New Fiction

• When Will There Be Good Nows - Kate Atkinson
• Man in the dark - Paul Auster
• A Spoonful of Poison - M.C. Beaton
• A Partisan's Daughter - Louis de Bernieres
• From A to X: a Story in Letters - John Berger
• Babylon Rolling - Amanda Boyden
• Genesis of Shannara: the Gypsy Morph - Terry Brooks
• Hounded to Death - Rita Mae Brown
• Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley
• The Quilter's Kitchen - Jennifer Chiaverini
• Blood Memory - Margaret Coel
• The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly
• The Gate House - Nelson DeMille
• A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson
• Yesterday's Weather - Anne Enright
• Grace - Richard Paul Evans
• Finding Nouf - Zoe Ferraris
• The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory
• The English Major - Jim Harrison
• Dark Summer - Iris Johansen
• Lulu in Marrakech - Diane Johnson
• Liberty: a novel of lake Wobegon - Garrison Keillor
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
• The Given Day - Dennis Lehane
• The Whiskey Rebels - David Liss
• Human Love - Andrei Makine
• The Pyramid - Henning Mankell
• The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday - Alexander McCall Smith
• The Right Mistake
• The L:aughter of Dead Kings - Elizabeth Peters
• To Siberia - Per Petterson
• Exit Music - Ian Rankin
• Indignation - Philip Roth
• American Wife - Curtis Sittenfeld
• The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks
• The Toss of a Lemon - Padma Viswanathan
• Hot Mahogany: a Stone Berrington novel - Stuart Woods
• The Story of Edgar Sawtell - David Wroblewski

New Non-Fiction

• Letter to My Daughter - Maya Angelou
• Tears of the Desert: a Memoir of Survival in Darfur - Halima Bashir
• The Complete Photo Guide to Home Repair - Black & Decker
• Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements - Mary Buffett and David Clark
• Leonard Bernstein American Original - Burton Bernstein
• Ballistics: Poems - Billy Collins
• Menu del Dia: More than 100 Classic, Authentic Recipes from Across Spain - Rohan Daf
• More Fast Food My Way - Jacques Pepin
• Relentless Pursuit: a Year in the Trenches with Teach for America - Donna Foote
• The One Hundred: a Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own - Nina Garcia
• Resistance: a Woman's Journal of Struggle and Defiance in Occupied France - Agnes Humbert
• Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, and Unexpected Journey, and Me - Jon Katz
• The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body - David Macaulay
• The Modern Baker: Time-Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes and Cookies - Nick Malgieri
• Secrets of the Red Landern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart - Pauline Nguyen
• Acedia & Me: a Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life - Kathleen Norris
• Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life - Jamie Oliver
• Paying for College - Peterson's
• Flash of Genius and other True Stories of Invention - John Seabrook
• The Art of the Personal Letter: a Guide to Connecting through the Written Word -
• Resurrecting Hebrew - Ilan Stavans
• Traffic: Why we Drive the Way we do (and What it Says About Us) - Tom Vanderbilt
• The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
• Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter - The Waiter, Steve Dublanica

New Audio Books

• When Will There Be Good Nows - Kate Atkinson
  
• Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley
• Playing for Pizza - John Grisham
• Burn Out - Marcia Mueller
• 7th Heaven - James Patterson
• Season of the Machete - James Patterson
• Sweet Mandarin : the courageous true story of three generations of Chinese women and their journey from East to West - Helen Tse
• The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
• Everlasting - Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
• Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter - The Waiter

New DVD's

• 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days
• Chaplin - Robert Downey Jr.
• Mongol: the Rise of Genghis Khan
• The Visitor

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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.

Feel Good Fiction

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
• If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern
• Garden Spells ; Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen
• Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon* - Jorge Amado
• Keeping the House - Ellen Baker
• Copper Beech* ; Evening Class* - Maeve Binchy
• Cold Sassy Tree* - Olive Burns
• My Antonia* - Willa Cather
• Faking It ; Anyone But You - Jennifer Crusie
• A Guide to the Birds of East Africa* New Book - Nicholas Drayson
• Walking Across Eygpt* ; Killer Diller ; Raney* - Clyde Edgerton
• Like Water for Chocolate* - Laura Esquivel
• Highland Fling* - Katie Fforde
• The Thursday Next series* - Jasper Fforde
• Standing in the Rainbow* ; Daisy Fay And The Miracle Man* ; Redbird Christmas* - Fannie Flagg
• A Room with a View* - E. M. Forster
• Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
• Cold Comfort Farm* - Stella Gibbons
• The Princess Bride* - William Goldman
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* - Mark Haddon
• 84, Charing Cross Road* - Helene Hanff  NF: 817 Han
• Three Men in a Boat* (audio cassette) ; To Say Nothing of the Dog - Jerome K. Jerome
• Howl's Moving Castle* YA - Diana Wynne Jones
• A Girl Named Zippy - Haven Kimmel NF Bio Kim
• West with the Night* - Beryl Markham NF Bio Mar
• A Year in Provence* 944.9 May ; Encore Provence* 944.3May ; Toujours Provence* 944.08 - Peter Mayle
• Ladies of Missalonghi* - Colleen McCullough
• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series* ; Sunday Philosophy Club Series - Alexander McCall-Smith
• Rose Daughter* YA - Robin McKinley
• The Pursuit of Love* (audio Cassette) ; Love in a Cold Climate* (audio Cassette)  - Nancy Mitford
• Anne of Green Gables* Juv. - L. M. Montgomery
• Last Chinese Chef - Nicole Mones
• The Tea House on Mulberry Street* - Sharon Owens
• The Callahan Chronicles - Spider Robinson
• Guersey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society* New Book - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* Juv. - Betty Smith
• I Capture the Castle* (audio Cassette, DVD) - Dodie Smith
• Topper* (DVD) - Thorne Smith
• Cape Ann - Faith Sullivan
• The Innocents Abroad* - Mark Twain
• To Say Nothing of the Dog* - Connie Willis

* in the Stone Ridge Library collection

AUTHORS

• Jane Austen
• Dave Barry
• Robert Benchley
• Bill Bryson
• Dorothy Gilman
• Georgette Heyer
• Jan Karon
• Pat McManus
• L.M. Montgomery
• Miss Read
• Jeanne Robinson
• Spider Robinson
• David Sedaris
• Angela Thirkell
• P.G. Wodehouse

Roundtable

The Election’s Over: Now What?

Wednesday, Nov 5, 7pm
Marbletown Community Center

The Roundtable is an opportunity to share your thoughts on an important topic of the time. This year we will discuss The Election of 2008 and how it will affect our families, our expectations, the economy, and our commonality as community as we envision our future. Former Library Trustee Michael Wallace will serve as moderator.

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Hand Made Gifts

A remedy for tight budgets at holiday time…

Soap Making Workshop with Halyna Shepko of Shawangunk Ridge Farm

Saturday, November 8
Noon – 3pm
Marbletown Community Center

Registration and a $10 materials fee to make four soaps is requested.

Sign up at the desk or call 687-8726.

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Tea Time Book Group

Wednesday, Nov. 12,
4pm, Biography Room

The selection this month is Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. An analysis of Abraham Lincoln's political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

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

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Thursday, Nov. 20,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter and The "Gloria Scott" - a Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Knitting Group

Saturdays, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
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

Novels show universality of political conflicts

Poughkeepsie Journal 10.12.08
By Josh Cohen

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.

If you like politics, these novels provide a different perspective. Across different times and countries, the issues such as legitimacy, ideology and self-interest re-occur and these authors create characters and situations highlighting how the best interests of the people are lost in political power struggles. All provide valuable lessons for today.

Lost Constitution, by William Martin. When a draft of the original Constitution with notes from the Founding Fathers goes missing, it is the job of Will Pike to track it down. Meanwhile, in the present time, James Fallon hears hints of this lost document resurfacing with rumors of significant political implications. Competing forces attempting to find the document for their own reasons complicate both searches. This book is an interesting look at what could have been the Founding Fathers' original intent.

Whiskey Rebels, by David Liss. Overdrawn credit leading to a bank crisis may sound familiar, but this situation occurs in 1792. Ethan Saunders, in attempting to protect his lost love, gets dragged into the machinations of Alexander Hamilton to save his bank while others try to make money off its failure. At the same time, Joan Maycotte and friends who have made a fortune in whiskey see the connection between the whiskey tax and the bank. Maycotte and Saunders eventually become enmeshed in this conflict, which includes Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Child 44, by Tom Robb Smith. For something other than U.S. politics, try the Soviet Union in 1953. When a child is found murdered, Leo Demidov is assigned to find the killer. In his search he notices there have been a number of similar crimes, but in the workers' paradise, there is no such thing as serial killers, only enemies of the state. This forces Demidov, in defying the state propaganda, to also become an enemy of the state. A chilling look at what happens when political ideology trumps reality.

Serve the People, by Yan Lianke. In 1967 Maoist China, Wu Dawang is assigned as an orderly to Liu Lian, wife of the division commander, and his job is to respond to her every whim. This leads to an affair that, if discovered, would be serious trouble for Wu. But the motto, Serve the People, actually saves Wu as this book shows the surreal nature of a political system with no legal underpinnings.

Lady Macbeth: A Novel, by Susan Frasier King. This is more closely based on historical reality than Shakespeare's play. Gruadh, who would become Lady Macbeth, tells of her first marriage and the attempts to have her killed. In 11th-century Scotland, kingly succession is complicated and the ensuing battles deadly. Gruadh's first marriage would solidify the crown between two families, so Duncan has her first husband murdered. Macbeth enters Gruadh's life and eventually marries her, but not before Duncan becomes King. The threat of this union leads to Duncan's demise and Macbeth becoming king.

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 READ for links to lists of titles that might attract your interest.

Centennial Preparations

2009 will mark the library’s centennial year. As a part of our celebration, we will be preparing a series of exhibits looking at the decades between 1909 and 2009. We would like to feature tools, kitchen items, photgraphs and clothing from each decade. If you have an item that you would be willing to lend for the exhibit please contact Jody Ford at 687-0094 or email Jody.

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GREAT WEBSITES!

NYPL Digital Gallery

This site "provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library [NYPL], including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more." Searchable, or browsable by collection, such as art and literature, cities and buildings, industry and technology, and nature and science. more

Wordia

A fun website for word lovers. Wordia is a visual dictionary. Its users, make short videos about a word they especially like and upload them to the site. It's "a new kind of dictionary - a democratic ‘visual dictionary’. A place where anyone with a video, webcam or mobile phone can define the words that matter to them in their life." From Collins Language in the UK. more

Holidays: Thanksgiving

Loosen your belt a notch as you browse Thanksgiving menus, cooking tips, and hundreds of recipes (many featuring beautiful photographs). Includes wine and beer suggestions, a "turkey primer," vegetarian dishes, and suggestions for using up leftovers. From Epicurious. more

Vegetarian Thanksgiving
(Vegan Friendly!)

Features a complete menu with recipes for a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. From Nava Atlas, an author of vegetarian cookbooks. more

Europeana: Connecting Cultural Heritage

Website for this 2-year project to "produce a prototype website giving users direct access to some 2 million digital objects ... selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections." The prototype will be launched in November 2008. Explore the demo version, read project background, and sign up to receive updates about progress. Run by a team based in the national library of the Netherlands. more

Indo-European Languages Tutorials

"This website is for anyone looking for free language resources in many of the Indo-European languages." Includes materials to assist those who are learning a language or refreshing their skills in over a dozen languages, including French, German, Italian, and Spanish. The author of the site has an advanced degree in French and linguistics. more

Woman Suffrage and Feminism Photographs

This digital collection contains approximately 750 "photographs of feminists and suffragists from the papers of Rosika Schwimmer, from the Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection. ... A large selection of the featured photographs pertain to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) Congresses, with a particular focus on the 1913 Budapest Congress." Includes background and related links. From the New York Public Library (NYPL). more

Writers' Rooms

This special feature from the British Guardian newspaper presents a photo of each writer's working room along with commentary by the author. Includes offices of AS Byatt, David Lodge, Antonia Fraser, John Mortimer, and Jonathan Safran Foer. From the website for the Guardian. more

Cupcakes Take the Cake

This long-running blog written by cupcake enthusiasts features extensive news and reports about everything related to cupcakes, such as cupcake bakeries, recipes, decorating, trends, events, and contests. Includes many links to related websites for cupcake shops, blogs, and recipes sites. Archives go back to late 2004. more

All About Cupcakes

This presentation about cupcakes covers the history of cupcakes, cupcakes today (including cupcake culture and the cupcake "internet craze"), and cupcake designs and recipes. Includes links to related sources. Part of a project for the Interactive Media Lab at the University of Florida. more
Martha Stewart: Cutest Cupcakes
Image gallery with accompanying recipes for decorated cupcakes, showing designs such as snowballs, bugs, lollipops, clowns, and toadstools. Note: A search of this website yields many additional cupcake recipes. From Martha Stewart Living. more

Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station Turns 50

This August 2008 article and audio feature describes the Lindholm Service Station in Cloquet, Minnesota, which "has the distinction of being the only gas station ever designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright," and which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. Includes photos of the station, the construction of which was not supervised by Wright, who was "busy in New York, overseeing building of the Guggenheim Museum." From Minnesota Public Radio. more

Thrifty Fun

This is "an interactive Web site where you can post questions and contribute answers to others who are trying to have fun while saving money." Frugality is the theme reflected in the recipes, crafts for children, creative projects using castoff materials, and general hints for consumers. Free registration is required to post messages or comments. more

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Contact Us

Phone: 687-7023

E-Mail: Webmaster

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