Acabella, an a cappella group, is made up of women from the Lower Fairfield County area.

Sunday, December 2 at 5 p.m.

The word Acabella combines the musical term, a cappella, which means unaccompanied by musical instruments, and bella, the Italian word for beautiful. Acabella comprises 12 women from the Lower Fairfield County area. Their performance will include a program of seasonal and popular songs.

The concert's opening act will feature Darien students Christopher Jessup and Teresa Du, the top winners of Darien Arts Center's Darien's Got Talent Show. Acabella will lead a brief sing-along of carols as the capstone to their program.  

Special thanks to Amy Allen at the Darien Arts Center and Juanita Bosee, the music director, who generously donated their time, talent, and practice spaces to assist the pianists.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

A documentary

Friday, December 21 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. – First Position (2012) Documentary Feature; Not Rated; 95 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Every year, thousands of aspiring dancers enter one of the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix, where lifelong dreams are at stake. In the final round, with hundreds competing for only a handful of elite scholarships and contracts, nothing short of perfection is acceptable. This award-winning documentary follows six extraordinary dancers as they prepare for the chance to enter the world of professional ballet, struggling through bloodied feet, near exhaustion and debilitating injuries, all while navigating the drama of adolescence.

"These performers are so young, so serious, so full of dreams and so hard on themselves that it is difficult not to be moved by their striving." -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

For more information, please watch the film's trailer. Check out the rest of our Friday Night Features in December.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

By Mpande (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

Wikipedia Loves Libraries is a general initiative for improved Wikimedia engagement with libraries and library users.

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

Join us for these Wikipedia-related events during the month of November to celebrate open access, collaboration, and improved scholarship.

Reading and Using Wikipedia

Wednesday, November 7th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

You’ve heard about it from teachers: don’t cite Wikipedia! But did you know it’s almost as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica? In this class we’ll discuss searching for Wikipedia articles, interesting entries, and how to use this free, web-based, crowd-sourced resource in your research for work or for fun. Email Erin to enroll.

Writing for Wikipedia

Thursday, November 15th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Wikipedia is a free, web-based, crowd-sourced, collaborative encyclopedia project that relies on editors who keep articles up-to-date for free. In this class, we’ll learn how to set up our own Wikipedia accounts and edit articles in preparation for our Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on November November 17. Email Erin to enroll.

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

Saturday, November 17th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Join us in our tech center to create and improve Wikipedia articles related to Darien. Drop-in for an hour or two or stay for the entire day! We'll have a reference librarian on hand and pertinent resources from our local history collection available for users.

Documentary Screening: Truth in Numbers? Everything, According to Wikipedia

Wednesday, November 21 at 1:30 p.m.

After viewing this film, you will never look at Wikipedia the same way. The filmmakers engagingly explore the history and cultural implications of one of the most referenced sites on the Web. (2010); Documentary feature starring Jimmy Wales, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Susan Jacoby, Andrew Keen; Rated PG; 85 minutes.

We're screening The Magic of Belle Isle November 30 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.

Friday, November 2 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. – Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding (2012) Starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Rated R; 92 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

For uptight Manhattan lawyer Diane, crazy means driving her teenage son Jake and daughter Zoe to Woodstock to visit their grandmother Grace. The crazy part is that the kids have never met Grace. In fact, Diane hasn’t spoken to her mother in twenty years. Grace is the epitome of the term “hippie”: she stages protests and hootenannies in the town square, smokes (and sells) a lot of dope, and howls at the moon once a month with her goddess-worshipping girlfriends. But what’s meant to be a weekend getaway turns into a summer adventure of romance, music, family secrets, and self-discovery.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – People Like Us (2012) Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, and Michelle Pfeiffer; Rated PG-13; 114 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

This smart, intimate drama features Sam, a twenty-something, fast-talking salesman, whose latest deal collapses on the day he learns that his father has suddenly died. Against his wishes, Sam is called home, where he must put his father's estate in order and reconnect with his estranged family. In the course of fulfilling his father's last wishes, Sam uncovers a startling secret that turns his entire world upside down: He has a 30-year-old sister he never knew about. As their relationship develops, Sam is forced to rethink everything he thought he knew about this family—and re-examine his own life choices in the process.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, November 16 at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. – Undertaking Betty (2003) Starring Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Christopher Walken, and Naomi Watts; Rated R; 94 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Boris is a funeral director in a small town in Wales. His mundane life is thrown for a loop when his business is threatened by a flashy new American funeral parlor that has moved into town. Boris must fight off this new threat to his livelihood but his plans are thrown off course when he falls madly in love with a local woman. He must get his business back… and get the girl.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, November 23 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Girl in Progress (2012) Starring Eva Mendes, Matthew Modine, and Cierra Ramirez; Rated PG-13; 91 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

Grace is a single mom. She is too busy juggling work, bills, and the very married Dr. Hartford, to give her daughter, Ansiedad the attention she desperately needs. When Ansiedad's English teacher, Ms. Armstrong, introduces her students to classic coming-of-age stories, Ansiedad is inspired to skip adolescence and jump-start her life without mom. While Grace becomes preoccupied with the increasing affections of her co-worker, Ansiedad enlists the help of her loyal friend, Tavita, to plot her shortcut to “adulthood.” But as her misguided plan unravels, Ansiedad and Grace must learn that sometimes growing-up means acting your age.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

Friday, November 30 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Magic of Belle Isle (2012) Starring Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen; Rated PG; 109 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Monte Wildhorn is a famous Western novelist whose passion for writing has hit an impasse. He takes a lakeside cabin for the summer in picturesque Belle Isle, befriending the family next door. An attractive single mom and her young daughters help him find inspiration again.

For more information, please watch the film's trailer.

All films are free and open to the public.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Marcelle Soviero

Sunday, November 18 at 2 p.m.

Introduction to Memoir: Telling Your Life Stories

Join us as we discuss the best ways to begin writing your memoir, either as a full-length book or as individual essays. We'll learn how to focus on our life experiences, write a descriptive summary with plot points, and use the techniques of fiction -- setting, character, dialogue -- to enrich the storytelling process so readers will want to read your book.

Marcelle Soviero is the author of An Iridescent Life: Essays on Motherhood and Stepmotherhood. Her award-winning essays have been published in numerous publications and radio programs including The New York Times, Salon.com, Eating Well, New York Metro, Babble.com, Literary Mama, Upper East Side, Wilton, StepMom, Anderbo, Tiny Lights: A Journal of Narrative Nonfiction, and featured on The Story on National Public Radio. In August 2012, Marcelle became the Editor-in-Chief of Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Eric Asimov

Thursday, December 13 at 7 p.m.

Eric Asimov, author of How to Love Wine, will be our featured speaker.

For most, choosing the right wine comes with strong feelings of anxiety—the sense of inadequacy when you find yourself, clueless, scanning the shelves of your local wine store, or when a restaurant sommelier approaches you to taste the bottle for your table. Do you twirl the glass? Inspect it carefully? Drink the full amount or just take a sip? New York Times chief wine critic Eric Asimov knows that while wine anxiety is normal, it’s also the greatest obstacle to deriving pleasure from this incredible yet complex beverage. Part manifesto, part memoir, How to Love Wine isolates and diminishes the sense of anxiety that so burdens would-be wine lovers.

About the Author

Eric Asimov is the chief wine critic of the New York Times. His weekly column appears in the Dining section and he contributes to the Diner’s Journal blog on the Times’s website. Before he started writing full-time about wine in 2004, Asimov wrote primarily about restaurants and food. He created the “$25 and Under” restaurant reviews in 1992 and wrote them through 2004. He is co-author of five editions of The New York Times Guide to Restaurants, and published four editions of $25 and Under: A Guide to the Best Inexpensive Restaurants in New York. Asimov is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and did graduate work in American Civilization at the University of Texas at Austin. He is married to Deborah Hofmann, has two children, Jack and Peter, and lives in Manhattan. Naturally, he is on Twitter, you can follow him @EricAsimov.

Eric Asimov's appearance is made possible by Barrett Bookstore.

Books will be available for purchase at this event. Wine will be served courtesy of Nicholas Roberts Fine Wine.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Playing in our Community Room December 14.

Friday, December 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Hope Springs (2012) Starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell; Rated PG-13; 100 minutes; Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION! Parts of this movie were filmed right here in Darien and we will have the homeowner whose house was used and her neighbor participate in a Q&A session following the 6:30 p.m. screening. Find out what Meryl and Tommy Lee are really like!

Kay and Arnold are a devoted couple, but decades of marriage have left Kay wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her husband. When she hears of a renowned couple’s specialist in the small town of Great Hope Springs, she attempts to persuade her skeptical husband, a steadfast man of routine, to get on a plane for a week of marriage therapy. Just convincing the stubborn Arnold to go on the retreat is hard enough - the real challenge for both of them comes as they shed their bedroom hang-ups and try to re-ignite the spark that caused them to fall for each other in the first place.

"A genuinely sweet, perfectly acted, remarkably brave little movie that should make audiences swoon for something they thought was gone - a smart dramedy for grown-ups." -- Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

For more information, please watch the film's trailer. Check out the rest of our Friday Night Features in December.

Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).

Showing Wednesday, December 19 at 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday, December 19 at 1:30 p.m. - The Holiday (2006); Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black; Rated PG-13; 138 minutes.

Amanda is an American woman with the same man troubles as Iris who is across the pond. When they meet online they decide to swap houses for the Christmas holiday and discover that a change of address really can change your life.

"It is a fizzy champagne cocktail that provides a pleasant buzz, many smiles, and Jude Law with the role of his career." -- Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

For more information, please view the film's trailer.

Photo courtesy of flickr user suZen.

Saturday, January 5th through Friday, January 11th at 12 Noon

Looking to stuff your bookcases with new books, audiobooks, and DVDs this Winter? Then come to the Darien Library Winter Book Sale! Hardcover and softcover books, audiobooks, and DVDs are $1. New this year is a special selection table. 

Special Deals

On Tuesday, January 8th and Wednesday, January 9th, books will be half priced.

On Thursday, January 10th, items will be a dollar a bag.

On Friday, January 11th everything is free until we close the book sale at 12 Noon.