Please contact Long Island Reads committee member Loretta Piscatella (piscatellaloretta@mcpl.lib.ny.us) if you are interested.

Registration runs January 23 to March 10, 2012 and is open to everyone.

Reservations should be made through the library from which you wish to depart.

• Riverhead Free Library (330 Court Street, Riverhead) – Bus leaves promptly at 11:45 am.   To register, call the Reference Department at 631-727-3228.

• Middle Country Public Library (101 Eastwood Boulevard, Centereach) – Bus leaves promptly at 12:15 pm.  To register, call Loretta Piscatella at 631-585-9393. 

• Christopher Morley Park (500 Searingtown Road, Roslyn) – Bus leaves promptly at 1:15 pm.  To register, call Lee Fertitta at the Port Washington Public Library (1 Library Drive, Port Washington) at 516-883-4400.

All payment is due within one week of registration.

A separate check, or money order, per person should be made payable to Prime Time Travel in the amount of $7.50.

by Alyson Richman

The Long Island Reads Committee is pleased to announce that we have selected The Lost Wife by Long Island author Alyson Richman!

Released on September 6, 2011, and already in a second printing, this book tells the heart wrenching story of a love affair begun in pre-WWII Prague that was interrupted by fear and hatred. The Lost Wife is not just the story of a sixty-year love affair, but also an exploration of the power and durability of the artistic spirit and its need to create and document, even under the most horrific conditions.

Why The Lost Wife?

Early praise for The Lost Wife includes these descriptions: “…staggeringly evocative…”, “Daringly constructed…”, “…a love story wrapped in tragedy and survival…”, “The Sophie’s Choice of this generation.”

The book has a multi-generational appeal and is evocative of rich artistic and cultural elements from a world long gone.

Alyson Richman, a graduate of Wellesley College and a former Thomas J. Watson Fellow, is a native Long Islander who currently lives with her husband and children in Huntington.

Ms. Richman is the author of three previous, well-received novels including The Last Van Gogh, which was nominated as a Book Sense Notable Pick in 2006. Her work has been favorably reviewed in The New York Times Book Review and The Los Angeles Times.

There are many programming opportunities.

The author will speak at a Long Island Reads author event during or near National Library Week, April 8-14, 2012.

The Lost Wife is or will be available in trade paperback, audio CD, eBook and large type.

For more information about the author, interviews, suggested book discussion questions and readalikes,

take a look at our Sag Harbor Reader’s Guide.

He will be at the Rogers Memorial Library at 3 pm and the  Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library at 7:30 pm.

Tickets are not required.  Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hope to see you there!

The 2011 LONG ISLAND READS pick is…

Sag Harbor

by Colson Whitehead

It’s the 1980s and Benji Cooper, son of a lawyer and a doctor, is one of the few black students at an elite prep school in New York City. Every summer, he, his brother Reggie and his friends head east on the LIE and ‘out’ to Azurest in Sag Harbor. Benji’s observations and social commentary are uplifting and humorous and give the reader a wonderful sense of time and place.

Why Sag Harbor?