This week's Book Picks comes from Kim Van Alkemade from Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs, NY and Manchester Center, VT and Amy Zimmerman from Chatham Bookstore in Chatham, NY.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College Beau Breslin, and Former Times-Union Associate Editor Mike Spain.

Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.

Nicholas Boggs, whose new book, "Baldwin: A Love Story," offers a fresh, intimate portrait of James Baldwin. Drawing on letters, archives, and conversations, Boggs traces Baldwin’s search for connection across Harlem, Paris, and beyond, revealing how love shaped his politics and prose.

Donna Leon’s memoir, "Wandering through Life," gave her fans a colorful tour through her life, from childhood in New Jersey to adventures in China and Iran, to her love of Venice and opera. Nowhere, however, did she discuss her writing life.Now in her new collection of essays "BACKSTAGE: Stories of a Writing Life," Donna reveals her admiration for, and inspiration from, the great crime novelists Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their approach to storytelling as she dissects her favorite books of theirs. She expresses her love for Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and her appreciation for Sir Walter Scott’s generosity of spirit. And she chronicles the amount of research she undertakes to be able to present her characters and work authentically.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois, Former EPA Regional Administrator, Professor at Bennington College, and President of Beyond Plastics Judith Enck, is a writer and analyst; he recently retired from the presidency of Siena College and was a former NY Congressman, and his new book is “The Spirit of Philadelphia” Chris Gibson, and Former Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick.

"How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism" is a practical guide for parents, caregivers, and others with young men in their lives on how to talk with those young men about fascism and the right-wing, which specifically and particularly preys on them for recruitment.The book covers the history of right-wing recruitment of young men, explaining why the right-wing focuses on recruiting men both on a theoretical basis and through the logic of movement-building, and then moves to practical analysis and suggestions for how to counter recruitment today.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Publisher Emeritus of The Daily Freeman Ira Fusfeld, Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio.

Rogue Oliphant is a collective of musicians that specialize in original songs, and accompanying spoken word lyrics by the Pulitzer Prize winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon and Paul Muldoon and Rogue Oliphant will be performing at Cherry Valley Artworks on August 30th at 7:30 PM.Paul Muldoon & Rogue Oliphant have a new single and Album - Visible from Space. This is what happens when a World-renowned poet joins forces with an all-star musical collective - a transcendent fusion of lyrical spoken-word storytelling and genre-crossing arrangements. The album, Visible from Space, arrives via Soul Selects Records on Friday, September 12th.

Barrington Stage Company presents the world premiere of “Something Beautiful: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty,” at the Boyd-Quinson Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts from August 28-30. The brand new celebration of the work of Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty is conceived of and directed by Jason Danieley.