Posts from Jefferson Market Library

Since April 5th, the Jefferson Market Library has been hosting a series of watercolor classes for twenty adults, all aged 55+. This course, led by teaching artist Josh Millis, is funded by a grant from Lifetime Arts. The participants have been working on paintings inspired by Jefferson Market and other Village landmarks. This week, I spoke with students Leo, Judy, and Noreen, all regular patrons of Jefferson Market, to find out what they are enjoying about the class so far.

Starting April 5, 2012, local artist Josh Millis will be leading a series of watercolor classes for adults 55+ at Jefferson Market Library. These classes, as well as the gallery opening and reception on May 31, are made possible by a grant from Lifetime Arts. In this blog post, Josh tells us a little bit about his own experiences with art and teaching and gives us some great book recommendations!

Jefferson Market Library, in an effort to offer substantive courses that teach the subjects you want to learn, is thrilled to offer its Spring Semester! Each course offers multiple sessions so students can build their knowledge as the course advances, class by class, guided by an experienced professor! And it's all free! Take a look:

Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me is more than a love story. It's also a book about calculating risk, eating food, taking chances, friendships, comedy, and did I mention food? After I finished the book last weekend, I immediately picked up the phone and ordered chicken marsala. If you've read Bet Me, you know why! And if you haven't read it yet, maybe you should. Unless, of course, you're trying to avoid doughnuts and Italian food, or if you're training for a marathon.

If you haven't experienced, or perhaps even heard about, ReelAbilities, this may be the year to discover this unique festival, which is a film festival, but also so much more.

As one half of SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com, Sarah Wendell has been reviewing books and blogging about all things romance since 2005. She's been interviewed by the New York Times about how e-readers have improved the lives of romance readers everywhere. Her latest book, Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels, was released in October and has received positive reviews, and she is coming to Jefferson Market Library on February 1, 2012 at 7 p.m.!

Every week the Teen Advisory groups from Jefferson Market Library and Muhlenberg Library take a photo of what's happening during their meeting. Here's last week's photos:

Every week, the Teen Advisory groups from Jefferson Market Library and Muhlenberg Library take a photo of what's happening during their meeting. Here's last week's photos:  

Find a Teen Advisory Group close to you and get involved in your library!  

Every week the Teen Advisory Groups from the Jefferson Market Library and the Muhlenberg Library take a photo of what's happening during their meeting. Here's last week's photos: 

Damien W. Echols, 36, Jason Baldwin, 34, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., 36, known as "the West Memphis Three" were released from prison Friday morning after spending 18 years behind bars. Their trials and convictions have been under scrutiny, many people believing the three to be innocent. Brush up on your knowledge of this historical case with the following materials available through NYPL:

Nick Tosches is the author of In the Hand of Dante, Hellfire, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, The Devil and Sonny Liston, Trinities, and numerous other books, poems and articles, some of which have been collected in the 30-year retrospective anthology, The Nick Tosches Reader. On Friday September 9th, Nick Tosches will give a rare in-person reading after-hours in the main reading room of the Jefferson Market Branch Library in celebration of his new release on Kicks Books Save the Last Dance for Satan. Doors open at 8pm.

Melissa Walker's newest book, Small Town Sinners, is about a girl named Lacey that is torn between falling in love and keeping her faith — all while taking a lead role in her town's sin-depicting haunted house.

Thank you for joining us in the Reader's Den this month! I hope you have enjoyed reading A Room with a View. Have you given any thought to what Lucy and George's future might hold? What about Charlotte Bartlett and Cecil Vyse?

Jefferson Market Library's Summer Art Display, Valhalla Hospital: The Art of the Moody Wallen Band, exhibits over 50 line drawings, watercolors, acrylics, and oil paintings throughout the entire building, as well as a visual installation display and rotating video program every Thursday from 5 to 6 p.m. through August 18, inside the program room.

A Room with a View begins its second part at the Honeychurch home in Surrey, a county in the south of England. Much has happened since we last saw Lucy: after she and Charlotte left Florence in a mad haste, they traveled to Rome, where they met fellow countrymen Cecil Vyse and his mother. As this section opens, Cecil is proposing to Lucy (for the third time) in the garden, as her mother peeks anxiously out the drawing room window. Once Lucy has accepted his proposal, we begin to see that Cecil is at best pretentious, and at worst positively insufferable.

E.M. Forster's 1908 novel, A Room with a View, is divided in to two parts: the first takes place in Florence, and the second in England. This week's questions will focus on part one, for those who are reading the book for the first time this month. I have read this book several times, and for me, it improves with each reading. Basically, I'm obsessed with both the book and the Merchant Ivory film adaptation, so please excuse my exuberance! I hope you are enjoying it as well, whether it is your first or your tenth read.

"So enamored is he of light and air blowing through his fictions that it is impossible for him to be dull or stuffy or anything but deliciously fresh and original," wrote Henry James Forman for the New York Times of E. M. Forster (1879-1970) in 1923. Who doesn't want a little light and air in their reading during the heat of summer, as well as some romance?

Needless to say (but apparently I’m saying it anyway!), one can be moved, changed, and inspired by words. Or disgusted, angered, and bored — but that’s a different blog post — or is it?

Has somebody recently called you Miss Fairgrounds or wished you a Happy Easter, Sugar... in June? You can find out what they meant in the basement of Jefferson Market Library.