Book of the Week (4/22/2024) and more...

Bestselling romance author Sarina Bowen’s debut thriller, about one woman’s search for the truth after receiving a text from her deceased ex.

She thought it was love. Then he vanished.

On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty's phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it's been several years since she learned he died.

Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.

Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her. 

The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew. 

For fans of Laura Dave and Julie Clark, but with a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end. -- Publisher's blurb

About the author:

Sarina Bowen is a 24-time USA Today bestselling author, and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. She lives with her family on a few wooded acres in New Hampshire.

Join Sarina at Gibson's Bookstore on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 at 6:30 pm!

   

Jennifer Militello (photo by Peter Biello)

 CONCORD, N.H., March 22, 2024 – New Hampshire’s Executive Council has confirmed Governor Chris Sununu’s nomination of Jennifer Militello of Goffstown, N.H., as the next New Hampshire Poet Laureate. 

Militello will serve a five-year term beginning April 2024. The state’s Poet Laureate serves as an ambassador for all poets in New Hampshire and works to heighten the visibility and value of poetry in the state. 

The New Hampshire Poet Laureate position includes an honorarium of $1000 for each year of the five-year term to help the next Poet Laureate achieve his/her/their stated mission. Funding comes from contributions made to the Walter Butts’ New Hampshire Poet Laureate Fund, created in memory of the recent New Hampshire Poet Laureate, and coordinated through the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, which also contributes to the honorarium. 

Militello is an acclaimed and award-winning poet, author, and teacher, celebrated across the United States and in the United Kingdom. Militello has supported poetry in New Hampshire throughout her life, including as a founding director of the New Hampshire Poetry Festival and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at New England College. She is the author of five books of poetry and the memoir Knock Wood (Dzanc Books, 2019), winner of the Dzanc Nonfiction Prize. Her third book of poetry, Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013) was named one of the top books of 2013 by Best American Poetry and was the runner-up for the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award. Her fourth book of poetry, A Camouflage of Specimens and Garments (Tupelo Press, 2016) was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and the Sheila Margaret Motion Prize. Militello’s poems have appeared in numerous publications, including American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Poetry Review, and Tin House, as well as in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets. She has been awarded the Barbara Bradley Award, and the Yeats Poetry Prize, among others, and has had various grants and fellowships from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Writers at Work, and others.

“New Hampshire boasts one of the richest poetry traditions in the nation, and it will be my deepest honor to celebrate and nurture that statewide love of poetry as New Hampshire’s next Poet Laureate,” said Militello. “A poem helps us consider our most complex emotions and define what it means to be human. I encourage my Granite State neighbors to reach out to me as, together, we unearth what poetry offers those of us living in this magnificent state.”

Nominations were received from across the state and reviewed by a committee comprised of representatives from the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, community poet laureate programs, and other select members from the New Hampshire literary community. 

“Jennifer’s passion for poetry is evident in all she has accomplished in both writing and teaching.  Her vision for tapping into the revived energy and enthusiasm for gathering and writing, supporting writing in the K-12 grades, and building a network for youth and the underrepresented, will continue to make poetry accessible, inclusive, and relevant.  We are excited for the opportunities we know Jennifer will bring to the poetry community across New Hampshire and in the surrounding communities,” said Melanie Chicoine, president of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, the organization charged with submitting a recommendation to the Governor.

Established by the state legislature in 1967, New Hampshire’s Poet Laureate is an honorary five-year position held by an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of poetry. The impressive list of former New Hampshire Poets Laureate includes Alexandria Peary, Alice Fogel, Walter Butts, Patricia Fargnoli, Marie Harris, Donald Hall, Cynthia Huntington, Jane Kenyon, and Maxine Kumin. 

For more information about the New Hampshire Poet Laureate, visit the NH Poet Laureate page at psnh.org or the Art and Artists page at the NH State Council on the Arts website.

   

The region that defined Yankee ingenuity has a beer heritage in keeping with its character. Brewing in New England goes back four centuries, beginning with the Pilgrims who dropped anchor in Plymouth because their supply of beer was running low. (After barely surviving the winter, they planted a crop of barley and soon brewed their first ale.) Making beer in New England hasn't always been easy. Puritan housewives, industrial era beer moguls, and contemporary craft brewers alike have concocted humankind's oldest beverage in the face of scarce ingredients, legal hurdles, and public indifference. But despite these challenges, beer continues to be a staple of New England life.

With Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day, Lauren Clark deepens our appreciation for the perfect pint. Giving voice to the inimitable Yankee spirit that allows New Englanders to faithfully produce some of the best beers in the nation, Clark invites readers to take a giant swig of brewing past and present. --Publisher's blurb

   

Hannah Ballard’s most successful relationship: her career.

Her superpower is an uncanny ability to discover perfect movie settings while avoiding the limelight herself. Promoted from location scout to location manager, she’s involved in pre-production for a film based on a bestselling historical novel. A chance meeting with an aristocratic landowner leads her to Somerset and his estate in picturesque Milver Vale—the ideal backdrop for a period drama.

Martin Latimer, Marquess of Milverston, believes the release of a high-profile motion picture can increase tourism and bolster the local economy. And he hopes to spend more time with its intriguing location manager.

After Hannah suffers a professional setback, she accepts Martin’s invitation to attend the annual village festival before flying home to hunt for her next job. Proximity and mutual passion propel the couple into an exhilarating affair. But Hannah’s discovery that Martin is a magnet for the scandal-hungry press forces her into a painful and damaging decision.

Powering through heartbreak is hard. Especially when coping with unemployment-and dealing with members of her fractured family. For their protection, she must part from the nobleman asking her to stay with him. Who makes her believe that, at long last, she actually could be falling in love. --Publisher's blurb

About the author: 

Margaret Porter is the award-winning and bestselling author of sixteen novels in multiple genres. A former stage actress, she also worked professionally in film, television, and radio. She and her husband live in Concord, New Hampshire.

Join Margaret at Gibson's Bookstore on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 6:30 pm as she discusses her new book!

   

The shortlist for the 2024 Dublin Literary Award was announced recently.