February 2006

New Fiction

• The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
• Arthur & George - Julian Barnes
• Just Rewards - Baarbara Taylor Bradford
• The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell - Lilian Jackson Braun
• Leaving Home - Anita Brookner
• Long Time Coming - Sandra Brown
• The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell
• The Life all around me by Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons
• Queen of the Underworld - Gail Godwin
• S is for Silence - Sue Grafton
• The Hostage: a Presidential Agent Novel - W.E.B. Griffin
• Malpractice in Maggody - Hoan Hess
• The World to Come - Dara Horn
• Turning Angel - Greg Iles
• On the Run - Iris Johansen
• All Night Long - Jayne Ann Krenz
• The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog - Doris Lessing
• Changelings: Book One of the Twins of Petaybee - Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
• Every Breath You Take - Judith McNaught
• The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense - Joyce Carol Oates
• The Leper's Bell: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland - Peter Tremayne

New Non-Fiction

• 2006 Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market
• Consumer Reports Electronics Buying Guide 2006
• Kripalu Yoga: A Guide to Practice On and Off the Mat - Richard Faulds
• The Bedside Book of Birds: an Avian Miscellany - Graeme Gibson
• Myself & the Other Fellow: a life of Robert Louis Stevenson - Claire Harman
• The Chosen: the Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton - Jerome Karabel
• The Real Nureyev: an Intimate Memoir of Ballet's Greatest Hero - Carolyn Soutar
• Matisse the Master: a Life of Henri Matise: the Conquest of Colour, 1909 - 1954 - Hilary Spurling
• Fourth Uncle in the Mountain: a Mamoir of a Barefoot Doctor in Vietnam - Quang Van Nguyen and Marjorie Pivar
• Andrew Jackson - Sam Wilentz
• After the Victorians: the Decline of Britain in the World - A. N. Wilson

New Audios

• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
• The Original Adventures of Hank the Cow Dog - John Erickson
• Enquiry - Dick Frances
• The Life all around me by Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons
• The Stargazey : a Richard Jury mystery - Martha Grimes
• Turning angel - Greg Iles
• A Prairie Home Companion - Garrison Keillor
• Love Among the Chickens - P.G. Wodehouse

New DVD's

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• The Affair of the Necklace
• After Life
• Alexander
• Bad Santa
• Broken Flowers
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• A Christmas Story
• constant Gardener
• Days of Heaven
• Disney's The Black Hole
• Donnie Darko
• Down With Love
• Emma
• Empire Falls
• Gallipoli
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Inside the Vatican
• Jerry Seinfeld Comedian
• Junebug
• House of Games
• Marathon Man
• Moulin Rouge
• Oz, Season 1
• The Pianist
• Pillow Talk
• Reservoir Dogs
• Rome
• Short Cuts
• The Sum of Us
• Sweet Dreams
• Tender Mercies
• Topsy-Turvy
• Wedding Crashers
• A Woman Under the Influence
• Woodstock

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.

Fiction Set in Different Countries

AFGHANISTAN

• Kite Runner by Hosseini
• Bookseller of Kabul by Seierstad
• Flashman by Frazer
• Horsemen by Kessel

AFRICAN COUNTRIES

• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Fuller
• Scribbling the Cat by Fuller
• Zanzibar Chest by Hartley
• No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (and sequels) by McCall Smith (Botswana)
• Joshua's Bible by Leanne
• Elephant Song by Smith
• Birds of Prey by Smith
• Blue Horizon by Smith
• Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver
• Skinner's Drift by Fugard
• Madonna of Excelsior by Mda
• Triomf by Van Niekerk
• Prester John by Buchan
• Last King of Scotland by Foden (Uganda)
• Magician's Wife by Moore (Algeria and France)
• Darling by Banks (West Africa)
• Almost anything by Damon Galgot, Nadine Gordimer, JM Coetzee

AUSTRALIA

• Pobby and Dingon by Rice
• True History of the Kelly Gang by Gory

AUSTRIA

• Canone Inverso by Maurensig
• Homestead by Lippi
• Soldier of the Great War by Helprin (also Italy)

AZERBAIJAN

• Ali and Nino by Said

BURMA (MYANMAR)

• Saving Fish from Drowning by Tan
• Piano Tuner by Mason

CANADA

• Deafening by Itani
• Crow Lake by Lawson
• Alias Grace by Atwood
• Forest Lover by Vreeland

CHINA

• Bonesetter's Daughter by Tan
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by See
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai

CUBA

• Simple Habana Melody by Hijuelos

CZECH REPUBLIC

• Russian Debutante's Handbook by Shteyngart
• Ultimate Intimacy by Klima
• Miracle Game by Skvorecky

ENGLAND

• Atonement by McEwan
• Saturday by McEwan
• Brick Lane by Ali (London and Bangladesh)
• Long Way Home by Hornby
• Bridget Jones' Diary by Fielding
• Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Haddon
• Year of Wonders by Brooks
• Undomestic Goddess by Kinsella
• Slammerkin by Donoghue

FRANCE

• Very Long Engagement by Japrisot
• In the Company of Angels by Kelby
• Magician's Wife by Moore (also Algeria)

GERMANY

• Reader by Schlink
• Tin Drum by Grass

GREECE

• Corelli's Mandolin by de Bernieres

HUNGARY

• To Err is Divine by Bozai
• Prague by Phillips
• Budapest by Buarque (also in Brazil)
• Celestial Harmonies by Esterhazy

IRELAND

• Haunted Ground by Hart
• Lake of Sorrows by Hart
• Pearl by Gordon

INDIA

• God of Small Things by Roy
• Fine Balance by Mistry
• Song of Kali by Simmons

ISRAEL

• Martyr's Crossing by Wilentz
• Also many historical novels based on biblical stories

ITALY

• Christ Stopped at Eboli, by Levi
• Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band, by Brizzi
• If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, by Calvino
• The Broker by Grisham
• The English Patient by Ontaadje
• A Thread of Grace by Russell
• The Birth of Venus by Dunant
• Room with a View by Forster (also England)
• Soldier of the Great War by Helprin (also Austria)

JAPAN

• Audrey Hepburn's Neck by Brown
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden
• Samarai's Garden by Tsukiyama
• Strangeness of Beauty by Minatoya
• Ash by Thompson

MEXICO

• Place Where the Sea Remembers by Benitez
• Night of the Radishes by Benitez

NORWAY

• Don't Look Back by Fossum

PHILIPPINES

• When the Elephants Dance by Holthe

POLAND

• River Midnight by Nattel

PORTUGAL

• All the Names by Saramago
• Hunting Midnight by Zimler
• Company of Strangers by Wilson

RUSSIA

• Rasputin's Daughter by Alexander
• Kitchen Boy by Alexander
• People's Act of Love by Meek
• Catherine: The Great Journey by Gregory
• Almost anything by Cruz or Solzhenitsin

SOUTH and CENTRAL AMERICA

• Daughter of Fortune by Allende (Chile, also China and US)
• Bel Canto by Patchett (unnamed South American country)
• In the Time of the Butterflies by Alvarez (Dominican Republic)
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Garcia Marquez
• House for Mr. Biswas by Naipaul (Trinidad)
• Mosquito Coast by Theroux (Honduras)

SPAIN and MOROCCO

• Shadow of the Wind by Ruiz Zafron (Spain)
• Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Lalami (mostly Morocco)

TURKEY

• Birds without Wings by de Bernieres
• Snow by Pamuk
• My Name is Red by Pamuk

OTHER

• Painted Bird by Kozinski (Eastern Europe)
• Sex Lives of Cannibals by Troost (Equatorial Pacific)

Writing Workshop: Generative Pleasure

3 Saturdays: Feb. 11, 18, 25
1:30-3:30pm at the Library

A workshop in beginnings: family and writing. We'll generate a set of family stories by practicing the elements of writing and becoming perfect readers for each other. We'll end by looking forward to albums of stories to come. This workshop is led by Library Trustee Rosemary Deen. Space is limited so please sign up at the Library or call 687-8726 and leave a message.

Feb. 11: I Elemental Beginnings

Feb. 18: II Seed Sentences and a Story

Feb. 25: III The Story Album and a Story Shape to take home.

Knitting Group

Saturdays, February 4, 11, 18, 25
10am-Noon at the Library

Our knitting group meets every Saturday in the Library's Reference room. All levels are welcome.

Medieval Reading Club

Wednesday, March 15
6:15pm at the Library

New members are welcome. The topic is The Fourteenth Century. Select a book written during that time or a book written about an aspect of that era - the arts, government, social mores, the Black Plague, 100 Years War, papal schism, making a living, etc.

When Stone Ridge was Lang Syne

The following is from the 1933-34 Ulster County Historical Society Booklet. With thanks to Charles Cullen for the research material.

When Stone Ridge was Lang Syne

By Mrs. William F. Hasbrouck

Above the window in the post office at Stone Ridge is a letter which reads as follows:

Washington, 27 March 1832

Sir:

I have changed the name of your Post Office on the books of this department from "Lang Syne" to Stone Ridge, County of Ulster, State of New York. You may give publicity to this change in any way you may deem proper provided it creates no expense to this department,

I am, sir, respectfully,
Your obedient servant,

W. T. Berry

John Lounsbery, Esq.

I have never seen any mention of the "Lang Syne" in any records of our village, so you may take it for what it is worth.

Stone Ridge is not without its quota of celebrities who have tarried a while there. We have the beautiful old stone house belonging now to William Lounsbery where Washington stopped during the Revolution, the home then of a member of his staff, Col. Cornelius Wynkoop, while the rest of his staff lodged across the road at Sally Tock's Inn, the home now of Mrs E. C. Chadbourne.

Aaron Burr stopped at a blacksmith shop to have his horse re-shod and there he met the boy, John Vanderlyn, who sketched a picture of him on the door of the shop. Burr recognized his talents and later paid for his education, the beginning of a long friendship between the two.

Another time, later on, a youth while making a survey of the roads of Ulster County stopped under a tree, which is still standing, to eat his lunch. The tree was directly in front of the home of one James Cantine. Taking a motherly interest in the boy, Mrs Cantine said to her husband, "Take a cup of coffee out to him to make his lunch more palatable." Mr. Cantine returning, remarked to his wife, "Charlotte, that's a very promising young man and I prophesy he will go a long way in the world." And so he did, for he was none other than Jay Gould.

- Mrs. William F. Hasbrouck, 1933

For Stone Ridge Library history go to our website more

Historic Preservation

Sunday, February 12, 3pm, Marbletown Community Center.

The Library recently learned of a series of lectures that are going to be presented by the Historic Preservation Commission of Marbletown. We list details below. Don't miss this opportunity to attend!

John Winthrop Aldrich, former New York State Deputy Commissioner of Historic Preservation, will speak on the topic "Marbletown is Not Just Anytown USA: The Benefits of Historic Preservation for Your Town." For more information, call 687-9004.

Wint Aldrich has lived beside the Hudson River all his life, and for much of that time has been a passionate student of the region's history and an advocate for preserving its natural and historic resources. A member of the tenth generation of his family to own land at Rokeby, in Red Hook, Dutchess County, N.Y., he was an incorporator of the preservation organization Hudson River Heritage in 1974 and played a major role in establishing the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District, extending for twenty miles along the River north from Hyde Park. This work contributed, in turn, to Congressional enactment of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area in 1996.

Wint served as president of the Hudson River Conservation Society (1974-1984), facilitating its evolution into today's Scenic Hudson Land Trust, and he was the founding president of Wilderstein Preservation in Rhinebeck (1980-1988), devoted to restoring and managing a notable 19th century country seat. Since 1975, he has been Red Hook town historian.

The Historic Preservation Commission will host two more events in the coming months:

• Dutch Architecture in the Hudson Valley, March 12, 3pm, at the Marbletown Community Center.
• Preservation of Historic Structures, April 2, 3pm, Marbletown Community Center.

Libraries as places to linger and mingle

Christian Science Monitor - 1.13.06
By Alex Wright

Recent news of the massive book digitization efforts at the Library of Congress and other major libraries has renewed public interest in the long-standing dream of a universal digital library. Proponents argue that digitization will do more than just expand public access to books; it will change the shape of human knowledge itself. As digital books supplant physical ones, they argue, fusty old hierarchies like the Dewey Decimal System will give way to the liberating pixie dust of Google searches. Books will mingle with blogs. And we will all become, in effect, each other's librarians.

But if the shift from physical to digital books is so inevitable, then why did public libraries break attendance records last year? Why did publishers produce 300,000 printed, bound books in 2004 (up 14 percent from the year before)? Despite the enormous volume of information already available online, we seem to keep gravitating back to the physical world of books and libraries. All of which raises the question: Is a library really just a collection of books?

Advocates of digital libraries often invoke the image of the Library at Alexandria as the archetypal universal library. This was, after all, the last time a civilization managed to gather all of its accumulated knowledge under one roof. But the real Alexandria was much more than a giant papyrus warehouse; it was more like a Greco-Roman think tank, built with great colonnades and wide open spaces designed to draw scholars together, giving them a place to work together, engage in dialogue and debate, and practice Aristotle's famous peripatetic method: meaning literally, to walk around. The 500,000-odd scrolls were certainly a big draw, but the library was more than a depository. It was a living, human institution.

The great monastic libraries of medieval Europe, contrary to the popular stereotype, were not silent study halls for cloistered monks. They were noisy places where scribes, bookbinders and other artisans collaborated to create the astonishing illuminated manuscripts that flourished in the age before Gutenberg. Some visitors called them "houses of mumblers" because the monks liked to recite their texts out loud while they copied them. These, too, were living places, devoted not just to book preservation but to bringing scholars together to work with each other in the three-dimensional world.

Even in the silent reading rooms of our modern libraries, a kind of quiet collaboration takes place among readers, librarians, and authors. There is a tacit sense of community, and a reassuring solidity in the shared physical space that seems to provide an antidote to the specter of loneliness. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the emergence of the Internet has coincided with a doubling of public library attendance?

The current vision of the digital library rests on a deeply flawed assumption: that the function of libraries is to connect solitary readers with isolated texts. If that were so, then we could easily replace our libraries with book scanners, search engines, and laptops. And if the shape of human knowledge really rests in the Dewey Decimal System, then, well, we are surely in trouble.

Technologists have an unfortunate tendency to view the world in mechanistic terms, as a set of problems waiting to be solved. As a result, they often fixate easily on the most obvious and reducible problems - like retrieving a book from the stacks - while discounting the subtler and qualitative dimensions of human experience. We need books, yes, but somehow we also seem to need physical places to read them, together. This is why a collection of digital books is no more a library than a stack of paintings is a museum.

Alex Wright, a former Harvard librarian, is currently writing a book about the history of the information age.

GREAT WEBSITES!

TorinoTuristica

Official tourist website for Turin (Torino), Italy, capital of Piedmont. The site features links to "the city's website to discover art and culture, walking, sports, taste, markets and nightlife." Topics include local accommodations, the 2006 Winter Olympics, "The City's History as portrayed by its commemorative plaques," interesting facts about subjects such as gourmet specialties and Turin's magic schools, and more. Also available in Italian and French. TurinTuristica

FBI History: Famous Cases

Information about bank robberies, gangsters, kidnappings, espionage, and other famous Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cases. Covers people (such as Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger) and specific cases (such as the Brinks robbery, Charles Ross kidnapping, Lindbergh kidnapping, and the "Atom Spy" case). From the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FamousCases

Reverse Mortgages

Clear, unbiased information about reverse mortgages. Explains the role of life expectancy, provides documents analyzing lender performance, includes lists of counselors, and offers Q & A's. "This site is provided by the National Center for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (NCHEC), a nonprofit organization with no ties to the reverse mortgage lending industry." reverse

Top 10 Literary Hoaxes

Article from 2001 describing significant "literary hoaxes from Shakespearean 'discoveries' to flying saucer frauds." Includes brief descriptions of these documents and authors, such as the 18th century Thomas Chatterton, who wrote "faux-medieval poems ... [and] cashed in on the vogue for literary antiquity by touting his verse as the work of a 15th-century monk," and the forged Hitler diaries revealed in 1983. From Guardian Unlimited, the website of the British newspaper, The Guardian. Hoaxes

Slavery in New York

This exhibit looks at the history of slavery in New York, spanning "the period from the 1600s to 1827, when slavery was legally abolished in New York State." Online galleries, featuring some of the images from the physical exhibit, explore different aspects of this "largely unknown chapter of the city's story." Includes maps, biographies, classroom materials, and a bibliography. From the New York Historical Society. NYslavery

Public Information Films

Use this website from the British National Archives to view public information films. "The first selection of films from 1945 - 1951 features some fascinating events from Britain's post-World War II history." Includes a timeline, background about this period that was characterized by austerity and financial instability, and short movies on subjects such as surviving the fuel crisis, using a hankie when sneezing, the Berlin Airlift, and the Festival of Britain. UKfilms

AP News and Google Maps Mashup

This mashup plots selected current Associated Press (AP) news stories superimposed on a Google map or satellite image of the United States. It includes national news, sports, business, technology, and "strange" stories. Clicking on a marker provides a synopsis with a link to the full story as hosted on the site for the San Francisco Chronicle. From a software developer with a degree in computer science. mashup

The U.S. Congress Votes Database

This database features "every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991)." Browse votes by member, or by topics such as party, state, region, "boomer status," gender, missed votes, and astrological sign; and for specific types of votes, such as impeachments, nominations, and treaties. Offers an RSS feed of recent Congressional votes. From washingtonpost.
com. congress

Our Bodies, Ourselves: Companion Website

This website companion to "Our Bodies, Ourselves"--a book about women's health and sexuality--is rich with information about body image, healthy diet and lifestyle, relationships and sexuality, sexual health, reproductive choices, pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, medical conditions, and other topics. Includes articles, book excerpts, news briefs, and website and book recommendations. From the Boston Women's Health Book Collective. ourbodies

NASA Lunar and Planetary Science: Comets

Collection of documents about comets (celestial bodies that orbit the sun), specific comets (such as Hale-Bopp), and NASA missions related to comets, including Deep Impact, Rosetta, and Stardust (which returned samples for analysis from the comet P/Wild 2 in January 2006). Also includes links to material on meteors and meteorites. From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) National Space Science Data Center. comets

New Horizons: NASA's Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission

The NASA New Horizons mission, scheduled to be launched in early 2006 and to reach Pluto in 2015, "is the first mission to the last planet -- the initial reconnaissance of Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt." Find a mission overview, a FAQ, and facts about mission spacecraft and science. The section "P-K Bits" includes amusing facts. From the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). pluto

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Unusual plots drive these interesting reads

Poughkeepsie Journal 1.1.06
On the Shelves with Ellen Tannenbaum

On the Shelves is a monthly column by a rotating list of mid-Hudson Valley library directors who comment on notable books coming to your local public library.

Who needs a best-seller by an established author with a predictable storyline in order to find something to read in the library?

Not me, for certain. I like books with unusual twists, great plots or characters that leave me wanting for more. I have read a few fabulous books this year that haven't made their way into the mainstream yet, but you know, word of mouth is a wonderful thing.

Hometown author

Dutchess County's own Louise Shaffer brought us a wonderful sequel this year to her novel "The Three Miss Margarets." In "The Ladies of Garrison Gardens" (Ballantine Books), she brings us back to Charles Valley, Georgia, where we once again meet up with the three Miss Margarets (Miss Peggy, Dr. Maggie and Miss Li'l Bit) and Laurel Selene.

This story is told to us by multiple narrators who each know another portion of the great crimes, unspoken mysteries and unimaginable secrets that tie these ladies and their town together. There are enough plot twists to keep you turning pages and although you do not need to have read the first book, this book will make you want to go back and check it out, too!

Sisterly love

Want to go on a wild ride? Marcy Dermansky's "Twins" (Gardners Books) will take you there. Chloe and Sue were born four minutes apart. Sue doesn't seem to think that this makes them close enough. She wants the world to herself and Chloe, and no one else. After all, why should there be other playmates, classmates or friends for them to interact with? They are twins and shouldn't need anyone else.

Chloe, on the other hand, would very much like to have a friend beside hersister. She would like a life of her own, but instead she does what she can to make Sue happy. Sue's happiness comes first. Suffice to say that these girls run into some serious problems early on in their lives and their obsession with one another is far from healthy. If you are looking for something a little edgy and unnerving, this book is for you.

Heartbreaking story

In "Me & Emma" by Elizabeth Flock (Mira), Carrie Parker is just like any other little girl except that she lives with an abusive family in North Carolina and her job is to protect her little sister, Emma, at all costs. Carrie and Emma's story is heartbreaking at times, but the mystery these little girls get into will have you caught to the very end.

Miracle possible

First-time novelist Brian Strause brings us "Maybe a Miracle" (Ballantine Books), a book that will definitely make you think. On the night of his senior prom, Monroe finds his young sister, Annika, floating face down in their pool. He dives in, rescues her but she still lapses into a coma. While his vigilant mother and Annika's supporters never give up hope, they begin to experience miracles they claim are because of the child. And as his father and brother try to drink away the problem, still more unaccountable things continue to happen. Is there something spectacular about her, or do people just need a miracle to believe in?

Ellen Tannenbaum is the Director of the Dover Plains Library. She is a professional storyteller and is a member of the Anne Izard Storyteller's Choice Awards committee.

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