library programs

It is hard to believe that we are almost half way through the 2008-09 book discussion at the Tottenville Branch. Tonight we will be discussing All My Sons by Arthur Miller. It is the first time in a long time that we have read a play, so it will be interesting to see how the group reacts. In some ways the play seems to me to be dated, although it is about an issue, manufacturing shoddy military machinery and war profiteering in the U.S. during World War II, a subject that doesn’t seem to be talked or written about much. (Was it a big problem?) I don’t know how the group will react.

They have been pretty pleased with the selections so far: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

The most popular title was The Secret Life of Bees with The Memory Keeper’s Daughter a close second. Our next book is Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. This was requested by a number of members of the group.

We’ve been averaging 13.5 people per session, which is a really high number for Tottenville. They are really into it!

They are all topics of programs or workshops for adults coming up at various New York Public Library locations over the next few months!

Leg warmers will be knitted at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown. Wakefield Library in the north Bronx will host a useful series of free food preparation workshops by Cornell University Cooperative Extension Program. St. George Library Center on Staten Island will be the place to meet 6 wrestling champions, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem will present a live screening of the 2009 Inauguration Ceremony.

And there are over 400 other free programs and classes for adults listed. Flamenco, English Sword Dancing, and Figure Drawing—it’s all there. Take a look: at the New York Public Library website, click on Calendar, then All, then limit to Adults.

And a special event I’d like to invite you to: on Wednesday, January 14, 2009, representatives of The New York Public Library will speak at the Riverdale YM-YWHA (5625 Arlington Avenue, Bronx, New York) to hear about a wide range of services that The Library offers targeting older adults, specifically—but not only—those living in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. This presentation is co-sponsored by the Libraries & Cultural Affairs Committee and the Aging Committee of Bronx Community Board 8.

If you need more information, leave me a comment and respond on the blog.