Bannerman Island: Recollections from a Time Gone By
As told to Neal Caplan, with Barbara and Wes Gottlock
When Francis Bannerman VI purchased the Hudson River island in 1900, he built Scottish-styled castles to house his inventory of used military goods. In 1995 the Bannerman Castle Trust was formed to stabilize and preserve the structures. For this book, Caplan, a founding member of the trust, collected interesting, humorous and sometimes hard-to-believe recollections from Bannerman family members and people who worked on the island.
How to Write a Song That Matters
By Dar Williams
The singer and songwriter, who lives in Cold Spring, for years has led songwriting retreats. Here, she explains how songwriters can find inspiration for music from their own creative process, their psyches, their life experiences and their muses “to write the songs that they are meant to write” rather than producing a well-constructed “widget from a song factory.”
Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant
By Brian Vangor
In this volume from the Images of America series, Vangor shares photos from inside “an incredible machine built and operated by extraordinary people, most from surrounding local communities.” The Indian Point site began in 1923 as an amusement park but was transformed into a three-reactor nuclear power plant that operated for nearly 60 years.
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide
By Rupert Holmes
In the Cold Spring resident’s latest mystery, he introduces a secret college for killers where every thesis is a plan to kill that student’s boss, and all are expected to execute their plans. (A sequel, Murder Your Mate, is scheduled for 2024.) Although best known for “Escape (The Piña Colada Song),” Holmes has won two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, written two whodunit Broadway musicals (The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Curtains) and had his debut novel, Where the Truth Lies, made into a film starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon.
Operation Storm King
By Elliott Sumers
This alternative history details a raid by Nazi commandoes to kidnap President Franklin D. Roosevelt in early 1945 by taking a U-boat up the Hudson River to West Point. Their mission: Force the U.S. into an alliance with Germany against Russia. Seventy-five years later, a West Point cadet discovers the U-boat wreckage in the Hudson River and Washington mobilizes to stop her from revealing what happened. For this debut novel, Sumers, a board member of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival who lives in Montrose, drew on his fascination from childhood with his father’s World War II service chasing U-boats.
