Book lovers who cherish the chance to talk about literature, hear from authors, and explore new titles will have plenty of opportunities to do so this week.
Via the East Hampton Library, a George Saunders short-story discussion series continues on Monday at 5:30 p.m. with "Sea Oak" and "The End of FIRPO in the World," from his "Pastoralia" collection. This will be held on Zoom. The final session, on Oct. 4, will be on "The Barber's Unhappiness" and "The Falls." The library staff can help readers get their hands on copies.
Bill Schutt will be the library's Zoom guest on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to talk about his latest book, "Pump: A Natural History of the Heart." Mr. Schutt is a vertebrate zoologist, recently retired from Long Island University, and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, where he has studied bats from all over the world. "Pump" takes an expansive look at the heart, from the origins of circulatory systems to those of blue whales, with a host of curiosities thrown in, including horseshoe crab's blue blood and a natural antifreeze found in the icefish, as well as cutting-edge research. On Wednesday, the sci-fi book group will Zoom in for a conversation on "The Shockwave Rider" by John Brunner at 6 p.m.
The Montauk Library's Armchair Travel book club with Carolyn Balducci will meet via Zoom on Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m. to discuss "On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey" by Paul Theroux. The book to read for October is "The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky" by Ellen Meloy.
On Thursday, "Speak," a young-adult novel cited by the American Library Association as one of the most frequently banned books, will be the subject of a John Jermain Memorial Library group discussion at 6 p.m. in Sag Harbor, and Marissa Levien will talk about her new science-fiction novel, "The World Gives Way," over Zoom at 7:30. More information is online at johnjermain.org.
At the Amagansett Library, this week's new arrivals are "Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution" by Carlo Rovelli, "Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else" by Jordan Ellenberg, and "The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet" by Arthur Turrell.
