Book of the Week #5

Our Mountain Trips (Part I - 1899 to 1908): Being Authentic Accounts of Camping, Packing, and Tramping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. By Ida Rachel Butterfield James, Lucy Ardena Butterfield, and Walter H. James; Edited by Ben English, Jr. and Jane English. (Littleton, NH: Bondcliff Books, 2005)

Our Mountain Trips (Part II - 1909 to 1926): Being Authentic Accounts of Camping, Packing, and Tramping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. By Ida Rachel Butterfield James, Lucy Ardena Butterfield, and Walter H. James; Edited by Ben English, Jr. and Jane English. (Littleton, NH: Bondcliff Books, 2007)

Travelling in New Hampshire's White Mountains is a popular pastime and has been for over 100 years. These books are based on the journals and scrapbooks of a pair of Boston professionals who made "trips to the woods and mountains for recreateion and spiritual nourishment." (part I, p. 7) at the turn of the twentieth century. The books include many beautiful black and white images (the Sabbaday Falls photo on p. 71 of Part I is particularly stunning.) The first hand accounts of camping -- mud, mosquitos, and the magnificent peace and beauty of the mountains -- make these books interesting reading. The editors are the grandchildren of the authors.

Book of the Week #4

Granny D: Walking Across America in My 90th Year by Doris Haddock with Dennis Burke (Villard, 2001)

To draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform Doris Haddock, who was 90 years old at the time, walked 3,200 miles across America. This book is based on the diary this New Hampshire resident kept during that journey.

Book of the Week #3

Monadnock: More Than a Mountain by Craig Brandon (Keene, NH: Surry Cottage Books, 2007)

Written by Surry resident Craig Brandon this volume includes lots of interesting stories and illustrations depicting Monadnock, the most climbed mountain in North America. Chapters are devoted to writers & poets in general and to Thoreau and Emerson in particular. This volume is intended as a companion to The Annals of the Grand Monadnock, which the author considers a masterpiece on the subject.

Book of the Week #2

Without a Map: A Memoir by Meredith Hall (Beacon Press, 2007)

In clear and powerful prose Meredith Hall takes us on a journey along the path she wandered after her family and her community (Hampton, NH) turned her away when she was sixteen years old and pregnant.

"Family, church, school -- each of those memberships that had embraced me as a child -- turned their backs. Shunning is supposed to keep bad things from happening in a community. But it doesn't correct the life gone wrong. It can only expose the transgression to a very raw light, use it as a measure, a warning to others ..." (p. ix)

On January 27 at 2pm Rebecca Rule will talk with Meredith Hall as part of the NH Author's Series at UNH, Durham.

Book of the Week #1

Primary Storm by Brendan DuBois (St. Martin's Press, 2006)

If you have read all the campaign materials you need to make up your mind, but want to stay focused on New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation-primary until you vote on Tuesday, pick up this novel, the sixth book in the Lewis Cole series by life-long New Hampshire resident Brendan DuBois. It has Lewis, a magazine writer and former Department of Defense research analyst, involved in investigating an assassination attempt of a presidential candidate during the New Hampshire primary.

Add a little poetry to your day

In her Book Notes column this past Fall Pat Fargnoli suggested ten ways to put poetry in your life including that you might use a poetry web site as your computer's home page so that you could read a poem every day. I have found that The Writer's Almanac is a nice source for this as it not only has a poem but also offers some historical/literary info each day. Today's poem is by Jane Kenyon and would be a great start to putting more poetry in your life.