These are just a few of the many wonderful children's books we have in the library. Come and check them out!!Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Come browse our huge collection of Christmas books!
These are just a few of the many wonderful children's books we have in the library. Come and check them out!!
Monday, November 25, 2013
T. H. White Book Discussion
The library will host a discussion of The Once and Future King by T. H. White on Monday, December 9 at 7:00 PM. The program will be free and open to the public. This will be the third in the library’s fall series on British fantasy novels.
Published in 1958, The Once and Future King is White’s contemporary reinterpretation of the legends of King Arthur. This volume collected White’s three earlier Arthurian fantasies and added the concluding tale, so that the four sections of the book are: “The Sword in the Stone”; “The Queen of Air and Darkness”; “The Ill-Made Knight”; and “The Candle in the Wind.”
The Sword in the Stone, first published in 1938 and widely familiar as the source for the 1963 Disney movie, is a whimsical fantasy of the youth and education of King Arthur. White significantly revised this section for publication in The Once and Future King, dropping some episodes and adding others, in order to make it more consistent with the themes subsequently developed in the rest of the book.
The remaining sections are darker in tone and faithful to the central stories of Arthurian legend, especially as interpreted by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d’Arthur. They tell the stories of Arthur’s rule as king and his establishment of the Round Table, of the affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenever, and of Arthur’s struggle with his illegitimate son, Mordred. While White drew on these traditional stories, however, he often reinterprets the characters in contemporary psychological terms.
In The Once and Future King, T. H. White “took hold of the ultimate English epic,” says critic and novelist Lev Grossman, “and recast it in modern literary language, sacrificing none of its grandeur or strangeness.” White, says Grossman, should be “considered one of the founding fathers of modern fantasy, the way Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are.”
Published in 1958, The Once and Future King is White’s contemporary reinterpretation of the legends of King Arthur. This volume collected White’s three earlier Arthurian fantasies and added the concluding tale, so that the four sections of the book are: “The Sword in the Stone”; “The Queen of Air and Darkness”; “The Ill-Made Knight”; and “The Candle in the Wind.”The Sword in the Stone, first published in 1938 and widely familiar as the source for the 1963 Disney movie, is a whimsical fantasy of the youth and education of King Arthur. White significantly revised this section for publication in The Once and Future King, dropping some episodes and adding others, in order to make it more consistent with the themes subsequently developed in the rest of the book.
The remaining sections are darker in tone and faithful to the central stories of Arthurian legend, especially as interpreted by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d’Arthur. They tell the stories of Arthur’s rule as king and his establishment of the Round Table, of the affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenever, and of Arthur’s struggle with his illegitimate son, Mordred. While White drew on these traditional stories, however, he often reinterprets the characters in contemporary psychological terms.
In The Once and Future King, T. H. White “took hold of the ultimate English epic,” says critic and novelist Lev Grossman, “and recast it in modern literary language, sacrificing none of its grandeur or strangeness.” White, says Grossman, should be “considered one of the founding fathers of modern fantasy, the way Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are.”
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Gettysburg Address Lecture
The Gettysburg Address was delivered on April 19, 1863 at the dedication of a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union victory in the battle there. Lincoln’s speech was not intended to be the primary focus of the ceremony; that honor belonged to the two-hour oration delivered by Edward Everett. But while Everett’s speech has been largely forgotten, Lincoln’s brief address is now regarded as one of the premier examples of American orator.
We hope you will join us to celebrate this inspirational moment in American history.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The Lord of the Rings Discussion Set
The Library will host a discussion of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on Monday, November 11 at 7:00 PM. This will be second in the library’s fall series on British fantasy novels. The program will be free and open to the public.
Originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, The Lord of the Rings became one of the most important and influential fantasy novels of the twentieth century. Indeed, its success was so great that the “high fantasy” mode that the book exemplified became the dominant, and almost only, commercially viable form of fantasy for many years. More than that, the book became an American cultural phenomenon in the mid-1960s and has become one of the best-selling titles in history.
The story concerns the efforts of a group of characters to destroy a magic ring and defeat an evil force that threatens their land of Middle-earth. From 2001 to 2003, the book was adapted in a series of three critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, directed by Peter Jackson. The third film in the series, The Return of the King, won eleven Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a philologist and professor at Oxford University. Born in 1892 in what is now South Africa, Tolkien studied at Oxford and fought in World War I, though he fell ill and was sent home. Drawing on his interest in languages and mythology, he developed a long and complex history of a fantasy realm that he termed “Middle-earth,” and out of that material eventually grew The Hobbit, published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings. More of this material was subsequently published after his death in 1973 as The Silmarillion (1977) and in other volumes edited by his son and literary executor, Christopher.
The library’s series “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” will conclude on Monday, December 9 with a discussion of The Once and Future King by T. H. White. Copies will be available to borrow in advance.
Originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, The Lord of the Rings became one of the most important and influential fantasy novels of the twentieth century. Indeed, its success was so great that the “high fantasy” mode that the book exemplified became the dominant, and almost only, commercially viable form of fantasy for many years. More than that, the book became an American cultural phenomenon in the mid-1960s and has become one of the best-selling titles in history.The story concerns the efforts of a group of characters to destroy a magic ring and defeat an evil force that threatens their land of Middle-earth. From 2001 to 2003, the book was adapted in a series of three critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, directed by Peter Jackson. The third film in the series, The Return of the King, won eleven Academy Awards, including the award for Best Picture.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a philologist and professor at Oxford University. Born in 1892 in what is now South Africa, Tolkien studied at Oxford and fought in World War I, though he fell ill and was sent home. Drawing on his interest in languages and mythology, he developed a long and complex history of a fantasy realm that he termed “Middle-earth,” and out of that material eventually grew The Hobbit, published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings. More of this material was subsequently published after his death in 1973 as The Silmarillion (1977) and in other volumes edited by his son and literary executor, Christopher.
The library’s series “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” will conclude on Monday, December 9 with a discussion of The Once and Future King by T. H. White. Copies will be available to borrow in advance.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Next Short Story Discussion Program
The library will hold its next Book Club for Writers discussion on Thursday, October 24. The discussion will feature short stories by three contemporary, prize-winning writers who are all interested in the fantastic: Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, and Steven Millhauser.
Copies of Chabon’s “In the Black Mill,” Lethem’s “Super Goat Man,” and Millhauser’s “Cat ’n’ Mouse” will be available from the library in advance. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM and will be free and open to the public.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and of the Hugo and Nebula awards for The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon is the author most recently of Telegraph Avenue. Chabon is known for blending elements of genre and literary fiction in his writing. “In the Black Mill” is purported to be the work of August Van Zorn, a fictional persona that Chabon has fashioned. Van Zorn is said to be a writer of pulp horror stories in the tradition of Lovecraft and Poe.
Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and his novel The Fortress of Solitude was a bestseller. His most recent book, Dissident Gardens, was just published last month. In 2005, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius grant.” Lethem is another writer known for blending literary and genre styles, an approach that characterizes “Super Goat Man,” a story first published in The New Yorker.
Steven Millhauser won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Martin Dressler, but he is perhaps best-known as a writer of short stories. Millhauser’s stories are reminiscent of Poe and Borges; “his characteristic method,” says Jonathan Lethem, “mingles dreamlike and often morbid or perverse fantasies with meticulous realist observation.” Millhauser teaches at Skidmore College and his collections include In the Penny Arcade, The Barnum Museum, and The Knife Thrower. Lethem says that “Cat ’n’ Mouse” appears in his own personal “Millhauser hall of fame.”
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2014 and will feature “Mister Squishy” by David Foster Wallace, and two stories by George Saunders, “In Persuasion Nation” and “The Semplica Girl Diaries.”
Copies of Chabon’s “In the Black Mill,” Lethem’s “Super Goat Man,” and Millhauser’s “Cat ’n’ Mouse” will be available from the library in advance. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM and will be free and open to the public.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and of the Hugo and Nebula awards for The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon is the author most recently of Telegraph Avenue. Chabon is known for blending elements of genre and literary fiction in his writing. “In the Black Mill” is purported to be the work of August Van Zorn, a fictional persona that Chabon has fashioned. Van Zorn is said to be a writer of pulp horror stories in the tradition of Lovecraft and Poe.
Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and his novel The Fortress of Solitude was a bestseller. His most recent book, Dissident Gardens, was just published last month. In 2005, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius grant.” Lethem is another writer known for blending literary and genre styles, an approach that characterizes “Super Goat Man,” a story first published in The New Yorker.Steven Millhauser won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Martin Dressler, but he is perhaps best-known as a writer of short stories. Millhauser’s stories are reminiscent of Poe and Borges; “his characteristic method,” says Jonathan Lethem, “mingles dreamlike and often morbid or perverse fantasies with meticulous realist observation.” Millhauser teaches at Skidmore College and his collections include In the Penny Arcade, The Barnum Museum, and The Knife Thrower. Lethem says that “Cat ’n’ Mouse” appears in his own personal “Millhauser hall of fame.”
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2014 and will feature “Mister Squishy” by David Foster Wallace, and two stories by George Saunders, “In Persuasion Nation” and “The Semplica Girl Diaries.”
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
C. S. Lewis Discussion
The library will host a discussion of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis Monday, October 14 at 7:00 PM. This will be first discussion in the library’s fall series on British fantasy novels. The discussion will be free and open to the public and copies of the book will be available to borrow in advance.
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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first volume published in Lewis’s popular series The Chronicles of Narnia. It tells the story of four children in World War II-era England who travel to the mysterious world of Narnia, which is populated by talking animals and mythical creatures. The children find themselves the instruments of an ancient prophecy that may free Narnia from the rule of the evil White Witch.
Best remembered today as the author of the Narnia series, C. S. Lewis was a medievalist scholar who taught at Oxford and Cambridge. He was also known for a number of works of Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity (adapted from a series of BBC radio broadcasts) and The Screwtape Letters. He was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, and they both belonged to an Oxford literary discussion group known as the Inklings.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a classic of children’s literature that has sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published in 1950 and the remaining six volumes in the series appeared at intervals of one each year. The books have been continuously in print ever since, and have been adapted multiple times for other media. Three have been adapted in recent years as major Hollywood movies.
The library’s discussion series is entitled “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” The series will also feature The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on Monday, November 11 and The Once and Future King by T. H. White on Monday, December 9.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first volume published in Lewis’s popular series The Chronicles of Narnia. It tells the story of four children in World War II-era England who travel to the mysterious world of Narnia, which is populated by talking animals and mythical creatures. The children find themselves the instruments of an ancient prophecy that may free Narnia from the rule of the evil White Witch.Best remembered today as the author of the Narnia series, C. S. Lewis was a medievalist scholar who taught at Oxford and Cambridge. He was also known for a number of works of Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity (adapted from a series of BBC radio broadcasts) and The Screwtape Letters. He was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, and they both belonged to an Oxford literary discussion group known as the Inklings.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a classic of children’s literature that has sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published in 1950 and the remaining six volumes in the series appeared at intervals of one each year. The books have been continuously in print ever since, and have been adapted multiple times for other media. Three have been adapted in recent years as major Hollywood movies.
The library’s discussion series is entitled “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” The series will also feature The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on Monday, November 11 and The Once and Future King by T. H. White on Monday, December 9.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Fall Book Discussion Series
The Library’s fall book discussion series will feature three masterworks of British fantasy. Discussions of works by C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and T. H. White will be free and open to the public.
The series is entitled “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” The discussions will feature: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis on Monday, October 14; The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on Monday, November 11; and The Once and Future King by T. H. White on Monday, December 9. All discussions begin at 7:00 PM and copies of the books will be available to borrow in advance.
These three books, published in the fifties and still enormously popular, played a crucial role in transforming fantasy from an esoteric taste to mainstream entertainment. They have each been repeatedly adapted to other media, they have spawned legions of imitators, and they have generally increased the public’s tolerance of and appetite for the fantastic. From boy wizards to lovelorn vampires, works of fantasy today dominate the bestseller lists, the cineplex, and the television screen, thanks in part to these books.
This series will allow readers to visit – or re-visit – works that have each become icons of popular culture. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) was the first book to be published in Lewis’s seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955) became a cultural phenomenon and set the template that works of epic fantasy would follow for the next several decades. The Once and Future King (1958) collected and concluded White’s tetralogy of Arthurian fantasies. Readers will come to understand why these works enjoy such enduring appeal.
The series is entitled “The Fantastic Fifties: British Fantasy at Mid-Century or, What’s With All the Initials?” The discussions will feature: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis on Monday, October 14; The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on Monday, November 11; and The Once and Future King by T. H. White on Monday, December 9. All discussions begin at 7:00 PM and copies of the books will be available to borrow in advance.
These three books, published in the fifties and still enormously popular, played a crucial role in transforming fantasy from an esoteric taste to mainstream entertainment. They have each been repeatedly adapted to other media, they have spawned legions of imitators, and they have generally increased the public’s tolerance of and appetite for the fantastic. From boy wizards to lovelorn vampires, works of fantasy today dominate the bestseller lists, the cineplex, and the television screen, thanks in part to these books.
This series will allow readers to visit – or re-visit – works that have each become icons of popular culture. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) was the first book to be published in Lewis’s seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955) became a cultural phenomenon and set the template that works of epic fantasy would follow for the next several decades. The Once and Future King (1958) collected and concluded White’s tetralogy of Arthurian fantasies. Readers will come to understand why these works enjoy such enduring appeal.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Book Club for Writers July 25
The library will hold its next Book Club for Writers discussion on Thursday, July 25 at 7:00 PM. The discussion will feature short stories by Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor, two writers strongly associated with the American South.
Participants will discuss Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” and O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” The discussion will be free and open to the public, and copies of the stories are available from the library in advance.
Born in Mississippi in 1909, Eudora Welty published her first short story in 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. “Why I Live at the P.O.” was an early story, published in 1941 in The Atlantic Monthly, and included later that year in her first collection, A Curtain of Green, the book that established Welty’s reputation. She pursued a long and productive career as a writer, during which she received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of the Arts. She died in 2001.
Flannery O’Connor was born in Georgia in 1925, and published most of her work in the 1950s and 1960s. Known for her Southern Gothic style of writing, O’Connor published two novels but is best remembered for her two story collections, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge. She died from complications of lupus in 1964 at the age of thirty-nine; her posthumously published Complete Stories won the National Book Award.
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, October 24 and will feature stories by three contemporary writers: “Cat ’n’ Mouse” by Steven Millhauser; “Super Goat Man” by Jonathan Lethem; and “In the Black Mill” by Michael Chabon.
Participants will discuss Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.” and O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” The discussion will be free and open to the public, and copies of the stories are available from the library in advance.Born in Mississippi in 1909, Eudora Welty published her first short story in 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. “Why I Live at the P.O.” was an early story, published in 1941 in The Atlantic Monthly, and included later that year in her first collection, A Curtain of Green, the book that established Welty’s reputation. She pursued a long and productive career as a writer, during which she received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Medal of the Arts. She died in 2001.
Flannery O’Connor was born in Georgia in 1925, and published most of her work in the 1950s and 1960s. Known for her Southern Gothic style of writing, O’Connor published two novels but is best remembered for her two story collections, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge. She died from complications of lupus in 1964 at the age of thirty-nine; her posthumously published Complete Stories won the National Book Award.Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, October 24 and will feature stories by three contemporary writers: “Cat ’n’ Mouse” by Steven Millhauser; “Super Goat Man” by Jonathan Lethem; and “In the Black Mill” by Michael Chabon.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Summer Reading Program
begins Saturday, June 29th!
Sign up your kids to take a ride on
the Reading Railroad at the library!
Every Saturday in July will be a new theme (revealed as the kids open the next boxcar on the train display)
Fun games, crafts, snacks and stories await! Click on the Children's Room link to your left for more information. See you this summer, at the library!!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Book Club for Writers Discussion
Join us for our next Book Club for Writers discussion on Thursday, April 24 at 7:00 PM, when we will discuss stories by Angela Carter and Kelly Link, authors who are both known for incorporating elements of fairy tales in their fiction.
We will discuss “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter and “Travels with the Snow Queen” by Kelly Link. The discussion will be free and open to the public, and copies of the stories are available from the library in advance.
The British novelist, essayist, and short story writer Angela Carter was known for infusing her work with both magical realism and feminism. The London Times ranked her tenth on its list of “the 50 greatest British writers since 1945,” and though she died of cancer in 1991, her work has continued to be influential and widely discussed. Her collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories was published in 1979 and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize; the stories play with the conventions and concerns of traditional fairy tales.
Kelly Link is an American editor, author, and publisher who, like Carter, is also interested in fairy tales and magical realism. “Travels with the Snow Queen” won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and appeared in her 2001 collection Stranger Things Happen, which was named one of the best books of the year by Salon and the Village Voice. With her husband, she runs the literary and science fiction publisher Small Beer Press.
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, July 25 and will feature “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor and “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty.
The British novelist, essayist, and short story writer Angela Carter was known for infusing her work with both magical realism and feminism. The London Times ranked her tenth on its list of “the 50 greatest British writers since 1945,” and though she died of cancer in 1991, her work has continued to be influential and widely discussed. Her collection The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories was published in 1979 and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize; the stories play with the conventions and concerns of traditional fairy tales.
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the Haverhill Corner Library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, July 25 and will feature “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor and “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty.
The Sun Also Rises Discussion
Published in 1926 and considered by many to be Hemingway’s greatest work, The Sun Also Rises is a novel about American and British expatriates in Paris and Spain. Based on real people and events, the novel tells the story of the doomed love of Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley. Today considered one of the most important and influential of Modernist novels, the book was immediately popular upon publication and has been continually in print since its first appearance.
Living and working in Paris as a correspondent for the Toronto Star, Hemingway had attended the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain where he had become fascinated with bullfighting. His experiences in Paris and Pamplona became the basis for The Sun Also Rises. Though the novel quoted Gertrude Stein’s observation that his was a “lost generation,” Hemingway rejected this notion, feeling that his characters, while “battered” by their experiences in World War I, were not lost.
The Sun Also Rises is also famous as one of the best examples of Hemingway’s spare style, his elimination of sentimentalism, and his “iceberg theory” of writing in which much of the story occurs beneath the surface of the narrative.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Chicken and Biscuit Supper
The library will hold its annual book sale and chicken and biscuit supper on Saturday, March 9 at the Parish Hall in Haverhill Corner.
The book sale will begin at 5:00 PM and supper will be served at 5:30. The menu will include chicken and biscuits with gravy, cole slaw, and hot fudge brownie sundaes for dessert.
Tickets for the supper will be $10 for adults and $5 for children, available at the library or at the door. Prices for the book sale will be "by donation."
This is the fourth year that the library has held this annual supper, which has grown to be a popular event with patrons and book lovers.
We hope you'll join us!
The book sale will begin at 5:00 PM and supper will be served at 5:30. The menu will include chicken and biscuits with gravy, cole slaw, and hot fudge brownie sundaes for dessert.
Tickets for the supper will be $10 for adults and $5 for children, available at the library or at the door. Prices for the book sale will be "by donation."
This is the fourth year that the library has held this annual supper, which has grown to be a popular event with patrons and book lovers.
We hope you'll join us!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Babbitt Discussion
The library will host a discussion of Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis on Monday, February 25 at 7:00 PM. This program is the second in the library's discussion series "The Roaring Twenties," and it will be free and open to the public. Copies of the book are available to borrow from the library.
Babbitt was published to critical and popular acclaim in 1922, selling over 140,000 copies in its first year. The novel is a satire of middle-class American boosterism and conformity, and the very name "Babbitt" became a byword for materialistic complacency and reflexive conventionality. It was one of the key works that made Sinclair Lewis the first American writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The novel focuses on George F. Babbitt, a real estate broker in the fictional city of Zenith, a fast-growing Midwestern industrial metropolis. Professionally successful, he is a businessman who has unquestioningly embraced the received political, social, and religious values of his class and caste. For many readers at the time and since, Babbitt has served as an archetype of middle-class conformity, though Lewis felt that Babbitt himself was "the most grievous victim of his own militant dullness."
As a satiric portrait of America's rapid economic growth and industrialization in the 1920s, Babbitt offers an important understanding of his vibrant period in American history.
The "Roaring Twenties" series will continue on Monday, March 25 with a discussion of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The novel focuses on George F. Babbitt, a real estate broker in the fictional city of Zenith, a fast-growing Midwestern industrial metropolis. Professionally successful, he is a businessman who has unquestioningly embraced the received political, social, and religious values of his class and caste. For many readers at the time and since, Babbitt has served as an archetype of middle-class conformity, though Lewis felt that Babbitt himself was "the most grievous victim of his own militant dullness."
As a satiric portrait of America's rapid economic growth and industrialization in the 1920s, Babbitt offers an important understanding of his vibrant period in American history.
The "Roaring Twenties" series will continue on Monday, March 25 with a discussion of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Book Club for Writers Discussion
The library will hold its next Book Club for Writers discussion on Thursday, January 24. The discussion will focus on stories by Alice Munro and William Trevor, both regularly named by critics as among the very best short story writers at work today.
Participants will discuss “The Moons of Jupiter” by Alice Munro and “Sitting with the Dead” by William Trevor. The discussion will begin at 7:00 PM at the library, and will be free and open to the public. Copies of the stories are available from the library in advance.
Canadian Alice Munro has won the Man Booker International Prize and has three times won Canada’s Governor General’s Award for Fiction. She has been hailed by Cynthia Ozick as “our Chekhov,” and is described by the Guardian as “a perennial contender” for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood says, “Among writers, her name is spoken in hushed tones.” She has published thirteen collections of short stories, most recently Dear Life (2012).
William Trevor is an Irish author of novels and plays, but is best known for his short stories. He is a member of the Irish Academy of Letters and has won the Whitbread Award three times. He has described the short story as “the art of the glimpse . . . its strength lies in what it leaves out just as much as what it puts in, if not more.” His most recent book is the novel Love and Summer (2009). Though he has lived most of his life in England, he considers himself to be “Irish in every vein.”
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, April 25 and will feature “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter and “Travels with the Snow Queen” by Kelly Link.
Canadian Alice Munro has won the Man Booker International Prize and has three times won Canada’s Governor General’s Award for Fiction. She has been hailed by Cynthia Ozick as “our Chekhov,” and is described by the Guardian as “a perennial contender” for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood says, “Among writers, her name is spoken in hushed tones.” She has published thirteen collections of short stories, most recently Dear Life (2012).
Book Club for Writers is a fiction discussion program that meets four times a year. Discussions are open to all, and focus particularly on questions of craft and technique that will interest writers and aspiring writers. Created by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Book Club for Writers is sponsored locally by a fiction writing group that meets weekly at the library.
The next Book Club for Writers discussion will be held on Thursday, April 25 and will feature “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter and “Travels with the Snow Queen” by Kelly Link.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Winter Book Discussion Series
The books scheduled for discussion are:
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, Monday, January 28;
- Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, Monday, February 25;
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Monday, March 25;
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Monday, April 22.
The 1920s was a rich period in American literature. In addition to the writers featured in this series, that decade also saw the publication of major works by such authors as Willa Cather, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, T. S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Katherine Mansfield, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, and Thornton Wilder.
The books chosen for the discussion series convey the range of the American experience during this vibrant period, from the small-town life of Winesburg, Ohio to the Midwestern, mid-sized city of Babbitt, and from the glamor of Jazz Age Manhattan and Long Island in The Great Gatsby to the post-World War I experiences of American expatriates in The Sun Also Rises. These books constitute a record of an extraordinary and influential period in American life and culture.
Immersion in the literature of the 1920s will also prepare readers for the new film version of The Great Gatsby scheduled for release in May.
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