Last night, we welcomed author Simon van Booy to Darien Library for an Adult Summer Reading, Meet the Author event. His newest book, Everything Beautiful Began After, is the first novel for this award-winning short story writer. His writing is fine, precise, and spare. Every word is necessary; the imagery, vivid.

What could be better than reading Simon van Booy's writing? I'll tell you. Listening to him read it aloud. His reading, his remarks, his responses to questions were all so very thoughtful and he delighted the audience with his presentation.

This morning, The Patch, posted a nice article about last night's author event at the Library. To read, click here.

To watch the presentation in its entirely, please click below.

Earlier this month, Darien Library hosted the Connecticut Library Consortium's (CLC's) 5th Annual TRENDSPOTTING symposium:

eBooks: Collections at the Crossroads

Below, Eli Neiburger, the Keynote Speaker, delivers his presentation at the event. Eli is the Associate Director of IT & Production at Ann Arbor District Library. He is the author of "Gamers...in the LIBRARY?!" He was recently named one of Library Journal's 2011 Movers and Shakers.*

*Every year since 2002, Library Journal has identified outstanding professionals from around the world who are considered the emerging leaders in the library world and whom the editors believe will shape the future of libraries by innovating with technology, advocating for community-based research and programming, and improving the quality of life of the people they serve.

This Week at the Library showcases upcoming event highlights.

We had a standing-room-only crowd in attendance at our Fall 2010 Author Event with Michael Korda, held on Thursday, December 2 at 7 PM. Mr. Korda, author of the best-selling Ike: An American Hero and With Wings Like Eagles visited Darien Library for the third time in as many years to discuss his newest book, Hero: The Life & Legend of Lawrence of Arabia. It was fitting for this historical tour-de-force, who perhaps had a keener understanding of the Middle East situation than anyone before or after his time, to be chronicled by such an admired and respected biographer. 

In case you missed it, click here or on the video below to watch Mr. Korda's presentation, which includes a Q&A the reveals fascinating tidbits of information about Lawrence's personal life, his struggles with loyalty and fame, and his untimely death.

After reading the book, if you are interested in watching the Hollywood movie Lawrence of Arabia but simply don't have 4+ hours to spare during this busy holiday season, you might like to watch Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World. In 2001, PBS produced this multi-million dollar film on the life of T.E. Lawrence that combines re-enactments with interviews of historians, biographers, and even an elderly man who was alive at the time that Lawrence and his troops fought for Arab independence during World War I.

Meet the Author: Michael Korda from Darien Library on Vimeo.

This Week at the Library highlights upcoming events.

It was an evening of joy, laughter, and amazing food on Thursday, November 18, 2010 as Darien Library hosted the delightful Dorie Greenspan, chef and award-winning author of numerous cookbooks, who visited us to speak about her latest, Around My French Table: Over 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. She shared wonderful stories of her times spent in Paris as well as her inspirations for the recipes included in the book, which makes modern French cooking approachable in the same way that Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for traditional dishes so many years ago. It's no wonder that the book was recently chosen by Amazon.com as the best cookbook of 2010!

Click here or watch the video below to see the entire presentation from the evening, which includes a tour of all of the dishes made by the members of the Darien Library staff for the refreshments table. (For close-up photos of all of the dishes, click here.)

We simply adore Dorie...and you will, too!

Meet the Author: Dorie Greenspan from Darien Library on Vimeo.

This Week at the Library showcases the events of the upcoming week.

This Week at the Library showcases upcoming event highlights at Darien Library.

Darien Library is partnered with OverDrive to provide our members with downloadable audiobooks.  This short video shows you how to install the OverDrive Media Console (the software that manages your downloaded audiobooks,) check out and download an audiobook, and transfer an audiobook to your mp3 player.  Check out our collection of OverDrive audiobooks today!

This Week at the Library showcases event highlights for the week.