Book of the Week (11/4/2024)

New England Sea Glass: A Vibrant History by Roxie J. Zwicker (The History Press, 2024)

The lure of beachcombing in New England has been around since Colonial times. From shipwrecks, relentless storms and spooky maritime mysteries, pieces of sea glass are tumbled treasures speaking to us about our past.

Many frosty cobalt blue shards come from medicine bottles from the early 20th century and can be found on beaches surrounding Boston Harbor. The seaside town of Rockport, where Hannah and the Hatchet Gang launched a destructive raid on liquor, still holds brilliant fragments of the past. The treasures of Captain Kidd are rumored to be hidden somewhere in Jamestown, Rhode Island, while lost seaside amusement parks in Connecticut produced shimmering treasures now rolling in the tides.

Roxie Zwicker reveals the secret clues hidden in the colorful glass, their origins, and the best places to discover them. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

New England’s Mystery Maven, Roxie J. Zwicker has been entertaining locals, visitors and curious souls since 1994. Her company, New England Curiosities, located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been offering award-winning tours, presentations and special events since 2002 based on New England folklore and mysterious history. Roxie is a published author of several books that delve into the region’s history, legends and lore. Her extensive collection of sea glass and beach found treasures takes up an entire room in her house. Wicked Curious Radio is Roxie’s podcast, available on all major podcast platforms.

3 on a Theme: Journalists 2

Cub by Cynthia Copeland

The Grifter, the Poet, and the Runaway Train: Stories from a Yankee Writer's Notebook by Geoffrey Douglas

War Fronts, Home Fires: A WWII Correspondent's Remarkable Coverage, His Wife's Indomitable Spirit by Joseph W. McQuaid

Book of the Week (10/28/2024)

Property of the Revolution: From a Cuban Barrio to a New Hampshire Mill Town: A Memoir by Ana Hebra Flaster (She Writes Press, 2025)

In this sweeping, historical, yet intimate memoir, the author details her family’s transformation from pro-Castro revolutionaries in a scrappy Havana barrio to refugees in a New Hampshire mill town—a timeless and timely tale of loss and reinvention.

Ana Hebra Flaster was six years old when her working-class family was kicked out of their Havana barrio for opposing communism. Once devoted revolutionaries themselves but disillusioned by the Castro government’s repressive tactics, they fled to the US. The permanent losses they suffered—of home, country, and loved ones, all within forty-eight hours—haunted her multi-generational family as they reclaimed their lives and freedom in 1967 New Hampshire. There, they fed each other stories of their scrappy barrio—some of which Hebra Flaster has shared on All Things Considered—to resurrect their lost world and fortify themselves for a daunting task: building a new life in a foreign land.

Weaving pivotal events in Cuba–US history with her viejos’—elders’—stories of surviving political upheaval, impossible choices, and “refugeedom,” Property of the Revolution celebrates the indomitable spirit and wisdom of the women warriors who led the family out of Cuba, shaped its rebirth as Cuban Americans, and helped Ana grow up hopeful, future-facing—American. But what happens when deeply buried childhood memories resurface, demanding an adult’s reckoning?

Here’s how the fiercest love, the most stubborn will, and the power of family put nine new Americans back on their feet. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Ana Hebra Flaster has written about Cuba and the Cuban American experience for national print and online media including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Boston Globe. Her commentaries and storytelling have aired on NPR and PBS’s Stories from the Stage. She loves watching birds, walking in the woods, and chatting with just about anyone. After almost forty years in the Boston area, she recently moved back to southern New Hampshire with her husband, Andy, and their dogs, Luna and Beny.

Book of the Week (10/21/2024)

Iggy Who Breathes Fire by Carrie Kruck (Disney Hyperion, 2024)

Meet Iggy, a fiery new hero who knows exactly what she's about—no matter what others think.

This hilarious picture book celebrates self-awareness and is perfect for fans of IMOGENE’S ANTLERS and THE PAPER BAG PRINCESS.

Iggy was born to set the world on fire—literally. Her parents aren’t so sure. They bring in the experts—a professor, fire chief, librarian, and doctor—who suggest everything from eating ice cream to sitting in a cold room, but none can help her tame her fire.

Hilarious and heartwarming (get it?) in equal measure, IGGY WHO BREATHES FIRE celebrates that kids are the true experts when it comes to their own identity, and it’s up to them to decide when and how to share themselves with the world. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Carrie Kruck was born and raised in Canada, studied and worked as a psychologist in Australia, and now lives in a cozy house at the edge of the woods in New Hampshire. Her home is filled with laughter and love and a lot of Lego, and has a room with built-in bookshelves that she calls “the library,” so she has pretty much everything she needs!

Join Carrie on Sunday, November 17th, 2024 at 1 pm at Gibson's Bookstore where she will be holding a story-time along with NH children's author Kari Allen!

Updated Perspectives

Perspectives is a long-standing program of New Hampshire Humanities that offers facilitated group book discussions, in virtual or in-person settings, where participants engage with diverse perspectives in the humanities through literature to build understanding and empathy, and to support a culture of reading in the Granite State. The Center for the Book supports this program through our Book Bag program.

If your library might be interested in hosting a Perspectives book discussion in the coming year (the new book/program list will be announced at the beginning of November) please join us for an online information session about the Perspectives book discussion program on Wednesday, October 23^rd, 2024 at 11am.  This information session will explain how the Perspectives program works, changes to the program for the upcoming year, as well as give you an opportunity to ask questions.

Whether you are a long-time program host or a new partner, we welcome you to join us at this information session to explore the ways the Perspectives book discussion program can support your organization.  

 Register in advance for this meeting (which will be recorded):

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsdOqoqDMqG9Lz0rOSqaqYdAmAWkNvHBNV

 

 

Book of the Week (10/14/2024)

The Fire in the Glass (The London Charismatics) by Jacquelyn Benson (Vaughan Woods Publishing, 2020)

London, 1914. Lily's visions could stop a killer... if she'll trust a reclusive aristocrat with her darkest secret.

A monster stalks the gaslit streets of Edwardian London, draining the blood of the city's mediums. Lily Albright knows who's next.

Lily is plagued by visions of the future she can never change. When a mysterious fiend threatens someone she loves, she's determined this time will be different.

But she can't do it alone. To save a life, Lily must reveal her darkest secrets to someone she has little reason to trust—the reclusive Lord Strangford, a man haunted by his own occult powers.

From the glittering galleries of Bond Street to the rookeries of Southwark, Lily and Strangford plunge into a dark conspiracy that lies at the heart of England's rising eugenics movement.

To thwart it, Lily must face a past rife with betrayal—and embrace the power she has spent her entire life trying to escape.

This gothic historical fantasy series is perfect for those who love supernatural suspense, gaslamp vibes and slow-burn romance. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Jacquelyn Benson writes smart historical fantasy where strong women confront the stranger things that occupy the borders of our world. She once lived in a museum, wrote a master’s thesis on the cultural anthropology of paranormal investigation, and received a gold medal for being clever. She owes a great deal to her elementary school librarian for sagely choosing to acquire the entire Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown Series. 

Her debut novel, The Smoke Hunter, was nominated for Best Historical Fiction by RT Times. When not writing, she enjoys the company of a tall, dark, and handsome English teacher and practices unintentional magic. She lives in New Hampshire.

Book of the Week (10/7/2024)

Corps of Granite: Glimpses of New Hampshire's CCC Camp by Robert W. Averill & Kris Pastoriza (Robert W. Averill, 2024)

Almost a century ago, thousands of young men began arriving in New Hampshire to live for months or years in cabins they built themselves while doing strenuous work in the wild, including cutting state Route 118 through the woods, helping create Bear Brook State Park, and repairing the Old Man of the Mountain.

Even though we still reap the benefits today, most of us have no idea they were here.

Filling that hole in our memories is the main goal of a new self-published book, “Corps of Granite,” about the dozens of Civilian Conservation Corps camps that operated in New Hampshire from 1933 to the early 1940s. The CCC was a program to help unemployed men between ages 18 and 29 (no women were allowed) during the Great Depression, one of several sweeping federal programs in President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to overcome the nation’s economic stagnation.

The men — more than a million overall in some 1,400 camps throughout the country —fought forest fires, planted trees, created roads, built wildlife refuges and fish hatcheries, as well as bridges and campground facilities. Many of the nation’s federal and state parks were virtually created by them. --Publisher's blurb