Alec Baldwin chronicles his experiences traversing

the family court system

By Lorraine Smorol

Alec Baldwin is one angry dude. You can almost see the steam rising from the pages of his book A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce (St. Martin’s Press, New York City; 224 pages; $24.95/hardcover), a documentation of his nasty divorce from actress Kim Basinger, with all the resulting fallout and backlash.

A publisher seeking a writer is unusual in the book world, but that’s just what happened to Cleveland, N.Y., resident Meg Schneider. “Voyageur had put out two other similar books, ones about Minnesota and Pennsylvania,” she says. “They wanted to do New York next. The editor asked my agent if she had any writers who could do this. That’s a rare thing when they come to me.”

That was last fall, and after an intense, six-week, full-time blitz, which included a five-day trip to New York City (nice work if you can get it!), Schneider turned over her manuscript for New York: Yesterday & Today. This is a perfect coffee-table book: You can easily get through a chapter that focuses on a geographic region of the state, or a city, in one sitting.

Two new coffee-table photo books

will put readers in an Empire State of mind

By Molly English-Bowers

Longtime Syracuse radio host Phil Markert used to joke when stuck in traffic on Erie Boulevard East that the road was such a bad idea, “they ought to rip it up and build a canal.” Anyone holding on to that type of nostalgia when the Erie Canal bisected Syracuse might want to take a look at a new photo book compiled by Dennis Connors, curator of the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA).

Central New York’s bygone cinemas are recalled in

Norm Keim’s new book Our Movie Houses By James MacKillop

Anyone in town who’s paid attention to the movies over the last two generations knows Norm Keim. Actually, that’s the Rev. Norman O. Keim, a one-time Syracuse University chaplain who ran the Film Forum program there from 1968 to 1980. On three days midweek at SU’s Gifford Auditorium, Film Forum was the city’s premier art house venue, when movies were hot and you could impress a date with words like auteur and mise-en-scène.

It’s no secret that Central New York has produced several successful authors such as L. Frank Baum, Laurie Halse Anderson, Bruce Coville and most recently, Matthew Dunn, whose accomplishments continue to grow. Dunn’s latest novel, Erased (Onondaga Hill Publishing, Syracuse; 304 pages; $15/softcover), about a man’s trouble with identity, was recently awarded a bronze medal from the 12th annual Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards. 

The awards honor “the best in independently published novels.” Since the IPPYs received more than 3,000 entries from multiple countries and 65 categories, Dunn’s honor is no small feat. Winning third in the Thriller category was a big confidence boost, Dunn admits, although he’s not sure how the voting process worked.

Do something shockingly old school: Read a book

He might be a promising mystery writer now, but DeWitt resident Mike Langan didn’t start off penning taut legal thrillers. “I wrote the world’s worst romance novel, but it never sold,” he confessed. “It was horrible.”

March is celebrated as women’s history month. Laura Ponticello, along with Creekside Books & Coffee in Skaneateles, has found an innovative way to keep the sisterhood alive with books.

Reviews of these books by Central New York authors: Towards Polaris,  Lullaby for Morons, Something Must Be Done: One Black Woman’s Story, 25 Ways to Make College Pay Off, The Society of S, Our Story Begins, Painting the Invisible Man