Lively likes historians. Her most famous novel on this side of the Atlantic, the Booker Prize-winning Moon Tiger, told the story of a popular historian; her latest narrates the quest of a “landscape historian” in search of what Proust called “lost time”: the living past of his dead wife. Glyn Peters, a famous British archeologist, discovers a compromising photograph of his wife, Katherine Targett, sealed in an envelope in a closet at home. Peters specializes in excavating the long defunct gardens, buried fields and covered-over roads of the British landscape. Reverting to professional habits, he treats Kath’s infidelity as a sort of archeological dig. The photo depicts Kath and Nick Hammond, the husband of Kath’s sister, Elaine, surreptitiously holding hands on some outing, with Elaine and Mary Packard, Kath’s best friend, in the background. Glyn decides to interview this cloud of witnesses, beginning with Elaine. Elaine is a successful, and somewhat cold, landscaper; Nick, her polar opposite, is a man one degree away from being a Wodehouse dilettante. Lively, who is never shy of letting us know her opinion of her characters (like Trollope), makes her disapprobation of Nick plain. Elaine, after learning of the affair, kicks Nick out. He takes refuge with Polly, their daughter, in London, and goes rapidly downhill. Glyn, meanwhile, has searched out Nick’s ex-business partner, Oliver Watson, who took the photograph, and Mary Packard. Lively is always a discerning, keenly intelligent writer. This, for instance, is how she describes, in three irrevocable words, Elaine’s pregnancy: “She is pregnant: heavy, hampered, irritable.” Unfortunately, Kath, a demon-haunted beauty with little depth, remains unconjurable. Her insubstantiality and the much-foreshadowed nature of her death, not revealed until late in the novel, drains this story of its full emotional impact.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Set in the glittering, vibrant New York City of 1950, Lucia, Lucia is the enthralling story of a passionate, determined young woman whose decision to follow her heart changes her life forever.

As richly detailed as the couture garments Lucia sews, as emotional as the bonds in her big Italian family, it is the story of one woman who believes that in a world brimming with so much promise, she can, and should be able to, have it all.

April 12th, Long Island Reads title The River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard

May 24th, Run by Ann Patchett

All discussions are to be held at Middle Country Public Library in Centereach at 7pm.

To register for Great Books, click HERE.

The Great Books Series is an introduction to the great literature of our civilization. Gain a fuller understanding of these works through discussion. Share your insights and bring your questions. Moderated by Ed Schneider. Please see the Great Book Discussion page to see the titles being discussed.

To register for the Middle Country Book Discussion, click HERE.

Join fellow readers to discuss books and reading experiences! Please see the Book Discussion Group page to view titles for October and December.

And don’t forget to submit your recommendation cards so you can be
eligible for the summer book club giveaway. You can submit your cards at any adult reference desk. For those of you who want to submit online, there are instructions for doing this on the ASRC Instruction sheet in the welcome bag.

If you have any questions about this please see an adult reference librarian or call us at 631-585-9393.

You can now register for all our summer book club and our summer discussion groups. Cick here to register.

If you did register for our summer book club, don’t forget to pick up your bag of goodies at any adult reference desk!