August 2024 - Project Hail Mary

  

August 2024

Discussion -  Wed., August 21, 1pm

An irresistible interstellar adventure

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir (2021)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

As his memories incrementally return, Grace realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?

Copies available at the library. Or, at Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources:  

Learn more about the element xenon: https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele054.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 2024 - The Deepest Map (extra book discussion in the evening)

July 2024 - The Deepest Map

Discussion -  July 24, 5:30pm

"A riveting ocean of a book, packed with gripping adventures, high-stakes exploration and political intrigue. Trethewey leads us to the bottom of the sea and deftly shows why it all matters so much." — Helen Scales, author of The Brilliant Abyss

The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans 

by Laura Trethewey (2023)

The dramatic story of the last mysterious place on earth—the world’s seafloor—and the deep-sea divers, ocean mappers, marine biologists, entrepreneurs, and adventurers involved in the historic push to chart it, as well as the opportunities, challenges, and perils this exploration holds now and for the future. 

Resources:

• About the author: https://nautiluslive.org/people/laura-trethewey
• What is Hydrography (with helpful infographic!): https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/hydrography.html
• NOAA and ocean mapping: https://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explainers/mapping.html
• Seafloor mapping chat with Laura Trethewey & the Nautilus Team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWcLdY2wAnA
• Keep reading: here are some recent ocean science books: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/04/21/11-must-read-ocean-books-2022/
• National Geographic maps of the ocean 1903-2001: https://www.natgeomaps.com/wall-maps/map-archive/oceans
  

Mentioned in the book: 

• OET and the Nautilus: nautiluslive.org and their YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/evnautilus
• Five Deeps Expedition https://fivedeeps.com/
• Cassie Bongiovanni: https://eos.unh.edu/spotlight/cassie-bongiovanni
• UNH ocean mapping program: https://ccom.unh.edu/ (I want to go back in time and enroll at 18!) and a page on careers in ocean exploration: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/welcome.html
• The movie The Life Aquatic (HTL has the DVD)
• Saildrone's ocean mapping applications: https://www.saildrone.com/solutions/ocean-mapping  (and here is the video from inside Hurricane Sam)
• BBC Documentary series The Blue Planet II: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/blue-planet-ii
  

July 2024 - The Kamogawa Food Detectives

 

July 2024 - The Kamogawa Food Detectives

“What’s the one dish you’d do anything to taste just one more time?.”

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

By Hisashi Kashiwai (2013)

translated by Jesse Kirkwood (2024)

Discussion -  July 17, 1pm

A father-daughter duo are ‘food detectives’. Through ingenious investigations, they recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories – dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility. A bestseller in Japan, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a celebration of good company and the power of a delicious meal.

Copies of the book are available at the library. It is also on Libby and other streaming services. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources:

• List of Temples and Shrines in Kyoto (with photos)
• Recipe for Nabeyaki Udon
• Kyoto introduction and travel guide: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2158.html
• If you want to read more Japanese literature translated into English - https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/list/share/356654627/1847845719  and  https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/108744
• If you liked this, look for the sequel...the English translation of 2014's The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is expected in October!
  
• Here's a list of Japanese Workplace fiction - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/198201
• As discussed in the meeting,the Netflix show Midnight Diner has some common themes: www.netflix.com/title/80113037

June 2024 Of Time and Turtles

June 2024 

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

by Sy Montgomery

Wednesday June 19th at 1pm

Copies of the book are available to borrow at the library. Also available on Libby (ebook or audiobook).

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Check out Sy Montgomery and Matt Patterson's recent appearance on New Hampshire Chronicle - FOR THE LOVE OF TURTLES.

Watch a short video with lots of cool turtles walking around (from symontgomery.com)

When acclaimed naturalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson arrive at Turtle Rescue League, they are greeted by hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars and highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles--with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal--are given a second chance at life. The League's founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle.

But why turtles? What is it about them that inspires such devotion? Ancient and unhurried, long-lived and majestic, their lineage stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs. Some live to two hundred years, or longer. Others spend months buried under cold winter water. Montgomery turns to these little understood yet endlessly surprising creatures to probe the eternal question: How can we make peace with our time?

In pursuit of the answer, Sy and Matt immerse themselves in the delicate work of protecting turtle nests, incubating eggs, rescuing sea turtles, and releasing hatchlings to their homes in the wild. We follow the snapping turtle Fire Chief on his astonishing journey as he battles against injuries incurred by a truck.

Hopeful and optimistic, Of Time and Turtles is an antidote to the instability of our frenzied world. Elegantly blending science, memoir, and philosophy, and drawing on cultures from across the globe, this compassionate portrait of injured turtles and their determined rescuers invites us all to slow down and slip into turtle time.

May 2024 - Symphony of Secrets

 May 2024 - Symphony of Secrets

“A twisty, mesmerizing mystery— Brendan Slocumb’s writing is like music itself, dancing elegantly from the page.” —Danya Kukafka, bestselling author of Notes on an Execution

SYMPHONY OF SECRETS

A novel by Brendan Slocumb (2023)

Discussion -  May 15, 1pm

Note from Sarah: It is my opinion that the less you know, the better this book will read. Most of the blurbs, reviews and even the accolades reveal too much. This bit below at least gives you something without revealing too much....

In present day New York City, Bern Hendricks has just received the call of a lifetime: to authenticate the long-lost musical masterpiece of Frederick Delaney – arguably the greatest and most prolific composer since Beethoven. 

Bern thought he knew everything there is to know about the man and his music, but soon discovers that the truth behind the masterpieces – and behind Frederick Delaney himself – is far more complicated than he could ever have imagined. The story takes the reader back to 1920s Manhattan, when the struggling musician Freddy Delaney meets the enigmatic Josephine Reed...

Copies of the book are available at the library. It is also on Libby and other streaming services. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

While you read:

• Listen to some of the classical and early 20th century music that inspired the characters in the book. In our CD collection at the library, we have Schubert, Gershwin, Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, a ragtime collection, and more.
• I created this YouTube playlist of songs mentioned in the book and related to it.
  
• in between chapters, check out Brendan's podcast "How Music Can Save Your Life"
• Short documentary of interest (maybe similar to "Delaney kids," though I haven't watched it through yet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xttrkgKXtZ4

Resources below (some may contain spoilers!)

Learn more:

• about Brendan Slocumb:
• His website: www.brendanslocumb.com
• A podcast interview viewsonbooks.com/17-striking-a-chord-brendan-slocumb-on-music-representation-and-unraveling-the-symphony-of-secrets/
• Listen to and watch a concert Slocumb conducted: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga1XZUMVPFU
  
• about Ragtime, Jazz and other early 20th century American music: 
• Ken Burns' documentary Jazz is available to borrow on Hoopla
• The musical movie Ragtime is in our DVD section. 
• We have several books on the history of jazz on our shelves: head to the 781.65 section
• What Is Jazz? - from the National Museum of American History
• April is Jazz Appreciation Month! April 30 is International Jazz Day!
  

Read more:

• by Slocumb: The Violin Conspiracy
• books set in 1920s: bookgirlsguide.com/books-set-in-the-1920s/  and bookriot.com/books-set-in-the-1920s/
  

April 2024 - The Spy Coast

“Expect mystery, action, and bloodshed in this exciting thriller launched straight from the peaceful shores of Maine.” — Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

THE SPY COAST

Book 1 of the Martini Club Series

A Thriller by Tess Gerritsen (2023)

Discussion -  April 17, 1pm

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends―all retirees from the CIA―to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Copies of the book, including large print and audiobook CD, are available at the library. It is not on Libby or Hoopla. 

At Gibson's or Main Street Bookends, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources below (check back for more through the month)

Learn more:

• Meet the author! She is making the rounds with this, her latest, book -- in Maine (March 28) and Mass. (April). 
• Short interview with Gerritsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF0pVMeUy0Y
• Longer interview with Gerritsen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVl8rXYSgc
• Articles about what it's like to be a CIA operative: https://www.themuse.com/advice/work-like-a-spy-career-advice-from-a-cia-operative  or CIA analyst: https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/working/2017/02/what_s_it_like_to_be_a_cia_analyst.html
  

Read more:

•  by Gerritsen, including her very popular Rizzoli and Isles mystery series
•  books set in Maine: https://bibliolifestyle.com/books-set-in-maine/

 

 

 

 

March 2024 - Hester

 

 

“But there's another kind of strength we've got...It comes from knowing the difference between who you are and who they think you are.”
― Laurie Lico Albanese, Hester

HESTER

by Laurie Lico Albanese (2022)

Discussion -  March 20, 1pm

For more about the book, check out the author's website.

A good, non-spoiler summary is here: www.secretvictorianist.com/2022/12/neo-victorian-voices-hester-laurie-lico.html

Copies of the book, including audiobook, are available at the library. It is also on Libby (audio and ebook) and Hoopla (audio). 

At Main Street Bookends or Gibson's, mention our group and they will kindly offer a discount.

Resources below (check back for more through the month)

Learn more:

• About the book and authors from the Author's website or an Interview with the author (may have spoilers)
• About synesthesia from this 200-year history of the phenomenon
• About (or plan a visit to) Salem, Mass.
• Salem Maritime National Historic Site
• House of the Seven Gables I toured this last October - it's well worth a tour
• Salem Witch Museum
• The memorial to the victims of the witch hunt is a must-do.
  
• About Hawthorne in Salem and Hawthorne's connections to "the witch delusion" 
• About How to embroider a flower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9t1qX-xi7s 

Read more...

• Hawthorne - his The Scarlet Letter (set in Boston) and The House of the Seven Gables (set in Salem) are both apropos here, of course.
  
• NOTE: if you don't want spoilers for The Scarlet Letter while reading Hester, I think these are the only 4 parts with spoilers: 304-305, bottom half of 313, and 317. If you avoid reading these pages, you won't spoil a later reading of SL, and you won't be lost at all in Hester (but go back to them after you read SL!).
  
• Fiction about Writers: https://www.beyondthebookends.com/fiction-books-about-writers/
  
• Fiction about witch hunts:
• Lots of recent publications here: https://offtheshelf.com/2023/09/historical-fiction-witch-books/
• Long list here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/75416.Witch_Hunts_in_Historical_Fiction
• A Kind of Spark, by Elle McNicoll (YA novel that discusses witch hunts in Scotland)
• Needlework in Fiction: 
• https://www.artinfiction.com/blog/a-stitch-in-time-five-novels-inspired-by-embroidery  
• A Goodread's list
  
• The Scarlet Letter - Hester Prynne is an accomplished needleworker
• The Fair Maid of Perth (mentioned page 190), by Walter Scott
  
• NF and Fiction about synesthesia: https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/books-about-synesthesia.html
• Susan Cheever's American Bloomsbury is a "smart, dishy romp through the intersecting personal lives of a cluster of geniuses who all lived in Concord, Massachusetts, in the mid-1800s" including Hawthorne (quote is not mine, but from that link).
  

February 2024 - Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

“Briskly entertaining . . . I was reminded more than once of Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News . . . combines a distinctive northerly setting with a cast of likable eccentrics . . . Rather than any creed or belief system, it is Sven’s various friendships, intense but understated, that sustain him and give his life an order and purpose.” - Ian McGuire, New York Times Book Review 

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

by Nathaniel Ian Miller (2021)

Discussion -  February 21, 1pm

In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next.

For more about the book, check out its page on BookBrowse.

Copies of the book, including audiobook, are available at the library and for sale at Main Street Bookends and Gibson's. The book stores offer a discount if you tell them it's for this group. You can also buy the streaming audiobook from Libro (choose your favorite local bookstore) or other streaming outlet. It's not on Libby/Hoopla, unfortunately.

Additional Resources (check back for more through the month):

• Recommended music while you read: Antonín Dvořák (see MoSS page 36)
  
• the library owns a CD
• there's an album you can borrow on Hoopla
  
• or listen on amazon music, Spotify, or YouTube
• Author's website: Nathaniel Ian Miller.com
• Author interview with Northshire Bookstore on YouTube here.
• Author interview on NPR's Marginalia podcast here.  
• Learn about (or plan a visit to) Svalbard (aka Spitsbergen): 
• Visit Svalbard.com/ (this site is worth surfing if only for the gorgeous photos on each page)
• Svalbard Museum
• A trapper's life on Svalbard
• I love this video teaching about Polar explorers' clothing and gear then versus now.
• Save this one for after you read (has some spoilers) Book guide to MoSS

Read more...

• I highly recommend this nonfiction memoir: A Woman in the Polar Night, by Christiane Ritter (1938). It inspired Miller as the real life Sven has a small role in it. Hard to find in libraries, but I have one copy from ILL available now.
  
• Books with "setting as character": https://bookriot.com/books-with-setting-as-a-character/

January 2024 - Mexican Gothic

 

"It's Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird." - The Guardian

 

Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)

Discussion -  January 17, 1pm

From the author: Mexican Gothic is a fun romp through a trove of Gothic tropes, including a dark and gloomy house, an alluring yet dangerous man, a family with secrets, and things that go bump in the night. But it’s also a story about those other ghosts: the ones that were left like a scar on the land. - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 For more about the book: https://silviamoreno-garcia.com/writing/mexican-gothic/

Copies of the book available at the library. You can also Listen to or read it on Libby/Overdrive.

Prefer to buy a copy? Gibson's and Main Street Bookends will honor a 20% discount if you purchase the book at either place and tell them it's for this group. You can also buy the streaming audiobook from Libro (choose your favorite local bookstore) or other streaming outlet.

A Book Club Kit (pdf) is here. It has notes from the author about the genre, setting and context that are definitely worth reading. It also includes questions, a paper doll of Noemi (!), and a music playlist curated by the author. It doesn't, however, have the family tree that I really wanted while reading (or a map - I always want a map).

Additional Resources (check back for more through the month):

• Here is a map showing the region of Hidalgo, where High Place is set. 
• Moreno-Garcia had this to say about the setting: "El Triunfo, the town in Mexican Gothic, is inspired by Mineral del Monte (a.k.a. Real del Monte), a silver mining town located in central Mexico, high up the mountains of Hidalgo. It was mined by the British in the 19th century, which earned it the nickname ‘Little Cornwall.’ Like in the novel, there is an English Cemetery and it tends to be misty and rather cold and rainy during certain times of the year." She suggests that "to learn more about the region where Mexican Gothic takes place check out the non-fiction book A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire, by Yuri Herrera, which deals with a mining tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 70 miners in Hidalgo."
  
• A Doyle family tree made by a reader
• Pictures of the English Graveyard mentioned in the book
• A worthwhile interview with the author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jau1ZW-BcxE
  

About the genre of Gothic Fiction: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/spine-chillers-and-suspense-a-timeline-of-gothic-fiction/zvr9vk7 and https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30313775 and Wikipedia has a good, lengthy entry

Read more...

• Books like this:  https://www.chipublib.org/blogs/post/if-you-liked-mexican-gothic/
• Contemporary Mexican fiction: https://northernlauren.com/must-read-mexican-fiction-by-contemporary-mexican-writers/
  

 

Save these for after you've read the book (or not, your call):

• https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/09/24/398263892/colonialism-eugenics-and-downright-terror-in-mexican-gothic

 

Our Patrons' Favorite Reads in 2023

Our Favorite Books in 2023 

We asked our patrons to name the best book they read in 2023. 

Here's what they said...

 

 

Fiction (adult and YA)

Long Shadows, Baldacci

The Postcard, Berest

Jayber Crow, Berry

Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury

Horse, Brooks (2 votes)

Save What’s Left, Castellano

The Concrete Blond, Connelly

The Hidden Child, Fein

The Running Grave, Galbraith

Lessons in Chemistry, Garmus

Sam, Goodman

The Weaver and the Witch Queen, Gornichec

Marvelous, Greeley

Silver Arrow, Grosman

Wellness, Hill

The Invisible Hour, Hoffman

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, Hoffman

Verity, Hoover

The Finkler Question, Jacobson

News of the World, Jiles

The Night Ship, Kidd

Demon Copperhead, Kingsolver (3 votes)

In the Lives of Puppets, Klune

The Bear, Krivak

The River We Remember, Krueger

Yellowface, Kuang

Babel, Kuang

North Woods (2 votes), Mason

Absolution, McDermott

The Silent Patient, Michaelides

Everything Sad Is Untrue, Nayeri

Resistance, Nielsen

Tom Lake, Patchett

Inspector Gamache series, Penny (2 votes)

Take My Hand, Perkins-Valdez

The Huntress, Quinn

Killers of a Certain Age, Raybourn (2 votes)

The Ministry for the Future, Robinson

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, See

The Violin Conspiracy, Slocumb

Sadie, Summers

Lincoln Highway, Towles

The Covenant of Water, Verghese (2 votes)

In the Company of Witches, Wallace

Project Hail Mary, Weir (3 votes)

Seven Days in June, Williams

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Zevin

 

Nonfiction

The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest, Egan

Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl

The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, & Eating While Reading, Garner

The Wager: A Tale of Ship­wreck­, Mutiny and Mur­der, Grann (2 votes)

Shadow Divers: The True Ad­ven­ture…to ­Solve One of the Last Mys­ter­ies of WWII, Kursen

Underland: A Deep Time Journey, Macfarlane

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, Macfarlane

Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries, Melville

This Is Chance!: The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together, Mooallem

Beaverland: How One Weird Ro­den­t Made Amer­i­ca, Philip

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, Renkl

The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans, Trethewey

 

Children’s

Ten in the Den, Butler

The World’s Greatest Detective, Carlson

The Inflatables (series), Garrod

Wonder, Palacio

The Lost Hero, Riordan

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling

Chez Bob, Shea

Digger, Dozer, Dumper, Vestergaard

The Trumpet of the Swan, White