A Painter's Path on Cape Breton Island
Robert Selkowitz, foreword by Sheldon Currie
Spirit o' the Sea Books, 2006, $24.95
A smitten visitor to Nova Scotia's legendary north island for 34 years, Selkowitz paints its vistas with the same exuberance he brought to A Painter's Path Through the Catskill Mountains. His vivid oils and pastels swing the hues of lupines, lighthouse roofs, and azure sea into a ceilidh dance of color.

Melting Point
Jeff Jacobson, edited by Joan Liftin and Sylvia Plachy
Nazraeli Press, 2006, $60
Renowned Mt. Tremper photographer Jacobson (showing at Manhattan's Peer Gallery through January 6) creates striking, often surreal images: a dog lit in eye-popping primary colors, a shirt's shadow next to a crucifix, dangling dogtags whose strings suggest eelgrass. This gorgeously printed monograph offers "a curious melding of beauty and fear."

Paws and Reflect: Exploring the Bond Between Gay Men and Their Dogs
Neil Plakcy & Sharon Sakson
Alyson Books, 2006, $24.95
Banned in Princeton! A homophobic Barnes & Noble event coordinator just cancelled a scheduled reading from this affectionate tribute to men who love men and their dogs, with interviews and essays by celebrated Kingston screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia), Edward Albee, Charles Busch, and many more. Fetch!

Beware of Tigers
Dave Horowitz
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006, $12.99
From the die-cut mustachioed maw on its front cover to the questioning twist of tail on the back, the Rosendale author/illustrator's new picture book is a joy to behold. Parents will fine-tune their Brooklyn accents on many encores of this read-aloud romp about two streetwise birds who learn a few things about cats who say, "Trust me."

Myron's Magic Cow
Marlene Newman
Barefoot Books, 2006, $16.99
Colorfully rendered urban landscapes set the whimsical tone for longtime Woodstock resident Marlene Newman's first book, a creative retelling of the traditional genie story. An enormous, omniscient bovine, a little boy tired of running errands for his mother, and guest appearances from other fairy-tale denizens populate this quirky tale.

Shivastan Chapbooks
Original Presence by Laynie Browne
Where is the Woman? by Enid Dame
Pacing the Wind by Roberta Gould
Sainte-Terre or the White Stone by Robert Kelly
What I Wanted to Say by Iris Litt
Wildflowers, a Woodstock mountain poetry anthology
Shivastan Publishing, 2006, www.shivastan.com
What better gift than poetry? Woodstock's premier publisher of limited-edition chapbooks, craft-printed on luscious handmade papers in Nepal, offers up an illustrious slate of new titles by Bard's bard Kelly and others, including the late Enid Dame and the myriad poets and artists of Wildflowers' seventh edition.