Happy autumn! We're pleased to report that last month's Poetry in the Park  was a prodigious success! We're also pleased to announce the release of two new books of poetry: Winter by Patricia Fargnoli and Falling Ashes by James Fowler.

We recently added a new "View Sample" feature on our website, so you can look before you leap. Browse through a few pages of our books before deciding if you want to read more!

On a related note, our question for this month is:

How do you decide which book to read next?

Please share your thoughts with us (long or short) on our Facebook page or through email.

This month, we're featuring two books by Rodger Martin (and are offering a buy-one-get-one-free discount!). Scroll down to read about them and hear in our interview with Rodger how the books came to be.

The Blue Moon Series is an unusual and elegant chapbook. It is a collection of fourteen poems, each devoted to a particular full moon in a complete lunar cycle (which takes fourteen months and normally includes at least one Blue Moon). The poems are linked by season and moon, and this serves as a departure point to locations both European and American, times both ancient and present. The illustrations by artist Chad Gowey brilliantly reinforce that reach.

The book is pocket sized with French-Fold flaps to serve as bookmarks. It is meant to accompany its reader in a leisurely way—a reflective journey, one poem at a time.

October Special: The Blue Moon Series is FREE with the discounted purchase of The Battlefield Guide through this link.

The Battlefield Guide is a time-travelers guide to the battlefields that shaped the American conscience. It explores obscure but fascinating links to the world of today and tests the assumptions of that American conscience.

Included with the book is a CD of a musical performance of both “Gettysburg” and “Antietam.”

From the Introduction: ". . . rather than use the poems as a viewmaster from which to imagine the Civil War, this volume strives to use those landscapes as a prism from which to view ourselves, Americans, in all the contemporary shades and colors that have evolved since the Civil War."

October Special: Purchase The Battlefield Guide at a discount using this link and receive The Blue Moon Series for FREE!

James Fowler reads from his book Falling Ashes at Poetry in the Park.

Savvy bookstores are meeting the digital age by reshaping themselves into social gathering places. One of the best bookstores in New Hampshire, Gibson's in Concord, our capitol city, has just remade itself completely along these lines. They have a gorgeous new space, plenty of room for author events and a café with fabulous food—and even wine and beer soon. They have become a place for literary happenings and literary excitement.

At Hobblebush we look for venues like this and we spread the word about our books by having the authors spread the word themselves as often as possible.

Our Poetry in the Park event became an event. We heard that folks mightily enjoyed themselves and we plan to repeat Poetry in the Park next year and maybe even take it to other cities. In October our biggest event is the Boston Book Festival and I encourage any lover of books to make the effort to go.  It is book heaven, with publishers and authors and food and music in abundant supply in a scenic part of downtown Boston.

Our events include slide shows of exotic places, mini-plays, folk music, provocative lectures, all kinds of literary excitement. If you aren't too excited by watching the world go by—or just go on and on—on your television set, or even if you need a break from your reading, come join the literary conversation, live, at one of our events.

—Sid Hall

As the seasons change, so do Holly's activities. (It's too cold to swim in October!) Here she is, deep in thought, pondering what to do with her free time.

Spoiler alert! She went to a Hobblebush author reading and had an excellent time! See her on stage here.