Recent Stories: Books

“Lily Steps Out”
Rita Plush
Penumbra, $10.99
   Rita Plush is a first-time novelist making a bold go of it. In “Lily Steps Out,” Ms. Plush has chosen a story clearly close to home and close to her heart, and she is faithful and engaging in the telling of it. Ms. Plush’s handy way with dialogue and details marks the lively tale of one Lily Gold and her transformation from homemaker to entrepreneur.
    At the opening of the novel, Lily Gold finds herself thus:

Dogs for Steinbeck
    You say John Steinbeck Weekend is news to you? Never mind that and simply give in to the charm of the “Travels With Charley” dog walk on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor. Jill Rappaport of the “Today” show, known as an advocate for the four-legged, is the host, and the beneficiaries are the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and the Bay Street Theatre, where the walk will wind up with a “bagels and bones” reception.

   There’s no rock ’n’ roll and just a few mentions of drugs in Nanci E. LaGarenne’s new novel, “Cheap Fish,” but it’s all about Montauk and has sex, salty language, intrigue, and a murder mystery, all aboard a high-class floating brothel called the Lily Virginia in the middle of the ocean.

Storytelling Techniques
    Memoir: It’s all the rage, whether you’re a reader, a writer, or a publisher. How about workshopper?

Poets Laureate, Ho!
    National Poetry Month: Get it while you can, versification fans. At Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, to name one outlet, a couple of county poets laureate, Ed Stever of Suffolk and Linda Opyr of Nassau, will step to a lectern or its approximation to read starting at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

   Back in June 2000, Eva Moore of Montauk was reading a story in The East Hampton Star about a family of ducks rescued from a storm drain near Kirk Park by members of the Montauk Fire Department and a visiting tourist. Immediately, the author of some 22 children’s books realized it would make a good picture book. It took more than 10 years to find a publisher, get it illustrated, and get it on bookstore shelves, but just a couple of weeks after its Feb. 1 release, it had already won an award and sold more than 10,000 copies.

“All That Is”
James Salter
Knopf, $26.95

“Bolero”
Joanie McDonell
Thomas & Mercer, $14.95

   I’ve noticed that when reading mysteries I can usually tell from the opening chapter if I’m in for an enjoyable ride. With “Bolero,” Joanie McDonell’s first Nick Sayler adventure, I knew within a few paragraphs that I was in good hands. The tone is smart, the setup intriguing and fast-paced, and the protagonist appealingly eccentric.

Two Awards, Two Very Different Writers

    Ever feel that modernity has gotten so strange you must be living on another planet? In “The Twinning Project” (Clarion Books, $16.99), Robert Lipsyte of Shelter Island posits a second Earth created by alien scientists to study evolution. But humans, as humans will, have made a mess of things (our stock-in-trade: war, starvation, genocide, environmental degradation), and the project is being abandoned — no more Earths.

“The Richest Woman
in America”
Janet Wallach
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $27.95