Chin-Sun Lee and Laurie Stone
Book reading and signing. Free.
Come in for a Saturday reading in Hudson.
Chin-Sun Lee
After a long career in fashion design, Chin-Sun Lee earned an MFA in Creative Writing at The New School in New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Georgia Review, The Rumpus, and Joyland, among other publications. She currently lives in New Orleans, working on her second novel. Upcountry is her debut.
Laurie Stone
is the author of six books, most recently Streaming Now, Postcards from the Thing that is Happening. She writes the Substack “Everything is Personal” at lauriestone.substack.com/subscribe
Four poets, reading and discussing their work
Carol Graser, Mike Jurkovic, Judith Prest and Suzanne Rancourt. Free.
We love poetry, we love Fridays, we love Autumn! Join us with a group of acclaimed poets reading from their work.
Carol Graser
Her work has been published in many journals, including Wrath Bearing Tree, Apricity Magazine, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Evening Street Review, Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, The MacGuffin, Midwifery Today, So to Speak, Southern Poetry Review, and Midwest Quarterly. Her collection, The Wild Twist of Their Stems, was published by FootHills Publishing in 2007.
Mike Jurkovic
His poetry, prose and music reviews have been published globally but with little reportable income. His work appears in many full length collections. A 2016 Pushcart nominee, he is President of Calling All Poets. Featured poet: London, San Francisco, NYC, Albany, Baltimore, Philadelphia. Chronogram, 2003-2006. Upcoming 2024: Buckshot Reckoning (Luchador Press) & Monet’s Bamboo (CAPS Press). He loves Emily most of all.
Judith Prest
has two publications by Finishing Line Press, After, and Geography of Loss. She also has three poetry collections in print. Her poems have been published in Misfits, Rockvale Review, Mad Poet’s Review, Chronogram, Akros Review, The Muse, Earth’s Daughters, Up The River, Fredericksburg Literature and Art Review, Upstream, Waxing and Waning, and in tent anthologies. Judith lives in Duanesburg, New York with her husband and 3 cats.
Suzanne Rancourt
is a writer of Abenaki/Huron descent. Her first book, Billboard in the Clouds, received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award. Her second, murmurs at the gate, was published by Unsolicited Press in 2019. She is a USMC and Army Veteran, and her poetry and non-fiction have been published widely.MORE
Sean Allison Spoken Word Performance: If It Bleeds, It Leads
With an opening poetry reading by Ifetayo Cobbins. $10.
This very special performance of Sean’s one man show If It Bleeds It Leads is a dress rehearsal for his New York City premiere at Theatre Row on October 10 as part of the United Solo Festival.
Shae D’lyn, accomplished television, film and stage actor (Dharma and Greg, Boardwalk Empire, Vegas Vacation, Arthur Miller’s The American Clock) is taking her lifetime of experience and success into the director’s chair for this production.
The show is two 45 minute sets with an intermission.
Additionally Shae and Sean are both excited to be joined by local artist and superb poet Ifetayo Cobbins, who will open the night reciting her original poems.
Shae and Sean both live in Hudson and are thrilled to bring the show to The Spotty Dog.
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IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS
Generations of my family have been journalists. That’s how I got a job shooting television news overnight in New York City as a one-man camera crew despite the fact that I was a twenty-one-year-old, two-time college dropout living in Westchester with my parents.Set against the ultra violent, unstable times of New York City in 1993, If It Bleeds It Leads is the true story of my time coming of age chasing murder, mayhem, and love behind the wheel of an auctioned-off cop car on the streets of the biggest media market in the world.
Ride along, stand on the corners…meet the people, the cops, the firefighters, the perps, the victims and the denizens of the night that shaped my very personal journey into the American caste systems of money, race and privilege.
New York filmmaker Joshua Zeman (Cropsey, Sons of Sam) describes If It Bleeds It Leads as “a memoir of a time in New York City best described as the Wild West.”
August Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday.
Hello Lovely Readers!
Summer is upon us! We’ll be meeting Tuesday, August 8th, 6 – 8 ish to discuss Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid.
Copies of next month’s read, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and (featuring Spotty Dog!) will also be available with a book club discount of 15%.
Happy Reading and See you all soon!
Austin at Spotty Dog
Where's Waldo in Hudson Closing Party!
Come hang with us on Tuesday for snacks and our participants' prize drawing. Free!
CANCELED: Jillian Lauren Book Reading and Signing
This event has been canceled by the author and publisher. Her book is still available.
Summary
A real-life Agent Starling and Hannibal Lecter—one woman’s mission to uncover the secrets of America’s most prolific serial killer from his prison cell. Featuring a forward from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly
It all started when journalist Jillian Lauren asked LAPD Homicide Detective Mitzi Roberts about which case Roberts was most proud of closing. “Samuel Little,” Roberts answered. The now 79-year-old Little had murdered approximately 90 women over six decades and repeatedly got away with the murders due to lack of evidence (or jurisdiction); Roberts finally brought him to justice by tying him to the murders of three Los Angeles women.
Surprised she had never heard of Little, Lauren started digging. She started exchanging letters with Little until she got a face-to-face meeting that led to hundreds of hours of interviews full of information Little had never shared with law enforcement. Lauren knew this journey to the truth was taking its toll on her, but she couldn’t stop—Little was giving her a powerful and harrowing window into the psyche of a serial killer.
To balance out his darkness, Lauren decided to illuminate the lives of the women he killed. In her interviews, he confessed to 12 additional murders, supplying details that Lauren could share with families in need of closure. Harrowing, insightful, and extraordinarily adept at giving Little’s victims a chance to have their stories heard for the first time, Behold the Monster is a true crime book as unforgettable as it is terrifying.
About Jillian Lauren
JILLIAN LAUREN is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoirs Everything You Ever Wanted, Some Girls, and the novel, Pretty. She is married to Weezer bass player Scott Shriner, and they live in Los Angeles, California.
July Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday.
Hello Lovely Readers!
Where's Waldo in Hudson!
For the month of July. Pick up a “Find Waldo Local in Hudson!” stamp card and get started! Free!
Where’s Waldo? In Hudson, of course! The iconic children’s book character in the red-and-white-striped shirt and black-rimmed specs is visiting twenty-five local businesses throughout our community throughout the month of July. Celebrating its eleventh anniversary, Find Waldo Local is a great summer vacation activity and a wonderful way to support local businesses, including Vasilows, Tradewinds, Steiners, Second Show and the Hudson Farmers Market.
Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday. Free!
Hello Lovely Readers!
Norman Douglas's Book Release Reading with Karen Schoemer and Andrew Amelinckx.
Celebrate the release of Norman's debut literary collection, Love and the Fear of Love. Free.
Love and the Fear of Love is made of fables, stories, and tales based on specific words and phrases. Dig in to court procedurals on the meaning of love, the true meaning of trouserdom, and original fables such as The Man, the King, the Girl and the Spider.
NORMAN DOUGLAS
norman douglas does way too much, even tho he says he does as little as possible.
he lives alone to sleep in the very large apartment he calls home while advocating communal lifestyles.
he writes poems on the street and says he’s not a poet.
he uses human languages to say that language fails to create the true realm of the unspeakable.
he knows we’re not even people and says the planet would still be perfectly invaluable without nominally sentient animals who are so scared of love that they don’t even need to validate while they value everything else they ain’t got.
mostly he treks lots of stories just like folks you know. plus, he wants to not want.
also, he pays rent in hudson, new york, usa, earth, outer space.
KAREN SCHOEMER
Poet Karen Schoemer contributes words and vocals to a number of bands, including Sky Furrows, Jaded Azurites, Ivan the Tolerable and Karen & Peter. A former music critic for the New York Times and Newsweek, she is the author of Great Pretenders: My Strange Love Affair with 50s Pop Music and the poetry chapbook Sparrowbush Bread.
ANDREW AMELINCKX
Andrew Amelinckx is a freelance journalist who has previously written three historical true-crime books. He held down a variety of jobs, from bartending in New Orleans to burlesque dancing in New York City, before spending a decade as an award-winning investigative crime reporter for several news organizations, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Berkshire Eagle. His work has appeared in Insider, Smithsonian.com, Men’s Journal, Modern Farmer, and elsewhere. He has an MFA with distinction in painting from Pratt Institute. Andrew lives with his wife, Kara, and dog, Dashiell, in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Reading with Alex Dyck, Nora Treatbaby, and Music by Cal Fish, Misty 222 and RRB (Rager)
And Potions by NYMPH! $5-$15 donation for the artists.
Time creates a space for us to be together.
Doors will be open to let the air and light in.
Show will be accessible from the inside + from the street.
Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday. Free!
Book Club Description
A group of up to twenty diverse individuals who share a love of reading, conversation, discussion, meeting new people and who are open to diverse life views. Each meeting, a different club member will be designated to host the next gathering. Drinks and snacks are available. We’ll see what happens and build from there!
Book Club Details:
– A new host at every club meeting!
– The Book Club books are available from The Spotty Dog at a 15% book club discount.
– the second Tuesday of every month
– 20 people maximum
– 6pm-8pm or so
About The House in the Cerulean Sea
A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.
When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.
But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.
An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
Author Event, Discussion & Book Signing
With Alissa Quart and Kimberly Cutter. Free.
Alissa and Kimberly will be discussing Alissa’s new book, Bootstrapped Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.
Bootstrapped is an unsparing, incisive, yet ultimately hopeful look at how we can shed the American obsession with self-reliance that has made us less healthy, less secure, and less fulfilled
The promise that you can “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” is central to the story of the American Dream. It’s the belief that if you work hard and rely on your own resources, you will eventually succeed. However, time and again we have seen how this foundational myth, with its emphasis on individual determination, brittle self-sufficiency, and personal accomplishment, does not help us. Instead, as income inequality rises around us, we are left with shame and self-blame for our condition.
Acclaimed journalist Alissa Quart argues that at the heart of our suffering is a do-it-yourself ethos, the misplaced belief in our own independence and the conviction that we must rely on ourselves alone. Looking at a range of delusions and half solutions—from “grit” to the false Horatio Alger story to the rise of GoFundMe—Quart reveals how we have been steered away from robust social programs that would address the root causes of our problems. Meanwhile, the responsibility for survival has been shifted onto the backs of ordinary people, burdening generations with debt instead of providing the social safety net we so desperately need.
Insightful, sharply argued, and characterized by Quart’s lively writing and deep reporting, and for fans of Evicted and Nickel and Dimed, Bootstrapped is a powerful examination of what ails us at a societal level and a plan for how we can free ourselves from these self-defeating narratives.
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ALISSA QUART
is the author of five acclaimed books of nonfiction, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2023), Squeezed, Republic of Outsiders, Hothouse Kids, and Branded. She is the Executive Director of the non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She is also the author of two books of poetry Thoughts and Prayers and Monetized. She has written for many publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and TIME. Her honors include an Emmy, an SPJ award and a Nieman fellowship. She lives with her family in Brooklyn.
KIMBERLY CUTTER
is a journalist, novelist, and creator and host of The Control Variable: American Propaganda, an investigative podcast series that takes an unprecedented look into the history and science of propaganda to better understand the events of January 6, 2021. She is the former Executive Editor for Harper’s Bazaar and the former West Coast Editor for W Magazine. Cutter has written for many publications including The Wall Street Journal, Elle, Vanity Fair, New York, AD, Marie Claire and Vogue.com. She lives in the Hudson Valley.MORE
Alison Riley with Becca Blackwell & Meshell Ndegeocello
Discussing Alison's new book Recipe for Disaster. Free.
Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday.
This Month’s book:
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Book Club Description
A group of up to twenty diverse individuals who share a love of reading, conversation, discussion, meeting new people and who are open to diverse life views. Each meeting, a different club member will be designated to host the next gathering. Drinks and snacks are available. We’ll see what happens and build from there!
Book Club Details:
– A new host at every club meeting!
– The Book Club books are available from The Spotty Dog at a 15% book club discount.
– the second Tuesday of every month
– 20 people maximum
– 6pm-8pm or so
About Klara and the Sun
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
Author Event with Kat Georges, Bibbe Hansen, and Puma Perl
Three writers reading from the new anthology: Arriving at a Shoreline. Free.
Kat Georges is a New York City-based author, poet, playwright, and graphic designer. She is the author of Our Lady of the Hunger: Poems and Three Somebodies: Plays about Notorious Dissidents, and is co-editor of the annual contemporary dada journal, Maintenant. Her poems have recently appeared in NYC from the Inside and Mas Tequila. Kat is co-director, editor, and creative director of Three Rooms Press.
Bibbe Hansenis a veteran of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory and the 1960’s New York experimental theater and film underground. She is the daughter of Fluxus and Happenings artist Al Hansen, and the mother of visual artist Channing Hansen and the pop musician Beck. A multiverse performer, musician, and visual artist, Bibbe lives in Hudson, New York and lectures, performs, and exhibits internationally.
Puma Perl is a poet, writer, journalist, and performer and is the author of two chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections, including Retrograde (great weather for MEDIA). Her band, Puma Perl and Friends, brings spoken word together with rock and roll and has performed together since 2012. She’s received three awards from the New York Press Association in recognition of her journalism and was the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing. In 2022 she was honored to read at the Whitney Biennial, New York City.
Book Club!
Meets at 6pm Every Second Tuesday.
This Month’s book:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V. E. Schwab.
Book Club Description
A group of up to twenty diverse individuals who share a love of reading, conversation, discussion, meeting new people and who are open to diverse life views. Each meeting, a different club member will be designated to host the next gathering. Drinks and snacks are available. We’ll see what happens and build from there!
Book Club Details:
– A new host at every club meeting!
– The Book Club books are available from The Spotty Dog at a 15% book club discount.
– the second Tuesday of every month
– 20 people maximum
– 6pm-8pm or so
About The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.MORE
Author Reading and Book Signing with Jen Beagin
Discussing her new book, Big Swiss, which is set in Hudson!
It’s going to get crowded! Join us for an event with acclaimed local author Jen Beagin, reading from her new novel Big Swiss, which is set in Hudson.
“A fantastic, weird-as-hell, super funny novel.”
—Melissa Broder, author of Milk FedJEN BEAGIN
holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and is a recipient of a Whiting Award in fiction. Her first novel Pretend I’m Dead was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and Vacuum in the Dark was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. She is also the author of Big Swiss. She lives in Hudson, New York.ABOUT THE BOOK
Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house, built in 1737, is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss, since she’s tall, stoic, and originally from Switzerland. Greta is fascinated by Big Swiss’s refreshing attitude toward trauma. They both have dark histories, but Big Swiss chooses to remain unattached to her suffering while Greta continues to be tortured by her past.One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice at the dog park. In a panic, she introduces herself with a fake name and they quickly become enmeshed. Although Big Swiss is unaware of Greta’s true identity, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…Bold, outlandish, and filled with irresistible characters, Big Swiss is both a love story and also a deft examination of infidelity, mental health, sexual stereotypes, and more—from an amazingly talented, one-of-a-kind voice in contemporary fiction.