Markets and Gardens

The South Hadley Farmers' Market opened today on the Town Green. Despite the rainy, thunderous, and down right icky weather we've been having, we managed to have an clear afternoon for the market! South Hadley residents turned out for the occasion in wonderful show of support for local food.

If you are interested in reading more about local food and gardening there are some great books for adults and children alike.


One of my favorite new children's books is The Curious Garden by Peter Brown.
The book is about "greening" a city by planting gardens in unexpected places. A group of New Yorkers put this idea to work in real life and opened up a garden along an old railroad track in Manhattan. You can visit their website at http://blog.thehighline.org/



For those who enjoyed Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan is coming out with a young readers edition of the book. The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids: The Secrets Behind What You Eat, will be out this coming fall.

~ Vanessa

A book to look forward to...

Well, I'm back from my summer vacation, which now seems like quite the blur. Having set a personal record of reading 17 books in 15 days, I guess I'm not really surprised. Some of them were great pieces of literature (Cormac McCarthy, J. M. Coetzee, & Audrey Niffenegger backlist), some of them were delightful pieces of fluff (a book called Jane Eyre's Daughter, for one example). I also took along a few advance readers copies to get a head start on some later summer/early fall reading. One forthcoming book that I'm looking forward to handselling is called Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin, due out in August from Delacorte Press. This deceptively sweet debut novel set in Rwanda is, much like main character Angel Tungaraza, full of hidden depths. On the surface she bakes cakes for all occasions for a cross-section of people, ranging from the wife of the US ambassador to the "baby mama" of a young man who struggles to make ends meet. Her higher calling as a generous listener, though, showcases a forgiving soul who is always ready to be burdened with other people's dark secrets, and in post-genocide Rwanda, there is no shortage of those. This is a lovingly imagined story of people who have somehow found a way to look past their neighbors' (or their own) misdeeds to find a hopeful future in Kigali. If you love Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, you're sure to enjoy this new novel, too.

~Emily Crowe

Summer Reads!

Warm weather has finally come! School is almost out and beach vacations are being planned. It's time to think about summer reading. While a good book can be read anytime of year, I think certain books are that much better while read in a beach chair, in the sun.

In need of some suggestions? Stop by the store because we a have plenty of new books to share.

One book, that I admittedly read before it was quite bikini weather, is the perfect summer read. Partially because the cover consists of a young man standing on a beach in awesome sunglasses, but mostly because it is incredibly well written and a wonderful story.



Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Every teenager goes through that awkward phase when friends are growing up and changing, the opposite sex suddenly becomes so important, and you are constantly trying to figure out what is “cool.” Whitehead’s new novel illuminates this period of time for Benji Cooper, who is spending the summer of 1985 at his family’s home on Sag Harbor. Whitehead describes the African American enclave on the Hamptons in the time of “The Cosby Show,” the early days of Hip Hop, and “New Coke.” This is a bright, funny, semi-autobiographical story that touches on important issues of race, class, and adolescence. A literary and affectionate summer read with a large helping of humility and ice cream. ~ Vanessa

Now I'm happy that I watched all those Seinfeld episodes...

In today's Shelf Awareness, a daily email newsletter that goes out to folks in the book industry, there was a notice about Connecticut's great independent bookstores that ran in a local paper. The article began with a quotation from Jerry Seinfeld himself. And though I'm clearly biased, I couldn't agree more: "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

Short & sweet tonight, y'all.

~Emily C.

It's a lovefest here in the bookworld.

I love my job. No, seriously, I do. I love books and what's more, I love booksellers. Two days ago I got to make a bookstore roadtrip with my colleagues Joan and Rebecca. Since Rebecca had already planned to be in Portland that weekend, Joan and I drove up after work on Sunday evening to meet Jon and Carrie Platt, the owners of Nonesuch Books. They greeted us like old friends and opened their home to us, despite the fact that they barely knew Joan and had no acquaintance with me whatsoever.

The next morning all of us from the Platt household met up with Rebecca at the South Portland location of Nonesuch Books and thus our adventures began. We spent quite a while exploring their terrific store from every angle, furiously taking notes and swapping bookseller survival stories. From there we moved en masse to the Saco location of Nonesuch, making friends along the way with a big, tumbly goofball of a mastiff puppy who charmed us all in the parking lot.

After parting ways with our new friends Jon & Carrie, the three of us made our way to RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. After admiring the clean lines of the decor we chatted with owner Tom and events coordinator Michele about the current state of the book world and the importance of Buy Local programs and incentives.

From there we traveled south once more to Newburyport to visit Jabberwocky Books and the sister store Eureka, a child's delight filled with toys and educational products. Unfortunately the owner had gone home sick earlier that day, so we just poked around on our own.

The trip overall was quite educational. All four of these stores were very different from each other and from our own store, ranging from an intimate storefront in a vibrant downtown to a cavernous, rambling space in a renovated waterfront building. One serves primarily a working class clientele while another serves primarily a tourist one, and so on. But each had carved a niche for itself in its respective market and we came away from each store having learned something valuable to take back to our store. The best part, though, was chatting with the booksellers at each location, all of whom welcomed us warmly and paused to answer the dozens of questions we threw at them. They're a generous bunch and I couldn't be prouder to be a part of any other group.

~Emily C.

Book Reviews: A Two-fer

MOLOKA’I by Alan Brennert. $13.95 in paperback

This compelling novel follows the life of Rachel Kalama from her girlhood on Oahu through her lifelong exile at the leper colony on Moloka’i, and consequently it follows the history of Hawai’i itself from the US’s unconstitutional overthrow of the monarchy through the attack on Pearl Harbor. The reader feels the same anguish, fear, and isolation as Rachel faces one hardship after another, with a heartwarming reunion with her lost family as a final reward for her hard-earned self-reliance.


HONOLULU by Alan Brennert $24.95 in hardcover

Like his previous book Moloka’i, Brennert’s new novel takes a sweeping and probing look at a little-known period of US history. Jin is a young Korean “picture bride” who, in 1915, risks everything to leave her homeland for Hawai’i in order to marry a man she has never met. When his bitterness and cruelty drive her to run away, she makes her way to Honolulu, finding support and friendship in the most unlikely sources. Brennert takes a hard look at the hardships of being a woman in the early 20th century and at the racism that almost destroyed what is now one of the most thriving multicultural metropolises in the world.

Both books are satisfying reads, but what sets them apart is Brennert’s ability to plumb the mysteries of the human heart, exploring the heights and the depths of our emotional spectrum. What I particularly love is the fine balance he creates between hope and despair without seeming melodramatic. Fans of The Secret Life of Bees, Ellen Foster, or The Kite Runner (or anybody who is drawn to stories of overcoming social, cultural, or religious constrictions) will find much to appreciate in his novels.

Emily Crowe

I Need to Learn How to Speed Read

It's currently my favorite time of year. The birds are chirping, the leaves are just starting to come out, the temperature is in the mid-70s (ok, today actually hit an uncomfortable 90), I can wear flip-flops again, and Fall catalogs have arrived.

Ah, Fall catalogs.

I had heard rumor that Fall 2009 is going to be a stellar season for books, but oh my lord, the line-up is simply astounding! The Random House Publishing Group alone has a list that will keep me reading well into late adulthood.

How on earth am I going to be able to read all these books? Most of my spare time is devoted to reading and yet I only average about 35 pages an hour. Oy. Double Oy.

Just to give you a sense of how wonderful it's going to be, here is a list, in no particular order:

Audrey Niffenegger -- HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY
Jon Krakauer -- WHERE MEN WIN GLORY: THE ODYSSEY OF PAT TILLMAN
Thomas Trofimuk -- WAITING FOR COLUMBUS (this is a debut, but supposedly masterful. I always trust Ann Kingman's, one of our Random House reps, recommendations.)
Jonathan Lethem -- CHRONIC CITY
Valerie Martin -- CONFESSIONS OF EDWARD DAY
Pat Conroy -- SOUTH OF BROAD
Margaret Atwood -- THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD
Peter Ackroyd -- THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
Stephen L. Carter -- JERICHO'S FALL
Kazuo Ishiguro -- NOCTURNES
Lorrie Moore -- A GATE AT THE STAIRS
A.S. Byatt -- THE CHILDREN'S BOOK
Peter Mayle -- THE VINTAGE CAPER
Chinua Achebe -- THE EDUCATION OF A BRITISH-PROTECTED CHILD: ESSAYS
Philip Caputo -- CROSSERS
Orhan Pamuk -- THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE
Richard Russo (a.k.a. "Papa Russo") -- THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC
Alice Munro -- TOO MUCH HAPPINESS
Ha Jin -- A GOOD FALL
David Liss -- THE DEVIL'S COMPANY
Sarah Dunant -- SACRED HEARTS
E.L. Doctrow -- HOMER AND LANGLEY
John Irving -- LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVER
Dan Chaon -- AWAIT YOUR REPLY
Barbara Kingsolver -- THE LACUNA
Michael Chabon -- MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS: THE PLEASURES AND REGRETS OF A HUSBAND, FATHER AND SON
Mary Karr -- LIT: A MEMOIR
Jess Walter -- THE FINANCIAL LIVES OF POETS
Joyce Carol Oates -- LITTLE BIRD OF HEAVEN

Alright, now:

A)That's already nearly 30 books by authors I know and love.
B) Only two publishing houses have been fully covered here. I still haven't been through half of the catalogs!
C) I also have not included debut authors (save that recommendation from Ann Kingman), which I need to concentrate on for our Breakout Fiction Program.

I don't know how I'm going to do all of this, but I sure am going to have fun trying. Better start the caffeine injections now. Steve, honey, I apologize in advance.

Emily Russo Murtagh