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February 2009
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The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries. [Descartes] Photo of Library Exterior

New Audio Books

  • Amarcord - Marcella Hazan
  • And The Desert Blooms - Iris Johansen
  • Killing Castro - Lawrence Block
  • The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
  • Marley & Me - John Grogan
  • Once Upon a Day - Lisa Tucker
  • The Private Patient - PD James
  • The Starter Wife - Gigi Levangie Grazer

New DVD's

  • Appaloosa
  • Basquiat
  • Brick Lane
  • Brideshead Revisited
  • Cradle Will Rock
  • Flight of the Red Balloon - Juliette Binoche
  • Frida
  • Ghost Town
  • I Claudius
  • Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
  • Racing Daylight
  • Son of Rambo
  • The Swan Princess
  • Vicky Christina Barcelona

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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.

Centennial Booklist 1921-1940

January through December we will feature classic book selections from 1909-2009. Selections for February were written between 1921 and 1940.

1922

Babbitt - Sinclair Lewis

The Wasteland - T.S. Eliot

1923

A Lost Lady - Willa Cather

The Prophet - Khalil Gibran

1924

So Big - Edna Ferber

1925

Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

Desire Under the Elms - Eugene O'Neill

When We Were Young (Non Fiction) - A.A.Milne

1926

Gentlemen Prefer Blonds - Anita Loos

Show Boat - Edna Ferber

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

1927

Elmer Gantry - Sinclair Lewis

Death Comes for the Archbishop - Willa Cather

The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

1928

We - Charles Lindberg

1929

All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

Look Homeward Angel - Thomas Wolfe

1930

Cimarron - Edna Ferber

Ash Wednesday - T.S. Eliot

1931

Back street - Fanny Hurst

The Good Earth - Pearl Buck

Mourning Becomes Electra - Eugene O'Neill

Sanctuary - William Faulkner

1932

Magnificent Obsession - Lloyd Douglas

Mutiny on the Bounty - Nordhoff and Hall

Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell

Light in August - William Faulkner

Only Yesterday - Frederick Lewis Alen (NF)

1933

Anthony Adverse - Hervey Allen

Miss Lonelyhearts - Nathaniel West

1934

Good-bye Mr. Chips - James Hilton

The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett

The Children's Hour - Lillian Hellman (drama)

1935

Lost Horizon - James Hilton

Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Eliot (drama)

Life with Father - Clarence Day (NF)

1936

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

Drums Along the Mohawk - Walter D. Edmonds

Absolam, Absolam! - William Faulkner

Now Let Us Praise Famous Men - Agee and Evans (NF)

1937

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Northwest Passage - Kenneth Roberts

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (NF)

1938

The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Our Town - Thornton Wilder (drama)

1939

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

The Day of the Locust - Nathaniel West

The Little Foxes - Lillian Hellman (drama)

1940

For Whom The Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

Native Son - Richard Wright

The Heart is a Lonley Hunter - Carson McCullers

Tea Time Book Group

Reading Between the Lines
Book Series

Wednesday, Feb. 11,
4pm, Biography Room

Rethinking Religion: Recent Women's Novels and American Identity

The New York Council for the Humanities is sponsoring this spring series. We will explore four novels by women that involve the quest for meaningful religious experience in contemporary American society. Each session centers on book selected by Elizabeth Toohey, a graduate student at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr. Joseph Keefe, our guest scholar will facilitate the discussion.

The series opens with a discussion of Paradise Park by Allegra Goodman, which follows the comic aventures of her heroine, Sharon, as she searches for spirituality everywhere from an academic religion department to a community of Hasidic Jews.

Join us in the Biography Room for lively Discussion and light refreshments.

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Library to Raffle
Ulster Chamber Music 2009 Series Subscriptions

Raffle held through February 12

In a lovely gesture to the Stone Ridge Library, the Ulster County Music Series has donated two subscriptions to their 2009 season to benefit the Library. All concerts will be held Sunday afternoons at 3:00 o’clock at the Church of the Holy Cross, 30 Pine Grove Avenue, Kingston. Each performance will be followed by a reception with an opportunity to meet the artists.

The face value of each subscription is $100. They can be used as two admissions for each performance, or in any combination, for example, six tickets at one concert.

Artists for the season include Chatham Baroque (February 22), Manhattan Quartet (March 8) and Biava Quartet (April 5).

“We are grateful that the Ulster Chamber Music Series has so generously donated tickets to their upcoming season to benefit the Library,” said Library Director Jody Ford. “We wish them every success and appreciate their long history in the cultural life of our community.”

Raffle Tickets are on sale at the Library Circulation Desk. The raffle will begin on January 12 and winners will be selected on February 12. For details, please call the Library at 845 687-7023

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Thursday, Feb. 19,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: Glitz by Elmore Leonard and The Adventure of the Crooked Man - a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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The New Yorker Discussion Group

Friday, Feb. 13 at 4pm
in the Reference Room

Come to this meeting and join in the discussion.

Pat Whelan will be our facilitator for this meeting. She has chosen the following New Yorker articles for discussion.

1.  December 15th issue p. 36 MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED: The trouble with talent spotting.   By Malcolm Gladwell

2.  December 22nd,  issue p. 78 FICTION: Meeting with Enrique Lihn by Roberto Bolano

3.  January 5th, issue p. 36 A CRITIC AT LARGE: It took a Village - What the Voice   Started by Louis Menand
 
4.  January 12th, issue p. 36 PROFILES: Barney’s Great Adventure – A congressman’s moment arrives  by Jeffrey Toobin

Bring any discussion questions or thoughts about the above articles. Please bring your wish list of articles for discussion for the March meeting from the current issues of the New Yorker Magazine. Our next facilitator (it could be you) chooses from the wish list which articles will be discussed. Remember the time has been changed to 4pm.

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Medieval Book Group

Wed. March 18, 7pm

The book chosen for this session is Mont St. Michel and Chartres by Henry Adams. Henry Adams referred to this book as "A Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity," and its expansive scope, together with the author's deep understanding of the period, makes it a classic in art history as well as in American literature. He wrote, "I wanted to show the intensity of the vital energy of a given time, and of course that intensity had to be stated in its two highest terms-religion and art." Henry Adams' record of his journeys through France, searching for images of unity in an age of conflict, is accompanied by observations on literature, politics, religion, and maior church leaders such as Abelard, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

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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

with Josh Cohen
Poughkeepsie Journal 1.4.09

Stories about secret lives, shadowy pasts should be on must-read list

At the end of each year, critics like to pick their best books of the year list. Here are five that might not have made many lists, but should have.

My Revolutions, By Hari Kunzru. Michael Frame has a pleasant life in England with a wife who is a budding entrepreneur and a delightful stepdaughter, but all this is a lie. When an associate from the past shows up, Michael's true past as Chris Carver, violent revolutionary, bubbles to the surface. In tracing Chris from nonviolent protester to bomb-planting radical, Kunzru demonstrates how frustration and youthful idealism takes a group to the extremes. On the human side, the impact on Michael/Chris' current life is also explored as Michael anticipates what the truth will mean to his family.

Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney. The freezing landscape of 19th-century Canada serves as a backdrop to this tale of murder. A fur trader, Laurent Jammet, is found scalped and Francis Ross, a young boy, is missing. The fur-trading business is controlled by the Hudson Bay Company and it sends three men to investigate the murder. Suspicion falls on Francis, but then also on half-Indian trapper William Parker. Mrs. Ross and Parker head north to find Francis and this leads to a settlement of Scandinavians. Hudson Bay investigator Thomas Strurrock tracks Mrs. Ross and Parker and they have to go even farther north to find the true killer.

Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland. Its 1348 England, the plague has struck. A band of nine pilgrims try to outrun the Black Death, but the disease is not the only enemy. Suspicious townspeople force them out, a wolf seems to be continually howling outside their campsites, religious zealots try to capture them and they do not trust one another. Their journey is full of cons, magic, spirits and mystery before finding the safety they were seeking.

The Secret Scriptures, by Sebastian Barry. Roseanne McNulty, a 100-year-old mental patient in Ireland, decides to write her autobiography. The narrative reveals she ended up institutionalized as a result of a local priest, Father Gaunt, who was able to destroy her marriage and wreck her life. Meanwhile, the institution's psychologist, Dr. Grene, decides to investigate her case. His investigation and her narrative intertwine until Grene discovers a shocking secret.

The Good Thief, by Hannah Tinti. Twelve-year-old Ren has been in a colonial New England orphanage since he was dropped off as a baby. His chances for adoption are slim because he has only one hand. Benjamin Nab adopts and introduces him to his friend Tom and a life of con and swindles.
It turns out Ren is a natural and the trio do well enough until they come to the town of St. Umbrage. Their luck turns as someone recognizes Benjamin and Ren's true identity is revealed, although not to his advantage.

Josh Cohen is the executive director of the Mid-Hudson Library System, which provides a shared library automation system and resources to 66 public libraries in Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Putnam and Ulster counties. He is also the 2008-2009 president of the New York Library Association. Can't decide on what to read? Visit Mid Hudson for links to lists of titles that might attract your interest..

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

Tax Prep

Once again we are offering Tax preparation at the Library through the Office of the Aging. This service is for taxpayers with middle and low income, with special attention to those age 60 and older. This year there will be two volunteers offering tax assistance on Wednesdays from 10:30 - 4:30. For an appointment please call the Office of the Aging at 845 802 7190.

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Parking at the Library

Please do not park in the parking area directly behind Fleming Realty. That portion of the property does not belong to the Library and the spaces are reserved for Fleming Realty staff and customers.

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GREAT WEBSITES!

Avoid these Five Common Credit Card Company Tricks

Who understands, or even reads all that fine print from your credit card company. This post from the weblog Get Rich Slowly breaks down five credit card promises and the traps set up by each and lets you know how to avoid them. more

Ice: A Victorian Romance

Companion to an exhibition of rare books and journals commemorating the British "infatuation with the Arctic," which began in 1818 "with the Admiralty trying to find an outlet for naval officers and seamen who had been idled by the end of the Napoleonic wars." The online exhibit features annotated images on topics such as initial encounters, private ventures, and voyages to Antarctica. From the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. more

World Ice Art Championships, Fairbanks, Alaska

Website for this annual ice sculpture competition held in February and March. Site features an event schedule and images, including time-lapse photography, of past single block and multi-block sculptures. Includes many images back to 1999 (some links are broken). Also includes information about the ice cannon shooting competition, in which a team constructs an ice cannon to project tennis balls. more

A Flowering of Affection: Victorian Valentine Cards at the Lilly Library

This site features a browsable gallery of annotated images "of nineteenth century Valentine cards, from the sentimental to the comic." The site also provides users the opportunity to send electronic postcards of the images. Curated and designed by librarian Erika Dowell of the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. more

Groundhog Day

This site has information about the history and official observance of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Pictures, movies, souvenirs, event calendars, and information about the groundhog club are all available. You can also watch "Punxsutawney Phil" (the official groundhog) make his prediction live every year over the Internet through this site. more

Dealing With Clutter

This presentation features tips for managing paper clutter and storage of household items. Topics include methods for dealing with clutter, what to do with specific items (such as financial and tax records, general papers, and clothing), barriers to getting organized, and other approaches and ideas for organization. Also available in Spanish. From the University of Illinois Extension, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. more

Middletown Thrall Library Special Coverage: The Economy

Annotated links to resources on the U.S. and global economy, personal finance, and related consumer interests. Features extensive links to news and documents about the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), and sections on banking, credit and debt, food, the housing crisis, investments, and more. From the Middletown Thrall Library, a U.S. Federal Depository Library in New York. more

NewYorkHeritage.org

NewYorkHeritage.org is the gateway to hundreds of digital collections about New York State's people, places, and institutions. "The site provides immediate free access to more than 160 distinct digital collections that reflect New York State's long history. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, newspapers, books, and more." This is a project of the NY 3Rs Association. more

ExploreNY400.com: Celebrate New York's 400th

Website for the celebration in 2009 of the 400th anniversary of "the explorations of Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain in 1609, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s first steamship voyage along the Hudson River," which inaugurated steam commerce on the Hudson River. Features history, event listings, material for teachers, a place to submit photos, and other background and updates about the celebration. From the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Office. more

This I Believe

"'This I Believe' is an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives. These short statements of belief, [are] written by people from all walks of life. ... The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow." Includes transcripts and audio of current essays, a 1950s essay database, essay writing tips, and related material. more

Celebrate Champlain

Website from Vermont for the 2009 commem-oration of "the 400th anniversary of French explorer and cartographer Samuel de Champlain’s travels by sail, oar and paddle to the lake [in Vermont] that now bears his name. All year long, special opportunities are planned." Website features listing of celebration events, background about Lake Champlain (water quality, geography, and boat transportation), details about Native Americans from the region, and more. From the Vermont Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Commission. more

Champlain Quadricentennial: When the French Were Here

"The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival on Lake Champlain and his exploration of its surroundings." This site "tell[s] the story of what we celebrate and why." Features essays about Champlain, a 1492-1620 timeline "for considering Champlain’s journey to Quebec relative to a selection of familiar New World or European milestones," an image gallery, and related material. From Champlain College, located near Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont. more

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