Plaidswede Publishing Concord

05/04/2022

Shortly after publication of his new and critical biography of the late William Loeb, author Joseph McQuaid was approached by two members of the Loeb family.

In part inspired to come forward because of his book, they confirmed details of an aspect of Loeb’s personal life that McQuaid had been unable to pin down.

The Union Leader reported on this in its May 1, 2022, New Hampshire Sunday News. https://unionleader.com/williamloeb.

As horrific and upsetting as are the revelations, the author and Plaidswede Publishing believe they present a more complete picture of a provocative publisher and private paradox.

A young Nackey Scagliotti, stepdaughter of William Loeb. She said last week that Loeb sexually abused her when she was 7.

03/04/2022

For your calendar.

11/17/2020

John Christie be doing a virtual reading at 6:30 tonight from book about growing up in Dover, N.H., for the Dover Public Library. The large themes of "The Prince of Wentworth Street: An American boyhood in the shadow of a genocide" are immigrant family life, mill towns, teenagers of the 60s; the examples are from St. Mary Academy, St. Thomas high school, the Pacific Mills, and his gang of pals around Henry Law Avenue.

Here are the details for signing up for the free reading:

https://dovernh.assabetinteractive.com/…/virtual-event-joh/

https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_vzJHRuSFTzqEFe6LoKsupA

or through the Dover Public Library site on Facebook.

11/12/2020

VIRTUAL EVENT -

John Christie - author of a Dover boyhood memoir
through Dover Public Library

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 6:30—7:45 PM

VIRTUAL EVENT - John Christie - author of a Dover boyhood memoir

registration link:

https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_vzJHRuSFTzqEFe6LoKsupA

John Christie will read from his memoir, “The Prince of Wentworth Street,” about growing up in Dover in the1950s and 1960s.

“I’ll be reading sections about my days at St. Mary Academy, about my parent’s work at in the mills of Dover and Somersworth, about life with my extended family in our tenement on Wentworth Street (now Boyle Street) and about my gang of rebellious pals on Henry Law Avenue,” Christie said.

The subtitle of the book, published by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord, N.H., is “An American boyhood in the shadow of the genocide.” John grew up next door to his grandmother, Rose Banaian, who was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire. He will also touch on that aspect of his book.

The memoir has been widely praised by reviewers and fellow journalists. Stephen Kurkjian, the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, wrote, "This beautifully-told story is both ageless and modern - coming to understand that your identity is defined by both Genocide and survival."

John is an award-winning veteran journalist who has worked as a reporter, editor and publisher for newspapers in Massachusetts, Florida and Maine. He attended St. Mary Academy, St. Thomas Aquinas High School and UNH. He is the editor of the best-seller, “Andrew: Savagery from the Sea.” His work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston magazine, Yankee magazine, the Boston Phoenix, NPR-affiliate WBUR and elsewhere. With his wife, Naomi Schalit, he founded the investigative news service, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.

In 2014, the New England Academy of Journalists gave him the Yankee Quill award for his lifetime contribution to journalism. In the same year, he was UNH honored him by naming him the Donald M. Murray Visiting Journalist.

Christie and his wife live in Gloucester, Mass. His website is johnchristiewriter.com.

This program is co-sponsored with National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) www.naasr.org

The book can be purchased from the publisher’s website, https://www.nhbooksellers.com/product-page/the-prince-of-wentworth-street or from Freethinkers Corner bookstore at 652 Central Ave. in Dover.

https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_vzJHRuSFTzqEFe6LoKsupA

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06/24/2020

Journalist’s memoir recounts finding a remote Turkish village where a murder 100 years ago shaped his life

John Christie is a veteran journalist with a reputation for getting the story, no matter what.

He has gone undercover at a state mental hospital to reveal the poor treatment of patients. He refused a court order to reveal his sources for his series that exposed police brutality in a Massachusetts coastal town. He has waded into riots, crashed secret government meetings and tailed public officials who were on the take. And he’s written about all of it.

To get his own story, though, he had to do something even harder: mine his memory and his emotions to get to the bottom of why he was feeling so unmoored in his seventh decade. That’s where his experience as an investigative reporter came in handy. Because now he had to investigative himself.

His memoir, “Prince of Wentworth Street: An American boyhood in the shadow of a genocide” has been published by Plaidswede Publishing of Concord, N.H.

He tracks down a missing recording of his grandmother telling the story of the day in 1909 her father was murdered in a rural village by marauding Turks when she was a nine-year-old girl. More than 100 years later, Christie and his son travel to Turkey and, using clues from the recording, find her village on Moses Mountain, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

In between those events, “Prince” tells the story of his grandmother’s escape, the death of her mother and baby brother in the Armenian Genocide on 1915-1918, her years in a Beirut orphanage and her life in Dover, N.H., where she came as a mail order bride to a Armenian man already in the U.S.

As the first-born grandson, Christie is treated as a prince, despite the working-class status of his family. While as a teenager he rebelled against being overprotected by this extended family that carried the trauma of genocide survivors, in his later years he recognizes his good life was made possible for the sacrifices they made for him. The journey to the village where the trauma began was his way to reclaim his family’s place in the world -- and his own.

“His mission is to find his true self, and the journey leads back to the poor mill town where he grew up and to his grandmother, a survivor of the Armenian genocide who made a life in America. This is a book that will appeal to all readers interested in families and the ways which the children of immigrant families make themselves into Americans. -- Lou Ureneck, award-winning author of “Smyrna, September 1922.’’

For more information about “Prince of Wentworth” contact George Geers, Plaidswede Publishing, [email protected] or 603.785.4811.

03/24/2020

My feet, clad in black Converse sneakers, stand astride the manhole cover at the far end of the basketball court erected by the Henry Law Avenue gang on a side street. I am the new boy, and the others look at how far away I am from the basket and shake their heads or curl their lips in a “no way” expression.

I lick my fingers, as I always did, to get a firmer grip on the basketball. I center the nubbled ball by its east-west axis, bend my knees deep for extra power, focus my eyes on the back of the rim and set a course with a high trajectory so the ball will drop cleanly through the net, snapping it upwards from the friction of rubber on corded cotton.

The ball is airborne, 15, 20 feet above the rutted asphalt, above the heads of boys in white t-shirts, carrying the hopes of the prince of Wentworth Street to shed that title and become just one of the guys.

-- John Christie, Prince of Wentworth Street: An American boyhood in the shadow of a genocide.
Now available at www.plaidswede.com

03/18/2020

The Prince of Wentworth Street: An American boyhood in the shadow of a genocide, is headed for the press. The book can be ordered in advance at www.plaidswede.com.
It will be mailed the first week of April.
Public events will be held in the spring.

03/08/2020

Order at nhbooksellers.com

03/08/2020

John Christie's "The Prince of Wentworth Street, an American boyhood in the shadow of a genocide" is now available for advance order. In the mail first week of April.
Order at plaidswede.com or nhbooksellers.com

02/13/2020

Author Paul Brogan talks about the Concord Theatre. 7 tonight. Hopkinton library.

02/07/2020

Coming soon to a library near you.

01/27/2020

Author Paul Brogan will talk about his book, The Concord Theatre and Concord's Love Affair with the Movies, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2 at MainStreet BookEnds, Warner.

01/04/2020

#1 at Gibson's in 2019.
Paul Brogan's Concord Theatre history book was #1 best-selling local title at the venerable Gibson's Bookstore in Concord.
The book is a remarkable addition to the city's cultural history.
Thank you, Gibson's for the support and congratulations, Paul.

12/30/2019

What book are you looking forward to?

Eugenia Williamson offers a list of the most anticipated fiction, non-fiction, and young adult titles of 2020.

12/20/2019

Meet the author Saturday, Dec. 21

Join Mark Okrant at the McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center in Concord on Saturday, Dec. 21, from noon to 3 p.m. to pick up a copy of his book ... and get it signed!

A Thief in the House: a New Hampshire murder mystery is the second volume in the Commissioner Kary Turnell Mystery Series.

Kary Turnell has solved murders at four grand hotels in New Hampshire and popular tourist destinations in New England and Puerto Rico. Now our sleuth has a new job.

As governor-appointed commissioner of the New Hampshire Task Force for Visitor Safety, Kary and his new team investigate threats to patrons at tourism attractions in the Granite State.

In “Thief in the House,” Kary and the task force investigate a murder that takes them from New Hampshire’s oldest golf course, Beaver Meadow, to its iconic State House and the esteemed McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center where people had their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.

Ask Mark about the Kary Turnell Mystery Tour, an innovative way to acquaint or re-familiarize yourself with many of New Hampshire’s most captivating places. Use the tour map and checklist available from Mark or at www.markokrant.com to plan a self-guided daytrip or a weekend getaway.

New England’s tourism mystery author, Mark Okrant is professor emeritus of tourism management at Plymouth State University. Mark coordinated tourism research for the State of New Hampshire for 26 years, while applying his skills as a professor and researcher in numerous states and countries. A past president of the prestigious Travel and Tourism Research Association-International (TTRA) and the author of twelve books, Mark has received special commendations from two former New Hampshire governors.

12/20/2019

Commissioner Kary Turnell sleuths his way about Concord in search of a murderer ... and stolen historical artifacts from the Statehouse and the McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center. It all starts with a body at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course.

12/10/2019

Desperate for money, Charles Dickens penned his classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol in less than two months only to sell out within a week.
I’m having writer envy.
I wonder, if Dickens had Facebook, what his status would be upon completion??
“ 🎤drop”
“In your face Lewis Carroll!!”
Thoughts?

12/05/2019

Not all bestsellers are created equal.

12/03/2019

A great resource!
The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library was established in 2003 to celebrate and promote reading, books, literacy, and the literary heritage of New Hampshire and to highlight the role that reading and libraries play in enriching the lives of the people of the Granite State.

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress

11/30/2019

Are you average or above average?!

"Many resources indicate that the average reading speed of most adults is around 200 to 250 words per minute."

https://www.irisreading.com/what-is-the-average-reading-speed/

The average reading speed for an adult is 200 to 250 words per minutes, but knowing the average reading speed is only a small part of the picture.

11/29/2019

11/29/2019

Truth!

11/26/2019

This was written a year ago, but still rings true today.
Support your small but mighty local bookstores!

A growing number of shoppers will be supporting their independent neighborhood bookstores on Small Business Saturday

11/24/2019

In honor of the Patriots big game today, we are inspired by former Patriots receiver and AUTHOR Malcolm Mitchell for his ardent efforts by sharing his passion and the importance of reading.

"Reading can help you overcome adversity," the Patriots wide receiver told a crowd over the weekend, and it's helped him in his return from injury.

11/23/2019

Publisher

11/23/2019

Up for the challenge?

This November, writers across the world are participating in National Novel Writing Month. Organized by a non-profit, its goal is to encourage anyone who

10/25/2019

What's ahead for Plaidswede: Novels by Ernesto Burden ("Slate") and Ron Roy ("Gaudelles"), Mark Okrant ("A Thief in the House," murder in Concord), and John Christie ("The Prince of Wentworth Street," growing up in Dover, N.H., under the shadow of the Armenian Genocide).