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Friends of the Hampton Library

The Literary Series of the Season: Fridays at Five

FFlogo The Friends of the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton run this annual event hosting a variety of well-known authors on Fridays in July and August. A long-time tradition for the library and the Hamptons, in 2025 Fridays at Five turns 41!

Fridays at Five 2025 Schedule

Tickets: $25.00 per lecture, Six Lecture Pass: $125.00 No advanced sales ~ Purchase tickets at gate ~ Gates open at 4:30 pm

The Hampton Library and Friends extend our heartfelt thanks to our underwriter, Saunders Realty, and to our neighboring local businesses for their generous donations and ongoing support!

July 11

July 11, 2025: Kelly Corrigan

Marianne the Maker

Hot on the heels of her New York Times bestseller Tell Me More, Kelly Corrigan’s new book Marianne the Maker is a picture book about a determined young inventor--with a message just as relevant for adults: How can you make time for creativity in your super-structured life? And--almost as important--how can you help those around you recognize its value?

KELLY CORRIGAN is the bestselling author of Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say, Lift, The Middle Place, and Glitter and Glue: A Memoir.

July 18

July 18, 2025: Chris Pavone

The Doorman: A Novel

New York Times bestselling author of The Expats delivers a pulse-pounding novel of class, privilege, sex, and murder. Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia--the most famous apartment house in the world and home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite. As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight’s shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he’ll be carrying a gun.

CHRIS PAVONE is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Expats and, most recently, Two Nights in Lisbon. Chris's books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune, and have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards, are in development for film and television, and have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

July 25

July 25, 2025: Elinor Lipman

Every Tom, Dick & Harry: A Novel

From the award-winning author of Ms. Demeanor--one of the most beloved comedic writers of our time--comes a charming, laugh-out-loud tale of love and criminality, a pitch-perfect romantic comedy. Should Emma turn down potential clients just because they are shady, escort-y, and proud of it? No. A girl must make a living. Around some hairpin turns Lipman ingeniously reveals a straight shot to happiness.

ELINOR LIPMAN is the award-winning author of 16 books of fiction and nonfiction including, The Inn at Lake Devine, Good Riddance, I Can’t Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays, and most recently, Ms. Demeanor. Her first novel, Then She Found Me, became a 2008 feature film, starring Helen Hunt, with Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick. Her book reviews and essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe and New York Times.

August 1

August 1, 2025: Rue Matthiessen

Castles and Ruins: Unraveling Family Mysteries & Literacy Legacy in the Irish Countryside

In an exquisitely written memoir of family, loss, and longing, Pushcart Prize nominee Rue Matthiessen examines a daughter's childhood growing up in Sagaponack with her spirited mother lost too soon, and her search for connection with her distant, iconic father--celebrated author Peter Matthiessen. Castles and Ruins is both an elegy and a revelation--an intimate exploration of the past that speaks to the complexities of love, legacy, and identity.

RUE MATTHIESSEN has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. Her essays and short fiction have been published in numerous literary journals. Her book, Buttonwood Cottage, is about renovating a house in the Caribbean, scuba diving, and Bonaire's natural world. Her memoir, Castles & Ruins, is about growing up in Sagaponack, NY, with parents of ardent literary ambition. Her latest book, a novel titled Woman with Eyes Closed, was published in June of 2025.

August 8

August 8, 2025: Colm Tóibìn

Long Island: A Novel

From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Brooklyn, comes a spectacularly moving, riveting, and suspenseful novel featuring Eilis Lacey, Brooklyn’s complex and enigmatic heroine. Long Island: A Novel is Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years, an instant New York Times bestseller, and named a Best Book of 2024 by Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, and more.

COLM TÓIBÍN is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland.

August 15

August 15, 2025: Tim Weiner

The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner and New York Times correspondent Tim Weiner delivers a gripping, eye-opening account of the CIA in the 21st century. In The Mission, Weiner draws on exclusive, on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, the agency’s top spymaster, thirteen station chiefs, and dozens of elite operations officers—many of whom served undercover for decades and are speaking to a journalist for the first time.

TIM WEINER has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his reporting and writing on American national security. As a correspondent for The New York Times, he covered the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon in Washington, and reported on war and terrorism from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, and many other nations over the course of 15 years. He is the author of One Man Against the World, Enemies and Legacy of Ashes, among others.

About the Friends

Established in 1987, The Friends of the Hampton Library is a nonprofit volunteer organization that supports and promotes the Hampton Library. The Friends raise funds to pay for resources and materials not covered by the library’s budget. In the past money, raised has funded the children's summer reading program; transportation, books and uniforms for our teen's competing in the Suffolk County Battle of the Books, ESL classes, the outdoor sound system, and pilot programs such as our circulating museum pass collection.

Our most popular fundraiser, Fridays at Five, is the literary event of the summer. The Friends also host an annual Literary & Local Trivia Fundraiser and coordinate The Little Friends of the Library Lemonade Stand, run by children and their parents on the library's front lawn in July and August.

The Friends of the Library typically meet the second Wednesday of the month at the Library. If you wish to join The Friends, please email Friends@hamptonlibrary.org and include your name and contact information. A member of the friends committee will reach out to you.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

Join the Friends