Andover Bookstore Events

In Laura van den Berg’s gorgeous new book, The Isle of Youth, she explores the lives of women who are mired in secrecy and deception. Ranging from the inscrutability of a marriage to private eyes working a baffling case in South Florida to a teenager who assists her magician mother and steals from the audience, these stories are linked by mystery and by women who are at once vulnerable and dangerous, bighearted and ruthless—who will do what it takes to survive. 
     The characters in these stories share a sense of bewilderment, the sensation of having become lost in the mysteries of the self and the world at large, that seems at once entirely singular and utterly familiar. Van den Berg writes with an elegant urgency and hypnotic rhythm, revealing the inner lives of marginalized young women who are grappling with the choices they’ve made and are searching for the clues that will unlock their lives. Van den Berg is a modest but fearless writer—her stories feel both magical and mystical, earning her the title of “sorceress” from her fans. Be prepared to fall under her spell.

Laura van den Berg’s debut story collection, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, a finalist for the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award, and long-listed for the Story Prize. Her stories have appeared in One Story, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, and Best New American Voices 2010, among other publications. A Florida native, she has an MFA from Emerson College and is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize and scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences. She lives in the Boston area. 

Survival Lessons provides a road map of how to reclaim your life from this day forward, with ways to reenvision everything—from relationships with friends and family to the way you see yourself.

Alice Hoffman has published twenty-one novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her books have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels, many of which have been New York Times bestsellers, have received mention as notable books of the year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times,Library Journal, and People magazine. Alice’s advance from Survival Lessons will be donated to the Hoffman Breast Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. 

Strange things are growing in Leonard Slinket’s watermelon field. They are as light and small as wiffle balls,turn smooth and warm, dark, yet luminous, and their vines beat with a pulse. So begins The Lons – short for watermelons – as Slinket, his younger carpenter-friend, John Bigby, and science teacher, Lydia Rice, set out to discover why the lons are here, andwhat it is that they want, or else, says Leonard, “all hell’s gonna break loose.” Who knows if the lons are good or bad? But there’s no doubting their powerand theirbeauty, their need for each other, and the mystery of their existence. In this story of adventure, loyalty, love, and connection, we come to find that the lons are not much different from us.

Peggy Rambach is the author of a chapbook of short stories, When the Animals Leave and the novel, Fighting Gravity. She edited two anthologies that emerged from her work teaching creative writing in the health care and social service sectors, All That Matters: Memoir From the Wellness Community of Greater Boston and Seeds of Lotus: Cambodian and Vietnamese Voices in America.Rambach was twice awarded the Massachusetts Cultural Council Individual Artist Grant in Fiction, was the recipient of the St. Botolph Foundation Grant in Literature, was a Fellow at the MacDowell and Yaddo Artist Colonies, and named a Literacy Champion by the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation.Ms. Rambach teaches creative writing to incarcerated men and women at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, Massachusetts and is on the faculty of Chatham University's Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. She grew up in New York City and lives in northeastern Massachusetts. 

In these linked novellas in which characters walk out the back door of one story and into the next, love is "dirty" - tangled up with need, power, boredom, ego, fear, and fantasy. On the Massachusetts coast north of Boston, a controlling manager, Mark, discovers his wife's infidelity after twenty-five years of marriage. An overweight young woman, Marla, gains a romantic partner but loses her innocence. A philandering bartender/aspiring poet, Robert, betrays his pregnant wife. And in the stunning title novella, a teenage girl named Devon, fleeing a dirty image of her posted online, seeks respect in the eyes of her widowed great-uncle Francis and of an Iraq vet she's met surfing the Web.

 Slivered by happiness and discontent, aging and death, but also persistent hope and forgiveness, these beautifully wrought narratives express extraordinary tenderness toward human beings, our vulnerable hearts and bodies, our fulfilling and unfulfilling lives alone and with others.

Andre Dubus III is the author of The Garden of Last Days, House of Sand and Fog (a #1 New York Times bestseller, Oprah's Book Club pick, and finalist for the National Book Award) and Townie, winner of an American Academy of Arts and Letter Award in Literature. His writing has received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. He lives with his family north of Boston.

The Blood of Heaven is the story of Angel Woolsack, a preacher's son, who flees the hardscrabble life of his itinerant father, falls in with a charismatic highwayman, then settles with his adopted brothers on the rough frontier of West Florida, where American settlers are carving their place out of lands held by the Spaniards and the French. The novel moves from the bordellos of Natchez, where Angel meets his love Red Kate to the Mississippi River plantations, where the brutal system of slave labor is creating a fantastic wealth along with terrible suffering, and finally to the back rooms of New Orleans among schemers, dreamers, and would-be revolutionaries plotting to break away from the young United States and create a new country under the leadership of the renegade founding father Aaron Burr. The Blood of Heaven is a remarkable portrait of a young man seizing his place in a violent new world, a moving love story, and a vivid tale of ambition and political machinations that brilliantly captures the energy and wildness of a young America where anything was possible.

Kent Wascom was born in New Orleans in 1986, attended Louisiana State University and received his MFA from Florida State University. He was awarded the 2012 Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Price for Fiction. The Blood of Heaven is his first novel. 

Izzy is thrilled to finally help set the table, learning all the proper places for her friends Fork, Spoon, Dish, Napkin, Cup, and Knife. But once they get into a nightly groove, Izzy and her friends grow tired of their same old spots. Shaking things up doesn’t go over so well with Mom and Dad, so Spoon and Dish run off for an adventure of their own. Lonely without her favorite tablemates, Izzy will need to find a way to convince Spoon and Dish to come back to the table.
Perfect for any kid who has ever resisted a daily task, this clever, pun-filled story is gentle reminder that every dish has its place, and that injecting some creativity into daily tasks can make even the dullest ones lots of fun.

BEN CLANTON loves a good adventure (especially those that happen in books). However, no matter where he goes (next door, Italy, or the Moon) Ben likes coming home best (hopefully to some macaroni and cheese). He is the author and illustrator of 'Vote for Me', and currently calls home Boston, Massachusetts, where he cooks up stories like this one. 

Grant's cabinet met around the table, and each cabinet member had his own drawer for storing private papers. Calvin Coolidge signed a peace treaty on the table with 14 other nations. Barack Obama uses the table as his desk in his private office on the White House's second floor.

Connie Trounstine, who lives in Cincinnati, notes that many presidents have left their fingerprints on the table while working to bring peace to the world. She also speculates on whether the children of any presidents might have jiggled the table's drawers and left there own fingerprints there.

Whether heard inside the Boston Celtics locker room or on the basketball court, conversations from the long history of the beloved team are recorded in this unique collection of insider accounts. Fans get a behind-the-scenes peek into the private world of the players, coaches, broadcasters, and executives through firsthand anecdotes, quotes from speeches, and highlights of how the team handled both their struggles and their victories. From the 1950s and 1960s dynasty to the years of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, and from the 2008 Championship title to today, these are the stories that fans hope to hear, presented together in this fun glimpse of what it was like to be among the Celtics greats.

Donald Hubbard is a practicing attorney in Boston, where he published a weekly newspaper column for 10 years. He is the author of 100 Things Celtics Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, Forgotten Four: Notre Dame's Greatest Backfield and the Undefeated 1953 Season, The Heavenly Twins of Boston Baseball, and The Red Sox Before the Babe. He lives in Boston

With over 15 million books in print, Tomie dePaola is one of the most beloved creators of children’s literature today. His many accolades include winning the Caldecott Honor Award for Strega Nona, the Newbery Honor Award for 26 Fairmount Avenue, the 2011 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his substantial and lasting contribution to children’s literature and, most recently, the 2012 Society of Illustrators Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tomie dePaola’s most beloved character returns in Strega Nona Does It Again (on sale September 26, 2013; Nancy Paulsen Books; Ages 3–5; $17.99), serving up her delightful brand of magic to a houseguest who overstays her welcome.

Tomie will be appearing at the Andover Bookstore at 12pm and The Book Rack in Newburyport at 4pm on Sunday, October 20. If you’re not able to catch him, we are more than happy to save a signed copy of his book for you to pick up at your convenience.

Arturo and the Navidad Birds:

It's time for Arturo and his Central American grandmother, Abue Rosa, to decorate their Christmas tree. Abue Rosa shares with him the family history of each ornament as it is hung. But what happens when Arturo plays with-and breaks-a glass bird? Young readers will find out in this touching, bilingual picture book.

Anne Broyles is a writer and United Methodist minister who also contributes to both Pockets magazine and Merrimack Valley Magazine. Her picture books have won such awards as a Teachers' Choice Award and recognition on the McNaughton List. A graduate of the University of Arizona with a BA in French and speech and a minor in drama, Broyles is also a member of the New England chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She currently lives in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Esther's Hanukkah Disaster: It's hard to pick the perfect gift, and Esther the Gorilla's choices seem all wrong at first. But it all gets sorted out when she invites her animal friends to a  joyful Hanukkah party.

 Jane Sutton is the author of 8 children's books. Her latest picture book is Esther's Hanukkah Disaster, about a well-meaning gorilla who buys her animal friends what turns out to be wildly inappropriate gifts. Along the way, Esther learns a thing or two about empathy and the true meaning of Hanukkah.