Woodstock: From World War to Culture Wars
Richard Heppner
Excelsior Editions, 2024
It might be shocking to think that one of the region’s most politically progressive towns was once a hotbed of conservatism, but Woodstock town historian begins his chronicle of life in “the most famous small town in America” with a portrait of a Republican-dominated municipality at the start of World War II. How it evolved is Heppner’s engaging and well-researched tale, from locals looking for Nazi planes at the Observation Post on Overlook Mountain to the recent revitalizations of longtime cultural centers Colony and the Bearsville Theater. Heppner reveals how beneath the surface, there are always small, interconnected things that eventually lead to changes in the character of a place.
Donnaville
Donna Minkowitz
Indolent Books, 2024, $16
Beacon author Donna Minkowitz has spent her career writing memoirs, columns, and investigative pieces. Her range as a mostly nonfiction writer, from her restaurant reviews to reporting on the white supremacist movement, has broadened with her first novel, Donnaville. It’s a fantasy city that exists exclusively in the author’s mind. The book is a psychological thriller depicting a society similar to our own with parks, bars, religion, and, in the center of it all—a prison. Donna is both the incarcerator and the prisoners, who are trying to escape. Donnaville is full of queer and political themes reflecting parts of Minkowitz’s own identity and passions.
Tidal Lock
Lindsay Hill
McPherson & Company, 2024, $24
Tidal Lock is Hill’s first novel in over a decade since Sea of Hooks (2013). Prior to novel-writing, the Bard College alumnus was known for his six books of poetry. His new novel, published by Kingston-based McPherson & Company, blends together reality and illusion in a psychological slow burn. Olana, the protagonist, begins to question the world she lives in and the people around her as she unravels the mysterious disappearance of her father. It’s a narrative-heavy book split into sections that are a few sentences to a few paragraphs long. The trippy pacing and uncertainty of time leaves the reader to unravel the mystery alongside Olana.
She-Wolves: The Untold History of
Women on Wall Street
Paulina Bren
W. W. Norton & Company, 2024, $29.99
Bren is a professor at Vassar College, where she is the director of the Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Program. She’s written numerous scholarly books and essays specifically about communist history in Eastern Europe. Her first book, The Barbizon, explored the most famous residential hotel for women in New York City after World War l. With She-Wolves, Bren dives into the modern history of the sexist Wall Street culture and the women that fought for a place in business. The book describes the experiences of individual everyday women from the 1980s up to 9/11.
What Goes With What
Julia Turshen
Flatiron Books, 2024, $34.99
Kingston resident Julia Turshen is a New York Times-bestselling author and the host of her IACP-nominated podcast, “Keep Calm and Cook On.” In her cookbooks and classes, she combats diet culture and strives to make cooking accessible. Her fifth cookbook, What Goes With What, has 100 recipes for simple ingredient home-cooking. Exactly like the title suggests, Turshen teaches readers how to create something simple yet delicious just by throwing together a few common pantry items. It’s organized into six different sections, so whether readers want a fresh salad or a hearty pasta dish, Turshen has them covered. Catch her on her book tour at the Hudson Library and Historical Society on November 18.
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