Appalachian Odyssey; Walking the Trail from Georgia to Maine, a memoir by Steve Sherman and Julia Older, was awarded the only Honorable Mention in the category Outdoor Classic by the 2009 National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA).

In his November 13 announcement, chairman Ron Watters of NOBA Foundation said that "The National Outdoor Book Awards is an educational program which annually honors outstanding writing and publishing in the outdoor field."

Past selections in the Outdoor Classic category include Roderick Nash’s Wilderness and the American Mind, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Margaret Murie’s Two in the Far North, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Richard E. Byrd’s Alone.

The other nine NOBA categories include History, Literature, Children, Nature, Natural History, Instructional, Adventure Guidebook, Nature Guidebook, and Design. ( http://www.noba-web.org)

Sherman and Older wrote Appalachian Odyssey, with a Foreword by Edward Abbey, about their bliss-and-blister life backpacking for 150 days on The Great Hike. In 1976 The Stephen Greene Press published their account. After reprints, the book went out of print until 2009 when the Authors Guild, in partnership with iUniverse, selected the memoir for its Back-in-Print series.

The 2000-mile Appalachian Trail, the most famous long-distance footpath in the world, follows the ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountain Range along the eastern seaboard. The trail through 14 states includes the Presidential Range in New Hampshire, Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Great Smoky Mountain Range in Tennessee, and many other state and national parks and forests. Older was the 19th woman to hike end-to-end since the bootpath through backcountry America was blazed in 1936. In recent years, between 500-600 hikers walk the distance each year.

Appalachian Odyssey is available directly from Appledore Books as well as independent and online bookstores, Baker & Taylor Book Distributor and iUniverse.

Appledore Books of New Hampshire and more than 50 other exhibitors of hand-crafted gift items from goldsmiths to knitters and glass blowers to belt makers are participating in the Monadnock Music Holiday Fair this year.

The popular fair is held at South Meadow School on Route 202N in Peterborough NH. Open hours: both Friday November 27 and Saturday November 28 between 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Telephone information: (603) 924-3423. Online information:
www.monadnockmusic.org

Publishers Weekly spearheaded the first annual National Bookstore Day on November 7 with stores in 35 states participating by raffling off gift certificates and hosting author readings. Then during the week of November 15-12, independent booksellers in New York City launched the first Independent Bookstore Week with special in-store displays, author appearances, promotions and other events to highlight differences between independent bookshops and megachain-online bookstores.