The Green Spot

Take a hike! Attend our library program Hiking on Long Island, Thursday, September 22, 7 to 8:30 p.m. If you're too late for this, there are many other options.

Visit our hiking display on the first section of The Green Spot for hiking schedules from local organizations and books featuring some great treks and easy strolls. Some standouts include Short Nature Walks Long Island in which authors Rodney & Priscilla Albright take you on fifty-three leisurely walks with clear directions and detailed maps for each.

Long Island: A Guide to New York's Suffolk and Nassau Counties by Raymond Edward Spinzia, Judith Ader Spinzia and Kathryn Spinzia Rayne features many of the parklands on Long Island where you stroll the grounds of former estates or take more rigorous hikes through woodland preserves.

For those wishing to go further afield, try 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of New York City by Christopher & Catherine Brooks. Unbounded by state lines, the trails showcase swamp streams and roaring waterfalls, hidden lakes and bald summits. A very scenic section of the Appalachian Trail is highlighted.

Many general books provide outdoor basics for hikers and backpackers, including Wilderness Basics by the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club. So get ready to get up and go!

The Green Spot

The Green Spot has a new look! Thanks to our staff teens, decorative pumpkins line the top shelf. Also featured, courtesy of the Long Island Farm Bureau, is a display of local farm stands. Pick up a brochure, "Long Island's Bounty Brought to You by Long Island Farm Bureau," for a list of farm stands in your area where you can go pumpkin picking and more.

Then get into the spirit of the season by picking up a good book. Our "Fall Into a Good Book" display, near the Adult Reference Desk, features some of the best autumn activities. Andrea Chesman's Serving Up the Harvest, an innovative cookbook organized seasonally, celebrates the unique flavors of fresh-from-the- garden vegetables with more than 175 recipes.

For those who prefer celebrating the harvest outside, try Fall Scaping: Extending Your Garden Season Into Autumn by Nancy J. Ondra and Stephanie Cohen with photography by Rob Cardillo. This beautifully illustrated book describes dozens of plants that can bring life to a late season garden. It covers a wide range of growing conditions and color schemes.

Last but not least, here's a little something for the party animal's among us. The Halloween Handbook: 447 Costumes by Bridie Clark and Ashley Dodd is a one of a kind dress-up for grown-ups book. The authors suggest ways of assembling hundreds of classic and original Halloween customes from everyday objects. Combined with holiday lore, party ideas, and seasonal amusements, it's wicked fun!

The Green Spot

Visit our new permanent display providing library users with free information about local "green" activities, including land and water preservation, organic farming and gardening, hiking, wildlife conservation, environmental advocacy, and energy awareness.

In support of our adult winter reading club, Riverhead Reads: The Green Spot, this display also features environmental literature and related books. Here's a sampling of some of the books available.

New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky is a hit with Riverhead readers. His captivating book Cod spans thousands of years and four continents, introducing explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and, of course, the fishermen, and chronicling the cod wars of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, also by Kurlansky, recounts the dramatic incidents surrounding the oyster that changed the course of New York history.

For those less fish-friendly, The Ferocious Summer: Adelie Penguins and the Warming of Antarctica by Meredith Hooper is a timely book that provides an absorbing and alarming report from the frontlines of global warming. Hooper's firsthand account evolves from a summer of living and working with scientists studying this phenomena.

The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Strang by Binka Le Breton is a revealing new biography about an extraordinary woman and her mission to protect the Amazon jungles and the people eking out a life there. Featured on newsmagazine shows, Sister Dorothy's story provides lessons for a powerful and beautiful life that was cut short abruptly.

Check out these and other environmental books on The Green Spot display and on the standing display nearest the circulation desk.