Email 07.15.09: An Incredible True Story

Greetings Dear Readers,

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"Down in the lowest deck of the ship, where the fire room was, no one knew what had happened, but
Fireman Frank Fauteux feared the worst. Fauteux... had survived the torpedoing of his destroyer in the Mediterranean during World War II, as well as the
explosion of the SS Grandcamp in 1947... and believed his luck had finally run out. Moments later, Chief Engineer Sybert came running into the fire room. 'The
ship has split in half!' he hollered." - The Finest Hours

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Friday, July 17th at 7:00 pm
CASEY SHERMAN
author of
The
Finest Hours:
The True Story of the US Coast Guard's Most Daring Sea Rescue

Join us when Casey Sherman will be here to talk about and read from
his new book, The Finest Hours, the incredible true story of a daring Coast Guard rescue mission.

"Wallace Quirey... had seen plenty in his twenty-five years at sea, but he had never seen or felt
anything like this. 'I got to the stern and the waves must have been fifty-five feet high... they swept the boat deck, the highest deck, and came five feet
away from breaking right at the top of the mast.' "

The fearsome power of the sea can be difficult to even imagine, especially during a storm. In February of 1952, a massive nor'easter hit the coast of
Massachusetts, and two ill-fated oil tankers were caught off shore. Remnants from WW2, the two ships were in need of service and the towering seas proved too
much. Both ships were broken in two, leaving four splintered wrecks to flounder in the storm, crews and all.

"Brown was stung by blasts of freezing sea spray as he stood with the other men, stunned at the sight
of the ship's bow floating away and disappearing into the driving snow. At the time of the break, Captain Fitzgerald and several of his officers were in the
forward bridge house. Now they were gone."

The Finest Hours tells the remarkable story of the simultaneous rescue attempts, including the heroic effort by a small
Coast Guard lifeboat that braved terrifying seas and lost equipment to save dozens of crew members from the icy waters. Casey Sherman, along with co-author
Michael Tougias, relates this intense and action-packed tale of courage and survival, complete with first person accounts from survivors.

"The violent wave shattered the boat's windshield, sending sharp shards of glass into Webber's face
and hair as he fell backwards... As he tried to get his bearings, he glanced down to where the boat's compass should have been. The compass--the sole means of
navigation--was gone, torn from its mount... Webber managed to get the lifeboat back under control. Then, despite the crashing of the ocean, each man realized
one sound was missing. The motor had died, and the next wave was bearing down on them."

Sherman and Tougias tell an unbelievable story -- oil tankers snapping in half? Fifty-foot seas? -- that is a gripping testament to the courage and
bravery of a few dedicated men. We hope to see you on Friday; it should be an exciting night.

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Last week we told you about Ron Currie, Jr., a writer from Waterville whose first two books have garnered awards, rave reviews, and our admiration. We
had him here for a reading, which was a big success, and now we believe in him more than ever.

We're offering a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE on both of Ron's books -- his first collection
of stories, God Is Dead, or his new novel, Everything Matters! We think you should read them, we
think you'll enjoy them, and if we're wrong, we'll refund your money. Come in soon and you may be able to snag an autographed copy!

For more info on Ron or his work, check out our website.

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Yours In Books,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 07.07.09: Everything Matters!

Thursday,
July 9th at 7:00 pm
RON CURRIE, JR
author of
Everything
Matters!

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Greetings Dear Readers,

We use that greeting a lot, and we mean it. If you're getting our emails then chances are you're a reader, a customer, and someone to whom books
matter. As booksellers, our most satisfying moments come when we can put a book in your hands that will excite you, that will ruffle your literary feathers,
that will make your gray matter tingle. While our readers are as varied as the many, many books published each year, we occasionally discover an author who we
want to introduce to all of you.

Ron Currie, Jr. is a young man from Waterville, Maine who has written two books. The first, a collection of connected stories called God
Is Dead, is simply terrific. I've lost count of the number of conversations it has generated, the number people I've heard speak with surprise
and pleasure about its humor, its scope, its willingness to talk about BIG issues and BIG problems, its maturity and skill. All this from a local kid's debut
work.

In Currie's first book, God is killed when He comes to Earth in the form of a Dinka refugee, and the rest of the world is forced to suffer the
reverberations from God's untimely demise. God Is Dead was awarded the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award in
2008. In a starred review, Kirkus called the debut, "Abrasively funny... inventive and absorbing... Kurt Vonnegut laced with Louis-Ferdinand Celine."

In his new novel, Everything Matters!, the world is faced with its own cataclysmic end. As an infant, Junior Thibodeaux
is presented with some unfortunate news: a comet is going to annihilate all life on Earth in thirty-six years. He alone carries the burden of this secret, and,
given the pending doom, wrestles with a new-found existential dilemma: Does anything he does matter?

Despite the inauspicious beginning, Everything Matters! "is gleefully free-spirited," and Currie's
"thoughts on cosmic doom somehow take the form of a joyride," says Janet Maslin in The New York Times. She continues: "Mr.
Currie is a startlingly talented writer... He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice all his own. He
seems equipped to succeed at almost anything..."

"Everything Matters! is staggeringly ambitious and pulls off nearly everything it sets
out to do."

--Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway and Love and Hydrogen

"If you're going to write about Doom you'd better be funny and if you're going to write about Global Doom you'd
better be damn funny. Currie accomplishes one of the rarest feats in literature-- he makes you dread turning each page at the same time you can't help turning
each page. He leads you toward The End with wisdom and honesty, pointing out the beautiful sights along the way but never shielding your eyes from the fires
ahead."

--David Benioff, author of City of Thieves and The 25th Hour

"Throughout the story there is the sheer delight of Mr. Currie's fresh, joltingly funny imagery... The excitement
that drives the reader from page to page is... about seeing what Mr. Currie will try next."

--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Now, it's too early to say that Ron is the next Kurt Vonnegut, or some other literary pillar. But after the release of his second book, what we
can say is this: he is no fluke. Ron Currie, Jr. is an immensely talented writer. We feel privileged to welcome him to our store.

Ron will be here this Thursday evening to read from Everything Matters!, to discuss his work and to meet our readers.
Come, if you can.

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In Books We Trust,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 06.17.09: Books, Dads, & Hausfraus

Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday is Father's Day and we wish all of your dads a most happy and enjoyable day. We have books here for any kind of father, tall or short, hairy or not, grumpy or not. We truly enjoy advising you on the perfect book for your father or grandfather or father-in-law. So come on by the shop and we will be delighted to assist you in making your poppa smile.

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Don't Forget!

Thursday, June 18th at 7 pm: Finding Father: A Father's Day poetry reading featuring local poets Michael Macklin, Betsy Sholl, Martin Steingesser and Judy Tierney. Click here for more information!

Friday, June 19th at 7 pm: A launch party for Nicole Chaisson and her new book, The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated. Click here for more information!

Thursday, June 25th at 7 pm: A reading and signing with James Hayman for his new thriller set here in Portland, The Cutting. Click here for more information!

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In Private

The morning sun
adorned your grave in gold.
The nearby roadway
carries cars full of people
who do not know.
They cannot see
your Model T carrying you
courting through the countryside.
Railway tracks now gone
called out to you
to wander the Great Depression.
They did not see you
brawling at political rallies
fighting for the poor,
they wouldn't know of
your self nursed ribs
caved by a stallion's hoof.
A hunter's sharp eyes are closed,
your long stride gone from the hills.
Gray clouds frame our gloom
as you enter the ground.
A bright autodidactic star,
a house built at seventeen,
a rheumatic arrow
to your young heart,
yet with dark eyes flashing
you lived as a super man.
Your heart burst far too soon
but ah, how it did beat
to see a man walk on the moon.

For my father
Foster Riker Pierson
October 28, 1969

Excerpted from When My Feet Quit Dancing: Poetry on the Personal Side
By Duane Pierson (Gravitas, $10.95)

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Books!

Satchel

by Larry Tye (Random House, $26.00)

In 1965, at age 59 or 60 (his birthday seems to be a moving target), Satchel Paige took the mound against the Kansas City Athletics and threw three shutout innings. It was a fitting end for a pitching career that spanned fives decades. Denied entrance into the major leagues until 1948 at the tender age of 42, Paige is still considered to be the best pitcher to ever take the hill. He was among the peerless Negro Leaguers who beat the white big leaguers more than 60% of the time.

Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige's steps across the continent. Here is the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname "Satchel" from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball in the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members.

Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints, spent as much money as he made, and left tickets for "Mrs. Paige" that were picked up by a different woman at each game. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series.

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

by Alain de Botton (Pantheon, $26.00)

Alain de Botton is the author of the bestselling books, The Architecture of Happiness and The Art of Travel.

Unfortunately we spend most of our waking hours at work in occupations chosen by our (sometimes) unthinking younger selves. And we complain, worry, celebrate and even rejoice in our work. We bring it home, we leave it at the desk and we sometimes even hunger for more. Without it, we are at peril: our sanity, our security and perhaps our identity. And yet, we rarely ask ourselves how did we get here, what are we truly doing and why, on a daily basis, do we exhaust ourselves and our planet?

Alain de Botton trains his philosophical mind on an eclectic range of occupations from Rocket Science to Biscuit Manufacturing as he leads the reader on a journey in search of what makes work either fulfilling or soul-crushing.

In the author's own words:

"In the pre-modern age, it was assumed that no one could try to be in love and married: marriage was something one did for purely commercial reasons. Things were going well if you maintained a tepid friendship with your spouse. Meanwhile, love was something you did with your mistress, with pleasure untied to the responsibilities of child-rearing. Yet the new philosophers of love argued that one might actually aim to marry the person one was in love with rather than just have an affair. To this unusual idea was added the even more peculiar notion that one might work both for money and to realize one's dreams, an idea that replaced the previous assumption that the day job took care of the rent and anything more ambitious had to happen in one's spare time.

We are the heirs of these two very ambitious beliefs: that you can be in love and married, and in a job and having a good time. It has become as impossible for us to think that you could be out of work and happy as it had once seemed impossible for Aristotle to think that you could be employed and human. Thus is born The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work."
- Alain de Botton

Sharp Objects

by Gillian Flynn (Three Rivers, $14.00)

Some men live for the thrill of the hunt or the discovery of a new species; some strange folks get joy from discovering new writers. Stuart and I have stumbled across Gillian Flynn. Her books Sharp Objects and Dark Places are riveting, life devouring, and guilty escapist pleasures. Each novel is addicting and you want only to be left alone, with your book and your new found love.

Dad deserves a break. Give him this ridiculously addictive mystery, a cold beverage or two and let him go. I guarantee he'll devour this book and ask for another, cold drink or book by Gillian, probably both.

Fresh from her stay at a psych hospital, Camille Preaker's first assignment at her daily paper takes her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two pre-teen girls. As she works to uncover the truth, Camille finds herself identifying with the victims. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive.

"To say this is a terrific debut novel is really too mild... I found myself dreading the last thirty pages or so but was helpless to stop turning them. Then, after the lights were out, the story just stayed there in my head, coiled and hissing, like a snake in a cave. An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights."
- Stephen King

Summer World: A Season of Bounty

by Bernd Heinrich (Ecco, $26.99)

In Summer World: A Season of Bounty, Bernd Heinrich brings us the same bottomless reserve of wonder and reverence for the teeming animal life of backwoods New England that he brought us in Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival. Now he is focusing on the animal kingdom in the extremes of the warmer months, with all its feeding, nesting, fighting, and mating.

Whether presenting disquisitions on ant wars, the predatory characteristics of wasps, the mating rituals of woodpeckers, or describing an encounter with a road full of wood frogs, Summer World never stops observing the beautifully complex interactions of animals and plants with nature, giving extraordinary depth to the relationships between habitat and the warming of the earth. How can cicadas survive--and thrive--at temperatures pushing 115°F? Do hummingbirds know what they're up against before they migrate over the Gulf of Mexico? Why do some trees stop growing taller even when three months of warm weather remain? With awe and unmatched expertise, Heinrich explores hundreds of questions like these.

Exquisitely illustrated with dozens of the author's own drawings, Summer World is Bernd Heinrich's most engaging book to date, a fascinating work from one of our very best science writers.

"This lovely book, meticulously etched and based on impassioned but exacting scientific research, illustrates why Bernd Heinrich is generally regarded as the most truly Thoreauvian of modern natural history writers."
- Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of On Human Nature

"It is possible there is a better guide to the world around us than Bernd Heinrich, but I've not come across him. This is the book that will get you out the door into the season!"
- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Deep Economy

The Forever War

by Dexter Filkins (Vintage, $15.00) (Now in paperback)

Winner of the National Book Critics Award for Nonfiction!

An instant classic of war reporting, The Forever War is the definitive account of America's conflict with Islamic fundamentalism and a searing exploration of its human costs. Through the eyes of Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, we witness the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, the aftermath of the attack on New York on September 11th, and the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Filkins is the only American journalist to have reported on all these events, and his experiences are conveyed in a riveting narrative filled with unforgettable characters and astonishing scenes.

Brilliant and fearless, The Forever War is not just about America's wars after 9/11, but about the nature of war itself.

"Filkins makes us see, with almost hallucinogenic immediacy, the true human meaning and consequences of the 'War on Terror.' "
- The New York Times

"Dexter Filkins's The Forever War is the best piece of war journalism I've ever read. He paints a portrait of war that is so nuanced, so filled with absurdities and heartbreak and unexpected heroes and villains, that it makes most of what we see and hear about Iraq and Afghanistan seem shrill and two-dimensional by comparison. And yet, as tragic as the events he describes are, the book manages to be a thing of towering beauty."
- Dave Eggers, Guardian Best Books of the Year

Maine Birding Trail

by Bob Duchesne (Down East Books, $15.95)

The Maine Birding Trail Official Guide details over 260 sites, many of them off the beaten track and away from crowds. The guide features over 100 new maps, secrets for finding sought-after species, and advice on trip-planning. It includes bonus chapters on two nearby Canadian islands: Campobello and Grand Manan. As new public lands and private trusts have become available to birders over the last decade, this guide brings site descriptions of Maine birding into the 21st century.

Written by Maine State Representative, Bob Duchesne, this book will be a valuable tool for anyone interested in experiencing the breadth and diversity of Maine's feathered residents.

For more information on the Maine Birding Trail or to download a field checklist for your daddy, the amateur ornithologist, go to: www.mainebirdingtrail.com

Island Journal: Waypoints 1984-2009

(Island Institute, $24.95)

As a publication and an institution, the Island Journal and The Island Institute are top notch. We Mainers have reason to be proud and to celebrate the work and publication that our friends up in Rockland having been doing for the past quarter century.

The 25th-anniversary edition of Island Journal, the Island Institute's celebrated yearly magazine of island life, contains a tribute to Andrew Wyeth, "a man who loved islands" and an extraordinary folio of his island work. This year's expanded edition, entitled Island Journal: Waypoints 1984-2009, also includes a folio of Frenchboro paintings by Russian-born artist Daud Akhriev, new essays, and a retrospective of articles, poems and photographs that map the progress of the Institute's programs over the past 25 years.

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Yours in Books,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 06.10.09: Father's Day is Coming!

Greetings Dear Readers,

My Papa's Waltz

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

- Theodore Roethke

Read on for news of books
your old man might like to read.
If you see some that look
good, he'll be thankful indeed.

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Events!

from our friends at First Parish Church:

Tuesday, June 16th at 7:00 pm
*** at First Parish Church, 425 Congress St. ***

Out of the Shadow of Torture:

How to Move our Nation Forward with Accountability


a panel discussion featuring:

Matthew Alexander, former interrogator and author of How to Break A Terrorist

George Hunsinger, Princeton Seminary Theologian, author of Torture is a Moral Issue

Ben Wizner, staff attorney for the National Security Project at the ACLU

Tom Parker, policy director for Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Human Rights at Amnesty International

Richard Killmer, executive director, National Religious Campaign Against Torture

The discussion is being presented by The Greater Portland chapter of Amnesty International, the Maine Council of Churches, the Maine Civil Liberties
Union, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

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And Don't Miss!

Thursday, June 18th at 7 pm: Finding Father: A Father's Day poetry reading featuring local poets
Michael Macklin, Betsy Sholl, Martin Steingesser and Judy Tierney.

Friday, June 19th at 7 pm: A launch party for Nicole Chaisson and her new book, The Passion of the Hausfrau:
Motherhood, Illuminated.

Thursday, June 25th at 7 pm: A reading and signing with James Hayman for his new thriller set here in Portland,
The Cutting.

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Books for Dad!

Home Game

by Michael Lewis (Norton, $23.95)

One of the funniest and most honest portrayals of fatherhood that this reader has ever experienced. Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of
Moneyball and Blindside, is at the top of his game as he explores the reality of being a dad, one mistake at a time.

Here's an excerpt:

"I inherited from my father a peculiar form of indolence--not outright laziness so much as a gift for avoiding unpleasant
chores without attracting public notice. My father took it almost as a matter of principle that most problems, if ignored, simply went away. And that his
children were, more or less, among those problems. 'I didn't even talk to you until you went away to college,' he once said to me, as he watched me attempt to
dress a six month old. 'Your mother did all the dirty work.'

Renegade

by Richard Wolfe (Crown, $26.00)

Before the White House and Air Force One, before the TV ads and the enormous rallies, there was the real Barack Obama: a man wrestling with the
momentous decision to run for the presidency, feeling torn about leaving a young family behind and figuring out how to win the biggest prize in politics.

This book is the previously untold and epic story of how a political newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into the world's most powerful
leader. It is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the Secret Service code name Renegade.

"If you really want to know what happened inside the Obama campaign, this is the one book that will take you there. My jaw
dropped time and time again reading details that, despite the coverage, were never revealed in the long campaign. A clear-eyed, up-close look at the campaign,
Renegade is the one Obama book that should not be missed."
- Michele Norris, NPR, All Things
Considered

"This is an insightful, unusually moving, fully observed portrait of the improbable candidate and complicated man who would be
president. If Jefferson started the exalted but flawed exercise and Lincoln enlarged it, then with Richard Wolfe's wonderful new book--graced as it is with a
journalist's eye and a historian's breadth and command--we are granted access to the second skinny lawyer form Illinois who would save our country.
Marvelous."
- Ken Burns, filmmaker

Shop Class as Soulcraft

by Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin, $25.95)

“Every once in a great while, a book will come along that's brilliant and true and perfect for its time. Matthew B. Crawford's
Shop Class as Soulcraft is that kind of book, a prophetic and searching examination of what we've lost by ceasing to work with our
hands--and how we can get it back. During this time of cultural anxiety and reckoning, when the conventional wisdom that has long driven our wealthy,
sophisticated culture is floundering amid an economic and spiritual tempest, Crawford's liberating volume appears like a lifeboat on the
horizon."
- Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to
Roots

"Philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford presents a fascinating, important analysis of the value of hard work and
manufacturing. He reminds readers that in the 1990s vocational education (shop class) started to become a thing of the past as U.S. educators prepared students
for the "knowledge revolution." Thus, an entire generation of American "thinkers" cannot, he says, "do" anything, and this is a
threat to manufacturing, the fundamental backbone of economic development. His philosophical background is evident as he muses on how to live a pragmatic,
concrete life in today's ever more abstract world and issues a clarion call for reviving trade and skill development classes in American preparatory schools.
The result is inspired social criticism and deep personal exploration."
- Library Journal

The Scarecrow

by Michael Connelly (Little Brown, $27.99)

"Connelly comments on the plight of print journalism in a nail-biting thriller featuring reporter Jack McEvoy, last seen in
2004's The Narrows. When Jack is laid off from the L.A. Times with 14 days' notice to tie up loose ends, he decides
to go out with a bang. What starts as a story about the wrongful arrest of a young gangbanger for the brutal rape and murder of an exotic dancer turns out to
be just the tip of an iceberg that takes McEvoy from the Nevada desert to a futuristic data-hosting facility in Arizona. FBI agent Rachel Walling, with whom he
worked on a serial killer case in 1996's The Poet, soon joins the hunt, but as the pair uncover more about the killer and his unsettling
predilections, they realize that they too are being hunted. With every switch between McEvoy's voice and the villain's, Connelly ratchets up the tension. This
magnificent effort is a reminder of why Connelly is one of today's top crime authors."
-
Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Even confirmed Harry Bosch fans will have to admit that this Harry-less novel is one of Connelly's very best."
-
Booklist, starred review

Red and Me

by Bill Russell (Harper, $24.99)

"A must read for hoop fans--after all, Russell and Auerbach are two of the biggest figures in the history of the game. But this
is much more than a book about basketball. It's a book about Russell the man and the unique roles Red played in his life: coach, mentor, life-long friend. Two
fascinating characters that make for a thoroughly enjoyable read."
- Matt Swanson, Senior Bookseller and Hoop-head

"Red Auerbach and I were friends our whole adult lives--almost fifty years--but we never talked about it. That was part of why
the friendship worked. He always knew he was one of the few people I cared a great deal about and I knew I was one of the few people he cared a great deal
about. It didn't have to be said."
- Bill Russell

Gone Tomorrow

by Lee Child (Delacorte, $27.00)

Jack Reacher is back. It's 2:00 a.m. on a New York city subway car and something is just not right. Jack makes a choice that sets off a chain of
events that take the reader through the dark warrens of New York.

"All good thriller writers know how to build suspense and keep the pages turning, but only better ones deliver tight plots as
well, and only the best allow the reader to match wits with both the hero and the author. Bestseller Child does all of that in spades in his 13th Jack Reacher
adventure (after Nothing to Lose). Early one morning on a nearly empty Manhattan subway car, the former army MP notices a woman passenger
he suspects is a suicide bomber. The deadly result of his confronting her puts him on a trail leading back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and
forward to the war on terrorism. Reacher finds a bit of help among the authorities demanding answers from him, like the NYPD and the FBI, as well as threats
and intimidation. And then there are the real bad guys that the old pro must track down and eliminate. Child sets things up subtly and ingeniously, then lets
Reacher use both strength and guile to find his way to the exciting
climax."
- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

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Yours In Books,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 06.03.09: Templar Knights in Maine & 6 Books We Love

Greetings Dear Readers,

Secret societies, ancient conspiracies, lost treasures, and a life or death struggle--right in our own backyard. This Friday, bestselling author David Brody will be here to read from his new book, Cabal of the Westford Knight. It follows the legend of a 14th century Templar Knight who came to (what was later) the New England Coast, and the thrilling present-day struggle to uncover the truth.

For more on David's new book, as well as six other books you won't want to miss, read on.

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Friday, June 5th at 7 pm
DAVID BRODY
author of
Cabal of the Westford Knight

Nearly one hundred years before Columbus landed in the New World, a group of Scottish explorers touched down in Massachusetts, leaving behind a number of mysterious fragments scattered around New England that serve as clues to their expedition over 600 years ago.

Or so goes the theory: in 1398, Scottish Prince Henry Sinclair and his men landed on the coast of what would later be Massachusetts. Who Sinclair was and just what he was doing there is the subject of a new book by David Brody, Cabal of the Westford Knight. The Ohio Record-Courier calls it "an absolutely first-class, jaw-dropping, blue-ribbon, brass-band winner." Whew.

The Westford Knight is a stone carving found in Westford, Ma. that depicts a knight holding a sword and shield. It is thought to be a marker left in tribute to a fallen comrade, one in their party who died along the way. Other artifacts add to the mystery, including a medieval-style stone tower in Newport, and a set of stones with runic engravings found in Maine and elsewhere.

Brody's new historical thriller explores the legend of Sinclair, purported to be one of the Knights Templar. A present day attorney gets caught up in a violent struggle to keep the truth under wraps, as a centuries old plot emerges. He finds himself in a race against a secret society that will stop at nothing to prevent him from uncovering ancient secrets about the Catholic Church, vast treasures, and the members of Jesus’ bloodline. Cabal of the Westford Knight combines history and suspense in a novel that transfixes readers. Publishers Weekly calls it “extremely well-researched,” and says Brody “does a terrific job of wrapping his research in a fast-paced thrill ride.” For more information about David Brody, his research and his other works, visit www.davidbrodybooks.com.

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Books!

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. (Plume, $15.00) Now in Paperback

"Every brain has a story and this is mine. Ten years ago, I was at Harvard Medical School performing research and teaching young professionals about the human brain. But on December 10, 1996, I was given a lesson of my own. That morning, I experienced a rare form of stroke in the left hemisphere of my brain. A major hemorrhage, due to an undiagnosed congenital malformation of blood vessels in my head, erupted unexpectedly. Within four brief hours, through the eyes of a curious brain anatomist, I watched my mind completely deteriorate in its ability to process information. By the end of that morning, I could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of my life. Curled up into a little fetal ball, I felt my spirirt surrender to my death, and it certainly never dawned on me that I would ever be capable of sharing my story with anyone.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey is a chronological documentation of the journey I took into the formless abyss of a silent mind, where the essence of my being became enfolded in a deep inner peace. This book is a weaving of my academic training with personal experience and insight. As far as I am aware, this is the first documented account of a neuroanatomist who has completely recovered from a severe brain hemorrhage. I am thrilled that these words will finally go out into the world where they might do the most good."
- from the Introduction

"Taylor's description of the onset and progression of the stroke... is gripping. Taylor's bravery and resilience are formidable and help to dispel the simplistic notion of disability as a disaster. This book is a valuable addition to the narratives of stroke."
- The New England Journal of Medicine

Horse Soldiers
by Doug Stanton (Scribner, $28.00)

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horseback against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban. These horse soldiers combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople and avoid civilian casualties proved a valuable lesson for America's ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.

"In the spirit of Black Hawk Down and Flags of Our Fathers, Doug Stanton plunges into the heart of a single mission and returns with a stark understanding not only of what happened but what was truly at stake. Through precise reportage and hauntingly rendered battle scenes, Stanton shows that we may ignore this 'forgotten' theater only at our own peril."
- Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder

The Coast of Maine
by Carl
Heilman (Rizzoli, $17.95)

One of the most stunning books on Maine that we have seen in a long time. It's only 278 miles from Kittery to West Quoddy Head Light, but Maine's circuitous coast contains 3,500 miles of shoreline, and Carl Heilman's new book of photography reminds us of the incredible natural beauty to be found around every bend. From sunrise over Back Cove to the puffins Down East to ice-covered cliffs on Mount Desert Island, The Coast of Maine makes you see again the beauty of our home state. Hundreds of photographs, all in a book slightly larger than a piece of toast. Rizolli is considered one of the preeminent art and photography publishers in the world, so it seems our coast has finally arrived since being inhabited some 12,000 years ago.

Losing Mum and Pup
by Christopher Buckley (Hachette, $24.99)

In twelve months between 2007 and 2008, Christopher Buckley endured the passing of his father, William F. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, and his mother, Patricia Taylor Buckley, one of New York's most glamorous and colorful socialites. As Buckley tells the story of their final year together, he takes readers on a surprisingly entertaining tour through hospitals, funeral homes, and memorial services, capturing the heartbreaking and disorienting feeling of becoming a 55-year-old orphan. Buckley maintains his sense of humor by recalling the words of Oscar Wilde: "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."

"Whether or not your parents are Pat and William F. Buckley, it's wrenching to say goodbye... Losing Mum and Pup is emphatically as billed: occasionally about family life but mostly a sad, intermittently angry and ambivalent chronicle of illness, decline and bereavement... wonderful detail... This was not the book Christopher Buckley was meant to write. But it's the one he had to, and that gives it great punch."
- Town and Country

Hubert's Freaks
by Gregory
Gibson (Mariner, $14.95)

From the moment Bob Langmuir, a down-and-out rare book dealer, spies some intriguing photographs in the archive of a midcentury Times Square freak show, he knows he's on to something. It turns out he's made the find of a lifetime--never-before-seen prints by the legendary Diane Arbus. Furthermore, he begins to suspect that what he's found may add a pivotal chapter to what is now known about Arbus, as well as what Greil Marcus called the "old weird America."

Bob's ensuing adventure--a roller-coaster ride filled with bizarre characters and coincidences--takes him from the fringes of the rare book business to Sotheby's Auction House, and from the exhibits of a run-down Times Square freak show to the curator's office of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Will the photos be authenticated? How will Arbus's notoriously protective daughter react? Most importantly, can Bob, who always manages to screw up his most promising deals, finally make just one big score?

Forest Trees of Maine

by The Maine Forest Service ($15.00)

To commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Forest Trees of Maine, the Maine Forest Service recently released an expanded 14th edition. It offers a wealth of information about trees and woody shrubs that grow in the state (and in much of the Northeast and the Maritime Provinces of Canada.) The book discusses 78 types of woody plants, from well-known and commercially important trees like red oak and balsam fir to relatively rare species such as mountain laurel and black tupelo. For the first time, readers can see Maine's woody plants not only in traditional, black-and-white line drawings, but in full-color photographs. The new edition offers a number of other improvements, including range maps, a winter key, historic photos and an illustrated glossary.

Forest Trees of Maine is no less a classic of Maine writing than Come Spring or We Took to the Woods. The unheralded state employees who wrote and revised the pocket-sized volume over the last century achieved what most authors only dream about: a publication that is as comfortable on a coffee table at camp as it is in a seventh-grade classroom or in the personal library of a forest industry executive, and one that remains readable decades after it was written. It is remarkably well done.

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If you would like to open your doors to a student from China or Spain for a few weeks this summer, please contact: lgbowe@gmail.com

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Yours in Books,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 05.27.09: The Power of Books

Greetings Dear Readers,

O, the power of books! Tomorrow night's reading with Steve Mumford features not only a riveting true story, but a tribute to the written word, and its ability to keep our stories alive long after we've passed on.

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Thursday, May 28th at 7 pm
STEVE
MUMFORD
presents
Trek:
An American Woman, Two Small Children, and Survival in WW2 Germany

Trek is Mary Hunt Jentsch's firsthand account of her family's escape from Germany during World War II.

Mary Hunt met German-born Gerhard Jentsch in 1921 while he studied at Harvard. They married and moved to Geneva, where Gerhard found work and the couple had two children. All was well, but not for long.

The young Jentsch family moves to Berlin in early 1940, and soon finds themselves in the midst of a raging world war. Separated from her husband, Mary and her two children are left to fend for themselves. The nights are full of the sounds of allied bombing, entire neighborhoods left smoldering. The family finds temporary refuge in a countryside village, but as Russian tanks approach, they go on the run once more, in a desperate trek towards safety.

Mary passed away in 1972, but her story lives on in her writing. Steve Mumford, Mary's grandson, provides further history, context and insight in the foreward and epilogue he wrote for Trek, as well as maps of the journey and vintage photographs of the family.

Steve, a renowned painter, has had his own share of wartime experiences, spending considerable time in Baghdad as an embedded artist documenting the Iraq War.
Steve will be here Thursday night to present the book and talk about his grandmother's extraordinary life.

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Books For a Rainy Week!

New in paperback, here are a few books to help pass the rainy days ahead:

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

(Penguin, $15)

The remarkable story of a neurologist who suffers a debilitating stroke, and her road to recovery.

Fathers & Sons & Sports

(ESPN, $15)

A collection of true stories about fathers and sons, and the role of sports in their relationships, featuring the work of Buzz Bissinger, Donald Hall, Dan Shaughnessy, Norman Maclean and others.

The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

(Three Rivers Press, $14.95)

The incredible true story of a 1787 bottle of wine and the cast of thieves, con men and eccentrics--even Thomas Jefferson--whose lives intersect around it.

The Likeness by Tana French

(Penguin, $15)

A riveting new psycological thriller from the Edgar Award-winning author of In the Woods.

A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy by Charlotte Grieg

(Other Press, $14.95)

A moving and earnest tale of a college student--struggling with life, relationships and an unplanned pregnancy--who finds unexpected comfort in the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and others.

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In Books We Trust,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books

Email 05.19.09: The Fight Against Hunger

Greetings Dear Readers,

It's always a thrill to connect an eager reader with a new book, or help herald a new author. But sometimes we get a special opportunity, a chance to raise awareness for an important issue that concerns us all. With that in mind, we hope you'll come by to see Joel Berg this Thursday night.

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Thursday, May 21st at 7 pm
JOEL BERG
author of
All You Can Eat:
How Hungry is America?

It may not get the same coverage as other issues in this country, but there's no denying it: hunger is still a major problem facing America today. Bureaucrats don't even want to use the word 'hunger'--these days they say 'food insecure,' hardly a comforting change for the more than 36 million Americans who struggle to get adequate food on a daily basis.

At the forefront of the fight to end hunger in America is Joel Berg. He served for eight years in the Clinton Administration working towards food security, before becoming Executive Director of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger. A tireless advocate, he has found time to write a book on the problem of hunger called All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? Joel will be at Longfellow Books on May 21st to talk about his book, his work, and the ongoing fight against hunger.

"Joel Berg packs all his years of thinking and working into a powerful series of essays," says Robert Egger, Founder of the DC Central Kitchen, "[It] is guaranteed to challenge your perceptions about the history of hunger and poverty, while also providing 21st century solutions. Joel is, flat out, one of the boldest thinkers in the fight [against hunger], and All You Can Eat will prove it."

Berg details not only the history of hunger in this country, but the ongoing political battles waged around it. His well-articulated arguments are backed up by a wealth of data. Perhaps most importantly, what follows his examination of the problem is a clearly defined plan for bringing an end to hunger in America. The book challenges the new President to make hunger eradication a top priority--and offers him a simple and affordable plan to end it for good. What kind of funding would it take to eradicate hunger? Less than 2% of the recent Wall Street bailout.

Joel is hopeful for the future, and in the meantime, continues to fight for real change. His reading will be a fundraiser for the Preble Street. We'll be donating a portion of the day's sales to their cause. We also hope that you'll consider making a donation as well. Our first thought was to hold a food drive, until we learned more about Preble Street--that as a non-profit they have far more buying power than the average consumer, that as the lone source of food for many they serve, great care is taken to provide complete nutrition. The best thing you can do is help provide them with the funding they need to do their work and continue to serve the greater Portland community. For more about Preble Street and the work they do, visit www.preblestreet.org.

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In Books We Trust,

Chris & Co.
Longfellow Books