Peterborough, NH

Willard Williams [July 2008]
Co-owner, Toadstool Bookshops

Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. A 14-year-old boy, accompanied by the protective black horse given him as a gift, is sent, on his mother’s premonition, to bring his soldier father home from the battlefields of the Civil War. In this novel, Olmstead’s depiction of the incomprehensively violent world the boy finds himself in feels frighteningly vivid and historically accurate. Robert Olmstead grew up in western New Hampshire the setting for several of his previous books including the short story collection River Dogs and his memoir Stay Here With Me. He now teaches at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Brian Hackert [Fall 2005]
Reference Librarian, Peterborough Town Library

Calamity and Other Stories by Daphne Kalotay. New York: Doubleday, 2005.
The House of Breathing: Stories by Gail Jones. New York: George Braziller, 2000.
Short stories are my favorite kind of reading, and for all the same reasons that Edgar Allan Poe felt that way, too. These two collections are unique and surprising yet reflect basic moods that any reader can identify with in some manner or other. There aren't many copies of either title in the NH library system, so I hope this recommendation increases the numbers.