Etna
Paul Yoon
2026, $28
What happens after the war ends? In Etna, Paul Yoon approaches that question through the eyes of an ex-military dog determined to find his way home. Crossing a ravaged landscape, Etna encounters people and animals trying to rebuild lives fractured by violence, discovering that peace can be as uncertain as conflict. With his trademark restraint and emotional precision, Yoon crafts a luminous meditation on displacement, trust, and endurance. Both fable and literary novel, Etna continues the Hudson Valley writer’s remarkable body of work exploring the fragile possibilities of hope in the aftermath of loss.
Everything You Need to Know About Life You Can Learn from a Dog
Bruce Littlefield
Penguin Young Readers, 2026, $18.99
Bruce Littlefield has long had a knack for finding humor in everyday life, and the Kingston author’s latest picture book proves that man’s best friend may also be life’s best teacher. Everything You Need to Know About Life You Can Learn from a Dog distills canine wisdom into simple, cheerful lessons about curiosity, kindness, resilience, and savoring the moment. Aimed at readers ages 3 to 7 but sprinkled with enough wit for adults, the book pairs Littlefield’s playful text with Maribel Lechuga’s lively illustrations of dogs of every breed, reminding readers that sometimes the happiest path through life begins with a wagging tail.
Super-Powered Astrology: Four Steps to a New You for a New Astrological Age
Jill Dearman
Countryman Press, 2026, $23.99
Astrologer and Woodstock author Jill Dearman offers a fresh take on an ancient practice in her latest book. Rather than treating the zodiac as a fixed set of personality types, Dearman reimagines each sign as an “inner superhero,” recasting familiar archetypes—Gemini becomes the Messenger, Aquarius the Visionary—to help readers better understand themselves and navigate a rapidly changing world. Timed to coincide with Pluto’s shift into Aquarius, the accessible guide blends astrology with practical self-reflection, encouraging readers to harness their Sun, Moon, and Rising signs as tools for personal growth.
Black and White and Read All Over
William Kinsolving
Pragmatic Press, 2026, $27.95
One of the Hudson Valley’s most notorious legal dramas provides the inspiration for William Kinsolving’s Black and White and Read All Over. Reimagining the sensational 1925 Rhinelander trial in White Plains, the novel follows the romance between wealthy heir Leonard Rhinelander and Alice Jones, a mixed-race New Rochelle woman whose marriage became a national obsession when the Rhinelander family sought an annulment. Told through the eyes of Alice’s sister, the story blends meticulous historical research with novelistic invention, exploring race, class, privilege, and media spectacle while casting fresh light on a landmark Hudson Valley case whose echoes still resonate today.
The Fireflies
Richard Reiss
Serving House Books, 2026, $14.95
Canaan novelist Richard Reiss explores memory, family, and the search for meaning in The Fireflies, an expansive literary novel centered on a middle-aged New Jersey man whose carefully ordered life is shattered by catastrophe. As he reckons with a spectacular tragedy, failed relationships, and the long shadow of an abusive childhood, he is forced to confront the story of his imprisoned brother and the wounds that have shaped them both. By turns funny, philosophical, and emotionally searching, Reiss’s novel asks whether enlightenment arrives in dramatic flashes or through the accumulation of small moments that illuminate a life.
This article appears in August 2026.
