NL: Can you share a bio with us?
HKB: Hello! My family and I moved to Nyack in the summer of 2024 and my parents, children, partner, dog and I love this community- all of us. I grew up in Washington Heights on the Hudson. I love gardening- to eat, cooking- to eat and going out to restaurants- to eat. For my day job, I used to teach Spanish literature and language, but now I work as a librarian with early college students in Queens. I love to help my students find the books that make them feel good, especially if they are quirky character-filled books with a good dose of humor to lighten the mood.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
HKB: Right now, I am reading a book a friend gave me called The Library at Night, by the Argentine author Alberto Manguel (not the one by Matt Haig, called The Midnight Library, which I like as well). I am enjoying it very much. It’s like a meditation on the books in his library and how he haunts his library at night. Manguel is not an ordinary person though- he is quite privileged (his library is a reconstructed barn with like 35,000 volumes), but he loves his books and is a good storyteller, so I am happy to be along for the ride. I also always have a cozy mystery to read before bed. Right now I’m reading A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant. It’s so good- about a group of Jamaican-born British people in the 1960’s who form a pardner, which is a lending scheme to pool their wealth.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
HKB: I would invite Olga Tokarczuk. She is just awesome. Also, her book Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was truly surprising, thoughtful, and entertaining- and would make a great movie too. But my daughter says, Judy Bloom, duh.
NL: If you could step inside a story, which book’s world would you choose to live in?
HKB: That’s easy! I would love to sleep over in the Metropolitan Museum of Art like the kids do in the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg. You know, running around, trying on the Egyptian jewelry…
NL: If you were stranded on a deserted island, which book would you bring and why?
HKB: A long one. Maybe the encyclopedia?
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
HKB: Hmmm…. I don’t really want to knock anyone. But for me, I didn’t really need to read all the Steinbeck books in high school. My parents were going through a divorce and I already had enough real-life trauma to have to endure The Red Pony. Maybe they could have changed things up a bit.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
HKB: Definitely murder mysteries. And when they include detailed descriptions of food, I am a goner. I confess I have read every single Andrea Camilleri book on the Nyack library’s shelf. That’s a lot of books- check them out for yourself.
NL: Which book are you most hoping to see adapted into a film or TV series?
HKB: There’s a wonderful debut novel called Greta and Valdin, about siblings who are half Maori (indigenous peoples from New Zealand) and half Russian, by Rebecca Reilly. It’s hilarious and it should definitely be a series.
NL: What book do you think defines your generation and why?
HKB: Probably any Judy Blume book. Our parents, the boomers, were just obsessed with the idea of “coming of age.”
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
HKB: Manuals. I am so bad at reading manuals.
NL: If you were to own a bookstore, what would it be like? How would you arrange the books? Would you serve coffee and food? Play music? Where would it be?
HKB: First of all, all the book covers would be facing out. It would be a gallery of book covers- I always judge a book by its cover. There would be coffee in the morning, switching to wine and beer in the afternoon. A record player in the corner with some Miles Davis. Local art on the walls and in a space with lots of light, plants inside, and nature outside. Come to think of it, we will need a glass garage door that can be opened in the nice weather.
NL: If you could throw one book (lovingly!) at someone’s head so they’d absorb its wisdom instantly, which book would you choose?
HKB: To my kids- I lovingly throw any book on cleaning up after yourselves- at your head!
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
RF: I’m a writer and teacher who recently opened Big Red Books on Main Street.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
RF: The Netanyahus. Protagonist Ruben Blum’s voice is mesmerizing.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
RF: Haruki Murakami, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elizabeth Strout.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
RF: So many: Sal Paradise, Sisyphus, Yossarian (Catch 22), Alex (A Clockwork Orange), McMurphy, Hamlet, Holden Caulfield, and Milkman Dead. I can keep going!
NL: What books are on your night stand?
RF: What Does It All Mean, How to See, Different Hours.
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
RF: A book that I think is overrated might have changed someone else’s life.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
RF: Pleasure is so fleeting that I don’t feel guilty by something, anything that’s pleasurable.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
RF: No, no, no, no, no!:)
NL: What do you plan to read next?
RF: Celeste Ng’s Our Missing Hearts.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
RF: I think it was Where the Wild Things Are.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
RF: Whenever I have been asked this question, I routinely say Jane Eyre, though the Madwoman in the Attic trope is quite poignant.
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
NN: Hi, I’m Nanor and I recently moved to Rockland County from Queens, NY where I lived for 20 years. I was born and raised in California, I’m married and we have two daughters, I enjoy cooking, star gazing, karaoke, dancing, watching movies, reading and spending time with my family and friends. I previously worked at Queens Public Library and New York Public Library.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
NN: Going Zero by Anthony McCarten. Yes, it is an entertaining tech-thriller that would make an intriguing movie.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
NN: Chris Bohjalian, because he is Armenian-American like me, so I’ve always wanted to meet him. Also, I’m a fan of his novels and he is a fan of libraries, so I think he would be a fantastic guest.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
NN: Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
NN: Zero Days by Ruth Ware, Meant to Be by Emily Giffin, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
NN: We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
Regency Romance paperbacks.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
NN: Nay!
NL: What do you plan to read next?
NN: The Only One Left by Riley Sager
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
NN: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
NN: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
SA: My name is Sydnie, I’m a rising senior at Nyack High School and a page in the Children’s Room. I started working at the library about 2 years ago, and I initially applied simply because I love to read. In addition to reading, my other interests are baking, true crime, and pottery.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
SA: I’m currently in the middle of two books: one is the Death of Vivek Oji and the other is How it Feels to Float. I’m really enjoying both books. They both discuss themes of mental illness and difficult family relationships.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
SA: Though she’s no longer alive, I would love to have Toni Morrison speak at the Nyack Library. For one, she was an amazing author and poet, whose works have been globally celebrated, and two, she was a Nyack local, and lived in the area for many years.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
SA: I feel that I can identify with Winston from 1984. I think that both of us feel somewhat stifled by our environments, and yearn for greater independence and control over our lives.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
SA: Two books on my nightstand are the Bluest Eye and the Fault in Our Stars.
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
SA: I honestly feel that most book series are very overrated (The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.). They feel too drawn out, and it can be hard to keep many of the details straight when there are so many books.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
SA: A book that I’ve read and a movie I’ve watched several times is the Fault in Our Stars. While some people I know find the story cheesy, I really love the characters.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
SA: Organizing books by color is definitely visually appealing, but probably not the most practical, especially if you have a big book collection. So I say nay.
NL: What do you plan to read next?
SA: Next, I plan to re-read 1984. I read it for the first time a few months ago for my English class, but was in a rush to finish it, so I couldn’t fully enjoy it. This time, I’m reading it for leisure, so I hope to absorb more of the book’s “lessons”.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
SA: The first book I remember being read was Goodnight Moon. It was my favorite bedtime story and I can remember being fascinated by the books color scheme and the simplicity of the story. By the time I was three I’d basically memorized the whole book.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
SA: The book My Sister’s Keeper is my least favorite. The entire story was very frustrating, but the ending was especially unsatisfying. I’m used to most stories ending with a happy ending (which I know does not reflect reality), but this book’s ending was far from happy.
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
MM: I’m an author and professor of English and Journalism at Lehman College/CUNY and CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
MM: Sojourner Truth’s America by Margaret Washington. What a brilliant, funny, formidable, savvy, superhuman powerhouse she was. The book positions her in the political context of her day, and along with all historic reasons she’s iconic, it’s fascinating to read about her early days in the Hudson Valley, where Dutch was her native language.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
MM: It already happened: Toni Morrison! But I’d also love to hear Marcia Chatelain, author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History this year.
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
MM: Not that I have anything in common with her, but I love and am endlessly fascinated by Hester Prynne.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
MM: Not Now, Not Ever: Ten Years on From the Misogyny Speech by Julia Gillard, The Taking of Jemima Boone by Matthew Pearl, and Whipscars and Tattoos: The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, and the Maori by Geoffrey Sanborn.
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
MM: I never understood the appeal of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
MM: Not really. I had to read a lot of memoirs by former Miss Americas in researching my last book, a cultural history of the pageant, and most are pretty low content, but I can’t resist mining new ones for narrative nuggets even though the book came out three years ago.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
MM: Never!
NL: What do you plan to read next?
MM: Susanna Moore, The Lost Wife.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
The Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak. I still have it. It was so brilliantly designed as a set of little books for small hands, and each one contains a whole world.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
MM: It’s a tossup between Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and The Dying Animal by Philip Roth. But Roth probably wins because his book is not only myopically self-indulgent but also just astoundingly sexist.
NL: Can you give us a short bio?
MD: I’m a cultural critic, essayist, and the author of four books, most recently the biography Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey. I’ve taught journalism at NYU and aesthetics at the Yale School of Art; been a Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow at UC Irvine and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. In my 1993 essay, “Black to the Future,” I coined the term “Afrofuturism.”
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
MD: A pre-publication copy of Mark Polizzotti’s Why Surrealism Matters, which I’m blurbing for Yale Press. I’m enthralled. I’m an atheist, but if I had a religion, it would be Surrealism. I’ve spent my whole life wishing I could move to the Republic of Dreams.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
MD: Living or dead? If we’re talking immortals, Oscar Wilde, the wittiest man who ever lived, and whose table talk was, by all accounts, even more effervescently brilliant than his writing. If we’re talking living authors, Robert Macfarlane, the English nature writer, whose The Wild Places I just finished. He not only writes heart-stoppingly beautiful prose but is eloquent, erudite, and funny (in the usual drily self-deprecating English way).
NL: What character in a book do you most identify with?
MD: Fifty-percent Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye, 50% Tom Ripley in The Talented Mister Ripley.
NL: What books are on your nightstand?
MD: A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema by David Pirie; Lafcadio Hearn, Japanese Ghost Stories; Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life (On-Order), by the philosopher John Gray; Polizzoti’s little biography of Lautréamont, the patron saint of literary grotesquerie (“little” because we know next to nothing about the man, which gives Polizzoti’s attempt to biographize him a Quixotic charm).
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
MD: Anything by Malcolm Gladwell, a Deepak Chopra for tech-bro “disruptors.”
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
MD: Every now and then, when I’m feeling insomniac, I like to listen to Charlton Heston reading Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. The book is embarrassing enough—Hemingway at his most mawkish—but hearing it delivered by Moses really takes the cake.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
MD: Nay. I have enough obsessions and enough compulsions.
NL: What do you plan to read next?
MD: Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees by the British nature writer Roger Deakin, Macfarlane’s mentor. I’m thinking about trees these days for something I’m writing, a sort of gothic-naturalist essay on uncanny forests.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
MD: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Either that, or Fox in Socks.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
MD: The Bible, that user’s manual for misogynists, homophobes, and self-appointed morality squads. Thin-skinned, petulant, and given to genocidal tantrums, the Yahweh of the Old Testament is a malignant narcissist with the morals of Pol Pot. He thinks nothing of drowning the human anthill when its inhabitants are insufficiently servile. If only the Gideons had placed a copy of Tom Paine’s Common Sense in every hotel room…
Kris Hillen, Operations Coordinator
NL: Can you give us a short bio?
KH: Old white lady with two rotten children, two rotten-er cats, and a pretty swell job.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
KH: Recently finished Riding Fury Home and When We Were Sisters, reading Roses, In A Lion’s Mouth
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
KH: Living, Roxane Gay…ridiculously smart/funny; Dead, James Baldwin or Leslie Feinberg…icons
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
KH: Hasn’t been written yet
NL: What books are on your night stand?
KH: Well, there’s a couple on my nightstand, but there’s about 40 on the floor next to my nightstand. I’ll just give three. You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson , For the Hard Ones by Tatiana de la Tierra, and Snowflakes in Photographs by W. A. Bentley… he was the first guy to figure out how to take photographs of actual snowflakes. Fascinating.
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
KH: Books can often reflect a time and place that can’t be understood once that time has passed. But even at the moment, I never understood Bridges of Madison County.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
KH: Sure…Hoarding books that I will never have the time to read.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
KH: What is this word “or-gan-ize”?
NL: You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
KH: See above. Roxane Gay, James Baldwin, Leslie Feinberg…I’d probably faint or hide in a closet (pun intended)
NL: What do you plan to read next?
KH: Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly… a couple of books I’ve mentioned here have been recommended to me by librarians… People should listen to librarians more.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
KH: I don’t remember the name of it… but there was a woman on the cover with the most luscious apple you could imagine. And isn’t that really all books? An invitation to something delicious?
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
KH: Anything written by anyone who thinks they have all the answers.
NL: What are you reading? Please elaborate on what you like about it.
SC: I just started the Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. This book has all the things I like in a book. It’s historical fiction, so you learn a little something as you enjoy the story. There’s a compelling main character. It’s well written with a good story line that moves quickly. Most importantly, it’s about libraries.
NL: What’s on your to-read pile?
SC: I’m currently juggling a mix of a few other books including: Remarkably Bright Creatures, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. I read a limited number of fiction books each year so they need to be good. Shout out to my wife Julie who is a veracious reader and provides spot on recommendations.
NL: If you could have an author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
SC: Ezra Klein is an author, NY Times columnist, and podcaster. His theories and options are well reasoned and data based.
NL: Which character in a book would you most like to spend a day with?
SC: My favorite non-fiction character is Abraham Lincoln. As for fictional characters, there are almost too many options, but I’d select Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. His quiet confidence and embrace of the present moment is something I’d like to experience firsthand.
NL: What was the first book you read that was really meaningful to you?
SC: I can’t think of a first or any one book that is especially meaningful. Every book can impart some meaning, even if only to help shape your preferences. However, a general theme to many of the books that I find meaningful involves insights into the human condition with which I have no direct contact. It’s a way to foster empathy without a shared lived experience.
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
KW: I was born in Nyack, and resided in San Diego and NYC until returning to Rockland as a mom. My background is in business operations, event production and marketing. And I’m passionate about music, writing, and knowledge.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
KW: The Tenth Insight, by James Redfield. We do like it. I’m reading it with my son who really liked the Celestine Prophecy. Also wrapping up a book someone sent me by Louise Hay.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
KW: Rhonda Byrne because she does a great job of explaining the power of thought and attraction. I’d love to see the youth learn about this more. Also Sophia Stewart because I want to hear more and connect. I could keep going here…
NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
KW: Lucy, from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
KW: Notebooks!
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
KW: Never really thought about it. There are a lot of underrated books though.
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
KW: Not guilty, but while topics of interest and study vary across life seasons, I’ve always read autobiographies in Hip Hop culture and history.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
KW: Nay, to each their own.
NL: What do you plan to read next?
KW: Metu Neter and a book on property investment/management are next in my queue.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
KW: Probably Good Night Moon. I used to love one I called The Lion That Stole The Baby, but I think it’s actually called Lion In The Night (on-order).
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
KW: I don’t have one… any school history book that isn’t accurate I suppose.
NL: Can you share a bio with us?
EOB: I am a former middle school classroom teacher for whom libraries were always a home away from home.
NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
EOB: I am nearly finished with James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store.
It took a few chapters to get my full attention, but then I didn’t want to stop reading about the goings on of the Chicken Hill community and the characters who lived in it.
NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
EOB: My favorite genre is historical fiction and Michael Crummey wrote two books set in Newfoundland, Sweetland and The Innocents that are filled with abandonment, isolation, and desolation. I would love to hear him speak about the people who inspired him and the resourceful and courageous way they lived.
NL: What books are on your night stand?
EOB: I have made a concerted effort to read banned books this year and two of them, Night and Maus are currently on my nightstand. Neither of them is probably good to read before bed, but nighttime is when I do most of my reading.
NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
EOB: I know most people won’t agree with me, but I had to work to complete the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante. The relationships were too difficult to maintain and find happiness in, and I could not understand why they continued for three books. I could also not understand why I read all of them!
NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
EOB: My guilty pleasure would be the numbered books of Janet Evanovich. The sophomoric humor in those books got me laughing aloud during a difficult time and for that, I will always be grateful and I will read them all.
NL: Would you ever organize your books by color? Yea or Nay?
EOB: Oh, no!
NL: What do you plan to read next?
EOB: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell.
NL: What’s the first book that you remember reading?
EOB: I remember reading The Secret Garden when I was about eight. It remained a favorite book for several years.
NL: What’s your least favorite book?
EOB: My least favorite book recently has been Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarsczuk.