JOHN BURROUGHS: AFLOAT & AFOOT
Narrated by Brett Barry & Rolland Smith
Silver Hollow Audio, 2015, $19.95
Catskills naturalist John Burroughs reinvented personal nature writing, and this first-ever audiobook offers two wonderfully local essays. In "Pepacton: A Summer Voyage," the author navigates the Delaware's now-submerged East Branch—"a stream of many minds"—in a handmade boat. In "The Heart of the Southern Catskills," he assays a climb up uncharted Slide Mountain. Narrators Barry and Smith are pros, as are commentators Bill Birns and Diane Galusha, but the voice that emerges most joyfully belongs to Burroughs. When a veil of fog lifts off the High Peaks, he reports, "the world opened up like a book." —NS
OSKAR & THE EIGHT BLESSINGS
Richard Simon & Tanya Simon, illustrated by Mark Siegel
Roaring Brook Press, 2015, $17.99
For this exquisite, moving tale of a boy escaping the Holocaust without his family and landing in fairy-tale 1938 yuletide Manhattan, Westchester husband-wife writing team Richard and Tanya Simon draw from actual historical events, from Kristallnacht to a Count Basie gig, to the debut of the first Superman comic. With help from Siegel's gorgeous, burnished illustrations, Broadway becomes an enchanted trail of kindness and hope, where Jewish and Christian holidays gracefully mesh. Appearing 12/5 at 3pm, Sinterklaas Festival at Oblong Books & Music, Rhinebeck. —RBW
SHADER
Daniel Nester
99:The Press, 2015, $16
Not since Bruce Springsteen has a man so eloquently immortalized and rendered fascinating a subsection of New Jersey while also excavating his own soul. Maple Shade native Daniel Nester unspools his memoir in rock-and-roll bursts—brief, potent chapters grappling with Gen X coming-of-age and an alcoholic father, whose 2013 passing inspired this work. Extravagant love and devastating abandonment haunt Nester to this day, yet Shader offers hope and no small dose of hilarity. Appearing 12/12 at 7pm, Volume Reading Series at Spotty Dog Books & Ale, Hudson. —RBW
THE SLEEPER AND THE SPINDLE
Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Chris Riddell
HarperCollins, $19.99, 2015
Bard College professor and local dean of cool Gaiman spins a shimmering feminist remix of Snow White(ish) and Sleeping Beauty (sorta). Three dwarves—downsized from the usual seven—alert their reluctantly betrothed queen to a sleeping plague approaching the kingdom. Following her own good heart and brain, with the help of some cobwebbed sleeptalkers, the sword-bearing queen packs one hell of a wake-up kiss. Riddell's stunning illustrations, shot through with threads of gold, make this a delectable gift for anyone whose happily-ever-after could use a reboot. —NS
A TEA GARDEN IN TIVOLI
Bettina Mueller
THP Books, 2015, $34.95
Zen student and award-winning author Bettina Mueller's labor of love started as a bare lot adjoining her 1860 farmhouse in Tivoli. Having bought the house, she began transforming the barren grounds into an exquisite, Japanese-inspired tea garden. Imbued with the aesthetic tradition of harmony and simplicity, the living gem won Gardenista's 2015 Best Garden Design Award. Far more than just luscious photographs, the book delineates the principles and techniques of Zen garden design, tea, and chabana floral design. It's sure to inspire. —JM
TUXEDO PARK: THE GIFT OF NATURE
Chiu Yin Hempel, photography by Greg Miller
Carol Monderer Publishing, 2015, $95
Less than an hour from Manhattan, the Gilded Age enclave of Tuxedo Park is truly a world apart, its iconic mansions surrounded by 2,000 acres of jaw-dropping natural beauty. Focusing on its timeless vistas and hundreds of native species, this sumptuous large-format book looks beyond the architect homes built by Astors and Vanderbilts to the "wild gardens," stone stairways to nowhere, the lakes—stunning in every season and all kinds of light—and community responsibility of ongoing environmental stewardship. Greg Miller's lush color photos and Chiu Yin Hempel's eloquent text form the warp and weft of an opulent tapestry, weaving a magical spell. —NS
WELCOME TO MARWENCOL
Mark Hogancamp & Chris Shellen
Princeton Architectural Press, 2015, $29.95
In 2000, Mark Hogancamp was brutally attacked outside a Kingston bar and left for dead. He emerged from a coma unable to eat, walk, write, or remember anything about his life. As therapy, he constructed an elaborate World War II-era village in his backyard, turning action figures and Barbie dolls into recurring characters who love and fight on remarkably built sets. Obsessive, unsettling, his work caught the art world's eye, was the subject of a 2010 documentary, and is now this fascinating, moving book. Appearing 12/4 at 7pm for documentary screening & booksigning, Inquiring Minds, Saugerties.—JM
