There are surface similarities between two of four books being highlighted in our area this month. And much deeper ones between the lot of them once one reaches towards metaphor for added meaning.
David Levine’s The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years: A Mostly Chronological and Occasionally Personal History, which will be featured in a Golden Notebook reading event on March 14, is a breezy guidebook to the area by a Capital District writer with a freelancer’s flair for generalized information buoyed by a personal take on everything. Built from essays the author has published in a number of regional magazines and published by Globe Pequot, which has stretched its regional wings to highlight other Hudson Valley journalists in recent years, the book is witty and expansive, a perfect gift for the many newcomers to the region not yet ready for the full heft of an Alf Evers or Vern Benjamin tome, as well as a fun addition to those collections local weekend homes and short-term rentals build to show off our love for where we’ve all landed.
Doghiker: Great Hikes with Dogs from the Adirondacks through the Catskills, by Alan Via (also from the Albany area, and set to be featured on WAMC in the coming weeks), features 77 great day trips, and longer sojourns, one can take with a trusted canine…both on leash and, if well trained, off for long stretches. From SUNY Press’ Excelsior line, this “operating manual and tool kit” includes tips for dog training, gear, first aid, and fitness regimes as well as custom topographic maps for each, a peak-finder map and chart showing every hike and a summary of rating categories, as well as information on total mileage, elevation gain, ratings for views, difficulty level, dog safety and hazards, hiker traffic, trail conditions, and whether a leash is suggested or required.
Having had the embarrassment of thinking I’d lost my pooch on several hikes in the woods, only to find the dog back by my car awaiting a ride home back to her comfort zone, this one looks like another great buy for the local books collection.
Also newly out, and scheduled for a local event next week, is Woodstock Jewish Congregation Rabbi Jonathan Kligler’s latest, Turn It and Turn It, for Everything Is in It: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion (from Wipf & Stock Publishing). The book takes its title from Jewish sages’ teachings that “when we study the Torah we should continuously turn it and turn it, like a gem with countless facets, looking for new and deeper meanings.” Drawing on both ancient and modern sources, and weaving his decades of experienced scholarship and personal stories, Kligler has again found a way to bring deep traditions to life in his inimitably warm and infectious way…almost as he does, as well, in shared song. In other words, Kligler’s writings are as much about finding joy in meaning as meaning in joy, and meaning to Torah in our real lived experience, especially when looking to explain the most difficult passages of all that have been passed down to us to explain equally complex times.
Kligler’s reading and book celebration event will take place at Woodstock Jewish Congregation off Glasco Turnpike Road on Sunday, February 23 from noon to 2 p.m. “I will speak about the book, do a short reading, and sign books,” noted Kligler. “We will serve refreshments and hopefully there may even be some music.”
Finally, also on the inner passage side of the journeying paths all these four books entail — and also up for an event on Saturday, February 22 — is Bearsville resident Peter Christian Hall’s new novel American Fever: A Tale of Romance & Pestilence, set for a reading and booksigning at Golden Notebook at 3 p.m. While ostensibly a fictional piece, this work about a young flu fighter huddling at home in New York, blogging about a devastating avian flu pandemic as he sells masks, gloves, and goggles over the internet, spirals into government interference, massive global chaos, and all the worst fears we’ve been experiencing as we witness news of a new pandemic spreading out from Asia. In addition to reading from his work, Hall will discuss the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) that now threatens us. ++
Join the family! 
