How to Be Old
Lyn Slater
Plume, 2024, $28
Peekskill resident Lyn Slater, a lifelong professor and social worker, sparked a new era for herself at 61 when she started a blog, “Accidental Icon,” wanting to express a side of herself that academia wasn’t ready for: Namely, that women need not become invisible as they age and youth is not the only time to experiment and reinvent. Today she’s got 750,000 Instagram followers of all ages. They and many more besides will appreciate her frank discussion of accepting the inevitable while doing whatever you want about everything else.
The Rich People Have Gone Away
Regina Porter
Penguin Random House, 2024, $29
Set against the backdrop of a couple locked down in a Catskills cabin during the pandemic, award-winning playwright and novelist Porter sends her Park Slope refugees, Theo and Darla, hiking on the Devil’s Path, where an intense confession and Darla’s ensuing disappearance upend the lives of their entire, wildly diverse circle. Through the lens of the mystery, as Porter’s story casts clear, vivid light on community, privilege, love, loss and the human dilemma—don’t expect to put this one down ’til you’re done.
Muse of Fire
Michael Korda
Penguin Random House Canada, 2024, $39.99
World War I cast its deadly net far and wide, catching up four million men in the US Army alone. Among them were the poets and thinkers of the time, whose service resulted in insightful, vivid and brutal works that sparked fresh, tragic understanding. Pleasant Valley farmstead resident Korda, former editor in chief at Simon & Schuster and author of a long list of bestsellers, weaves their lives and work and his own family’s history into a rich tapestry of anguish, insight, and history as it’s seldom seen.
Close Your Eyes: Visions
Michael Ruby
Station Hill Press, 2024, $18.95
Blending the literary identities of Wall Street Journal editor and surrealist poet may sound like a bit of a surreal life path in itself, but Ruby—a long-time Brooklynite who now resides in the tiny Columbia County town of Gallatin—is nothing if not a master of contrast. This collection of lyrical poetry explores how what we can see with our eyes closed leverages the mundane and physical as a bridge to the timeless and immeasurable, crafting a journey that grabs you in the gut over and over.
Murder On Demand
Al Roker and Matt Costello
Blackstone, 2024, $27.99
Beloved NBC weathercaster Al Roker’s Billy Blessing novels, centered on a morning show chef who’s always encountering a murder to solve, have hit both the New York Times bestseller list and the Hallmark Channel. Roker’s got an engaging insider’s take on TV and culture, and in this outing, he’s teamed up with Cold Spring resident and award-winning novelist Matt Costello to put his protagonist out of a job (thanks, streaming services!) and out on the Island, where twisted intrigue and hilarity set in to upend his plans for a low-key life.
This article appears in June 2024.
