A look at mid-century country life in the Catskills
“Laurels by Laura” is an account of life in Shandaken that will leave readers nostalgic for days gone by, even if they weren’t there to see them.
Books
Maureen Cummins is writer-in-the-window for Shout Out Saugerties
October 2-28: The book Cummins will be working on has to do with the unearthing and exposing of family secrets; hence, her tenure in the window, in which she herself is exposed, “sort of parallels the book — it’s a simulacrum of the book,” she says.
Pastor Clarke’s new Stories
One of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent and powerful voices in the civil rights movement, the Rev. Dr. G. Modele Clarke, minister and leader at New Progressive Baptist Church, has written a new book, his second.
Bistro-to-Go hosts launch party for Feel Good Food
Saturday, Sept. 29: A quarter-century has passed since Mary Anne and Richard Erickson opened the original Blue Mountain Bistro in Woodstock, and now they’ve got a cookbook out, drawing on all this experience: Feel Good Food: Recipes from the Hudson Valley’s Blue Mountain Bistro-to-Go.
Donna Goodman to speak about the need for a new “militant” women’s movement
Goodman will speak about her book at Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz on Wednesday, September 5 from 8-9:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Expert on economic insecurity will be interviewed at Woodstock Library Forum
Those wanting to hear some specifics about what’s happening in today’s rampantly unequal economy might want to attend the Woodstock Library Forumthis Saturday, August 11, from 5 to 6 p.m. Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America, published in June by Ecco/HarperCollins, will be interviewed live by journalist Julie Lasky.
Joyce Carol Oates to read her new short stories in Woodstock
Tuesday, July 24: Multi-prizewinning novelist Joyce Carol Oates has just published a new short-story collection that’s generating plenty of buzz in literary circles: Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense. The title story is her homage to the eldritch horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft; the volume of six new works also includes Eleven A.M., 1926, Oates’ contribution to a writing challenge to imagine the backstories behind iconic paintings by Edward Hopper.
Samantha Hunt reads from The Seas in Rhinebeck
Tuesday, July 10: Dave Eggers declared the Tivoli writer “one of the most distinctive and unforgettable voices I have read in years.” Hunt’s recently reissued novel is about a young woman who believes herself to be a mermaid. She falls in a love with a damaged veteran of the first Iraq war, a fisherman named Jude.
My Ex-Life: Stephen McCauley reads from his latest novel in Woodstock
Saturday, June 16: The story concerns the rekindling-under-duress of a friendship between Julie and her gay ex-husband from long ago. Sardonic, wry and ceaselessly funny as it may be, My Ex-Life genuinely surprises as it progresses, accumulating tenderness, warmth and complexity.
Crispin Kott and Mike Katz pen guide to NYC’s hot rock ’n’ roll spots
This book is a wonderful and often brilliantly written resource for music fanatics or casual fans who may want to learn more about the city’s deeply rich rock history.