Writers (and Wine) Alfresco

There are readings — and out here in the Hamptons in the summertime you might say a lot of them — and then there are readings out in the famous late-afternoon light of this water-surrounded place, taken in with a plastic tumbler of pinot grigio and soft cheese smeared on a cracker. That would be the Hampton Library’s Fridays at Five series in Bridgehampton, which begins July 8 at the advertised time with Bonnie Grice of WPPB public radio interviewing Samantha Bruce-Benjamin about “The Westhampton Leisure Hour and Supper Club.” 

Intrigued? What could that book ever be about, you’re thinking to yourself? Then maybe you should stop wondering and go. The cost is $20. (It’s a fund-raiser put on by the Friends of the Hampton Library.)

Also in the lineup for July are Joe Nocera on the 15th with “All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis” and Michael Shnayerson on the 22nd with “The Contender,” his biography of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Roger Rosenblatt will appear with his new novel, “Thomas Murphy,” concerning an aging poet, on the 29th.

For August, it’ll be Richard Reeves reading from “Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II” on the 5th, Steven Gaines and his new memoir, “One of These Things First,” on the 12th, Carl Safina and “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel” on the 19th, and on the 26th Ray Kelly, former New York City police commissioner, will wrap up the series with a discussion of “Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City.”