Blogs

The Graybar Hotel: Stories, Curtis Dawkins (Scribner Book Company)

If the stories in the debut collection A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, are any indication, Vermont author Tim Weed has led a full and rich life so far. These stories bristle with energy and immediacy. The outside world will fall away as the places and people of Weed’s stories inhabit your mind.

Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Edgar Degas traveled to New Orleans over the winter of 1872–873 and his visit inspired some of his most beautiful and haunting paintings. Not much is known about the details of the trip–he came to visit his youngest brother, René, married to their cousin, Estelle, or Tell, who were expecting a child, and he was at a crossroads in his painting career.

Lisa See’s new novel The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is a historically accurate tale of a mother who had to give up her baby daughter and an adopted Chinese girl struggling to define herself.

Jenny Lyons of the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vt., recommends One of the Boys (Scribner Book Company) by Daniel Magariel. A 12-year-old boy, his older brother, and their father leave their Kansas home having “won” a bitter divorce and custody battle.

Jenny recommends Exit West (Riverhead) by Mohsin Hamid.