Store Hours- Monday - Wednesday 10-6,
Thursday - Saturday 10-8, and Sundays 11-5
A Chance in the World,
Steve Pemberton
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 11A.M.
A stirring account of courage, hope, and victory, A Chance in the World is the
extraordinary story of what is possible when you dare to believe.
Pemberton chronicles his heartbreaking childhood that of a lionhearted young boy,
taken from his mother at age three, placed into foster care and forced to endure years of
physical and psychological abuse at the hands of those trusted with his care. He often
hoarded food and escaped into the pages of worm-eaten books to elude the cruelty of his
caregivers. This miraculous and riveting story, the search for his biological family and his
unyielding determination to right the wrongs of his parents' past, is a model for many of us
to follow. It is a true testament of faith, fortitude and forgiveness.
"Unfortunately like so many, Steve Pemberton endured more than his share of
hardship as a young child. Yet through true grit and unyielding hard work with a
high standard of dignity, Steve has not only become a leader in the business world
but also an inspiration to those of all walks of life. Steve's book 'A Chance in the
World' will open one's heart and leave no doubt on the unconquerable human
spirit." - Dave Pelzer, # 1 New York Times Best Seller A Child Called "It."
Steve Pemberton is Divisional Vice-President and Chief Diversity Officer for Walgreens, the
first person to hold that responsibility in the company's 110-year history.
A graduate of Boston College and tireless advocate for equality, access, and opportunity,
Steve has enjoyed a successful career as a businessman, entrepreneur, and educator.
He and his wife, Tonya, are the proud parents of three children.
25 Greatest Epigraphs in Literature
The epigraph is a funny literary convention: excerpting lines of
someone else's work - or quotes, adages, lines of verse, lyrics,
snippets of conversation, etc - to put before your own.
The effect varies: often the epigraph serves as a sort of thematic gatekeeper,
or simply sets the mood for the prose to come, sometimes it gives the reader a
glimpse into the author's intentions or inspirations, or it may serve as a joke or warning.
They may seem a trivial part of the work they come attached to, but we think,
if done properly, they can be very illuminating. In case you couldn't tell,
we've been thinking about the convention quite a bit lately, partly due to the
numerous hours we've spent perusing one of our new favorite Tumblrs, Epigraphic,
which collects the fragments. Some are funny, some are poignant,
some are strange, but all of them are wonderful in their own way.
Click the link to read 25 of the all-time favorite epigraphs in
literature:
25 Greatest Epigraphs in Literature
5 Best Non-fiction Books of 2011
1. Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson
(Simon & Schuster, $35)
Steve Jobs was both brilliant and a "complicated, peculiar personality," said Michael S.
Rosenwald in
The Washington Post. Granted full access to the Apple CEO during his last months, Walter
Isaacson this fall put the finishing touches on a comprehensive biography that gives us a
Jobs who's "charming, loathsome, lovable, obsessive, maddening." Isaacson "clearly admires"
his subject - crediting the late business innovator with revolutionizing how we interact
with technology and "putting him in a league with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford."
2. In the Garden of Beasts
by Erik Larson
(Crown, $26)
"How do we know implacable evil when we see it?" asked Mary Ann Gwinn in
The Seattle Times. Erik Larson's "eerie and disturbing" book re-creates the
inadequate response of one American family who had an early chance to confront the
Nazi threat. William Dodd, the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937,
believed naively that he could provide a moderate voice in Adolf Hitler's ear.
But if Dodd was naive, his daughter, Martha, was "oblivious," carrying on affairs
indiscriminately with various Nazi officers.
3. Boomerang
by Michael Lewis
(Norton, $26)
Michael Lewis can make "virtually any subject both lucid and compelling,"
said Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times. Lewis's travelogue on the hot spots
of the recent global economic collapse offers a clear analysis of the financial
chicanery and irresponsibility that produced economic crises in places like Greece,
Iceland, Ireland, and here at home.
4. Blue Nights
by Joan Didion
(Knopf, $25)
"Joan Didion seems to think she's entering her final act," said Nathan Heller
in Slate.com. If so, she's making a strong finish. Blue Nights is Didion's "haunting"
attempt to share the pain she experienced upon losing her daughter, Quintana, less than
two years after the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. But this isn't just a grief
memoir. Didion uses Quintana's death as a jumping-off point to explore her own failures and
late-life anxieties. In doing so, she "lets us see something readers aren't often allowed
to see: a writer calling her own choices into question, a relentless cultural critic turning
an unsqueamish eye on her own life."
5. Pulphead
by John Jeremiah Sullivan
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16)
John Jeremiah Sullivan might be "the best essayist of his generation," said Lev Grossman
in Time. In the pieces collected here, the 30-something Kentucky native handles a range of
assignments Ñ covering a Christian rock festival, musing on the strange career of Axl Rose,
hanging out with the cast of MTV's The Real World. In every setting, he proves to be possibly
"the closest thing we have right now to Tom Wolfe, and that includes Tom Wolfe." Then again,
the "better comparison" might be to the late David Foster Wallace. Sullivan is in fact "kinder
than the former, and less neurotic than the latter," said James Wood in The New Yorker.
To read the full article click here:
The 5 best non-fiction books of 2011
*Courtesy of THE WEEK
World Book Night - April 23, 2012
We hope you've heard the exciting news - World Book Night is coming to the United States on
April 23, 2012! (That's Shakespeare's birthday, not coincidentally...) World Book Night, which
will also be celebrated in the U.K. where it launched last year, is designed to spread the
love of reading. Thousands of people across the country will be going out in their communities
to hand out free paperback copies of one of the 30 World Book Night paperbacks to light or
non-readers. (Here's a list of the 30 titles.)
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Movie Release - March 23, 2012
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest
district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts
waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district
agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called,
"The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may
change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by
lottery,
Kat steps up to go in her place.
New Bedford and The Civil War AUTHOR SERIES 2012
Presented by: The New Bedford Historical Society & FRIENDS OF
THE NEW BEDFORD FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY
New Bedford and the Civil War Author Series 2012
New Bedford residents played an integral part in the Civil War from the
Underground Railroad and the Stone Fleet to Frederick Douglass and the MA
54th Regiment. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,
please join us to meet and hear many well-known authors as they assess the
role of the war in American memory and New Bedford's unique role in this
historic conflict.
Friday, February 3, 2012, 7:00 PM
"Black Confederates in History and Myth"
John Stauffer, Professor of English and American Literature and Language of African and
African American
Studies Harvard University
"Black Confederates" is one of the most controversial ideas of the Civil War era and
the American memory
more generally. According to African Americans themselves, writing during the war,
thousands of blacks did
fight as soldiers for the South. Stauffer will assess and contextualize the sources
and examine the case
studies of blacks who fought for the Confederacy, and explain how and why it happened.
Additionally, he will
reveal the richly diverse ways in which blacks acted on their own understandings of freedom.
Author of
Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln" presentation will also
include book
signing.
The Friends Meeting House, 83 Spring Street, New Bedford, MA
For more information call (508) 979-8828 or e-mail nbhistory@verizon.net
Sunday, February 5, 2012, from 2-6 PM
"The 12th Annual Frederick Douglass Read-a-Thon"
Join in the Twelfth Annual Frederick Douglass Read-a-thon as community members read and listen to A
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, published in 1845.
We continue our tradition
a of celebrating the life and times of a one of New Bedford's most famous residents who came to the City of
Light and found his voice as an advocate for social justice and equality for all. We invite everyone to
participate in this celebration of African American History.
The Friends Meeting House, 83 Spring Street
For more information or to register as a readers call (508) 979-8828 or e-mail nbhistory@verizon.net
Thursday, February 23, 2012, 7:00 PM
"American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington"
Christopher L. Webber, is a minister and the author of a number of books ranging from a guidebook for
Vestries to a study of Christian marriage.
Webber has written a richly detailed, wide-ranging biography of James W.C. Pennington, a black educator,
clergyman, orator, author and abolitionist who was born a slave in 1807. Pennington fled north at the age of
19. Illiterate and so ignorant he had never heard of the Underground Railroad, he encountered it after
reaching the North. Within five years, he was teaching, preaching and participating in the earliest national
black-activist organizations. He emerged as a leader in black churches in New England and became a major
player in the beginnings of the international movement to end slavery.
The Friends Meeting House, 83 Spring Street
For more information call (508) 979-8828 or e-mail nbhistory@verizon.net
Friday, March 2, 2012, 6:30 P.M. and Saturday, March 3, 2012, 10 A.M. for
Young Adults
"Harriet Tubman: Secret Agent"
Thomas B. Allen. Allen's writings range from articles for National Geographic
Magazine to books on American
history. Allen is the author of the Geographic's Civil War book, The Blue and Gray.
It's 1863. Harriet Tubman is facing her greatest challenge. She has survived her master's
lash, escaped from
slavery, and risked her life countless times to lead runaway slaves to freedom along the
Underground
Railroad. Now she has a new role: Union Spy! She is about to lead Union warships on a raid
up a river deep
in Confederate territory. Success depends upon the intelligence she and her black spies have
gathered.
Failure means death by hanging. This is the hidden war inside the Civil War--the daring
work of African
Americans who spied for the Union. It is a world of danger, of "Black Dispatches," of
secret codes, and "The
Secret Six." Young Adult talk is on Saturday, 10 a.m.
New Bedford Free Public Library, 613 Pleasant Street, 3rd Floor Meeting Room
For more information call 508-990-2130 or e-mail friendsofnblib@nbfol.org
April (to be announced)
"New Bedford's Civil War"
Earl F. Mulderink, III, Professor of History at Southern Utah University.
New Bedford's Civil War examines the social, political, economic and military history of
New Bedford, MA, in
the nineteenth century, with a focus on the Civil War homefront from 1861-1865 and on the
city's black
community, soldiers, and veterans. Known before the war for both its wealth and antislavery
fervor, New
Bedford offered a congenial home for a sizeable black community that experienced a "different
Civil War".
This book focuses attention on soldiers and families connected with the 54th Regiment made
famous by the
1989 Academy Award winning film "Glory" and contextualizes the rise and fall of New Bedford's
whaling
enterprise. A major goal of this book is to explore the war's social history by examining how
the conflict
touched the city's residents - both black and white.
Top 5 Books For Backseat Readers
(Age 9 And Up)
1. Heart And Soul
The Story Of America And African Americans
by Kadir Nelson
This is a beautiful and beautifully illustrated book by an artist who's often
described as the Norman Rockwell of his generation. Kadir Nelson got his start
as an illustrator, often using his talents to help young readers understand
African-Americans' contributions to American history. A few years ago, he
crossed over into writing with a stunning debut, We Are the Ship: The Story
of Negro League Baseball. With Heart and Soul, he continues his mission of
highlighting black history, but on a much more complex level. This is a story
of courage and pride. But it's also filled with hard truths - from the violence
of slavery to the contradictions of racism -that can be difficult to share with
a young audience.
2. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own Making
by Catherynne M. Valente
I'm a softie for a good Alice in Wonderland story, so this tale about a girl
named September who yearns for adventure stole my heart. She lives a life of dreary
routine, washing the same dishes every day and playing the same games with her strange
little dog. But an even stranger character takes pity on her and swoops into her room
one evening just after her 12th birthday. It's one of the Six Winds. In this case The
Green Wind, who takes the form of a natty gentleman dressed in a green smoking jacket
and jodhpurs. He comes bearing a list of commands and rules, but also a promise of
great adventure if she agrees to head toward Fairyland and track down a particular
item from the Marquess, who has taken over as the new dictator.
3. The Secret History Of Balls
The Stories Behind The Things We Love To Catch, Whack, Throw, Kick, Bounce, And Bat
by Josh Chetwynd and Emily Stackhouse
You might not find this book in the children's section of your
local bookstore, but that's where it deserves to be. Tossing it onto young
people's plates is a bit like serving up broccoli slathered in cheese: It's so yummy
they'll forget it's also nutritious. In this case, the book sneaks in a high-fiber dose of
history, culture and, yes, sportsmanship, along with stories about all those spherical objects
that fill up our basements, mudrooms, car trunks and closets.
Author Josh Chetwynd explores and examines balls of all kinds, serving up trivia that you know
kids will pass on at the first chance. Who knew that the roulette ball was first designed by a
French physicist while working on theories of perpetual motion? Or that the eyeballs of
sturgeons were used as the cores of baseballs at the turn of the century in America's
lake regions? (This is the kind of gross-out information that some kids LOVE.)
4. Drawing From Memory
by Allen Say
In some ways this is a book Allen Say, an acclaimed artist, has been working
his way up to for years. Many of Say's books are drawn from his own childhood memories.
His novel The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice looked back at the years he spent as an assistant
to his favorite childhood cartoonist, Noro Shinpei. Drawing from Memory is an extension of
that work. In the first pages, we're introduced to the school-aged Say, who grew up by the
seashore in Yokohama, Japan, and yearned to be an artist. But his father hated that idea,
saying artists were "lazy and scruffy" people. He wanted his son to be "respectable."
When WWII begins, Say escapes the city with his mother to live in the mountains in a big
house with a mean and stingy man. It's here that Say's book begins to take a sophisticated
turn as he notes, under a picture of that crotchety old guy, that one day he'd write a story
about him that "would be told in the language of the people who were bombing us." After the war,
Say wins a spot in a prestigious school but pours all his energy into his work with Noro Shinpei.
The artist becomes a "Spiritual Father" who helps Say understand the gift of bliss.
5. Saint Louis Armstrong Beach
by Brenda Woods
Many Katrina books for kids have been published, but few of them balance the
sorrow of that storm and its aftermath with the joy of childhood and the joie
de vivre of New Orleans. Saint Louis Armstrong Beach achieves that balance, in part
by sandwiching the hurricane per se within a story that focuses on life before the
devastation and the determination that follows.
The book's hero is a kid named Saint. (You gotta love that.) He plays the clarinet
on street corners, and he knows all the best places and just the right tunes to coax
money out of tourists' pockets. That's a good thing because he needs $2,000 to buy a
decent clarinet. He's a happy-go-lucky kid who is reaching an age when he has to work
harder to chase his good fortune and hold onto the things that bring him joy.
To read the full article click here:
Top 5 Books For Backseat Readers)
Branded on My Arm and in My Soul: A Holocaust Memoir,
Abraham W. Landau
New from Spinner Publications.
Signed Copies Available Now.
Editors Joseph Thomas and Marsha McCabe discuss the life of Abe Landau,
his Holocaust experience and the production of Branded on My Arm and in My Soul, which took several years and involved dozens of people and institutions. Photographs from the book will be on exhibit.
Editors will sign and personalize books.
Mr. Landau's story takes readers on a journey they will never forget; Abe survived thirteen labor and concentration camps, the Death March from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz, and the grueling death train from Dora to Bergen-Belsen. He is also one of a handful who survived the Zagorow Ghetto in Poland, where his family and thousands of other Jews were exterminated by the Nazi death machine. After Liberation, Abe and his wife Freida emigrated to New Bedford where they opened a small tailor shop. After years of silence, Abe began talking about his dark past. Never an embittered man, he tells a story of faith, hope and the triumph of the human spirit.
Transforming Literacy, Robert Waxler
Available to special order now.
This book is interdisciplinary in focus and centers on enlarging teachers' understanding of
how reading and writing can change lives and how the language arts can contribute
significantly to and change educational processes in the twenty-first century.
Implicit in its argument is that although the emphasis on science and math is crucial
to education in the digital edge, it remains vitally important to keep reading and
writing, language and story, at the heart of the educational process.
This is particularly true in a democratic society because shaping stories through
human language can enhance the quality of our lives, and teach us something
important about what it means to be human and vulnerable. In this sense, stories
allow for self-reflection and an increased opportunity to enhance and understand
emotional intelligence and human community.
Our Staff Picks
Check out our November/ December staff picks, where our staff's eclectic taste and varied interests will help
you
find a great read. We now offer Fiction,
Non-Fiction, and
Children's book recommendations.
Fall Chirp Titles from Candlewick Press
The Z's FROM PAGE TO STAGE Book Club
All discussions take place at the Zeiterion Theatre
To become a book club member or for more information, please
contact: rgill@zeiterion.org.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 6:30PM:
Lincoln at Cooper Union by Harold Holzer, linked with The Rivalry,
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 8:00PM
Moderator: David Prentiss
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 6:30PM:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, linked with The Kite Runner,
Thursday, April 5, 2012 at 7:30PM
THESE TITLES DISCOUNTED 10% AT BAKER BOOKS
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Welcome to Baker Books!
Purveyors of Information & Imagination
Site features
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and oh so much more!
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•Tween Online Book Group- Everloop
•The Writer's Almanac
•AHA! Art - History- Architecture
•The Working Waterfront Festival
•The Zeiterion Theatre
•Ocean Explorium
•Tiverton Four Corners
•The Rotch-Jones-Duff House
•Lloyd Center
•New Bedford Art Museum
•New Bedford Whaling Museum
•Marion Institute
Book Groups
•Bartleby Scrivener Poets Peer Critiques Meets:
1st Monday of each month, 6:15PM
Contact Susan Grace (508) 993-1999 or sgrace@encorent.com
Bring 10-12 copies of your poems to critique. $3 donation.
•Morning Book Group Meets:
2nd Thursday of each month at 10:00 a.m.
Contact Joyce Miller at Baker Books, (508) 997-6700.
Open to new members and all reading experiences.
•Afternoon Book Group Meets:
3rd Wednesday of each month at 2:30 p.m.
Contact Joyce Miller at Baker Books, (508) 997-6700.
Open to new members and all reading experiences.
•Evening Book Group Meets:
2nd Monday of each month, 6:30PM.
Contact Natalie Vieira, (508) 993-7341
•Irish Book Group Meets:
3rd Sunday of each month at 2:00 p.m.
Contact Kate (508) 990-1529 or Katenscot@verizon.net.
Read Irish literature and history.
•Westport Writers' Group Meets:
3rd Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
Contact Deb Coderre (508) 981-1380 or coderredebs@yahoo.com.
This is for women only.
•Knit-lit (Knitting Circle & Story Hour) Meets:
3rd Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.
Contact Maureen O'Donnell (508) 999-4043 or mesmod@aol.com.
Bring your knitting and listen to stories and share your patterns, etc.
•Writing Group (Peer Critiques) Meets:
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 6:00 p.m.
Contact Jason Perez-Dormitzer pjarissa@aol.com.
Peer critiques. Bring 10-12 copies of your work.
•Smith College Meets:
2nd Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m.
Contact Anne Webb (508) 979-5055.
The National Book Awards
This coming week is National Book Awards week, when the top books published last year
in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature are honored.
There are readings, press conferences and other events; the grand finale comes
Wednesday night, when the winners are announced and celebrated at a gala dinner
in New York City. It's the book industry's Oscar night, and for the first time ever,
it's being webcast live.
We've reviewed and covered in various ways some of the 20 NBA nominees--five in each category.
There's a Book Brahmin with Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife, a fiction nominee.
(She's a charming 26-year-old who has written an astounding first novel.
An NBA award would be another milestone on the magical literary trip she
has taken in the past several years.) We have reviews of
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt, a nonfiction nominee,
and Chime by Franny Billingsley, nominated for the young people's literature award.
In addition, we devoted a special issue to Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, which
includes a review and interviews with the author and his editor. Okay for Now is
being considered for the
young people's literature prize.
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