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Store Hours
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Mon - Wed 9:30 - 6:00
Thursday 9:30 - 9:00
Friday 9:30 - 6:00
Sat 9:30 - 5:00
Sun Noon - 5:00
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Greetings!
Hello from Main Street!
After a hiatus for the holidays, our Author Series is back in full swing. We had an engaging conversation last Sunday afternoon with a panel of authors from Best New England Crime Stories: Blood Moon. With almost three dozen independent stories, this paperback anthology is perfect to turn to when you need a quick fix of crime fiction.
Our next event is Sunday, January 27, when Drs. Leana Wen and Joshua Kosowsky join us to discuss how we can be our own best medical advocates.
As with all our events, if you can't visit us in person to purchase a signed copy of the featured book, you're welcome to call or email before the event - we'll ask the author to personally inscribe the book to your specifications, and will arrange to ship the book or hold it for pick up.
New in hardcover this week is the impressive story of Sarah Losh and the social history surrounding the elaborate Victorian church she built; Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman explore the importance of "doing good;" and The Aviator's Wife is wonderful historical fiction that explores the relationship between Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Our paperback pick this week is Harry Belafonte's memoir, My Song. 
World Book Night US is back! Save the date of April 23, and be a Book Giver - "help spread the love of reading, person to person." Details and sign-ups are at the World Book Night US web site; hurry - application deadline is January 25!
Our community window highlights the offerings of the Concord Center Cultural Districts - shops, museums, music, art ... come, explore!
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: Being your own best medical advocate
When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests
by Dr. Leana Wen and Dr. Joshua Kosowsky
Join us on Sunday, January 27 at 3pm, and learn how to be your own best healthcare advocate when it comes to getting the proper diagnosis and treatment.
In When Doctors Don't Listen, two Harvard physicians, Leana Wen, M.D. and Joshua Kosowsky, M.D., teach patients that they need to advocate for their own health by doing one very simple thing: asking for a diagnosis when they go to see their doctor. They offer "8 Pillars to Better Diagnosis" so patients can help their doctors reach the right diagnosis.
The book offers action tips and worksheets to deal with scenarios such as what to do with the doctor who is too busy to listen to you and how to work with your doctor to figure out what tests you need - and what tests you don't need.
Wen and Kosowsky give voice to what a growing number of healthcare providers have come to believe: that the way medicine is taught and practiced is in urgent need of change, and now is the time to address it. Theirs is not, however, a top-down approach; instead, it requires patients to take the lead to usher in a new era that will not only improve individual medical care, but also lead the way to meaningful healthcare reform.
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True story of an extraordinary woman
The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine - Antiquarian, Architect, and Visionary
by Jenny Uglow
"In its intimate tone, its lavishly detailed depictions of Losh's creations, and its seamless interweaving of the local and immediate with the global and the timeless, [The Pinecone] is an exuberant match for the beautiful, ornate and movingly personal nature of Losh's extraordinary church."
-- Rachel Hewitt , The Guardian
In the village of Wreay, near Carlisle, stands the strangest and most magical Victorian church in England. This vivid, original book tells the story of its builder, Sarah Losh, strong-willed, passionate, and unusual in every way.
Sarah Losh is a lost Romantic genius; born into an old Cumbrian family, heiress to an industrial fortune, Losh combined a zest for progress with a love of the past. In the church, her masterpiece, she let her imagination flower - there are carvings of scarabs and poppies; an arrow pierces the wall as if shot from a bow; a tortoise-gargoyle launches itself into the air. And everywhere there are pinecones in stone. The church is a dramatic rendering of the power of myth and the great natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
Losh's story is also that of her radical family, friends of Wordsworth and Coleridge; of the love between sisters and the life of a village; of the struggles of the weavers, the coming of the railways, the findings of geology, and the fate of a young northern soldier in the First Afghan War. Above all, it is about the joy of making and the skill of unsung local craftsmen. Intimate, engrossing, and moving, The Pinecone brings to life an extraordinary woman, a region, and an age.
Jenny Uglow's books include prizewinning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William Hogarth. The Lunar Men was described by Richard Holmes as "an extraordinarily gripping account," while Nature's Engraver won the National Arts Writers Award for 2007. A Gambling Man was short-listed for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Uglow grew up in Cumbria and now lives in Canterbury, England.
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Inspiring dialogue between award-winning actor and a Zen master
The Dude and the Zen Master
by Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman
"Mr. Bridges and Mr. Glassman are likable, and smart, and interesting...[The Dude and the Zen Master] includes compelling discussions of Mr. Bridges's marriage, acting technique and close relationship with his father...you'll always be grateful for the hang."
-- The New York Times
Zen master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges's iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who "are simple and unassuming, and so good that, on account of them, God lets the world go on." His buddy Jeff puts it another way. The wonderful thing about the Dude, he says, is that he'd always rather hug it out than slug it out.
For more than a decade, Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges and his buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue about life, laughter, and the movies with a charm and bonhomie that never fail to enlighten and entertain. Throughout, their remarkable humanism reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.
Jeff Bridges is an Oscar-winning actor, performer, songwriter, and photographer. He is a cofounder of the End Hunger Network and the national spokesman for Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign.
Bernie Glassman founded the Zen Community of New York, which later became Zen Peacemakers, an international order of social activists. A longtime Zen teacher, he also founded the Greyston Mandala, a network of for-profits and not-for-profits creating jobs, housing, and programs to support individuals and their families on the path to self-sufficiency.
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Historical fiction looks inside the marriage of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin
In the spirit of Loving Frank and The Paris Wife, acclaimed novelist Melanie Benjamin pulls back the curtain on the marriage of one of America's most extraordinary couples: Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles's assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.
Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements - she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States - Anne is viewed merely as the aviator's wife.
The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life's infinite possibilities for change and happiness.
Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century - from the late twenties to the mid-sixties - The Aviator's Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage - revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.
Melanie Benjamin is the author of the nationally bestselling Alice I Have Been and The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb. Benjamin lives in Chicago, where she is at work on her next historical novel.
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Harry Belafonte's memoir -
now in paperback
My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance
by Harry Belafonte
"The 'Song' of [Belafonte's] life has been . . . diverse, encompassing the heartbreaking ballads of poverty and loss, up-tempo pop songs of fame and wealth, and deeply felt spirituals of dedication to social justice. The world is richer for having heard them."
-- The Boston Globe
An eloquently told personal account of an era of enormous cultural and political change, which reveals Harry Belafonte as not only one of America's greatest entertainers, but also one of our most profoundly influential activists.
Harry Belafonte spent his childhood in both Harlem and Jamaica, where the toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle instilled in him a tenacity to face the hurdles of life head-on and channel his anger into positive, life-affirming actions. My Song tells the inspiring story of a startlingly original and powerful entertainer who has always engaged fiercely with the issues of his day.
About the author: Harry Belafonte's 1956 album Calypso made him the first artist in history to sell more than one million LPs. He has won both a Tony Award and an Emmy, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Clinton. He has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and is the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts.
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In our window
Concord Center Cultural District
In August 2012, thanks to the efforts of the Concord Chamber of Commerce, Concord Center was designated a Cultural District by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
Per the MCC's website, a state-designated Cultural District is "a compact, walkable area of a community with a concentration of cultural facilities, activities, and assets."
The Concord Center Cultural District is a picturesque New England village that looks like a page out of history. 18th, 19th and 20th century buildings in a National Historic District are the backdrops for world-class dance performances, concerts and art exhibitions. Although you see a bit of history at every turn, you are invigorated by history being made today by goldsmiths handcrafting jewelry, artists creating works of art and teaching their craft, and performers taking an evening dining experience to another level.
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