Title of Event: Jennifer McMahon/ The Island of Lost Girls
When: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 7:00 PM
Location: Bear Pond Books
Description: McMahon’s debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, was a runaway hit. Now she is back with another chilling page-turner. In her new book she again illuminates past crimes to make sense of the present. This time the crimes are kidnapping. McMahon graduated from Goddard College and lives in Vermont with her partner, Drea, and their daughter Zella.
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Forward from Here: Leaving Middle Age--And Other Unexpected Adventures by Lindbergh, Reeve In her funny and wistful new book, Reeve Lindbergh contemplates entering a new stage in life, turning sixty, the period her mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, once described as "the youth of old age." It is a time of life, she writes, that produces some unexpected surprises. Age brings loss, but also love; disaster, but also delight. The second-graders Reeve taught many years ago are now middle-aged; her own children grow, marry, have children themselves. "Time flies," she observes, "but if I am willing to fly with it, then I can be airborne, too." A milestone birthday is also an opportunity to take stock of oneself, although such self-reflection may lead to nothing more than the realization, as Reeve puts it, "that I just seem to continue being me, the same person I was at twelve and at fifty." At sixty, as she observes, "all I really can do with the rest of my life is to...feel all of it, every bit of it, as much as I can for as long as I can." Age is only one of many subjects that Reeve writes about with perception and insight. In northern Vermont, nature is an integral part of daily life, especially on a farm. Whether it is the arrival and departure of certain birds in spring and fall, wandering turtles, or the springtime ritual of lambing, the natural world is a constant revelation. With a wry sense of humor, Reeve contemplates the infirmities of the aging body, as well as the many new drugs that treat these maladies. Briefly considering the risks of drug dependency, she writes that "the least we the "Sixties Generation"] can do for ourselves is live up to our mythology, and take lots of drugs." Legal drugs, that is -- although what sustains us as we grow older is not drugs but anappreciation for life, augmented by compassion, a sense of humor, and common sense. And of course there is family -- especially with the Lindberghs. Reeve writes about discovering, thirty years after her father's death and two and a half years after her mother's, that her father had three secret families in Europe. She travels to meet them, learning to expand her self-understanding: "daughter of," "mother of," "sister of" -- sister of many more siblings than she'd known, in a family more complicated than even she had imagined. "Forward from Here" is a brave book, a reflective book, a funny book -- a book that will charm and fascinate anyone on the journey from middle age to the uncertain future that lies ahead.

Strong Is Your Hold with CD (Audio) by Kinnell, Galway Here in paperback for the first time is the celebrated eleventh book of poems by Galway Kinnell. The book's title derives from Walt Whitman's "Last Invocation": "Strong is your hold O mortal flesh, / Strong is your hold O love." In this striking collection, Kinnell gives us poems of intermingling with the natural world, love poems and evocations of sexuality, poems about his father, his children, poet friends, poet heroes, and mythic figures. Included also is "When the Towers Fell," his stunning requiem for those who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The collection also affords the singular experience of hearing the poet read his own work, with an extraordinary audio recording included on CD.

Taxes 2008 For Dummies by Tyson, Eric, Munro, Margaret A., Silverman, David J. Avoid tax headaches with the book that demystifies forms, minimizes errors, and answers your most important tax questions. Fully updated for 2008 this handy, helpful guide covers critical tax code changes and offers reliable advice on keeping more of what you earn.