New Fiction

• True Blue - David Baldacci
  
• The Children's Book - AS Byatt
• A Quilter's Holiday - Jennifer Chiaverini
• Deck the Halls and The Dhristmas Thief - Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark
• The Scarpetta Factor - Patricia Cornwell
  
• Necessary as Blood - Deborah Crombie
• Last Night in Twisted River - John Irving
  
• Blood Game - Iris Johansen
  
• A christmas Blizzard - Garrison KeillorPilgrims: a Wobegon Romance - Garrison Keillor
• Under the Dome - Stephen King
  
• The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
• A Rumpole Christmas: stories - John Mortimer
• Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
• Angel Time - Anne Rice
  
• The Price of Love - Peter Robinson
• New York: the Novel - Edward Rutherfurd
• Southern Lights - Danielle Steel

New Non-Fiction

• Open: an Autobiography - Andre Agassi
• Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: a Feast of 175 Regional Recipes - Lidia Bastianich
• Washington, D.C. 2010 - Fodor's
• So Easy: Lucious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week - Ellie Krieger
  
• Nigella Christmas: Food Family Friends Festivities - Nigella Lawson
• Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover how to cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals - Jamie Oliver
• Cleaving: a Story of Marriage, Meat Obsession - Julie Powell
• Beyond the Homestretch: What I've Learned from Saving Racehorses - Lynn Reardon
• Bubby's Brunch Cookbook: Recipes and Menus from New York's Favorite Comfort Food Restaurant - Ron Silver

New Audio Books

• Foreskin's Lament - Shalom Auslander
• Invisible - Paul Auster
  
• Strangers - Anita Brookner
• Wizard's Daughter - Catherine Coulter
• After - Amy Efaw
• Charlie Wilson's War - George Grile
  
• the Traveler - John Twelve Hanks
• The Alibi Man - Tami Hoag
  
• Prior Bad Facts - Tami Hoag
  
• Chill of Fear - Kay Hooper
  
• The Betrayed - David Hosp
• Long Time No See - Susan Isaacs
• Gone - Jonathan Kellerman
• Shadow of Power - Steve Martini
  
• The First Patient - Michael Palmer
• The Second Opinion - Michael Palmer
  
• Sail - James Patterson
• Dead Watch - John Sanford
  
• Heat Lightning - John Sanford
  
• Daemon - Daniel Suarez
• The Stepmother's Diary - Fay Weldon

New DVD's

• Christmas Tale - Catherine Deneuve
  
• Food Inc.
• Funny People - Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen
  
• Star Trek - Chris Pine, Eric Bana
• Up - animated, Ed Asner
• Walt Disney Silly Symphonies

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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.

Book Club in a Bag Titles

Start your own Book Club with our Book Club in a Bag. The Kit consists of a tote bag which has ten copies of a book title, as well as a list of discussion questions to get your book club started. Each bag can be borrowed for six weeks. This service is available to all patrons in the Mid-Hudson Library System.

This is a list of our current available titles. If you find a title you would like, ask for help at the circulation desk and a staff member will book the kit for you. For brief summaries of these books click here.

Of course, these books are also available to check out individually.

• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
  
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
  
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
  
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by by Sijie Dai
  
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
  
• Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
  
• The Black Madonna by Louisa Ermelino
  
• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
  
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  
• Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
  
• The Book of Flying by Keith Miller
  
• The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
  
• The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
  
• Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
  
• Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky
  
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
  
• The Color of Water by James McBride
  
• Consumption by Kevin Patterson
  
• Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condè
  
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
  
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
  
• The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman
  
• Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
  
• Empire Falls by Richard Russo
  
• Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
  
• Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
  
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  
• Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
  
• Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund
  
• Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
  
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  
• Go With Me by Castle Freeman Jr.
  
• Grace by Richard Paul Evans
  
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  
• Half-Past Nowhere by Joseph Cavano
  
• The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
  
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling
  
• Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
  
• Here on Earth by Alice Hoffmann
  
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
  
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
  
• The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
  
• House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
  
• Impulse by Frederick Ramsay
  
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  
• Jewel by Bret Lott
  
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
  
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossein
  
• The Ladies of Garrison Gardens by Louise Shaffer
  
• The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
  
• The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman
  
• Love Songs in Minor Keys by Joseph Cavano
  
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  
• Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
  
• The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
  
• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
  
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
  
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
  
• Murder Off the Books by Evelyn David
  
• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
  
• The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman
  
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  
• Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher
  
• Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff
  
• On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  
• The Orchid Theif by Susan Orlean
  
• A Painted House by John Grisham
  
• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
  
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
  
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
  
• The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
  
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
  
• Queenmaker: A Novel of King David's Queen by India Edghill
  
• The Rainmaker by John Grisham
  
• The Reader by Bernard Schlink
  
• Redemption by Julie Chibbaro
  
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  
• The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  
• Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy
  
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
• Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
  
• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
  
• Silk, Alessandro Baricco
  
• Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller
  
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
  
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
  
• Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
• Stones From the River by Ursula Hegl
  
• Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
  
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
  
• Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
  
• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  
• The Turtle Warrior by Mary Relindes Ellis
  
• Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
  
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  
• Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
  
• We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
  
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape? by Peter Hedges
  
• While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
  
• White Oleander by Janet Fitch
  
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
  
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  
• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
  
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
  
• You Kill Me by Alison Gaylin

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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Two Fabulous Raffles

Just in time for the holidays we have two great raffles to benefit the Stone Ridge Library. The drawing will be on December 18. Winners will be notified by email or phone.

Beautiful Lavender Afghan

Made by our Stone Ridge Library Knitters. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. On sale at the Library Circulation desk.

Ulster County Chamber Music Series

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.

Artists for the season include Les Amies (February 14), Trio Solisti (March 28) and Carducci String Quartet (April 25).

Raffle Tickets are on sale at the Library, and are $5 each, or 5 for $20. The face value of each subscription is $100. Winners will be selected on December 18.

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Kitchen Cosmetics and Herbal Skincare with Dina Falconi

A perfect holiday gift idea!

Saturday, December 5, 1–3pm
at the Marbletown Community Center
Materials Fee: $6.00

Please register in person or by calling
687-8726.

A feast for body and soul! Using all natural ingredients, Dina will share her favorite recipes for creating natural body care products. This is a hands-on demonstration, so come prepared to have fun. We will be making salves and balms, herbal oils, face cleansers and more.

Dina Falconi, is a practicing herbalist and produces Falcon Formulations natural body care products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is a founding member of the Northeast Herbal Association, a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation and serves on the board of Slow Food-Hudson Valley. She is author of Earthy Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody.

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The New York Council for the Humanities

The New York Council for the Humanities has awarded the library a reading and discussion grant to take place this fall and winter. Dr. Joseph Keefe, Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Ulster, will facilitate the discussions that will focus on the theme, Coping with American Identity: Four Viewpoints.

The meetings offer an opportunity for participants to share their views on the readings in a lively and congenial exchange in the Library’s reference room at 4:00 p.m., using the Tea Time Book Discussion timeslot, on the following dates. Books, listed below, will be available at the Circulation Desk one month prior to the event. Summaries will be available one week before the meetings.

• Wednesday, December 9 – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez
  
• Wednesday, January 13 – Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

For registration and other information, please call Diane DeChillo, Program Manager at 687-8726. The program is free and open to the public.

Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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HOLMES & CO.
Mystery Lovers
Book Group

Wednesday, December 16,
4pm in the Biography Room

The selections for this meeting include: Roseanna by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo and The Adventure of the Priory School - a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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MEDIEVAL
BOOK GROUP

Wednesday, January 13
7pm in the Biography room of the Library
(Snow date: Jan 20)

Our January meeting will focus on the effects of a large historic event (the Wars of the Roses) on the lives of ordinary people. Two books are suggested for this topic. One is a novel by Sandra Worth, Lady of the Roses: A Novel of the Wars of the Roses.

The other book is a history of the Paston family of Norfolk. Using correspondence from members of the family, Helen Castor has written an intimate portrayal of this family’s survival in these turbulent times entitled Blood & Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century.

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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 Alison Francis

International books recommended for children

Poughkeepsie Journal 11.8.09

Reading stories written by authors outside the United States, or reading about characters living in countries other than the United States, can open up whole new worlds for young readers.

The following picture books are from the 2009 annual list of "Outstanding International Books" published by the United States Board on Books for Young People. They can be obtained through the Mid-Hudson Library System with your library card.

Minji's Salon by Eun-hee Choung is an amusing tale of a young girl's adventures that mirror her mother's visit to the hair salon. Using the family's pet dog as her own beauty salon customer, Minji's hairstyle creations yield humorous results. This story shows the power of play and imagination.

In My Two Grannies by Floella Benjamin, Alvina's two grandmothers, one from England, the other from Trinidad, come to babysit. The two women have very different ideas of how to take care of Alvina ranging from what foods to serve to what bedtime stories to tell. Alvina eventually comes up with a way to have the two grannies get along, while she gets to sample the wonderfully different foods, stories and pastimes of both cultures.

Ellen's Apple Tree by Catarina Kruusval reveals the age-old theme of the passage of time and the unique changes that come with each season. Secret hiding spot, home to birds, bedecked with spring blossoms, the cherished apple tree in the yard is felled in a winter storm and the family is deeply saddened. With the arrival of spring, the family plants a young sapling. With patience, Ellen witnesses a whole new life cycle begin with the young apple tree.

In this mostly wordless book, How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham, a family nurses an injured bird back to health and, by the end of the story, releases the bird to fly freely again. Poignant illustrations deftly portray this moving tale of hope. The sparse text gives the added benefit of encouraging the development of narrative skills in young children as they tell the story in their own words.

Another wordless picture book, In the Town All Year 'Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner, can provide hours of entertainment for children. Large in size, this delightfully detailed book depicts various scenes in and around one town throughout the year. Each two-page spread shows a world of people, animals and activities; each scene is a story in itself that reveals more upon each new viewing. This is a wonderful book to share between children and their caretakers to encourage conversation and increase their knowledge of the various types of people and situations in the world.

Alison Francis is the youth services librarian at the LaGrange Library where she leads story times, plans programs for families with young children and teens, and purchases books for young readers birth through young adult.

GREAT WEBSITES!

Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

Hundreds of thousands of entries provide detailed information for movies (in theaters, on video or DVD, and forthcoming), as well as television movies and series. "Awards and Reviews" provides reviews from authoritative sources such as the New York Times, Roger Ebert, and Slate, as well as reader-supplied evaluations. Movie information includes directors, producers, actors, plot summaries, character names, running times, trivia, soundtracks, release dates, box office grosses, alternate versions, Academy Awards and other awards information, and much more. more

Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Official site for the Audubon Society "early-winter bird census, where volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile (24-km) diameter circle, counting every bird they see or hear all day." Provides background on the count, which occurs annually from December 14 to January 5, and current and historical data from counts. Also includes a bibliography of scientific articles, photo galleries, and documents for compilers. From the Audubon Society. more

24 Ways to Save Money Today

Adjust your thermostat before you leave, invite a friend over, hit the library, are just a few of the simple ways to start saving money in this list by Trent Hamm of the Simple Dollar website. "Twenty four little things that you can incorporate into your daily routines that just trim a little money away from your spending – and puts it into something more important to you." more

World AIDS Campaign (WAC)

Website for this group that sponsors World AIDS Day each December 1. Includes a list of World AIDS Day events, news, and information about other activities of the WAC, "a global effort of civil society to shift policy, mobilize resources, and call for action on the ground" relating to the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. The WAC is an independent non-governmental organization. more

Hanukkah Recipes

Collection of recipes for foods served for Hanukkah celebrations. Includes recipes for latkes, jam-filled mandelbrot, letcho (Hungarian eggs with tomatoes, peppers, and onions), and other dishes. Also includes links to articles about Hanukkah, such as "A Beginner's Guide to Hanukkah." From The New York Times. more

Kwanzaa

Basic information about Kwanzaa, "a non-religious African American holiday which celebrates family, community, and culture. It is celebrated for seven days: December 26-January 1." Describes the "seven principles" (such as unity, creativity, and purpose) and the "seven symbols" (including the ear of corn and the seven candles). From the website for the History Channel. more

Le Viaduc de Millau

Official site for the Millau Bridge, "the highest bridge in the world," which spans the Tarn River in the Massif Central Mountains in France. The bridge opened in December 2004. The site features images and information about the technology behind building the bridge, and a glossary. Also includes tourist information for this area south of Paris. In English and French. more

United States v. Bernard L. Madoff

Official documents for the case of U.S v. Bernard L. Madoff, including the December 2008 criminal complaint "alleging one count of securities fraud," the "Order Freezing Assets and Granting Other Relief in the SEC's [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] civil action, and ... the order appointing the trustee." Also provides pertinent website links and contact information for victims and others interested in the case. From the U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of New York. more

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Contact Us

Phone: 687-7023

E-Mail: Webmaster

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