Summer Hours at the Robbers Library: A Novel

From journalist and author Sue Halpern comes a wry, observant look at contemporary life and its refugees. Halpern’s novel is an unforgettable tale of family...the kind you come from and the kind you create.
People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons. Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget her problems. 
But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary. The judge throws the book at Sunny—literally—assigning her to do community service at the library for the summer. Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth. 
In this little library that has become the heart of this small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they also discover how they might knit them together again and finally reclaim their stories.

Literature & Fiction

Halpern, Sue

Dramas & Plays

Harper-perennial

Harper Large Print

Harper

The Monarch butterfly is the only creature to migrate like a bird. It flies north to south at altitudes of 3,000 feet, dodging aeroplanes and predators. Scientists have been tracking this enigmatic creature and its journey for years; its wintering site in Mexico was only discovered twenty years ago. "Four Wings and a Prayer" tells of the quest to trace the Monarch migration, which began in 1952 when two entomologists and 4,000 volunteers tagged hundreds of butterflies. Halpern weaves the stories of these volunteers into her narrative. One, a secretary, gave up her job when a Monarch landed on her desk, and became grand marshall of a butterfly parade. Another lives out of his truck for three months when the butterflies pass through his state in order to follow them. This elegantly written book combines these personal stories with a scientific examination of the Monarch, and its extraordinary journey across a continent.

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

An essential behind-the-scenes foray into the world of cutting-edge memory research that unveils ﬁndings about memory loss only now available to general readers. When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the ﬁrst modern scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive testing, her brain would become so “hot” that leaving through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm. This was not the ﬁrst time while researching Can’t Remember What I Forgot, part of which appeared in The New Yorker, that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be the last. Halpern spent years in the company of the neuroscientists, pharmacologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and inventors who are hunting for the genes and molecules, the drugs and foods, the machines, the prosthetics, the behaviors and therapies that will stave off Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia and keep our minds–and memories–intact. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, who are hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim to dementia, who worry that each lapse of memory portends disease, Halpern wanted to ﬁnd out what the experts really knew, what the bench scientists were working on, how close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles, sudokus, and ballroom dancing we’ve been told to take up can really keep us lucid or if they’re just something to do before the inevitable overtakes us. Beautifully written, sharply observed, and deeply informed, Can’t Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital information–and a solid dose of hope.

Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Crown

Behind the Scenes of Cutting-Edge Memory Research When Sue Halpern decided to emulate the ﬁrst modern scientist of memory, Hermann Ebbinghaus, who experimented on himself, she had no idea that after a day of radioactive testing, her brain would become so “hot” that leaving through the front door of the lab would trigger the alarm. This was not the ﬁrst time while researching Can’t Remember What I Forgot that Halpern had her head examined, nor would it be the last. Like many of us who have had a relative or friend succumb to memory loss, who are getting older, and who are hearing statistics about our own chances of falling victim to dementia, Halpern wanted to ﬁnd out what the experts really knew, how close science is to a cure, to treatment, to accurate early diagnosis, and, of course, whether the crossword puzzles, sudokus, and ballroom dancing we’ve been told to take up can really keep us lucid or if they're just something to do before the inevitable overtakes us. Sharply observed and deeply informed, Can’t Remember What I Forgot is a book full of vital information and a solid dose of hope.

Can't Remember What I Forgot: Your Memory, Your Mind, Your Future

Parenting & Relationships

A provocative first novel that explores the porous borders between friendship, sex and love At eighteen, Cuzzy Gage has never been out of Poverty, the isolated mountain hamlet where he was born, raised, and--much to the annoyance of his dreamy girlfriend, the mother of his child--seems destined to stay. He is content to hang out and just get by; it's as if ambition hasn't occurred to him. Enter Tracy Edwards, who has come to the area after the death of his close friend, Algernon Black, an ethnomusicologist who specialized in initiation rituals. It's to Black's family estate, the Larches, that Tracy retreats, in grief and confusion, after his friend's death, to archive Algie's work. Through a set of circumstances that look like chance but turn out to be something else entirely, Tracy hires Cuzzy to help sort through Algie's papers. So begins a quiet and ambivalent relationship, one that eventually causes both young men to admit their own histories and to start to rethink the future. As Tracy introduces Cuzzy to poetry and literature and music, he in turn is exposed to the natural world, to a place of granite and schist and other, enduring, hard things. But in a small town their unlikely friendship is inevitably the focus of scrutiny and debate, a debate that ends as no one could have imagined, and makes each of them, in their own way, confront the hardest thing of all. Poetic and compelling, The Book of Hard Things is a bold fiction debut. Sue Halpern writes frequently for The New York Review of Books and is the author of two previous nonfiction books: Migrations to Solitude and Four Wings and a Prayer. The Book of Hard Things is her first novel. She lives in between Vermont and upstate New York with her husband, Bill McKibben, and their daughter. At eighteen, Cuzzy Gage has never left the remote mountain town where he was born and raised, and where—much to the annoyance of his dreamy girlfriend, Crystal, the mother of his child—he seems determined to stay. Content to hang out with his friends and just get by, it's as if ambition has never occurred to him. Michael "Tracy" Edwards is drifting, too. An English teacher from New York City, he has quit his job after the death of his best friend, Algernon Black, an ethnomusicologist who specialized in initiation ceremonies. Taking up residence at Black's family's rustic estate to sort through his friend's papers and write a narrative of his life, Tracy is very much alone. The deep woods, with its stark and powerful beauty, only serves to reinforce his loneliness. When he happens to meet Cuzzy Gage at the local convenience store, he is struck by the boy's knowledge of the outdoors and his comfort among the trees. He could use some of that comfort. He offers Cuzzy a job. So begins a quiet and ambivalent friendship, one that eventually causes both young men to admit their own histories, and to begin rethinking the future. As Tracy introduces Cuzzy to poetry, literature, and music, he in turn is exposed to the natural world, a place of granite and schist and other enduring hard things. But in a small town their relationship is inevitably the focus of scrutiny and debate—a debate that ends as no one could have imagined. Poetic and provocative, The Book of Hard Things explores the porous border between friendship and love, and marks a bold fiction debut. "[Halpern's] work here is made especially memorable by the exactness of her tone in evoking small-town tensions, the often misdirected energies of youth and most especially the process of growing up and acquiring an adult sense of responsibility."—James Polk, The New York Times "Sue Halpern has written wonderful books of nonfiction, but sometimes nonfiction to fiction isn't a transition that can be made gracefully. Not only is the writing in her first novel unself-conscious—which is what grace amounts to when applied to literature, I think—but the words seem organic to the page. The Book of Hard Things is powerful and sad, and sometimes very funny, and it is the debut of a brilliant new writer of fiction."—Robb Forman Dew "Sue Halpern has an eye that is penetrating without harshness and an ear perfectly attuned to the defenses of the wounded. She finds beneath the most adamant surfaces the hurt places that can heal, and her riveting novel challenges and moves us to see, beyond the particulars of class and worldliness, how loss can yield to caring."—Rosellen Brown "Polished and passionate."—Publishers Weekly

The Book of Hard Things: A Novel

United States

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

I’m wild about Sasha . . . You’ll like her, too.” Gregory MaguireMeet Sasha Abramowitz: smart, funny, resourceful. Aspiring writer and pastry chef. Good listener (usually), good talker (when she feels like it), good friend (most of the time). Good sister? Well, that’s more complicated. You see, her brother has Tourette’s syndrome, which is really his problem, but in a way it’s Sasha’s, too (he can be pretty embarrassing at times). Let’s just say she’s working on it. Anyway, he’s away at a special school (until a fire sends the students home, unexpectedly). But with her baseball-loving professor dad, a mom who teaches neuroscience, a babysitter who’s the star shortstop for the Krieger Cats and doubles as a magician and card trickster, an ex-babysitter who becomes her substitute teacher, and an onagain-off-again best friend, Sasha is not alone. As she struggles with changing friendships and feelings about her older brother, learns her lines for her part in Cheaper by the Dozen, gets to know James, the quiet boy who plays opposite her, and helps the doctors solve a medical mystery, she comes to see herselfand her life in a different light.In this original novel, Sasha tells her story, complete with footnotes, card tricks, appendixes, and all her best vocabulary words, with brio.

Introducing . . . Sasha Abramowitz

Children's Books

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Every autumn, the monarch butterflies east of the Rockies migrate from as far north as Canada to Mexico. Memory is not their guide — no one butterfly makes the round trip — but each year somehow find their way to the same fifty acres of forest on the high slopes of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, and then make the return trip in the spring. In Four Wings and a Prayer, Sue Halpern sets off on an adventure to delve into the secrets behind this extraordinary phenomenon. She visits scientists and butterfly lovers across the country, offering a keenly observed portrait of the monarchs’ migration and of the people for whom they have become a glorious obsession. Combining science, memoir, and travel writing, Four Wings and a Prayer is an absorbing travelogue and a fascinating meditation on a profound mystery of the natural world. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Pantheon

Every autumn, the monarch butterflies east of the Rockies migrate from as far north as Canada to Mexico. Memory is not their guide — no one butterfly makes the round trip — but each year somehow find their way to the same fifty acres of forest on the high slopes of Mexico’s Neovolcanic Mountains, and then make the return trip in the spring. In Four Wings and a Prayer, Sue Halpern sets off on an adventure to delve into the secrets behind this extraordinary phenomenon. She visits scientists and butterfly lovers across the country, offering a keenly observed portrait of the monarchs’ migration and of the people for whom they have become a glorious obsession. Combining science, memoir, and travel writing, Four Wings and a Prayer is an absorbing travelogue and a fascinating meditation on a profound mystery of the natural world.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Halpern, Sue. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Halpern, Sue

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Halpern, Sue. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library: A Novel

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library: A Novel

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library: A Novel

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research

Can't Remember What I Forgot: Your Memory, Your Mind, Your Future

The Book of Hard Things: A Novel

Introducing . . . Sasha Abramowitz

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly

Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly