A peek into 2012

As much as we're enjoying the here and now, our minds are often on the coming months as we read advance copies of books to be published and peruse catalogs for Fall 2011 and Winter/Spring 2012.

We'd like to share a bit of our excitement for one event taking place next year--the release of our dear friend Howard Frank Mosher's new book, The Great Northern Express, on March 6, 2012! Howard has been talking about this book for a couple of years, a memoir of his travels around the country while on book tour. He stopped by Galaxy this week for an informal photo shoot and was joined by a special friend. On his way to Hardwick, he spied a small turtle in the road and decided to bring him along. (Those of you who have read Walking to Gatlinburg will understand the significance of this particular critter.) Howard is very hopeful that his picture, along with the turtle, on the steps of The Galaxy Bookshop, will grace the jacket of The Great Northern Express.

In keeping with tradition, The Galaxy Bookshop will host the premier event for The Great Northern Express--Howard's first stop on his book tour about a book tour--on March 6, 2012, at 7 p.m. Mark your calendars!

May Wrap-up

It's as hard to believe that it's June as it is that the thermometer is suddenly breaking 80 degrees, but that's what the calendar is telling us, so it must be true!

Here's a look back on the month that was May:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="Our esteemed Senator Bernie Sanders made a "surprise" visit. (We learned about it only a few days in advance.)"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="346" caption="Jem entertained his own visitor. They were overheard discussing the timelessness of a black and white ensemble."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="Ivy made her debut as the youngest member of our merry band of booksellers."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="403" caption="She is already a staunch advocate for early childhood education."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384" caption="She also obliges us by posing as a turtle for our amusement."][/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="196" caption="We've begun stocking up for summer, with fun toys and games, in addition to lots of good reading material."][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="329" caption="And we're getting ready to kick our events season into high gear with the world premiere of MAKING SUPPER SAFE on June 7. (Author Ben Hewitt is pictured here at another world premiere--only last year, for THE TOWN THAT FOOD SAVED.)"][/caption]

Guest Blogger: Ben Hewitt

This week, thanks to Cabot author Ben Hewitt for contributing. Ben will be launching his new book, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food, at The Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesday, March 16, at 7 p.m.

When Linda and Sandy asked me to write a post on the upcoming launch
of my book, The Town That Food Saved, I almost said no. After all, I’d just written 70-something thousand words on the Hardwick area; I figured I’d stuck foot (pen?) firmly in mouth plenty of times, already. And then, ever the glutton, I decided what the hell: A time or two more can’t hurt.

I spent about a year writing this book. The process was by turns
exciting, dispiriting, confusing, and affirming. I’d naively sold the
book on a simple premise: That Hardwick needed saving, and that a
localized food system was just the thing to make it so. It didn’t take
long to determine that it would be vastly more complicated than that,
and the book began to turn on my struggle to understand these
unanticipated complexities. I’d say more, but of course then you
wouldn’t need to buy the book.

In the weeks following this launch, I’ll be spending a lot of time
talking about the book (and by extension, Hardwick) in communities
throughout the northeast. The degree of interest has far exceeded my
wildest expectations, and it feels incredibly important that I carry
with me the news of Hardwick, particularly as it relates to the
region’s evolving food system. I want to know how you feel about the
goings-on about town, the boom in food-based enterprises, and the
ensuing media coverage. Are you inspired? Disheartened? Or merely
indifferent? Is Hardwick really the town that food saved, or does it
need another agricultural enterprise like it needs a snowstorm in
September? (To be sure, both will probably happen)

So I invite you to come to the Galaxy Bookshop on the evening of March
16. I’ll read a little; I’ll probably talk a little too. But mostly, I’ll be there to listen.

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The Town That Food Saved is already receiving praise from reviewers around the country:

Times Argus

Publisher's Weekly (seventh title down)

School Library Journal (about two-thirds of the way down the page)

Los Angeles Times

Walking to Gatlinburg: A Recap

What a great way to start off our 2010 Reading Series! Howard Frank Mosher launched his nationwide book tour (which will include stops in somewhere between 60 and 100 cities across the country) at The Galaxy Bookshop last night. While we had some of the typical pre-event jitters (Will the books show up? They did--at 2:00 yesterday afternoon. Will anyone come? Most certainly--a standing-room-only crowd!) any fears we had were laid to rest as we welcomed Howard and his audience to the store.

Our friend Will--who, among other things is a Civil War reenactor--loaned Linda and I the fabulous period coats we're wearing in the photo above. We received a huge round of applause and laughter when we made our entrance. I think Howard got a huge kick out of this, too, since we decided to surprise him and not put on our costumes till the last minute.

Howard used to be known as a fairly quiet author, and one who never read from his books, but last night he spent an hour entertaining us with stories about his writing career and the work that went into writing Walking to Gatlinburg and read not one but two sections from the novel. One of our customers, hugging her new book to her chest, told me that she thought that no one would get much sleep that night, because they'd all be up, racing through their books!

After he'd signed several dozen books (including extra stock, which is available now), Howard, his lovely wife, the booksellers, and a few guests including contest winner Charlie, went to Claire's Restaurant to celebrate a very successful and enjoyable evening.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for this memorable event!

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Local and national praise for Walking to Gatlinburg.

Why I Always Launch My Book Tours at The Galaxy Bookshop

Special thanks to this week's guest blogger, Howard Frank Mosher!

On Tuesday, March 2, at 7:00, the Galaxy Bookshop will be hosting the WORLD PREMIER of my new Civil War novel. Walking to Gatlinburg tells the story of 17-year-old Morgan Kinneson, who walks from Kingdom County, Vermont, to Gatlinburg, in the Great Smoky Mountains, in search of his brother Pilgrim, a non-combatant Union surgeon missing in action.

For years, I’ve started my book tours at the Galaxy. Independent bookstores are the best booksellers, and the Galaxy represents everything that’s wonderful about them. Chain bookstores tend to all look alike, but indies are all different. The Galaxy, for instance, was once a bank. It still has a vault, not to mention the only drive-by window of any bookshop in the – well, galaxy.

When I walk into a great independent bookstore like the Galaxy, I immediately sense that I’m surrounded by all my best old (and new) friends: Robert Frost, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Richard Russo, the Northeast Kingdom’s Leland Kinsey and David Budbill.

At my Galaxy events, most of the people are my friends. They’re from the Kingdom. When I show my signature slide of myself shooting a bad review with my shotgun, they nod gravely as if to say, “What else would you do with an unfriendly review in the Times?”

Most important of all, I launch my books at the Galaxy for the same reason I buy all my books there. Like independent booksellers from coast to coast, Linda and Sandy and their staff know and love books the way this clueless storyteller knows and loves the outlaws, living and deceased, of the Northeast Kingdom. Why would I ever buy a book any place else?

Please come to the Galaxy and meet Morgan Kinneson and some of his fellow outlaws from Walking to Gatlinburg on March 2 at 7:00 when I’ll be talking about the new novel and my psychopathic, murderous great, great grandpa, who, I’m sorry to report, inspired the mad villain Ludi Too in my latest! Sad but true. See you at the World Premier.

Wallace Stegner Weekend

Robert Gray--a bookseller at Northshire Books and columnist for Shelf Awareness--wrote a great article last week about the upcoming Wallace Stegner Centennial weekend at Highland Lodge. With his permission, we're reprinting the article here.

Vermont Foliage Season with Wallace Stegner

A sound like a big crowd a good way off, excited and shouting, getting closer. We stand up and scan the empty sky. Suddenly there they are, a wavering V headed directly over our hilltop, quite low, beating southward down the central flyway and talking as they pass. We stay quiet, suspending our human conversation until their garrulity fades and their wavering lines are invisible in the sky.

They have passed over us like an eraser over a blackboard, wiping away whatever was there before they came.

"Oh, don't you love them!" Charity says. "Sometimes when we stayed late in Vermont, or went up late for the color, we'd see and hear them like that, coming over Folsom Hill. Someday you've got to visit us there."

Maybe it’s just the time of year, but I recalled that passage from Crossing to Safety (not word-for-word, of course. I had to look it up for the exact quotation) when I heard about the upcoming Wallace Stegner Centennial. This "literary weekend" will be held during foliage season, September 25-27, at the Highland Lodge, Greensboro, Vt., a town where Stegner often summered and the model for scenes in his celebrated novel. Featured speakers include Philip L. Fradkin, author of Wallace Stegner and the American West, and Stegner's agent, Carl Brandt, of Brandt and Hochman.

Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, Vt., is one of the co-sponsors and will sell books at the event. Owner Linda Ramsdell notes: "Stegner's works, especially Crossing to Safety, do still sell well, and better because of the local reference points. An earlier novel, Second Growth, also has many local reference points. Wallace Stegner was a great supporter of the Galaxy Bookshop, and in an earlier iteration of community collaboration, we were fortunate to sell books at the Greensboro Public Library when they presented him with an award."

Anne T. Molleur Hanson, organizer of the celebration, explains that the genesis was "threefold." Four years ago, the inn hosted a Reading Greensboro weekend, with a focus on Crossing to Safety and the belief that "acknowledging the many writers like Wallace Stegner who have summered or spent time in Greensboro (or even live here year round, like Anne Stuart) would be a wonderful way to celebrate Greensboro's literary legacy." In addition to Stegner, John Gunther and Margaret Mead are among the noted authors who called this village of fewer than 1,000 people their Green Mountain home away from home.

"Our Crossing to Safety night was well attended, especially by folks from here," Hanson adds. "After the event, many people--several from afar--remarked on their hope that we would do another such event sometime."

About six months ago, Hanson and Willie Smith, one of the Highland Lodge innkeepers, discussed hosting another literary weekend focusing specifically on Stegner, "who is known as a Western writer, but who had a clear fondness for the northeast, particularly Greensboro, to which his and wife Mary's friends Peg and Phil Gray (portrayed as Charity and Sid Lang in Crossing to Safety) had introduced the Stegners in the late 1930s/early 1940s. My interest in hosting a Stegner event was in part due to my nearly 20-year long regret that although I grew up here, I never attended a Wallace Stegner reading, which he offered during many of the summers he was here."

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when Hanson learned that Philip Fradkin, "who had stayed here while researching his biography on Stegner, was, like me, a graduate of Williams College. I e-mailed Philip and asked if he would join us for a literary weekend celebrating Wallace Stegner. Philip agreed. He suggested we find sponsors to help us with the event. At that point I contacted our friend, neighbor, and favorite independent bookseller Linda Ramsdell, to ask if the Galaxy Bookshop would like to co-sponsor. Linda was enthusiastic and immediately on-board."

Ramsdell adds that the "Hardwick area is becoming a model for ways that businesses and organizations work together to do things that no one entity can do alone. Attention has focused on the agricultural economy, but there are many examples outside of that sector too. Especially in this economy, the importance and benefits of collaborating are extremely tangible. The other aspect of the Galaxy area, which differs from many cities with local alliance organizations, is that it is a small place where people know each other and are friends. We have a vested interest in each other's viability and success. It is very easy to see how money stays in our area and benefits accrue when we work with each other."--Robert Gray (column archives available at Fresh Eyes Now)

Mark Rudd -- post-event notes

with reporting by Sam Zaber

Mark Rudd (member of SDS during the Columbia University takeover and founding member of the Weather Underground) came by the Galaxy on Wednesday the 15th to read from his new memoir, Underground, and take questions from the audience. And what an audience--over 50 people, from students to seniors, turned out to hear Rudd speak. It seemed that everyone packed into the Galaxy's front room had their own fascinating story to share which led from discussion to discussion on any and every topic. Debates over the means of effecting change were especially lively. Rudd himself was involved in violent activities with the Weather Underground, but has since embraced a non-violent philosophy, and is an advocate for peaceful activism and organization. The program stretched into the night but inside no one seemed to notice.