Ernest Hebert returns to Portsmouth with a novel that explores his—and New Hampshire’s—working-class roots.

Ernest Hebert wrote his ninth novel, “Never Back Down,” with a chip on his shoulder. The professor of English at Dartmouth College has made a career out of chronicling the lives of the working class and the rural poor in his novels, most notably in his six-book Darby series, which follows the lives of the residents of a fictional New Hampshire town over the course of 30 years. But, in recent years, working folks have gotten short shrift in literary circles, according to Hebert, and “Never Back Down” is a way to tell the stories of the factory workers and orderlies. But the book also explores Hebert’s own roots, Granite State’s ethnically divided past, and how the past pulls on the present and shapes the future.

written by: Ray Bradbury
first published: Ballantine Books, 1953, 179 pages

First published nearly 60 years ago in 1953, “Fahrenheit 451” tells the story of a future world where books are outlawed, and “firemen” have been repurposed as crack teams to swoop in and burn any remaining books that are found, their tanks filled with kerosene instead of water.

Written by: Anne Rice
First published: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976, 338 pages

The modern vampire craze, fueled largely by Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” books and films, casts the creatures in an exceedingly sympathetic light. The vampires of today’s fiction are glamorous, sexy, even heroic, as embodied by Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of Edward Cullen, the teen-vamp heartthrob of “Twilight.”

RiverRun Bookstore releases the first two books in its new publishing venture

Aspiring local authors no longer need to scour the Internet in search of an affordable, trustworthy book publisher. RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth recently launched two new publishing endeavors here on the Seacoast.