Upcoming Events from Misty Valley Books

posted Friday, January 20, 2012

Dear Misty Valley Friends,

All of us at Misty Valley Books would like to wish you a very happy and peaceful new year. We want to thank all of you for your friendship and support this past year. We find great meaning in our interaction with you and our life full of books.

Our big event for January is our 18th annual New Voices weekend, on January 28th. For almost two decades, we have presented newly published authors whose future looks bright. A number - including Dennis Lehane, Colum McCann, Jennifer Egan, Hillary Jordan, Alex Berenson, Heidi Durrow, and others- have gone on to considerable success. These authors, and about 100 others, have been introduced to Vermont readers at New Voices, inaugurated in 1994. The First Universalist Church in Chester's Stone Village, our annual venue, is undergoing extensive renovations. We will be holding New Voices at the new Vermont Institute for Contemporary Arts on Depot Street and Main in downtown Chester at 2:00 PM. We hope to see you there!

Also, don't miss The Green Mountain Festival Series this month, presenting Rusty Belle on Saturday, January 21st at 7:00 PM at Green Mountain Union High School.

Enjoy January!

Your booksellers,

Lynne and Bill
along with
Amanda, Kim, Jane, and John

Misty Valley Books
58 The Common
PO Box 700
Chester, Vermont  05143
802.875.3400
Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm
Saturday, 10am-5pm
Sunday, 11am-4pm
www.mvbooks.com

New Voices 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012

Wine, dine, and ski with the authors

Schedule:
9:30 am - XC ski with the authors - Grafton Ponds (843-2231)
2:00 pm - Readings and reception - VTica (875-1018)
5:45 pm - Wine and Cheese in front of the fire with the authors - Fullerton Inn (cash bar)
6:30 pm - Dinner with the authors - Fullerton Inn (reservations 875-2444)
All events are open to the public.

This year's authors:

Betty Shotton
Liftoff Leadership: 10 Principles for Exceptional Leadership

Pilots and leaders have a lot in common. Betty Shotton, a pilot, CEO, serial entrepreneur, and lifelong leader, is an advocate for meaningful and principled leadership. In her book, she thoughtfully guides readers through ten principles, including courage, integrity, possibility, and awe, utilizing theory complemented by a values- driven narrative filled with personal stories from the C suite and intriguing tales from the cockpit. She is a commercially trained pilot, with 35 years experience as a CEO, and travels the country speaking on the need to return to and integrate fundamental values that benefit mankind. She has served on the board of CapeAir and currently is on the board of First Flight Foundation. www.liftoffleadership.com

Christopher Boucher
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive

Trying to explain this book - its complexity, its brilliance, the way it makes perfectly emotional sense even though almost everything about it is, on the surface, absurd - is a challenge. The jacket reads, "If you think raising a kid in today's world is hard, imagine how tough it would be if your child happened to be a Volkswagen Beetle." For all the surrealism that you should be prepared for, there is nothing glib about this book. The narrator's son, the VW, is ill throughout and getting sicker. He's prone to breakdowns and struggling with rust. Boucher's world is made up of absolutely human and recognizable truths: it's unspeakably sad when a parent dies; it's really scary when your child is seriously ill; it can be comforting to avoid change, to stay close to home. We all run on stories and Boucher's is wildly imaginative and masterful. www.christopherboucher.com

Katharine Britton
Her Sister's Shadow

Lilli Niles is at home in her North London flat when she receives an unexpected call. Her elder sister, Bea - at the family homestead in White Head, Massachusetts - has just lost her husband, and she'd like Lilli to fly home for the funeral. Lilli, a painter, is preparing for her latest gallery opening. And more to the point, there are reasons she moved all the way to England to escape her older sister, reasons that have kept them estranged for decades. But something in Bea's voice makes Lilli think it's time to return to the stately house in New England she loved as a child, to the memory of a shared loss - and to a time when simple sisterhood was enough to overcome betrayal and resentment.  Katharine Britton has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing f rom Dartmouth College, teaches at Colby-Sawyer College, and at The Writers' Center. www.katharinebritton.com

Naomi Benaron
Running the Rift

Awarded the prestigious Bellwether Prize (like two former New Voices, Hillary Jordan and Heidi Durrow) for its treatment of compelling social issues, Benaron's novel is a powerful portrait of an alarming episode in global history, the Rwandan Genocide, through the eyes of a runner, Jean Patrick Nkuba, the son of a murdered school teacher, who dreams of bringing peace to his country and equality to his Tutsi compatriots by representing Rwanda at the Olympics. A beautiful and heart-rending story. www.naomibenaron.com

Paul Grossman
The Sleepwalkers

Berlin, 1932. In the final weeks of the Weimar Republic, as Hitler and his National Socialist Party angle to assume control of Germany, beautiful girls are seen sleepwalking through the streets. When a young woman of mysterious origin is pulled dead from the Havel River with her legs bizarrely deformed, Berlin Inspektor-Detektiv Willi Kraus, a veteran of World War I who earned the Iron Cross for bravery and who happens to be Jewish, begins a murder investigation. A riveting debut! www.paulgrosmanwriter.com

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