New Fiction

• Eight White Nights - Andre Aciman
• Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto - Maile Chapman
• The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg - Deborah Eisenberg
• Hell Gate - Linda Fairstein
  
• Arcadia Falls - Carol Goodman
• The Lock Artist - Steve Hamilton
• Union Atlantic - Adam Haslett
• Among Thieves - David Hosp
  
• Lost - Alice Lichtenstein
• The Season of Second Chances - Diane Meier
• The Murderer's Daughter - Randy Susan Meyers
• Fire Along the Sky - Robert Moses
• Still Life - Louise Penny
  
• A Fortunate Age - Joanna Smith Rakoff
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
• The French Blue - Richard W. Wise

New Non-Fiction

• The Hudson Valley: A Cultural Guide - Alliance for the Arts
• Once an Engineer: A Song of the Salt Lake - Joe Amato
• Those About Him Remained Silent: The Battle over WEB DuBois - Amy Bass
• The Gardber Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft - Ulrich Boser
  
• Pay It Down!: Debt Free on $10 a Day - Jean Chatzky
  
• Taekwondo A Path to Excellence - Doug Cook
• The Hudson: America's River - Frances F. Dunwell
• Chocolates and Confections - Peter P. Greweling
• Specialites de la Maison - The American Friends of France - Christine Schwartz Hartley
• The Nesting Season: Cuckoos, cuckolds, and the Invention of Monogamy - Bernd Heinrich
• Seymour: The Obsessive Images of Seymout Chwast - Steven Heller
• Trust the Dog: Rebuilding Lives Through Teamwork with Man's Best Friend - Gerri Hirshey
• Some Girls: My Life in a Harem - Jillian Lauren
• The Story of Stuff: How our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, our Communities, and our Health - and a Vision for Change - Annie Leonard
• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis
• The Modern Cafe - Francisco J. Migoya
• Pulitzer: a Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris
• Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour - Lynne Olson
  
• Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude - edited by Jim Perlman
• Miracle on the Hudson: The Survivors of Flight 1549 - William Prochnau
• Saddled: How a Spitited Horse Reined me in and Set me Free - Susan Richards
• The Case for Rational Optimism - Frank S. Robinson
• Summer Pleasures, Winter Pleasures: A Hudson Valley Cookbook - Peter G. Rose
• The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet - Alicia Silverstone
  
• New York's Unique & Unexpected Places - Judith Stonehill & Alexandra Stonehill
• Angel First Aid: Remidies for Life, Love, and Prosperity - Sue Storm
• Your Face is the Mirror of My Soul - Bird Neshama Trungma, Rinpoche
• The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory - Glenn Watkins

New Audio Books

• D-Day: The Battle for Normandy - Antony Beevor
  
• The Midnight House - Alex Berenson
• Elegy for April - Benjamin Black
• Heidegger and a Hippo walk throuygh those Pearly Gates - Thomas Cathcart
• The Final Solution: a Story of Detection - Michael Chabon
  
• 9 Dragons - Michael Connelly
  
• Bad Things Happen - Harry Dolan
  
• Pursuit of Honor - Vince Flynn
  
• Committed: a Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage - Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Last American Man - Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Law of Nines - Terry Goodkind
  
• Death and Honor - WEB Griffin
  
• Blue Moon - Laurel K Hamilton
• Bloody Bones- Laurel K Hamilton
• Burnt Offerings- Laurel K Hamilton
• The Killing Dance- Laurel K Hamilton
• Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt - Beth Hoffamn
• Talking about detective fiction - P.D. James
• Matthew's Story - Tim Lehaye, Jerry B Jenkins
• The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham
  
• The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
• Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
• The Betrayal of the Blood Lily - Laurne Willig

New DVD's

• The African Queen - Humphrey Bogart, Katheryn Hepburn
• An Education -
  Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan
  
• Avatar - a James Cameron film
• Crazy Heart - Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Horse Boy - a Michel Orion Scott film
• Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer
• It's Complicated - Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin
• The Lovely Bones - Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci
• Pirate Radio - Philip Seymour Hoffman,
  Bill Nighy
• Sherlock Holmes - Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law
• Summer Hours - film by Olivier Assayas
• The Young Victoria - Emily Blunt

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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.

QUICK READS

Escape reading for busy times - easily digestible short novels and nonfiction.

• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
  
• The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
  
• M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin books
  
• A Place Where the Sea Remembers bySandra Benitez
  
• Durable Goods, Joy School, True to Form, The Year of Pleasures, by Elizabeth Berg
  
• This Year It Will Be Different and Other Stories: A Christmas treasury, The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy
  
• The Last Summer of You & Me by Ann Brashares
  
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
  
• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman
  
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
  
• The Diary of Mattie Spense, The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
  
• The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
  
• Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton
  
• A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917, by Amy Ephron
  
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
  
• The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
  
• A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
  
• Mrs. 'Arris goes to New York ; by Paul Gallico
  
• Ellen Foster, Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons
  
• The Train Now Departing: Two Novellas ; The Dirty Duck by Martha Grimes
  
• Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
  
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  
• The Labrador Pact by Matt Haig
  
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
  
• Being There by Jerzy Kosinski
  
• Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem
  
• Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
  
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
  
• The Pleasure of My Company, Shopgirl by Steve Martin
  
• No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall-Smith
  
• The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
  
• The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
  
• Amsterdam ; On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
  
• I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn
  
• Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore
  
• The Man in my Basement by Walter Mosley
  
• How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto
  
• Many titles by Miss Read
  
• Lying Awake by Mark Salzman
  
• The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris /813.54 sed
  
• Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith
  
• Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark
  
• A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
  
• Cannery Row, Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck
  
• Night Gardening by E. L. Swann
  
• Hidden Life of Dogs by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
  
• Deciding the Next Decider /811.54 tri, Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin
  
• Partly Cloudy Patriot (973Vow) by Sarah Vowell
  
• Mama Makes Up Her Mind /814.54 whi, Quite a Year for Plums /fic by Bailey White
  
• Nothing with Strings: NPR's Beloved Holiday Stories edited by Bailey White
  
• Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit ; The Code of the Woosters ; psmith in the city ; The Purloined Paperweight by P. G. Wodehouse
  
  

Compiled with help from the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list.

LIBRARY FAIR

Saturday, June 12, 10 am – 3 pm
on the Library Lawn

Meet your friends at the 64th Annual Stone Ridge Library Fair!

As welcome as Spring itself, the Annual Stone Ridge Library Fair returns with all its time-honored traditions: Book Bargains Galore under the Giant Tent, a huge Plant Sale with a vast assortment of annuals, perennials, and veggies, Local Authors who will sell and sign their latest works, a Silent Auction of fabulous goods and services, Eleanor’s Emporium of gently used gifts and tableware and a 50/50 raffle. Fiber artists — among them the Library’s Saturday knitters — will demonstrate their crafts to admire and purchase.

Teens and younger kids will find plenty of toys, games, and activities to enjoy.

Our mouthwatering menu will include sausage and peppers, hot dogs and hamburgers, vegetarian entrees, lemonade, cotton candy, popcorn, and homemade baked goods. Save room for our mouth watering strawberry shortcake—the real old-fashioned variety.

The music lineup starts at 10 am with Petey Boy: a Cowboy, Blues, Kirtan, Celtic Harmonica Band featuring Peter Hayes and others. Then at 11, we’ll hear from Fuzzy Lollipop, a New Paltz-based band, with catchy tunes for kids of all ages. At Noon, Grenadilla takes the stage, offering up voices and rhythms flavored with Kwela, a South African pennywhistle based sound — Cape Town jive — “can’t sit still music…music from the spirit…music from the front verandah.” Back by popular demand, Breakaway with Robin Baker will keep things rolling from 1 – 2, and then we’ll wrap things up with the Rondout Valley Jazz Band under the direction of Randy Loder. The kids will rock the Music Tent from 2 o’clock till Fair’s end at 3.

The Stone Ridge Library Foundation will be on hand to share the latest news about the Library’s plans.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Library Fair Volunteers are the heart of the Fair! We welcome returning and new volunteers to help with this important fundraiser. There is something for everyone to do—and we really need your help—so please sign up either in the library, on line, or by calling 845 687-8726. It’s fun, worthwhile and rewarding! Join us!

VOLUNTEER INFORMATION

Check our virtual information booth for volunteers. It includes answers to logistical questions. There are 4 ways to sign up to volunteer:

• Sign up sheets across from the Circulation Desk
• click here to sign up online
• email Jody Ford, Library Director
• call the Programs line at 687-8726.

The Fair will take place as always rain or shine. Shuttle bus service will be available from SUNY Ulster and the Marbletown Elementary School.

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Poetry Reading
with Vivi Hlavsa

Thurs May 20,
4:00pm, Reference Room

Join us for a gathering of Vivi reading her own works. Before she retired, Dr. Virginia Hlavsa taught English at Queens College and tutored young adults with learning disabilities. She has three books of poetry, many articles, a 1991 book, Faulkner and the Thoroughly Modern Novel, and she edited a special edition of Women’s Studies on the subject of “Faulkner and Women.” Currently, ViVi runs trips and leads discussions on books, films and social issues for various organizations.

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ADULT CHESS CLUB

Monday, May 3,
6-7:30pm in the Reference Room

Our new Chess Club for adults, scheduled for the first Monday of the month, from 6 - 7:30pm. Bring your own board if possible, and come join the fun!

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Tea Time Book Group

Wednesday, May 12.
4pm in the Reference Room

The selection this month is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate.

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

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Wednesday, May 19,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: The Shape of Water by Adrea Camilleri, the first book in the sly, witty, engaging series with its sardonic take on Sicilian life, and The Adventure of the Three Students - 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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Studying for AP exams? Applying to Graduate School? Taking a Police or Firefighter Exam?

Visit our web site to access practice tests for students of all ages.

Studying for tests, whether you are in high school, college or changing careers can be daunting but we are here to help! The Stone Ridge Library now provides library card holders with the tools they need to take their studying to the next level right from the library’s web site.

With Testing & Education Reference Center from Gale, Stone Ridge Library patrons have access to an online education resource that provides everything a patron needs to learn more about further education and assists in making informed decisions on their future from one single, handy database.

“Students of all ages – from high school to graduate school - face challenges in preparing for their future and not knowing where to begin," said Jody Ford, Director at Stone Ridge Library. "Education success begins with preparation. The Testing & Education Reference Center allows students to discover what to expect and how to prepare to get it – and excel at – the next level."

Included this handy online database are practice tests like:

High School Test Prep:

• GED prep - including GED Spanish.
  
• AP exams prep
  
• ASVAB prep - prepare for the military.
• Academic Skills Question Banks - build skills with practice tests for math, reading, science, and writing:
  
• High School Placement Test (HSPT)
  
• Also includes: resume for college application

College Prep Test Prep:

• CLEP prep - earn college credit (includes 29 tests).
  
• DSST prep - get college credit for what you know!
  
• SAT
  
• SAT Subject Tests
  
• PSAT
  
• Also includes: “Find and pay for college” and a resume for college application
  

Career Test Prep:

• NCLEX - the gateway to a career in nursing.
  
• ASVAB prep - prepare for the military.
  
• PRAXIS - the gateway to a career in teaching.
  
• Civil service and licensure exams - including the Postal, Firefighter, and Police Officer exams.
  
• Also includes: Online Resume Builder and help researching careers
  

Graduate School Practice Tests:

• GRE prep
  
• GMAT prep
  
• LSAT
  
• MCAT
  
• MAT
  

All you need is your Library card to get started. Look for “Practice Tests” on the library’s web site or ask at the circulation desk at the Library to use the library’s computers to access this helpful resource.

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On the Shelves

with Gregory Callahan
Poughkeepsie Journal 4.4.10

Spring is a perfect time
to explore poetry

For lovers of poetry, every month is "poetry month." In April, however, we make it official.

And the timing seems right. Spring is a season when we tend to wax poetic, perhaps for all the standard reasons, and perhaps for reasons of our own. It's a time when we dare to explore. Luckily, there is much to discover — and absolutely no wrong place to start.

Anthologies that claim to consist of the "best" works in any genre are always going to be subject to critical scrutiny and debate.

That happens almost every year with "The Best American Poetry" series, and even a cursory look at the print reviews for the 2009 volume, published late last fall, shows last year's edition was no exception. Nevertheless, I look forward to this annual collection and nearly always find much to recommend.

Guest editor David Wagoner had the unenviable task of selecting the 75 "best" poems published in American journals over the past year. That's never easy, and certainly nothing most sane people would ever consider doing.

But he has done a good job in setting a tone (he is partial toward the conversational, though not the overly chatty), establishing a flow, and in balancing the selection so the works of lesser-known poets are included alongside those by such luminaries as John Ashbery, Billy Collins and Adrienne Rich.

Less well-known but equally deserving of your attention is the annual "Griffin Prize Anthology," a collection of poems from volumes selected by the Griffin Trust For Excellence in Poetry based in Ontario.

The trust honors both Canadian and international poets who have published noteworthy volumes of poetry within the past year. The most recent (2009) edition was edited by Canadian poet Michael Redhill and includes poems by Mick Imlah, C.D. Wright, A.F. Moritz and Kevin Connolly, among others. The volume has the advantage of focusing on a limited number of contributors, which gives the reader a better sense of the range of the individual poets' work.

Sampling the efforts of multiple authors included in a given anthology can be an exciting process of discovery. Call it "dipping," in the best sense of the word.

On the opposite end of the literary experience is the act of submerging oneself in an author's work, and that has its own unique rewards.

It's hard to think of any 20th-century poet more worthy of intense study and close reading than Rainer Maria Rilke, whose demanding and often hermetic work requires (and has not always received) sensitive and skilled translations. Rilke's ideal translator needs to inhabit his works — and to have more than a "touch of the poet" within.

Edward Snow might feel more comfortable being described as an academic than a poet, but his deft, lyrical translations of Rilke's poetry have won him almost universal acclaim.

He is justly revered as one of Rilke's best English language translators. Thus it's a real joy to have an extensive collected works edition ("The Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke: Bilingual Edition," North Point Press) of these skillfully rendered translations, featuring many previously uncollected poems and new versions of several he has included in previous individual volumes.

Aside from celebrating National Poetry Month in April, we also observe Earth Day, and this coincidence seems appropriate on many levels. English teachers everywhere will tell you that students intuitively grasp the connection between nature and verse and that nature poetry is among the most beloved forms of verse.

Therefore it's particularly welcome to have a comprehensive study of English and American nature poetry to recommend this season.

John Felstiner may be posing a rhetorical question in the title of his critical work "Can Poetry Save the Earth?" but it's certainly one that grabs the reader's attention. This exhaustive study is as reader-friendly as challenging, scholarly work ever gets. It is exhaustive, but never exhausting. More importantly, the book is inspiring.

Can poetry save the earth? Those whose lives have been transformed by it, Felstiner maintains, almost certainly can, "person by person."

Gregory Callahan has been director of the Hyde Park Free Library since 1999. He has also worked in academic and corporate libraries and has been an educator on both the secondary and post-secondary levels.

The Stone Ridge Library has a Facebook page. Check it out, become a fan.

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Community News and Events

The Library is adding a new feature to our website. We will be highlighting selected community news and events monthly on our website and in our eNewsletter. Any local non-profit, non political organization is welcome to contact us at the Library.

The Bevier House, home of the Ulster County Historical Society, will begin it's new season on May 1st at 12 noon with a Civil War theme. The Bevier House is located at 2682 Route 209, Stone Ridge.

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GREAT WEBSITES!

Sports Reference

This resource provides statistics for four major sports: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey, and each sport’s section is browsable and searchable in many ways. Baseball aficionados will find regular season box scores back to 1957 along with minor league stats back to 1992. Football lovers can look up draft picks and review single season and career leaders in passing, rushing, and kicking. Basketball devotees can find the top performers and award winners of the NBA and WNBA. Hockey enthusiasts will be able to find all players who wore the sweater number 25. There is an additional section focused on Olympics history. more

Memorial Day

"Uncover the interesting history of the holiday we now call Memorial Day. Discover little-known facts about America's wars and stop by the Veterans' Forum message boards to share your views with veterans, their loved ones, and fellow history buffs." Includes audio clips where you can "listen in as some of America's veterans share their memories of war." From the History Channel.* more

ePodunk

Detailed, easily browsable profiles of cities and counties across the U.S. are the specialty of ePodunk, which has grown to include data on airports, cemeteries, museums, and other institutions as well. Profiles include historical postcard images from the Making of America project and all imaginable statistics at the city and county level: income, educational level, economic, crime. Not only does the site link to useful municipal/county government and chamber of commerce sites, but it also displays or links to harder-to-find information like local media outlets, community organizations, political reports, historical weather information, support for libraries, a “gay index” based on the Gay and Lesbian Atlas, films shot in the area, and celebrity residents. more

Google Maps with Google Earth

Google Maps offers detailed street and terrain maps, a locator tools to find addresses/ businesses/ places, and a route planner for traveling by car, public transport, or walking. Live traffic conditions for several cities are available as well. Its fascinating "Street View" shows 360 degree panoramic street-level views, inviting users to virtually walk and explore the area. This is available in many U.S. cities and in several countries abroad. Google Earth is now available in Maps with a new "Earth" view. You can now navigate the world's terrain, buildings and your neighborhood in 3D. more

Fifteen Websites that Help Save Money

How one person saved money by using various websites, including Craigslist, Hulu, BillShrink and more. From Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar Blog. more

*Reproduced with permission from the ipl2 Consortium, copyright 2010. All rights reserved.

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Phone: 687-7023

E-Mail: Webmaster

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