Book: Never, Not Ever!
Never, Not Ever! By Beatrice Alemagna (48 pages, children’s picture book, 2021) Beatrice Alemagna’s new children’s book Never, Not Ever! tells the story of an adorable, plucky little bat named Pascaline who might just be a little nervous about starting school. Pascaline is five and lives in a treehouse with her parents. She knows exactly what she likes, and more importantly, what she doesn’t like — namely, the idea of starting...
City Manager’s Newsletter
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: City meetings City meetings are held in person in Council Chambers at 37 Green St. (unless otherwise specified on the City’s calendar). Upcoming meetings include: Finance Committee (FY 2023 Budget Review: General Government...
Entertainment for the week of May 26, 2022
Live music May 26 Brian Booth at Hermanos at 6:30 p.m. Ali McGuirk at Bank of N.H. Stage at 7:30 p.m. May 27 Kilroy at Penuche’s Ale House The Senie Hunt Project at Area 23 at 8 p.m. Brian Walker at Over the Moon Farmstand May 28 John Franzosa at Hermanos at 6:30 p.m. Senie Hunt at Two Villages Art Society from noon to 2 p.m. Alex Cohen at Contoocook Cider Company from 5 to 8 p.m. The Senie Hunt Project at Penuche’s Ale House Ryan...
This week in Concord history
May 26, 1857: U.S. Sen. James Bell of New Hampshire, elected the previous year, dies in office. May 26, 1944: After several destructive incidents, the police join school officials in urging young people not to play with handmade grenades. The grenades are filled with carriage bolts and use match-heads for the explosive charge. Children have been reported making and throwing them throughout the city. May 27, 1727: A...
‘Gutenberg!’ returns to actors’ great joy
Update from May 19 at 2:30 p.m.: “The Community Players of Concord regret to announce that this weekend’s performance of Gutenberg! The Musical! at the Hatbox Theatre has been postponed due to a cast member’s illness. (No, it’s not COVID!) We hope to reschedule this production at a later date. If you already have tickets you can hang on to them for the rescheduled performance, or you can return them for a...
A sample of more camp options for kids
Audubon Nature Camp Hundreds of children explore the wonders of the natural world at NH Audubon’s vacation camps. Participants will enhance ecological awareness; cultivate appreciation for, and stewardship of, our natural environment; provide fun, safe, hands-on learning opportunities; advocate inclusive learning environments; build a sense of community and foster a collaborative, non-competitive atmosphere. For more information,...
Kindness column: If you have more than others do, give back
The people of the nation of Ukraine have been facing brutal attacks by Russia’s leader since late February and as a result over 11 million Ukrainians are now refugees who have had to flee their homes to find safety elsewhere. Many neighboring countries of Ukraine, at great risk themselves, have nonetheless offered the desperate and fleeing citizens of Ukraine both safety and comfort. Poland for example has taken in more than 2.6...
Two authors in conversation
As propulsive as Brain on Fire and as poetically candid as The Collected Schizophrenias, one woman’s quest for the truth of her neurodivergent mind. Rebecca Schiller joins Gibson’s Bookstore virtually to present her memoir, A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention: A Memoir of Coming Home to My Neurodivergent Mind, about discovering her Adult ADHD diagnosis, and how it explained her mind, her struggles, and how it affects her life. Schiller...
Book: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
The Ten Thousand Doors of January By Alix Harrow (374 pages, fantasy, 2019) The first thing I noticed about this book (besides the gorgeous cover) was the incredibly beautiful prose. Alix Harrow’s lyrical, enchanting writing draws the reader in by painting a world that appears relatively ordinary on the outside, but faintly shimmers with the possibility of a universe beyond our own. In the early 1900s, seven-year old January Scaller...
This week in Concord history
May 19, 1944: Mrs. Charles A. Morin of Monroe Street in Concord hopes a new postal policy aimed at improving communication with prisoners-of-war in Germany will bring word from her son. Lt. Antoine Robert Morin, a pilot, was shot down in February, and his mother received this note, dated Feb. 28: “Dear Folks: Am prisoner of war in Germany. Well and safe. No need for worry. Will write as often as possible. We’ll be together after...
Rock ‘N Race runs through Concord
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: City meetings City meetings are held in person in Council Chambers at 37 Green St. (unless otherwise specified on the City’s calendar). Upcoming meetings include: Finance Committee (City Manager’s Budget Presentation): May...
Maintaining a purpose
Bonnie Beyer of Concord does not like referring to her 11-year relationship with cancer as a journey. It’s been more of an ordeal, with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. But the ordeal has included an important journey in which Bonnie and her best friend, Christa Chapman, have walked countless miles through thunderstorms, blizzards, cold winter nights and hot summer days. The walks raised Bonnie’s spirits and raised...
Lace up, rock on: Rock N Race returns
The 20th Annual Rock ‘N Race returns to the State House in downtown Concord with Merrimack County Savings Bank as the presenting sponsor for the 14th year in a row. The iconic road race is a main fundraising event for Concord Hospital’s Payson Center for Cancer Care, a cause to which the Merrimack has contributed nearly $400,000 over the years. The 20th Annual Rock ‘N Race kicks off May 19 and features live music, food, and fun...
Rockin around the race course
Enjoy music from local bands playing at the 20th annual Rock ‘N Race! On the main stage The Dalton Gang Along the course Occasional Piracy Derek Strand Holy Fool Granite State Entertainment (Brad Morrison) Don Bartenstein Six String Eddy and Blue Eyed Blonde Ryan Williamson Bosey Joe Bow Junction Matt Poirier Crawl Space...
Bulletin board
Mental health book talk Riverbend Community Mental Health joins Gibson’s Bookstore in welcoming author Donald Antrim into the bookstore for a talk and signing for Antrim’s book, One Friday in April: A Story of Suicide and Survival, a searing and brave memoir that offers a new understanding of suicide as a distinct mental illness. The event will be held May 17 at 6:30 p.m. in person. It is free and open to the public. Through a clear...
City news: New utility billing system launches in June
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: City meetings City meetings are held in person in Council Chambers at 37 Green St. (unless otherwise specified on the city’s calendar). Upcoming meetings include: Planning Board: May 18, 7 p.m. Billing system The City of Concord will...
Book: Invisible Women
Invisible Women By Caroline Criado Perez (411 pages, non-fiction, 2019) Every so often, a book comes along that you wish everyone would read. Invisible Women is one of those books. Are you a woman? Do you live with, work with, communicate with, or — heck — live in a community that includes women? Then this recommendation is for you. Invisible Women is based on the premise that sex- and gender-based discrimination, whether overt or...
This week in Concord history
May 5, 1944: An epidemic of German measles in Concord has driven the absentee list at city schools above 100. May 6, 2003: Gov. Craig Benson appoints a 12-person task force to determine whether the Old Man of the Mountain should be reborn as a plaster of Paris, rubber or granite version of its former self. Benson says the Old Man of the Mountain Revitalization Task Force will explore what should be done to best memorialize the New...
City recognized for sustainability initiatives
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: City meetings City meetings are held in person in Council Chambers at 37 Green St. (unless otherwise specified on the City’s calendar). Upcoming meetings include: City Council: May 9, 7 p.m. Planning Board: May 18, 7 p.m. Tree Planting...
CYPN: Bow native discusses benefits of networking
Concord Young Professionals Network (CYPN) introduces you to the “Young Professional of the Month,” Shannon Ketcham. Each month, the CYPN Steering Committee recommends a young professional in the community it thinks readers would enjoy getting to know better. Shannon Ketcham How old are you? 36 years young. Where do you live? Bow. Where do you currently work? I am a Mortgage Loan Officer at Merrimack County Savings Bank. How did you...
The Hummingbirds’ Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings
The Hummingbirds’ Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings By Sy Montgomery (83 pages, nonfiction, 2021) New Hampshire Author Sy Montgomery goes to California to help bird rescuer Brenda Sherburn LaBelle raise two tiny baby hummingbirds. Brenda is a bird rehabilitator and she is an expert at hummingbird rescue and care. She’s planted a hummingbird garden around their California home and she gets calls from all over about how to care...
Bulletin board: Cat show, book launch and more
Book launch It’s an after-hours book launch event for Mercury Rising on May 10 at 6:30 p.m. Gibson’s Bookstore is thrilled to bring RWW Greene back to present an alternative history with aliens, an immortal misanthrope and SF tropes aplenty. Masks are strongly encouraged but no longer required for vaccinated attendees. We can’t predict the future course of the pandemic, so Gibson’s reserves the right to institute masking and/or...
Entertainment for April 28 to My 7
Live music April 28 Brian Booth at Hermanos at 6:30 p.m. DJ Dicey at Area 23 at 8 p.m. April 29 Susan Werner at the Bank of N.H. Stage at 8 p.m. Karen Grenier at Over the Moon Farmstead from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. R&B Dignity at Area 23 at 8 p.m. April 30 Lucas Gallo at Hermanos at 6:30 p.m. Zach Nugent Disco Dead at Bank of N.H. at 8 p.m. Joey Clark at the Downtown Concord Winter Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to noon Brad Myrick at Two...
Book: How Stella Learned to Talk
How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World’s First Talking Dog By Christina Hunger (260 pages, memoir, 2021) How Stella Learned to Talk is one of my favorite books published in 2021. This light-but-fascinating read willappeal to animal lovers, parents of young children, or anyone interested in language acquisition and verbal communication. Part memoir, part popular science, this is the story of speech-language...
This week in Concord history
April 28, 1974: Gov. Mel Thomson returns to New Hampshire after two days in the Caribbean studying oil refineries. Thomson’s office refuses to say precisely where in the Caribbean area he was. April 28, 1752: On a trapping expedition north of Plymouth, young John Stark leaves camp to check his traps and is captured by Indians. He is beaten, taken north to Canada, forced to run the gauntlet and, after five or six weeks in captivity,...
Bulletin Board: Book launch
It’s an after-hours book launch event for The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty! Author Sy Montgomery visits Gibson’s Bookstore to present a splendid and luminous celebration of one of nature’s most perfect and mysterious creatures — the hawk. The in-person event will be held May 3 at 6:30 p.m. Masks are strongly encouraged but no longer required for vaccinated attendees. We can’t predict the future course of the pandemic, so...
City news: Audi Perennial Exchange is May 7
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: Audi Perennial Exchange The annual Perennial Exchange will be held at the Concord City Auditorium on Saturday, May 7 from 8 a.m. to noon. This event will be held rain or shine. A split and swap will be available, as well as Mother’s Day...
This week in Concord history
April 21, 1789: When John Adams arrives at Federal Hall in New York after being elected the nation’s first vice president, he is greeted by John Langdon of New Hampshire, president pro tempore of the Senate. There is as yet no oath of office for the vice president, so Langdon simply escorts Adams to his seat at the head of the chamber. April 21, 1881: At 6 p.m., a small closed car drawn by a horse leaves Abbot & Downing...
A funny new take on ‘Aladdin’
“Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier,” produced by Actors Cooperative Theatre, will be presented at the Hatbox Theatre in Concord for three weekends from April 22 to May 8. Twisted is a hilarious production with the storytelling perspective of “Wicked” but this time with the classic film from the ‘90s Aladdin. From the perspective of Ja’far who is just a well-intentioned and hardworking official from The Kingdom, you will gain...
Book: Mickey7
Mickey7 By Edward Ashton (304, sci-fi, 2022) Waking up in the same body isn’t always a guarantee in the distant future. Well, sort of. In Edward Ashton’s latest novel, the titular protagonist, Mickey7, is an Expendable, or someone used as a renewable resource when colonizing new planets. Unfortunately, this means Mickey is likely to die from completing his colony’s various dirty deeds and maintenance duties, all of which are certainly...
