Nationwide Read 25 Day!

As part of the Read 25 in 2025 challenge, Gretchen Rubin, author, host of the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast, and founder of The Happiness Project is partnering with Bookshop.org to host a nationwide gathering on Wednesday, June 25th, for a special 25-minute silent reading experience, followed by lively discussions about the books that captivate us.

Imagine thousands of book lovers across the US, all sharing a moment of quiet immersion in their chosen stories. Gretchen is partnering with hundreds of independent bookstores to make this happen, bringing communities together through the joy of reading.

Here in the Granite State, The Country Bookseller in Wolfeboro, NH is hosting a silent reading & discussion event to coincide with this national celebration on Wednesday, June 25th at 1 pm!

Be a part of the biggest reading event of the year! Pledge to Read 25 on June 25th here!

Book of the Week (5/1/2023)

The Justice Seeker by Mark Okrant (Wayfarer, 2023)

'The Justice Seeker' is a western coming of age story with fresh twists that include Hopi culture and mysticism, Jewish rituals, and one powerful supernatural presence. It is set during the late nineteenth century, at a time when settlers who came to Flagstaff, Arizona in search of a quick fortune resorted to stealing Hopi land and settling disputes at the point of a gun.

Tal Wilson, fourteen year-old son of the new sheriff, grew up respecting the law until his best friend, Two Feathers, is killed in cold blood by the spineless Davis brothers. Filled with bitterness and hungry for revenge, Tal dedicates himself to becoming a top hand with a Colt pistol. Over the course of two decades, he searches continually for the two murderers, while his personal growth reflects teachings of a Hopi shaman, budding affection for a young Jewish woman, and his studies at Yale Law School. Only Tal can decide whether avenging his friend will take precedence over a promising law career and life with the young Jewish woman he loves. --Publisher's blurb

Join NH author Mark Okrant at Gibson's Bookstore on Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 6:30 pm where he'll discuss his newest novel.

Book of the Week (4/24/2023)

The East Indian: A Novel by Brinda Charry (Scribner, 2023)

Inspired by a historical figure, an exhilarating debut novel about the first native of the Indian subcontinent to arrive in Colonial America—for readers of Esi Edugyan and Yaa Gyasi.

Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants—boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London—must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds.

Like the play that captivates him—Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—Tony’s life is rich with oddities and hijinks, humor and tragedy. Set during the early days of English colonization in Jamestown, before servitude calcified into racialized slavery, The East Indian gives authentic voice to an otherwise unknown historic figure and brings the world he would have encountered to vivid life. In this coming-of-age tale, narrated by a most memorable literary rascal, Charry conjures a young character sure to be beloved by readers for years to come. --Publisher's blurb

Join NH author Brinda Charry at Toadstool Bookshop in Keene, Saturday, May 13, 2023 at 11 am.

Book of the Week (4/10/2023)

White Mountains State: A Four-Year Journey Hiking and Summiting New Hampshire's 48 Highest Peaks by Keith Gentili (TMC Books, 2022) 

Keith Gentili is a NH journalist and recreational hiker who has climbed New England's 100 highest summits, discovering new things about himself, his life, and his relationships along the way. 

The book, at its core, is about relationships and not simple hiking. It is about the relationships between a group of people who, over time, commit to a larger goal than their own self-interest. It is also about each individual's relationship with the goal, which in this case is the mountains and climbing all 48 of them. It is also about family and a hiker's relationship with their family, and how that support and love is necessary to complete the goal. There are both husband-wife, and father-daughter relationships explored as well as the evolving dynamic amongst friends as they become family through their hiking partnership and a level of ongoing/increasing trust and support. --Publisher's blurb

Join author Keith Gentili at Gibson's Bookstore on Tuesday, May 9, 2023 at 6:30 pm.

Book of the Week (3/20/2023)

Falling Inn Love by Erin Branscom (My Level 10 Life LLC, 2022)

Beth is a struggling romance author who’s been trying to find her place in the world after the unbearable tragedy of losing her family. Unable to find peace other than in her writing, she ends up stranded by the side of the road in Freedom Valley, New Hampshire, where a strikingly hot, green-eyed, bearded flannel wearing innkeeper rescues her.

Evan, a former marine who took over his family’s inn after the sudden loss of his father, is struggling to keep afloat.

Running out of money, Beth agrees to help Evan run the inn in exchange for room and board, but she has no intention of staying too long and letting her guard down or anyone into her heart.

But there’s something about Beth that makes Evan believe he can be the man to give her the love that she deserves.

The more emotional walls Beth tries to put up, the harder Evan works to tear them down, using everything he can, including a pair of puppies he finds abandoned by the side of the road, to make her want to stay.

Will Evan be able to convince Beth to take a second chance at love? --Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (3/6/2023)

Life After Kevin: A Mother's Search for Peace and the Golden Retrievers That Led the Way by Susan Lynch (BMcTALKS Press, 2022)

On her way home from a national dog competition, Susan gets the call that her son, Kevin, has died. With a new reality to navigate and no directions, Susan seeks solace in her golden retrievers, Manny and Tripp, who demonstrate the power of presence and unconditional love.

They journey alongside her as Susan untangles the complicated emotions attached to the stigma of how Kevin died and witness the extraordinary connection she nurtures with him across the veil. This inspiring memoir speaks to anyone who is learning to live with the unfixable, and readers will discover that life after loss can include hope, peace, and purpose.-- Publisher's blurb 

Susan Lynch has trained and competed with her golden retrievers for more than twenty years, and has been an active member of the Golden Retriever Club of America and Yankee Golden Retriever Club since 1995. She lives in Hollis, NH.

Book of the Week (2/27/2023)

Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery by Margot Douaihy (Gillian Flynn Books, 2023)

"Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this "unique and confident" debut crime novel (Gillian Flynn).

When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.

Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn't satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students, and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.

An exciting start to a bold series that breathes new life into the hard-boiled genre, Scorched Grace is a fast-paced and punchy whodunnit that will keep readers guessing until the very end."-- Publisher's blurb

Margot Douaihy teaches Creative Writing and Editing/Publishing at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH.

Book of the Week (2/20/2023)

My Last Innocent Year: A Novel by Daisy Alpert Florin (Henry Holt and Co., 2023)

"An incisive, deeply resonant debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that propels one woman’s final semester at an elite New England college into controversy and chaos—and into an ill-advised affair with a married professor.

It’s 1998 and Isabel Rosen, the only daughter of a Lower East Side appetizing store owner, has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder but now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place—until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling.

Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful, talented: the woman she longs to become. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is, for better and worse. As the lives of the adults around her slowly come apart, Isabel discovers that the line between youth and adulthood is less defined than she thought.

A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, Daisy Alpert Florin's My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from." --Publisher's blurb

Author Daisy Alpert Florin attended Dartmouth College and received graduate degrees from Columbia University and Bank Street Graduate School of Education. 

Book of the Week (2/13/2023)

More: Life on the Edge of Adventure and Motherhood by Majka Burhardt (Pegasus Books, 2023)

"As one of the world’s leading professional rock and ice climbers, Majka Burhardt led a globe-trotting, thrill-seeking life. When she learns she’s pregnant––with twins––Burhardt originally tries to justify continuing her risky pursuits, despite this new responsibility. However, ultimately, she is forced to experience the avalanche of emotions that accompany this major life transition, as well as her body’s physical changes. 

Based on the letters and journals Burhardt diligently maintained over the course of six years, More takes the reader around the world as she explores the transformative, identity-shifting experience of motherhood and its irreversible impact on her career, marriage, and identity. 

Majka Burhardt’s work and projects have been featured in The Economist, Outside Magazine, The Weather Channel, NPR, and more, and her articles have appeared in publications including Afar, Men’s Health, Skiing Magazine, Backpacker, Patagonia, Alpinist, Women’s Adventure, The Explorers Journal, and Climbing." --Publisher's blurb

Join NH author Majka Burhardt at Gibson's Bookstore on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 6:30 pm where she will discuss her latest book.

Book of the Week (1/23/2023)

Cheddar Late Than Dead (Grilled Cheese Mysteries) by Linda Reilly (Poisoned Pen Press, 2023)  

A bridal shower gone bad quickly becomes the swiss of death, and grilled cheese shop owner Carly Hale must sniff out the suspect.

Winter in Balsam Dell is a snowy affair, and to add in some cheer after the holidays Carly's former classmate Klarissa Taddeo is hosting her extravagant bridal shower at the historic Balsam Dell inn. But when a double-booking throws some mold in the cheese, Klarissa is left scrambling. Dawn, the maid of honor and wedding planner, saves the day by moving the shower to her family's mansion and books Carly to cater the party. It seems the group is going to pull off the shower without a hitch.

That is, until Klarissa's fiancé crashes the event. She's furious with her groom-to-be and when a loud argument ensues, everyone is shocked by what they hear. When the groom is later found dead at the bottom of the stairs, his drink spiked with a hefty dose of poison, Carly must put her nose to the rind and save Klarissa from being suspect #1.

Because you know what they say: it's always the (almost) wife. --Publisher's blurb

NH author Linda Reilly returns to Gibson’s Bookstore on Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 1:00 pm to discuss her latest in the Grilled Cheese Mysteries series, "Cheddar Late Than Dead"!

Book of the Week (1/16/2023)

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, Volume 3 (1864) by Marek Bennett (Comics Workshop, 2023)

The continuing adventures of a Yankee schoolteacher in the Union Army. 

As the Civil War heats up in early 1864, Colby & co. make the discoveries & connections that could mean life or death in the battles ahead! 

JANUARY- MAY, 1864: While Freeman Colby recovers his health in a D.C. hospital, the war works unforeseen changes all around him.... 

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, Volume 3 (1864) features the stories of schoolteachers & bricklayers, radicals & refugees, nurses & politicians - Drawn from their actual diaries, letters, sketchbooks, & more!-- Publisher's blurb

NH author/illustrator Marek Bennett will be making his way back to Gibson's Bookstore on Wednesday,  January 25th, 2023 at 6:30 pm. Marek will be sharing the newest installment of his ongoing Freeman Colby graphic novels, based off of the real Civil War diaries of a New Hampshire man! 

Book of the Week (1/9/2023)

Backroads and Highways: My Journey to Discovery on Mental Health by Honorable John T Broderick Jr. (Dartmouth Health, 2022)

When John Broderick's son was just 13, he began suffering from anxiety and depression, conditions that sadly went unrecognized and undiagnosed for years. Because of John's mistakes in failing to see these struggles for what they were-mental illness-and deal with it appropriately, his family went on a very public and painful journey in their home state of New Hampshire. 

Luckily, they all survived and healed. John, now Senior Director of External Affairs at Dartmouth Health, is on a mission to share his family's hard-won knowledge about mental health. He has embarked on a campaign to change the culture, stigma, and shame around mental illness that for generations has kept too many people feeling alone, afraid to step out of the shadows, and to change the conversation.-- Publisher's blurb

Join John Broderick at Gibson's Bookstore on Tuesday, January 17th, 2023 at 6:30 pm where he will be presenting his book.

3 on a Theme: Dogs

Bessie's Story: Watching the Lights Go Out by Thomas W. Farmen

Walking the Dog's Shadow by Deborah Brown

Will's Red Coat: The Story of One Old Dog Who Chose to Live Again by Tom Ryan

Book of the Week (1/2/2023)

The Promise of a Normal Life: A Novel by Rebecca Kaiser Gibson (Arcade, 2023)

Hailed as “radiant and transporting” (Margot Livesey), The Promise of a Normal Life is a poet’s debut novel, so evocative of life as lived that it transports you to a time and place you can practically see, touch, and feel. The unnamed narrator is a fiercely observant, introverted Jewish-American girl who seems to exist in a private and separate realm. She's the child of a first-generation doctor and lawyer—whose own stories have the loud grandeur of family legend—in an America where Jews are excluded from the country club across the street. Her expectations for adulthood are often contradictory. In the changing landscape of the 1960s, she attempts to find her way through the rituals of life, her geography expanding across the country, across the ocean, and into multiple nations. 

Along the way, she meets a glamorous hairdresser on a cruise ship to Israel, loopy tarot-card-reading passengers, and Alice-in-Wonderland lawyers in Haifa. There’s a blue-eyed all-American college boyfriend, a mystified tourist agent in the Lofoten Islands, a handsome eligible rabbi in LA, a righteous and self-absorbed MIT professor, and a clandestine, calculating lover in Boston. Eventually, she finds her own compass, but only after being swept to several distant shores by many winds. --Publisher's blurb

Rebecca Kaiser Gibson is the author of the poetry collections Girl as Birch and Opinel. This is her first novel. She lives in Marlborough, NH.

Book of the Week (12/26/2022)

Yours, Purple Gallinule by Ewa Chrusciel (Omnidawn, 2022)

Ewa Chrusciel’s fourth book in English, Yours, Purple Gallinule, playfully explores health and illness as they are culturally constructed. Using research into clinical understandings of mental afflictions and their treatments through history, Chrusciel maps various diagnostics onto an array of bird species. A lyrical satire, the book is a reflection on a society that tends to over-diagnose, misdiagnose, and over-medicate. These poems pose questions about what it means to be unique and to accept pain and suffering as a fact of life.

On the pages of Yours, Purple Gallinule, we encounter birds, a poet, and a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist undergoes a series of conversions as she realizes that the point is not to classify thoughtlessly, but to “make music instead”—to dwell in astonishment. Birds evade the anthropomorphizing intentions of the human protagonists as the psychiatrist and the poet eventually become one. The anthropomorphizing goes in reverse, and the human being becomes more avian. Like the dove in the biblical Noah’s ark story, the bird proclaims a new covenant, with a twig in its beak and a message: “We are all mad; some more than others, but no one is spared the affliction. And the madder we are, the more sacred.”-- Publisher's blurb

Ewa Chrusciel is a poet, translator, and associate professor at Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire. She is the author of three books of poems in English--Of Annunciations, Contraband of Hoopoe, and Strata--as well as three books in Polish.

Book of the Week (12/19/2022)

Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait by Caroline Cook (Atmosphere Press, 2022)

The year is 1935, and Dr. Beverly Conner is overqualified for her job - and the only woman in sight.

When Beverly moves to rural New Hampshire to work at the all-male Marsden College to research algae, the other professors in the department are less than thrilled she's there. Over the next few decades, the world passes the small town by. The threat of war and the promise of progress could never permeate the hallowed halls of a college campus. Nothing seems to change at Marsden, even when Beverly makes a groundbreaking discovery. In 2015, Lena Rivera matriculates at the now co-ed Marsden, unknowingly following in Beverly's footsteps, but somehow still alone.

Inspired by the true story of Dr. Hannah Croasdale [Dartmouth College's first tenured female faculty member], Tell Them to Be Quiet and Wait considers how things change - or stay the same - for women, for academia, and for science, against the backdrop of a century of American history. --Publisher's blurb

For more information about this book, and the person it was inspired by, view the Valley News article here.

Book of the Week (12/12/2022)

The Huntsman by Judith Sanders (Ironword Press, 2022)

ICU nurse Max Mason fears his pregnant wife is the latest victim of a serial killer who is terrorizing their small New Hampshire town. The investigation is at a standstill after the prime suspect, Lincoln Raider, falls off a ladder and is now in a coma. In a desperate unethical act, Max sits at Lincoln's beside night after night employing brainwashing techniques and subliminal messaging to convince Linc that he and Max are kindred-spirits. When Lincoln awakens Max is sucked into the unbalanced whirlpool of the Huntsman's life, ultimately pulling Lincoln's own wife and daughter into the vortex as well. --Publisher's blurb

Join author Judith Sanders at Toadstool Bookshop  in Keene, NH on Sunday, December 18th at 1pm where she discusses her newest novel!

Book of the Week (12/5/2022)

Christmas by Candlelight by Sylvie Kurtz (Iris Ink, 2022)

She's duty bound to a family dream. With a slew of struggles and surprises, can she make this holiday season one to remember?

Claire Chandler's passion has just been put on hold. After her parents unexpectedly pass away, she turns down a coveted wildlife photography grant to move back to New Hampshire and run their inn. But when a face from the past whose vacation she ruined as a kid shows up as a guest, she vows to turn the grumpy author's stay into a fun-filled festive retreat.

Struggling to keep up with everyone's never-ending demands, Claire does her best to help her prickly adversary reclaim his muse. But as she juggles a challenging cookie tour, an ex-boyfriend's sudden arrival and a powerful nor'easter cutting the power, she fears all the guests will unwrap is disappointment.

Will the overwhelmed host survive a snowstorm of stress and restore the Yuletide cheer?

'Christmas by Candlelight' is the heartwarming first book in the Love in Brighton Village women's fiction holiday romance series. If you like earnest characters, overcoming grief and genuine connections, then you'll adore Sylvie Kurtz's tender tale of growth. --Publisher's blurb

Join NH author Sylvie Kurtz at Toadstool Bookshop in Nashua on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 2:00pm where she will be discussing her newest book.

Book of the Week (11/28/2022)

Monadnock Originals: Colorful Characters from New Hampshire’s Quiet Corner by Alan F. Rumrill (History Press, 2023)

The Monadnock Region has been referred to as New Hampshire's "forgotten corner." It is a quiet region known for its historic New England villages and beautiful natural landscape. Overlooked tales from the past prove that this has not always been a quiet place, however.

Mark Twain, Amelia Earhart, robber baron Jubilee Jim Fisk, infamous actress May Yohe, and miser Hetty Green, the richest woman in the United States, all spent time in the quiet corner. Noteworthy inventors, outspoken women, military heroes, nationally prominent businessmen, and dastardly criminals all called the region home.

Local historian and author Alan F. Rumrill has compiled stories that reveal a region defined by its Yankee character - and filled with Yankee characters.-- Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (11/21/2022)

Sugaring Off  by Gillian French (Algonquin Young Readers, 2022)

Set on a fictional New Hampshire mountain, Gillian French's newest novel is at times a sensitive coming of age story as well as a thrilling mystery!

A dazzling and evocative novel about love and loss—with a dash of thrilling mystery—for fans of Mindy McGinnis and Courtney Summers. 

Owl has always been her freest self in the mountains, tracking, hiking, and exploring the steep forested acres of her aunt and uncle’s maple sugar farm. They never speak of the childhood tragedy that left her partially deaf and sent her father to jail. All Owl wants is to stay safe at the farm, her favorite place in the world, her refuge from those who would treat her differently. 

Owl’s sheltered existence is blown wide open by Cody—the magnetic, dangerous young man hired to help with the season’s sugaring off. Cody seems to see the real her, to look past her hearing loss in a way no one else does. Together, they find comfort in their similarities and exhilaration in their differences, and risk a romance their families are desperate to stop. 

But then Owl hears her father will be released from prison, and a seemingly motiveless murder shakes the foundations of her small town. When the crime draws all eyes to Cody, Owl realized he is in far more serious trouble than anyone knows—and it’s followed him to her mountain. --Publisher's blurb