The Usual Silence
Jenny Milchman
Thomas and Mercer, 2024, $16.99
Fans of the Hudson Valley’s own reigning woman of mystery Milchman will be delighted to know that The Usual Silence is the debut novel in a planned series of adventures featuring child psychologist Arles Shepherd, a heroine wrestling with her own demons while working to heal vulnerable kids. Anyone who’s ever been part of a family of any type knows that mystery is the unspoken middle name; Milchman, a Mary Higgins Clark-award winning and bestselling author of five novels, crafts edge-of-your-seat suspense laced with bold compassion.
A Slow Rise: Favorite Recipes From Four Decades of Baking With Heart
Dan Leader with Lauren Chattman
Penguin Random House, 2024, $40
Bread Alone founder and CIA graduate Dan Leader has been practicing “soft-skill” baking for four decades, his Woodstock-born business rising like a fine artisanal loaf. With his fellow James Beard-award winner and baker Chattman, he’s put together a history of that adventure well-blended with over 60 recipes for Bread Alone’s iconic favorites, from simple to elaborate. All of it is infused with Leader’s focus on baking as an art with heart that requires all five senses plus a bit of practical magic.
Dispelling the Shadow: Activities Exploring Life and Death with Young People
Mala Hoffman and Lucy Moran
Prufrock Press, 2024, $22.99
Comprehending death takes a lifetime, and we do young people a great disservice if we treat something so natural and inevitable as unspeakable—but it can be a challenging coanversation even for adults. Hoffman, a Gardiner writer and poet, and local holistic sex educator and loss companion Moran draw from science, folklore, belief systems, and creative expression to craft this helpful, comprehensive curriculum of activities, discussion prompts, and resources that lays out age-appropriate approaches to universal truths of human existence.
Pat Metheny: Stories Beyond Words
Bob Gluck
University of Chicago Press, 2024, $22
Gluck, a Westchester resident and professor emeritus at SUNY Albany, has an intimate relationship with music—he’s a pianist and composer of jazz and electroacoustic, with 12 albums in his discography. This is his third portrait of a jazz great; he’s previously published works on Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, and the work blends interviews and interpretations of Metheny’s music into quite the smooth jam. Catch his talk and performance with his trio Transcendence at the Kleinert/James Center in Woodstock on October 26 at 4pm.
When Rape Goes Viral: Youth and Sexual Assault
in the Digital Age
Anna Gjika
University of California Press, 2024, $29.95
It’s not as if young people had gender relations, dating, and power balances completely figured out before the internet came along and wrecked everything. It’s undeniable, though, that the age of instantaneous self-publication and image reproduction that can be shared with a vast audience has added still more confusion and complexity to the mix. So how are the kids holding up? Cjika, an assistant professor of sociology at SUNY New Paltz, uses interviews and analysis of high-profile cases to help us get closer to understanding.
—Anne Pyburn Craig
This article appears in October 2024.
