Christmas craft fair
The United Church of Penacook, at the corner of Community Drive and Canal Street in Penacook, will hold a Christmas Craft Fair and Bake Sale on Nov. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Crafters will offer hand-crafted home décor, holiday decorations, knit/crochet goods, stuffed toys, jams and jellies, handbags, artisan soaps, and more. There will also be a bake sale. Visit ucpnh.org for crafter list and craft pictures. Proceeds support the United Church Food Pantry and the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness.
Holiday craft fair
Head to Concord Hospital on Nov. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a fun and festive holiday craft fair. Go to the main entrance and take elevator A. Enjoy three floors of hand crafts from over 50 local vendors at 250 Pleasant Street. Park in parking lot A and or B. Masks are mandatory.
Family folk fun
Music in my pockets: Family fun in folk music will be presented by Jeff Warner at Boscawen Public Library on Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m.
Singing games, accessible “pocket instruments” like spoons and dancing puppets, tall tales, funny songs, old songs and songs kids teach each other in the playground-all “traditional” in that they have been passed down the generations by word of mouth-will be seen, heard and learned. We will revisit 1850 or 1910 in a New England town, with families gathered around the kitchen hearth, participating in timeless, hearty entertainment: a glimpse into how America amused itself before electricity. This program is recommended for adults and children ages 6 and above. This program is available as an in-person or online presentation.
Murderous novel
Gibson’s Bookstore is pleased to join Politics & Prose and other indie bookstores across America to present a virtual event with Anthony Horowitz and his new book, The Twist of a Knife, on Nov. 15 at noon.
Thrown into prison and fearing for both his personal future and his writing career, Anthony is the prime suspect and when a second theatre critic is found to have died in mysterious circumstances, the net closes in. Ever more desperate, he realizes that only one man can help him. But will Hawthorne take the call? With a cast of characters that all have a motive, The Twist of a Knife has distinct echoes of Agatha Christie, which will delight Anthony Horowitz fans and new readers alike.
One of the world’s most prolific and successful writers, Horowitz may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author, working across so many media, from books, to TV, film, plays and journalism. Several of his previous novels were instant New York Times bestsellers. His bestselling Alex Rider series for Young Adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War on PBS; other TV work includes Poirot and the widely acclaimed mini-series Collision and Injustice. His award-winning novel Magpie Murders has been adapted into a six-part miniseries that’s now on BritBox, written by Horowitz himself and staring Lesley Manville. It will be on PBS Masterpiece this fall 2022. He lives in London.
Horowitz will be in conversation with Shari Lapena, the author of six internationally bestselling thrillers, including The Couple Next Door and Not A Happy Family. All of her books have been NY Times and UK Sunday Times bestsellers; three have been Richard and Judy Book Club picks. Her books have been sold into 38 territories. She lives in Canada.
Registration or preorder are required at eventbrite.com.
An afternoon of poetry
Join the Poetry Society of New Hampshire for an afternoon of verse on Nov. 16 from 4:40 to 6 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore. Their poets this month are Martha Collins, and L.R. Berger.
Martha’s newest poetry collection is Casualty Reports. Stylistically innovative, deeply moving, carefully researched, Martha Collins’s eleventh volume of poetry combines her well-known attention to social issues with the elegiac mode of her previous book. She focuses here on race, gun violence, recent wars, and, in an extended sequence, the history of coal—first as her ancestors mined it, then from its geological origins to our ecologically-threatened present. Casualty Reports is both indictment and lament, a work that speaks forcefully to our troubled history and our present times.
LR’s most recent poetry collection is Indebted to Wind. “The wind in these eloquent, elegant, tensile poems is present as spirit, of course; as spirit it can manifest as the longing or fate of the body (it expires), as intellectual momentum (it inspires), as power for social justice (it aspires). In all these modes, L.R. Berger both controls the energy as form, and honors the charge of the moment—perception by brilliant perception, breath by mortal breath.”—Stephen Tapscot
180 Years of NH Hospital
Who lived and worked in New Hampshire Hospital during its 180-year history? From its initial conception to its founding as the New Hampshire Asylum in 1842, the institution has experienced enormous changes and challenges. On Nov. 18 at 5 p.m., Dr. Paul Shagoury, former chief psychologist at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord, will draw on both historical records and personal accounts left by patients, nurses, and doctors, showing how their personal experiences at the hospital reveal a larger story – one filled with hope and practicality, successes, and disappointments – about our society’s attempts to understand and treat what we now call mental illness.
Paul Shagoury is a New Hampshire native. He graduated from Tufts University in 1966 and completed his training in clinical psychology with a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1971.
Dr. Shagoury worked in clinical and administrative capacities in community mental health centers in Maine and New Hampshire until 1982 when he became a founding partner of Green House Group, PA in Manchester, NH. Returning to public health to conclude his professional career, Dr. Shagoury joined the psychology department of New Hampshire Hospital in 2006 from which he retired as chief psychologist.
This event is virtual. Visit nhhumanities.org for more details.
