Book of the Week (12/15/2025)

Whispers in the Pines: A Teenage Killer and the Silence of New Hampshire by Jacobson P. Stewart (Independently published, 2025)

In the still woods of small-town New Hampshire, a single gunshot shattered the quiet and the belief that everyone knew everyone.

In 1985, local mechanic Daniel Paquette was found dead in his driveway, one bullet through the chest. For twenty years, the case sat cold. No suspects. No closure. Only silence thick as pine sap and just as suffocating.

But truth doesn’t die. It hides behind loyalty, fear, and the fragile code of a town that prefers to forget. When the past finally cracked open, it revealed more than a killer: it exposed teenage secrets, buried guilt, and a community forced to reckon with what its silence had cost.

Whispers in the Pines: A Teenage Killer and the Silence of New Hampshire blends deep reporting with a restrained, haunting narrative to follow the investigation, confession, trial, and the long echo that reshaped an entire town. It asks the question no verdict can settle:

When everyone shares the secret, who carries the blame? --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (12/8/2025)

Campsites, Hostels, and Huts: Completing a 160-mile section hike of the New Hampshire portion of the Appalachian Trail in style by Rich DiSalvo (Independently published, 2025)

Get a taste of some of the best hiking and mountain scenery along the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail (AT). Campsites, Hostels, and Huts is the story of a father/daughter section hike of the AT in New Hampshire from the streets of Hanover and Dartmouth College to the Maine state line in the middle of the rugged Mahoosuc Mountains. You don't have to always "rough it" when hiking through the White Mountains in New Hampshire, as there are plenty of great lodging options, from backcountry campsites and shelters to roadside hiker hostels to the famous Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) High Huts. Come experience all of that and more in this firsthand account of an 18-day trek through some of the most breathtaking mountains in the northeast. --Publisher's blurb

3 on a Theme: Mountains 2

White Mountains State: A Four-Year Journey Hiking and Summiting New Hampshire's 48 Highest Peaks by Keith Gentili

My Mountain Friend: Wandering & Pondering Mount Major by Mary Ellen Humphrey

Glorious Mountain Days: The 1902 Hike That Helped Save the White Mountains by Allison W. Bell and Maida Goodwin

Book of the Week (12/1/2025)

Scary Stories from New Hampshire: Terrifying Tales & Folklore by Rex Eldritch (Wildfire Fiction, 2025)

What lurks in the dark woods of New Hampshire? Whose footsteps echo on the covered bridge at night when no one’s there?

Scary Stories from New Hampshire is a collection of supernatural horror drawn from the Granite State’s ghost stories, legends, and chilling local lore. Inside you’ll encounter cursed towns abandoned to the wilderness, haunted orchards where old rules are broken at your peril, and cold, dead hands that clutch at swimmers from below. Each tale pulls from real places and unsettling folklore, blending the strange with the terrifying in ways you won’t forget.

Grim, nightmarish illustrations bring these stories to life, making every page an eerie journey into New England’s haunted heart. Perfect for sharing aloud at night or reading alone with the lights low, this book offers an unforgettable descent into shadows.

Dare to read it—if you’re brave enough. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Rex Eldritch is an author and visual artist inspired by the eerie folklore and haunted landscapes of New England. His work combines supernatural storytelling with a folkloric sense of place, drawing on ghost stories, legends, and the darker side of local history. A resident of New Hampshire, he creates fiction that is both unsettling and accessible, written for readers who enjoy tales of mystery, horror, and the uncanny. Beyond writing, he is also an illustrator and game designer, with a lifelong passion for storytelling in many forms.

Book of the Week (11/24/2025)

When You Find the Right Rock by Mary Lyn Ray (Chronicle Books, 2024)

Somewhere, a rock is waiting for you. One just the right color for your windowsill, or just the right shape for drawing a face.

Maybe it is a rock from the heart of a mountain that will remind you of how big YOU are inside, too. Maybe it is a rock washed by the sea that knows all about the backs and forths and ups and downs of things. Maybe it is a small rock, just the right size to close your hand around and know that the rock is with you and it is just right.

Through vibrant illustration and evocative text, When You Find the Right Rock carries readers along on a journey of discovery, from the mountains to the sea, that’s all about learning the beauty of being in the moment, connecting with nature, and the thrill of finding a precious keepsake to call your own.

COOL ROCKS: Whether it’s a special pebble for a pocket or a colorful collection in a box, rocks offer a special kind of companionship and a portable and lasting connection with the natural world.

MINDFULNESS FOR KIDS: Our connections with nature reduce stress and increase happiness and resilience. This book is an ode to the presentness that we find in the natural world.

NATURE BOOK FOR ALL: A love of the natural world is easy to instill in kids, and it’s so rewarding—both intellectually and emotionally. Here is a wonderful reminder that when we see ourselves in nature, we get in touch with our own depth and texture and lastingness.

Perfect for:

Parents, grandparents, and caregivers of children who love the natural world

Teachers and librarians looking for a poetic picture book on rocks and nature

Anyone who has found the secret joy of a special rock

Readers of A Stone Sat Still, A Rock Is Lively, and Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll

--Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mary Lyn Ray is a children's book author, conservationist, and historic preservationist. In 1984, she bought an old farm and farmhouse in South Danbury, New Hampshire, which would inspire many of her future books. Ray's 2011 book 'Stars' was nominated for The E.B. White Read Aloud Award. 'Go to Sleep, Little Farm' and her 2015 book 'Goodnight, Good Dog' received Charlotte Zolotow Award commendations. Ray has also received several commendations for her conservation work, including New Hampshire Conservationist of the Year in 1989.

Book of the Week (11/17/2025)

Identifying the Pathogen by Jennifer Militello (Tupelo Press, 2026)

A hybrid collection blending historical research and contemporary essays to consider the nature of oppressive marriage and gender inequity.

Composed as a lab notebook recording various surgeries, autopsies, and experiments, Identifying the Pathogen tells the story of a scientist on an obsessive quest to document an ailment that resists classification. The book considers the body in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, woven through with the story of Anna Morandi Manzolini—an eighteenth-century Italian anatomist and artist who struggled to support a husband suffering from depression—as well as several essays detailing accounts of a ruptured appendix, a splintered cello, and an ill-fated rock climbing excursion.-- Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Jennifer Militello is the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire. She is the author of the hybrid collection Identifying the Pathogen, named a finalist for the 2024 FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, The Pact (Tupelo Press/Shearsman Books, 2021), and the memoir Knock Wood, winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize (Dzanc Books, 2019), as well as four previous books of poetry. Militello has taught at Brown University, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the Rhode Island School of Design, and currently teaches in the MFA program at New England College.

Book of the Week (11/10/2025)

Courtship in Purgatory: A Novel by Robert B. Perreault (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025)

Set in the conservative French-speaking community of Sagamore Falls, a fictional New Hampshire mill town, Courtship in Purgatory portrays parental control over middle-aged offspring in an upper-middle-class family. When protagonist Victoria discovers a disturbing entry in her deceased father’s journal, she relives a painful episode dating back a quarter-century, from which she had healed. At 33, Victoria lived a sheltered existence with her parents. Although she adored them, especially her father—she worshipped the water he walked on—she hoped to marry Lucien, whose working-class status did not measure up to her parents’ standards. Consequently, her father separated the lovers via a secret plot that threatened to smear Lucien’s image in Victoria’s eyes. Caught between the two men she loved, she wondered: Should she follow her conscience by obeying her father? Or should she follow her heart without knowing if Lucien was the morally upstanding man he appeared to be?-- Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Robert B. Perreault is a bilingual writer of mostly nonfiction books and articles about the New England Franco-American experience and/or the history of his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire. He holds a BA in Sociology from Saint Anselm College (1972), including a year of study in Paris; an MA in French/New England Franco-American Studies from Rhode Island College (1981); and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction/Nonfiction) from Southern New Hampshire University (2008). His writings in French, English, or both languages include seven books and more than 175 articles published in the US, French Canada or France.

Join Robert at one of the following events where he will be discussing his newest book:

Thursday, Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m., Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH

Monday, Nov. 17, 7:00 p.m., Dana Center, room 1-D, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH

Saturday, Dec. 6, 2:00 p.m., Millyard Museum, Holiday Open House, Manchester, NH