Book of the Week #21

Traditional Barn Dances with Calls & Fiddling by Dudley Laufman and Jacqueline Laufman (Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2009)

Dudley and Jacqueline Laufman, known as the "Two Fiddles" have played fiddle together for traditional New England dances for over 20 years. They are juried artists with the NH State Council on the Arts.

This volume, one of many by the Laufmans, includes a DVD and two CDs to create a "comprehensive package that contains everything you need for teaching 53 dances to participants of all ages and abilities."

The book begins with an introduction by Theodore Levin and provides pictures of the dances; sheet music for fiddlers; calls, teaching suggestions, and facts about the dances; and information to help you organize a dance in your community -- a barn is not required.

Dudley Laufman, in addition to being a musician, is a poet and was recently named a National Heritage Fellow.

National Book Festival 2009

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will serve as Honorary Chairs of the 2009 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress.
Now in its ninth year, this popular event celebrating the joys of reading and lifelong literacy will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, on the National Mall in Washington, DC, between 7th and 14th Streets from 10am to 5pm (rain or shine). The event is free and open to the public.
The Center for the Book at the NH State Library plans, once again, to participate in the Festival's Pavillion of the States.

Book of the Week #20

Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott (Little, Brown Young Readers, 1996; first published 1878)

New Hampshire lilacs, which have been beautiful this spring, are said to have been the inspiration for this book. Alcott lived in Walpole, New Hampshire between 1855 and 1857.

Thanks to David Lazar of the NH Troubadour for telling me about the Granite State connection of one of my favorite authors!

Social Networking & the Center

The Center for the Book at the NHSL has been dabbling in social networking for a while now -- this is post #333 on this blog -- and have recently set up some new ways to connect with New Hampshire's book community.


You can find us on Facebook -- we have a Facebook page that includes info from this blog as well as links, pictures, and an occasional posting unique to Facebook. There is also Center for the Book flair available.


In collaboration with the NH Writers' Project we have created a GoodReads group called New Hampshire Talks Books. This group provides a space within GoodReads (an online community of readers from all over the world) for discussion about NH books, particularly books that might be candidates for the 2009 NH Literary Awards. It is also the new home of the Granite State Readers Recommend project.

Got Books?

Many libraries in New Hampshire hold book sales during the summer and fall. We have just updated our listing of Library Book Sales and quite a few are coming up in the next couple of weeks. Library book sales are a great way to stock up on summer reading and support public libraries at the same time!

Book of the Week #19

Bookmarked for Death by Lorna Barrett (NY: Berkley Prime Crime, 2009)

This second installment in the Booktown Mystery series is set in Stoneham, New Hampshire.

Cozy Library said:

"Lorna Barrett has conjured up a dream of a cozy locale and populated it with great characters to give readers a fun-to-read story that will have them begging for more 'Booktown Mysteries.' Tricia and Angelica come from a deliciously dysfunctional family, one that will have readers thanking their lucky stars for their own more normal siblings."

Like Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes, this novel has a trailer.

Book of the Week #18

Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money by Rebecca Curtis (NY: Harper Perennial, 2007)

Rebecca Curtis grew up in Gilford, New Hampshire and this collection of stories includes many that are set in the Granite State. The author describes -- in the about the author section at the back of the book -- how she wrote these stories:

"... when I wrote the stories in this book, each began with the desire to describe a place in New Hampshire that I knew, even if it was an ugly place. The setting for 'The Alpine Slide' is based on a local water park where I worked as a slide attendant, as did a bunch of other teenagers. That was the best job I ever had, working in the valley among the mountains, riding the slide; in writing the story, all I wanted to do was describe the park."

Also included in the back of the book is a compilation of some of the truly great highlights of New Hampshire, many of which are mentioned in the stories.

Ms. Curtis teaches creative writing at Columbia University and has been interviewed by Gothamist and Sunspinner. Twenty Grand won the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Fiction, 2006-7.

Book of the Week #17

The Hotel New Hamsphire by John Irving. (New York: Dutton, 1981.)

"The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels."So says John Berry, son of a hapless dreamer, brother to a cadre of eccentric siblings, and chronicler of the lives lived, the loves experienced, the deaths met, and the myriad strange and wonderful times encountered by the family Berry. Hoteliers, pet-bear owners, friends of Freud (the animal trainer and vaudevillian, that is), and playthings of mad fate, they "dream on" in a funny, sad, outrageous, and moving novel by NH author John Irving .

Congratulations to NH's LAL Winners

The 2009 Letters About Literature competition recieved 54,000 entries nationwide and 802 letters from New Hampshire students. These letters went through 4 levels of judging and ultimately fifty-five New Hampshire semi-finalists were selected across the three competition levels. From those semi-finalists a panel of New Hampshire judges selected letters written by Peyton Plante of Pembroke, Merisa Dion of Derry, and Heather Coen of Contoocook as the New Hampshire winners in the 2009 Letters About Literature (LAL) writing competition.

Peyton Plante, a sixth grader at Three Rivers School, wrote a letter to Lois Lowry about her book Number the Stars, which was selected as the Granite State's first place winner in the level I competition for students in grades 4 through 6. Ms. Plante wrote that this book taught her "how important it is to stand up for people who appear to be different."

Merisa Dion, an eighth grader at West Running Brook Middle School in Derry, wrote to Allen Say about Allison. Ms.Dion's letter describes her experience of having been adopted and thanks Mr. Say for helping her, through his book, to "become more understanding about adoption." This letter was the Granite State's first place winner in the level II competition for students in grades 7 and 8.

Heather Coen, a ninth grader at Hopkinton High School, wrote her letter, which was selected as the Granite State's first place winner at level III, to Martha Tod Dudman. She begins: "Augusta Gone affected me in a way I never thought a book could. It was like a book about my life, although it was more severe and intense." Ms. Coen goes on to explain how this book, which she has read many times, helped her to recognize that she "needed to change something" so she "wouldn't become Augusta."

The New Hampshire LAL judges for 2009 were Ann Hoey, Youth Services Coordinator at the New Hampshire State Library; Matthew Crosson, an English teacher at Manchester High School Central; Kristie Morris, a teacher at Lin-Wood Public School in Lincoln, NH; the poet, balladeer, and attorney John Perrault; and children's authors Jennifer Ericsson and Muriel Dubois.

Clippings from the Blogosphere

• NH poet James Hoffert will be reading at the Fiske Free Library on May 4th.
  
• Spring is in the air and the awards announcements are coming fast and furious: Pulitzer Prize winners; Shirley Jackson Award nominees; Nebula Award winners; Orange Prize finalists; Arthur C. Clarke Award Winner; Locus Award finalists; Arts Academy Inductees; and Indies Choice Book Award winners.
  
• A great posting about the value of reading from the Free Range Librarian.
  
• Dan Brown's new novel will be published September 15th. Five million copies are expected.
  
• Happy 5oth to The Elements of Style! The Museum of the City of New York had a party to celebrate.
  
• Storytime with the President.
  
• The Library of Congress announced that Kay Ryan has been appointed to a second term as U.S. Poet Laureate.
  
• The library world recently lost Judith Krug, a crusader for our right to read.
  
• Will the movie be as good as the book? Check out the trailer for Julie & Julia and decide for yourself.