Pat’s favourite contemporary classics

These picks have all been made into movies that can never quite match the power of the book.

TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis is a masterpiece. Undeservedly forgotten until the recent remake of the movie by the Coen brothers, this beautiful story should be on every teenager’s and adult’s must-read list. Mattie Ross’s narration is every bit as wonderful as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’S Scout.

FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes is the lovely, sad, tragic tale of a mouse and a man. There will be tears.

FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury describes a world where free thinking is not allowed, and feared to the extent that firemen are charged with burning all books.  Bradbury’s prose shines throughout.

PET SEMATARY by Stephen King beats the pants off the movie version. King has a way of bringing you into each scene, and I could literally smell the earth in the hapless cat Church’s fur. Truly spine-tingling, and so very New England.

Oh look, it’s part three of the update! This time around it’s going to mostly be new fiction middle grades and young adults. Next week, a big update on Adult fiction! I promise!

MIDDLE GRADE AND TEEN FICTION:

Homeland – Cory Doctorow. HC $17.99 Sequel to Little Brother.

Zenn Scarlett – Christian Schoon. pb $9.99 Just the story of a girl on Mars...

Railsea – China Mieville. pb $10.99 Moletrains and Moldywarps.

Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein. pb $9.99 It’s 1943 and a British spy plane has just crashed in Nazi-occupied France. Only one of the girls has a chance of survival and the Nazi’s are going to get the truth out of Verity. But the truth just won’t be what they expect.

Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries – Rick Riordan. hc $12.99 Includes  new short stories and games.

The Rithmatist – Brandon Sanderson. hc $17.99 New book from the author of Elantris, the Mistworld Trilogy, and co-writer of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

Unnatural Creatures – Neil Gaiman. pb $9.99 Selected stories.

The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey. hc $18.99 “Now they’ve come to take the things worth dying for.” Dystopian Alien Invasion – looks quite good, actually.

Pirate Cinema – Cory Doctorow. hc $19.99 Oo, another hot topic title from Cory, this one on who has control over the power of information, ie, the Internet.

Farseed – Pamela Sargent. pb $9.99 A survival novel of the far distant future. Yeah, Pamela Sargent writes a teen novel – woot! Though I haven’t read this book, I have read many of her other works and she is a fantastic writer.

Revived – Cat Patrick. pb $8.99 “She’s not supposed to be alive. He’s not supposed to know her secrets.”

ADULT NON-FICTION:

No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood – Henriette Mantel, ed. pb $16 Includes short essays by Margaret Cho, Nora Dunn, Jennifer Coolidge, Merrill Markoe, and Beth Lapides. Local author!

Let Them Be Eaten By Bears: A Fearless Guide to Taking Our Kids into the Great Outdoors – Peter Brown Hoffmeister. pb$16 A ‘how-to’ book for the concerned and ‘haven’t done that since I was 15′ folks.

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo – Tom Reiss. pb $16 Ignore the terrible cover art, this book won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography!

Life After Death – Damien Echols. pb $17 In case you didn’t know, Damien was one of the West Memphis Three, three teens falsely convicted of the murders of three young boys in 1994. After some 18 years on death row, they were released. This is Echols’ memoir.

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution – Nathaniel Philbrick. HC $32.95 Two if by land, one if by sea!

More Scenes from the Rural Life – Verlyn Klinkenborg. HC $24.95 Does what is says on the tin.

Legends of the Blues (w/CD) – hc $19.95 Graphic portraits of Blues greats, comes with a CD.

Even More Adult Non-Fiction:

Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City – Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates. PB $19.95  Takes place in Holyoke, MA!

Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman. new in PB $16 Another book on how overcoming overconfidence and cognitive biases can change ourselves and our world. Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction – Tracy Kidder & Richard Todd. HC $26 Guidance from the masters of nonfiction.

Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam – Nick Turse. HC $30 It’s worse than you thought it was.

Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present – Max Boot. HC $35

The Great Reformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America – David A. Stockman. HC $35 A skewering of crony Capitalism.

The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature – David George Haskell. PB $16 Not just one year, but actually one square meter for one year. National Book Award winner.

The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower – Chase Madar. PB $14.95 Not the story of Manning so much as the worldwide responses to his actions. Also, we have ‘Free Bradley Manning’ stickers at the front desk.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? – Jared Diamond.  HC $36

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth – Mark Mazzetti. HC $29.95 National Security, American Style. Now with added drones!

The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change – Al Gore. HC $30

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster – Jonathan Katz. HC $26 The amazing and almost unbearable story of one journalist who happened to be living in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck, plus insight into where all the aid went. Or didn’t.

Drone Warfare - Medea Benjamin. PB $16.95 Second verse, same as the first.

Washed Away: How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever – Geoff Williams. HC $28.95 I’d never heard of this one!

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II – Mitchell Zuckoff. HC $28.99 From the author of Lost in Shangri-La.

A Short History of Nuclear Folly: Mad Scientists, Dithering Nazis, Lost Nukes, and Catastrophic Coverups – Rudolph Herzog. HC $26 Even scarier when you realize you’re reading history rather than the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.

How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myth of Science Denial – Darryl Cunningham. HC $16.95 Enlightening and enraging. (If you’re not already enraged, that is)

The Year Without a Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History – William K Klingaman & Nicolas P. Klingaman. HC $27.99 Krakatoa!

Stonehenge: A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument – Mike Parker Pearson. HC $27.50 Lots and lots of new digs brings more of Stonehenge to light (actually, it’s quite amazing how much hadn’t been done).

The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris – Jonathan Kirsch. HC $27.95 Hitler’s Catalyst?

I can’t believe it’s been 6 months. What can I say, we’ve been busy!

ADULT NON-FICTION

Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont – Howard Coffin. HC $35 If you’ve ever noticed the various muster fields and Civil War monuments in Vermont and have wondered what the backstory was, this is the titlerfor you. An astonishingly well-researched book featuring each town that sent men South, as well as excerpts of speeches by locals, black men and women, who died were, state hospitals and the people they saved – it’s absolutely fascinating. What’s particularly great is the descriptions of how to find the pertinent places in each town, so if you’re familiar with any particular area, you might be very well surprised as to what happened there!

Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche – Bill Plotkin. pb $17.95

Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt – Hazem Kandil. HC $26.95 A detailed study of the interactions within the military, security services, and political apparatus of Egypt’s authoritarian regime.

Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami – Gretel Ehrlich. HC $25. Testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Letters to a Young Scientist – Edward O. Wilson. HC $21.95 Practical advice from 60 years of being a scientist.

The Upcycle – William McDonough & Michael Braungart. pb $24.00 ‘A book about creativity, about thinking big even if we have to act small, and about approaching problems with a bias for action. ‘ Bill Clinton

The Ascent of Humanity – Charles Eisenstein. pb $24.95 Addresses our near-pathological pursuit of technological fixes even as we push our planet to the brink of collapse.

Bunker Hill – A City, a Siege, a Revolution  – Nathaniel Philbrick. HC $32.95 ‘A book that gets in your bones…Philbrick has created an eerie thriller from a centuries-old tale. ‘ New York Times

A Child’s Walk in the Wilderness – Paul Molyneaux. HC $19.95 A father and his 8-year-old son hike the Appalachian Trail.

In the Body of the World – Eve Ensler. HC $25.00 Profound, tender memoir by the author of the Vagina Monologues.

My Beloved World – Sonia Sotomayor. HC $27.95 The absorbing life of the feisty and frank Supreme Court justice.

Gaining Ground – Forrest Pritchard. pb$18.95 Set in the Shenandoah Valley, Pritchard’s chronicle of his journey, as a seventh-generation farmer,  to the heart of the sustainable farming community.

Whole – T Colin Campbell (with Howard Jacobson). HC $26.95  The latest offering from the author of the bestselling China Study

Dirty Wars – Jeremy Scahill. HC $29.99 Bill Maher describes this page-turner as ‘So scary and so illuminating.‘

ADULT FICTION

Hi folks -

We have two lovely new titles from Candlewick Press. The first is Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard a lovely bird watching and identification book for children. Filled with appealing drawings and chatty birds – ‘”I’m so proud to be a robin! I mad up a song about myself. Here it is!”‘ – this is a great introductory bird book for any child.

Local author Jessie Haas also has a new Bramble & Maggie book.  When it’s time for Maggie to start school, her pony Bramble starts having adventures on her own! Check it out in Bramble & Maggie: Best Friends Forever.

Local author Sara J. Henry will be discussing her new book, ‘A Cold and Lonely Place’ on Friday, April 19th at 6pm.

Sara’s debut novel, ‘Learning to Swim’, won both the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. ‘A Cold and Lonely Place’ continues the story of Troy Chance, journalist and accidental sleuth, as she digs into the life of a man found encased in the ice at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival.

“Compulsively readable, this is all about what we do for love.” BOSTON GLOBE

“Readers will be cheering for Troy Chance as she deftly navigates the treacherous waters of betrayal and loss.” LISA UNGER, New York Times bestselling author of Heartbroken.

Hope to see you there!

Local author David Blistein will be speaking about his new book ‘David’s Inferno’ on Thursday, April 4th at 6pm.

“It takes us deep into the mysteries of depression, and its power to transform our relationships, our creativity, and our very selves—a remarkable achievement.” —Ken Burns, award-winning filmmaker

“There is no hushed reverence, no self-aggrandizing, no simple tried and true cures… just a shared battle and a stunning honesty.” —Will Ackerman, Grammy Award winner and founder of Windham Hill Records

We do hope you’ll join us!

Author Elizabeth Courtney will be in store at 6pm on Friday, April 5th, to discuss the new book ‘Greening Vermont: The Search for a Sustainable State’. Written with Eric Zencey (‘Panama’, ‘Virgin Forest’, and ‘The Other Road to Serfdom’), ‘Greening Vermont’ focuses on how, since 1958, Vermont has become an unsuspecting trendsetter in the Environmental and Sustainability movements. Filled with brief conversations and interviews (from Gov’s. Madeleine Kunin and Howard Dean, Sally Loughlin,  Michael Dworkin and many others), discusses the fights over bills such as Act 250 and the Groundwater Protection act, and highlights the importance not only of Donella Meadows’ brilliant book ‘The Limits to Growth’, but really how those who have grown up with the wild have tried to preserve it without losing the working communities that make up the majority of the state.

“Greening Vermont makes me proud to be a Vermonter. This book is an incredible story of the brave and dedicated people who developed the policies and passed the laws and created the partnerships, the initiatives and the innovations that protect the natural resources of our beautiful Green Mountain State.” – Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin

“By measuring social change and environmental policy against a new yardstick — the yardstick of what they call ‘finite planet thinking’ — Courtney and Zencey point us toward a new understanding of environmental history— and the absolutely crucial role that the environmental movement has played and must play in the future.” – Tom Prugh, Worldwatch Institute

We do hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a lively discussion!

Over the next few months we’re going to be completely overhauling the website. We’ll be adding more functionality on your end and doing Other Cool Things. In the meantime, for fastest updates and responses to questions, do please join us on Facebook (I know, I know) and Twitter (though I’m slower on Twitter).

Yeah, so, we’ve been a bit busy here at the store and I’ve not been able to update the forums or the blog apart from event notifications. Having said that, I do try to keep up on Facebook and Twitter! We may have one or two events in December – nothing is set in stone – but I do have a mailing list if people would like to keep informed via email. Just send us a post and I’ll add you on.

Now, onto the books! (kids books will be in a later post)

ADULT NON-FICTION:

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis – Timothy Egan. hc $28 This looks absolutely fascinating and tragic.

FEAR: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm – Thich Nhat Hanh. hc $25.99

Sex Changes: A Memoir of Marriage, Gender, and Moving On – Christine Benvenuto hc $25.99 A memoir about what happens when one person in a marriage decides to change genders.

The Year of Dreaming Dangerously – Slavoj Zizek. pb $14.95 The new book from Slovenian Philosopher and Culture Critic Slavoj Zizek (I don’t pretend to understand the info in the link, but then, I’m not an Academic.)

Through the Window: 17 Essays and a Short Story – Julian Barnes. pb $15.95 A book about writers and writing. Plus one short story.

What’s the Economy For, Anyway? Why It’s Time to Stop Chasing Growth and Start Pursuing Happiness – John De Graaf & David Batker. pb $18

Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement – Jane McAlevey. hc $25.95

Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What is Sacred – Mark Nepo. hc $26 A lovely book on getting through the rough times.

Every Day is an Atheist Holiday! – Penn Jillette. hc $25.95 That boy from Greenfield done good, as they say.

Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries – Jon Ronson. hc $26.95 From the author of the Psychopath Test (I liked it) comes a new book about the dark, quirky nature of humans.

Elsewhere: A Memoir – Richard Russo hc $25.95

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t- Nate Silver. hc $27.95 Straight talk from the man who successfully predicted President Obama’s win.

My Ideal Bookshelf – Thessaly La Force, ed. Art by Jane Mount. hc $24.99 Very nice little art book with brief essays by famous authors on their ideal bookshelf.

Jerusalem: A Cookbook – Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi. hc $35  If you’ve seen Plenty, they you know this is pure food love.

ADULT FICTION:

Eight Girls Taking Pictures – Whitney Otto. hc $25

Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories – Sherman Alexie. hc $27