For those who are lucky enough, summer is the time to relax, recharge and read—preferably on the beach. Why not give one of these 10 titles by East End authors a try? From historical fiction to food smarts to modern love stories, there’s something here for everyone.
Wine writer and oenophile Eileen Duffy penned this as a spinoff of her column in Edible East End magazine, where she is deputy editor, and brought the tales of 17 local winemakers together.
“Wine is good at conveying a sense of place,” Ms. Duffy said, explaining that each bottle tells a story of its year, its maker and its grape. “Long Island is very different from anywhere else because of its maritime climate.”
Ms. Duffy, who earned a diploma in wine and spirits from the International Wine Center, has been writing about Long Island wine for more than a decade, an experience that inspired her to write a book for enthusiasts near and far.
“People like to read about people they know and places they’ve been,” the Quogue resident said. “But there are still a lot of people who don’t know we grow wine out here.”
Ms. Duffy is attending the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night on August 8.
In his debut memoir, Jed Ringel guides readers through the murky, darkly humorous world that is online dating as a middle-aged divorced man.
Mr. Ringel, who splits his time between Montauk and Manhattan, said he wanted people to see the good and bad sides of online dating, even though he is a big supporter of the scene. “Slogging through it, my sense of humor waxed and waned,” he said. “I’m Rip Van Winkle. I went to sleep when dating was walking in and out of bars, and I woke up 23 years later, when dates were online catalogs.
“Before this round of dating, I think I spent more time finding apartments than trying to find a date,” he said.
His memoir is available for purchase on Amazon.
In her newest book, chef and nutritionist Stefanie Sacks takes readers through a typical pantry and explains how misleading food labels can be to the untrained eye.
“In the end, I don’t care what people eat, as long as they do it with knowledge,” Ms. Sacks said. “Our health is suffering greatly. Parents are lost for guidance, because there’s so much misinformation out there.”
Ms. Sacks, who lives in Montauk and hosts “Stirring the Pot,” a radio show on WPPB-FM, said she wants to give readers the basic tools for grocery shopping so that they can think of their health as a long-term journey, not a series of quick fixes. “My goal and my best intention is to give people information that’s easily digestible and fairly unbiased,” she said.
Ms. Sacks will sign copies of her book at the Concerned Citizens of Montauk meeting at the CCOM office on Saturday, July 18, and on Thursday, July 23, at Harbor Market in Sag Harbor. She is also attending the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night on Saturday, August 8.
Dottie Coakley found herself inspired to tell the story of migrant workers decades after she worked as a rural manpower representative for the State Department of Labor, and mixed it with a dose of murder for her debut novel.
“There is an atmosphere of cruelty and violence that the migrant workers are operating in,” she said, “and I don’t know how much that has improved to this day. I really just woke up one morning and thought, ‘I have a lot of stories about migrants. How should I tell them?’”
Ms. Coakley will visit the Westhampton Free Library on Saturday, July 25, followed by appearances at Joshua’s Place in Southampton on August 1, and the Hampton Bays Public Library on August 25.
Elyssa Friedland, who splits her time between Southampton Village and Manhattan, wrote a few chapters of her light yet thought-provoking first novel in The Golden Pear, 75 Main and Rogers Memorial Library while her kids kept busy at summer camp nearby.
The book’s main character, Evie Rosen, decides to quit the internet for a full year after she learns, through social media, that her ex-boyfriend got married. As Evie learns to live without Google, she begins to find who she is and what she truly wants out of life and love.
“I think the book is funny, and I want people to laugh,” she said. “On a deeper level, I feel like it’s more focused on the internet than the relationship. I like that people are telling me they’re now reflecting on their social media use after reading it.”
“Love and Miss Communication” can be purchased at BookHampton and on Amazon.
For Sag Harbor-based author and Press columnist Tom Clavin, the story of a Korean racehorse adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps was far from his wheelhouse. “My main character was a horse, and I was not somebody who previously knew about horses,” he said. “I had to figure out how to connect everything in the story to the horse. It’s a fast-paced and heartwarming story.”
Though set in the 1950s, the story is still relevant today because of the relationships between the soldiers and their war horse, the author explained. “Soldiers have to depend on each other to survive,” he said. “That never changes.”
Mr. Clavin will attend East Hampton Library’s Authors Night on August 8.
In his latest book, Southampton resident Phil Keith dives into one of the most important war ships to cross the Pacific Ocean during World War II: the USS Lexington.
The 24,580-ton aircraft carrier led America to its first naval victory against the Japanese in the Coral Sea before it burned and sank. A second version of the aircraft carrier is now a museum based in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Mr. Keith, who also writes a column for The Press, said he was particularly interested in telling this story because of his own naval roots.
“The second version [of the USS Lexington] was used as a practice landing field during my flight training,” the former naval pilot said, referring to his training in 1968 and 1969. “She went through many refits and some changes from ’43, but she was quite a ship and still is today.”
Mr. Keith is attending the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night on August 8.
Mary Marcus grew up in the South under Jim Crow laws, where approximately 60 percent of her small town was black—yet she attended school with just one African-American student.
“Hatred is still there. Prejudice is still there,” according to Ms. Marcus, who summers in East Hampton. During a recent trip back, she felt the urge to write “Lavina,” a story about oppression and racism in Louisiana as told through different perspectives.
“The South is a racially charged place,” she said. “People don’t get away with it as much anymore, but [race] is still a prevalent thought.”
“Lavina” can be purchased at BookHampton and on Amazon.
Richard Weissmann, an East End native, penned his first novel earlier this year. He tells the story of the Andrea Doria, a sunken cruise liner in the Atlantic Ocean rumored to contain lost jewels, and a fisherman who could not resist the temptation to dive deep and discover what lies beneath.
“In Secret Waters” can be purchased on Amazon.
S. Miriam Clifford, a life coach based in Southampton Village, penned “Love Rehab” when inspiration struck on Coopers Beach. The book details a new approach to relationships, sex and God through building a loving trust with others.
Ms. Clifford said she hopes to empower women and men through her words.
“These are things we need to talk about, love, sexuality, to be honest about everything,” she said in a recent interview. “After hearing so many stories about people going through breakups, my heart got heavy. I wanted to send this message out to the world.”
“Love Rehab” can be purchased on Amazon.
Alexa Gorman on Jul 14, 2015