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Non-fiction, Humor, Essay | Fiction | Poetry | Children's | Music

Non-Fiction, Humor, Essay

Manchester's Airport: Flying Through Time
By Edward W. Brouder Jr., with contributors Barbara D. Miles, Christopher Van Veen, and Maurice B. Quirin
($35 plus $4 shipping)
Welcome to the world of aviation. Manchester's Airport: Flying Through Time is a 432-page history of aviation in the Queen City of New Hampshire.

Faces and Places In The City
Fifty stories of life in Manchester, NH, from Queen City native John Clayton
By John Clayton
($14.95 plus $3 shipping)
John Clayton takes you from trolley cars to bootleg bars and introduces you to several of Manchester's most famous (and infamous) denizens, from "Peyton Place" author Grace Metalious to Revlon Cosmetics founder Martin Revson to the celebrated "Hermit of Mosquito Pond." Visit Camp Foster, the Amoskeag Ledge, the R.G. Sullivan Cigar Factory and Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman House. A must-read for Manchesterites.

New Hampshire: War and Peace
By John Clayton
($17.95 plus $3 shipping)
John Clayton, the award-winning columnist from The Union Leader, has assembled a compelling collection of his stories in a book that captures the spirit of the New Hampshire men and women who have answered their country's call. In "New Hampshire: War and Peace," you'll meet heroes ranging from Lancaster's Col. Edward Ephraim Cross - commander of the New Hampshire regiment that took more casualties than any other in the Civil War - to Rene Gagnon, the Manchester Marine who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima. There is Walpole filmmaker Ken Burns who rekindled a national passion with "The Civil War," and the members of the Keene American Legion Band, who honor America every time they play. They are heroes all, and in a time when we need heroes, their stories are all the more moving inspiring and compelling.

Open Your Heart With Geocaching
By Jeannette Cézanne
($14.95 plus $3 shipping)
Open Your Heart with Geocaching introduces readers to a hobby that’s more than just a hobby – it’s an opportunity to explore nature, play a game, join a community, and much, much more! This book has been described as a "why-to" in addition to being a "how-to," and will indeed open your heart – with geocaching.

Open Your Heart With Reading
By Jeannette Cézanne
($14.95 plus $3 shipping)
Open Your Heart with Reading helps readers get back in touch with the magic of reading, of being transported to another time, place, even existence. Cézanne shares the magic with her readers, then urges them to go out and promote literacy efforts to that others, too, can share
the magic.

Fritz: More Stores From New Hampshire Chronicle
By Fritz Wetherbee
($19.95, Shipping $2.75)
Floggings, flags, runaway daughters, death on Mount Washington, bears, and kinky schoolteachers of old. This third volume from New Hampshire's master storyteller tells all about the state's people, places and towns.

Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year
By Steve Delaney
Cover and illustrations by Amelia Fountain
($18.95 plus $2.75 postage and handling)
The voice of Vermont is now in print. "Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year" is broadcaster Steve Delaney's affectionate salute to Vermont. Delaney, self-described Recovering Flatlander, writes of Vermont in this weekly and seasonal collection of essays. A Recovering Flatlander, he says, is "a person from Away who has moved to Vermont and believes it is possible to pass as a Real Vermonter. It's not."

Franklin Pierce, Martyr for the Union
By Peter A. Wallner.
This 500-page second volume of the presidential biography examines his life during and after the White House. Hardback $35.45. ($31.95 plus $3.50 postage and handling). Hardback.
Buy both volumes for $65 -- including shipping.

I'll Tell You the Story
By Fritz Wetherbee
($19.95, Shipping $2.75)
More New Ham pshire stories from the master storyteller. Fritz Wetherbee, in his second Plaidswede volume, tells the tales of Daniel Webster's bad table manners, Ocean Born Mary, how several towns got their names, and a mix of Granite State characters -- Count Rumford, Aunt Jenny the Witch, Doctor Whipple, Prince Whipple, Mary Corliss' cheese and Salmon Portland Chase. You seen and heard his stories on WMUR-TV's New Hampshire Chronicle, now let Fritz tell you more of his stories.

Dork: another look at my junk
By Leon Thompson
(14.95, shipping $2.75)
The award-winning humorist is back with his second volume of newspaper columns. Leon's first collection, Good Junk, remains available on this Web site. This collections continues the work of the columnist from the St. Albans, Vermont, Messenger.

Thinking of Yesterday Today: Childhood memories of growing up on a farm in the 1940s and 1950s
By Joan Day
($19.95, shipping: $2.50)
Joan Day writes of her childhood memories of growing up on a small farm in Bath, NH in the 1940s and 1950s when life was at a much slower pace. She takes the reader on a journey of country capers, cows, and calamities. Experience this journey of childhood fun and being together with family. Share it with those you love.

Too Dead To Die, A Memoir of Bataan and Beyond
By Steve Raymond and Mike Pride
($24.95, $2.75 shipping/handling, Hardback )
Thousands of men died on the Bataan Death March, and thousands more perished in Japanese prison camps during the war. Steve Raymond survived. Too Dead to Die: A Memoir of Bataan and Beyond tells how Raymond did it and what he witnessed. The book began with a diary that Raymond kept as a prisoner. From the brutality of the Death March to the horrors of a Hell Ship to the destruction of Japanese cities to the joy of liberation, Too Dead to Die takes readers on one man's harrowing, death defying journey.

Could Have Been Worse
By Rebecca Rule ($15.95)
It's all Yankee. You don't have to claim any particular ethnic heritage, have seven generations in the ground, or even have been born in New England to be shaped by this rough, rocky landscape. "Yankee" is an attitude, built on the bone-ddep optimism of that old true saying, "Could have been worse." Rebecca Rule explores this attitude and many others that contribute to that highly philosophical, peculiar, and often humorous, state of being called "living yankee." This book is of true stores, an embellishment here and there, and, yes, outright lies. As only Becky Rule can tell.

Random Overthoughts
the best (give or take) of the humor column "Overthinking"
by Joyce Wagner ($18.95)
Her columns have appeared in the Concord Monitor and Martha's Vineyard Times, now Joyce Wagner has collected her favorites in this collection that is part of Plaidswede's New England Columnists Series.

Fritz Wetherbee's New Hampshire
Fritz Wetherbee ($19.95)
New Hampshire's master storyteller weaves the tales of the Granite State. You see him on WMUR-TV's New Hampshire Chronicle now read his stories about the people, places and events in the state.

A Passion for Journalism: A newspaper editor writes to his readers.
James H. Smith ($18.95)
Jim Smith wrote these columns to the readers of the Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., but the place and issues could be Anywhere USA. His writings, said the judges for the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award, are "classic small-town editor facing challenges from powers unappreciative of the role of journalism in their community."

Winter Letters: Seeds for a Philosophical Debate on the Reality of Human Nature and Behavior
By Georges Kassabgi ($27)
Winter Letters is a radically different approach to understanding the reality of human nature and behavior. The author searches his own past for events that had a lasting impact and from that discovers a starting point for humanity much further back — back at the very beginning. You are invited to sit at the center of a spiral that originates way before matter, movement, and change gave rise to the first sign of life. The spiral starts with the elements of matter plus their related natural and “primal” forces. What followed are the determinants for all things we claim to know— personal, societal, political, and religious.

North Of Wherever You Are: A Guide to the Real New Hampshire
By Audrey Myerson O'Neill ($9.50)
This short, engaging book presents a fresh look at the New Hampshire way of life, and how it got that way and where it is going. Dedicated to everyone who has ever visited, vacationed, lived in, or loved New England. For newcomers, visitors, summer people, year-rounders -- and natives, too.

Season Ticket
By Michael Cousineau ($17.95)
Michael Cousineau's road trips to every Major League ballpark whetted his appetite for this book about Manchester's first major league sporting venue. As a reporter and an obsessive sports fan, he followed the arena from its infancy in architectural drawings to its elaborate grand opening and through its event-packed first season.

Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire's Favorite Son
By Peter A. Wallner ($19.95) Paperback
The most recent biography of Franklin Pierce was published nearly seventy-five years ago. Yet the nation's least known president is also one of the most charming, charismatic, and interesting men to ever hold the nation's highest office. Described by his best friend Nathaniel Hawthorne as "deep, deep, deep," with "most of the chief elements of a great ruler," Pierce is also the greatest trial lawyer in New Hampshire history.

Portrait of Freedom
Pictures by John Holmgren
Text by Gail Holmgren Bickford ($15)
This book is a memorial to John Holmgren. It is also a tribute to the Town of Freedom, New Hampshire, where he spent summers with his family. He was an illustrator and worked in New York and Freedom from 1923 to 1963. Written originally in 1975 with the title "Here Is Freedom," this book has been revised and updated in 2001, with the title "Portrait of Freedom." The author, Gail Holmgren Bickford, is the artist's younger daughter and lives in Freedom, where she is the owner of Freedom Press Associates.

The Lord of Cat Bow
By Stuart Weeks ($16.95)
Stuart Weeks' forbears were members of presidential Cabinets and creators of important legislation. Stuart grew up in the novel atmosphere of this political family in the fabulous setting of New Hampshire's North Country, under the shadow of Mount Washington. He lovingly recounts his childhood in this book and provides an intimate and thoughtful commentary on American politics along the way.

Ostwald's American Students
By John T. Stock ($24.95)
In the latter part of the 19th century and the early 1900s, some four hundred American students went to Germany for advanced studies of chemistry. When the celebrated physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald moved to the University of Leipzig in 1887, a succession of American students joined him. This book emphasizes the research and experimental techniques used by them.

Sticky Mittens and Angel Feet (CD)
Rebecca Rule, Neil English and Maren Tirabassi ($12)
Sticky Mittens and Angel Feet is a compilation of stories, poems and songs of the season by Rebecca Rule, Neil English and Maren Tirabassi, and features music by Adi Rule and Christopher Cote.

Why? New Hampshire: The First in the Nation Primary State
By Hugh Gregg and William Gardner ($24)
A fascinating glimpse into the past, present and future of the New Hampshire primary co-authored by former Republican Governor Hugh Gregg and Democratic Secretary of State Bill Gardner. 352 pages, Hardcover with over 80 photos and illustrations.

Only in New Hampshire
B.J. Rudell ($16.95)
On Aug. 25, 1999, author B.J. Rudell came to New Hampshire to campaign for Bill Bradley. For more than six months, the 26-year-old spent seven days a week, 15 hours a day fighting for a candidate he believed in. This book goes beyond "the Bradley campaign" and looks at an experience shared by all who are involved in the presidential primary-from those who stuff envelopes to those who direct hundreds of volunteers across the state.

Further Ado
Donna Sytek (14.95)
Dignitaries, protocol and egos-what is the right way to show respect for public officials in New Hampshire? In the course of attending hundreds of events where a public official was a speaker or guest, Donna Sytek noticed that the sponsoring organizations often had little or no idea of the protocol for handling their official guests. Now the former Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives has written "the book" on how to invite, welcome, write and lobby public officials in New Hampshire.

Dem Little Bums
By Steve Daly ($14.95)
The Nashua Dodgers played a vital role in the racial integration of baseball. Follow their story--in words and photographs--from 1946 to 1949, from their glory days to their rapid fall from grace.

Look for a letter tomorrow: A College Girl's Life, 1900-1904
By Helen Gertrude Fox ($15)
These are the letters home from Wellesley College 1900-1904 by Helen Gertrude Fox (Class of 1904) and edited by her daughter Margaret Carmichael Emerson (Class of 1935). When she left her family in Milton Mills, N.H., for Wellesley, she promised her family she would write everyday. This collection of letters offers a young woman's observations of college life at the turn of the 20th century.

Good Junk
By Leon Thompson ($9.95)
Award-winning humor columns from the New England Columnist series.

Small Town Tales
By Sidney Hall, Jr. ($12.95)
These vivid sketches of small-town America in another era and of Mr. Hall's eccentric and marvelous family have been collected from his popular newspaper column, "A Brookline Boyhood." They are so rooted in place and time that they uncannily evoke the reader's own past. Award-winning southern novelist and poet Fred Chappell calls this a "wonderfully enjoyable book of reminiscencesand speculations.

Strong Stuff: Mothers' Stories
By Emily Moore ($20)
Eighty four American mothers tell their stories, intimately, candidly, in their own words.

Totally Useless Office Skills
By Rick Davis ($12.95)
The most important book you will ever read. . . . . .is probably not this one, but Totally Useless Office Skills is, without a doubt, the oddest training manual you'll ever see. Prepare yourself for a life-altering experience, as Rick Davis, founder of the famed Institute of Totally Useless Skills, shows you how to relieve occupational stress.
"I am deeply impressed to find someone with even more spare time than I have." - Dave Barry

As I Was Saying: An Autumnal Accounting
By William W. Treat ($24.95)
Judge William Treat was well known in New Hampshire before he went on to become a friend of presidents, an ambassador to the United Nations, and a confidante of world leaders. Follow his unique journey in this book of collected speeches, articles, photographs and memoirs.

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Fiction

A.
By Alan Lindsay, $15.95
When nineteen-year-old Holly Perkins decides, against the wishes of her devout family, to raise her baby on her own, her family retaliates. This young woman from a small New Hampshire town is forced to leave college, to move out of the house, and to return to the job she thought she’d left for good. Alone, unsupported, and overwhelmed, Holly finds herself reassessing her respectable upbringing as she tries to figure out how to live. A. traces Holly’s struggles with the complex array of forces, human and divine, that harry her under the banner of love.

Three books by Ruth Doan MacDougall
The Cheerleader, Snowy and Henrietta Snow make up this series of novels about members of the Silent Generation coming of age in the Fifties, growing up and eventually growing old together.

Birds of Prey
By Lawrence Kinsman ($20 hardcover, $15 paperback)
This fabulous new detective-thriller by Lawrence Kinsman transcends the genre. As Edmund White says: "[Kinsman develops] characters of genuine complexity and depth. In fact, Kinsman's rich characterizations and keen observation of significant physical detail nearly bring the detective novel into the realm of literary fiction."

Paris Was My Paramour & Other Lost Diaries
By Lawrence Millman ($9.95)
Ever wonder how God occupied himself during His last days in power? Or why famous explorers occasionally have to eat each other. Or what happened when Dan Quayle was appointed White House chef? You'll find the answers to these questions -- and many more you never dared ask -- in these recently discovered diaries.

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Poetry

A Thin Time, An Anthology of the All Souls' Day Poets
Edited by Sidney Hall Jr. and Joan Weddle
($12.95) ISBN 0-9760896-1-0
A book of poems and prose about learning to live with death through the power of language and community.

Woman in Rainlight
By Jean Tupper
($14.95) ISBN 0-9760896-0-2
. . . [these poems] move convincingly between humor and heartbreak. [They are] full of the home-grown knowledge of someone who has lived well, who knows how we fit knitted sweaters to our backs and our “backs to burdens” and to loving the world as it is rather than how we would like it to be. —Robert Cording

Ordinary Lies
Poems by Robert J. Duffy
$12.95 (2003, 104 pp., ISBN 1-882291-00-X)
A CD of the author reading selected poems is also available for $12.95.

What We Will Give Each Other
Poems by Sidney Hall, Jr. ($9.95)
The poems of What We Will Give Each Other use clear, logical language, and a classical artistry to explore profound ideas and emotions. In this they validate a remark made by Valéry: "There is nothing so mysterious as clarity."

Walking to Windward: 20 New England Poets
($35)
This extraordinary collection of some of New England's best contemporary poets comes in four boxed sets or as individual chapbooks. The books were designed and typeset at Hobblebush Books as part of a cooperative venture with Oyster River Press.

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Children's Books

Well…What’s All That Drilling About?
By Andrew Stone (Hydrologist and Educator) and Jessica Bryan (Certified Elementary School Teacher)
($7.95 plus $2.05 shipping)
This book is a first introduction to questions such as “Where does our water come from?” or “What is a well?” It is a Full-color illustrated narrative about two children watching the drilling of a home’s water well and the installation of a water pump. In dialog with the well drillers, the children develop an understanding of the process and equipment used to make the well and how water is brought from the ground to the house. A 28 term glossary at the end of the story adds explanation of water well drilling specific words. The illustrations are watercolor and black pen. For children in grades K-5.

Hey Bossie : You're A Spokescow
Written by Mickey de Rham
Illustrated by Leigh Gusterson
($9.95 - A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will help support the spay/neutering program of the White Mountain Animal Rescue League)
Hey Bossie is the story of a real cow, and her important mission: to educate humans about pet overpopulation and about the need for spaying and neutering programs. This is a children's book with a message for all ages. Welcome to Bossie's story.

Bungee's Voyage
ISBN 1-931807-04-3 / Hardback / $14.95 Peter E. Randall Publisher
This children's book by Durham author Sally Ford tells the story of Bungee, a little dog who sails to Tahiti.

Tor Takes a Trip
By Edythe Ghen ($9.95)
Tor, a Gray Harbor Seal, longs for the day when he can swim in the sea. The day arrives, but Tor swims ahead and becomes separated from his mother. Tor's search along the coast of Massachusetts' north shore has a happy ending.

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Music

Fiddling for Beginners DVD and Book
Ryan Thomson
$19.95
This course by Ryan Thomson is designed for learners with little or no experience with fiddle or violin playing. The DVD teaches bowing patterns, rhythms, scales, and several easy tunes including celtic and bluegrass styles and includes topics such as tuning, practicing, holding the instrument, learning by ear, and diagrams which
show where to place your fingers.

Captain Fiddle's Tunes and Variations, Book 1
Ryan Thomson
$24.95
This book is designed for those with some previous violin playing or fiddling experience. It consists of written music for 32 fiddle tunes as played by award winning fiddler Ryan Thomson along with two CDs, each an hour long.

The Fiddler's Almanac Collector’s Edition with CD
Ryan Thomson
$29.95
This is the original 1985 edition by Ryan Thomson in a library style hard binding with many illustrations. It includes the history and lore of fiddling, a guide to buying a fiddle and bow, tips for learning and playing, sources and references, fiddle contests, dance fiddling, and much more. The book includes an audio CD with 13 fiddle tunes of varying styles played by Ryan Thomson.

DVD - Banjo, Clawhammer Style, First Lesson, with Ryan Thomson
Ryan Thomson
This video DVD course by award winning banjo player Ryan Thomson is designed for beginners with no previous experience with banjo playing. No music reading skills needed. $29.95

DVD - Pennywhistle, First Lesson, with Ryan Thomson
Ryan Thomson
$29.95
This video DVD course is designed for beginners with little or no previous experience with pennywhistle playing. No music reading ability is required. A pennywhistle or “tin whistle” are different names for the same instrument, and one in the “key of D” is required for this course.

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The Stacks: Categorical Recommendations

Some of our favorite New Hampshire writers from outside our catalogue.

The Suburbs of Heaven
By Merle Drown

Rebecca Wentworth's Distraction
By Bob Begiebing

The Best Revenge: Short Stories (Hardscrabble Books)
By Rebecca Rule

Think Like a Dinosaur: And Other Stories
By James Patrick Kelly