Author: Jennifer Graham

Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner (Alfred A. Knopf, 239 pages)

The first time that I, a southerner raised on white bread, meat loaf and McDonald’s, went to an H Mart, the traffic shocked me as much as the food offerings. In Burlington, Massachusetts, the closest H Mart to Manchester, you can hardly find a parking place any time of day.

For the uninitiated, H Mart is a supermarket that specializes in Korean food and products. Its name derives from a Korean phrase, han ah reum, which means an armload of groceries. And the store is stocked with things you don’t often come across at the Hannaford, such as frozen sliced octopus.

But I didn’t understand until reading Michelle Zauner’s powerful memoir why H Mart is always packed and rapidly expanding across the U.S., and it has little to do with the groceries and Korea’s famed beauty products. H Mart sells food, of course, but it taps into something deeper for Americans of Korean descent. As much as meat, produce and authentic ramen, H Mart sells a sense of home. Zauner reflects on this in her opening, as she describes people-watching at the H Mart food court, which typically offers sushi and Chinese and Korean food, fast-food style.

“It’s a beautiful, holy place. A cafeteria full of people from all over the world who have been displaced in a foreign country, each with a different history,” she writes. “Where did they come from and how far did they travel? Why are they all here?” They’re there to buy products that Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry, but ultimately for more. “I’m not just on the hunt for cuttlefish and three bunches of scallions for a buck; I’m searching for memories,” she says.

Zauner doesn’t travel far to the H Mart where she shops, near Philadelphia, and she grew up in Eugene, Oregon. But she cries at the H Mart because it reminds her of her mother, a Korean woman who married an American man, but took her daughter to visit relatives in Seoul every other year. Food, Zauner writes, was how her mother conveyed love; “I could always feel her affection radiating from the lunches she packed and the meals she prepared for me just the way I liked them.”

She was often harsh, yelling at her daughter if she got injured while playing, and once reacted to Zauner’s getting fired at a waitressing job by saying, “Well, Michelle, anyone can carry a tray.” By her teens Zauner had developed the adolescent revulsion to her mother’s touch, and the relationship further soured as her mother’s behavior bordered on full-blown abuse.

But when her mother developed Stage IV pancreatic cancer when Zauner was 25, she was devastated. The memoir is her account of a painful reckoning that they both endured during the mother’s treatment and final months of life, a cold and gritty look at the realities of hospital (“The house was quiet aside from her breathing, a horrible sucking like the last sputtering of a coffee pot”) and also the small moments of grace.

The memoir continues after the mother’s passing, as Zauner comes to fully understand her mother in ways she couldn’t while she was alive. It is taut and elegant, with no descent into melodrama: just a matter-of-fact but beautifully written elegy that explores the challenges of loving difficult people. But it is a deeply hopeful book, despite being centered around death. And don’t let the title fool you — while H Mart may appeal most to Koreans and other Americans of Asian descent, Zauner’s story is universal, as is the connection that she forges with her mother, both in life and in death, through food. To cope with her mother’s death, she starts seeing a therapist, but it wasn’t helping, so she starts cooking her mother’s Korean recipes, ultimately making so much that she had to start giving it to friends.

“The smell of vegetables fermenting in a fragrant bouquet of fish sauce, garlic, ginger and gochugaru radiated through my small Greenpoint kitchen, and I would think of how my mother always used to tell me never to fall in love with someone who doesn’t like kimchi. They’ll always smell it on you, seeping through your pores.”

Zauner did fall in love with someone who liked kimchi, a Korean side dish, and who married her during her mother’s treatment, so it wasn’t just cooking that helped her heal. There are other memoirs that make that claim; Zauner’s isn’t that simplistic. But hers is a surprisingly engrossing account of a mother and daughter’s struggle to love each other, and a crash course in a culture with which you might not be familiar. Familiarity with H Mart is not a prerequisite, but you’ll likely want to visit after reading this book. B+

Book Notes

Last week’s review of The Anthropocene Reviewed noted that the book’s genesis was the podcast of novelist John Green and his younger brother, Hank Green. This was interesting because podcasts are now a common form of book promotion, and so it’s becoming increasingly common for authors to start their own, after getting familiar with the medium.

I subscribe to two podcasts because I previously read books by the hosts: Rich Roll, the ultra-athlete who wrote Finding Ultra (Crown, 288 pages), and Tim Ferris, who wrote Tools of Titans (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 736 pages) and the four-hour-everything series.

Podcasts are a weirdly intimate form of conversation, even more than radio, since they’re not on public airwaves. They feel like it’s just you, the host and a guest, sitting around the kitchen table. As such, they can give you a connection with authors beyond what you get on the printed page. Here’s a look at podcasts by well-known authors.

“Dear Sugars” is an advice podcast by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild (Vintage, 336 pages), and Steve Almond.

Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt obtained literary fame with their 2005 book Freakonomics (William Morrow, 256 pages); their podcast is “Freakonomics Radio.”

Elizabeth Gilbert, most famous for Eat, Pray, Love (Riverhead, 352 pages), also wrote a book called Big Magic (Riverhead, 288 pages), which she’s parlayed into a podcast called “Magic Lessons.”

Roxane Gay, author of Hunger (Harper, 320 pages), Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial, 336 pages) and other books, has a podcast with Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick, and Other Essays (The New Press, 224 pages). It’s called “Hear to Slay.”

Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote Outliers (Little, Brown & Co., 309 pages), Blink (Little, Brown & Co., 288 pages) and other bestselling nonfiction books, has a podcast called “Revisionist History.”

And don’t forget, there are plenty of podcasts about books, most notably NPR’s “The Book Show” with Joe Donahue and “The Great Books Podcast” from John J. Miller and National Review. Locally, Concord’s Gibson’s Bookstore produces “The Laydown” podcast, with new episodes released monthly.

Books

Author events

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• JOYCE MAYNARD Author presents Count the Ways. Toadstool Bookstore, 12 Depot Square, Peterborough. Sat., July 24, 11 a.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 924-3543.

• GIGI GEORGES Author presents Downeast: Five Maine Girls and the Unseen Story of Rural America. Toadstool Bookstore, Somerset Plaza, 375 Amherst St., Route 101A, Nashua. Sat., July 24, 2 to 4 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

• JESS KIMBALL Author presents My Pseudo-College Experience. Virtual event, hosted by Toadstool Bookstores, located in Nashua, Peterborough and Keene. Tues., July 27, 6 to 7 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

• CATHLEEN ELLE Author presents Shattered Together. Virtual event, hosted by Toadstool Bookstores, located in Nashua, Peterborough and Keene. Thurs., July 29, 6 p.m. Visit toadbooks.com or call 673-1734.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

• SLAM FREE OR DIE Series of open mic nights for poets and spoken-word artists. Stark Tavern, 500 N. Commercial St., Manchester. Weekly. Thursday, doors open and sign-ups beginning at 7 p.m., open mic at 8 p.m. The series also features several poetry slams every month. Events are open to all ages. Cover charge of $3 to $5 at the door, which can be paid with cash or by Venmo. Visit facebook.com/slamfreeordie, e-mail [email protected] or call 858-3286.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email [email protected] or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email [email protected].

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email [email protected] or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Crying in H Mart.

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green (Dutton, 274 pages)

If you only know John Green as the author of young adult novels such as The Fault in Our Stars and Turtles All the Way Down, you don’t know John Green. Of the successful pop novelists working today, Green has one of the more interesting careers, to include a YouTube channel and podcasts created with his brother, Hank.

Sometimes when a famous person tries to hoist a sibling to fame the effort seems sort of awk, as the kids say. (Two words: Randi Zuckerberg.) But Hank Green, John’s younger brother, has a mind equivalent to that of his more famous brother, maybe even superior. John Green says he looks up to him, even though he’s two years younger. He’s written two novels of his own (2018’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and 2020’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor.). And it was Hank who came up with the title of John Green’s latest book, The Anthropocene Reviewed.

The brothers were talking about “the sudden everywhereness” of reviews on a 1-to-5-star scale, and John offered that he’d long wanted to review Canada geese. Hank’s response became the title of the book, but before that, a podcast. Which is why, after five novels, John Green has moved into the contemplative essay space — and he has done it expertly.

To be honest, Green had me at the line in which he mentioned “writing” a podcast, which seemed a wondrous thing. Who “writes” podcasts? The ones to which I subscribe don’t seem to follow a script. But in fact, “The Anthropocene Reviewed” podcast is deeply researched, and its episodes (which indeed include one on Canada geese) translate nicely to the page.

The conceit of both the podcast and book is that Green rhapsodizes about any one or two topics — from Diet Dr Pepper to viral meningitis to the wintry mix — and gives it a rating. This is a brilliant concept that could have been done superficially and unsatisfyingly on TikTok or Twitter; in fact, probably someone is doing that. But Green thinks more deeply than that, and his ruminations on the QWERTY keyboard (4 stars), Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest (2 stars) and Super Mario Kart (4 stars) are charming forays through personal and product history.

There is a theme to all the ruminating, which is that humans are destroying the planet. The anthropocene, of course, is the unofficial name for the present geologic epoch, the proposed successor to the holocene. The term is largely used by people who study and/or worry about humans’ impact on the planet, and Green does both. In his chapter on Kentucky bluegrass, he imagines aliens coming to Earth and questioning us about the “ornamental plant god” that we worship in the front and back of our homes. “Why do you worship this species? Why do you value it over all the other plants?”

Green wonders that as well. Nearly one-third of drinkable, residential water in the U.S. goes to our lawns, which are a relatively new addition to the anthropocene. (Until about the 1500s, we spoke of only pastures and fields.) He also bemoans our use of fertilizer and pesticides (10 times more per acre than American farmers use on corn and wheat fields) and the grass clippings rotting in landfills. Maintaining a lawn is, essentially, “an encounter with nature, but the kind where you don’t get your hands dirty.” Kentucky bluegrass gets 2 stars.

Better, but not by much, is air conditioning, which has allowed “the most privileged among us” to put a barrier between us and the weather. “I am insulated from the weather by my house and in its conditioned air. I eat strawberries in January. When it is raining, I can go inside. When it is dark, I can turn on lights. It is easy for me to feel like climate is mostly an outside phenomenon, whereas I am mostly an inside phenomenon.” Three stars.

If there is a slight air of moralizing in the essays, it is well taken with Green’s acknowledgment of complicity with the sins. He has a lawn that he mows; he uses air conditioning. “Like an expensive painting or a fragile orchid, I thrive only in extremely specific conditions.”

So whether you wind up liking him or not may hinge on what you think of his assessment of Monopoly (the game, not our Big Tech overlords), Teddy bears, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” or the band The Mountain Goats.

But to be clear: Despite an occasional foray into the whimsical and comic, this is a book of largely serious reflections by a man who once planned to become an Episcopal priest and is writing (at times) during a global pandemic.

The book is heavy on wonder and gratitude, while cognizant that life can be wonderful and terrible at the same time. Five stars for the content, 10 for the delightful relationship of the Green brothers. A

Book Notes

In warmer climes, the unofficial start of summer is Memorial Day; in these parts, it’s the Fourth of July, which means it’s time to bring out the beach reads.

The term has been around for a couple of decades, beginning as publisher lingo for blockbuster books that would come out in the summer. Since then, it’s evolved to mean anything light and frothy and fun, preferably in paperback so it doesn’t matter if it gets sandy or wet.

Some authors have built careers on the beach read, most notably Elin Hilderbrand, who actually writes her beach reads on the beach. (She writes in longhand in a notebook on Nantucket.)

Hilderbrand’s 2021 offering is Golden Girl (Little, Brown and Co., 384 pages), which recently made headlines because of a controversial quote from one of the characters. After backlash on social media, Hilderbrand apologized for the reference to Anne Frank, which some saw as anti-Semitic, and the publisher will delete the quote in digital form and subsequent print editions.

Another no-brainer is from Emily Henry, the author who last year shrewdly published a novel called Beach Read (Penguin, 384 pages). It’s about two writers with writer’s block who wind up living next to each other at the beach for three months. She followed this up with this year’s People We Meet on Vacation (Berkeley, 384 pages). It’s about best friends who always vacationed together until they had a falling-out two years ago. This year, they’re trying to fix the rift by going on vacation again.

A few others making waves:

Summer on the Bluffs by The View co-host Sunny Hostin (William Morrow, 400 pages) is set in Martha’s Vineyard.

Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst (Berkley, 384 pages) is about three generations of women traveling through Tuscany and Rome.

Seven Days in Juneby Tia Williams (Grand Central Publishing, 336 pages) is about two writers who briefly loved each other in high school, then fell out of touch but kept writing about each other in their published books. Jodi Picoult is reported to have loved it.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 336 pages) is about a gay sitcom actor who has to unexpectedly parent his young niece and nephew. Reviews say it’s both heartwarming and funny.

Books

Author events

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email [email protected] or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email [email protected].

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email [email protected] or visit nashualibrary.org.

Language

• FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSES

Offered remotely by the Franco-American Centre. Six-week session with classes held Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. $225. Visit facnh.com/education or call 623-1093.

Featured photo: The Anthropocene Reviewed

Hour of the Witch, by Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday, 400 pages)

I do love me some Chris Bohjalian, but I had forgotten how riled up I get by his stories, which always focus on some aspect of social injustice. Such is the case with his newest release, Hour of the Witch.

This piece of historical fiction centers around a young woman, Mary Deerfield. who lives with her abusive and alcoholic husband in 17th-century Massachusetts. Mary is much younger than her husband. She is worldly, having come from England with her parents, is well-spoken and well-read, and she speaks her mind. Boy, does she speak her mind.

After five years of marriage Mary is barren but not devoid of sexual desire. The guilt from that makes even her question her worthiness — a bad situation that is soon made worse.

After hitting her on several occasions, Mary’s husband impales her hand with a fork (the three-pronged tool of the devil), after which Mary moves back in with her wealthy parents and decides to divorce her husband. Not unheard of at the time, but certainly not considered the norm.

It wasn’t exactly the best time in history to stand up to male oppression, especially when women around you were being tried as witches. But Mary would rather take her chances with the courts because she knows her husband is wrong.

Because we are privy to Mary’s reasoning we understand why she makes the decisions she does. Her community, a male-dominated society, does not. Instead of people understanding that she is abused, it is far easier to think that her husband has his hands full with such a strong-willed young woman. Surely Mary deserves any kind of “fatherly correction” that is administered to her by her husband.

And besides, while her husband does tend to drink a bit, he’s such a nice guy.

Mary tries to ease a deathly ill young boy’s agony by administering herbs; people use that to call her a witch. Mary finds those three-pronged forks planted in her garden and after confronting her servant and husband makes the decision to replant them, in the hopes that maybe they can make her fertile, because why not give it a try? She is clearly a witch. Mary is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t.

And when Mary tells her side of the story of her abusive situation, she is doubted and called a liar and sinner — traits of a witch or certainly a woman who deserves to be punished. Many of her neighbors end up siding with the husband, praising him for putting up with a woman who doesn’t know her place.

Eventually the divorce proceedings turn into a full witch trial with the very real threat that Mary might hang from the gallows for the crime of not wanting to be married to an abusive monster.

Hour of the Witch is a hefty book — at 400 pages you’ll want to set aside time to read it — but the plot moves so quickly and the details are so realistic that you will find yourself sailing through the story. Bohjalian is known for doing a tremendous amount of research for each of his books, and the effort shows in this one. It’s convincingly written and it reads like a current story about abused women — how they are doubted, mistreated and made to feel like they are at fault for the actions of others. On one level, reading Hour of the Witch can be depressing — it felt to me like very little has changed since 1662 — but on another level it’s a skillfully written story worth the read. Put it on your list. A

Books

Author events

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

Featured photo: Hour of the Witch

Overloaded, by Ginny Smith (Bloomsbury, 325 pages)

Science writer Ginny Smith’s Overloaded, while not the most sparkling prose you’ll read this year, does a yeoman’s job at explaining, in understandable language, the workings of the brain and what controls it. Mindfulness has its place, but in fact, our thoughts, emotions and memories are the sum of what Smith calls “a turbulent sea of neurotransmitters.” And sea is not just a figure of speech. “It seems to me that the answer lies not in the wiring of our brains, but in the chemicals that bathe them,” Smith writes.

Smith starts by assuming that we have forgotten everything we learned in high school and teaching a sort of CliffsNotes class in Neurology 101: the differences between sensory and motor neurons, the duties of the synapse, how electrical signals flow. Along the way, like a good professor, she introduces some interesting people, such as Luigi Galvani, the Italian scientist who figured out how to make the legs of dead frogs twitch (inspiration for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), and two European scientists who shared the Nobel Prize in 2006 even though each disagreed with the other’s work. (Nice to know that even Nobel Prize winners can bicker like crows.)

From there Smith delves into eight typical areas of interest regarding the brain: memories, motivation, mood swings and fear, sleep, hunger and satiation, decision-making, love and attraction, and pain.

In the chapter on memory she darts from treatments for PTSD to imprinting in ducklings to the long-term effects on the neglected children in Romanian orphanages. It’s a skillfully woven collection of stories, but unfortunately, offers no significant or surprising information on how to maintain our own memory.

The chapter on motivation delves into research on primates and mice and does a good job of explaining how dopamine works and why its effects decline over time. Again, however, the chapter held more promise than it delivered. Any real-life application might have to do with drug or alcohol withdrawal, not how to get motivated to exercise or clean the house.

By “Mood Swings and Scary Things,” I’m on to the pattern. Smith dangles an interesting topic in front of me — sharks! — and then swims away. After a quick dip in the mechanics of the fear response, she’s suddenly musing about the moods of a childhood tortoiseshell cat. And on it goes.

By the time we come to sleep, which Smith considers the brain’s greatest mystery, I’ve given up on getting any practical application for my life, and I’m only here for the anecdotes. Admittedly, they are good, such as the story of a strange illness that spread throughout Vienna in 1916 and came to be known simply as “sleepy sickness.” (People would feel generally unwell at the start, and then, as the illness progressed, spend more and more time asleep. Eventually they fell into a coma and died, basically sleeping themselves to death.)

The illness killed about one million people over 10 years and eventually disappeared, and there still is no consensus on the cause, although it must have had something to do with hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls sleepiness and wakefulness.

Here, too, we finally get to Alzheimer’s disease, and theories about sleep deprivation might be connected, since during sleep, a sort of rinse cycle of the brain sweeps out waste that is believed to be involved in the development of dementia.

By now we know that in “Food for Thought” we’re not going to get any dieting tips. In fact, unhelpfully, Smith even writes, “There is currently only one really effective treatment for obesity: bariatric (or weight loss) surgery.” Also, she confides that when she is quite reasonably attracted to the pastry tray at a breakfast buffet, she deals with temptation by: filling her plate with fruit and yogurt. At this point, she reveals herself to be some freak of nature, sort of like the aliens in suits in Men in Black, so she has diminished cred in the ensuing discussion on eating disorders.

Finally, you’ve probably heard of St. Elmo’s fire, but how about St. Anthony’s fire? That’s another strange disease, this time in medieval France, in which poor people were afflicted with severe pain in the extremities. (Eat the rich — they never got it.) It turns out that the people were getting sick from a fungus that grew in the rye used in bread and beer. Even stranger, this discovery eventually led to a substance that is much more familiar today — oxytocin.

Overloaded suffers from an overload of English spelling (Smith teaches at the University of Cambridge), an overload of the author’s personal anecdotes and, most egregiously, an overload of exclamation marks. It won’t be the best book you read this year; in fact, let’s hope it’s the worst. But it’s a serviceable summer read for the intellectually curious. C

BOOK NOTES

With Father’s Day upon us, can we reflect on the problem that there is no equivalent of “chick lit” for men?

That said, we have scoured the internet and solved your gift-giving problem. Pair one of these with a box of Wicked Whoopies and you’re done.

For dads who love golf:Best Seat in the House, 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son, by Jack Nicklaus II and Don Yaeger (Thomas Nelson, 224 pages). The son of PGA champ Jack Nicklaus reflects on his dad and the sport.

For dads who love cars:A Man and His Car, Iconic Cars and Stories from the Men Who Love Them, by Matt Hranek (Artisan, 240 pages)

For dads who watch Fox News: Tales from the Dad Side, by Fox personality Steve Doocy (William Morrow, 224 pages). This one’s been out a while, but genuinely funny, and the stories about son Peter (now a White House correspondent) are a hoot.

For dads who hate Fox News: Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, by Brian Stelter (Atria, 368 pages). The author is not without bias: he’s an anchor on CNN. Paperback version is out this month, too.

For dads of a certain age: Sinatra and Me, In the Wee Small Hours, by Tony Oppedisano (Scribner, 320 pages). The singer’s longtime confidante spills the tea.

For dads of a certain age more into rock than Sinatra: The Collected Work of Jim Morrison, edited by Frank Lisciandro (Harper Design, 584 pages). He was only 27 when he died, but the Doors’ front man left 28 handwritten journals, which are among the private and public writing assembled here.

For dads who like humor: Daditude, by Chris Erskine (Prospect Parks Books, 180 pages). A popular syndicated columnist writes on the “joys and absurdities of modern fatherhood.

And finally, not that we’re typecasting, for dads who like to grill: How to Grill Everything, by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 576 pages). A famous food writer shares his secrets on grilling everything from steak to desserts.

Book fairs

Author events

• STACEY ABRAMS Author presents Our Time is Now. Hosted by Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord. Virtual, via Zoom. Tues., June 22, 7 p.m. Registration and tickets required. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com or call 224-0562.

• PAUL DOIRON Author presents Dead by Dawn. The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth. Thurs., July 1, 6 p.m. Tickets cost $60 to $180 per table. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• TERRY FARISH Meet-and-greet with picture book and young adult author. Kingston Community Library, 2 Library Lane, Kingston. Thurs., July 8, 3:30 p.m. Registration required. Visit kingston-library.org.

• CHRISTINA BAKER KLINE Author presents The Exiles. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 13, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

• MEGAN MIRANDA Author presents Such a Quiet Place. Hosted by The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Tues., July 20, 7 p.m. Virtual. Tickets cost $5. Visit themusichall.org or call 436-2400.

Call for submissions

• NH LITERARY AWARDS The New Hampshire Writers’ Project seeks submissions for its Biennial New Hampshire Literary Awards, which recognize published works written about New Hampshire and works written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Books must have been published between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2020 and may be nominated in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s picture books, middle grade/young adult books. All entries will be read and evaluated by a panel of judges assembled by the NHWP. Submission deadline is Mon., June 21, 5 p.m. Visit nhwritersproject.org/new-hampshire-literary-awards.

Poetry

• DOWN CELLAR POETRY SALON Poetry event series presented by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Monthly. First Sunday. Visit poetrysocietynh.wordpress.com.

Book Clubs

• BOOKERY Online. Monthly. Third Thursday, 6 p.m. Bookstore based in Manchester. Visit bookerymht.com/online-book-club or call 836-6600.

• GIBSON’S BOOKSTORE Online, via Zoom. Monthly. First Monday, 5:30 p.m. Bookstore based in Concord. Visit gibsonsbookstore.com/gibsons-book-club-2020-2021 or call 224-0562.

• TO SHARE BREWING CO. 720 Union St., Manchester. Monthly. Second Thursday, 6 p.m. RSVP required. Visit tosharebrewing.com or call 836-6947.

• GOFFSTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY 2 High St., Goffstown. Monthly. Third Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. Call 497-2102, email [email protected] or visit goffstownlibrary.com

• BELKNAP MILL Online. Monthly. Last Wednesday, 6 p.m. Based in Laconia. Email [email protected].

• NASHUA PUBLIC LIBRARY Online. Monthly. Second Friday, 3 p.m. Call 589-4611, email [email protected] or visit nashualibrary.org.

Featured photo: Overloaded