NINE WAYS TO CROSS A RIVER: MIDSTREAM REFLECTIONS ON SWIMMING AND GETTING THERE FROM HERE
Akiko Busch (Bloomsbury USA, 2007, $19.95)
“In the case of Dutchess County resident and design writer Akiko Busch, rivers invite her to enter the water, body and soul, to experience the sensual pleasure of swimming, to speculate, to ponder, to dream. Her thoughtful volume chronicles nine swims across eight rivers (she swam the Hudson twice) over the course of four years....Each crossing not only provides the occasion to recall details of the swim itself, but functions as a creative springboard for meditations on a variety of diverse subjects.”
—Kim Wozencraft, 7/07
NONFICTION
GENERATION ON FIRE:
VOICES OF PROTEST FROM the 1960s–AN ORAL HISTORY
Jeff Kisseloff (University Press of Kentucky, 2007, $34.95)
“In giving these voices a venue, Kisseloff has created something more mind-expanding than any chemical. In and around the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll—which are pleasingly plentiful and unapologetic—there were heroes. There was hope. There were changes made. These things are possible, a hard thing to grasp in this Orwellian third millennium of ours. Reading this book, one hopes that a new generation of believers—maybe regular folks like you and me—will be moved to stand up and achieve dramatic results, throwing fresh sand in the gears of the death machine.”
—Anne Pyburn, 3/07
THE GLORIOUS MUSHROOM
written and photographed by Frank Spinelli
(Catskill Press, 2006, $35)
“From his forays into the ‘forests, rocks, and open fields’ that fringe his home in the Catskills, Spinelli has laden these pages with a trove of toadstools, a cornucopia of boletes, and an opulence of polypores....As delectable for the eye and the mind as a brace of morels, braised in butter and lightly salted, is for the palate, this book is a choice readable.”
—Mikhail Horowitz, 2/07
KILL ALL YOUR LITTLE DARLINGS: PIECES, 1990-2005
Luc Sante (Yeti, 2007, $17.95)
“A wide-ranging, entertaining, and thoughtful collection of essays....Sante is a great historian of our era, and the best professor one could ask for in a crash course on popular culture. Despite his preoccupation with all things hip, he rarely affects the carefully cultured, world-weary tone so rampant among New York hipsters today. His attitude of interested delight, even exuberance, splashes colorfully across his descriptions of musicians, politicians, criminals, artists, and himself.”
—Bri Johnson, 10/07
PICTURE BOOKS
FABIAN ESCAPES
written and illustrated by Peter McCarty
(Henry Holt and Company, 2007, $16.99)
“Hondo the dog likes to nap and let the baby dress him up, while Fabian the cat would rather sneak out for a walk on the wild side. This sequel to Caldecott Honor-winning Hondo and Fabian features fuzzily adorable illustrations and whimsical text. Perfect read-aloud fare from Rhinebeck author McCarty.”
—Short Takes, 8/07
FIVE LITTLE GEFILTES
written and illustrated by Dave Horowitz
(Putnam Children’s Books, 2007, $12.99)
“In a creatively slanted take on a classic toddler rhyme, Horowitz combines folksy Yiddishisms, goofy rhymes, cut paper, and paint to portray a charming, pushcart-strewn, two-cent pickle version of New York’s Lower East Side....It seems this meshuga book was as much fun to write as it is to read.”
—Susan Krawitz, 2/07
MUSEUM TRIP
Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $15)
“Not a word is spoken in this graphically striking, mind-bending tale of a boy who lags behind his group on a class trip and enters one of the artworks. His journey through an intricate series of labyrinths satisfies on every level. Hudson artist Lehman, a Caldecott honoree for The Red Book, deserves to share her hero’s medal.”
—Short Takes, 1/07
