Readers' Advisory

The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea
by Jack E. Davis (2017)

A comprehensive history of the Gulf of Mexico and its identity as a region marked by hurricanes, oil fields and debates about population growth and the environment demonstrates how its picturesque ecosystems have inspired and reflected key historical events.

New Collections Digitized

Dugout - The official publication of the William Clinton Story American Legion Post No.342.  This collection begins in 1944.

The Student - This monthly/bi-monthly literary magazine was  published by Freeport High School. It was established in 1905 by three students: Edgar H. Osterhout, George C. Colyer, and Stephen B. Story.   It was described as “a magazine published by and in the interests of the students of Freeport High School.”  Its goal was threefold: promote the interest of the school; create closer contact between undergraduates and alumni; and stimulate greater interest in school affairs.

Thanks to the staff of C3 of the Freeport Memorial Library who helped get this collection digitized.

Farewell Jimmy Breslin

1930-2017

Journalist / Author

The American journalist Jimmy Breslin was known most of all for his streetwise, sympathetic newspaper columns that captured the lives of New York's working class residents.

One key to Breslin's longevity (he began writing around 1950 and was still quite active in the early 2010s), however, was that daily newspaper commentary was only one part of a continuum of talents that extended to fiction writing, biography, and memoir on one hand and direct political activism on the other. Breslin never became a comfortable institution of journalism, always seeking out new ways of expressing his ideas. Politically, Breslin was a progressive in a long New York tradition, motivated by a desire to illuminate the hopes and trials of the working-class people who have come to the city throughout its history and built it into what it is today. (Source: Encyclopedia of World Biography, July 12, 2013).


Click here for library material related to Jimmy Breslin.

Village of Freeport Newsletters

The newsletters of the Village of Freeport were originally sent to residents in their monthly electric bills.  These newsletters chronicled events in the Village of Freeport and highlighted past historical events and noteworthy individuals.  In 2012, the newsletters were scanned as part of a grant for government document.  This publication began in May 1952.

Click here to access the Village Newsletter.

Access to More Freeport Newspapers!

The Leader has been digitized for most of the 1990s and 2000s.  Click here for access to the Leader.

Readers' Advisory

Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World
by Abigail Tucker (2016)

 

The intriguing history of how house cats found their way onto our hearths and into our hearts.In her debut, Smithsonian correspondent Tucker takes readers back into prehistory to examine the qualities of such killer cats as saber-tooth tigers and their ilk. Today, big cats are rapidly vanishing, but domesticated cats are thriving. By some estimates, in the United States alone, the tally of pet cats is approaching 100 million. Tucker, a devoted cat lover and owner, brings dozens of points of view about cats through her interviews with archaeologists, veterinarians, biologists, animal ecologists, and research scientists; her time spent observing cat fanciers at pet shows; and her encounters with wildlife refuge managers, animal rights activists, and cat breeders. Cat lovers may be dismayed to learn some of the negatives the author reveals—e.g., the link between cats and serious mental and physical conditions, the threat they pose to birds and other endangered animal populations—and cat owners may be alarmed to read of the vicious behavior of some ordinary house cats. Tucker relates one incident in which cat owners barricaded themselves inside their bedroom and called 911 to be rescued from their fierce little pet. The author also reports the work of hybrid breeders, who are producing some very strange-looking animals. Illustrations would have enhanced this lively and informative book, but readers curious to know what the rare Lykoi, also known as the werewolf cat, looks like can find ample photographs online. As many readers already know, cat videos have taken over the internet, and Tucker explores this phenomenon, visiting such current stars as Lil Bub. Read this entertaining book and you will be convinced that house cats are "the most transformative invaders the world has ever seen"—except for humans, of course. (Kirkus).

                              

Readers' Advisory

Heaven's Ditch: God, Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal
By Jack Kelly (2016)

The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. Zealots invented new religions and new modes of living. The Erie Canal made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier. Men and women saw God face to face, gained and lost fortunes, and reveled in a period of intense spiritual creativity.

Heaven's Ditch illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this "psychic highway" from its opening in 1825 through 1844. "Wage slave" Sam Patch became America's first celebrity daredevil. William Miller envisioned the apocalypse. Farm boy Joseph Smith gave birth to Mormonism, a new and distinctly American religion. Along the way, the reader encounters America's very first "crime of the century," a treasure hunt, searing acts of violence, a visionary cross-dresser, and a panoply of fanatics, mystics, and hoaxers.