Houdini Heads Library Adult Summer Reading List

Summer reading is always fun, but this year there's a thrilling twist, because Adult Summer Reading is all about mysteries. Enjoy great librarian picks with our recommended booklist, including plenty of hairraising murderous tales; join a killer book discussion; explore psychic phenomena and the paranormal, and find the real man, like magic, behind the myth of Houdini.

Once you sign up at your neighborhood library or online on the Summer Reading Web site, www.summerreading.org, or check out what others are reading and write your own reviews. Programs are subject to change and may have limited space. Call the library before your visit or log on to www.queenslibrary. org.

Book Talks with Biographers of Superstar Magician Harry Houdini

The Secret Life Of Houdini: The Making Of America's First Superhero- Author Talk with Magic Expert William Kalush and Bestselling Writer Larry Sloman

+ Monday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.

North Forest Park, 98-27 Metropolitan Ave., Forest Hills; 718- 261-5512

+ Saturday, June 16, 3 p.m.

Forest Hills, 108-19 71st Ave. (off Queens Boulevard, Forest Hills; 718-268-7934

Handcuff king…escape artist…international superstar of vaudeville and the cinema: Since his death 80 years ago on Halloween, magician Harry Houdini's life has been chronicled in books, on film and television. Now in this groundbreaking biography, renowned magic expert William Kalush and best-selling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. In vivid detail, the authors relate the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever more dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.

Fun facts:

+ Houdini made a pledge to his beloved wife, Bess, that after his death, he would unlock the secrets of the dead and return to her from the other side. She used his secret code to call on him during annual Halloween séances that she continued for the next 10 years, before she finally gave up!

+ Houdini's gravesite is only a few miles from these two Queens libraries.

+ Annual rituals: Just as a legendary and mysterious "woman in black" leaves a bottle of brandy at the Baltimore grave of Edgar Allen Poe, Houdini's burial plot in Machpelah Cemetery in Queens has been the

Library Adult Summer Reading List

Summer reading is always fun, but this year there's a thrilling twist, because Adult Summer Reading is all about mysteries. Enjoy great librarian picks with our recommended booklist, including plenty of hair-raising murderous tales; join a killer book discussion; explore psychic phenomena and the paranormal, and find the real man, like magic, behind the myth of Houdini.

Once you sign up at your neighborhood library or online on the Summer Reading Web site, www.summerreading.org, or check out what others are reading and write your own reviews. Programs are subject to change and may have limited space. Call the library before your visit or log on to www.queenslibrary.org.

Book Talks with Biographers of Superstar Magician Harry Houdini

The Secret Life Of Houdini: The Making Of America's First Superhero- Author Talk with Magic Expert William Kalush and Best-selling Writer Larry Sloman

+ Monday, June 11, 6:30 p.m.

North Forest Park, 98-27 Metropolitan Ave., Forest Hills; 718-261-5512

+ Saturday, June 16, 3 p.m.

Forest Hills, 108-19 71st Ave. (off Queens Boulevard, Forest Hills; 718-268-7934

Handcuff king…escape artist…international superstar of vaudeville and the cinema: Since his death 80 years ago on Halloween, magician Harry Houdini's life has been chronicled in books, on film and television. Now in this groundbreaking biography, renowned magic expert William Kalush and best-selling writer Larry Sloman team up to find the man behind the myth. In vivid detail, the authors relate the passions that drove Houdini to perform ever more dangerous feats, his secret life as a spy and a pernicious plot to subvert his legacy.

Fun facts:

+ Houdini made a pledge to his beloved wife, Bess, that after his death, he would unlock the secrets of the dead and return to her from the other side. She used his secret code to call on him during annual Halloween séances that she continued for the next 10 years, before she finally gave up!

+ Houdini's gravesite is only a few miles from these two Queens libraries.

+ Annual rituals: Just as a legendary and mysterious "woman in black" leaves a bottle of brandy at the Baltimore grave of Edgar Allen Poe, Houdini's burial plot in Machpelah Cemetery in Queens has been the scene of an annual Halloween ceremony led by a society of magicians, picking up where Bess left off. They leave behind a broken wand after each gravesite ceremony.

+ From the Morbid-Curiosity Web site: "Houdini's burial place has an angelic figure kneeling at the base of the monument and at one time above the family name [Weiss] was a bust of Houdini. It has since been stolen. The Machpelah Cemetery, as most Jewish cemeteries, had been victimized by vandalism. One year, the entire Houdini gravesite had been desecrated. Its Gothic benches and ornate headstones were destroyed. During Houdini's lifetime, he was notorious for paying homage to fellow magicians of the past by spending time and money to fix up what were often long-neglected gravesites. Now the tables were turned and Houdini's grave was in bad shape. So David Copperfield carried on the