Readers' Advisory: Sag Harbor: Home

Readers’ Advisory
Shelley Marcus, Professor, Reference Librarian, Chaffey College

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead.  Anchor. 2009.

Welcome to Readers’ Advisory!  Did you know that reading for pleasure increases student and all-around success? 

Facing war and pestilence, we are living in “interesting times,” as the saying goes.  It just might be time for a mellow, beach-themed, coming-of-age novel by a brilliant writer.

Colson Whitehead, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, shares some of his own life in this story of Benji Cooper and his brother Reggie, teenagers passing their summers at their parents’ vacation home at Sag Harbor, a wealthy African American enclave on Long Island, New York.

Although the book recounts the brothers’ innocent adventures, it also depicts incidents of subtle racism, and maneuvering in a white world.

The boys are practically on their own since, like their summer friends, their parents are at work during the week in New York City.

If you’re looking for a wild cliff-hanger, this isn’t it, but you just might enjoy keeping company with the author’s younger alter ego.

This book is one of the 250,000 eBooks in our library collection, available 24/7.

Here is a brief video that will introduce the book and show how to access all eBooks.

Here is the permalink to Sag Harbor.

Questions?  Contact me at shelley.marcus@chaffey.edu