Books

I’ve been going to New York Comic Con for a number of years. At the 2017 edition this past weekend, I was once again struck by how much of the show is geared toward readers of books rather than of comic books.
Mainstream publishers HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House all had booths on the Javits Center convention floor. And given the fact that Penguin Random House also owns Crown, Knopf, Doubleday and Del Rey, that adds up to a lot of books — not to mention a lot of author appearances and book signings.

For Jack Sheedy, the publication of his late wife Jean Sands’ poetry book, “Close But Not Touching,” is a celebration of her life.
Sands, who was a Harwinton resident, died in October 2016.

Go back in time, step on a butterfly, and when you return to the present day there’s a different president — your tiny act reverberates through time and changes history. That’s part of the fun of time travel stories — imagining what would happen to your life in the present day if you killed Hitler or a dinosaur. Or met your idol from 200 years ago.

In November 1930, the entire Germond family was murdered on their family farm in Stanfordville. 
The details of that night and the subsequent investigation are outlined in “Hudson Valley Murder & Mayhem,” a new book by Andrew K. Amelinckx that features 11 true crime stories that span 300 years in 11 Hudson Valley counties — including the Stanfordville tale in Dutchess County and an outline of the Austerlitz Cannibal in Columbia County.
 Amelinckx, who lives in Catskill, N.Y., moved to the area with his wife in 2006.