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Store Hours
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Mon - Fri 9:30 - 6:00
Sat 9:30 - 5:00
Sun Noon - 5:00
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Upcoming Events
Please join us for an event with Caroline Preston and The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
11/15 (Tuesday) all day-
Book Fair to support the
Alcott Elementary School PTG
11/15 (Tuesday) 1pm-
Please join us for an event with children's author Patricia MacLachlan and her two most recent books: Your Moon, My Moon and Waiting for the Magic
11/15 (Tuesday) 2pm-
We welcome children's author Jane Schoenberg with The One and Only Stuey Lewis
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Greetings!
Our next event is on Saturday, November 12 at 1 pm. In conjunction with the Concord Children's Center Book Fair, children's author/illustrator David Hyde Costello will visit the Bookshop with Little Pig Joins the Band.
On Sunday, November 13, author Caroline Preston visits to discuss her newest novel, The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures.
Our complete events schedule is listed in the left sidebar of this weekly newsletter and on our Facebook page.
If you're unable to attend an event, but would like a signed copy of the book, please call us to pre-order. We'll have the book personally inscribed to your specifications, hold it for pick-up, or arrange to ship it.
Our featured books this week include a fascinating history of humanity, explored through the objects we make; the controversial new novel from Umberto Eco; new fiction set on on the stage; and, for Young Adults, the final installment in the Inheritance cycle. 
Scroll down in this newsletter to peak at our front window celebrating the centennial of Emerson Hospital.
As always, we look forward to chatting with you in the Bookshop; be sure to check out our table displays in the children's section - one features the 2011 Best Illustrated Children's Books (pictured above), selected by the New York Times Book Review. Comments are also welcome via email to
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Our next event -
Saturday November 12 at 1pm
Little Pig Joins the Band written and illustrated by
David Hyde Costello
Please join us for a special event with children's author/illustrator David Hyde Costello, as he reads and signs Little Pig Joins the Band accompanied by music on the ukulele and 'kazumpet' - a kazoo/trumpet hybrid of his own making!
"Little Pig has trouble keeping up with his older--and bigger --brothers and sisters. When they get out Grandpa's old marching-band instruments, Little Pig is too little to play any of them. But when the disorganized band has a pig-pile mishap, Little Pig has a BIG idea: They could use a leader."
Author/illustrator David Hyde Costello has worked as a scenic artist for motion pictures and the stage,and has created puppets for theatrical productions. He is the author of Here They Come! and I Can Help. In conjunction with the Concord Children's Center Book Fair, Mr. Costello will be at the Concord Bookshop on Saturday, November 12 at 1pm; it's sure to be a fun afternoon!
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Also this weekend -
Sunday November 13 at 3pm
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
by Caroline Preston
Author of the New York Times Notable Book Jackie by Josie, Caroline Preston pulls from her extraordinary collection of vintage ephemera to create the first-ever scrapbook novel, transporting us back to the vibrant, burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and introducing us to an unforgettable heroine, the spirited, ambitious, and lovely Frankie Pratt.
"For her graduation from high school in 1920, Frankie receives a scrapbook and her father's old Corona typewriter. Frankie's dreams of becoming a writer, and the reader follows her journey in search of success and love. This journey takes her from Vassar, to Greenwich Village, to Paris, and back to her small New England home again."
There is no "photo-shop" manipulation here, every illustration in the novel is comprised of vintage postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric swatches, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus, and more, pulled from the author's collection, which began back when she was in high school, poring through her mother's and grandmother's scrapbooks.
Caroline Preston returns to the Concord Bookshop on Sunday, November 13, at 3pm, reading and signing The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, as well as discussing the techniques by which she created this novel, in which each page is uniquely illustrated in full-color scrapbook style.
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New in our signed books gallery
Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin
The award-winning author of Waiting and War Trash returns to his homeland in a searing new novel that unfurls during one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century: the Rape of Nanjing.
In 1937, with the Japanese poised to invade Nanjing, Minnie Vautrin - an American missionary and the dean of Jinling Women's College - decides to remain at the school, convinced that her American citizenship will help her safeguard the welfare of the Chinese men and women who work there. She is painfully mistaken. In the aftermath of the invasion, the school becomes a refugee camp for more than ten thousand homeless women and children, and Vautrin must struggle, day after day, to intercede on behalf of the hapless victims. Even when order and civility are eventually restored, Vautrin remains deeply embattled, and she is haunted by the lives she could not save.
With extraordinarily evocative precision, Ha Jin re-creates the terror, the harrowing deprivations, and the menace of unexpected violence that defined life in Nanjing during the occupation. In Minnie Vautrin he has given us an indelible portrait of a woman whose convictions and bravery prove, in the end, to be no match for the maelstrom of history.
At once epic and intimate, Nanjing Requiem is historical fiction at its most resonant.
We have signed editions of Nanjing Requiem on our shelves!
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Living and Painting in a Changing New England
by Loring W. Coleman
On Sunday were delighted to host an engaging and entertaining conversation with Loring W. Coleman, distinguished New England painter. Many thanks to the Powers Gallery of Acton for displaying some of Mr. Coleman's art at the bookshop during the event.
Coleman's voice as a storyteller is full of his humor and sense of wonder as he tells us about his life and then gives us the tales behind the beauty and mystery of over 50 of his paintings, most of which are reflections of a disappearing life in New England.
In the context of his rich personal life, Loring shows us his paintings, as he reveals the many amusing, exasperating, and provocative experiences surrounding the artistic choices he made as he became one of New England's most revered artists.
Additional copies of Living and Painting in a Changing New England are on their way - please call the bookshop at 978-369-2405 to pre-order a signed edition. |
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History of humanity from the director of the British Museum
A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
"Sometimes it's the little things that tell the best story. Across the ages, everyday items like plates, pots and even pipes have stood the test of time - and they are just as integral to our history as any monument or cathedral."
- NPR Staff
When did people first start to wear jewelry or play music? When were cows domesticated and why do we feed their milk to our children? Where were the first cities and what made them succeed? Who invented math-or came up with money?
The history of humanity is a history of invention and innovation, as we have continually created new items to use, to admire, or to leave our mark on the world. In this original and thought-provoking book, Neil MacGregor has selected one hundred man-made artifacts, each of which gives us an intimate glimpse of an unexpected turning point in human civilization.
This handsome book stretches back two million years and covers the globe; each item has a story to tell; together they relate the larger history of mankind-revealing who we are by looking at what we have made.
With more than 150 color photographs throughout the text, A History of the World in 100 Objects is a gorgeous reading book and makes a great gift for anyone interested in history.
Author Neil MacGregor has been the director of the British Museum since 2002; prior to that, he was the director of the National Gallery in London.
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Controversial new fiction from best-selling author
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco; translated by Richard Dixon
"A whirlwind tour of conspiracy and political intrigue...this dark tale is delightfully embellished with sophisticated and playful commentary on, among other things, Freud, metafiction, and the challenges of historiography."
- Booklist
Nineteenth-century Europe - from Turin to Prague to Paris - abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate Black Masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres. From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Dreyfus Affair to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies both real and imagined, lay one lone man? What if that evil genius created its most infamous document?
Eco takes his readers on an unforgettable journey through the underbelly of world-shattering events. The Prague Cemetery is Umberto Eco at his most exciting, a highly anticipated book which has been immediately hailed as a masterpiece and sold in more than forty countries.
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New fiction, paperback
Lucky Break by Esther Freud
"Absorbing... [Freud] captures fleeting hopes, insecurities, and self-doubts... [and] brings a touch of irony to the red carpet."
- Kirkus Reviews
Esther Freud's seventh novel is now available in a paperback original format. Lucky Break may pull from some of Freud's own observations and experiences as an actress.
It is their first day at Drama Arts, and the nervous students huddled in a circle are told in no uncertain terms that here, unlike at any other drama school, they will be taught to Act. To Be. To exist in their own world on the stage. But outside is the real world - a pitiless, alluring place in which each of them in their most fervent dreams hopes to flourish and excel.
Over the following decade, these young actors grapple with haphazard tours, illogical auditions, unobtainable agents, deluxe trailers, rocky relationships, and red-carpet premieres. This dazzling new novel from Esther Freud uncovers a world of ruthless ambition, uncertain alliances, and the many-sided holy grail of Success. Author Esther Freud (daughter of painter Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud) was born in London in 1963. She trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a feature film starring Kate Winslet. |
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Young Adults: The final volume of the "Inheritance cycle"
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
The much-anticipated, astonishing conclusion to the worldwide bestselling Inheritance cycle is here now!
This is the final installment in the series, following Eragon (2002), Eldest (2005), and Brisingr (2008).
Not so very long ago, Eragon-Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider-was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders.
Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances.
The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alagaësia? And if so, at what cost?
Author Christopher Paolini lives in Montana, where the natural landscape has been a major inspiration in the creation of his stories.
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In Our Window
Emerson Hospital, founded in 1911
This week's window display was created by Emerson Hospital in celebration of their centennial.
With the upcoming Centennial Ball, the hospital hopes to raise $250,000 to support the redevelopment of the hospital's Pediatric Center.
The window display highlights the growth of Emerson Hospital, and includes some historic photographs.
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