Books

   The reporter turned essayist turned novelist Tom Wolfe, seen through his own writings, will be the subject of a staged reading at Guild Hall tomorrow night at 8. Curated by Judith Auberjonois — “ I hate to use that word,” she said, “because it is a little too trendy, but I did curate it” — “Big Bad Wolfe” has her husband, Rene, playing the author, via excerpts from his work starting with the early 1960s.

    East End and New York poets will turn out in force Saturday for one of their own, Harvey Shapiro, who will be remembered through recollections and readings of his work starting at 6 p.m. at Stony Brook Southampton.

    Mr. Shapiro, who lived in Brooklyn and East Hampton, was the author of numerous collections of poems, his most recent being “The Sights Along the Harbor,” from 2006. He was an editor at The New York Times Magazine and, from 1975 to 1983, the editor of The Times Book Review. He died on Jan. 7 at the age of 88.

    Norman (Fish) Finelli is an old-fashioned kid. He’s been feeding coins into his piggy bank, actually a ceramic lobster bank, to save up — not for a Jet Ski, but for a Seagull, “one of the finest motorboat engines ever made,” which is going to go on this leaky bucket of a boat he’s fixing up.

Real Estate Horrors — Aloud

    Don’t dare show your face in public? Have others show theirs. Anonymous x Two, the ladies who dished the dirt so hard on the real estate biz here they had to remain in hiding, are having a reading of their recent book, “The Hamptons Real Estate Horror Show,” on Saturday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Springs Presbyterian Church.

“Origins of the Past”

Edited by Tom Twomey

East End Press, $40

    Chroniclers, diarists, and historians often must have felt what East Hampton’s master mechanic Nathaniel Dominy IV scribed on the rear of a metal tall-case clock dial he made in 1788: “Where oh! Where shall I be when this clock is worn out?” Heaven may have been the answer Dominy was suggesting, but to the recorder or analyst of history the perfect solution is to be published and remain a viable source of information.

“Caught”

Jeff Nichols

CreateSpace, $9.99

   About two chapters into this book I was poised to dislike it, but like a “Trainwreck,” the title of Jeff Nichols’s memoir published in 2009 and turned into a movie two years later, I found it impossible to avert my eyes.

David Margolick on “Dreadful”

    Here’s a title to prick up your ears: “Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns.” Burns, a conflicted man of no small measure of inner turmoil and anger, came out with “The Gallery” in 1947, a debut collection of related stories praised for its descriptions of wartime Italy. It contained an early depiction of what it was like to be gay in the military and sold 500,000 copies.

Claire Reed Toughs It Out

    Claire Reed left behind a privileged life of country clubs and golf outings to wade hip deep into the feminist fights, civil rights struggles, and disarmament movement of the latter part of the last century. She would become a tireless organizer and activist for a number of progressive nonprofits, and the right-hand woman of Bella Abzug leading up to and during Abzug’s Congressional career.

“Murder on Long Island”

Geoffrey K. Fleming

and Amy K. Folk

History Press, $19.99

“Bad Boy”

Eric Fischl

Crown, $26

   One of the lasting impressions I have of Eric Fischl was a night at the Parrish Art Museum, where he was in discussion with an adjunct curator about Fairfield Porter’s influences. The curator, who is no longer with the museum, had developed an elaborate theory regarding Diego Velasquez’s influence on Porter, an idea at which Mr. Fischl scoffed.

Mac Griswold on “The Manor”

    A trip into Shelter Island’s deep past — to say nothing of down “the slave staircase” at the island’s storied Sylvester Manor — awaits the historically curious on Saturday at 3 p.m., when Mac Griswold discusses the particulars of her new book, “The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island.” The talk, part of the Sag Harbor Historical Society’s annual meeting, will take place at the Annie Cooper Boyd House on Main Street in that village.

“Indiscretion”

Charles Dubow

William Morrow, $25.99

   There are no perfect lives. Even people who seem to have it all, whose births appear to have set them on a course that ensures success and happiness, even those fortunate few encounter trouble along the way. And does having it all invite being taken down a peg? Moreover, what if you have it all and still desire more? What then?

Kids’ Reviewers Impaneled

    Reviewing children’s books: all delicacy and tact, or a merciless weeding out? At the Amagansett Library on Saturday, a panel of reviewers will discuss what makes a good children’s book, what criteria goes into an evaluation, and even what might make one “literary.”

Children’s Books Powwow

    Children’s books: So many think they can write them; so few actually do so with skill. Now, for Children’s Book Week, the Amagansett Library has rounded up some top practitioners for panel discussions starting at 6 p.m. this Saturday and continuing next Saturday, May 18.

Dogs for Steinbeck

    You say John Steinbeck Weekend is news to you? Never mind that and simply give in to the charm of the “Travels With Charley” dog walk on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor. Jill Rappaport of the “Today” show, known as an advocate for the four-legged, is the host, and the beneficiaries are the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and the Bay Street Theatre, where the walk will wind up with a “bagels and bones” reception.

   There’s no rock ’n’ roll and just a few mentions of drugs in Nanci E. LaGarenne’s new novel, “Cheap Fish,” but it’s all about Montauk and has sex, salty language, intrigue, and a murder mystery, all aboard a high-class floating brothel called the Lily Virginia in the middle of the ocean.

    The characters were not based on real people but may carry the qualities of some or a few rolled into one, Ms. LaGarenne said. Readers, though, are having a lot of fun wondering who’s who from the Montauk bar scene, mostly Liars’ Saloon, which plays a central role in the book.

“The Interestings”

Meg Wolitzer

Riverhead Books, $27.95

“The Underground

Railroad on Long Island”

Kathleen G. Velsor

History Press, $19.99

Storytelling Techniques

    Memoir: It’s all the rage, whether you’re a reader, a writer, or a publisher. How about workshopper?

“Westerly”

Will Schutt

Yale University Press, $18

Poets Laureate, Ho!

    National Poetry Month: Get it while you can, versification fans. At Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, to name one outlet, a couple of county poets laureate, Ed Stever of Suffolk and Linda Opyr of Nassau, will step to a lectern or its approximation to read starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

“The Juice”

Jay McInerney

Vintage, $15.95

Out of Alaska

    There’s more to Alaskan poetry than John Haines. Serge Lecomte, for one, who will read his work, including from his 2010 father-to-daughter collection, “Lauren at Two,” tomorrow starting at 6:30 p.m. at Neoteric Fine Art in Amagansett.

   Back in June 2000, Eva Moore of Montauk was reading a story in The East Hampton Star about a family of ducks rescued from a storm drain near Kirk Park by members of the Montauk Fire Department and a visiting tourist. Immediately, the author of some 22 children’s books realized it would make a good picture book. It took more than 10 years to find a publisher, get it illustrated, and get it on bookstore shelves, but just a couple of weeks after its Feb. 1 release, it had already won an award and sold more than 10,000 copies.

“All That Is”

James Salter

Knopf, $26.95

    The life and achievements of David G. Rattray, a poet and translator who was born and grew up in East Hampton, will be celebrated in Manhattan next week with a day and evening of readings, film, and visual art on the 20th anniversary of his death.

    Mr. Rattray was the brother of Everett Rattray, the longtime editor and publisher of The East Hampton Star, and uncle to his son, David E. Rattray, the current editor.

Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation

“Bolero”

Joanie McDonell

Thomas & Mercer, $14.95

   I’ve noticed that when reading mysteries I can usually tell from the opening chapter if I’m in for an enjoyable ride. With “Bolero,” Joanie McDonell’s first Nick Sayler adventure, I knew within a few paragraphs that I was in good hands. The tone is smart, the setup intriguing and fast-paced, and the protagonist appealingly eccentric.

Two Awards, Two Very Different Writers

“In the Land

of the Living”

Austin Ratner

Reagan Arthur Books, $25.99

   The follow-up to his award-winning debut, Austin Ratner’s second novel, “In the Land of the Living,” is the story of fathers and sons, stepfathers and surrogate fathers, brothers-in-arms and brothers estranged. It may be read as multiple bildungsromans; or as a tragic family saga of ambitious, fatherless men looking for acceptance in genteel — a k a gentile — America; or as a satire of manboys with congenital hemorrhoids.