With the return of the light -- and the rain -- and then back to the snow and the cold -- what are you hoping to be reading over the winter?  Here are what some of the Galaxy Bookshop booksellers will be reading in the coming weeks:  The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, Let Him Go by Larry Watson, Transatlantic by Colum McCann, and Falling For Eli to name a few.

And you?  What are you reading as we go from the dark back into the light?

Out of Print Totes

We have Out of Print tote bags in the Galaxy right now that are well worth mentioning. Above, The Hungry Caterpillar.  On the flip side it has the fruits with the holes in them you will remember if you have read this story to someone you love 5,647 times.  We also have totes featuring The Great Gatsby, Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, and Moby Dick.  Could you put a copy of the book in the matching tote?  Yes, you could!

 *Velvet dress and twinkle lights not included.*

Book Jam Picks & Miscellaneous Good Things

Thank you to all of you for coming out and helping us celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Galaxy Bookshop last Sunday!  It was so nice to fill in the spaces between good books with lots and lots of good people!  At the end of the evening it was like this:

David Budbill went above and beyond the call of duty reading stories to the youngest partygoer until closing time.

Were you able to join us for the Book Jam?  If not, I have for you a list of the recommendations that were given out that evening while we were cozied up at Claire's sipping drinks and listening to story lines…

MEMOIR FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH OTHERS’ EXPERIENCES:

End of Your Life Book Club, Schwalbe.  As mother dies, she and son read. 

NON-FICTION/REFERENCE BOOK/POETRY: FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO THINK AND CHAT WHILE SITTING BY THE WOOD STOVE:

Maps, Mizielinska.  The world unfolds through fun illustrations.

Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson.  Classic glimpses of small town lives.

Boys in the Boat, Brown.  Gripping and inspiring window to a world and time.

50 Foods, Behr.  Opinionated culinary guide with fun illustrations.

ADULT FICTION:  FOR A MAN WHO HAS ENOUGH TECH TOYS BUT NOT ENOUGH GOOD FICTION:

Yellow Birds, Powers.  Two friends. Iraq War.  Poetic.  Tragic.

Where I'm Calling From, Carver.  Shows why Carver is the best!

ADULT FICTION:  FOR A WOMAN WHO ONLY HAS TIME FOR THE BEST FICTION:

The Interestings, Wolitzer.  Follow friends from camp.  They mature!

The Signature of All Things, Gilbert.  Not eat, pray, love.  Just great fiction.

ADULT FICTION FOR ANYONE:

Bitter almonds, Cosse.  French woman tutors.  Immigrant teaches.  Sparse.

11/22/63, King.  Can Jake alter events around JFK?

Transatlantic, McCann.  Spectacular storytelling, expansive scope, real and imagined.

Bad Monkey, Hiaasen.  Pure laugh out loud fun.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION--FOR TEENS AND TWEENS AND ADULTS WHO LOVE THEM:

The Ruby Red Trilogy, Gier.  Time travel, mystery, adventure, and romance.

Wonder, Palacio.  Can classmates get beyond an extraordinary face?

BOOKS FOR YOUNGSTERS (8-12) BEYOND TOYS BUT NOT READY FOR TEEN TOPICS:

Bo at Ballard Creek, Hill.  For Little House fans.  Gold rush.

True Colors, Kinsey-Warnock.  Heartwarming, historic, memorable characters & mystery.

PICTURE BOOKS:  FOR FAMILIES TO READ TOGETHER DURING SNOWSTORMS:

The Christmas Wish, Evert.  Horses!  Reindeer!  Travel with Anja in a magical dream!

Journey, Becker.  Red marker, imagination, and a spectacular journey!

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.  For littles who love machines and need sleep!

The Day the Crayons Quit, Daywalt.  Crayons protest.  Readers laugh.  Great gift!

And finally, the galactic cupcakes that were eaten up at the anniversary:

A Christmas Wish by, Lori Evert

Christmas books come and go, full of snow and elves, mangers and angels, stockings and jingle bells. Once in a while, one of those books comes with a little extra magic that marks it as a future classic. For us, The Christmas Wish, by Lori Evert, has that magic, the kind of book to share with the family each year, making it as much a part of holiday tradition as A Christmas Carol or The Polar Express.

Plucky and kind-hearted Anja has one wish: She wants to be one of Santa’s elves. After studying hard so that she can find her way to the North Pole and performing several thoughtful tasks for her loved ones before she leaves, Anja starts her journey north. Her kindness is rewarded by offers of help along the way, from a bright-eyed cardinal, a steady horse, a shy musk-ox, a friendly polar bear, and, finally, one of Santa’s own flying reindeer.

The story is gentle and satisfying, and the photographs by Per Breiehagen is beautiful and inviting right from the cover. With a color palette informed by the whites and grays of the snowy north (“a place so far north that the mothers never pack away the wool hats or mittens”), the one spot of color drawing the eye through the story is the holly berry red of little Anja’s hat, plaid dress, and rosy cheeks, also found in the red feathers of the friendly cardinal.

A Christmas Wish captivated all of us, right out of the box, and we are excited to share it with you so that you can share this joyful little book with your loved ones this Christmas.

Coming Soon :: Galaxy Bookshop

There are some exciting goings-ons around the Galaxy in the coming weeks that you should know about.

1.  This coming Saturday, November 23, from 2-4 PM the Galaxy is hosting a space for writers to write in at Claire's.  November is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, but you don't have to be working on your 50,000 words in 30 days to join us.  You can just drop in  with your pen and paper or your laptop and spend some time writing in the company of others!  (We need to wrap up swiftly at 4 PM when the dinner staff comes on.)

2.  Sunday, December 1st, from 8 AM to 5 PM is the Galaxy's 25th Anniversary Celebration!  There will be the annual customer appreciation sale as well as guest booksellers: 11 AM will find Natalie Kinsey-Warnock in the store, Howard Frank Mosher steps in at 1 PM and 3 PM will bring David Budbill.  Please come out and celebrate these 25 years with us -- we would love to see you!

3.  And last but not least, mark your calendar now for Tuesday, December 3rd, 7 PM the second ever Galaxy Bookshop Book Jam!  From our web site:

Last spring, we hosted Pages in the Pub, with the Book Jam blog and Jeudevine Library. It was such a popular event, that we're bringing it back, just in time for the holidays! 

Gather some friends and join us for drinks and an evening of great conversation about books with our expert panel. Lisa Sammet, of the Jeudevine Library; Linda Ramsdell; Lisa Christie, of the Book Jam Blog; and a special guest from the community will present a list of the books they are the most excited to share with others this season. It's a great opportunity to make your list of winter reading, as well as to get gift ideas for your friends and family!

Tickets to this event are $10, and the cost includes one beer, wine, or soda and a donation to the Jeudevine Library. Tickets are available for sale in advance at The Galaxy Bookshop and the Jeudevine Library. 

Ed Behr :: 50 Foods

The Galaxy Bookshop and Claire's Restaurant welcome Ed Behr for a conversation about the pleasures of eating over a dinner celebrating the pure tastes of food! Ed Behr will be at Claire's for a special dinner  Tuesday, November 19th, at 5:30 P.M.  The prix-fixe dinner includes five courses paired with wine for $65 per person, tax and gratuity not included.  Please call 472-7053 for reservations.

Mr. Behr agreed to answer a few questions ahead of his visit.

1.  How did you come to write 50 Foods:  The Essentials of Good Taste?

EB:  After 25 years of travel, research, interviewing, and writing about food and wine -- and not least editing and publishing the work of others, including some of the greatest experts -- 50 Foods was the natural book to write, my magnum opus, to risk a grand description. It gathers and presents a large part of my work and of all I've learned. I've always focused on taste. I've often specialized in ingredients and the basic elements of eating -- in bread, cheese, ham, for instance -- the foundations of the pleasure we find in eating. This a sort of how-to book for eaters, a guide to deliciousness. It's full of practical information about food.

2.  Do you have a favorite go-to cookbook?

EB:  No. For me, that's potentially a big question, which doesn't lend itself to a quick response. I look to books more for inspiration than for recipes. But if I were to cite what I think are the two best cookbooks in English, they are Richard Olney's Simple French Food and Patience Gray's Honey from a Weed. Those two writers understand food and drink, they have, or really had, vast experience, and they write extremely well. They are, almost by definition, in the library of every Western cook who loves food and books.

3.  What's your favorite passage or line from a book? 

EB:  Possibly Richard Olney's description of cassoulet in Simple French Food, which I quote in 50 Foods.

4.  What are you reading currently? Non-food, Trollope's Eustace Diamonds. Food:  Jon Bonné's The New California Wine.

You can hear Ed Behr on Vermont Edition on Vermont Public Radio this Monday, November 18th, at noon and 7 P.M as well!

Archer Mayor :: Three Can Keep A Secret

Come out to the Galaxy on Tuesday, November 12 at 7PM to spend an evening with Archer Mayor and his new book Three Can Keep A Secret.

1.  How did you come to write the Joe Gunther series?  Did you realize when you started the first one that it was going to be a series?

AM:  I did intend it to be a series, but had no idea at the start how long it might become. I am surprised but pleased by its longevity. I chose Joe and his stories to serve as social anthropologies more than mysteries, since I am interested by people's abilities or inabilities to sort things out while in crisis.

2.  What book or books are your favorite(s)?

AM:  The one that's in my head — I haven't messed it up by writing it yet.

3.  What's your favorite line or quote from a book?

AM:  Can't think of one offhand.

4.  What are you reading currently?

AM:  Just wrapping up Atkinson's The Guns At Last Light.

Ellen Bryant Voigt :: Headwaters

Mark your calendar for this coming Tuesday evening, November 5, at 7 PM to hear poet Ellen Bryant Voigt read from her new book, Headwaters, at the Galaxy Bookshop.

To read an interview with Ellen, please visit Granta.

Abigail Carroll :: Three Squares

Vermont author Abigail Carroll visits the Galaxy on Tuesday, October 22nd, 7 P. M. for a discussion, slide show, and signing of her new book Three Squares:  The Invention of the American Meal.  In Three Squares Ms. Carroll upends the popular understanding of our most cherished mealtime traditions, revealing that our eating habits have never been stable -- far from it, in fact.  We asked Ms. Carroll a few questions to get to know her better.

Q:  Galaxy Bookshop:    How did you come to write Three Squares?

A:  Abigail Carroll:  When I was researching connections between obesity and snacking as a consulting curator for the Indiana State Museum, I realized that no one had written a book about the history of snacking in America, so I decided to write it. I wanted to know what snacking was like in centuries past—Did the Puritans snack? What about the founding mothers and fathers, Lower East Side tenement dwellers, westbound pioneers? But soon into my research I learned that the story of the snack is wrapped up in the story of the American meal. They are two sides of the same coin, and you can’t tell one story without the other—so in Three Squares, I tell both.

     

Q:  When did your interest in food and food history start?

A:  When I was a child, my family visited historical houses whenever we traveled, and I always found myself drawn to the kitchen. The past seemed so foreign, and yet here, at the hearth or in front of an old iron cookstove, I felt I could relate to the people who lived in these houses so long ago. I imagined that food meant something to them, just as it did for me--though I wasn't sure the meanings were the same. In many ways, my career has focused on unraveling those meanings.

Q:  What book or books are your favorites and why?

A:  In terms of food titles, I keep coming back to Laura Shapiro’s fun and ingenious Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America and Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century as well as William Woys Weaver’s elegantly written and illustrated America Eats: Forms of Edible Folk Art and The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets. These books contain such art and insight that I always pick up on new ideas when I re-read them.

Food history aside, I was riveted by Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet Spy (Eric Metaxes) when I read it last year. I have since loaned my copy to many friends who have found themselves similarly moved. This is the story of a gentle and yet inspiringly courageous modern-day hero, and it’s the kind of book you can’t read without being changed.

Q:  What's your favorite passage or line from a book?

A:  I have always loved poetry, and I’m grateful for my sixth grade English teacher who required us to memorize poems and recite them in class (to the dread of most of my classmates, but to my utter delight). My favorite lines from books today are the poems I committed to memory way back then because they have remained close friends ever since: “I wondered lonely as a cloud…” “Whose woods these are I think I know…” “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…” “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky…” "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree…” “The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees…”

Q:  What are you reading currently?

A:  I’m currently reading Michael Pollan’s Cooked: A History of Transformation, which asks some timely and relevant questions about the place of cooking in American culture—its decline and its future. Pollan argues that what we eat is less important to a healthy diet than whether we cook it, and I find this concept intriguing. In Three Squares, I propose a similar notion—that meals have a protective quality. When we eat together, we always eat better.

Katharine Britton :: Little Island

Vermont author Katharine Britton is coming to the Galaxy Bookshop at 7 P.M. on Tuesday, October 15th.  Her second novel, Little Island, is just out this fall.  It's the story of a family coming together for a memorial service and facing the events of their past, with secrets and alliances to spare.  Katharine kindly answered some questions for us in advance of her reading on Tuesday evening.

Q:  Galaxy Bookshop:  How did you come to write the story of Little Island?

A:  Katharine Britton:  I was vacationing in Maine, trying to think what to write about for my second book. Next door a family started to gather: cars pulled into the drive, people piled out, groups formed on the front and back lawn, some folks left, new folks arrived... Being a nosy writer, I spent much of the weekend on my second story deck, observing this ebb and flow. 

That gathering reminded me of my own family, which congregates in Vermont ever summer. Our gatherings have a distinct emotional and physical dynamic, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to try to recreate this in a novel. So, I gave each of my characters a crisis or issue in their life, as they prepare for their family weekend on a small island in Maine. Family members, for the most part, are not aware of what’s going on in one another’s lives⎯as is so often the case. 

I wrote the book in multiple points of view, so the reader knows more than the characters in the novel, and I present the story in relatively short scenes, to replicate the truncated conversations that often happen at family gatherings, due to constant interruptions. 

I want the reader to feel like a guest at Little Island Inn. One who keeps happening upon different members of the Little family, having their conversations in the kitchen or out on the wide front porch as they prepare for their grandmother’s memorial service and deal with the issues in their lives.

Q:  GB:  What books are your favorites and why?

A:  KB:  How much space do we have? I like books for different reasons. Some I latch onto for their great stories, others for the way the author plays with form or language. 

I read Gone Girl recently and was so impressed by Gillian Flynn’s ability to, in an instant, turn a sympathetic character into one I despised and feared. I was completely engrossed by Tanya French’s Into the Woods. She kept me guessing right up to the last page. Julie Orringer’s stories in Learning to Breathe Underwater are all gems. I’ve admired and enjoyed everything I’ve read by Kate Atkinson. Other favorite authors include Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, Anne Patchett, Richard Russo... The list goes on and on.

For classics, I’d choose A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Q:  GB:  What's your favorite passage or line from a book?

A:  KB:  These lines from near the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird give so much information in such a spare and elegant way.

“Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square.

A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry; for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.” 

Q:  GB:  What are you reading currently?

A:  KB:  Right now I’m reading Bossypants. I read a lot of fiction and wanted something funny. I just finished The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman. Very good and quite somber.

To see the trailer for Katharine's book Little Island, please visit here.  And remember:  Tuesday, October 15th at 7 P.M. at the Galaxy Bookshop in downtown Hardwick!

World of Doughnuts

The bluster and rain today is putting me in mind of something warm from the kitchen and don't we have several copies of World of Doughnuts by Stephanie Rosenbaum!  Yes we sure do.  Here are some of the recipes found in this book:  Old-Fashioned Glazed, Double Dutch Chocolate, Cardamom Doughnuts with Rose Syrup.  Apple Cider doughnuts?  Yes!  Beignets?  Yes!  Maple Bacon Doughnuts?  Oh my yes!  These books are going fast but we still have a couple here. You know, get 'em while they're hot...

And if you want a little story to go with your doughnuts I can highly recommend the Donut Chef.  He starts out simple but then the competition moves in and the doughnuts get wilder and wilder.  I won't spoil the end for you but rest assured it's all good.

Welcome Fall!

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
- Lucy Maud Montgomery,  Anne of Green Gables

I'm with Anne.  I am grateful every year for the grand finale, the last hurrah, before everything goes cold and dark.  So here's to fall and here's to the revival of Written in the Stars!  We welcome you to sign up to have these posts sent directly to your mailbox so you never have to miss one!  We imagine we'll be having some reviews of books, some author interviews, a peek behind the scenes at the Galaxy Bookshop coming up soon...

And speaking of coming up soon there are a number of events on the way for October including David Gilligan on October 10, Sterling College faculty member and author of Nature, Culture, Consciousness and on October 15, Katharine Britton, reading from her new novel Little Island.  But first:

October 1 we welcome Constance Hale back to the Galaxy for a look at her newly updated and revised book Sin and Syntax and a free workshop, complete with hilarious writing exercises and wacky prizes!

Localvore Week in Hardwick!

Our neighbors at The Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op are promoting localvore week this week by selling only locally grown (defined as "within a 100 mile radius") produce.

So, I wonder, could you limit your reading to a localvore diet as well? When it comes to the diet of the mind, I would venture to say that we would all be poorer for never stepping outside of that 100 mile radius to find books that expand our understanding of the world. Still, it would be easier than you might think to fill up days of reading time solely with books written locally! An unofficial count of our inventory came up with more than 70 authors from Vermont--of those, over 50 fell within the 100 mile radius mark. Poetry, cookbooks, memoirs, novels, picture books--a full range of literature, all created just down the road, so to speak.

If you're in town, stop to browse our new window display - you may be surprised by the numbers and variety of books that have been written locally! You can also take a look at a handful of our local writers at our website, though this list is by no means complete.

For all we know, there may be someone sitting in the Co-op's cafe right now, munching on a sandwich of bread from East Hardwick, sprouts from Craftsbury, and cheese from Greensboro, while working diligently on a soon-to-be-published manuscript!

 

The Awards Go To...

January is not just award season for movie stars and singers, it's also award season for authors and illustrators! This week, the American Library Association held its ceremony honoring children's books. Top honors were awarded to:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="285"] Winner of the John Newbery Medal (for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature): The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate[/caption]

Newbery Honor Books:

Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin (This book was also awarded the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, for most distinguished informational book for children, as well as the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults!)

Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="386"] Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal (for the most distinguished American picture book for children): This is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen[/caption]

Caldecott Honor Books:

Creepy Carrots! illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds

Extra Yarn illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett (The first time since 1947 that an author or illustrator has been awarded both the Caldecott Medal and a Caldecott Honor in the same year!)

Green written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo

Sleep Like a Tiger illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="260"] Michael L. Printz Award Winner (for excellence in literature written for young adults): In Darkness, by Nick Lake[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="360"] And our sincere congratulations to Vermont author Katherine Paterson, winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award! This award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.[/caption]

Find the entire awards list here.

Join the Club! Stories & Stitches

If you're looking for something to get you out of the house on some of these dark winter evenings, here's a cozy option: join us at The Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesdays from 5 - 6:15 p.m. for our new Stories & Stitches Book Club. Created with the handcrafter in mind, we invite people to bring along a knitting or needlework project (or any other easily portable project) to work on while listening to a short story being read by a volunteer.

We've had one meeting so far and chose to read a selection from Birds of a Lesser Paradise, by Megan Mayhew Bergman. Cups of tea were brewed and knitting projects grew while the story unfolded. (One non-knitter attended, too--crafts are not required!)

We're committed to continuing this book club through January, and through the rest of winter as long as there is an interest! Join us anytime - we'll have a mug of tea and a seat waiting for you!

DATES: January 15, 22, 29

TIME: 5 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.

PLACE: The Galaxy Bookshop