Edited by Carol Stone White
Black Dome Press, 2008, $19.95
There are 35 Catskill peaks over 3,500 feet, and these rugged authors have climbed them all—sometimes in winter—to join the elite 3500 Club. Editor White gathers 100 great backcountry anecdotes, the kind hikers tell one another in bars, plus a poem by Will Nixon. Reading at the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter on June 7 at 2pm.
The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Directory: The 2008 Guide to Visiting America’s Gardens
www.gardenconservancy.org, 2008, $16.95
The Cold Spring-based Garden Conservancy used eco-friendly technology to print this guide to its annual tour of 300 exceptional private gardens, including those tended by Hudson Valley authors Maxine Paetro (June 14), Abby Adams and Donald E. Westlake (August 10), and the Edna St. Vincent Millay estate (August 10).
Bear
Poems by Karen Chase
CavanKerry Press, 2008, $16
Notable Voices winner Chase writes vivid, plainspoken poems, including a series that takes the advice of a (possibly mythical) Bear Safety Pamphlet, enjoining the reader, “Do not run. / Let the bear know you are not prey. / Act human, wave your arms. / Speak to the bear.” Reading at The Bookstore, Lenox, Massachusetts, on June 20 at 7pm.
Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad
Bob Morris
Harper, 2008, $24.95
A New York Times columnist and “devoted Phoenicia weekender” details the hilarious, exasperating, and sometimes profound adventures of a middle-aged, single gay man searching for love at the same time as his widowed, still randy octogenarian father. Reading at Cucina in Woodstock on June 20 at 7pm.
Tantra for Erotic Empowerment:
The Key to Enriching Your Sexual Life
Mark A. Michaels & Patricia Johnson
Llewellyn Publications, 2008, $21.95
Tantra teachers and Chronogram contributors Michaels and Johnson follow their award-winning The Essence of Tantric Sexuality with a clearsighted, accessible, and (cover graphic aside) nonsalacious approach to Tantric practice and sexual consciousness-raising, aimed at couples and singles of all orientations.
100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
Matthew Silverman
Triumph Books, 2008, $19.95
High Falls author Silverman’s sixth book about the Mets mourns the passing of Shea Stadium and celebrates the home team. It’s all here: great plays, bad trades, baseball wives—even the scrawls on the left-field walls and the Beatles’ legendary 1965 concert (the Fab Four entered from the visitors’ dugout).
