New Fiction

• Divine Justice - David Baldacci
• From A to X: a Story in Letters - John Berger
• Santa Clawed - Rita Mae Brown
• The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
• Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh
• I See You Everywhere - julia Glass
• The Private Patient - P. D. James
• Bones: an Alex Delaware novel - Johathan Kellerman
• Just After Sunset: stories - Stephen King
• A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years - Gregory Maguire
• Rough Weather - Robert B. Parker
• Cross Country - James Patterson
• A Christmas Grace - Anne Perry
• Testimony - Anita Shreve
• A Good Woman - Danielle Steel
• The Children of Hurin - J.R.R. Tolkien
• Murder inside the Beltway - Margaret Truman
• The Widows of Eastwick - John Updike

New Non-Fiction

• Descending the Dragon: My Journey Down the Coast of Vietnam - Jon Bowermaster
• The Modern Baker - Nick Malgieri
• William Cullen Bryant: Author of America - Gilbert H. Muller
• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Vicki Myron
• Can't Fail Room Makeovers - Lucianna Samu
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters - Robert Thurman
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His act fo Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World - Robert Thurman
• Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and Their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis - Suzanne Vromen
• Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and Their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the Nazis - Suzanne Vromen

New Audio Books

• The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
• Wolf to the Slaughter - Ruth Rendell
• Lord Peter Views the Body - Dorothy L. Sayers

New DVD's

• The Adventures of Paddington Bear
• Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• When Did You Last See Your Father - Colin Firth
• Project Runway, Fourth Season
• Wall-E

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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.

HISTORICAL FICTION

• Allende, Isabel - Daughter of Fortune* ; Portrait in Sepia* ; Ines of my Soul*
  
• Bahr, Howard - The year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War*
  
• Baldwin, James - Another Country*
  
• Barnes, Julian - Arthur and George*
  
• Benioff, David - City of Thieves
  
• Bohjalian, Chris - Skeletons at the Feast
  
• Boylan, Clare - Emma Brown
  
• Bradley, Marion Zimmer - The Mists of Avalon
  
• Brooks, Geraldine - March* ; People of the Book*
  
• Carey, Peter - Jack Maggs* ; The True History of the Kelly Gang*
  
• Chevalier, Tracy - Burning Bright* ; Falling Angels* ; Girl with a Pearl Earring*; The Lady and the Unicorn*
• Clarke, Breena - River, Cross My Heart
  
• Clarke, Susanna - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell*
  
• Cornwell, Bernard - The Pale Horseman* ; Sharpe's Fury ; Stonehenge*
  
• Crafts, Hannah - The Bondwoman's Narrative*
  
• Darnton, John - The Darwin Conspiracy
  
• Delaney, Frank - Tipperary
  
• Diamant, Anita - The Last Days of Dogtown*
  
• Dietrich, William - The Rosetta Key
  
• Doctorow, E.L. - The March*
  
• Donati, Sara - Into the Wilderness* ; Dawn on a Distant Shore* ; Lake in the Clouds* ; Fire Along the Sky* ; Queen of Swords*
  
• Donnelly, Jennifer - The Tea Rose ; The Winter Rose*
  
• Dumas, Alexandre - The Count of Monte Cristo* ; The Three Musketeers*
  
• Dunant, Sarah - The Birth of Venus* ; In the Company of the Courtesan*
  
• Ebershoff, David - The 19th Wife*
  
• Eco, Umberto - The Name of the Rose*
  
• Edwards, Selden - The Little Book
  
• Ephron, Amy - A Cup of Tea*
  
• Erdrich, Louise - The Plague of Doves*
  
• Erickson, Carolly - The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette*
  
• Faber, Michel - The Crimson Petal and the White*
  
• Frazier, Charles - Cold Mountain*
  
• Furst, Alan - The Foreign Correspondent* ; Blood of Victory* ; The Spies of Warsaw
  
• Gabaldon, Diana - Breath of Snow and Ashes* ; Outlander series*
  
• Goldberg, Myla - Wickett's Remedy*
  
• Golden, Arthur - Memoirs of a Geisha*
  
• Goodwin, Jason - The Janissary Tree* ; The Snake Stone*
  
• Gray, Francine du Plessix - Them: A Memoir of Parents* 974.7gra
  
• Gregory, Philippa - The Boleyn Inheritance* ; The Constant Princess* ; The Other Boleyn Girl* ; The Queen's Fool
  
• Gruen, Sara - Water for Elephants*
  
• Haigh, Jennifer - Baker Towers
  
• Hall, Brian - I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company*
  
• Harris, Joanne - Five Quarters of the Orange* ; Holy Fools*
  
• Harris, Robert - Harris, Robert - Pompeii* ; Fatherland*
  
• Harrison, Kathryn - The Seal Wife
  
• Hazzard, Shirley - The Great Fire
  
• Hearn, Lian - Across the Nightingale Floor* ; Grass for His Pillow* ; Brilliance of the Moon* ; Harsh Cry of the Heron*
  
• Hicks, Robert - The Widow of the South
  
• Horan, Nancy - Loving Frank
  
• Jakes, John - The Gods of Newport*
  
• Jiles, Paulette - Enemy Women
  
• Jones, Edward P. - The Known World
  
• Kanon, Joseph - The Good German*
  
• Keneally, Thomas - Schindler's List*
  
• Kerr, Philip - Hitler's Peace
  
• King, Laurie R. - The Beekeeper's Apprentice
  
• Liss, David - The Coffee Trader ; A Conspiracy of Paper*
  
• Maguire, Gregory - Mirror, Mirror*
  
• McEwan, Ian - Atonement*
  
• Min, Anchee - Empress Orchid*
  
• Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind*
  
• Morgan, Robert - Gap Creek* ; This Rock
  
• Morton, Kate - The House at Riverton
  
• Moses, Kate - Wintering* ; Labyrinth
  
• Naslund, Sena Jeter - Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette*
  
• Nemirovsky, Irene - Suite Francaise*
  
• Olmstead, Robert - Coal Black Horse
  
• Ondaatje, Michael - The English Patient*
  
• Pearl, Matthew - The Dante Club*
  
• Pears, Iain - An Instance of the Fingerpost*
  
• Philbrick, Nathaniel - Mayflower*
  
• Phillips, Arthur - The Egyptologist
  
• Piercey, Marge - City of Darkness, City of Light*
  
• Proulx, Annie - That Old Ace in the Hole*
  
• Robinson, Marilynne - Gilead*
  
• Rowland, Laura Joh - Red Chrysanthemum* ; The Assassin's Touch*
  
• Rubio, Gwyn Hyman - The Woodsman's Daughter
  
• Rushdie, Salman - The Enchantress of Florence
  
• Schwarz, Christina - Drowning Ruth*
  
• See, Lisa - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
  
• Shaara, Jeff - The Rising Tide* ; To the Last Man* ; Gods and Generals* ; Gone for Soldiers*
  
• Shaffer, Mary Ann - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society*
  
• Shreve, Anita - Sea Glass*
  
• Swerling, Beverly - City of Dreams
  
• Tademy, Lalita - Cane River*
  
• Trigiani, Adriana - The Queen of the Big Time
  
• Tsukiyama, Gail - The Street of a Thousand Blossoms*
  
• Turow, Scott - Ordinary Heroes
  
• Vidal, Gore - Lincoln*
  
• Waters, Sarah - The Night Watch*
  
• Wilder, Gene - My French Whore
  
• Wright, Richard B. - Clara Callan
  
• Wright, Stephen - The Amalgamation Polka*
  

* In the Stone Ridge Library collection.

All are in the Mid Hudson Library system.

High Falls Cafe Event to Benefit Library

Saturday, December 13

The High Falls Cafe will host a Holiday Benefit for the Stone Ridge Library, Saturday, December 13 at the Cafe on Route 213 in the center of town. There will be an all-day used book sale, and the evening's festivities will begin at 5 p.m. At 5:15 Nicole Quinn, Filmmaker (Racing Daylight and Slap and Tickle) and Shelley Wyant, local actor and educator who also serve on the Library's board of trustees, will break the ice with a reading of Mary Louise Wilson's hilarious Lost. There will continuous music throughout the evening, starting at 6, and featuring Kimberley, Peggy Atwood and others, with Breakaway with Robin Baker taking the stage at 8 p.m.

The cost is $10 at the door, with all cover proceeds to be donated to the Stone Ridge Library. Dining and bar service will be available as well.

This is the fourth annual Holiday Benefit sponsored by the High Falls Cafe. "This year we wanted the beneficiary to be close to home," said Buffy Gribbon, who runs the popular local Cafe with her husband Brian. "The Stone Ridge Library is my library," she said.

"We couldn't be happier," said Library Director Jody Ford. "We are looking forward to this special holiday gathering, and are delighted to see familiar names in the entertainment lineup. Not only will two of our talented board members perform, but Breakaway, who stole the show at the Library Fair will be the highlight of the evening."

For information, please call the library's program line at 845 687-8726. Details are also available at High Falls Cafe or 845 687-2699.

Holiday Open House
and Gift Wall

Stop by the library during the week of December 15th for complimentary cookies and cider while you finish your holiday shopping. Our gift wall will be stocked with hand knit items from the Stone Ridge Library Knitters, woven tea towels, jewelry, pottery and photography – all ready for holiday giving. A percentage of our gift wall sales supports the library.

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Food for Fines

December 15 - 23

The Library will be collecting food instead of fines for all fines on items returned (except DVDs) from December 15th to December 23rd. The food will be donated to the Marbletown and Rochester food pantries. So if your book or audio is late that week, stop by with a donation of any non-perishable item to brighten someone's holiday.

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Tea Time Book Group

Wednesday, Dec. 10,
4pm, Biography Room

The selection this month is Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, a novel about a teenage girl who claims to see the Virgin Mary.

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

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Medieval Book Group

Wed. Dec. 10, 7pm at Momiji

We are continuing our tradition of having a dinner meeting in December, this year at Momiji, a very fine Japanese restaurant in Stone Ridge, one block from the Library.

This month we are looking into events in Asia during the European medieval era and have chosen Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen. This book will form a bridge for us from Europe to Asia. If you find other sources on Asia 500-1500, please bring suggestions to our next meeting. We may want to continue on this topic during the winter.

• We need to give the restaurant a count of who will be attending so please email Mike or call the Library 687-8726. If you find other sources on Asia 500-1500, please bring suggestions to this meeting. We may want to continue on this topic during the winter.

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Thursday, Dec. 18,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: Bones and Silence by Reginal Hill and The Musgrave Ritual - a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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The New Yorker Discussion Group

Friday, Dec. 12 at 6pm
in the Reference Room

Selections for the December meeting:

1. Oct. 27 issue, p. 66: METHOD MAN: How the Great American Actor (Marlon Brando) Lost His Way, by Claudia Roth Pierpont.

2. Nov. 3 issue, p. 64: RED SEX, BLUE SEX: Why do so many evangelical teenagers become pregnant? by Margaret Talbot

3. Nov. 10 issue, p. 64: SUFFERING SOULS: The search for the roots of psychopathy, by John Seabrook

4. Nov. 10 issue, p. 36: THE USES OF ADVERSITY: Can Underprivileged Outsiders Have an Advantage? by Malcolm Gladwell

5. Nov. 17 issue, p.84: THE NEW LIBERALISM: How the Economic Crisis Can Help Obama Redefine the Democrats

PLEASE BRING YOUR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS on the articles listed above to our next meeting. Your questions are what shapes the discussion.Also, bring your wish list of articles for discussion at the January meeting. Choose an item from each of the 4 issues preceding the January meeting: Nov. 24, Dec. 1, Dec. 8, Dec. 15.

Questions? Please contact Diane DeChillo, Library Program Manager. 845 687-8726.

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Knitting Group

Saturdays, December 6, 13, 20, 27
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:

Novel time-travels to Hitler's Vienna

Poughkeepsie Journal 11.9.08
By Joanne A. Meyer

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.

Author Selden Edwards' first novel piqued this librarian's interest in the topic of time travel, an ever-present fiction genre.

The notion of traveling through time has obviously intrigued humans as long as they could reflect on the past and project their thoughts into and onto the future.

The Little Book imagines its 20th-century American protagonist, Wheeler Burden, finds himself in Vienna in 1897. The choice of Vienna at the end of that century allows the hero (and author) to look at the conditions in that part of the world that may have led up to the rise of Hitler and World War II.

The flow of history isn't disturbed by the presence of the man from the future, as well as another character, because their actions aren't big enough to ripple significant events.

But the author wants us to imagine what could have been changed for the better if these characters took decisive action.

Much of time-travel literature deals with the questions of characters perhaps imperiling their own existences by changing the past, or creating the conditions that enable their existences, or winding up in parallel or alternate universes - the plot possibilities are endless.

The Little Book itself refers to a book Burden worked on in his "present day," which held clues to what he had experienced in the past, but not his past.

Confusing, yes, and perhaps not completely satisfying to those readers who are enthralled with the true mind-bending genre of time travel fiction.

Time-tested authors such as H.G. Wells (The Time Machine, 1895), Jack Finney (Time and Again, 1970), Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five, 1969), Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889) and Isaac Asimov (The End of Eternity, 1955) are good introductions to the genre, and you may even find yourself reading nonfiction theories about time travel.

The libraries of the Mid-Hudson Library System are connected in such a way that you can find many time travel stories that can be transported to your local library in very little time.

Your local library Web site has portals for ordering books (or other items, like a DVD of Back to the Future), and also readers' help links, such as Fiction Connection, which are open to anyone with a library card.

It's definitely worth the time and travel to get yourself a card, but you probably knew that from an earlier time.

Joanne A. Meyer is executive director of the Morton Memorial Library and Community House in Rhinecliff. In a past life she was a broadcast news and instructional video writer/producer.

GREAT WEBSITES!

Page One Today: Obama's Historic Victory

Selected images of newspaper front pages from November 5 and 6, 2008, reporting Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election. Includes some foreign newspaper front pages, and story excerpts from the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post, and The New York Times. From the Poynter Institute. more

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

A great list of tips from David Pogue, the New York Times technology writer. Some you know, but some you don't, like this one I didn't know: "You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up". So easy and a good reason to give up that death grip on the mouse. From The New York Times. more

Change.gov

Official website of President-Elect Barack Obama. Features Obama's election night speech, a transitions press room (with "up-to-the-minute updates and information about all aspects of the transition"), background about positions on issues (such as the economy, health care, and the war in Iraq), an area "designed to provide prospective applicants with information to help them apply for positions in the Obama-Biden Administration," a blog, an opportunity for you to contribute campaign stories, and more. more

Brookings: The Presidential Transition

This page on the 2008-2009 presidential transition will examine "policy challenges, with public discussions, memos to the president-elect, and a weekly podcast." Browse sections for the memos, podcasts, briefing room, online chats, events, and historical political advice and policy on the presidency. From the Brookings Institution, "a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC." more

Bedecked, Bedazzled & Bejeweled: Costume Ornamentation at New York City Ballet

Online exhibit and accom-panying article about New York City Ballet costumes. "In photographs, the costumes bloom with a fierce poetry, products of wild imagination and painstaking industry. The tutus and tiaras, the grand gowns and flirty skirts, the formal men's jackets and dapper vests worn by generations of New York City Ballet dancers can now be viewed here." View images highlighting details of ballet costumes. From the New York City Ballet. more

Europa Film Treasures

Watch hundreds of the treasures of European cinema-tographic heritage online. "All genres and time periods are on the playbill! From comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies." Also includes background about each film. Available in several languages. As the site notes, users may experience viewing difficulties due to high traffic. Developed by a film restoration company "in collaboration with the legal successors (when they have been identified) and depositories." more

Pieces of a Puzzle: Classical Persian Carpet Fragments

Examples of fragments of 16th and 17th century Persian rugs, including "three principal surviving fragments of one spectacular 16th-century Khorasan rug [which] are reunited in this exhibition. ... These pieces also fit together like a puzzle, allowing us to glimpse the grand scale of the original carpet." Includes an overview of the Khorasan region (in modern Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan), diagrams of rug knotting techniques, and images of carpet fragments. From the Textile Museum. more

The National Book Award Finalists

The site features lists of award winners from 1950 to present (some with links to essays and acceptance speeches), reading lists and trivia for National Book month, features such as "100 Life-Changing Books" and "The Book That Changed My Life," and information about the organization's other programs and publications. more

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night

Companion to a 2008/2009 exhibit exploring painter Vincent Van Gogh's "nocturnal interiors and landscapes, which often combine with other longstanding themes of his art -- peasant life, sowers, wheatfields, and the encroachment of modernity on the rural scene." View "paintings, drawings, and letters from all periods of his career, as well as examples of the rich literary sources that influenced his work." Also includes audio commentary. From the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). more

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses

This exhibition highlights American Indian dress designs and designers from the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau regions. Features zoomable images, photos, maps, animated illustrations, video clips, and more. The introduction includes profiles of designers who contributed knowledge to the exhibit. From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. more

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century

The blog features 19th century photos of mustachioed men. The site notes: "Many of the ... pages have graphic and clear images of the masculine mustache in all its forms, both sublime and grotesque. My intent is not to shock or titillate, but merely to inform on the subject." Also includes a glossary of mustache terms such as "battle mustache" and "waterfall." Images are from the collections of the University of Kentucky Archives. more

United States Mint Unveils New 2009 Penny Designs

This September 2008 press release describes the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial One Cent Program, in which "four new designs celebrate the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of the production of the Lincoln cent (penny)." Includes links to images of new reverse designs, which commemorate birth and early childhood in Kentucky, formative years in Indiana, professional life in Illinois, and presidency in Washington, D.C. From the U.S. Mint. more
Penny Foolish
This 2007 article recounts the history and cultural significance of the Lincoln penny. "[W]hen it first appeared four score and 18 years ago, it was a matter of almost unimaginable curiosity, excitement and veneration. ... Editorialists praised it as the perfect tribute to a martyr, or denounced it as a trinket unworthy of him. Immigrants had a special reverence for it; to blacks, it was 'emancipation money.'" Also includes poems. From The New York Times. more

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