This month’s pick of books from Hudson Valley authors spans the spectrum from local lore to cosmic speculation. Former Woodstock Times editor Brian Hollander celebrates the overlooked stories of the Hudson Valley; Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts examines faith in the modern age; and Steven Reed Nelson redefines humanity through electricity. Brian Schaefer’s Town & Country dissects class and identity in a reinvented small town, while Sparrow Hall’s The Invisible Eye delivers a metaphysical thriller set between Manhattan and the Hudson Valley.
Nothing of Insignificance: Adventures in Journalism
Brian Hollander
Bushwhack Books, 2025, $22
In Nothing of Insignificance, Brian Hollander offers a tapestry of local lives, musical moments, political skirmishes, and the odd bridge climb in Kingston. A former Woodstock Times editor and two-term Woodstock town supervisor, he wields curiosity with both tenderness and grit. From interviewing Sonny Rollins to profiling a lingerie-shop owner who became a baseball umpire, these essays celebrate the everyday drama of Hudson Valley towns. Hollander’s voice is warm, incisive, deferential to place—showing us that no life is too small, no story too quiet, to demand our attention.
A Truth Versus the Truth
Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts
Next Steps Publishing, 2025, $32.99
In A Truth Versus the Truth, Red Hook Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts tackles the fraught meeting of faith and modernity with both rigor and compassion. He maps what he calls the “Modernity Spectrum,” examining why some religious communities adopt science, social change, and secular schooling, while others resist. Roberts surveys Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism with curiosity, not polemic. His voice is neither scolding nor naive: It invites dialogue. At 182 pages, this is a clear, humane guide for anyone wanting to understand how belief survives—or falters—in our changing world.
Fire in a Wire: Electricity Empowers Human Evolution Beyond Homo Sapiens
Steven Read Nelson
Massaemmett Media, 2025, $19.99
In Fire in a Wire, Williamstown resident Steven Reed Nelson argues that electricity is the new fire—not just a utility, but an evolutionary force. He proposes a bold thesis: that homo sapiens has given way to homo electric, a new species already emerging. Nelson traces his theory from life without power in the Andes to ventures in solar, broadband, concert lighting, and AI. He weaves anecdote and analysis to show how electricity mediates everything—from sight and sound to memory and identity. Provocative and teeming with metaphor, this is futurism by way of personal odyssey.
Town & Country
Brian Schaefer
Atria Book, 2025, $28
Set in Griffin, a “swanky rural” town modeled on Hudson, Brian Schaefer’s Town & Country peers beneath the polished veneer of small-town charm to expose its fault lines. (Think of it as a cousin to Jen Beagin’s 2023 novel Big Swiss.) Against the backdrop of a congressional election, lifelong locals and urbane newcomers spar over identity, belonging, and the price of progress. Schaefer deftly captures the tension between nostalgia and reinvention, showing how each new wine bar or gallery opening can feel like a quiet act of conquest—and every campaign sign a reminder that even paradise can be partisan.
The Invisible Eye
Sparrow Hall
Hydrogen Media, 2025, $16.99
In The Invisible Eye, Valatie resident Sparrow Hall crafts a sleek psychic thriller that moves between Manhattan’s fashion sheen and the woods of the Hudson Valley. Catherine Harper carries a gift she never asked for: In a blink, she can step into someone’s past lives. When classified documents tied to her late father surface, she’s drawn into a labyrinth of government secrets, spiritual realms, and haunting echoes of identity. Hall blends conspiracy, metaphysics, and suspense into a taut narrative where the seen and unseen converge—and where knowing the past might just be the key to saving the future.
This article appears in November 2025.
