New Fiction

• A Poisoned Season - Tasha Alexander
  
• A Fatal Waltz - Tasha Alexander
  
• Tears of Pearl - Tasha Alexander
• War Dances - Sherman Alexie
• The Paris Vendetta - Steve Berry
• Breaking the Rules - Barbara Taylor Bradford
• Rainwater - Sandra Brown
• The Disciple - Stephen Coontz
• Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton
• The Wrecker - Clive Cussler
• Nuclear Jellyfish - Tim Dorsey
• A Good Fall: Stories - Ha Jin
  
• Breathless - Dean Koontz
• A Sea of Troubles - Donna Leon
• Family Album - Penelope Lively
• La's Orchestra Saves the World - Alexander McCall Smith
• Too Many Murders - Colleen McCullough
• Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
• The Vintage Caper - Peter Mayle
• Too Much Happiness - Alice Munro
• The Museum of Innocence - Orphan Pamuk
• Monster in the Box - Ruth Rendell
• Bed of Roses - Nora Roberts
  
• The Humbling - Philip Roth
• The Best American Short Stories - Alice Sebold, editor
• No Less Than Victory - Jeff Shaara
• Love and Summer - William Trevor

New Non-Fiction

• The Best American Magazine Writing 2009 - American Society of Magazine Editors
• My New Orleans, The Cookbook: 200 of My Favorite Recipies and Stories from My Hometown - John Besh
• Boston 2010 - Fodor's
• Mexico 2010 - Fodor's
• New York City 2010 - Frommer's
• Talking About Detective Fiction - P.D. James
• My Bread: the Revolutionary no-work, no-knead method - Jim Lahey
• Montreal & Quebec City encounter - Lonely Planet
• New Orleans City Guide - Lonely Planet
• Literary Life: a Second Memoir - Larry McMurtry
• Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Greg Mortenson
• I Love Macarons - Hisako Ogita
• How to Roast a Lamb: new Greek Classic Cooking - Michael Psilakis
• You Having a Baby: The Owner's Manual to a Happy and Healthy Pregnancy - Michael F. Roizen, MD
  
• Great Britain 2010 - Rick Steves
• Ireland - Rick Steves
• The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it: The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide - John Seymour
• Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipies - Anna Thomas
• One-Yard Wonders: Look How Much You Can Make with just One Yard of Fabric! - Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins

New Audio Books

• Death and Judgement - Donna Leon
• A Dead Man in Barcelona - Michael Pearce
• Swann's Way, part 2 - Parcel Proust

New DVD's

• Funny People - Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen
  
• Julie and Julia - Meryl Streep, Amy Adams
  
• Public Enemies - Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard, Christian Bale
• Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... Season 1
• Taking Woodstock - Emile Hirsch , Liev Schreiber

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BOOKLISTS

Every month in this spot we feature reading suggestions. These include historic fiction, science fiction, mysteries, and more. Many of these titles can be found in the Mid Hudson Library System.

Visit the Library to pick up a copy of the booklist-of-the-month brochure and check out a book from our current display.

Book Club in a Bag Titles

Start your own Book Club with our Book Club in a Bag. The Kit consists of a tote bag which has ten copies of a book title, as well as a list of discussion questions to get your book club started. Each bag can be borrowed for six weeks. This service is available to all patrons in the Mid-Hudson Library System.

This is a list of our current available titles - over 100! If you find a title you would like, ask for help at the circulation desk and a staff member will book the kit for you. For brief summaries of these books click here.

Of course, these books are also available to check out individually.

• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
  
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
  
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
  
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by by Sijie Dai
  
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
  
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
  
• The Black Madonna by Louisa Ermelino
  
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
  
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  
• Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
  
• The Book of Flying by Keith Miller
  
• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
  
• The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
  
• Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
  
• Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky
  
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
  
• The Color of Water by James McBride
  
• Consumption by Kevin Patterson
  
• Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condè
  
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
  
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
  
• The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman
  
• Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
  
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
  
• Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
  
• Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
  
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  
• Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
  
• Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund
  
• Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
  
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  
• Go With Me by Castle Freeman Jr.
  
• Grace by Richard Paul Evans
  
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
• Half-Past Nowhere by Joseph Cavano
  
• The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
  
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
  
• Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
  
• Here on Earth by Alice Hoffmann
  
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
  
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
  
• The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
  
• House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
  
• Impulse by Frederick Ramsay
  
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  
• Jewel by Bret Lott
  
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
  
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein
  
• The Ladies of Garrison Gardens by Louise Shaffer
  
• The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
  
• The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman
  
• Love Songs in Minor Keys by Joseph Cavano
  
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  
• Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
  
• The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
  
• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
  
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
  
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
  
• Murder Off the Books by Evelyn David
  
• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
  
• The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman
  
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  
• Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher
  
• Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff
  
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  
• The Orchid Theif by Susan Orlean
  
• A Painted House by John Grisham
  
• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
  
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
  
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  
• The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
  
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
  
• Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen by India Edghill
  
• The Rainmaker by John Grisham
  
• The Reader by Bernard Schlink
  
• Redemption by Julie Chibbaro
  
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  
• The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  
• Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy
  
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
  
• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  
• Silk, Alessandro Baricco
  
• Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller
  
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
  
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
  
• Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
• Stones From the River by Ursula Hegl
  
• Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
  
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
  
• Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
  
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  
• The Turtle Warrior by Mary Relindes Ellis
  
• Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
  
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  
• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
  
• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
  
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges
  
• While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
  
• White Oleander by Janet Fitch
  
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
  
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  
• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
  
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
  
• You Kill Me by Alison Gaylin

SNOW and ICE

Please check the Library website on days of inclement weather. A notice will be posted if we're closed for the day, or if we'll be opening later in the day. We do not charge fines for snow days.

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After the Flood

After the flood in October we did some "weeding" and re-arranging and now have a lovely section for the public access computers. We received the eight computers with a grant through the Gates Foundation, which was matched by local resident Robert Rosakranse and we now have new desks thanks to a gift from a Library trustee and chairs to go with the computers. Come in and take a look.

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Hudson Valley Reads

A new feature has been added to the Mid-Hudson Library System Online Catalog called Hudson Valley Reads. Sign-up for a monthly "e-alert" to receive book suggestions that will include new gems, bestsellers, and related titles in the category or categories they choose.

There are twenty-five categories to choose from including mysteries, new fiction, book club choices, business, Spanish, non-fiction bestsellers, romance, audio books, science fiction and fantasy, children's and teens - there's something for everyone! Click on a category to see a sample of what the e-alert provides. more

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Town of Rochester Membership Cards

The Town of Rochester has contracted with the Stone Ridge Library for 250 household memberships for 2010. Additionally, the library is providing free student membership cards to all Rondout Valley students, K-12, through December of 2010. Students are asked to present their Student ID or report card when applying for a free membership. Student and adult memberships will be available beginning January 4th, 2010.

How It Will Work

Current Rochester membership holders will be placed on the 250 household list first. Remaining memberships will be provided on a first come, first serve basis beginning on January 4, 2010. Please come to library to apply for your card.

Refund of Membership Fees

If your membership expires after the January 4th contract date, the library will be happy to refund your membership balance or send you a donation slip with our thanks.

Tracking the 250 Memberships

The library will post the number of Rochester memberships left each day until we reach the contracted 250 households. After that time, Rochester residents will have the option to purchase a pro-rated membership or put their name on a waiting list in the event that a paid member moves or gives up their Stone Ridge Library card.

We are happy to be working with the Town of Rochester on this contract and hope that it will provide more options for our Rochester residents.

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Get Re-Acquainted With Your Teen
in the New Year

It’s a brand new year! We enter it steeled to honor our resolutions and become better people. One resolution will be easy for library patrons to keep – learning to communicate better with your teen – thanks to materials available from the Health Information Project.

Check out You Don’t Know Anything: A Manual for Parenting Your Teenagers by Nadir Baksh. Do you need to have a talk about difficult subject matter? Borrow Split in Two: Keeping it Together When Your Parents Live Apart by Karen Buscemi.

If you don’t have time to read, make time for a family movie night and watch the DVD American Teen or Bigger, Stronger, Faster together. It won’t feel like a health class but will prompt plenty of discussion.

Visit HIP to find more titles -- there’s even a special section just for parents! All of the material may be ordered online and delivered directly to the library for you.

The Health Information Project is a grant-funded program of the Mid-Hudson Library System. It receives money from the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services as well as Dutchess County. more

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The New York Council for the Humanities

The New York Council for the Humanities has awarded the library a reading and discussion grant to take place this fall and winter. Dr. Joseph Keefe, Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Ulster, will facilitate the discussions that will focus on the theme, Coping with American Identity: Four Viewpoints.

The meetings offer an opportunity for participants to share their views on the readings in a lively and congenial exchange in the Library’s reference room at 4:00 p.m., using the Tea Time Book Discussion timeslot, on the following dates. Books, listed below, will be available at the Circulation Desk one month prior to the event. Summaries will be available one week before the meetings.

• Wednesday, January 13 – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez
  
• Wednesday, February 10 – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

For registration and other information, please call Diane DeChillo, Program Manager at 687-8726. The program is free and open to the public.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Thursday, January 21,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory and The Adventure of the Black Peter - a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Knitting Group

Every Saturday
10am-noon

The Stone Ridge Library Knitters meet every Saturday morning from 10am - 12noon. All ages and experience levels can join us and drop-in knitters are also welcome. We each bring our own supplies and do our own work, but one of the best things about us is that whatever obstacle or confusion you might encounter, you're likely to receive as much comment and advice as you need to get where you're going with a project. Some of us can help toward the repair of knitted or crocheted items too.

The group is sociable and lively, and our conversation and sharing is just as wide-ranging as our projects. We are especially interested in the UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) that members bring in and love the show and tell of projects under way and being finished, new or old, simple or complex. Though knitting is our love and mainstay, we graciously adapt ourselves to stray crocheters and those of us who simply must take to the hook when the spirit moves. We share articles, magazines and books on knitting. Donations of yarn to the Library get made up into items for sale at the Library Fair and during the winter holidays for the benefit of the Library. Some of us also knit things for local hospitals or for the U.S. troops.

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ON THE SHELVES

Shrink your eco-impact
with these books

Matt Pfisterer 12.6.09

Going green or attempting to engage in practices that reduce our impact upon the environment has become one of the most popular recent social trends. Kermit the Frog once said, “it’s not easy being green,” but these titles, available through the catalog of the Mid-Hudson Library System, might convince you going green is easier than you think.

True Green Home: 100 Inspirational Ideas for Creating a Green Environment at Home, by Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin

The National Geographic Society, which has been “green” since its inception in 1888, shows you how to increase your home’s energy efficiency, clean without chemicals, conserve water and use environmentally sound paints and finishes.

Start Your Own Green Business: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Success, by Rich Mintzer.

Mintzer examines 22 successful “green” companies and advises readers that it is possible to build a successful business and protect the Earth at the same time. Discover how to get startup money from green lenders, manage your company’s carbon footprint, utilize effective marketing strategies and create a sustainable business model no matter what business you choose.

Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen by Kate Heyhoe

Heyhoe makes the argument that the ways in which we buy, store and prepare food is a significant contributor to global warming. Recipes are evaluated in terms of their “cookprint,” or the entire chain of resources used to prepare meals and the waste produced in the process. Learn how to prepare eco-friendly dishes such as passively poached, short-cut lasagna and true skillet cornbread.

Pets Gone Green: Live a More Eco-Conscious Life with Your Pets, by Eve Adamson

It is possible to lower the “carbon pawprint” of the nation’s 74.8 million owned dogs and 88.3 million cats according to pet expert Eve Adamson. She advises environmentally conscious pet lovers the greenest pets are “recycled”; from a shelter or rescue. Other components of living green with your pet include making a lifelong commitment to your pet, knowing what’s in your pet’s food and how it got there, and spaying and neutering your pet.

Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials, by Betz White

White is a “green crafter” who is an expert at deconstructing/recycling used materials and crafting them into something new. Projects featured include creating a child’s dress from a pillow case, a soft blanket from secondhand cashmere sweaters and a tote bag refashioned from used Tyvek envelopes. She also offers inspiring profiles of leaders of the “eco-stitching” movement.

Speaking of green, did you know the Mid-Hudson Library System has been green for more than 50 years? Since 1959, professional librarians, dedicated staff and trustees have shared resources and coordinated purchases to minimize waste and save our communities money. That’s the type of green lifestyle we can all get excited about.

Matt Pfisterer is the director of the Grinnell Library, a public library founded in 1867, that serves residents of the Town of Wappinger, Village of Wappingers Falls and the surrounding vicinity. He served as 2007-2009 chair of the Dutchess County Public Library Director’s Association and is the moderator of Grinnell Library’s Readers Rendezvous book discussion group.

Income Tax Forms

Tax forms have begun arriving at the Library, the selection will be more complete as the month proceeds.

New York State Tax Forms

The state Department of Taxation and Finance will not be mailing personal income tax forms and instructions to individuals this year. You can find the forms you need at this website. more

IRS.gov

All the federal income tax forms and publications are at this website. more

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GREAT WEBSITES!

A Taste Engine for Movies: jinni.com

A search engine for movies and TV shows in which you search by what you like, "recommendations are based on analyzing your preferences, not statistics." Find movies based on your mood, the setting, reviews, the genre, time period, etc. It's designed to fit how people relate to movies and TV, watch their demo for all the explanation you need. Jinni can be connected to your Netflicks account for ease in ordering (sorry, not to the library catalog.) Called "the best search engine on the web" by cnet. more

Guide to Avoiding Online Scams

Help your less savvy friends and relatives stay safe online. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, use strong passwords, ignore web site popups saying you have a virus, never click a link to your bank from an email, are some of the tips from Lifehacker. more

NYPL Digital Gallery

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery provides free access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. The materials can be downloaded free for personal use. more

The Martin Luther King Jr Papers Project

“The King Papers Project is a major research effort to assemble and disseminate historical information concerning Martin Luther King, Jr. and the social movements in which he participated.” This site features papers, speeches, sermons, a biography, an excerpt from his autobiography, a chronology, and articles. Includes related links. From Stanford University. more

The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers

This presentation of almost 50,000 images "documents the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright and highlights their pioneering work which led to the world's first powered, controlled and sustained flight. Included ... are correspondence, diaries and notebooks, scrapbooks, drawings, printed matter, and other documents, as well as the Wrights' collection of glass-plate photographic negatives." Also features a timeline and family tree. From the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress.* more

Backcheck: A Hockey Retrospective

"This digital project's primary focus is on the early days of hockey" in Canada. Contains information and materials on the French-Canadian tradition; women's hockey; and "kids' teams, junior teams, company teams, town teams, [and] prisoners' teams." Includes a children's version. In English and French. From the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada.* more

American Heart Association

Everything you need to know about keeping your heart healthy – information for patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers. more

MoOM

The Museum of Online Museums has links to online collections and ehxibits at gallery and museum websites. The exhibits are changed quarterly and frequently updated. more

Merriam-Webster Online

A dictionary based on the Webster Collegiate, with updates added annually. Hundreds of thousands of entries. Each word is accompanied by definition, pronunciation, usage, grammatical function, and a brief etymology. Includes a thesaurus. Misspellings return suggested spellings. The site includes a word-of-the-day, word games, a visual dictionary and more. The dictionary's search system supports internal wildcards and right hand truncation searching. Includes an extensive pronunciation guide and sound files for the pronunciation of many terms.* more

January 2nd
National Science Fiction Day –

On Isaac Asimov’s birthday celebrate the genius’s works of science fiction by indulging in a few imaginative works. Enjoy these resources to find new worlds, the outer reaches of space, and everything beyond!*

The SF Site: The Home Page for Science Fiction and Fantasy
“The world of science fiction and fantasy, focusing on books and literature, but with some coverage of film and television as well. Includes numerous book reviews and author biographies and bibliographies.” This site is great for diving into the world of science fiction. more

Isaac Asimov Home Page
“A site devoted to this popular science fiction writer. Includes lists of his novels, short fiction, and essays, plus links to reviews, booksellers, and publishers. Also discusses the 2004 movie “I, Robot” and how it compares to the collection of short stories by Asimov on which it was based.” more

* Content is copyright Librarians' Internet Index.

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Phone: 687-7023

E-Mail: Webmaster

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