When you think of quinine water do you think of stout, pink-faced British sea captains being revived by gin and tonics? “Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water” (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, $25) turns that image on its ear. Read More ⇒

PHILADELPHIA — Rev. Donald R. Fletcher was 80 and recovering from cancer surgery when he made the prayerful vow that launched his latest career. Read More ⇒

The inspiration for the new book by prolific Adirondack author William J. “Jay” O’Hern has partial roots in his days working at a sawmill in Red Creek in the mid-1960s when he was a teenager and a bit later when he took a job at a paper mill in Oswego. Read More ⇒

HARRISVILLE — Checking off an item on her bucket list, a daughter has recounted her father’s experience in World War II, utilizing letters he wrote home. Read More ⇒

OSWEGO - Dr. Anthony Jack will discuss the central paradox of his book “The Privileged Poor” as the next speaker in SUNY Oswego’s I Am Oz Diversity Speaker Series, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, in the Sheldon Hall ballroom. Read More ⇒

As a hiker with thousands of miles trekked, numerous peaks climbed and considerable trips guided, Alan Via has heard a similar refrain on the trails: “Don’t worry, he won’t bite!” Read More ⇒

MASSENA — If you have old videotapes or pictures of your family and you’re worried about losing those precious memories, the Massena Public Library can help preserve them. Read More ⇒

A Beautiful Crime Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — If his visits to the offices of the Watertown Daily Times is any indication, James C. Harberson III appears to be a mild-mannered, soft-spoken gentleman. Read More ⇒

WATERTOWN — The past decade has seen a boom in the popularity of graphic novels. Read More ⇒

“Roaring Reptiles, Bountiful Citrus, and Neon Pies: An Unofficial Guide To Florida’s Official Symbols” by Mark Lane; University Press of Florida (133 pages, $19.95) Read More ⇒

“SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build” by Jonathan Waldman; Avid Reader (288 pages, $28) Read More ⇒

After more than 20 years in the public eye, Jessica Simpson is shedding light on some of the darker sides of her private life. Read More ⇒

LOUISVILLE — Massena Public Library Director Elaine Dunne made her case to Louisville residents Wednesday night about the need to transition from a municipal public library to a school district public library, a move that would spread the cost of operation from just town of Massena taxpayers… Read More ⇒

How Madrid native David G. Rupert went from a debt-ridden businessman to an undercover agent in order to infiltrate an Irish terrorist group boils down to a simple recipe. Read More ⇒

How do you single out five books, out of all the hundreds coming out in 2020, for special attention? With great trepidation! Here are five very different books, all highly anticipated, making their way to our shelves in the new year. Here’s hoping it’s full of good reading. Read More ⇒

OSWEGO - A collaboration between SUNY Oswego faculty members resulted in “Lights! Camera! Execution!: Cinematic Portrayals of Capital Punishment.” Read More ⇒

By Zachary Leader. (Vintage, $22.) This second volume of Leader’s biography begins with Bellow’s ascent to best-sellerdom with “Herzog,” balancing discussions of the author’s work and personal life. In The New York Times Book Review, Mark Greif called it “brilliantly calibrated to explore Be… Read More ⇒

I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story Read More ⇒

The Season: A Social History of the Debutante Read More ⇒

Books about mental illness often reflect on how reality is experienced. In addition to the standard questions — What do we know, and how do we know it? — is another layer of inquiry: What do we know about our own minds, and what if it isn’t true? Read More ⇒

“Blade Runner,” the movie based on Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” takes place in a futuristic November 2019. In reality, replicants and floating cars have failed to materialize. Compare that to Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which, when it was p… Read More ⇒

Emily Dickinson, faced with a long Christmas list, famously scribbled “There is no present like a book.” OK, the word “frigate,” not “present,” is what you’ll find in modern collections of her poetry, but I’m sure she must have initially been thinking about holiday gifts. Even now, books are… Read More ⇒

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay believes his new cookbook, “Bobby at Home,” is his most important book to date. That’s because it’s a collection of his favorite recipes, the ones he is likely to serve family and friends when he’s at home. Read More ⇒

In a publishing year crowded with gear books (Instant Pot, Air Fryers, sous vide) and diet books (Keto, plant-based), it’s got to be hard for authors to stand out. As we searched through the hundreds of books that came in this year, these 11 did. From immigrant cooking to in-depth vegetable … Read More ⇒

NEWARK, N.J. — An office tower in this gritty Northeastern city seems an unlikely nerve center for theatrical inspiration. Yet here, in the sky-high studios of Audible, the audiobook and audio entertainment company, a new model for bringing drama to the people is taking shape. Read More ⇒

By Joanna Maclennan and Oliver Maclennan. (Thames & Hudson, 253 pages, $40.) Forget those manufactured “tiny houses.” Try living inside an overturned boat. Don’t shore up that collapsing wall with an expensive metal beam — use a shark’s bone. And while plaster is nice, walls built of whi… Read More ⇒

By Michael Beschloss. (B/D/W/Y, $20.) This sweeping look at presidents who led the United States through military conflict opens with a reluctant James Madison during the War of 1812 and closes with Lyndon Johnson facing defeat in Vietnam. Times reviewer Jay Winik called it “a superb and imp… Read More ⇒

Where the first lady, Melania Trump, is concerned, theories abound. Read More ⇒

On the slight possibility that you might have some reading time on Thanksgiving weekend (don’t forget to visit a local independent bookstore on Small Business Saturday!), here’s a half-dozen fresh paperbacks for your perusal. Read More ⇒

It’s tricky when it comes time to making Best of the Year lists. First, there are all the buzzy books to consider and the question of whether you’re going to end up writing the same list as everyone else. Then there’s the issue of variety — should it be five fantasy novels and five science f… Read More ⇒

Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge of Crosby, Maine is back, once again presiding over -though not always present in — 13 linked stories. Still bossy and blunt to the point of obnoxiousness, Olive has found the ideal narrator in Kimberly Farr, who captures her peremptory manner and brutal h… Read More ⇒

In 1830, when she was 14 years old, Charlotte Brontë created a series of six matchbox-size books known as The Young Men’s Magazine, complete with dramatic stories and tiny hand-lettered ads. Read More ⇒

By Andrew Delbanco. (Penguin, $18.) Delbanco, a professor at Columbia, argues that the persistent legal and moral questions posed by people who fled bondage made the Civil War inevitable. Times reviewer Sean Wilentz said this was “a valuable book, reflective as well as jarring.” Read More ⇒