Reading

The latest nation's report card shows that American children’s reading skills reached new lows, while there is a debate about the best way to teach reading in school. Maya Payne Smart is a writer, parent educator, and literacy advocate argues that America’s reading crisis begins well before children enter kindergarten. She says it starts at birth, which is why she wrote a step-by-step guide for parents to do what it takes to set their children up to thrive as readers from day one to early elementary school. The name of the book is “Reading for Our Lives: The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child.”

This next segment came from Joe Donahue bumping into Roundtable Tech Guru Jesse Feiler while walking through a lobby of a Manhattan Hotel. That led to coffee and that led to this segment - what is the future of reading?Jesse said – let me flesh it out – and boy, did he. As we continue our literary theme this Monday Morning we welcome author and tech guru Jesse Feiler, Ruth Dickey, the Executive Director of the National Book Foundation and Literary Agent Barbara Hogenson to discuss the topic: "Is Reading at Risk?"

Diane Dearborn and Patricia Carley went on a very cool road trip. The library loving duo decided to visit all 36 branches of the Upper Hudson Library System. The result is their new book, "The Great Library Adventure: From Berlin to Berne."

Goldie Taylor's debut memoir, "The Love You Save," shines a light on the strictures of race, class and gender in a post–Jim Crow America while offering a nuanced, empathetic portrait of a family in a pitched battle for its very soul.

Peter Orner is the author of the novels "The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo" and "Love and Shame and Love" and the story collections "Esther Stories," "Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge," and "Maggie Brown & Others." His previous collection of essays, "Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live," was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. His new essay collection is "Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin."

Spencertown Academy Arts Center’s 17th annual Festival of Books takes place over Labor Day weekend, September 2 through September 5. The Festival features a giant used book sale, two days of discussions with and readings by esteemed authors, and a children’s program.

WAM Theatre’s latest production is a reading of the new play "The Light" by Loy Webb, directed by Colette Robert, which will be available to stream…

Harold Bloom, the eminent critic and Yale professor whose seminal “The Anxiety of Influence” and melancholy regard for literature’s old masters made him a…

Our Falling into Place series spotlights the important work of -and fosters collaboration between- not-for-profit organizations in our communities;…