Book of the Week #52

Cross-Grained & Wily Waters: A Guide to the Piscataqua Maritime Region edited by W. Jeffrey Bolster (Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2002)

"The historic sites and nearly pristine estuary of the Piscataqua region represent a mixture of heritage and nature unparalleled in New England. They are worth preserving. For centuries the Piscataqua region was an extended maritime community connected by the Great Bay Estuary, the short seacoast of New Hampshire and southern Maine, and the seven tributary rivers that fortify the Piscataqua River itself. Moving water shaped the region—under its vessels, at its mills, and across its marshes. Carrying the freight of our history, and holding out the promise of community-based conservation: this book (and these waters) invites you on a journey of exploration and renewal. Join the naturalists, fishermen, and historic preservationists who have all felt the pull
of this place, and who wish to sustain it in the face of the headlong development consuming America today." (from the cover)

Comprised of short pieces by a wide variety of writers this book covers many aspects of the region -- including it's literary heritage -- and is filled with black and white photos both modern and historical.

Book of the Week #51

The Christmas Mink and other December Tales from the North Woods by John-Richard Thompson, illustrated by Jon Robyn (Portsmouth, NH: Osiail Publishing, 2009)

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right? Jeremiah W. Blizzard had one of those days last Christmas eve and his explanation to the Workelf Compensation Board of what happened -- included in this volume as the story "Coal" -- will make you feel a lot better about your day.

This collection of tales from New Hampshire native John-Richard Thompson is enhanced by Jon Robyn's illustrations. The portrait of Juniper Dodd and Maurice Turquotte, the "cantankerous and crusty" wreath makers of "Juniper Dodd and the Rein-critters" is one of my favorites. (I think I saw those two at the hardware store recently.)

"The Christmas Mink and Other December Tales from the North Woods brings the spirit of the season alive. In this whimsical collection of Christmas stories and poems from the snowy north woods of New England, see the season in a new light and find the holiday spirit in unlikely places – in Siberia, from the tail of the Christmas Comet, or even your own tree.

Join curmudgeonly old woodsmen, living ornaments, a congress of talking animals, a horde of helpful mice and one grandiose moose in these rousing December tales certain to please both cynic and celebrant alike." (from the dustjacket)

Book of the Week #50

Wine & Dine with New Hampshire by Carla Snow (Portsmouth, NH: Blue Tree, 2009)

Some weeks a book just pops up so often I know it needs to be the book of the week. This was one of those. It was in a magazine I was reading, it was displayed at a bookstore where I was shopping, and I got an email from a local bookseller about it, all in the past few days.

This volume, beautifully illustrated with Brian Smestad's photographs, "offers an in-depth look at New Hampshire's award-winning wines, ciders, and meads and the pioneer companies who create them" (according to the jacket copy.) Recipes that feature the potable, or pair with it are included.

On Saturday, December 19, 2009 (11am-1pm) Carla Snow and Brian Smestad will be at Water Street Bookstore to talk about and sign this book.

What happened to the Book of the Week?

The annual holiday book show on NHPR's The Exhange was on two Fridays ago. Dan Chartrand from Water Street Bookstore and Micheal Herrmann from Gibson's were the guests and they talked about a lot of great books. That was week #48, and I was waiting until the show was on to write about a book that week because I wanted to feature something from the show. I heard most of the show live as I drove to a meeting, and there were several books discussed that appealed to me to write about. By the time I got back from the meeting lots of other stuff was demanding my attention and next thing I knew it was week #49.

I found copies of several of the books that had been discussed on the show and I got a couple of new books in the mail last week. These were added to the large (and ever-growing) pile of potential books-of-the-week in my office. Somehow a few quiet minutes to look at the books and decide what I wanted to say never materialized. It is now Monday of week #50.

I am determined to get back on track but have decided that trying to make up the missed weeks is apt to put me farther behind. Please consider the past 2 weeks a Book-of-the-Week vacation. (The first one since 2007.)

Book of the Week #47

Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly (Golden Gryphon Press, 1997)

Another book by James Patrick Kelly recently received the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Book of Fiction. At the award reception I asked Mr. Kelly which of his books was his favorite and he identified this one, the title story of which won the Hugo Award, as a sentimental favorite.

"Standing in Line with Mister Jimmy" (c1991) is also in this collection and is a variation on the theme of "Live Free or Die." It also presents a bizarre vision of the future where people wander around wearing earbuds that feed music and chatter into their brains.

Book of the Week #46

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen (NY: Henry Holt and Co., 2009)

Harriet Reisen will be at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH on Thursday, November 19 at 7pm. Ms. Reisen will be joined by Nancy Porter, the director of the American Masters film on PBS based on the book. This will be a "cannot miss" evening for all lovers of Louisa May Alcott.

Kirkus Reviews described this book as

"A deliciously palatable biography of the iconic writer whose life was “as full of plot and character as any [she] invented.” Inspired by research from her documentary of Alcott (1832–1888) for the PBS series American Masters, Reisen delivers an in-depth portrait of the spirited, sentimental, imaginative,
realistic woman whose childhood vow was to “be rich, famous, and happy.” Reisen draws extensively from Alcott’s prodigious output of literary works, travel sketches, articles, journals and letters, as well as the recollections of her contemporaries. Born to bohemian intellectuals, the young Alcott grew into a moody, passionate girl much like her famous character, Jo March. Her parents kept the company of transcendental luminaries like Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Hawthorne, but experienced material poverty. The utopian nightmare of her father’s experiment in communal living, her youngest sister’s death and her older sister’s engagement became defining events in Alcott’s life, leaving her determined to shoulder family financial and household burdens. Under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, Alcott churned out pulp-fiction thrillers, generating income and sating her thirst for adventure. She followed the phenomenal success of Little Women in 1868 with six other popular children’s novels, but was tormented by a culture of celebrity and ill health until her death. Reisen deftly weaves the story of Alcott’s life into the rich social, cultural and historical fabric of mid-19th-century New England. The author’s insightful examination reveals Alcott as a compulsive writer who peppered her stories with external details and internal currents of her life; an ardent abolitionist who served as a Civil War army nurse; a self-espoused spinster who cherished her independence but harbored a schoolgirl romantic attachment to Thoreau and a midlife crush on a young Polish pianist; a thoroughly modern feminist who wrote about the power struggle between the sexes and championed women’s suffrage; and a middle-aged woman who relied on opiates to cope with her failing health. An absorbing portrait of the protean author whose “life was no children’s book.”

Book of the Week #45

The Weight of the Ice: The Northeast Ice Storm of 2008 by Dave Eisenstadter (Keene, NH: Surry Cottage Books, 2009)

On December 11, 2008 an ice storm hit New England and left 1.3 million households without electricity, many for weeks. This book, by Keene resident and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript reporter Dave Eisenstadter, brings together images and stories of that historic storm.

This Saturday, November 14, 2009 Mr. Eisenstadter will be talking about his book at Toadstool Bookshops. He will be in Keene at 11am and in Peterborough at 2pm.

Book of the Week #44

Pennies for Elephants by Lita Judge (New York : Disney/Hyperion Books, 2009)

This book by Peterborough author Lita Judge was chosen to receive the 2009 NH Literary Award for Outstanding Work of Children’s Literature.

"As she did in One Thousand Tracings, Judge weaves a compelling tale based on a true, heartwarming incident...Warm sepia tones lend atmosphere, too, and splashes of bright red, blue, purple and yellow in the children’s outfits echo their sunny, can-do demeanor." Publishers Weekly, 6/22/09

Book of the Week #43

Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook by David M. Carroll (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009)

It has been an eventful month for writer, naturalist, and artist David M. Carroll, a resident of Warner, NH. This book, according to the jacket copy, is "the intensely observed chronicle of Caroll's annual March-to-November wetlands immersion." It is also a 2009 finalist for the National Book Award. Mr. Carroll was also selected as the 2009 recipient of the New Hampshire Literary Award's Lifetime Achievement Award. This past summer Mr. Carroll was interviewed by Yankee Magazine.

"At the earliest openings of the ice in the overwintering niches of the spotted turtles, as minute glimmers of quickening water appear in acres of wetlands still locked in ice and snow, I forsake my winter paths: the worn floor
by the kitchen table and fireplace; the even more worn threshold of the narrow doorway to the Oriental-carpeted passage down the back hall, the narrow gallery hung with paintings and drawings above agreeably overburdened bookcases, lined along the floor with stacks of more books and empty frames; the footwarn stair treads up to my studio workrooms, with their slender passageways among bookcases, drawing and writing tables, and shelves, all impossibly piled with papers, notebooks, pencils, pens, and paintbrushes. With the opening up of the earth and water I go beyond my few, close-to-home outer trails of the cold season: my way to the woodshed, as trodden as an ancient deer path, and my modest snowshoe circlings through the back filed and bordering woods. At thaw I begin to walk a wider way again, beyond house and gardens, in places every bit as home to me as those." (p. 1)

Book of the Week #42

Tupperware Unsealed: Brownie Wise, Earl Tupper, and the Home Party Pioneers by Bob Kealing (University Press of Florida, 2008)

I love books about the history of a specific thing -- Salt, Olives, Aprons, etc. -- and this volume is part of that literary set. Tupperware was invented by Earl Tupper, a native of Berlin, NH, who later settled in Shirley, Mass.

"Postwar America was a period of tremendous innovation, in business adn at home. Countless products were invented for and marketed to the housewife, promising to make her work easier, to make her home cleaner, and her family's life better. More than a half-centure since its invention, Tupperware remains among the most memorable from those years of excess and optimism. While his product languished on department store shelves, eccentric inventor Earl Tupper sought a new way to market and sell his durable plastic storage containers. He found the sales revolution he was looking for in trailblazing businesswoman Brownie Wise. She
led the company from obscurity to millions in sales through a remarkable innovation: the Tupperware home party." (from book jacket)

The author spoke about his book at a Orlando Public Library program available on YouTube.

Book of the Week #41

The Lost Constitution by William Martin (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007)

I seem to be developing a bit of an American history theme with recent Books of the Week. This latest novel from New England Book Award winner William Martin was recommended to me by my Mom who is a fan of Martin's novels. A national treasure -- a first draft of the Constitution annotated by the New England delegation -- disappears in 1787. Now Peter Fallon and Evangeline Carrington must find it. Their hunt takes them through the notches and across New Hampshire, through two centuries of American history, and ends at Fenway Park on the first night of the World Series.

Book of the Week #40

Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1995)

Most weeks I choose the "Book of the Week," but this time I am going with the book that was chosen by the Merrimack Public Library for its One Book, One Town community-wide reading program. The book discussion group at the Merrimack Public Library reads books within a seasonal theme, currently "Women of the Revolution," so Natalie Bober's Abgail Adams: Witness to a Revolution fits in nicely.

Throughout October 2009 there will be events related to the life of Abigail Adams held at the Merrimack Public Library including appearances by John Perrault, Michaeline Della Fera, and even John Quincy Adams. All the events are free, but you need to reserve a seat by calling the library at 603-424-5021.

Book of the Week #39

The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons from the Natural World by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. (New York: Collins, 2009)

"One of the most widely read American anthropologists, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has observed dogs, cats, and elephants during her half-century-long career. In the 1980s Thomas studied elephants alongside Katy Payne—the scientist who discovered elephants' communication via infrasound. In 1993 Thomas wrote The Hidden Life of Dogs, a groundbreaking work of animal psychology that spent nearly a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Her book on cats, Tribe of Tiger, was also an international bestseller. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on her family's former farm, where she observes deer, bobcats, bear, and many other species of wildlife." Here she "turns her attention to wild deer, and the many lessons we can learn by observing nature." This book is based on the twelve months Thomas spent studying the local deer population near her home. (quotes are from the HarperCollins website)

Ms. Thomas was a recent guest on The Exchange and will be talking about her book at local bookstores during October.

• Gibson's on Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 7pm


• Toadstool Bookshop (Keene), Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 2pm


• Water Street Bookstore, Friday, October 16, 2009 at 7pm


• Barnes & Noble (Manchester), Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 7pm

Book of the Week #38

To My Countrywomen: The Life of Sarah Josepha Hale by Muriel L. Dubois; illustrated by Lisa Greenleaf. (Bedford, NH: Apprentice Shop Books, 2006)

This Saturday is the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC. The Center for the Book at the NH State Library was, as in previous years, asked to select a book to be featured on the Pavillion of the State's “Discover Great Places Through Reading” map. We chose to feature this work by and about New Hampshire women.

Muriel Dubois and Lisa Greenleaf are both residents of the Granite State and have created this illustrated biography of America's first woman editor. Sarah Josepha Hale was an early activist for women's education and property rights. She is best known for her role in the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday and as the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

The Sarah Josepha Hale Award, one of New England's oldest and most distinguished literary awards, is named for this famous daughter of Newport, NH.

Book of the Week #37

Olive's Pirate Party by Roberta Baker; illustrated by Debbie Tilley (Little, Brown & Co., 2005)

"When Olive Elizabeth Julia Jerome turned seven, she wanted a party with pirates."

Who can blame her? This wonderful picture book by Roberta Baker of Tilton, NH would be a fun addition to your celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day (Saturday, September 19, 2009) when everyone is encouraged to talk like a pirate.

Book of the Week #36

Catamount: A North Country Thriller by Rick Davidson (Center Ossipee, NH: Beech River Books, 2008)

Rick Davidson, a resident of Freedom, is a teacher, photographer, and--with the publication of this, his first novel-- author.
Man's sacrilegious infringements on Nature's delicate balance calls down a forgotten Indian curse and releases a raging mountain lion, a catamount in the North Woods. This creature is not supposed to be there and is not supposed to prey on humans, but two young children and their dog pick up its trail behind an isolated summer camp not far from the Canadian border. The children do not return and a search and rescue party sets out after them, but the rampages of the malevolent ghostlike cat hinders their efforts and a violent storm sets off a serious forest fire in the tinder-dry forest.

"June.
The silence is not normal for the time of year. If Rob Schurman, the local conservation officer, was there, he might notice that suddenly, for no apparent reason, all the forest noises stop. Indeed, after relative silence, he would wonder why every bullfrog, cricket, whippoorwill, and peeper within hearing distance suddenly resumes, creating a cacophony of outback nature sounds. This concert would invariably stop in unison again only moments later. It would not have been unthinkable for someone to be in the woods videotaping the sights and sounds of early summer. Had that person been there, his camera might have caught a glimpse of something black as it slowly emerged from the underbrush. Neither the conservation officer nor a videographer was there. There was only the full moon, a large expanse of field, five deer feeding on the low grass, and a shadowy creature moving slowly just below the tops of the wild grass." (p. 5)

Book of the Week #35

Then, Something by Patricia Fargnoli (Tupelo Press, 2009)

This is the latest volume of poetry from New Hampshire's most recent past poet laureate, Patricia Fargnoli. Ms. Fargnoli will read from this newly-released book on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, 6:30-8:30pm at the Robert Frost Farm. This reading, which will also include poet Stephen Scaer, is part of the Hyla Brook Reading Series. An Open Mic will follow the readings and all audience members are invited to share their work.

“Patricia Fargnoli’s poems are vividly and gratefully aware of the comforts and assurances of the natural world; she does not miss a stitch of beauty, neither does she avoid the darker aspects of . . . human awareness of our continual aging, to which she gives sharp and poignant attention. I have been her champion since her first book Necessary Light was published, and I continue to be so.”
—Mary Oliver

Book of the Week #34

Joseph Emerson Worcester: A Distinguished and Gracious New England Lexicographer by Matthew Higgins (Concord, NH: Duncross Books, 2007)

Born in Bedford, New Hampshire on August 24, 1784 Joseph Emerson Worcester had, by 1860, "produced the finest product of American lexicography up to that time -- a dictionary that established the particular pattern that would distinguish the American Dictionary of the English language." (from the back cover)

This brief biography was written by Matthew Higgins, former NH State Librarian.

Book of the Week #33

Fishing in New Hampshire: A History by Jack Noon (Warner, NH: Moose Country Press, 2003)

According to Eleanor O'Donnell, writing in a 2004 "New Hampshire Books" column:

"This history of freshwater fishing in New Hampshire extends from the Abenaki Indians fishing for food to the sport fishing of the present day. Chapters focus on the Piscataqua River, Amoskeag Falls, and the Merrimack River, Bellows Falls, and the Connecticut River, and Lake Sunapee, chronicling the abundance of fish when the European settlers arrived to the decline and extinction of many species due to pollution. Noon also writes about the various fish found in these waters through the years. The book is illustrated by color fish chromolithographs created by Sherman F. Denton over a century ago."

Jack Noon was a guest on NHPR's Front Porch just after this book was published.

Book of the Week #32

The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England by Emerson W. Baker (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

Emerson Baker, a professor of history at Salem State College (in Massachusetts) tells the story of 17th century witchcraft that took place on the island now known as New Castle.

"For the entire summer of 1682, George and Alice Walton's tavern in Great Island, New Hampshire, was the target of what one eyewitness called 'lithobolia, or the stone-throwing devil.' Hundreds of flying stones plagued the tavern and its proprietors and guests for months on end, causing considerable damage. Amazingly, no one ever saw anyone throwing the rocks." (p. 1)

"When people speak of seventeenth-century New England, most really mean Massachusetts. The founding myths of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts stand as part of our national epic, embedded deep in every schoolchild's memory. Indeed, as the first settlement established by the Massachusetts bay Colony, Salem had secured a place in American history long before the witch trials took place. While Salem and Massachusetts have been given a central place in the narrative of American history, New Hampshire and Great Island have been pushed to the margins. It is time to refocus our vision of early America, for as the events in this book show, northern New England has a rich and overlooked history that can teach us a great deal about the foundations of America, and in the process perhaps reveal something about our present situation as well." (p. 5)