January 2019 Newsletter -- Jonathan Miles with Dwight Garner, Jack Kelly, Stephanie Land in Conversation & More

January 2019

Happy New Year!

My New Year’s resolution for 2019 is to practice gratitude every day. Today is easy--it is with much gratitude that I ring in the new year at the Northshire Bookstores. We had a very strong holiday season thanks to all of you. It is so nice to see so many books land in people’s hands, especially the kids. Reading is alive and well; stories are timeless; community matters. A special thank you to everyone who supported the Book Angel program --we gave away well over 1,200 books to area children who would not have received a book! Thank you for supporting us!

I want to draw your attention to a special event this month. We are hosting author and journalist Johnny Miles in conversation with New York Times senior book critic Dwight Garner in Manchester Center on Thursday, January 17th at 6:00 p.m. The Los Angeles Review of Books says that, "Miles is a writer so virtuosic that readers will feel themselves becoming better, more observant people from reading him." Miles wrote What Not and Dear American Airlines . We are celebrating the paperback release of Johnny Miles’ recent book Anatomy of a Miracle, which is a great read. Shelf Awareness says that Anatomy of a Miracle is, “A remarkable combination of medical mystery, satire, and war story.” These are two great guys at the top of their craft discussing Miles’ work, books, criticism and, very likely, random and humorous diversions. Please join us.

Be well,

Chris Morrow

cmorrow@northshire.com

Book Angel Program

Thank you to everyone who made our Book Angel program a success this year: donors, booksellers, wrappers, teachers, and schools. We especially want to thank the people who have made this an annual tradition as a part of their holiday giving.

We are celebrating 25 years of our Book Angels program and with your help we will continue for many years to come. Monetary donations are accepted in the bookstores or online year-round.

January Charities for Round Up at the Registers

We are asking you to round up to the next dollar at the registers for charity. Each month your change will add up to a donation to a local non-profit.

Manchester Center - Ski for Heat is committed to raising funds to provide heating fuel assistance to low-income families and individuals in communities throughout Vermont.

Saratoga Springs - Caffè Lena is widely recognized as the oldest continuously operating folk music venue in the United States.

Featured Events at Northshire Bookstores

*Please note the location of each event - Manchester Center or Saratoga Springs

Jack Kelly

The Edge of Anarchy

Friday, January 11th at 6pm

Saratoga Springs, NY

Join us on Friday, January 11th at 6:00 p.m. for Jack Kelly reading and discussing his book The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, The Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America .

The Edge of Anarchy offers a vivid account of the greatest uprising of working people in American history. At the pinnacle of the Gilded Age, a boycott of Pullman sleeping cars by hundreds of thousands of railroad employees brought commerce to a standstill across much of the country. Famine threatened and riots broke out along the rail lines. Soon the U.S. Army was on the march and gunfire rang from the streets of major cities.

Jonathan Miles in Conversation with Dwight Garner

Anatomy of a Miracle

Thursday, January 17th at 6:00 p.m.

Manchester Center, VT

Join us at Northshire for a conversation with New York Times book critic Dwight Garner and acclaimed novelist Jonathan Miles about his new novel Anatomy of a Miracle --a stunning exploration of faith, science, celebrity, and mystery about the sudden, mysterious recovery of a paralyzed veteran.

Jonathan Miles’s unforgettable third novel, Anatomy of a Miracle —beloved and championed by indie booksellers, critics, passionate librarians, and readers alike—is now available in paperback. Brilliantly written, funny, heartrending, and powerfully hopeful, Anatomy of a Miracle grapples with faith, sexuality, the search for truth, and the struggle to find an individual identity up against the stories and expectations thrust upon us. Through the story of Cameron Harris, Miles does nothing less than make the supernatural tangible, as one man struggles with the possibility—and the consequences—of a miracle in his own life.

Virginia Sole-Smith

The Eating Instinct: Food, Culture, Body Image, and Guilt in America

Saturday, January 19th at 7:00 p.m.

Saratoga Springs, NY

Join us on Saturday, January 19th at 7:00 p.m. for Virginia Sole-Smith reading and discussing her book The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America .

The Eating Instinct visits kitchen tables around America to tell Sole-Smith’s own story, as well as the stories of women recovering from weight loss surgery, of people who eat only nine foods, of families with unlimited grocery budgets and those on food stamps. Every struggle is unique. But Sole-Smith shows how they’re also all products of our modern food culture. And they’re all asking the same questions: How did I learn to eat this way? Why is it so hard to feel good about food? And how can I make it better?

Tori Telfer will be visiting both bookstores

Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History

Friday, January 25th at 6pm

Manchester Center, VT

Saturday, January 26th at 7pm

Saratoga Springs, NY

“A wonderfully executed—no pun intended—historical account of female killers. Lady Killers is a thrilling character study of the most diabolically complex, fascinating female psychopaths in history.”—M. William Phelps, author of the New York Times bestselling Dangerous Ground: My Friendship with a Serial Killer

Tori Telfer is a full-time freelance writer whose work has appeared in Salon, Vice, Jezebel, The Hairpin, GOOD Magazine, Bustle, Barnesandnoble.com, Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a Pushcart nominee and recipient of the Edwin L. Shuman Fiction Award. She has written, directed, and produced independent plays in both Chicago and Los Angeles. She majored in creative writing at Northwestern University and studied fiction at Indiana University.

Stephanie Land in conversation with Jennifer Oldham

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Saturday, January 26th at 6:00 p.m.

Manchester Center, VT

Northshire Bookstore and Vermont Works for Women are thrilled to bring Stephanie Land, the author of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive to Manchester where she will be interviewed live by Jennifer Oldham, the executive director of Vermont Works for Women . This event is free and open to the public.

Stephanie Land worked for years as a maid, pulling long hours while struggling as a single mom to keep a roof over her daughter's head. In Maid , she reveals the dark truth of what it takes to survive and thrive in today's inequitable society.

"We need more books like Maid , with the view from behind the fridge and under the couch. Stephanie Land has something to teach us about both sides of the inequality divide. Neither is what you are expecting."—from the forward by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

Vermont Works for Women 's mission is to help women and girls recognize their potential and explore, pursue, and excel in work that leads to economic independence. Their vision is to work toward the day when women and girls make confident, deliberate choices about life and work that reflect an expansive grasp of the world’s possibilities, a fearless commitment to pursuing their dreams, and that contribute to the vitality of our communities.

Staff Pick of the Month

Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley

"Hadley outdoes herself once more! Her genius lies in her sparse writing style and subjects set in ordinary lives. Her ability to translate the human psyche is so razor-sharp that you’ll find yourself thinking, "Yes! Yes! Yes!," as you read eye-opening epiphany after epiphany. This novel shines light on middle age, marriage, death, and the complicated histories people share. To read a Tessa Hadley novel is not only thought-provoking and enjoyable, but you’ll also emerge knowing yourself a little better."—Becky Doherty

Pre-Order Online - Out 1/15/19

January Pre-order Highlight

The Current

by Tim Johnston

"Two unsolved crimes, unrelated, ten years apart but close enough in proximity (the same river twice no less) for the characters in the latest crime to bring painful memories back to the surface. The intersection of the two stories is expertly handled in Johnston's elegant prose. A page-turning mystery and a deeply moving story." — Stan Hynds

In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene—half frozen but alive.

Grief, suspicion, the innocent and the guilty—all stir to life in this cold northern town where a young woman can come home, but still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted and unrelentingly propulsive, The Current is a beautifully realized story about the fragility of life, the power of the past, and the need, always, to fight back.

Pre-order Online - Out 1/22/19

New Fiction on our Shelves

New Non-fiction on our Shelves

New Paperbacks on our Shelves

From our Own Shires Press

Cabel the First Giraffe

by Laurie M. Gagne

Illustrations by Kimberly Merritt

Cabel The First Giraffe is written by Laurie M. Gagne and illustrated by Kim Merritt. It is a charmingly illustrated book. Cabel the giraffe loves to eat the crisp green leaves from the tree tops. He meets Noah and travels with Noah, his family, and all of the animals on the ark. Share Cabel's joy at seeing the crisp green leaves on the tree tops when the ark comes to rest on land. You and your children will delight in each and every page.

The Shotgun: A Memoir

by David Robins

The Shotgun: A Memoir reflects the author David Robins at his most authentic, insightful, and vulnerable. In its pages you will meet a host of fascinating characters both admirable and deeply flawed--many at the same time. Organized around the recurring theme of its title, it contains wise counsel for gun enthusiasts and gun control advocates alike. Just as Robins bridges that gap, he also manages to reach across chasms of despair and end up in a place that he (and we) can truly call happiness.

Learn More about Shires Press