Non-fiction, humor, essay

The voice of Vermont is now in print. "Vermont Seasonings: Reflections on the Rhythms of a Vermont Year" is broadcaster Steve Delaney's affectionate salute to Vermont. Delaney, self-described Recovering Flatlander, writes of Vermont in this weekly and seasonal collection of essays. A Recovering Flatlander, he says, is "a person from Away who has moved to Vermont and believes it is possible to pass as a Real Vermonter. It's not."

Delaney's distinctive voice has been heard on Vermont Public Radio for the past decade. He has won national honors for two NBC White Paper television documentaries, and for radio documentaries and news programs produced for VPR. Delaney is a fifty-year broadcast journalist who has covered politics and other petty crime in Washington, finance and other felonies in New York and wars on three continents. He is the middle link in a five-generation family love affair with Lake Champlain and the state and now calls Milton his home. "Vermont Seasonings" is his first book. In "Vermont Seasonings," Delaney writes of sugaring ("The Fragrant Mists of Fairfield"), mud season ("That Joyant Sucking Sound"), families ("Reunion Season"), foliage ("Flo and Bert Alert") and the weekly pace of life in this well-seasoned collection. His glossary also lists three definitions of a "Real Vermonter" -- loose, strict and ultra-orthodox with an emphasis on seven generations.

On April 9, 1942, an allied force estimated at 68,000 men, including 12,000 Americans, surrendered to the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. That day, these men disappeared from public sight in the West. The surrender began an ordeal of death, torture, disease, deprivation and slavery that, for the American soldiers who survived it, ended only after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in August of 1945. Too Dead to Die is the story of one man's survival.

Steve Raymond, an Army Air Corps clerk, had been converted to a frontline infantry sergeant by the time of the surrender on Bataan. As this book describes with vividness and detail that can be achieved only in an account begun as the events unfolded, he survived the Bataan Death March and nearly 3? years in the archipelago of Japanese slave labor camps.

These "fabulous stories" Raymond first recorded in a diary kept on scraps of paper and in notebooks - anything on which he could write. A determination to bear witness motivated him through the terrors and privations of captivity.

Home at last in 1945, he spent his first months of freedom recreating early diaries lost when a Hell Ship to Japan sank. He began drafting a memoir but soon lost interest. Over the years he sometimes took the memoir out of the drawer and expanded it.
Finally, in 2003, he got his manuscript into the hands of Mike Pride, a New Hampshire newspaper editor and amateur historian. Pride became Raymond's editor and co-author, reshaping the manuscript into a streamlined narrative.

Ever wanted to know the difference between Cab Sauv and Sangiovese but were too intimidated to ask? This “WINE 101” is for Granite State wine enthusiasts and beginners. This instructional and helpful guise includes an ever important glossary of wine terms, and information on New Hampshire wine tastings, bars, vineyards, specialty shops, even pairing wines for special occasions- including creating your own New Hampshire wine dinner. Grab a cork screw, some cheese and start tasting from the comfort of your own home!

Cheers!

The life, lessons and philosophy of coach Rob Szymaszek can be found in this book by the sports editor of the Record-Journal in Meriden, Connecticut.

The book, and mantra of legendary Connecticut high school football and life coach, Rob Szymaszek, is an awe-inspiring account of a hometown boy turned icon who, in the prime of his life, was stricken with a terminal illness. True to form, Coach Smaz refused to go quietly into that premature night with the support of his family, community, and team: the Maloney High School Spartans.

Carpenter, a seasoned sports journalist who became a Szymaszek family friend, writes of a man, “bigger than this page can encompass;” a trusted and hallowed guidance counselor, husband, and father who faced an extraordinary disease as if it were just another bump in the road.

More New Hampshire stories from the master storyteller. Fritz Wetherbee, in his second Plaidswede volume, tells the tales of Daniel Webster's bad table manners, Ocean Born Mary, how several towns got their names, and a mix of Granite State characters -- Count Rumford, Aunt Jenny the Witch, Doctor Whipple, Prince Whipple, Mary Corliss' cheese and Salmon Portland Chase. You seen and heard his stories on WMUR-TV's New Hampshire Chronicle, now let Fritz tell you more of his stories.

$22.95 ($19.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Paperback.

Floggings, flags, runaway daughters, death on Mount Washington, bears, and kinky schoolteachers of old. This third volume from New Hampshire's master storyteller tells all about the state's people, places and towns.
Fritz tells stories of:

• An English earl’s edict and his daughter’s daring escape to a lovely valley in New Hampshire…
• A shoeless Newport boy’s rapid rise to world shoemaking magnate…
• The general on horseback who refused to move as the enemy’s cannonball arched toward him…
• The romantic and treacherous life of the men who worked Manchester’s log run…
• An adopted black woman in Concord whose greatest fear was freedom…

$22.95 ($19.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Paperback.

New Hampshire’s master storyteller Fritz Wetherbee has published his fourth collection of Granite State favorites.
His popular series, which appear on the best-seller lists at New Hampshire book stores throughout the year, heat up town history with Fritz’s take on how people have lived in the Granite State from the first settlers to the present day.

In this collection of tales, Fritz shows us the strength of human values and heroic toil in four chapters: “Stories,” “Towns,” “People,” and “The Wetherbees.”

You will be introduced to:
* The first Englishman to explore the Isles of Shoals
* The courageous pilots of the Flying Circus
* The brave engineer in Barrington’s train wreck
* The Henniker Shakers who were hustled out of town
* New Hampshire folks who rushed for gold

And you will learn about:
* Frightened townspeople fighting a plague
* A gruesome grave robbery in Hopkinton
* The famous White Mountain Freezers
* The REAL first battle of the American Revolution

New Hampshire's master storyteller weaves the tales of the Granite State. You see him on WMUR-TV's New Hampshire Chronicle now read his stories about the people, places and events in the state. This is the book that started it all – the First book of this delightful series!

Included stories: The Fitzwilliam Highwayman, Little Commodore Nutt, Suitor Horace Greeley, Controversial Hutchinson Family Singers, Hermit Ben Lear, Rail-fisted Ruel Durkee, New Hampshire's Winston Churchill and, of course, the Wetherbees.

$22.95 ($19.95 plus $3.00 postage and handling). Paperback.

The first of two volumes on the life of Franklin Pierce, Wallner's thoroughly researched, engagingly written account of Pierce's rise to national prominence will surprise readers with accounts of the many triumphs and tragedies of Pierce's life leading up to his presidency.

About the Author
Peter A. Wallner earned a B.A. from Waynesburg College (PA) and MA and PhD in U.S. history from The Pennsylvania State University. For thirty years he taught history and was a school administrator in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania before moving to Concord, New Hampshire to research the life of Franklin Pierce. He continues to work for the New Hampshire Historical Society and teach as adjunct instructor at the New Hampshire Community Technical College at Nashua, and at Franklin Pierce College, Concord.

The first of two volumes on the life of Franklin Pierce, Wallner's thoroughly researched, engagingly written account of Pierce's rise to national prominence will surprise readers with accounts of the many triumphs and tragedies of Pierce's life leading up to his presidency.

About the Author
Peter A. Wallner earned a B.A. from Waynesburg College (PA) and MA and PhD in U.S. history from The Pennsylvania State University. For thirty years he taught history and was a school administrator in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania before moving to Concord, New Hampshire to research the life of Franklin Pierce. He continues to work for the New Hampshire Historical Society and teach as adjunct instructor at the New Hampshire Community Technical College at Nashua, and at Franklin Pierce College, Concord.

The most recent biography of Franklin Pierce was published nearly seventy-five years ago. Yet the nation's least known president is also one of the most charming, charismatic, and interesting men to ever hold the nation's highest office. Described by his best friend Nathaniel Hawthorne as "deep, deep, deep," with "most of the chief elements of a great ruler," Pierce is also the greatest trial lawyer in New Hampshire history. A master politician at the state level, Pierce ruled over the most consistently successful state Democratic Party in the Northeast, before he and his supporters devised and executed the plan to capture the national party's presidential nomination in 1852.

The first of two volumes on the life of Franklin Pierce, Wallner's thoroughly researched, engagingly written account of Pierce's rise to national prominence will surprise readers with accounts of the many triumphs and tragedies of Pierce's life leading up to his presidency.

About the Author
Peter A. Wallner earned a B.A. from Waynesburg College (PA) and MA and PhD in U.S. history from The Pennsylvania State University. For thirty years he taught history and was a school administrator in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania before moving to Concord, New Hampshire to research the life of Franklin Pierce. He continues to work for the New Hampshire Historical Society and teach as adjunct instructor at the New Hampshire Community Technical College at Nashua, and at Franklin Pierce College, Concord.

It's all Yankee. You don't have to claim any particular ethnic heritage, have seven generations in the ground, or even have been born in New England to be shaped by this rough, rocky landscape.

"Yankee" is an attitude, built on the bone-deep optimism of that old true saying, "Could have been worse."

Rebecca Rule explores this attitude and many others that contribute to that highly philosophical, peculiar, and often humorous, state of being called "living yankee."

This book is of true stores, an embellishment here and there, and, yes, outright lies. As only Becky Rule can tell.

Ironically, the journey brought the author considerable joy, even as it schooled him in despair and the grimmer facts of life along the way. And, occasionally, it led him into wayward activities that tried the patience of his parents and his teachers.

For eight years, until he approached 12 in 1935, Marshall's Corner, a rural neighborhood on the western outskirts of Brockton, Mass., was young Wyman's beloved universe. And the setting for "Bittersweet Beginnings." From this stage, readers are introduced to the boy, his home and family, his inner thoughts, concerns and interests, his favorite haunts and games. They also meet an arresting array of relatives, friends and neighbors, who enriched his life in varied, often enduring, ways. The story is told in the clear, often lyrical, voice of an author familiar with his subjects and the landscape they inhabit.

In "Hard Times Shared," readers learn how the boy, concerned about mounting family debt and his father's lack of steady work, vowed to share his parents' worries in silence, day by day. Among his concerns and regrets was the fact that he seldom saw his parents smile or laugh aloud.

But he embraced pleasure where he found it. In "The Brockton Fair," Wyman subtitled the chapter: "A Fence Climb Into Paradise." And he and his friends made annual pilgrimages to that "paradise," scaling the fences of their heaven on each occasion.

Wyman worked for The Providence Journal for more than 44 years as a reporter and in a succession of editing and administrative roles. He retired in December of 1995 as vice president and executive editor. In 1989 he received the Yankee Quill Award from the New England Chapter Society of Professional Journalists and the New England Society of Newspaper Editors for contributions to excellence in New England journalism. He is a graduate of Boston University and a veteran of U.S. Army service in New Guinea and the Philippines during World War II. He lives in Wakefield, R.I. with his wife, Viola.

"I had to publish this book," said Plaidswede publisher George Geers. "During my years as the editor of daily newspapers in New England, I served on committees with Jim and always admired his views on the newspaper industry. He served as a role model not only for staff at The Providence Journal but for editors throughout the region. That I was given the opportunity to publish ‘Bittersweet Beginnings' just continues the journey of two editors," said Geers.