinghouse

Book of the Week #26

2011-06-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

Celia's Lighthouse by Anne Molloy, illustrated by Ursula Koering (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1949)

Anne Molloy, author of numerous books for young readers, and the second woman ever to serve on the Board of Directors of the Portsmouth Atheneaum, tells the story of Celia Laighton Thaxter's early life in this charming book.

"Don't catch a crab, don't catch a crab, was the message of Celia's oars in the thole pins as she crossed from her island to Gosport Harbor. The leather of the heavy dory oars creaked it, and the squeak of the thole pins in thier holes joined in the rhythmic warning. Celia kept her mind on rowing so completely she hadn't noticed other voices and other warnings. She was rowing as if the dory and its oars were a part of her. Her strokes were smooth and there was a steady boil of water at the bow. Gradully she heard another sound. It was the smack of rising wind on the face of the water. She looked up without breaking the rhythm of her strokes and saw dark clouds scudding over the gray sky. They carried along beneath them a gray curtain that shut out the horizon. It blurred the sails of a lumber schooner far away. Then with a whisper the curtain swooped toward Celia and the dory." (p. 165)

Book of the Week #25

2011-06-22T05:45:00.001-04:00

Down from Cascom Mountain: A Novel by Ann Joslin Williams (New York: Bloomsbury, 2011)

Ann Joslin Williams, an Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire, set this novel (her first) in the fictional town of Leah, New Hampshire which was created by her father, the author Thomas Williams.
Williams will be reading from her novel at Water Street Bookstore tonight (June 22) and at Gibson's Bookstore on July 21, 2011. She is also doing a virtual book tour on TLC Book Tours.

"In Down From Cascom Mountain, newlywed Mary Hall brings her husband to settle in the rural New Hampshire of her youth to fix up the house she grew up in and to reconnect to the land that defined her, with all its beauty and danger. But on a mountain day hike, she watches helplessly as her husband falls to his death. As she struggles with her sudden grief, in the days and months that follow, Mary finds new friendships--with Callie and Tobin, teenagers who live and work on the mountain, and with Ben, the gentle fire watchman. All are haunted by their own losses, but they find ways to restore hope in one another, holding firmly as they navigate the rugged terrain of the unknown and the unknowable, and loves lost and found." (from publisher's material)

Book Events this Week

2011-06-21T14:33:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, 6/21/2011

Courtney Sullivan will read from her new novel Maine at River Run at 7pm

Wednesday, 6/22/2011

Water Street Bookstore will host Ann Joslin Williams at 7pm talking about Down from Cascom Mountain
Neil Gaiman will be the guest for Writers on a New England Stage at The Music Hall at 7:30pm. This event is sold out, but is typically broadcast on NHPR. (If you have a ticket you don't plan to use let me know immediately -- Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and an amazing reader to listen to.)

Thursday, 6/23/2011

Michael Sims, author of the new E.B. White biography The Story of Charlotte's Web will be speaking at River Run at 7pm
Maxine Kumin and Deborah Brown will be at Gibson's at 7pm

Friday, 6/24/2011

Gary Braver will be signing his new thriller Tunnel Vision at Barnes & Noble, Manchester at 5pm

Sunday, 6/26/2011

Maxine Kumin and Deborah Brown will be at MainStreet BookEnds of Warner at 1pm
Toadstool Bookshop, Milford will host Paul Doiron reading from his new mystery featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch, Trespasser at 2pm

2011 Dublin Winner

2011-06-20T10:49:00.000-04:00

Let the Great World Spin by Dublin author Colum McCann, has won the 2011 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award. The Award is organized by Dublin City Libraries, on behalf of Dublin City Council and sponsored by IMPAC, an international management productivity company. The prize is €100,000. It is the largest prize for a single novel published in English. Uniquely, the IMPAC DUBLIN receives its nominations from public libraries around the globe.

"Colum McCann joins a long list of eminent novelists to win this award" said the Lord Mayor and Patron of the Award, Gerry Breen, “and it is wonderful and fitting to have a Dublin winner in the year that Dublin was awarded UNESCO City of Literature designation, a designation in perpetuity.”

Let the Great World Spin has beaten off competition from 161 other titles, nominated by 166 public libraries from 43 countries. It was first published in the USA by Random House and in the UK by Bloomsbury. The shortlist of ten novels included novels from the USA, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Colum McCann is the second Irish author to win the prize. It was award to Colm Toibín in 2006 for The Master. Let the Great World Spin was also the most popular choice of libraries worldwide. It received 14 nominations from libraries in Ireland, Germany, Greece, Norway, the USA and Canada.

About the book…..

New York, August 1974: a man is walking in the sky. Between the newly built Twin Towers, the man twirls through the air. Far below, the lives of complete strangers spin towards each other: Corrigan, a radical Irish monk working in the Bronx; Claire, a delicate Upper East Side housewife reeling from the death of her son; Lara, a drug-addled young artist; Gloria, solid and proud despite decades of hardship; Tillie, a hooker who used to dream of a better life; and Jazzlyn, her beautiful daughter raised on promises that reach beyond the skyline of New York. In the shadow of one reckless and beautiful act, these disparate lives will collide, and be transformed for ever.

Book of the Week #24

2011-06-14T10:26:00.001-04:00

Northerners: Poems by Seth Abramson (Kalamazoo, Michigan: New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2011)

This volume of poetry by Seth Abramson, a Dartmouth graduate and former NH Public Defender, was selected as the 2010 Green Rose Prize winner.

According to Publisher's Weekly (May 16, 2011):

"This book will get a lot of well-deserved attention. A former public defender in New Hampshire and now a graduate student in Wisconsin, Abramson has picked up a very large following as a blogger and commentator, covering poetry, politics, and higher education, and generating a controversial, U.S. News–style ranking of graduate programs in writing. After all that, what's left for the poetry? Plenty: serious and ambitious, full of torqued proverbs and hard-to-follow advice, Abramson's own work shows a poet uncommonly interested in general statements, in hard questions, and harder answers, about how to live: "Everyone knows what not to do/ in a dream," he warns, "and in a dream everyone has the heart/ to tell you who you are." Waking life, he implies, turns out harsher, and stranger."

Personally, "Not a Pay Lawyer" was my favorite poem in this excellent collection.

Book of the Week #23

2011-06-11T09:13:00.012-04:00

A Window in Time: Merrimack Farmers' Exchange in Crisis and Transition by Charles F. Sheridan (Concord, N.H.: published by the author, 2010)

Charles F. Sheridan, an attorney in Concord, NH, takes us into a slice of NH history with this first person account.

"This book tells the story of Merrimack Farmers' Exchange Inc. ("the Exchange"), a New Hampshire statewide farmers cooperative, and two events that brought about the demise of the cooperative in the early 1980s. It tells the story of the events as I recall them and of my involvement in the prodeedings. The Exchange was rocked by these events in the period 1976-1980, after 50 years of sucessful operations: first by a very large embezzlement, then followed two-plus years later by local businessmen attempting to acquire its ownership and convert it from a co-op to a traditional buiness that no longer favored its farmer-owners." (p.1)

Looking for NH's best books

2011-06-10T14:24:00.000-04:00

In recognition of the rich and varied literary talent in the Granite State, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project will present the tenth New Hampshire Literary Awards at a special reception and ceremony on November 4, 2011 in Manchester. Nominations will be accepted until June 15, 2011

Awards will be given in the following categories:

Award for OUTSTANDING CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Award for OUTSTANDING BOOK OF FICTION
THE DONALD M. MURRAY OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM AWARD
OUTSTANDING BOOK OF POETRY
Award for OUTSTANDING BOOK OF NONFICTION
Award for LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Nominations are encouraged and welcome from everyone, including writers, publishers, organizations, and the general public. Self-nominations are also welcome. Guidelines for each award and the required nomination form are available on the NH Writers' project website.

Tips for a Great Summer Reading List

2011-06-06T10:52:00.000-04:00

There was an interesting post recently about Creating an Awesome Summer Reading List on LifeHacker. Links to various sites and resources to help you find books that match your reading interests were included. Personally, I find GoodReads a really helpful site for finding books and keeping track of what I want to read, but I agree that GoodReads is only as helpful as the people you are connected to on it.

Book of the Week #22

2011-06-01T18:22:00.001-04:00

The Real Dirt: Toward Food Sufficiency and Farm Sustainability in New England by John Carroll (Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire, NH Agricultural Experiment Station, 2010)

Carroll, a professor at UNH, will be speaking on Friday June 3, 2011 at 7pm at Warner Town Hall to kick off the Kearsarge Area Eat Local Week.

“We have a greater inability to feed ourselves than the rest of the nation,” says Carroll, a professor of natural resources and the environment. Vermont and Maine, he says, can produce food to feed about 20 percent of their populations; Massachusetts can feed 10 percent; and New Hampshire produces enough food for just 5 percent of its people.

“The Real Dirt” follows Carroll’s “The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food” (2005) and “Pastures of Plenty” (2008) as the third in a trilogy of books looking at sustainable agriculture and food security in New England. The audience for the book, he says, is “anyone who eats and lives in this region. The book will give them a far deeper understanding of their own food.” (UNH Media Release)

IPPY Awards

2011-06-01T12:47:00.000-04:00

The Independent Publisher Book Awards for 2011 were announced last week and they included a gold medal in the category of U.S. North-East - Best Regional Non-Fiction for A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meetinghouses of New England, by Paul Wainwright (Peter E. Randall Publisher).

Book of the Week #21

2011-05-26T10:36:00.005-04:00

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

2011-05-25T15:03:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-14T08:45:00.004-04:00

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

2011-05-13T13:31:00.000-04:00

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