Summer Fiction from NYSL Members

The dog days of summer are here indeed. I've compiled a list of new fiction from some of the Library's own member writers that would be perfect for a trip to the beach, the country cottage, or simply to the couch in your air conditioned apartment....

THRILLERS!

Two veteran journalists mine their rich experiences for a couple of debuts featuring high adventure in exotic locales. The Explorer's Code is from award winning CNN reporter Kitty Pilgrim, who sends her brainy oceanographer protagonist around the world in an action packed search for a valuable land deed. Nina Darnton's An African Affair also features a feisty heroine in a tale ripe with journalistic intrigue, political corruption, and romance.

If you like your globe trotting hit men with a passion for art and architecture, check out Ronald DeFeo's forthcoming Calling Mr. King (August 30).







From screenwriter (The Boys from Brazil, Fort Apache: The Bronx) and novelist Heywood Gould comes the fast paced, cinema style thriller The Serial Killer’s Daughter.







HISTORICAL FICTION

Gregory Murphy's atmospheric debut Incognito is a literary mystery set during the Gilded Age in New York and on Long Island.

Next to Love , the latest from Ellen Feldman, follows the lives of three women before, during, and after WWII. {this one is a particular favorite of mine...I chose it as a staff pick in our summer reading feature in the Summer Newsletter}


ELITE MANHATTAN

In two very different new novels, Manhattan's elite take center stage. Helen Schulman weaves a tale for our time in This Beautiful Life (August 2), exploring the fallout after a teenager sends an explicit video to a fellow student at an exclusive private school.

And The Social-Climber’s Handbook is Molly Jong-Fast 's dark and entertaining comedy about a woman who'll do anything to stay at the top of the social ladder.


Coming up: New non-fiction from NYSL members.

a note to all our fantastic NYSOCLIB member writers: if you've written a new book or have upcoming book talks or other appearances around the area, let me know! I'd love to share them with the rest of our membership.

Library discards as art

Those of you that know our newest Children's Librarian, Julia Weist, also know that she's an amazing artist (her impressive resume includes an art degree from Cooper Union).

My sincerest apologies for the late notice, but you've got 2 days to get to the Gasser/Grunert gallery to see the current exhibition Against the Way Things Go , which features Julia's latest mixed media installation. It's a fascinating study of library books as cultural objects. As librarians, we love books. Some, like Julia, also write books. And many of us, end up {almost always reluctantly} weeding and discarding them as well. Check out the exhibit before it's gone. And yes, some of those discards did come from NYSL.



Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert Inc.
524 West 19th Street
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm and by appointment

Writing Groups this Week

All group meeting are held in the Whitridge Room. Library members only.
For questions, please contact me!

Memoir Group
TODAY, Monday, July 18, 2:30pm - 4:45pm

Fiction Group I
Tuesday, July 19, 5pm - 6:45pm

Fiction Group II
Wednesday, July 20, 11am - 1pm
Please note this is the last meeting for Group II for the Summer. Group resumes in September (Tues, Sept 27, 11am; note this date is not the regularly scheduled day due to the Jewish holidays.

Ina Caro at B&N 82nd Street tonight

NYSL member Ina Caro will present her latest book Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train, which guides you through a history of France in twenty five train trips departing from Paris. Publishers Weekly calls it a "charming, rapturous guide to la Belle France that tells you where to go-and why."

Monday, July 11, 7pm
Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway (at 82nd St)
Event info

Erica Jong & Molly Jong-Fast at Bookhampton Tonight

Those of you that are lucky enough to be in the Hamptons this week (that would NOT include me, but whatever) should head over to BookHampton tonight to hear mother/daughter (and NYSL members) Erica Jong and Molly Jong-Fast read from the new anthology Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write About Real Sex.



Thursday, July 7, 8pm
Bookhampton
41 Main St, East Hampton, NY
event info

Check out a Library Netbook today!

Starting today, you can check out one of the Library's new netbooks for in library use. The netbooks automatically pair with our wireless internet to let you use e-mail, do research, write, or do most Windows or browser-based activities.

Members may check out netbooks (one per membership) at the Circulation Desk for one-day use in the Library. They are available on a first-come, first-served basis, not by reservation, and must be returned the same day.

Anything created, downloaded or saved on the netbook will be wiped out when it shuts down--guaranteeing privacy but also requiring you to save your own content online or on a flash drive. 2GB flash drives are available for purchase at the Circulation Desk for $10.

For full details on laptop checkout and guidelines, see the policy document here or ask at the Circulation Desk.

Happy computing!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July weekend! As a reminder, the Library will be closed on Monday, July 4.

This weekend, I have an aggressive reading plan in place. The vision I have for my holiday weekend includes not much more than a lounge chair, a bunch of books (and technology) and some frosty beverages.


All of my holds come at the same time (sound familiar?) So, in making the excruciating decision about what stays and what goes, Kate Christensen's The Astral made the cut. I got hooked after reading her Pen/Faulkner award winning The Great Man, and then went on a Christensen reading spree.






And what better time than a holiday weekend to revisit David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again? If the title essay is any indication (which I've previously read), I am really going to enjoy the rest of them.








On my Nook, I'm in the middle of NYSOCLIB member writer Katharine Davis's atmospheric Capturing Paris, which I started reading while on vacation in Tuscany. I like to think I'll be enjoying her forthcoming novel, which is set in Tuscany, on a visit to Paris.





I also have a few weeks worth of The New Yorker on my Nook to catch up on too. {I'm a relatively late bloomer to the whole smartphone scene, but I recently got an iPhone and downloaded the Nook app. Anyone know why I can see all my ebooks but not my beloved New Yorker on there?}

I suppose there will be a barbeque or two, and some naps. I shall report back on my progress...

What are YOUR plans this weekend?