Books of local interest

Erica Moulton, Adams, has self-published two books. The first, titled “What Happened,” is a story of 12-year-old Virginia who was “robbed of her childhood at the hands of a neighbor.” The guilt and secrets of what happened that day follow Virginia as she attempts to navigate through her troubled life battling addiction and self-mutilation. The book sells for $2.99 on Amazon’s Kindle store.

The second is “Miss Non-Perfectionist: Stories of Failure to Achieve SuperMom Status,” which is available for 99 cents in Amazon’s Kindle store. This book is a compilation of the author’s best blog posts from her site Penny Pinching Parents, pennypinchingparents.wordpress.com. Ms. Moulton takes everyday situations and finds humor among the chaos.

___

North Country Books has released “Adirondack Trail of Gold” by Rochester resident Larry Weill.

The book mixes historical fact with fiction. It is loosely based on the saga of Robert Gordon, a British loyalist who fled the violence of the American Revolution and moved to Canada, where he died in a hunting accident after the Revolution.

“Legend tells us that somewhere en route, he hid a massive cache of gold worth more than six million dollars,” according to the novel’s synopsis. “Over a century later, the famous woodsman known as Adirondack French Louie was thrown into the middle of a search for Gordon’s treasure.”

French Louie Seymour was a Canadian who went to the Adirondacks and spent about 30 years as a hunter and trapper until his death in 1915.

The novel notes that French Louie found the gold, “only for it to be lost again.” Mr. Weill’s story concerns two fictional friends who go on a quest to find the lost gold.

The book sells for $24.95 and is available at online bookstores and the publisher’s website, www.northcountrybooks.com.

___

M. James Daily, Watertown, has self-published, through CreateSpace, the collection of stories “Tales From the Campfire.”

“The stories are steeped in drama, nostalgia, humor and romance,” according to Mr. Daily’s book synopsis. “These are stories of lawmen, preachers, rangers, Indians and even a modern-day hermit. They tell about heroines and heroes in that land of yesteryear.”

Mr. Dailey has published two other books: “Pea Soup for Seniors” and “The Brighter Side.”

“Tales From the Campfire” sells for $13.95 and is available at online bookstores. The author said copies also are available at the Popcorn N More store at Salmon Run Mall.

___

The History Press has released “Wicked Adirondacks” by Dennis Webster, Utica.

The book highlights some “insidious crimes and nasty escapades of notorious lawbreakers.” For example, members of the infamous “Windfall Gang,” led by Charles Wadsworth, terrorized towns and hid out in the mountains until their capture in 1899. The book also tells of serial killer Robert Francis Garrow and the creative methods crooks have tried to sidestep forestry laws.

Mr. Webster also wrote “Wicked Mohawk Valley” and “Haunted Mohawk Valley.” He is a paranormal investigator with Ghost Seekers of Central New York.

His new book sells for $19.99 and is available at www.historypress.net and other online bookstores.

___

North Country Books, Utica, has released “The Puck Hog: Volume 2” by Christie Casciano, illustrated by Rose Mary Casciano Moziak.

The author, a television news anchor in Syracuse, is the mother of two youth hockey players.

The first volume of “The Puck Hog” was released in 2010. The subtitle of the sequel is “Haunted Hockey in Lake Placid.” It concerns main character Sophia’s team needing a miracle against the “mighty Canadian team.”

The book sells for $11.95 and is available at online bookstores and on the publishers’s website at www.northcountrybooks.com.

___

A former Port Leyden resident has self-published, through lulu.com, a second book of memories from his years growing up in the Lewis County village. Steve Newvine is a senior program manager for a California utility company. His new book, “Grown Up, Going Home: Reconnecting with My Hometown,” is available at online bookstores for $22.95 or from the Port Leyden Community Library.

Featured in the narrative are stories about the last senior class to graduate from Port Leyden Central School before it merged into the South Lewis Central School District and memories of his uncle, a Vietnam War veteran, who was killed six months after returning home from the conflict.

Top titles at Flower Memorial Library – April 2013

The current top five book titles by checkout at Watertown’s Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library are:

  1. “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn
  2. “Guilt: An Alex Delaware Novel” by Jonathan Kellerman
  3. “The Casual Vacancy” by J.K. Rowling
  4. “A Question of Identity” by Susan Hill
  5. “Deadly Stakes” by Judith A. Jance

Top five eBooks at Flower Memorial Library:

  1. “14” by Peter Clines
  2. “The 13th Juror” by John T. Lescroart
  3. “27 Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders” by Nancy Pickard
  4. “Agnes Among the Gargoyles” by Patrick Flynn
  5. “61 Hours” by Lee Child

Effort to lure bookstore to Watertown gains steam as organizers get word out

Cathy M. Anderson displays Thursday the Facebook page she created to recruit a bookstore to the Watertown area. Photo by Norm Johnston/Watertown Daily Times.

After launching a Facebook page last summer to drum up support, a group of book lovers remains focused on luring a big bookstore, such as Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million, to Watertown.

The group now is making alliances with economic development specialists in the community to back the cause. [Read more...]

Top titles at Flower Memorial Library – February 2013

The current top five book titles by checkout at Watertown’s Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library are:
1) “The Casual Vacancy” by  J.K. Rowling
2) “Merry Christmas, Alex Cross” by James Patterson
3) “The North Country Murder of Irene Izak: Stained by Her Blood” by David C. Shampine
4) “The Lost Years” by Mary Higgins Clark
5) “Winter of the World” by Ken Follett [Read more...]

Books of local interest – February 2013

Dave Stoodley has written a book about the first Watertown professional baseball franchise, dating back to 1945. Titled “Chronicle of the Watertown Athletics and the Border Baseball League,” the book traces the roots of the former city professional team and minor team since its inception in 1945 to their demise in 1951.

Mr. Stoodley, an Adams Center resident, conducted research in libraries in Watertown, Ogdensburg and Geneva, along with Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario. He also visited Flower Memorial Library, the Watertown Daily Times and Ogdensburg Journal archives. [Read more...]

Books of local interest – November 2012

Raymond E. Petersen, Redwood, a political science professor at Jefferson Community College, has written his second book, titled “The Middle of Everywhere.” Published by the State University of New York press, “The Middle of Everywhere” is the story of a young man’s quest to keep his hometown’s papermill from closing, which turns into an odyssey across a rural upstate New York county. The book is available for $24.95 at www.sunypress.edu or at the JCC campus bookstore.

[Read more...]

Top titles at Flower Memorial Library – November 2012

Top titles by checkout at Flower Memorial Library

The current top five book titles by checkout at Watertown’s Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library are:
1) Woman’s Day “Best Ideas For Christmas”
2) “Fifty Shades Darker” by E.L. James
3) “Beyond Tomorrow” by Fern Michaels
4) “The Tombs” by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry
5) “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich

[Read more...]

‘One in a Thousand’ nets award

Thousand Islands photographer and author Ian Coristine’s interactive iPad eBook app “One in a Thousand” has won the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals Marcom Award. The Marcom awards are an international creative competition for marketing and communication professionals.

[Read more...]

‘Lake Effect’ book explores its science, trends, living with it

‘Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows’ is published by Syracuse University Press and sells for $24.95

The ghostly, wavering radar images stretching across Lake Ontario will soon appear on our TV and computer screens, putting us on edge as the lake-effect snow season gears up.

But it wasn’t always like this, according to the author of a comprehensive book on lake-effect snow. Our ancestors didn’t seem to be bothered much by the storms, and it was more than a case of what they didn’t see coming didn’t trouble them.

“As the population moved into cities, snow was more of a problem,” said Mark Monmonier, a distinguished professor of geography at Syracuse University. He is the author of the recently released “Lake Effect: Tales of Large Lakes, Arctic Winds, and Recurrent Snows,” published by Syracuse University Press.

[Read more...]

Former Fort Drum soldier releases book on experiences in Iraq

A former Fort Drum soldier has written a book about his time in Iraq’s “Triangle of Death.”

“Not in the Wind, Earthquake, or Fire” is based on Philip Sharp’s second deployment to Iraq from 2006 to 2007. He was in the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry — the Polar Bears.

“That is the deployment when we had an entire weapons section wiped out and three men captured,” Mr. Sharp wrote in an email in response to questions about his book, which was self-published.

He kept a journal during the 15-month deployment and most of his book is based on that first-hand account.

“It is not glossed-over and hyped up or glorified beyond merit,” Mr. Sharp wrote. “It shows the deployment in the raw and direct language of your average infantry soldier.

[Read more...]