Adult Summer Reading Club: America the Beautiful

Sign up and get your reading kit at the Adult Reference Desk beginning Saturday, June 19.


Get ready for the adult summer reading club 2010--Riverhead Reads: America the Beautiful--celebrating America's wilderness and waterways. This self-guided reading program gives our cardholders a chance to win prizes each time they read or listen to a book. Reading books from the preferred reading list provides an even greater chance to win.

Here are just a few of the unique books from the list...

The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper - One of the most popular writers of the 19th century, Cooper is best known for his Leatherstocking Tales featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. The Deerslayer is the first chronologically in the Leatherstocking series.



Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani - Set in a sleepy hamlet of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, this modern-day novel is also the first book in a series. Trigiani celebrates small town life with a winning blend of '70s nostalgia and Appalachian local color.


High Country by Nevada Barr - Part of a mystery series, this page-turner features National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon, whose crime-solving abilities constantly put her in peril.

Return to Wild America: A Yearlong Search for the Continent's Natural Soul by Scott Weidensaul - Those who prefer non-fiction will love Weidensaul's poetic account of the North American wilderness. The author is one of the world's premier writer/naturalists today.


Ledyard: In Search of the First American Explorer by Bill Gifford - John Ledyard (1751 - 1789), one of the greatest American explorers of all time, is largely forgotten today. In this memorable tribute to him, Gifford traces Ledyard's explorations with Captain Cook, across America before Lewis and Clark.


Check the Riverhead Reads kit for more books on the preferred reading list.

Adult Summer Reading Club: Long Island Fiction

The Adult Summer Reading Program is here. Now is the time to sign up for Riverhead Reads: Long Island Fiction. You may read or listen to any book for a chance to win prizes. Double your chance to win by reading books on the preferred Long Island Fiction list. Drop by the Reference Desk to sign up and receive a kit containing the list and raffle tickets. Here's a sampling of a few of the books listed, which are available at the library.

L.I.E. is by David Hollander, who grew up in Suffolk County, Long Island. This debut novel takes place in Medford and follows teen Harlan Kessler through two years of love, sex, death, betrayal, salvation, and enlightenment, painting a vivid picture of a blue collar family in ten intimately interwoven stories.

For a national bestseller, try Amagansett by Mark Mills. Endorsed by another Long Island author, Nelson DeMille, as well as by the Los Angeles Times, this first novel was also a Long Island Reads selection. A first-generation Basque fisherman who casts his nets into the Atlantic and pulls in the body of a beautiful young woman. What initially looks like a routine drowning turns into a murder investigation set in an area that becomes a social battleground for the local fisherman. A gripping story, with powerfully drawn characters.

Veteram writer John Saul presents a creepy stalker story, Perfect Nightmare, which turns into a shrewd whodunit. Though this is not Saul's best work, the novel may satisfy those who like the sexual-psychopath thriller. This one's about the kidnapping of a teenage girl who is initially pegged as a runaway. It takes place on Long Island's north shore.

For more Long Island fiction, check out the display with the gift packages by the Circulation Desk.

Local History Book Stop

Whether you've joined the Adult Summer Reading Club with its local history theme, or just a want to learn more about the Island, here are a few choices from our suggested local history reading list.

TR's Summer White House - Oyster Bay by Sherwin Gluck reveals the intriguing story of the first peacetime relocation of the Executive Branch of the United States Government to Long Island. Throughly researched, this book recreates the summers of 1902 through 1908 when President Theodore Roosevelt and his staff governed the United States from Oyster Bay.

Up-Lot Reveries: An Oral History of the North Fork by Maria Parson is a patron favorite. It captures the flavor of the area and brings together eyewitness accounts of everyday life in bygone days as well as some of the more dramatic events that occurred. Conversations with long-time residents make the history of the North Fork come to life.

Visit the Reference Desk to get an updated list of local history books for suggested reading and see our local history display.

Local History Book Stop: Adult Summer Reading Club

There's still time for Riverhead cardholders to sign up for Riverhead Reads: Seeking the Past. You may read or listen to any book for a chance to win prizes. Visit us at the reference desk to receive a kit containing raffle tickets. Fill one out and turn it in every time you complete a book. Drawings are held weekly beginning at noon on July 7.

Read a book from our local history reading list and double your chances of winning by filling out two raffle tickets! Here are a few of the books on our preferred reading list.

Dirt Under My Nails: An American Farmer and Her Changing Land by Marilee Foster
An eloquent memoir of a fifth generation Long Island farmer, Ms. Foster's book reflects in microcosm American farming nationwide even as the farm scene changes.

An Island's Trade: Nineteenth-Century Shipbuilding on Long Island by Richard F. Welch
The story of the North Shore Long Island shipyards and of the men who built the ships provides an economic, political, and social glimpse of life before the fast-paced suburban one we know today.

Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons by Steven Gaines
Masterfully told by a bestselling author and Hamptons insider, this fascinating story reveals how thirty miles of once inaccessible oceanfront farmland became the playground to the superrich.
Sign up now at the reference desk and start reading!