A Brutal Design
By Zachary Solomon
In this debut novel by the Beacon writer, a Jewish architecture student fears he and his friends are bound for a prison camp after a fascist takeover. Instead, he finds himself in an experimental utopian city, Duma, where he searches for a long-lost uncle, an avante garde artist. Gradually, a dark truth is revealed.
The Abyssal Recitations
By Heller Levinson
In this latest collection, the Garrison-based poet shares staccato prose that breaks many rules (machine-gun alliteration, weird word mashups and an alternative grammar universe), but conveys vivid ideas and images.
Amerikaland
By Danny Goodman
In the Beacon resident’s debut novel, two famous athletes are brought together after a major terrorist attack upends their lives, but a secret tests their relationship. Kirkus Reviews called the book a “contemplative, richly imagined and occasionally thrilling exploration of the near future.”
Not Too Late
By Gwendolyn Bounds
The Philipstown resident, who is a board member of Highlands Current Inc., which publishes this newspaper, recalls attending a dinner party in her mid-40s at which someone asked a girl: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She was struck that no one asks that question of adults. It set her on an unexpected, five-year path in which she became a Spartan Race competitor — racing through obstacles. Bounds, who interviewed scientists, doctors, philosophers and athletes on how to reimagine our limits at any age, will discuss her findings on June 22 at the Desmond-Fish library in Garrison.
Sixty Miles Upriver
By Richard Ocejo
The sociology professor embedded himself in Newburgh for four years to provide a snapshot of gentrification, which he writes “signals either hope and excitement for a genuine rebirth, or skepticism and fear of being left behind and displaced.”
The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York
By Michael Douma
The historian, a key source for The Current’s 2022 history of Black people in the Highlands, challenges traditional assumptions about slavery in early New York, arguing that it was mostly rural, heavily Dutch and profitable because of wheat production.
So, What Happens Is
By Bob Bozic
In his memoir, the Beacon resident, a former heavyweight boxer, bartender and raconteur, recounts the crazy days before becoming a father and settling down. As Zach Rodgers says on the May 29 episode of his Beaconites podcast, “Bob Bozic’s life story reads like pulp fiction.” A launch party is scheduled for Sunday (June 9) at Fanelli Cafe in Manhattan, where Bozic worked for 25 years.
