Book of the Week (12/9/2024)

Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak (St. Martin's Press, 2025) 

The incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II.

Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.

As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now.

In Propaganda Girls, bestselling author Lisa Rogak brings to vivid life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Lisa Rogak is the bestselling author of numerous books, including "And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert", and "Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart". She is the editor of the New York Times bestseller "Barack Obama in His Own Words". Rogak lives in New Hampshire.
 

3 on a Theme: Colleges & Universities

New England College by Cynthia Martin

The Sustainable Learning Community: One University's Journey to the Future edited by John Aber, Tom Kelly, and Bruce Mallory

John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College: The Man, the Times, and the College Presidency by Stephen J. Nelson

Book of the Week (12/18/2023)

Joseph Seavey Hall (1818-1899): Pioneer of Mountain Tourism by Annie Gibavic (Bondcliff Books, 2023)

Bartlett, New Hampshire, native Joseph Seavey Hall, an early promoter of tourism in the White Mountains, was a mountaineer, a road builder, an adventurer, and a great story teller. Living in a day and age when travel was never easy, Hall’s entrepreneurial spirit took him all across the United States, from Mount Washington in New Hampshire to Mount Diablo in California; to Vermont’s unspoiled Northeast Kingdom; and from clearing land for a new settlement in Frankfort, Michigan, to the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the Civil War. Told through the correspondence of his third wife, Calista Fay Hall, (Aunt Kitty), and his nieces Alice Hall Walter and Mabel Hall Walter, Joseph Seavey Pioneer of Mountain Tourism, chronicles the fascinating coast-to-coast story of his long and industrious life. --Publisher's blurb

3 on a Theme: Biographies

 

Richard Potter: America's First Black Celebrity by John A. Hodgson

American Luthier by Quincy Whitney

No Place for a Woman: Harriet Dame’s Civil War by Mike Pride 

Book of the Week (8/21/2023)

Gifts from Prometheus by Thomas Fisher (Independently published, 2023) 

Amherst, NH author Thomas Fisher presents his powerful memoir about the discovery of a family secret and the ability to find a sense of belonging from this revelation.

There were Blueberry pie stains on the ceiling of our butterscotch-colored Dodge Dart when I was a boy. I suppose those pie stains would be the punchline of a joke in most families, but in ours, they were a warning.

Our home was not safe and would never be the refuge we wished or needed it to be.

My father vented alcoholic rage on our family, especially my beloved mother. Our home was an unpredictable, frightening place where love was routinely conflated with violence. Where all gifts - including food and the beds we slept in - were really loans that compounded hourly – even on paid balances.

As for those pie stains? They happened when my father smashed a heavy glass pie plate into my mother’s face as we drove along Route 128. Traumatic events like this were a regular part of my childhood, the memories of which left me emotionally isolated and adrift in adulthood.

If not for my grandfather William, I just might have given up on family and surrendered to the demons of my upbringing.

“Gifts from Prometheus” explores the social and family circumstances that drove my grandfather from Georgia to Boston in 1917, and the insidious— but no less powerful—forms of racism that forced him to pass for White in 1929 when he joined the Boston Police Department.

The two-year journey to understand my grandfather’s life led me to Georgia, historic railroad towns of the Piedmont Airline route, Augusta’s segregated “Golden Blocks,” Cypress swamps along the Savannah River, forlorn cemeteries, and the neighborhoods of my native Boston. Places that long ago were imprinted in my DNA, but now are forever installed in my memories.

The book helped me understand – now with a stakeholder’s perspective - the realities of race in America. It forced me to confront my childhood complicity in bigotry - and challenged half-truths we were taught about the righteousness of the North on matters of race.

Paradoxically, “Gifts from Prometheus” is a story about love. By discovering the unknown heroes in our family history --- people of character and honor – I finally came to understand the redemptive power of family. This knowledge helped me heal generational wounds and discover feelings of belonging, heritage, and gratitude - that I was so desperate for.

The book also revealed impossible-to-ignore coincidences and mysterious forces, that once I chose to heed them, urged me along to complete the book and find peace in my remaining years. --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (8/7/2023)

A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all by Melanie Brooks (Vine Leaves Press, 2023)

In the mid 1980s, Canada's worst public health disaster was unfolding. Catastrophic mismanagement of the country's blood supply allowed contaminated blood to be knowingly distributed nationwide, infecting close to two thousand Canadians with HIV. Among them was Melanie Brooks's surgeon father who, after receiving a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery in 1985, learned he was HIV positive.

At a time when HIV/AIDS was widely misunderstood and public perception was shaped by fear, prejudice, and homophobia, victims of the disease faced ostracism and persecution. Afraid of this stigma and wanting to protect his family, Melanie's father decided his illness would be a secret. A secret they'd all have to keep. They did not know that her father would live past that first year, but he did. And for ten years before his death in 1995, from the time she was thirteen until she was twenty-three, Melanie's family lived in the shadow of AIDS. She carried the weight of the uncertain trajectory of her father's health and the heartbreaking anticipation of impending loss silently and alone. It became a way of life.

A Hard Silence is an intimate glimpse into Melanie's memories of coping with the tragedy of her father's illness and enduring the loneliness and isolation of not being able to speak. With candor and vulnerability, Melanie opens her grief wounds and brings her reader inside her journey, twenty years after her father died, to finally understand the consequences of her family's silence, to interrogate the roots of stigma and discrimination responsible for the ongoing secret-keeping, and to show how she's now learned to be authentic. --Publisher's blurb

NH author Melanie Brooks returns to Gibson's Bookstore to present her new memoir, A Hard Silence on Wednesday, September 20th, 2023 at 6:30 pm.

Book of the Week (7/24/2023)

Pitch Perfect and Persistent!: The Musical Debut of Amy Cheney Beach by Caitlin DeLems (Calkins Creek, 2023)

Amy Cheney Beach was born in Henniker, NH in 1867 and over the course of her lifetime played for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and composed over 150 songs!

Discover the untold yet inspiring story of Amy Beach, musician extraordinaire and the first successful woman composer in America.

With perfect pitch and fierce persistence, Amy Beach always knew she had to make music. There was just one BIG problem. Her mother believed it was not proper or suitable for a young lady to draw attention to herself, let alone take on a musical career. But give in or give up? Not Amy Beach. She demanded to play the piano. Demanded to have a real teacher. Demanded to perform. Luckily—for the world!—Amy’s persistence paid off. At just sixteen years old, Amy Beach found herself on the stage of Boston’s Music Hall—and the start of a brilliant career. A female composer who paved the way—perfectly! --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (6/26/2023)

Stories from the Starting Line by Tom Raffio and Ellen Raffio (Northeast Delta Dental, 2023)

There are people who run occasionally or run as part of another sport, and there are people who need to run for their mental wellbeing. Tom Raffio and Ellen Raffio address the latter group in 'Stories from the Starting Line'. The couple, who met running, runs more than 100 races a year in New Hampshire and Northern New England and uses this depth of experience to write about the diverse runners they meet at races.

The runners who share their stories are parents running pushing jogging strollers, men and women still running strong in their seventies, women who had to fight for their right to run, professional runners chasing wins and many more just looking for an adventure on their feet. Tom and Ellen talk with runners including 1984 Olympic Marathon Winner Joan Benoit Samuelson; Jacqueline Gareau, the real winner of the controversial 1980 Boston Marathon; and elite mountain runner Joseph Gray along with dozens of others.

The book includes runners of all ages and abilities who run all kinds of distances and terrain from 5Ks on the road to marathons, ultramarathons and triathlons. It highlights the nationally recognized Delta Dental Mount Washington Road Race, a 7.6 mile race up the auto road to the Mount Washington Summit in Northern New Hampshire, along with the numerous local road races that both raise money for charity and bring area runners together to do what they love. This includes the story of Millennium Running, a New Hampshire running events company that reimagined road racing so that when COVID-19 hit, the races could go on, which was not the case in most of the country. All these stories, and more, are part of 'Stories from the Starting Line'. --Publisher's blurb

3 on a Theme: Illustrating Authors

 

The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey by Louise Borden

Dr. Seuss: American Icon by Philip Nel

The Worlds of Tomie dePaola: The Art and Stories of the Legendary Artist and Author by Barbara Elleman

3 on a Theme: Music

Bluegrass Ambassadors: The McLain Family Band in Appalachia and the World by Paul O. Jenkins

Wild Symphony by Dan Brown

The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound by John Kane

3 on a Theme: Politicians

 

The Count of Concord: A Novel by Nicholas Delbanco

Thirteen Women: Inside New Hampshire's Female Majority Senate by Michaeline Della Fera  

Lou D'Allesandro, Lion of the New Hampshire Senate and Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls by Mark Bodanza and Lou D'Allesandro

Book of the Week (9/19/2022)

Philadelphia's King of Little Italy: C.C.A. Baldi & His Brothers by Chuck Douglas (History Press, 2022)

"In 1876, a fourteen-year-old boy from the Southern Italian town of Castelnuovo Cilento arrived in Philadelphia with forty cents to his name. By the time of his passing, C.C.A. Baldi had become one of the most well-known and successful Italian Americans in Philadelphia history. He started by selling lemons off a pushcart and, along with his brothers, eventually established a business empire that included a coal yard, a funeral home, a community bank and the largest Italian-language newspaper in America. Baldi was twice decorated a knight and a commander by the king of Italy and was the target of a political bombing assassination attempt. Author Charles G. Douglas, III, along with Victor L. Baldi, III, and Douglas Baldi Swift, present the rags-to-riches story of Philadelphia’s C.C.A. Baldi." --Publisher's blurb

Author Chuck Douglas graduated from the University of New Hampshire and received his law degree from Boston University in 1968. He served as legal counsel to the governor from 1973 to 1974, when he became a judge on the Superior Court. In 1977, he became a justice on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, serving until 1985. Douglas is the author of two other books on evidence and family law and is a trial attorney in Concord, New Hampshire. He and his wife, Debra, live in Bow, New Hampshire, where they serve as publisher and editors of the Bow Times, the local newspaper with a circulation of 4,100.

Join the author at Gibson's Bookstore on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 6:30 pm.

Book of the Week (9/12/2022)

No Place for a Woman: Harriet Dame’s Civil War by Mike Pride (Kent State University Press, 2022)

"Historian Mike Pride traces Harriet Dame's service as a field nurse with a storied New Hampshire infantry regiment during the Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. Twice during that service, Dame was briefly captured. Later, at the behest of New Hampshire's governor, she traveled south by ship to check on the care of her state's soldiers in Union hospitals along the coast. Dame entered Richmond shortly after the Union victory and rejoined her regiment for the occupation of Virginia. After the war, she worked as a clerk in Washington well into her 70s and served as president of the retired war nurses' organization. She also became a revered figure at annual veterans' reunions in New Hampshire. Late in the 19th century, she battled alongside her friend Dorothea Dix to overcome prejudice against bestowing pensions on women who nursed during the war.

'No Place for a Woman' draws on newly discovered letters written by Harriet Dame and includes many rare photographs of the soldiers who knew Dame best, of the nurses and doctors she worked with, and of Dame herself. This biography convincingly argues that in length, depth, and breadth of service, it is unlikely that any woman did more for the Union cause than Harriet Dame." --Publisher's blurb

Mike Pride is a journalist, writer, and historian. He is the editor emeritus of the Concord Monitor, where he ran the newsroom for 30 years, and the retired administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. Pride has written, co-written, or edited seven previous books, including My Brave Boys, a history of the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, and Storm over Key West, a history of the Florida Keys during the Civil War.

Join NH author Mike Pride on Tuesday, October 25th, 2022, at 6:30 pm at Gibson's Bookstore where he will be discussing his newest book.

Book of the Week (8/29/2022)

‘Put it Down on Paper’: The Words and Life of Mary Folsom Blair, a Fifty-Year Search by Phil Primack (Loom Press, 2022)

Mary E. Folsom Blair was just a name on a listing sheet when young writer Phil Primack bought her Epping, New Hampshire, property in 1974. As he learned more about this lifelong teacher, Quaker, and early advocate for outdoor education, his reporter bones began to twitch. Over decades, Primack talked to her former students and relatives, tracking down Mary's most accurate life record: letters and journals dating 1897, when she was fifteen. Her sharp mind and creative soul grapple with the social restraints of her time and "the pain this world holds for a woman." Mary pens her hopes and bares her despair as young chums die, her classroom ways are challenged, relationships with men and women end until--resigned to her fate as "spinster that was, is and ever shall be"--she meets her Hero on ice. With her collected papers preserved at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, Mary Folsom Blair will teach in a digital forever. —Publisher’s Blurb

Join the author at Gibson’s Bookstore on Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 12:00 pm for a Literary Lunchtime brown-bag lunch author event!

3 on a Theme: NH Memoirs

 

Kookooland by Gloria Norris 

Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll  

Under A Dark Eye: A Family Story by Sharon Dunn 

Book of the Week (2/7/2022)

Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe by Vivian Kirkfield (New York: Little Bee Books, 2020)

The real-life story of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe's friendship is warmly presented in this picture book by Amherst, NH children's author Vivian Kirkfield. 

"Ella Fitzgerald's velvety tones and shube-doobie-doos captivated audiences. Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington couldn't wait to share the stage with her, but still, Ella could not book a performance at one of the biggest clubs in town--one she knew would give her career its biggest break yet.

Marilyn Monroe dazzled on the silver screen with her baby blue eyes and breathy boo-boo-be-doos. But when she asked for better scripts, a choice in who she worked with, and a higher salary, studio bosses refused.

Two women whose voices weren't being heard. Two women chasing after their dreams and each helping the other to achieve them. This is the inspiring, true story of two incredibly talented women who came together to help each other shine like the stars that they are."-- Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (9/20/2021)

Lady Editor: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Making of the Modern American Woman by Melanie Kirkpatrick (New York : Encounter Books, 2021).

NH native, writer, activist, and editor Sarah Josepha Hale led an impressive and influential life. 'Lady Editor' tells the details of this life. 

"For half a century Sarah Josepha Hale was the most influential woman in America. As editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Hale was the leading cultural arbiter for the growing nation. Women (and many men) turned to her for advice on what to read, what to cook, how to behave, and―most important―what to think. Twenty years before the declaration of women’s rights in Seneca Falls, NY, Sarah Josepha Hale used her powerful pen to promote women’s right to an education, to work, and to manage their own money.

There is hardly an aspect of nineteenth-century culture in which Hale did not figure prominently as a pathbreaker. She was one of the first editors to promote American authors writing on American themes. Her stamp of approval advanced the reputations of Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. She wrote the first antislavery novel, compiled the first women’s history book, and penned the most recognizable verse in the English language, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Americans’ favorite holiday―Thanksgiving―wouldn’t exist without Hale. Re-imagining the New England festival as a patriotic national holiday, she conducted a decades-long campaign to make it happen. Abraham Lincoln took up her suggestion in 1863 and proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving.

Most of the women’s equity issues that Hale championed have been achieved, or nearly so. But women’s roles in the “domestic sphere” are arguably less valued today than in Hale’s era. Her beliefs about women’s obligations to family, moral leadership, and principal role in raising children continue to have relevance at a time when many American women think feminism has failed them. We could benefit from re-examining her arguments to honor women’s special roles and responsibilities.

Lady Editor re-creates the life of a major nineteenth-century woman, whose career as a writer, editor, and early feminist encompassed ideas central to American history." --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (5/31/2021)

John G. Kemeny and Dartmouth College: The Man, the Times, and the College Presidency by Stephen J. Nelson (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019).

"Featuring never before published excerpts from his unfinished autobiography, this book explores the career of John G. Kemeny, mathematician, educator, and president of Dartmouth College. Nelson presents a portrait of Kemeny’s presidential leadership during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, exemplifying his resolute commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, learning, human understanding, equity, and justice. Through this discussion of Kemeny’s life, Nelson identifies the ideal qualities of a leader: willingness to ponder, consider, and achieve the best actions he could conceive; compassion, understanding and empathy for others; absolute belief in the rising generation of college students; and courage in the face of challenging public issues, contentious and warring opinions, and concerns. From immigrant roots to college presidency and the national stage, this book tells the full story of a genius and giant of the world of academia." --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (3/8/2021)

 Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021).

Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older.

Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal.

Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity in America today, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience. --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (12/28/2020)

The Worlds of Tomie dePaola: The Art and Stories of the Legendary Artist and Author by Barbara Elleman (New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021).

Beloved NH children's author and illustrator Tomie dePaola is celebrated in this upcoming biography about his life and work.

"Tomie dePaola is one of the best-known and most beloved creators of books for children. His art and his stories, which are filled with imagination, humor, grace, and curiosity, represent a love of life that is reflected in everything he does.

Barbara Elleman’s exploration of Tomie dePaola’s career takes a fascinating look at the many worlds dePaola has brought to life through his work: from autobiographical memories to folktales, religious stories, nursery rhymes, and more—including, of course, the inventive world of his most famous character, Strega Nona. Originally published in 1999 and filled with evocative artwork, captivating photographs, and heartwarming anecdotes, this comprehensive book has been updated to cover two new decades of dePaola’s creativity. Elleman’s thoughtful narrative brings a fresh appreciation to the work of a unique author-illustrator, one who is a true legend of children’s literature and a source of lasting joy for generations of readers, young and old." --Publisher's blurb