Between the Lines
What's up for Vermont book lovers
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Published: October 18, 2009
Dog of war
When Cambridge resident Christine Sullivan's brother was deployed to Afghanistan as a Navy reservist at the end of 2005, he ended up with a mission besides the official military one: bringing home a stray puppy that had stolen his heart as the "camp dog."
And when the dog, Cinnamon, went missing on her journey to the States, Sullivan made it her mission to help find her. She relates the whole saga in her newly released book, "Saving Cinnamon."
It's an updated and expanded version of the story that she self-published in 2007 as "44 Days Out of Kandahar." This time she has a major publisher behind her.
The reader can relive the whole experience through Sullivan's desperate e-mails and international phone calls as she tried to find out what happened after a dog handler entrusted with Cinnamon abandoned her at an airport in Kyrgyzstan.
The tension is palpable when, more than a month later, Cinnamon is once again bound for the States in the care of a stranger.
Sullivan worked in sales and technology for years, but found her true calling as an advocate for pets in need when she volunteered to care for the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. She says she's just finished collaborating with a screenwriter on a film adaptation of "Saving Cinnamon."
He's from Swah'in
If you didn't know anything about Vermont, Leon Thompson's "Not Too Awful Bad: A Storyteller's Guide to Vermont" wouldn't be a bad place to start.
Even a Vermonter will pick up a thing or two from the book, due out Monday.
Thompson's version of a "tourist guide" covers how to talk like a native (forget those t's); the different types of Vermonters, from redneck natives to transplants and "hipbillies"; where to go and what to see, and more.
Sure, many of the mud season jokes sound familiar, and how many of us need to be told that Jim Jeffords and Phish are famous Vermonters? But for nearly every groaner (the road through Smuggler's Notch "has more blind spots than a Braille novel"), the author throws in a gem like the story of the deer that gave itself to Thompson's deaf, diabetic, 83-year-grandfather on what was likely his last hunt.
Thompson was born and raised in northwestern Vermont. A graduate of Lyndon State College, he is a reporter and humor columnist for the St. Albans Messenger.
Good lesson
Rita Williams-Garcia's students at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier may be listening to her even more closely now that she's a finalist for a National Book Award. Her young adult novel "Jumped" is up for the award in the category of young people's literature. Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, N.Y., but teaches in the Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at the college. The award winners are to be announced Nov. 18.
History mystery
For Montpelier writer Kevin Macneil Brown, the abandoned roads, overgrown paths and historic waterways of New England offer up stories both real and imagined. The protagonist of his recently self-published mystery novel, "Compass, Water, Stone and Time," is historian and trail runner Liam Dutra. When an ancient, tattered journal comes his way, the quest for answers leads him to the surprising connections between an 1866 rebellion by Irish Republicans in Vermont and a series of present-day murders taking place in the shadows of nearby Irish Hill Ridge.
Brown has written articles exploring nature, history and outdoor adventure for New England magazines and newspapers. He also performs with the local country-rock band Rusty Romance.
His book is available at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier and other local stores.
The Reading Light: spotlight on events
-- Christina Asquith went to Baghdad on assignment in 2003 and stayed two years. There, she lived with an Iraqi family and gained an up-close look at how the war had affected their lives.
Asquith, who lives in Burlington and teaches at the University of Vermont, will talk today about the new book that grew out of this experience, "Sisters In War: A Story of Love, Family, and Survival in the New Iraq." She will appear at 12:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 152 Pearl St., in Burlington.
She is also scheduled to talk at the Stowe Public Library on Nov. 10 at 1:30 p.m. and at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier on Nov. 11 at 1 p.m., in Noble Lounge.
-- Best-selling naturalist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas spent a year watching deer in the wild and uncovered a hidden trove of lessons, which she relates in her recent book, "The Hidden Life of Deer." She will talk about the book Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier.
-- Debut novelist Ivy Pochoda will present her seductive novel of love and magic, "The Art of Disappearing," at the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The next day she'll appear at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center at 7 p.m.
Compiled by Ruth Hare. Do you have a tip for Between the Lines? Send it to ruth.hare@timesargus.com.
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