Spotlight on Local Authors

Stop by our new display featuring books written by authors living in (or who have have lived in) the Mastics, Moriches and Shirley communities. Here are a few of the titles on the display on the main floor:

The Skin Game by August Franza (Fiction)

Joseph James (JJ) Katharin is a young man uncertain of his identity. Naïve about the world, he is parentless, raised by a stern grandfather who thinks the worst of his grandson although he tries to love him. As problems load up on JJ, he seeks solace and equilibrium where he can but questions assault him: Is nobody innocent? Is nobody dependable? Is nobody trustworthy? Is love just a dream? Is it all a game?

A Boy Walks Into a Bar by Robert C. Kelly (Non-fiction)

In one year's time, two events in the author's life herald a future of turmoil and tragedy, the aftermath of which he continues to deal with today. At the age of 12, Kelly had his first beer in a church parking lot. That same summer, he took a job in a bar around the corner from the house he grew up in. And so began his love affair with alcohol and with bartending. Kelly traces his descent into alcoholic oblivion as he moved from one bartending job to another. Ironically, he knew he was an alcoholic but failed to understand the meaning of the concept "It's the first drink that gets you drunk." As a consequence, it took him 27 years to face the reality of his disease.

Long Island Noir edited by Kaylie Jones (Fiction)
Presents a collection of sinister stories each set in distinct Long Island locations and extremes, from the comfortably rich, to the horribly poor, and all darkness between. Featuring contributions by such noted mystery authors as Charles Salzberg, Sarah Weinman, and Steven Wishnia. Includes the short story "Gateway to the Stars: Mastic Beach" by Matthew McGeyna. "There is plenty of mayhem for fans of dark fiction in the pages of Long Island Noir: shootings, killings, all manner of brutality...Suburbia may be even meaner than the big city." (The New York Times)

The Knapps Lived Here by Ken Spooner (Non-Fiction)

On a Sunday afternoon in 1959, in a small town on Long Island, 11-year-old Ken Spooner watched as his personal playhouse, the Knapp Mansion, burned to the ground. Over 40 years passed before he would write a short story memoir of that day, triggering a journey through the first decade of the 21st century, to discover just who the Knapps were and to find out who the arsonist was. Through a folksy interwoven narrative, the reader discovers the unwritten history of one of the highest-society, lowest-profile families America's gilded age has ever produced. Travel inside the many Knapp mansions, where five U.S. Presidents and many icons of the 19th and 20th centuries were guests.