NEW HAMPSHIRE BOOKS COLUMN

by Eleanor O'Donnell

Begiebing, Robert J. THE ADVENTURES OF ALLEGRA FULLERTON, OR A MEMOIR OF STARTLING AND AMUSING EPISODES FROM ITINERANT LIFE: A NOVEL. University Press of New England. 1999. $24.95 ISBN 0-87451-947-0
The daily life of New England and Italy in the 1830s and 1840s comes to life in this historical novel about a young widow, Allegra Fullerton, struggling toward independence and artistic fulfillment in a society unprepared to grant either to a woman.

Chestney, Linda. BICYCLING SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 2nd edition. Nicolin Fields Publishing. 2000. $17.95 ISBN 0-9637077-5-2
Armchair travelers, arise from your chairs! Get out your bikes and discover some of southern New Hampshire's most beautiful back roads and byways. This completely revised, updated and expanded edition includes over a dozen new rides for novice to expert, providing ride information, such as directions, mileage, and what to see or visit on the route.

Coughlin, Thomas E. MAGGIE MAY'S DIARY. Fitzgerald & LaChapelle Publishing. 1998. $13.95 ISBN 0-9666202-0-8
When searching for a high school photograph to send to her high school reunion, Maggie May discovers a dairy written at the age of fifteen. Eighteen years later, her marriage on the rocks, and her daughter about to graduate from high school, she looks back to that time when she first discovered boys. In this novel set in Manchester and Bedford, she begins her search for one of those boys who professed his love for her so many years ago, and finds a new awareness of who she is and what she values.

Gibson, Raymond. TALES FROM THE PEWTER SHOP. Peter E. Randall. 1999. $19.95 ISBN 0-9645595-1-X
Raymond Gibson is a retired minister who taught himself the art of working with pewter. After he retired he set up a workshop in Hillsborough Center. Two prizewinning pewter pieces were accepted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This autobiographical work relates how he became interested in the craft, introduces us to people who taught him the technical skills, and the results of his cottage industry.

Heald, Bruce D. PLYMOUTH STATE COLLEGE. Arcadia. Image of America series. 1999. $18.99 ISBN 0-7385-0184-0
Photographic history of Plymouth State College, since its inception in 1871, when it was called the New Hampshire Normal School. Traces the school's physical, academic, and student growth. The New Hampshire Legislature twice renamed the school. In 1937 it became Plymouth Teachers College, and in 1963, Plymouth State College of the University System of New Hampshire.

Howe, Nicholas. NOT WITHOUT PERIL: 150 YEARS OF MISADVENTURE ON THE PRESIDENTIAL RANGE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. Appalachia Mountain Club Books. 2000. $22.95 ISBN 1-878239-93-7
While the valleys below are bathed in warm sunshine, the Presidential Range of New Hampshire may be lashed by hurricane-force winds, blinding snow, and numbing cold temperatures. Howe, a journalist who resides in Jackson, chronicles the misadventures, sometimes fatal, of twenty-two climbers who found trouble on the mountains from 1849 to 1994.

Lamothe, Denise. THE TAMING OF THE CHEW: A HOLISTIC GUIDE TO STOPPING COMPULSIVE EATING. Questover Books. 1998. $11.95 ISBN 0-966365-0-5
The author, a certified psychologist and a doctor of holistic health, who practices in Epping, New Hampshire, has worked for nearly twenty years with people who have compulsive eating disorders. This guide provides an understanding of the physical, emotional, social and spiritual reasons for overeating, and ways to overcome the compulsion.

Mansfield, Howard. THE SAME AX TWICE: RESTORATION AND RENEWAL IN A THROWAWAY AGE. University Press of New England. 2000. $26.00 ISBN 1-58465-028.1
Hancock resident, Mansfield, explores the ways in which we attempt to reconnect with and recover the past. Traveling with Civil War reenactors to help recreate the Battle of Antietam, enrolling in auctioneer school to observe the endless recycling of artifacts, touring eighteenth century restored houses, he concludes the act of restoration must contain an element of renewal. It is concerned as much with the future as with the past.

Nelson, Jonathan, editor. HISTORY OF LEMPSTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1735-1999. Order from Jonathan Nelson, P.O. Box 162, Lempster, N.H. 03605. 2000. $35.00
"Edited and compiled from various sources by a gentleman at Harvard," this first history of Lempster chronicles the town from its beginning as an improper Massachusetts land grant to the present day. The book includes biographies of notable residents, doctors, and history of selected town organizations. The book is illustrated by photographs and drawings, some hand watercolored by a Lempster artist, James J. Drew.

Nilson, Kim Robert. THE COHOS TRAIL: THE GUIDEBOOK OF NEW HAMPSHIRE'S GREAT UNKNOWN. Nicolin Fields Publishing. 2000. $17.95 ISBN 0-9637077-7-9
By the summer of 2000, hikers will be able to access over 115 miles of the newly-developed Cohos Trail from the White Mountains to the Connecticut Lakes. This book describes the trails, physical features, lists of supplies you will need, and what you should do in case of emergency.

Pease, R. Warren. STRICTLY FOR THE RECORD. Bench Mark Publishing. 1998. $29.95 ISBN 0-9665581-0-3
In this memoir, Pease, for thirty years a journalist, outlines what it was like to be William Loeb's top reporter for the Manchester Union Leader. With a wealth of anecdotes he gives insights into the power of the press and its effect on the people who dominated politics in New Hampshire since the 1960s.

Sulloway, Alvah W. PUT IT IN WRITING: A WAY OF LIFE FOR THREE GENERATIONS OF A NEW HAMPSHIRE FAMILY: BOOKS, JOURNALS AND LETTERS, 1892-1997. Published for the New Hampshire Historical Society by Phoenix Publishing. 1998. $35.00 ISBN 0-914659-84-7
The author is the only member of his family who has known all of the people who come to life in the pages of this book. He has assembled their correspondence and written introductions to the chronologically arranged sections. In an age where people are more inclined to communicate by telephone and e-mail, this collection is a remarkable social history of a prominent Concord, N.H. family.

Swank, Scott. SHAKER LIFE, ART AND ARCHITECTURE: HANDS TO WORK, HEARTS TO GOD. Text by Scott Swank. Principal photography by Bill Finney. Abbeville Press. 1999. $60.00 ISBN 0-7892-0358-8
The author, director of Canterbury Shaker Village, presents the full sweep of Shaker art and architecture, in the context of a specific Shaker community.

Yount, Sylvia, and Mark F. Bockrath. MAXFIELD PARRISH, 1870-1966. Abrams, in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1999. $39.95 ISBN 0-8109-4367-0
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Currier Gallery in January 2000. Maxfield Parrish, one of the most popular American artists of the twentieth century, was born in Philadelphia, but spent much of his adult life in Cornish, New Hampshire. This book offers an extensive look at his life and career, and a discussion of the physical construction of his paintings and his unique techniques.