"Bearpond Books

Chosen by no fewer than three staffers for the Staff Picks table this fall, Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon explores the theme of identity in the technological age. The reader is introduced to an international syndicate of identity thieves and characters that are all searching for something and grappling with who they are.  Miles is chasing clues all over North America looking for his twin brother, whose name changes as frequently as his address and clearly doesn’t want to be found.  Ryan is teenage runaway searching for a relationship with the biological father he never knew about and finding out more, and less, than he bargained for.  Lucy is hoping to shed her schoolgirl identity and leave her small town behind.  She’s counting on her mysterious teacher and lover to lead her to a happier life at an abandoned motel and lighthouse in the middle of a Nebraska prairie.  Chaon expertly weaves these stories of alienation and shifting identity together with masterful pacing that makes it hard to put the book down.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray is a highly visual book includes stunning photography with informative and often funny (yes, funny!) accompanying text.  It’s filled with facts such as, atomic emission spectrum and general uses of every element. Did you know that there is only about an ounce of Astatine on Earth at any given time, but because of its very short life it’s never the same ounce? If you happen to have an old set of Fiestaware (made prior 1942) and a Geiger counter handy, check general uses of every element. to see if it will set it off—that’s the Uranium in the glaze. The elegant layout makes this book perfect for both the ten year old getting into science and the grown-up geek who likes a darn cool book.

A skillful weaving of experience, literature, and history, Goat Song by Brad Kessler is his own true story of leaving New York City and a writing position at The New Yorker to raise goats at a Vermont farmhouse.  From stories of buying nipples for new baby goats to reflecting on pastoralism to explanations of how the letters A, C, H, L, and I are all meant to represent a hoofed animal or a herding tool, the author educates and reflects on the farming life.  This is a remarkably engrossing and insightful memoir that brings the reader a little closer to the earth.  Kessler makes one believe anew in the importance of roots and shrubs, in the sublime image of a sparrow collecting the shed hairs of a doe to line her nest, and even in a pair of sister goats, bleating in the back of a Saab hatchback, on their way home.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann In 1925, renowned British explorer Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett embarked on a much publicized search to find the city of Z, site of an ancient Amazonian civilization that may or may not have existed. Fawcett, along with his son Jack, never returned, but that didn’t stop countless others from venturing into the jungle to find Fawcett and the lost city. David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker, was among those who more recently followed Fawcett’s trail into the jungle.  This book includes historical information about the motivations behind these Victorian era explorers and why they risked their lives going to these unchartered lands. They were seeking status, fame and fortune and had an incurable curiosity to find traces of civilization in uncivilized parts of the world. This exciting story of obsession reads like a turn-of-the century adventure story with an ironic ending that stands as a metaphor for the rapid changes in the indigenous cultures of the Americas by the invasion of the Europeans.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a unique children’s novel that is part mystery, part time-travel, one hundred percent clever and mostly hard to sum up.  It’s one of those books you don’t want to know too much about before you start it but it’s safe to say it’s a coming of age story about sixth grader Miranda and her best friend Sal in a New York City neighborhood.  Miranda starts receiving anonymous scribbled notes – four in all – and realizes that someone knows all about her, even things that haven’t happened yet.  This book is utterly engaging and original with a graceful writing style that will appeal to children and adults alike.  This novel is recommended for kids in 4^th through 7^th grade.

Winter Vault by Anne Michaels is the story of the newly married Avery and Jean living on a houseboat in the Nile moored below the majestic temple of Abu Simbel.  The year is 1964 and Avery is one of the engineers working on dismantling and reconstructing the temple to keep it from the rising waters of the Aswan Dam.  With her trademark poetic elegance Michaels, the author of Fugitive Pieces, draws us into Avery and Jeane’s intimate story – how they met, fell in love, and how the lives and events that preceded them shaped their own so definitively.  Set before the backdrop of the towering figures of Ramses, it is the relationship between Avery and Jean that is most affecting. The way in which Michaels takes us inside of their experience makes the novel unforgettable. “So love opens into love,” Avery realizes as he looks at his wife’s altering expression, “like the slightest change of light or air on the surface of water.” It is this unfurling and layering of love and understanding that is so compelling and so extraordinary. Age isn’t to be feared, but rather unwound and held sacred. Indeed, through Avery, Jean, and a host of other characters, Michaels would have us see that waiting is the signature of love.  The Winter Vault is a truly breathtaking achievement with characters and images as inescapably moving and hauntingly memorable.

The gorgeous White on White: Churches of Rural New England by Steve Rosenthal features photographs of churches from all over rural New England, including eight in Vermont.  If the stunning classic architecture of New England’s churches wasn’t enough the beautiful photography of this over-sized coffee table book is awe-inspiring and a lovely reminder of the importance of simple elegance in our lives.  Vermont churches include: Calais Christian Church (1866), Corinth Bible Church (1800), Presbyterian Church of Barnet (1849), the United Baptist Church of East Poultney (1805), the Old First Church in Bennington (1805) and the Stannard-Greensboro Bend Methodist Church (1888).

Stitches by David Small is a graphic memoir of the author’s troubled childhood.  An anxious and sickly child, at age fourteen Small woke up from a routine operation to find himself with a dramatically stitched-up neck, no thyroid and a missing a vocal cord.  Never told that he had cancer by his distant and troubled parents, Small navigates his childhood in silence that reflects the emotional state of his family. Not for graphica fans only, this is an eloquently moving and powerful story that perfectly integrates Small’s gift for story telling with his raw art.  The graphics exquisitely convey the mood and bleakness of his childhood and elevate the coming of age story to a poignant portrayal of survival.

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny is the fifth and possibly most brilliant in her Inspector Armand Gamache series of mysteries.  The idyllic village of Three Pines outside of Montreal once again has its quiet self-image shattered by a murder. This time a man is found dead in the kitchen of the local bistro and antique shop owned by the beloved Olivier.  Inspector Gamache is joined by a familiar cast of characters: the erratic and outspoken poet Ruth; local artists Clara and Peter; Myrna the bookseller and Olivier’s long-time partner Gabri.  But there are new faces in town as well including a Czech family and a couple intent on opening a luxury spa and are making enemies in the meantime.  When another stranger shows up, this time dead, the town is thrown into turmoil.  A treasure-filled cabin in the woods hides a fascinating history and perhaps a clue to the murderer and the murdered.  The story is by turns hilarious, horrifying, psychologically acute and ultimately sad.  With her Dickensian depth of characters, Penny has truly transcended the mystery genre and has arrived as an author of fine fiction.  Of course, our opinion is not hurt by the fact that she is utterly delightful in person, as we found out when she came for a reading this fall.

What list would be complete without a good cookbook?  The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond has been a sleeper hit this season nationally as well as locally.  With magnificent, lush photography, this book is part cookbook, part rural memoir and a perfect companion for our society’s movement back toward the land, home cooking and simpler times.  After meeting her future husband, whom she calls “Marlboro Man”, Drummond abandoned her vegetarian life and became an “accidental” ranch wife cooking up such comfort foods as Rib Eye Steak with Whiskey Cream Sauce, Maple Pecan Scones, and Potato Leek Pizza. One staffer cab become almost rhapsodic when talking about the Chicken Fried Steak, not to mention the photos of Marlboro Man and his cowboy friends.  Drummond’s straightforward style along with the uniquely engaging format, photos of ranch life and the great recipes will inspire any harried home cook to slow down, enjoy the beauty found in family and home and whip up a good hearty meal.  Red Velvet Cake anyone?