Best Reads: Holiday Book Recommendations for 2022
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A good book combines the best qualities of a tangible gift and an experiential gift for family and friends. Jessica Kaplan and Mark Fowler, owners of the local independent bookstore, Bronx River Books at 37 Spencer Place in Scarsdale Village, recommend these season’s readings:
Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is one of this year’s most popular and most highly praised novels; it’s a ten-best books of 2022 selection by both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Kingsolver transplants the basic narrative of Dickens’s David Copperfield to rural Kentucky, where the son of a dirt-poor, teenaged single mother makes his way through a perilous world. “I was a lowlife . . . born in a mobile home, so that’s like the Eagle Scout of trailer trash.” Frequently funny, frequently gut-wrenching.
Kevin Wilson’s big-hearted new coming-of-age novel Now is Not the Time to Panic focuses on two misfit teens who connect one summer. An enigmatic, unsigned poster they create and pin up around town ignites a panic that changes their lives forever. Wilson keenly remembers what it was like to be a teenager.
Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry and Tom Perrota’s Tracy Flick Can’t Win humorously depict the glass ceiling that women have too frequently faced in climbing the career ladder. In Lessons, Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist, is forced to forgo a career in the lab and to become instead a television chef to cope with life as a single mother. In Tracy Flick, the protagonist is an assistant principal at the high school that she earlier attended as a teenager, who strives to become principal, which proves to be a daunting goal.
Westchester resident and Bronx River Books favorite Patrick Radden Keefe has released a wonderful collection of his New Yorker essays on all sorts of colorful wrongdoers entitled Rogues. His previous book, Empire of Pain, won the 2021 Bailie Gifford award, the English-speaking world’s premier prize for non-fiction.
Another gem is this year’s Bailie Gifford winner: Super-Infinite by Katherine Rundell. The judges commented 
that “the passion, playfulness and sparkling prose [in Rundell’s biography of John Donne] seduced all of us. [She] makes an irresistible case for Donne’s work to be widely read 400 years later, for all the electric joy and love it expresses.”
In Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout revisits now-divorced Lucy Barton, the heroine of My Name is Lucy Barton, who sits out the pandemic in Maine with her ex-husband William, who was the subject of Strout’s earlier Oh, William. Lucy By the Sea stands alone on its own merits but will tempt the reader to sample some of Strout’s earlier books including Olive Kitteridge which features a series of connected stories about Olive, a crotchety retired schoolteacher, and the characters whom she encounters throughout her life.
Trust, by Hernan Diaz, is another novel that made the 10-best lists of both the Times and The Washington Post. It depicts the difficult marriage of an ultra-rich couple in early 20th century New York from four fascinatingly different perspectives.
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen. No, it’s not a novel about contemporary Israeli politics – at least not exactly. Instead, it’s a slapstick, laugh-out-loud campus novel set in the 1960s, taking as its point of departure a real-life incident when Benzion Netanyahu (father of Benjamin) brought his whole family to Cornell one winter weekend when he was applying for a teaching position. A surprise winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Even a reader with no interest whatsoever in video games can love Gabrielle Zevin’s novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow! Sam and Sadie meet as youngsters, become creative partners in the world of video game design, and sustain an intense friendship that spans 30 years.
In Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark explores the lifelong friendship between Agnes Lee and her best friend and neighbor Polly Wister, as they struggle in the twilight of their lives over what to do with the coastal peninsula on which they have spent their summers.
Finally, an ultra-local favorite: A Sort of Utopia by Professor Carol O’Connor chronicles the history of Scarsdale from 1891 to 1981. In this Bronx River Books perennial bestseller, you’ll discover an abundance of interesting information about places, personalities, and events in your hometown.
A Magical Night in Edgewood
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On November 18th, Edgewood Elementary School hosted a Family Fun Night where local magician Joseph Fields amazed the crowd. During the course of two shows 300 people and 75 families joined the fun. The audience was served popcorn and snacks. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, all unopened extra snacks were donated to the Open Arms Shelter in White Plains.
Safeguarding Women's Reproductive Rights: Scarsdale Women Learn More About America Post Dobbs
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Discussing women’s. access to abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Attorney Rabia Muqaddam said, “What is happening on the ground is pretty catastrophic.: But, she said, “the arc of justice does bend, and will, in our direction." She vowed, “We are not giving up. There is reason for hope.”
Muqaddam, a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights was invited by the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale to speak on “Abortion in America Post-Dobbs “ at the Scarsdale Library on Wednesday November 16, 2022. The event was well attended by a group of women who wanted to learn more about what was going on nationwide and what they could do to safeguard their rights.
Muqaddam is the lead counsel in challenges to the abortion bans and restrictions passed in Oklahoma and discussed work by the Center to challenge abortion limitations in Tennessee and Kentucky. The group is also working to defend women’s rights to travel across state lines to states that do permit abortion, to receive lifesaving healthcare in cases where pregnancies endanger lives and to receive medication to induce medical abortions.
Beyond abortion, Muqaddam believes that women have a right to personal body autonomy, to contraception, to have or not to have children and the right to maternal health care. She says, “if women don’t have the right to an abortion, they don’t have equality and are relegated to second class citizens. She said, “The right to abortion is essential for people’s dignity and their ability to take care of their existing families.”
About the Dobbs decision she said, “It is not clear why the court even took this case. It is highly unusual to take away a right.”
She continued, "In determining whether a right such as abortion is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, Justice Alito says the only that matters is whether that right was deeply rooted in history and tradition. The practical effect of restricting that right, the harm that may cause, is not relevant. Furthermore, Alito articulates an extreme version of Constitutional originalism, in that only rights that were recognized in the late 1800's, at the time of the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, are protected. Despite Alito's footnote to the contrary, under his legal reasoning, the rights to birth control, same sex marriage, and racial intermarriage would not be protected."
About her work to safeguard women’s reproductive rights she said, “We are going to build it back up through the courts and through legislation. We are going to do everything we can to build back up the rights to abortion and true reproductive autonomy….We are going to win – the law is on our side. The law does not only recognize rights from the 1880’s. It is contrary to the way the law was understood for generations. Once the courts become more rationale they will decide on our side,” and she added, “Hopefully Congress will pass the women’s reproductive rights act.”
About the November election and Gen Z voters she said, “Every generation is more concerned about women’s health – we saw that in the election. They came out and voted. That’s why I am hopeful. They care and they are knowledgeable. I think these anti-choice pro-life people are facing their own extinction.”
What can you do to support women’s reproductive rights? Muqaddam advised the group to “Speak loudly and publicly and give money to funds fighting this ban. Talk about why abortion is essential. Sex education and contraception are important too – talk about these questions in a more open matter. That will move the needle. Abortion should not be shoved under the rug. It’s ethical and essential. If we all speak openly it will change minds.”
League Event to Analyze the Impact of Supreme Court Decision on Abortion: You're Invited
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Rabia MuqaddamThe League of Women Voters of Scarsdale invites the community to a discussion of the recent Supreme Court decision, “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” with speakers Rabia Muqaddam and Laurie Bertram Roberts at the Scarsdale Public Library on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 from 9:15 am to 11:30 am.
The event is free of charge and the League asks you to RSVP here.
Rabia Muqaddam and Laurie Bertram Roberts will be discussing their work and the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on women’s access to healthcare.
Rabia Muqaddam is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, headquartered in New York, where she has worked since 2017. She is lead counsel in the challenges to the abortion bans and restrictions passed by the Oklahoma legislature in 2021 and 2022. She previously worked as a litigation associate at Dechert LLP. Muqaddam holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she was a president of the Cornell Law Students for Reproductive Justice, an online editor for the Cornell Law Review, and a participant in the LGBT Clinical programs. She also holds a B.A. from Cornell University.
Laurie Bertram Roberts is the co-founder and Executive Director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund (MRFF), a 
Laurie Bertram Robertsreproductive justice organization based in Jackson, Mississippi, that provides financial assistance and practical support to persons seeking abortions, as well as free emergency contraception and community based comprehensive sex education to mitigate governmental restrictions and economic limitations that adversely impact people of low income – and especially those who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). Bertram Roberts is a writer and activist whose experience dates to the early 2000s with Head Start advocacy, parent organizing, and voter education, utilizing years of diverse leadership and activism to empower communities marginalized by their gender, race, poverty, disability, and/or sexuality.
Letters to the Editor: Vote Row A for the Democrats
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To the Editor: The midterm elections are upon us. The Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee urges you to vote for all the Democratic candidates, on Row A.
The election of Joe Biden as President spared the nation from the re-election of the worst president in American history, Donald Trump. But Trumpism/MAGA Republicans still poison our political landscape and threaten to destroy our democracy. Their extreme politics have brought us to a place--abetted by an out of touch Supreme Court--where gun safety are dirty words and women who seek reproductive health care are treated like criminals.
These extremist Republicans are gearing up to take over Congress and make abortion a crime in all fifty states, including right here in 'safe' New York. That means you, your wife and your sister could be forced to give birth. They are also plotting to override the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election by electing legislative candidates and enacting laws that will permit state legislatures to ignore the votes of people like you. Do you want a Speaker McCarthy and a Senate Majority Leader McConnell?
Let's not forget that Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor, voted in Congress to overthrow the election AFTER the insurrection on January 6th. That should be disqualifying by itself.
This year it isn't hyperbole: this is the most critical midterm election of our lifetimes.
Republicans would like you to take your eye off their extremism and talk about runaway crime and inflation. But the first is false: crime is down in Westchester County since the election of our Democratic County Executive. The second--yes, there is inflation, a worldwide phenomenon, largely due to the Ukrainian War and shortages. But gas prices are down. Other economic signals are mixed, and the Biden administration and the Federal Reserve are certainly on the case.
The reality?
Democrats have been in charge of both federal and state governments and have been responsible stewards. The CHIPS Act, the Inflation Recovery Act and other legislation like the American Rescue Plan fought the effects of climate change, permitted the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, reduced child poverty and positioned us to strengthen the social safety net and move our economy forward. Our community's representatives voted for each and every one of these policies, including U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Jamaal Bowman, both of whom are on the ballot.
Governor Hochul and the whole executive team, Lieutenant Governor Delgado, Comptroller DiNapoli and Attorney General James, are working hard at their jobs in a responsible manner to deliver for the people of New York. Our Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and State Senator Shelley Mayer, to whose district Scarsdale has been added, have delivered protections for women, doctors and providers in the healthcare arena, enacted sensible gun safety regulation and have championed voting reforms and education.
This is no time to be complacent. We need to make a statement here in Scarsdale: we don't agree with extremist politics at either the federal or state level. Your voice is your vote! Vote for the Democratic ticket on Row A!
Myra Saul
Chair, Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee
To the Editor:
Early voting for the midterm election starts tomorrow, October 29. The Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee urges voters to rally around the Democratic ticket and vote for the Democratic candidates on Row A.
In addition to the New York State executive offices and state and federal legislative offices that will be contested, there are several judgeships and a proposal on the ballot.
All Democratic judicial candidates are pro-choice and have the requisite judicial temperament. All the candidates listed below are running for Supreme Court Justice, except for Mr. Williams who is running for County Court Judge. The Supreme Court is New York’s court of general jurisdiction, handling both civil and criminal matters. County Court primarily handles criminal matters but it also has a limited civil jurisdiction.
Supreme Court Candidates
Sherri Eisenpress
Ms. Eisenpress is currently an Acting Supreme Court Justice and a Rockland County Family Court Judge. Prior to becoming a judge, she was a partner in a small litigation boutique law firm specializing in commercial, intellectual property, employment, real estate related litigation and mediation for clients ranging from large and medium sized corporate entities to small businesses and individuals.
Kerri A. Fiore
Ms. Fiore currently serves as a Support Magistrate in Yonkers Family Court, where she hears child support, spousal support and paternity cases. She has also worked in the offices of two judges—one in the Supreme Court and the other in Family Court.
Anne E. Minihan
Judge Minihan is a Westchester County Court Judge and an Acting Supreme Court Justice in the capacity of the Administrative Judge for the 9th Judicial District. Previously, she was the principal law attorney to a Supreme Court justice, Acting Village Justice for Croton-on-Hudson and a principal court attorney to an Appellate Division judge.
Amy S. Puerto
Ms. Puerto is the principal court attorney to a Westchester County Court judge. Previously, she was an Assistant District Attorney in Westchester, where she was the Deputy Chief of the Domestic Violence Unit. She has an extensive background in litigation and helped implement “Raise the Age” legislation by assisting in the development of the youth part of the Westchester County Court.
David J. Squirrell
Mr. Squirrell presently serves as the Executive Director and Chief Attorney of the Putnam County Legal Aid Society. He has a litigation background, having had stints both as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan and in private practice.
Elena M. Goldberg-Velazquez
Ms. Goldberg-Velazquez is a Yonkers City Court Judge and has worked in the First Department of the Appellate Division. Prior to working in the court system, she worked for nearly a decade at private law firms dealing with civil matters.
David S. Zuckerman
Judge Zuckerman currently presides in the Westchester County Court and is an Acting Supreme Court Justice. Prior to becoming a judge, he was an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx and the Town Prosecutor and Town Justice in the Town of New Castle.
County Court Candidate
Maurice D. Williams
Mr. Williams has extensive experience representing clients in criminal matters, in both the county and family courts. He has been a member of the 18B panel (assigned counsel in criminal cases) and several advisory panels to the courts. He has been an advocate for children and youth and a mentor to young people who feel trapped in the criminal justice system. He also has a call in radio show where he answers questions about criminal law.
Vote “Yes” on the Environmental Bond Act of 2022—Proposal 1
This ballot proposal will empower the state to fund environmental infrastructure projects, including those that mitigate the effects of climate change. For example, our County has suffered from devastating floods, like those experienced during Hurricane Ida. These projects should also create jobs.
Mark Lewis
B. Kathleen Munguia
Delegates to the 9th Judicial District Democratic Convention
