Noting that "anthology" stems from Greek words for "flower" and "gather," Woodstock Library Fair goddess Michelle Slung has picked a garland of prose from such masters as Eudora Welty, Colette, David Guterson, V.S. Pritchett, and Stephen King (what does he plant?).

A home team of Kingston and High Falls editors and photographer/ publishing executive F-Stop Fitzgerald of Rosendale hits a grand slam with this juicy collection of features from Sports Weekly, national newspapers, and books with titles like Baseballisimo, Baseball Forever, and Total Baseball.

The size and heft of a Last Whole Earth Catalogue, this bodacious volume of outsider film lore includes contributions by and about such Upstate/Downtown legends as Penny Arcade, Steve Buscemi, Larry Fessenden, and Jim Jarmusch. Even the index is cool.

A lively assemblage of poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Roberta Gould, Anne Waldman, Donald Lev, Robert Kelly, Ira Cohen, and other notables. Lushly illustrated, with a vivid turquoise cover, eye-popping endpapers, and handcrafted floral-textured pages, this book is a visual treat.

Sixteen essays by local scholars and residents offer an up-close-and-personal view of Hyde Park's favorite son and his Dutchess County roots, offering unexpected glimpses of the president as a local church vestryman, birdwatcher, town historian, and volunteer fireman.

This newest work from noted Emerson scholar and Hudson Valley resident Geldard anthologizes writings of New England Transcendentalists, including Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller, et al., carefully selected to give readers a unique overview of this religious movement.