Book to Movie Alert!

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson

Set at the end of the 1980s, Henderson's first novel limns the way a tragic loss brings three people together in unexpected ways. When 16-year-old Jude Keffy-Horn's best friend, Teddy, dies of a drug overdose after a night of heavy partying, Jude blames himself, not knowing that Eliza, the daughter of Jude's father's girlfriend, gave Teddy cocaine the evening of his death. Eliza also slept with Teddy, and she soon discovers she's pregnant with his child. Both Jude and Eliza find themselves drawn into the orbit of Teddy's magnetic older half-brother, Johnny, a punk-rock tattoo artist who ostensibly abstains from drugs, alcohol, and sex. But Johnny's clean living masks the secret he's trying to hide from the world, a secret that threatens to unravel Jude and Eliza's plans to leave childhood behind and jump straight into what they believe will be their exciting adult lives. The magic of Henderson's debut lies in the way she so completely captures the experience of coming-of-age in the turbulent and exciting era that was the 1980s.  (Booklist Reviews)

Firefight: the Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest by Ginger Adams Otis

In 1919, when Wesley Williams became a New York City firefighter, he stepped into a world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. As far as this city knew, black men in the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) tended horses.

Nearly a century later, many things in the FDNY had changed--but not the scarcity of blacks. New York had about 300 black firefighters--roughly 3 percent of the 11,000 New York firefighters in a city of two million African Americans. That made the FDNY a true aberration compared to all the other uniformed departments, like the NYPD. Decades earlier, women and blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a courtroom show-down. It was not until 2014 that the city settled the $98 million lawsuit.

At the center of this book are stories of courage--about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system. Among them: FDNY Captain Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent his multi-decade career fighting to get minorities on the job. He faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never saw their own inclusion as favoritism.

Based on author Ginger Adams Otis' years of on the ground reporting, Firefight is an exciting blend of the high-octane energy of firefighting and critical Civil Rights history. (Publisher Summary)

Join the Book Discussion

Join the Community Library's book club on June 23rd (between 2PM and 4PM) for a lively discussion of Ship Ablaze: the Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum by Edward T. O'Donnell. Registration is open, click here to reserve your seat today! 

Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk.

There were few experienced swimmers among over 1,300 Lower East Side residents who boarded the General Slocum on June 15, 1904. It shouldn’t have mattered since the steamship was only chartered for a languid excursion from Manhattan to Long Island Sound. But a fire erupted minutes into the trip, forcing hundreds of terrified passengers into the water. By the time the captain found a safe shore for landing, 1,021 had perished. It was New York’s deadliest tragedy prior to September 11, 2001. (Publisher Summary)

The Job by Steve Osborne

Steve Osborne has seen a thing or two in his twenty years in the NYPD—some harmless things, some definitely not. In "Stakeout," Steve and his partner mistake a Manhattan dentist for an armed robbery suspect and reduce the man down to a puddle of snot and tears when questioning him. In "Mug Shot," the mother of a suspected criminal makes a strange request and provides a sobering reminder of the humanity at stake in his profession. And in "Home," the image of his family provides the adrenaline he needs to fight for his life when assaulted by two armed and violent crackheads. From his days as a rookie cop to the time spent patrolling in the Anti-Crime Unit—and his visceral, harrowing recollections of working during 9/11—Steve Osborne's stories capture both the absurdity of police work and the bravery of those who do it. His stories will speak to those nostalgic for the New York City of the 1980s and '90s, a bygone era of when the city was a crazier, more dangerous (and possibly more interesting) place. (Publisher Summary)

This Day in History: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City, March 25 1911

Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle

"It was a profitable business in a modern fireproof building heralded as a model of efficiency. Yet the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City became the deadliest workplace in American history when fire broke out on the premises on March 25, 1911. Within about 15 minutes the blaze killed 146 workers-most of them immigrant Jewish and Italian women in their teens and early 20s. Though most workers on the eighth and 10th floors escaped, those on the ninth floor were trapped behind a locked exit door. As the inferno spread, the trapped workers either burned to death inside the building or jumped to their deaths on the sidewalk below. Journalist Von Drehle recounts the disaster-the worst in New York City until September 11, 2001-in passionate detail. He explains the sociopolitical context in which the fire occurred and the subsequent successful push for industry reforms, but is at his best in his moment-by-moment account of the fire. He describes heaps of bodies on the sidewalk, rows of coffins at the makeshift morgue where relatives identified charred bodies by jewelry or other items, and the scandalous manslaughter trial at which the Triangle owners were acquitted of all charges stemming from the deaths. Von Drehle's engrossing account, which emphasizes the humanity of the victims and the theme of social justice, brings one of the pivotal and most shocking episodes of American labor history to life. Photos not seen by PW. Agent: Esther Newberg." ~ Publishers Weekly Reviews

Plan a Day Trip to the Big Apple, it is as easy as 1-2-3!

1- Enjoy a day in the city with reduced-rate train tickets via the LIRR and your Library! Round-trip tickets are available for just $9.25 per person. Purchase your ticket for our February 21st trip before they run out at www.communitylibrary.org.

2- See a museum for free while you're there. Borrow one of our museum passes at www.communitylibrary.org with your library card.

3- Relax on the train ride with a great book!

Grand Central

Conquering Gotham

All Around The Town

New York

Join the Book Discussion

This month, our book discussion will feature The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. 

Rose, a police precinct typist in Prohibition New York, has seen a lot; as the recorder of confessions and transgressions of all sorts, she considers herself to be an astute judge of character. When Odalie Lazare, a new typist, arrives in the office, Rose is intrigued by her beauty, charm, and seeming wealth, but things are not as they seem. (Publisher Summary)

Don't miss out on this historical fiction novel that takes place during the Roaring Twenties! The Other Typist received a starred review from Kirkus: "Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Rindell’s debut, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan.... A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner, both comic and provocative."

Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk. Click here to place your hold today!

New York, New York

The big city is calling! This month's display on the main floor of the library is featuring books all about, or set in, New York City including the following novels:

Dreamland by Kevin Baker: (Historical/Mystery/Love story)

Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park becomes the setting for a sweeping historical novel that follows a young Eastern European stowaway from his 1909 arrival in New York City through his rise to power in a Manhattan underworld organization to the birth of the labor union movement.

Trauma by Patrick McGrath: (Psychological Fiction)

Growing up in a severely dysfunctional family, Charlie Weir builds a career as a psychiatrist in New York City, working with victims of trauma including veterans returning from Vietnam, but the suicide of a patient, the breakup of his marriage, the growing turmoil of the city around him, and a volatile other woman lead Charlie to question everything, even his own sanity.

Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye: (Mystery/Historical)

Joining the newly formed NYPD at the height of Ireland's 19th-century potato famine, Timothy reluctantly assumes his duties in a notorious slum district, where in the middle of the night he hears a little girl's claim that dozens of bodies have been buried in a local forest.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: (Bildungsromans/Humorous)

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

Delicious!

Ruth Reichl, food critic for The New York Times, editor of Gourmet Magazine and author of best selling memoirs Tender at the Bone (2008) and Not Becoming My Mother (2009), makes her fiction debut with Delicious!

Billie Breslin has traveled far from her home in California to take a job at Delicious!, New York’s most iconic food magazine. When Delicious! is abruptly shut down, Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office, maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills.

To Billie’s surprise, the lonely job becomes the portal to a miraculous discovery -- a cache of letters written during World War II by plucky twelve-year-old Lulu Swan to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu’s letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history, and a feeling of deep connection to the young writer whose courage in the face of hardship inspires Billie to comes to terms with her fears, her family and her ability to open her heart to love.

"Reichl's vivid descriptions of food will have readers salivating, and an insider's look at life at a food magazine is fascinating. Her satisfying coming-of-age novel of love and loss vividly demonstrates the power of food to connect people across cultures and generations." - Library Journal Reviews

Book Review: The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress' by Ariel Lawhon

New York City 1930. Justice Joseph Crater has mysteriously disappeared after leaving Greenwich Village's Club Abbey, a speakeasy owned by notorious gangster Owney "The Killer" Madden. The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress, an entertaining historical mystery, explores the events of the scandal-marked disappearance of the infamous, corrupt judge from the perspectives of his wife, his mistress and his housemaid, the three women who knew him best. 

"This story is at once an intricate tale of disparate but coexisting definitions of love and loyalty as well as a tale of what it meant to be a person of power in New York City in the early 20th century. Historical fiction and true crime readers will thoroughly enjoy this book. Although this novel is dubbed a debut, Lawhon has published previous fiction, including Eye of the God, under the pen name Ariel Allison." Library Journal Reviews

How well do YOU know NYC?

As a New York City native, William Helmreich felt that he knew the City pretty well; as a child he and his father would play a game they called "Last Stop." Last Stop entailed picking a subway line, riding it to its final stop and getting out and exploring the neighborhood.  As an adult, Helmreich, a true explorer at heart, felt that the only way to truly understand his beloved NYC would be to walk every single block of every single neighborhood in all five boroughs.  So he did.  Helmreich's epic journey was an astonishing 6,000 miles long on foot.  It took four years to complete.  The book he published after his life-changing adventure, The New York Nobody Knows, is his story.  Let us know your thoughts - does this epic memoir change the way you view the big City?

Per Kirkus Reviews, "The author exudes great love and admiration for his hometown on every page, and this collection of anecdotes brings New York to life with unprecedented humanity and detail.  This book is a pure joy; even the most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker will learn something new about this vibrant city." 

Top-notch hard-boiled crime fiction in 'Angel Face'

Looking to read a suspenseful, gritty crime novel set in nearby New York City?  Try the new book Angel Face, which Booklist praises as "top-notch hard-boiled crime fiction."  Young prostitute Angel Tamanaka's life becomes intertwined with hit man Leonard Carter after Angel witnesses Leonard killing one of her clients, a high-profile member of organized crime who told Angel about a hidden cache of money before he died.  You'll be turning pages until midnight with this one!