Exploring history
Gibson’s is continuing its Literary Lunchtime brown-bag lunch author events on Sept. 8 at noon, with Phil Primack presenting his exploration into the life of an Epping woman from the 19th century, in Put It Down on Paper: The Words and Life of Mary Folsom Blair, a Fifty-Year Search.
Mary E. Folsom Blair was just a name on a listing sheet when young writer Phil Primack bought her Epping, New Hampshire, property in 1974. As he learned more about this lifelong teacher, Quaker, and early advocate for outdoor education, his reporter bones began to twitch.
Over decades, Primack talked to her former students and relatives, tracking down Mary’s most accurate life record: letters and journals dating 1897, when she was fifteen. Her sharp mind and creative soul grapple with the social restraints of her time and “the pain this world holds for a woman.”
Bring a sack lunch, or show up early to order from the Gibson’s Cafe.
Fantasy adventure
Megan Bannen visits Gibson’s Bookstore virtually Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. to share her romantic fantasy novel, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. Set in a world full of magic and demigods, doughnuts and small-town drama, this enchantingly quirky, utterly unique fantasy is perfect for readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Invisible Library. Megan will be joined in conversation by novelist Ashley Poston, author of The Dead Romantics, where a disillusioned millennial ghostwriter has to find her way back home.
Registration required at eventbrite.com/e/ 406334376057.
