Book Markers 07.11.13
And Now, Authors After Hours
Here’s a summer reading series of some note. Authors After Hours starts Saturday at the Amagansett Library at 6 p.m., when Paul Tough, who has been an editor at The New York Times Magazine and Harper’s, weighs in on the importance simple gumption plays in children’s future life outcomes. More so than I.Q., he argues in “How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.”
Next up, on July 20, is Tom Clavin, the author of the well-received “Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero,” who will read from his latest, “The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream.” Wither the novel, you ask? For your consideration: Charles Dubow’s debut, “Indiscretion,” with its various romantic entanglements and Georgica setting. It’s the July 27 offering.
And then August brings Jules Feiffer (“Backing Into Forward”) on the 3rd, Kati Marton (“Paris: A Love Story”) on the 17th, and Talia Carner (“Jerusalem Maiden”) on the 24th. Call ahead for reservations, book fans.
The Long-Lost Hamptons
After nearly two decades of work, Geoff Gehman is ready to unveil his thoroughly researched, lovingly assembled memoir, “The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the Long-Lost Hamptons,” published by Excelsior Editions of the SUNY Press.
The years of the reign? 1967 to 1972. And inside there’s far more than roaming kids on bikes, bouts of rolling down Wainscott dunes, or even troubled family dynamics. Car culture is explored, for instance, from Bridgehampton’s racetrack and drive-in to Henry Austin Clark Jr.’s old Long Island Automotive Museum in Southampton. You want the lit life of the Hamptons? The author explores the writings and character of Sagaponack’s Truman Capote — his “A Christmas Memory” greatly influenced Mr. Gehman, who went on to be an arts writer for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.
There are two chances to catch Mr. Gehman this weekend, on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, and on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Museum’s Corwith House, where afterward refreshments from Plain-T, a Southampton tea concern, will be served.
Important Authors: a Trifecta
Hail the heavyweights! And in rapid succession, too. At BookHampton in East Hampton this weekend, the lineup of readers is the legendary James Salter on Saturday at 5 p.m., the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner in nonfiction, Tom Reiss, at 8 that night, and on Sunday at 3 p.m. the veteran journalist and author Linda Wolfe with her new memoir of her daughter’s stroke and recovery, “My Daughter, Myself.”
Mr. Salter’s new novel, his first in almost 30 years, is “All That Is,” which follows a Navy officer’s adventures in the New York publishing world of the second half of the 20th century. Mr. Reiss’s book is “The Black Count,” a tale of “glory, revolution, and betrayal” and a history of “the real” Count of Monte Cristo.
Deep Into an Island’s Past
Remember the plan to build a new John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor? One of the leading opponents and victors, the preservation-minded Mac Griswold, formerly aligned with the Friends of the J.J.M.L., is returning to the battleground, as it were, her major new book of local history in hand. “The Manor” is newly out from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island is the subject, teased with a subheading, “Three Hundred Years at a Slave Plantation on Long Island.”
Ms. Griswold will be at the library’s temporary home on West Water Street next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. to read, discuss, and sign copies for the 20 lucky souls the event is limited to. That means put in a word in advance to register. (As for the renovation of the old library, all that red brick, recently out from behind scaffolding, looks lovely. Now if the modern addition could just be scuttled before it’s too late.)