The Eighth Moon:
A Memoir of Belonging and Rebellion
Jennifer Kabat
Milkweed Editions, 2024, $18
In 1845, a ragtag assemblage of tenant farmers in the western Catskills took on their abusive absentee landlords, dressing up in calico drag and masks and waging what would become known as the Anti-Rent War. In 2005, a young writer wrestling with chronic fatigue syndrome moved from London to the western Catskills sight unseen, knowing nothing of that history, as most don’t. The ancient spell of Pakatakan Mountain, the struggles of ordinary folk, and the contrasts of modern-day Margaretville frame this lyrical and transcendent memoir.
Diamond City
Marianna Boncek
Atmosphere Press, 2023, $17.99
In 1955, a tiny town is riven by the murder of a young woman belonging to an outsider religious sect. The town’s sole law officer wants justice. Complicating matters, her sister is the mother of his secret child; complicating matters further, the townspeople scapegoat her entire community. Much is shoved under rocks only to be unearthed four decades later, when that child shows up. Boncek, a native of the Sullivan County outback now living in Woodstock, transcends thriller territory and maps the mysteries of the heart.
Loving Scott: A Memoir
Pat Horner
Epigraph, 2023, $20
Woodstock-based artist Horner, 18 when her son Scott was born in 1963, mustered the courage and good sense to nurture and support his gift for style, performance, and all things sparkling through a Midwestern childhood. He would grow up to become an iconic drag performer who dazzled New York and Europe as Miss Demeanor/Misty, and a makeup artist whose work graced high-end fashion magazines. Horner’s collage of biography and memoir sketches the 50 years of Scott’s complicated life and beautifully illuminates decades of social change through a deeply personal lens.
Chopping Wood: Thoughts & Stories Of A Legendary American Folksinger
Pete Seeger and David Bernz
Jawbone Press, 2024, $24.95
Few books could be as needed in this moment as a surprise encore from the late Pete Seeger, whose 95 years on the planet felt too short to the rest of us—especially here where he made his home, standing up strong for every good cause, getting us to sing along. Beacon neighbor, lifelong friend, and musical mentee Bernz is the perfect conduit for this compilation, curating the musings of an exceptional mind while leaving unscathed the folksy, lilting tones that charmed a planet.
Circulating Jim Crow: The Saturday Evening Post and the War Against Black Modernity
Adam McKible
Columbia University Press, 2024, $35
The Saturday Evening Post was ubiquitous in the early 20th century, reaching one in every 10 American households, making xenophobic racist George Herbert Lorimer extremely wealthy and influential even as he published “dialect fiction” and other content that routinely portrayed Black citizens as uniformly petty, dishonest, lazy, and foolish, manufacturing consent for white supremacy. Beacon resident McKible focuses on the ways in which Lorimer poisoned the public mind for an eye-opening look at manipulative media and the way we were.
This article appears in May 2024.
