Berkshire Books, Concord “When the Sacred Ginmill Closes” by Lawrence Block.
Lynn Kuehl has sold second-hand books in Concord for several decades — and for the last 16 years at his Berkshire Books on Clayton Road. He has always loved to surround himself with old books. Their cover illustrations evoke long-ago eras, and their pages give off that slightly musty fragrance of old paper and grandma’s attic.
Kuehl’s beloved neighborhood shop is proud of a few specialties: local and regional history and science fiction and mystery novels. Kuehl also has a personal fondness for vintage paperback versions of popular fiction and nonfiction books from the 1940s and 1950s. Kuehl recommends:
“Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K. Jerome:
Written in the late 1880s as a travel guide for British vacationers wishing to spend some downtime on the River Thames, the book digresses into humor about history, social customs, the imprecise science of meteorology and various other topics. Jerome’s humor is often reminiscent of Mark Twain’s, and his book was published at a time when the British middle class had the free time and money to go on vacations, so it was somewhat of a new thing. Inexpensive copies are available through online retailers and for free from copyright-free electronic sources, such as Project Gutenburg.
“Suds in Your Eye” by Mary Lasswell:
This charming short novel, a huge best-seller in the 1940s, is about three little old ladies from very different backgrounds who find they have to rely on one another to remain independent. The title comes from one of the few things they enjoy in common: drinking beer with their meals. The book was out of print for decades but recently became available online and from used-book sellers.
“Peyton Place” by Grace Metalious: Since its publication in 1956, the book has become synonymous with the idea of outwardly respectable small town citizens hiding lots of dark secrets. The book established a style of naughty, soap-operatic storytelling that was adopted by Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann and kept Americans turning the pages of cheap paperbacks through at least the next two decades.
For fans of crime and mystery novels, I often recommend the hardboiled fiction of Block. Published in 2010, “Sacred Ginmill” features one of Block’s best characters, former police detective Matt Scudder, who is now an alcoholic private eye. He solves two cases that intersect over a period of 15 years, from the early ‘70s to the late ‘80s. Gritty, human and involving — I periodically reread this one to remind me of how good mystery fiction can be.
“A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains” by Isabella L. Bird.
In this classic of travel literature, the courageous and eccentric
Bird journeyed from her home in Victorian England to Japan and other parts of Asia, before returning via Hawaii and the mainland United States. This book concerns her alternately funny and frightening adventures in the Colorado Rockies in the 1870s, where she encountered some rough-andtumble characters. The book is readily available in paperback and online.