De Libris / New Releases

► Please send information about your new releases to quarterly@groton.org.

The Snow Bear

The story of The Snow Bear guides children on a journey to find ways of working with difficult emotions, such as anxiety and fear, using mindfulness. The Snow Bear is particularly suited for times of great social and environmental change to help children find a place of fearlessness. Based on observations from nature and wisdom millennia old, the story works with animal archetypes exemplifying characteristics of modern times that the protagonist, Barry Bartholomew, has to overcome. Barry seeks the wisdom of the forest community himself and from the wise Snow Bear. The Snow Bear helps Barry overcome his anxiety and fear of an impending forest fire using lessons on mindfulness and the wisdom of the natural world. As the lessons come to a natural end, Barry’s solidity is tested by a fire that has overcome the forest. He works with the various psychologies of each species in the forest community to help them “cross to the other shore”—an allegory for finding complete freedom within oneself. More information is available at thesnowbearbook.com.

Who Is Maud Dixon?

Who Is Maud Dixon? is a psychological thriller about a low-level publishing employee, Florence Darrow, who believes she’s destined to become a famous writer. When she stumbles into a job as the assistant to the brilliant, enigmatic novelist known as Maud Dixon—whose true identity is a secret—the arrangement seems perfect. Maud Dixon (whose real name, Florence discovers, is Helen Wilcox) can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom on how to write and how to live. Florence soon accompanies Helen on a research trip to Morocco, and Florence’s life at last feels interesting enough to inspire a novel of her own. But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night—and no sign of Helen—she’s tempted to take a shortcut. Instead of hiding in Helen’s shadow, why not upgrade into Helen’s life? Not to mention her bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon ...

Splendor The fifty-nine poems in this collection are suffused with light as they tell a story of a girl named Phoebe, her mother and father, and a stranger named O’Ryan who comes to be one of them.

Set in rural New England in the middle of the twentieth century and written in Phoebe’s voice, Splendor captures the extraordinary lives of these four ordinary people who seek a way to exist beyond the expectations of their world. Weaving her present with her past, Phoebe recounts her days as a child, her young womanhood, and her final years, certain of both her incorruptible self and of her joy, acknowledged and sustained by wonder and love.

Splendor was inspired by stories of the writer’s father and his boyhood during summers in Vermont, haying on his best friend’s farm, and the girl who lived down the road. Laura later worked on her farm and witnessed her incorruptible wonder and joy. Splendor imagines how that joy came to be.

Leaving Chicago Leaving Chicago is a collection of short stories and poems that have appeared in various literary magazines since 2016. They include “Health Care,” a story that won a Best Microfiction of 2019 (Pelikanesis Press) award and another for poetry (The Pushcart Prize). The author’s earlier works include Post-Freudian Dreaming, A General Theory of Desire, and All Rise. Dick Bentley, who was editor of The Grotonian in 1954–55, shared the opening of his poem “Ants.”

A solitary ant, when closely seen, Is quite unlike a thinking, sentient being. Observed in nettly field or tangly lawn, He looks more like a goofy ganglion Of nervous neurons legging o’er the lea With deaf, dumb, blind yet restless energy.

You finish it, says the author.

Dropping Pebbles in the Pond: A Collection of Memories and Meanings This collection of personal reflections explores events, episodes, and feelings from the author’s past. Each is prompted by an artifact, something that tumbled out of a long unopened box: a tiny address book in which he wrote a “novel” at age 7; a practice bagpipe which he hadn’t played for many years; a newspaper clipping of a tragic accident; a letter written by his great-grandfather during the Civil War; a Starbucks latte cup made to provide coffee intravenously; and many more. These prompts call up memories that crisscross Michael Knapp’s years, from age 7 to 74. The reflections probe what the stories say and mean as he looks back across a long lifetime.

Born to Party, Forced to Work What defines a great party? For party and event designer Bronson van Wyck, it’s generosity of spirit (with plenty of spirits to drink, too).

Born to Party is an insider’s look at some of Bronson’s most memorable events, distilling the essential pillars of the art of party-giving. Known for entertaining that combines wit and sophistication with the gracious warmth of his Southern upbringing, Bronson has organized parties all over the world, for clients including Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama; Beyoncé; Gwyneth Paltrow; Madonna; Richard Meier; and Diane von Furstenberg.