Hampton Library Fridays At Five Series Begins 2016 Season

Bridgehampton’s Hampton Library will kick off its 2016 Fridays at Five season on July 8 with guest author Samantha Bruce-Benjamin.

Ms. Bruce-Benjamin’s most recent book is “The Westhampton Leisure Hour and Supper Club,” which explores five minutes in the life of a Hamptons society hostess during the Great Hurricane of 1938. The book was researched over five years and inspired by an actual Greek Revival stately residence on the East End.

Ms. Bruce-Benjamin, born and raised in Scotland and a former Random House and BBC literary editor, also penned “The Art of Devotion,” a Bookreporter Best Book of 2010.

WPPB 88.3 FM radio personality Bonnie Grice will interview Ms. Bruce-Benjamin.

The series continues on July 15, when New York Times sports business columnist Joe Nocera will discuss his book “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.”

Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Shnayerson will be the guest July 22. His most recent book is “The Contender,” an unauthorized biography of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Stony Brook Southampton writing professor, former “Newshour” essayist, and author of several novels and memoirs Roger Rosenblatt will appear July 29. He is a winner of a Peabody, and Emmy, and two Polk awards. His book “Children of War” won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize. His new novel is “Thomas Murphy.”

Richard Reeves, the author of bestsellers “Infamy: The Shocking Story of Japanese Internment in World War II”
 and “President Kennedy: Profile in Power,” will be the August 5 guest. He is also an award-winning journalist who was the chief political correspondent of The New York Times, a writer for The New Yorker and the chief correspondent of PBS’s “Frontline.”

East Hampton author Steven Gaines, who wrote “Philistines at the Hedgerow” and the upcoming memoir “One of These Things First” among many other books, will appear August 12.

Naturalist Carl Safina, whose new book is “Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel,” will visit the library August 12. He is a recipient of the MacArthur genius grant and Guggenheim fellowships, and his most well-known work is “Song for the Blue Ocean.”

Ray Kelly, the former police commissioner for New York City, will wrap the series on August 26. His memoir is “Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City.”

Gates open at 4:30 p.m. and the program runs from 5 to 6 p.m. A single ticket is $20. A book of five tickets is $80. The Hampton Library is located at 2478 Main Street, Bridgehampton. Call 631-537-0015 or visit hamptonlibrary.org.