The Hudson Valley is known for its creativity, from the artists’ district of Kingston to the writers’ retreat of Rhinebeck. Art is in the Hudson Valley’s blood, and its authors show that best. Here are our picks of 11 books from local authors to read this August that showcase these
Home: A Love Story
Stephen H. Foreman
Alternative Book Press, 2025, $20
Foreman’s latest novel is a luminous novel of love, loss, and belonging, set in the rugged beauty of the Catskills. Centering on Thea, raised by her wise and irreverent grandfather after a tragic loss, the story unfolds with warmth, wit, and quiet emotional power. Foreman’s poetic language and deep human insight make this his most resonant work yet—a meditation on grief, memory, and the ties that endure. Drawing from a life richly lived, Foreman delivers a heartfelt tribute to family and the unspoken moments that shape us. A masterwork from a seasoned storyteller.
All We Trust
Gregory Galloway
Melville House, 2025, $20
This West Cornwall, Connecticut, author’s newest noir tells the edge-of-your-seat story of two brothers, Al and Peck, who live double lives as small business owners and money launderers. Everything starts to deteriorate when Al’s hard drive, containing millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, disappears, and the two get involved in an international clash between competing crime organizations. Neither brother knows who to blame, and they’re both too stubborn to blame themselves. The novel is both a captivating crime thriller and a story of betrayal between siblings.
Sounds of Summer in the Country
Michael Ruby
BlazeVOX [books], 2025, $18
Written in Columbia County, Ruby’s book turns bird calls into poetry. He paid close attention to the songs of different birds, translating the sound into syllables. The result is something abstract and fascinating, like the lines, “UNKNOWN BIRD: You better not go. You better not go. You better not. You better not go home. / CATBIRD: And? And? And?” Crickets, cicadas, and the whirrings of machines are incorporated into his poetry as well. Ruby plays with font size, repetition, and stanza length to create a singular piece of work. The poetry reads as though nature is taunting him to write.
The Children See Everything
J. C. Hopkins
Eponymous Books, 2025, $16
The first sentence of this novel hits like the sky falling: “When Manuel told me he had seen his father kill his mother I thought he was joking.” The narrator, Gerald, is as skeptical of Manuel’s statement as he is afraid that Manuel is telling the truth. Despite Manuel’s assertion, the two young boys have to continue their lives as normal, trying to shake the nauseating dread they feel around Manuel’s dad. The novel is equal parts murder mystery and coming-of-age story, as Gerald tries to navigate such a grotesque revelation while trying to maintain his friendship with Manuel.
Loose Limbs: A Story of Survival
Elizabeth Young, illustrated by Alyse Roe
Epigraph Publishing, 2025, $17
Young, a disability advocate from Rhinebeck, wrote Loose Limbs to help disabled children cope with their circumstances. The story is inspired by Young’s own experience. After an accident, she used her imagination to navigate her way through a difficult time. The book follows Maddie after she endures a complex brain injury in an accident and loses control of her left hand and foot. Her hand and foot become characters of their own, named Louie and Phil. Ultimately, these characters end up providing a sense of hope for Maddie in her recovery. Despite her isolation from friends and an underlying fear that she’ll never recover, Maddie lives unapologetically.
I Used to Be Somebody: Post-Spiritual Musings
Will LeBlanc
South River Press, 2025, $12
LeBlanc, an author living in the Catskills, “has no plans for the future.” In his memoir, he reckons with a lack of purpose in life. The book is written in a series of prose-like poems, chronicling life from childhood to adulthood. Interspersed throughout is his own philosophical musings, like his statement, “What does it mean to awaken? Is this a spiritual concept, a Zen thing? A rarefied state for the pure and chosen?” Although he’s critical of spirituality, it’s still important to him; it provides comfort even if it doesn’t answer the question of “who am I?” like he wants.
The End Doesn’t Happen All at Once: A Pandemic Memoir
Chi Rainer Bornfree and Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan
Aleph Book Company, 2025, $25
“Distant, yet too close. Perhaps that is how the Covid pandemic seems to you know. Because of the letters you are about to read, we remember it differently: crisp and ever present,” said Bornfree and Srinivasan in a joint letter. Kingston-based Bornfree and Srinivasan’s deeply intimate epistolary memoir recount the friends’ experiences of the pandemic. The authors’ names are abbreviated to C and R in these real letters that they wrote to each other, creating a narrative that feels like reading a secret diary. The letters make it apparent that the friends are terrified but still determined to support each other nonetheless. Photographs taken from the pandemic of their home, children, and nature are interspersed throughout.
The Napper
Linh Luu
Eponymous Books, 2024, $16
Luu, a recent Saugerties transplant, tells a story of Thuy, a young woman desperately searching for fulfillment. She is a high-achieving international student who has pushed herself to her limit, and now spends her days napping or trysting with one-night stands. In a quest for something more fulfilling than what she has, she gets a grant to study a Vietnamese artist in Paris, and falls for a rich man along the way. Throughout the novel, she chases self-actualization like a dog chases its tail.
I Was A Teenage Communist
J. C. Hopkins
Eponymous Books, 2024, $13
Saugerties-based Hopkins recounts the story of a group of leftist teens growing up in the Reagan era, with all of the ambition and optimism that comes with their dreams of revolting against the conservative status quo. Geraldo, a young Communist, falls into a group of ragtag teenage leftists as they navigate their revolutionary youth. Their unofficial Communist party includes Sunshine, a trans girl with an unsupportive family; Davy, a pseudo-religious philosopher; and Tommy, a musician and conspiracy theorist. The book draws direct parallels to today’s political climate, with the growing threat of fascism and bigotry at every corner, as well as the growing resistance against it.
Time Under The Overlook
Guy Reed
Bushwhack Books, 2025, $20
This poetry collection was inspired by the Overlook Mountain located in Woodstock, Reed’s current place of residence. He tackles themes of nature, humanity, and even the extraterrestrial in his poems, posing the profound question, “Would we applaud the aliens / and admit our childhood traumas. / Could we even just weep / in our neighbor’s arms?” The book is divided into chapters marked by photographs of the Overlook by Kelly Sinclair. Reed’s poetry yearns for connection in the lonely mountains, and reading it feels like finding a kindred spirit.
Lines in the Shed
Ryan Tracy
Troy Book Makers, 2025, $20
“Last night you were polite at the opera / even though the singers were students / and the singing uneven. / At some point / we become indistinguishable / from the things we never say.” Catskill resident Tracy writes in his poem “Take Notice.” Tracy takes aim at false claims of American unity in his new poetry book, but does not despair in doing so—he emphasizes friendship instead. The poetry book was largely written during the first two years of the pandemic, and frankly tackles the political, social, and ecological crises that came from it. It’s a book about survival when death seemed all too commonplace. Tracy urges readers to embrace the world, even when the good parts of it are so hard to see. Overall, he excavates hope in hopelessness.
This article appears in August 2025.
