Book of the Week (5/11/2026)

Dead Horse Soup: Frank Barker's Klondike Gold Rush by Thomas Haynes (Historical Society of Cheshire County, 2026)

Frank Barker first learned about the rush to the Klondike gold fields through his local Keene, New Hampshire newspapers. For months, beginning on July 17, 1897, the almost daily references to the Klondike promoted a story that anyone with the right fortitude and determination could find gold. As a young working-class man seeking adventure and wealth after living through the depression of the mid 1890s, this was an opportunity he was not going to pass up.

For seven months Frank Barker planned his trip to the Klondike, which included finding the right people to accompany him, organizing what food, tools, and equipment to bring, transportation, and raising enough money to cover the expedition’s costs.

With his plans complete, Frank Barker leads his three partners on a once in a lifetime adventure to live out their dreams of becoming wealthy miners, while enduring the many hardships on their two-year quest for gold in the Klondike.

After reading about the gold rush to the Klondike through his local Keene, New Hampshire newspapers, Frank Barker begins to dream about becoming a wealthy gold miner. After much planning, Barker’s dream turns real in February of 1898, when he leads three partners on a once in a lifetime adventure to the Klondike. Using Barker’s own words from the letters he wrote home and the photographs he took of the journey, his story reveals the excitement and hardships they experience on their two-year quest for gold in the Klondike. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Tom Haynes is a Keene, NH author. Previous works include "The Power of Water : the History of Water Powered Mills in the Monadnock Region" in which he was editor.

Book of the Week (2/9/2026)

How to Be Good by David Banach (Bee Monk Press, 2025)

“What is goodness?” David Banach asks in his compelling new collection. The poems of How to Be Good journey through the political, the historical, and the personal, examining the theatrical masculinity of the town dump, nicknaming the inflatable figure in front of car dealerships the “Sisyphus of advertising,” and blasting anger like a broken jar of salsa. 

Banach recalls for us “all the difficulties of/loving in this wind-swept world where kindness/is lighter than air” through work that considers profanity and philosophy, theology and gender. How to Be Good rings with Whitman and Blake and declares empathy “an ache in places I never knew/I had places.” Banach is a rare poet of the pure heart, and his poems soothe like a balm for a contemporary age where heaven might require a two-factor authentication for entrance as a way of keeping out those who have ignored sunsets or kissed without passion. --Jennifer Militello, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire

About the author:

David Banach is a philosopher and a poet, though often not in that order. He has taught for many years at Saint Anselm College and lives in Goffstown, NH, where he tends chickens, keeps bees, and watches for lessons in the sky. He has published over 70 poems in various journals, and is editor of Touchstone, the journal of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. He is a Pushcart, Best of the Net, and Forward Prize nominee, and is a past president of the Northern New England Philosophical Association. 

Join David at The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 11 am where he will read from & discuss his newest book of poetry.

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

Book of the Week (4/7/2025)

Floor Burns: A Wild Journey Across the Forgotten Backroads of NAIA Basketball in New England by Mike Whaley (Bondcliff Books, 2025)

Floor Burns is a sprawling small-college basketball odyssey that begins in the 1940s in New Britain, Connecticut, and finishes up in present-day Boston at tiny Fisher College. In between, Mike Whaley, who was also a player himself at Lyndon State in Vermont, winds his way along New England’s backroads. He tells the stories of schools that no longer exist like Nathaniel Hawthorne in New Hampshire, Westbrook in Maine, and Windham in Vermont. Future NBA coaches Stan Van Gundy and Steve Clifford cut their teeth in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), while others like Bill Detrick, Bruce MacGregor, Skip Pound, Bruce Kirsh, Kissy Walker, Red Downes, Glenn Theulen, and Rick Simonds made their mark and their living there. Buckle up for a bumpy but exhilarating ride that chronicles the highs and lows of the NAIA in New England as intimately and colorfully told by the players and coaches who were there and some who still are. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mike Whaley is a veteran sportswriter with over 30 years of experience in New Hampshire and Maine. He has been recognized as New Hampshire Sportswriter of the Year twice. Whaley played college basketball at Lyndon State College (now Vermont State University-Lyndon) from 1979 to 1983. He currently resides in Portland, Maine, with his wife, Jill Rosenblum.

Join Mike at The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH on Saturday, April 12, 2025 at 11:00 am where he will be discussing his new book.

3 on a Theme: Portsmouth

 A Small City by the Sea by Sue Ann Bottomley

 A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects by Steve Butzel, et al.

Maritime Portsmouth: The Sawtelle Collection by Richard M. Candee (editor)

Book of the Week (3/10/2025)

The Last Bake Sale: The Fight for Fair School Funding by Andru Volinsky (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025)

During this time of attacks on public education, teacher layoffs and funding crises, it's crucial to understand why some schools struggle for lack of resources while others flourish. Why is education funding in America so embattled and so unequal?

In The Last Bake Sale, Andru Volinsky tells this story as no one else can, using New Hampshire as the example of the most unfair and regressive state in the nation in terms of how it funds its schools. In New Hampshire, taxpayers in the state's poorest communities pay the highest education taxes yet raise the lowest revenues for their kids’ schools.

As the lead lawyer in the Claremont, New Hampshire, school funding case, Volinsky waged a twenty-year battle to make access to education fairer for all children in the state, not just the wealthy, white, and privileged. Volinsky offers not just a history of how we got here at the state and national level, but also how to find a better path forward.

Combining litigation with public engagement and direct political action (including holding office) is our best hope to change public policy on education and advance the public good. Change can happen, and The Last Bake Sale shows us how. --Publisher's blurb 

About the author: 

Andru Volinsky is an attorney, a former NH Executive Councilor and 2020 candidate for governor who is currently flunking retirement by writing his first book, teaching a graduate course in public policy and practicing law on a limited basis. He was the lead lawyer in the Claremont School Funding case for twenty years. Andru earned his BA from the University of Miami in psychology in 1976 and a Certificate in Conflicts Resolution Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975. He earned his law degree from George Washington University in 1980. He lives with his wife, Amy, in East Concord, NH.

Join Andru Volinsky in conversation with Becky Rule about his new book at Gibson's Bookstore on Wednesday, April 2, 2025 at 6:30 pm.

Book of the Week (2/3/2025)

Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden by Jill Nooney (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025)

“Cultivation is just another word for commitment. You think you are just pulling weeds, but what you are really doing is writing a love letter to your patch of earth.” – Thomas Rainer

This quote opens Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden, a book that is a love letter from a woman to the garden she spent 40 years creating. Jill Nooney, a psychotherapist and graduate of the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design, and her husband Bob Munger, a physician, developed their 30 acres in Lee, New Hampshire into an unforgettable garden.

Featuring more than 300 photographs of the garden and Jill’s artful sculptures, water features, and built structures that provide places throughout Bedrock Garden from which to contemplate the complete landscape, the book takes us from the garden’s origins as a private space to its present life as a public garden. The garden has slowly evolved through its creators’ deep love for the land -- and an indominable urge to experiment.

Rich with entertaining anecdotes of realizing improbable, visionary concepts that involved moving boulders, carrying trees and rocks on planes, ferreting out rare plant material, operating all manner of equipment, and managing thousands of visitors, this is a story of love, loss and generosity. The book takes the reader into a landscape that is green and wild, but also filled with a deep sense of peace. Just like visitors to the garden, readers will fall in love with Bedrock. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Jill Nooney grew up in rural New Jersey. She attended Bennington College, Smith College School of Social Work, and the Radcliffe Seminars Program in Landscape Design. She has had a lifelong interest in plants, art, and healing the human spirit. She lives with her husband, Bob Munger, in an old farmhouse in New Hampshire. Together, over the span of forty years, they created Bedrock Gardens and in 2023, they gifted the garden to the Friends of Bedrock Gardens to be enjoyed by all.

Book of the Week (1/20/2025)

Healing a Village: A Practical Guide to Building Recovery Ready Communities by Mark Lefebvre (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025)

This book is about hope. Over 107,000 fellow Americans died in 2023 from drug overdoses and another 178,000 died from excessive alcohol use. Lethal illicit drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and xylazine are showing up on our streets and poisoning our fellow citizens, including those who may not even intend to use these toxic synthetic drugs.

Healing a Village details a plan to build recovery capacity within a community to remove barriers and improve access to service for individuals and families seeking help from addiction. The author provides real-life examples of successful community coalitions that have delivered positive outcomes for their communities—from prevention, to harm reduction, to treatment, to recovery support. Lefebvre, the author, shares from his own experiences, “When I exited our local hospital following a 4-day detox, there were no treatment and recovery resources within my community. I was forced to travel to the west coast for treatment. That is no longer the case in my community today.” A case study of the Greater Portsmouth (NH) Recovery Coalition provides a deep dive on each of the elements of a Recovery Ready Community. The author uses personal struggles and successes in building recovery coalitions to validate the book’s thesis of hope. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Mark Lefebvre is the founder and statewide director for the Maine Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) program, where his focus is on building statewide capacity to recruit, train and support Maine businesses as Recovery Friendly Workplaces. In his prior role as the Pinetree Director of Community Engagement, Mark was responsible for the development of Recovery Ready Communities in the Seacoast of NH and southern ME.

Before joining the Pinetree Institute, Mark served as program director for the NH Works for Recovery program at Southern NH Services. He oversaw outreach and delivery of employment and training services to individuals and families affected by the New Hampshire opioid crisis and helped launch New Hampshire’s Recovery Friendly Workplace program. Previously, he had served on NH Governor Sununu’s Commission as a member of both the Prevention and Recovery Task Forces.

Mark Lefebvre is a person in long-term recovery from addiction and is the author of the book A Place in Time: Youth, Community & Baseball, a consultant, a radio DJ, and a podcast producer. Mark and his wife Vivian are co-founders of Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, NH, and live on the Seacoast of New Hampshire with their yellow lab mix rescue dog, Layla.

Book of the Week (1/13/2025)

Everyone's Trash: One Man Against 1.6 Billion Pounds by Duncan Watson (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2024) 

Each day, every single person in the United States, all 324 million, discards about five pounds of waste. Be it a bottle that gets placed in a recycling bin or a piece of paper crumpled and tossed into the waste bin, every bit of the daily 1.6 billion pounds cast-off has a story. This book is full of those stories. It will wake you up and give you hope. As the author, Duncan Watson, says, “More people in America recycle than vote. Recycling is more popular than Democracy!”

Watson has been running the City of Keene’s solid waste program for 33 years. He has brought national attention to the program for solid waste disposal that Keene, NH, has built. He spins a good yarn, and the rich characters who populate the “dump” in Keene, New Hampshire, provide endless entertainment and a lot of laughs. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Duncan Watson began his personal trash journey in his pre-teens as an attendant at a small municipal recycling center in Northern California. After a brief stint as a child voice actor for Charlie Brown, he spent several years wandering the desert looking for a better paying gig. He ended up in New Hampshire and has spent the last 32 years (and counting) working for the City of Keene Public Works Department, including running the City’s solid waste program. Always a storyteller, he continues to explore the possibility of transforming the dump culture to provide a vision of something bigger, something worthy. Duncan has an MS in Resource Management from Antioch New England University.

Book of the Week (11/25/2024)

53 with a Tree: Family-Friendly Hikes in New Hampshire's Town Forests by Tom Eid (Bondcliff Books, 2021)

New Hampshire’s town forests and conservation lands are distinctive, diverse, and delightful. They provide a healthy environment for a wide variety of fauna, flora, rocks, and waters, as well as habitats for amphibians, birds, fish, insects, mammals, reptiles, and many other forms of life. 

The book “53 With a Tree: Family Friendly Hikes in New Hampshire’s Town Forests” is designed for you to be inspired and refreshed by visits to local town forests and conservation areas. Information includes: 

• An overview of the importance of open lands for New Hampshire’s development
• A history of the town and community forest movement in New Hampshire
• Key types of softwoods and hardwoods trees
• Common habitats and why ecosystems develop
• How landscapes sculpt floral growth
• Where and why trees and forests grow

The book provides descriptions and excursions in 53 town forests and their hiking trails, covering all 10 of New Hampshire’s counties. Town forests and conservation lands are identified with locations, hiking trails, forest data and history, and nearby places of interest. --Author's website

About the author:

Tom Eid is an environmentalist and certified naturalist who lives with his family in Nottingham, NH. He is an avid hiker and fisherman who enjoys being outdoors in all seasons.

Book of the Week (11/18/2024)

Katie Girl: Deadly Germs, Modern Medicine, and a Family's Fight by John S. Bentley (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2024)

This is the true story of a four-year-old girl with a life-threatening illness, the desperate fight of her doctors to keep her alive, and her family’s navigation of life-changing events. It offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a large hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, and the ability of a family to overcome unexpected changes. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

JOHN BENTLEY, a New Hampshire native, grew up in a small town surrounded by nature, stone walls, extended family, and good neighbors. Over the years, he has worked as an automobile mechanic, sawmill laborer, farmhand, excavation contractor, carpenter, machinist, purchasing agent, and college administrator. John holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern New Hampshire University. In his spare time, he operates a small nonprofit charity that provides winter clothing to underprivileged children and serves as treasurer of the International Lilac Society. John lives with his wife and two daughters on a small farm near a brook, down a long dirt road, deep in the woods.

Book of the Week (9/2/2024)

The Curse of the Crummy Mummy by Thomas Tosi, illustrated by Meaghan Tosi (Dooney Press, 2024)

NH author Thomas Tosi has released Book #2 in the Green Hill Academy Chronicles, a follow-up to Six Thousand Doughnuts!

Miss Sorenson’s fifth-grade class at Green Hill Academy is going to make a movie… a mummy movie! Brilliant but awkward Bernard Gawain is thrilled his crush, Bridget Matsumoto, has been cast as the leading lady, and he will be playing her hero. But this dream come true unravels when his domineering mother becomes the class substitute teacher and the film's tyrannical director. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

THOMAS TOSI is a bestselling author and filmmaker whose writing includes six feature screenplays, three novels, and a children's chapter book. He has written and directed numerous short dramatic films and the feature film "Dribbles." His novel "Six Thousand Doughnuts" was narrated for audiobook by AudioFile Magazine Golden Voice, Michael Crouch. In August of 2022, it became the Number One Bestselling Children's Audiobook in independent bookstores across North America. He is the recipient of the 2023 New Hampshire Literary Awards in both the Middle-Grade and Children's categories. He graduated from Boston University winning both the Blue Chip Award for undergraduate achievement and Redstone Award for filmmaking. Living in his native New Hampshire, he frequently collaborates on creative projects with his family.

About the illustrator:

MEAGHAN TOSI, after being born on April Fools' Day in New Hampshire, has collected a BFA from Laguna College of Art and Design. She illustrated this book and the graphic novel "Squashed" alongside author Thomas Tosi. She has also self-published "DWEEDY: The Imagined Adventures of My Deceased Cat." She now lives in Portland, Oregon, for the art, coffee shops, vegan food, and the constantly lingering smell of rain.

Book of the Week (8/12/2024)

What's Wild: A Half Century of Wisdom from the Woods and Rivers of New England by Eric Orff (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2024)

As the state’s first bear biologist in the 1970s, Eric Orff began a half century career as a “forest ranger who works with animals,” his stated dream job as a 7-year-old. A respected wildlife biologist, with more than thirty-one years at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and another fifteen years with the National Wildlife Federation, he still publishes a video blog called “What’s Wild in New Hampshire” that regularly receives hundreds of thousands of views each week.

Known for his educational programs and political action—If Only Moose Could Vote—Eric has been a literal voice in the wilderness, declaring the threat of climate change to be real, based on what he has seen in the woods. Sharing his knowledge of the changing climate even when his audience didn’t want to believe it.

His trademark humor and kind heart, coupled with a solid scientific foundation make him someone people like to listen to when they want to know what’s happening in the woods, rivers, and fields of New England. Wildlife is now more abundant across the region than since colonial times, thanks to Eric and people like him.

From stories of rehabbing bats in the laundry room, to riding a whitetail buck who didn’t quite cooperate with a tagging effort, Eric’s stories will make you laugh, and help you connect with the wild nature that lives within us all. --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Eric Orff has wanted to be a Forest Ranger ever since he can remember. As a Certified Wildlife Biologist, he spent over thirty-one years with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and another fifteen years with the National Wildlife Federation as a Field Biologist and Consultant. A strong voice for conservation, Eric has spent decades as a popular writer, speaker and now social media personality. His trademark humor and kind heart, coupled with a solid scientific foundation, make him someone people like to listen to when they want to know what’s happening in the woods, rivers, and fields of New England.

Book of the Week (8/5/2024)

Murder and Mayhem: True Crime in New Hampshire from 1883-1915 by Milli Knudsen (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2024)

In Murder and Mayhem, veteran author and genealogist Milli Knudsen looks at true crime in New Hampshire. In the rapidly changing world of 1883-1915, criminals and good citizens learned to cope with new ways to commit crimes and how to protect themselves. Emerging forensic science became a valuable tool. In those pre-internet days, newspapers widely covered the crimes and trials and created an audience of true crime readers, much like what we have today. Murders, robberies, the rise of insurance coverage and therefore arson, the reaction to the 1915 influenza outbreak (including resistance to mask wearing), sex crimes and the advent of financial crimes are all included in case studies averaging 300 to 800 words.

Sometimes the lives of the investigators—the judges, doctors, and journalists who covered crime stories—are every bit as fascinating as the crimes themselves. Murder and Mayhem tells the stories behind the headlines and gives you a glimpse into life in New England in the years leading up to World War I. Illustrated with historical images of victims and criminals alike, and fully indexed, this volume is perfect for true crime buffs, and historians. Based on primary sources, including the second prison registry of the New Hampshire State Prison, at the New Hampshire State Archives, and NH court records of the time period, this volume is important for genealogists and a good choice for library acquisition.

The world changed in dramatic ways between 1883 to 1915. The ways to commit crimes and the ways to investigate crime changed as well. Knudsen has captured these fascinating stories, among many others, from those years in her newest volume. Two immigrant lumberman have a fiddling contest. What could go wrong? Fifty years after a brutal knife attack, what Christmas miracle happened to a woman in North Adams, MA? How should a $1,000 reward be split between those who help apprehend a murderer who fled to Canada? If you had an old alarm clock, wire and an explosive, could you rig up a device which could burn your house down when you were hundreds of miles away? --Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Milli Knudsen was born and brought up in Maine. She has an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and Social Sciences from the University of Southern Maine and a masters degree as a Reading Specialist, which supported her career in teaching in Londonderry, NH. Milli began volunteering with the NH Cold Case Unit in 2019, which led to becoming the paralegal/data analyst in 2022, and in 2024 to also working with NH’s Major Crimes Unit.

Book of the Week (3/18/2024)

Northern Voices: Forty Years on the Poetry Beat by Mike Pride (Bauhan Publishing, 2024)

Northern Voices: Forty Years on the Poetry Beat, tells the story of journalist, Mike Pride’s relationships with several poets who lived and worked in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont from the 1970s through the present. Mike transformed the New Hampshire newspaper The Concord Monitor into a prizewinning paragon of regional journalism, mentoring generations of reporters and editors, defying the trope about the dying small-town newspaper and exerting an outsize impact on his profession. He carved out for himself, “The Poetry Beat,” befriending poets including Charles Simic, Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall, Maxine Kumin, Hayden Carruth, Wes McNair, and Sharon Olds, among many others, whom he wrote about with regularity. Sadly Mike died before his “poetry memoir” Northern Voices was published. But in true Mike-style, he completed the manuscript and readied it for press.-- Publisher's blurb

 

Book of the Week (1/29/2024)

Dining With Liyuen: 35 Years of Memories and Chinese Recipes by Liyuen Buesing (Piscataqua Press, 2015)

The culmination of a 35-year career, Dining with Liyuen presents authentic Chinese recipes that are easy to make at home. Liyuen Buesing is a chef, foodie, and entrepreneur. Raised in Taiwan, she learned the art of traditional Chinese cooking from her mother. Liyuen moved to New Hampshire in 1975 and has been teaching Chinese cooking in the Seacoast area for over 35 years. Her award-winning spring rolls are sold throughout New England. She is the owner and operator of Liyuen's Chinese Culinary Specialties, a cooking school, caterer, wholesale market, and Chinese carry-out in North Hampton, NH.-- Publisher's blurb

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

Book of the Week (6/12/2023)

Land of Low Hills: Loudon, New Hampshire - The First 250 years, 1773-2023 by Melissa Moore (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2023)

This book is Loudon's first town history covering two hundred and fifty years. There are wonderful stories inside, captured beautifully by author and town resident, Melissa Moore. Residents interviewed for this book shared memories of their days attending one-room schoolhouses. Others shared their experiences earning a living from Loudon's fields and forests. Detailed research into the town's well-kept archives, as well as state-wide sources, brings to light many interesting aspects of town development, such as the growth of the racetrack businesses and their impact on this small town. Find out which grand, country homes joined the hospitality business in earlier times and welcomed guests during the busy tourist season. --Publisher's blurb

NH author Melissa Moore will be signing her new book at the following upcoming events:

Wed. July 19, 2023 at 6:30 pm at Loudon's Community Building, 29 S. Village Rd., Loudon, NH (Charlie's Barn).

Sat., August 12, 2023 and Sun., August 13, 2023 at the Loudon, NH Old Home Day festivities. For more information, visit: https://www.loudonnh.org/loudon-ledger

Book of the Week (1/30/2023)

If These Walls Could Talk: Celebrating 100 Years of the Red Arrow, America's Most Beloved Diner by Mike Morin (Hobblebush Books, 2022) 

Not many restaurants make it 100 years. Manchester, New Hampshire’s Red Arrow Diner has kept the comfort in comfort food while staying true to many original favorites. What will surprise even the old timers, are the many stories tied to unexpected people and organizations. There is an early Rockefeller connection while today’s fans include local guy Adam Sandler, a Red Arrow regular. Also spotted, celebs from Kevin Costner to RuPaul to Barenaked Ladies. And of course, nearly every presidential hopeful for the past 40 years has slurped Red Arrow chili and even a couple lucky candidates have been de-virginized in a diner ritual that locals love. Quirky and adorable, the Red Arrow is the heartbeat of downtown Manchester. -- Publisher's blurb

Join NH author/radio personality Mike Morin at Gibson's Bookstore on Thursday, February 23, 2023 at 6:30 pm where he will be discussing his latest book!

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.