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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
Open 24/7 online at:
www.concordBookshop.com
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Greetings!
Our next event is Sunday, June 3 at 3pm, when Harvard sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot presents Exit: The Endings That Set Us Free. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by Q&A, and book signing.
The following week, Sunday, June 10 at 3pm, we'll be joined by Nichole Bernier, reading and signing her novel, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. Nichole is a Boston-area author with a strong social media presence; you may be familiar with her literary blog, Beyond the Margins.
The left sidebar of this note contains our complete events calendar; you can also check details on our website and/or rsvp on our Facebook page.
If you're unable to attend an event, but would like a signed copy of the book, simply call us to pre-order. We'll ask the author to inscribe it to your specifications, then hold it for pick up or arrange to have it shipped. 
Scroll down to learn about this week's book picks, which include a few selections about David Hockney, and ideas for graduates. If you're looking for a gift for the graduate (from pre-K through university), please browse our table display, or ask one of our staff for a recommendation.
Our community window features the upcoming Garden Tours to benefit the Concord Museum; details are below.
We look forward to chatting with you in the Bookshop! When you come in to take a closer look at an item mentioned here, please tell us "I saw it in the newsletter" and let us know what you're reading now!
Comments are always welcome via email to
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Our next event:
Renowned Harvard sociologist presents on June 3
Exit by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Please join us on Sunday, June 3 at 3pm, when Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot presents her research on the wisdom of saying goodbye in Exit: The Endings That Set Us Free.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is enthralled by exits: long farewells, quick goodbyes, sudden endings, the ordinary and the extraordinary. There's a relationship, she attests, between small goodbyes and our ability "to master and mark the larger farewells."
In Exit, her tenth book, she explores the ways we leave one thing and move on to the next; how we anticipate, define, and reflect on our departures; our epiphanies that something is over and done with.
Too often, Lawrence-Lightfoot believes, we exalt new beginnings at the expense of learning from our goodbyes. Exit finds wisdom and perspective in the possibility of moving on and marks the start of a new conversation, to help us discover how we might make our exits with purpose and dignity.
Author Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a MacArthur prize-winning sociologist, is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University, where, since 1972, she has studied the culture of families, communities, and schools, and the relationships between human development and social change.
She is the author of ten books, including The Third Chapter, Respect, and The Essential Conversation. In 1993, she was awarded Harvard's George Ledlie Prize; she is the recipient of twenty-eight honorary degrees and is the first African-American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.
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Upcoming event:
Boston-area author
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D by Nichole Bernier
Please join us on Sunday, June 10 at 3pm, when Boston-area author Nichole Bernier reads from and signs her novel, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.
The novel has been called "both a compelling mystery and a wise meditation on friendship, marriage and motherhood in an age of great anxiety." by New York Times bestselling author J. Courtney Sullivan (Maine and Commencement):
Kate Spenser is desperately in need of a vacation. Reeling from the death of her best friend Elizabeth a year prior, unnerved in the post-9/11 world, and struggling with her role as a stay-at-home mom and her deferred career ambitions, she longs for the safe haven of her family's summer rental on Great Rock Island. But Kate's baggage follows her to the island in the form of a trunk full of Elizabeth's private journals, a weighty inheritance that came with one instruction: Start at the beginning.
To Kate's surprise, the diaries reveal a dark side to Elizabeth she never knew existed. Underneath the cheerful façade of the perfect wife and mother, Elizabeth was a frustrated artist with a troubled family history, battling depression and a deep ambivalence toward marriage and family. As a mysterious man surfaces in the diary pages, Kate's basic sense of morality and fidelity is tested. Delving deeper into Elizabeth's past casts a shadow of uncertainty over Kate's own seemingly perfect life and begs the question - how well can we really know the people we love? And how well do we let them know us?
Nichole received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has written for magazines including Elle, Self, Health, Men's Journal, Child and Yankee; she was a 14-year contributing editor to Conde Nast Traveler magazine and a senior editor at Boston Magazine. She is one of the founders of the literary blog Beyond the Margins, which features daily essays on the craft and business of publishing. Nichole is at work on her second novel, and lives outside of Boston with her husband and five children. Follow her on twitter at @NicholeBernier.
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David Hockney biography
David Hockney: The Biography by Christopher Simon Sykes
"The timing couldn't be better for this enjoyable and well-sourced book, which - like Hockney's own work - is both conversational and perceptive."
--Los Angeles Times
In this, the first volume of Hockney's biography, detailing his life and work from 1937 - 1975, Christopher Simon Sykes explores the fascinating world of the beloved and controversial artist whose career has spanned and epitomized the art movements of the last five decades. Drawing on exclusive and unprecedented access to David Hockney's extensive archives, notebooks, and paintings, interviews with family, friends, and on Hockney himself, Sykes provides a colorful and intimate portrait of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.
Born in 1937, David Hockney grew up in a northern English town during the days of postwar austerity. By the time he was ten years old he knew he wanted to be an artist, and after leaving school he went on to study at Bradford Art College and later at the Royal College of Art in London. Bursting onto the scene at the Young Contemporaries exhibition, Hockney was quickly heralded as the golden boy of postwar British art and a leading proponent of pop art. It was during the swinging 60s in London that he befriended many of the seminal cultural figures of the generation and throughout these years Hockney's career grew. Always absorbed in his work, he drew, painted and etched for long hours each day, but it was a scholarship that led him to California, where he painted his iconic series of swimming pools. Since then, the most prestigious galleries across the world have devoted countless shows to his extraordinary work.
In the seventies he expanded his range of projects, including set and costume design for operas and experiments with photography, lithography, and even photocopying. Most recently he has been at the forefront the art world's digital revolution, producing incredible sketches on his iPhone and iPad, and it is this progressive thinking which has highlighted his genius, vigor and versatility as an artist approaching his 75th birthday.
Author Christopher Simon Sykes specializes in architectural and garden photography and writes on architecture and social history. Sykes worked with Eric Clapton on his autobiography, Clapton, and his work has appeared in publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, and Architectural Digest.
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More David Hockney - from the artist's pen and brush
David Hockney: A Yorkshire Sketchbook by David Hockney
In recent years renowned artist David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood in East Yorkshire. Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led him to develop a virtuosic drawing technique on the iPad, he has also traveled outdoors with a traditional sketchbook, an invaluable tool as he works quickly to capture the changing light and fleeting effects of the weather.
Executed in watercolor and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings-the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land-yet convey the immediacy of Hockney's impressions. For those who know the East Yorkshire Wolds, the location of the sketches is unmistakable; for those who don't, its features will come to life in these pages.
David Hockney (b. 1937) is an internationally acclaimed artist. He studied at the Bradford School of Art and at the Royal College of Art. He splits his time between the United States and East Yorkshire, where he grew up.
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Explore the weirdness of the world
A World of Curiosities: Surprising, Interesting, and Downright Unbelievable Facts from Every Nation on the Planet
by John Oldale
 We have a collection of out-of-the-ordinary reference books on our "Reference and Writing" shelves - come on in and explore!
Do you enjoy trivia? Are you entertained by odd facts? Looking for a paperback to keep in the car for read-aloud fun during weekend Cape traffic jams? A World of Curiosities fits the bill!
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: everything you never knew you never knew about every country on Earth.
A scientist by training and an explorer by passion, Dr. John Oldale has logged half a million miles visiting more than ninety nations. Now, he celebrates our weird and wonderful world in a cornucopia of fascinating facts brought vividly to life through the unexpected stories behind them. Touching on history, travel, politics, natural history and more, he paints a unique portrait of each country from the mightiest to the most miniscule. You won't find the following in your average travel guide:
- Why is kissing on trains banned in France?
- In what country are litigants expected to present their case at court in the form of a poem?
- Which war did women win in 1929 just by sitting down?
- If Panama hats aren't from Panama, where are they from?
- Who eat fresh camel dung as a cure for dysentery (and why does it work)?
- Why were US disk jockeys once told they could play birthday requests on any day except the one requested?
- Which modern dictator banned old age, libraries and gold teeth, and was later replaced by his dentist?
- And 2,000 more funny, trivial, poignant, and telling facts
A must for active and armchair globe-trotters alike, A World of Curiosities will engross anyone who is at all curious about the world beyond their door. Explore and enjoy.
Author John Oldale speaks five languages, has outrun knife-wielding brigands (twice), and has been rescued from a sub-Antarctic beach. He lives with his family in a former village pub in Hampshire, England.
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Wisdom for today's graduate
10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said
by Charles Wheelan
Graduates are wondering about happiness, success, and the world lurking beyond the campus gates. You'll find 10 1/2 Things at our front desk and on the graduation table display.
Modeled on Charles Wheelan's 2011 Class Day Speech at Dartmouth College, this collection of refreshingly honest advice and observations is the antidote to those cotton-candy platitudes that are all too familiar to anyone who's ever worn a mortarboard.
Armed with a PhD in public policy, many years of experience in social science research, and - perhaps most important - good-natured humor, Wheelan offers up 10½ head-turning aphorisms on happiness and success that anyone staring down the barrel of graduation needs to hear but probably hasn't heard yet.
Celebrated New Yorker cartoonist Peter Steiner adds a touch of whimsy with his irreverent illustrations sprinkled throughout.
Charles Wheelan is the author the internationally best-selling Naked Economics. He is a former correspondent for The Economist, current columnist for Yahoo!, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and has served as a visiting professor at Dartmouth College.
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In our window
The Concord Museum presents "A Garden Tour"
The Concord Museum celebrates the 23rd Annual Garden Tour, which takes place this weekend: Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2.
The Museum's Garden Tour has become a New England tradition for garden lovers from near and far. Each of the eight private gardens reflects the individual interests and passions of the owners and their families and will inspire both new gardeners designing their first perennial bed and accomplished landscapers with acres of "garden rooms."
The tour of Concord-area gardens is self-guided and self-paced, beginning each day at 9:00 a.m. and continuing until 4:00 p.m. Garden-goers should arrive at the Museum to pick up their maps prior to starting out. Tickets are good for either or both days, but each garden may be visited only once.
For more information, visit The Concord Museum's website.
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