Events
Video of Douglas Kennedy
On Tuesday, May 21, 2013, author David Kennedy, who wrote Five Days visited Darien Library.
For more information, please visit the event listing page.
Library Closed for Memorial Day
Written by Amanda G. on 05/19/2013
The Library will be closed on Monday, May 27th in observation of Memorial Day.
Did you know...
Next door to the Library is the Spring Grove Cemetery for State Veterans which is home to over two thousand soldiers. You can find an online listing of these soldiers or check out the book, State Veterans Cemetery at Spring Grove Cemetery Darien, Connecticut: Listing of All Soldiers. Between 1864 and 1940, Darien was home to the Fitch Home for Soldiers and their Orphans started by Darien resident and philanthropist, Benjamin Fitch. Thousands of soldiers and orphaned children spent years of their lives at the Home.
Friday Night Feature - 'Hyde Park on Hudson'
Written by Erin S on 05/10/2013
Friday, May 24 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) Starring Bill Murray, Laura Linney, and Olivia Colman; Rated R; 94 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor host the King and Queen of England for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one.
"Murray's spot-on portrayal of a man juggling myriad pressures and demands, from petty to momentous, marks one of the film's greatest strengths." -- Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
For more information, please watch the film's trailer. Check out the rest of our Friday Night Features in May.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Get Ready, Get Set, Go!
Written by Erin S on 05/09/2013
Please join us for a marathon short story adventure with Carroll Stenson, our popular discussion leader. We’ve heard your many requests for an extended season of conversations and this year we’re doing just that. Carroll will offer her program to interested participants beginning on May 28, continuing through December 17, 2013. And for anyone who wishes we’d hold an after-work series, we’ll be doing that, too. On the Tuesdays of May 28, June 4, 11 and 18 we’ll meet in the conference room from 7-8 p.m. At the completion of our evening series the program will move to Tuesdays from 3-4 p.m. Our first story, “Mr. Know-All“ by Somerset Maugham is available at the Welcome Desk. In subsequent weeks we’ll distribute the stories at the end of each session or they may be picked up on Main Street in the Library. Whenever copyright regulations allow, the stories will be posted online.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Wednesday Mornings at 11 - Meet Us On Main Street
Written by Erin S on 05/08/2013
"You Are What You Read" goes LIVE!
Every Wednesday, 11 a.m.
Hear about the latest and greatest books, movies, apps, and articles our staff is currently digging at this weekly, informal discussion. Then share with us what you're reading!
There will be "oooohs." There will be "ahhhhs." There will be laughs. We hope to see you there.
Meet the Poet: Christina Pugh
Written by Erin S on 05/08/2013
Wednesday, May 29 at 7 p.m.
Christina Pugh will read from her third book of poems, Grains of the Voice, which draws on the work of Roland Barthes and the sonnet tradition in order to investigate contemporary facets of sound, speech, and song.
About the Poet
Christina Pugh is also the author of Restoration and Rotary, as well as the chapbook Gardening at Dusk. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and other periodicals, and in anthologies such as Poetry 180. Her honors have included the Word Press First Book Prize (for Rotary), the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from Poetry magazine, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, an individual artist fellowship in poetry from the Illinois Arts Council, the Associated Writing Programs’ Intro Journals Award, the Grolier Poetry Prize, residencies at the Ragdale and Ucross Foundations, and a faculty fellowship from the UIC Institute for the Humanities.
A reception will follow the presentation.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behing Nielsen's).
Friday Night Feature - 'Promised Land'
Written by Erin S on 05/07/2013
Friday, May 31 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Promised Land (2012) Starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, and Frances McDormand; Rated R; 106 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Steve Butler has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner, Sue Thomason. The town has been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, and the two consummate sales executives see McKinley's citizens as likely to accept their company's offer – for drilling rights to their properties – as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job and a short stay for the duo becomes complicated – professionally by calls for community-wide consideration of the offer by respected schoolteacher Frank Yates and personally by Steve's encounter with Alice. When Dustin Noble, a slick environmental activist, arrives, suddenly the stakes, both personal and professional, rise to the boiling point.
"Damon's performance as corporate salesman Steve Butler is one of his best." -- Claudia Puig, USA Today
For more information, please watch the film's trailer. Check out our Friday Night Features in June.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Science Café: Attack of the Drones
Written by Erin S on 05/07/2013
Friday, May 31 at 7 p.m.
Starting later this Spring, we will kick off a series of inter-generational workshops in which we build a fleet of quadcopters (well, four). In this Science Café, we'll talk about the impending drone "explosion" and what it means for the world at large. We'll touch on some of the misconceptions about UAVs, and try to get people to understand why they should not be feared, rather, that this is an opportunity and a sector where a great deal of innovation is taking place. We'll show some footage taken from a quad flying around the library itself then give a demonstration of the quad.
Registration for this workshop is now full. Please email eshea@darienlibrary.org to be added to the waitlist. Registration is limited to Darien residents, those who work in Darien full-time, and Friends who have donated $300 or more.
This kick-off event will be followed by several hands-on workshops where attendees are invited to work together to build their own quadcopters. The workshops will take place on the following days and participants will be able to register for these at the Science Café.
Tuesday, June 4, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 6, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 11, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 13, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
Meet the Author - Will Schwalbe
Written by Erin S on 05/06/2013
Wednesday, June 5 at 7 p.m.
Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club, will be our featured speaker.
During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time—and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne—and we, their fellow readers—are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us.
Praise for The End of Your Life Book Club
"A loving celebration of a mother by a son." -- The New York Times Book Review
"Not only a son’s heartfelt tribute to [his mother’s] courage and grace but vivid testimony to the enduring power of books to create meaning out of chaos, illuminate values, and connect us with each other.” -- The Boston Globe
About the Author
Will Schwalbe has worked in publishing (most recently as senior vice president and editor in chief of Hyperion Books); digital media, as the founder and CEO of Cookstr.com; and as a journalist, writing for various publications including The New York Times and the South China Morning Post. He is on the board of the Kingsborough Community College Foundation. He is the coauthor, with David Shipley, of Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better.
Books will be available for purchase at this event. Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Friday Night Feature - 'Late Bloomers'
Written by Erin S on 05/05/2013
Friday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Late Bloomers (2011) Starring William Hurt and Isabella Rossellini; Not Rated; 95 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Mary and Adam aren’t your typical older couple, they’re high functioning and stylish and to their great surprise, they’ve entered the senior category. Adam is in frantic denial, desperately looking for the fountain of youth as Mary decides to deal with the situation by doing what she does best, taking care of her husband and family. After 30 years together, the married couple confronts the unpalatable realities of getting older and concludes that emotional absence is the easiest way to cope. But at what point does distance become divorce?
"[Rossellini] is radiant in a profoundly ordinary and believable way, as always, and stirs up generational pathos all by herself." -- Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
For more information, please watch the film's trailer. Check out our Friday Night Features in June.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Darien Library, 1441 Post Road, Darien, Connecticut, 06820-5419 · 203-655-1234Directions and Contact Information. Twitter: darienlibrary. AIM & Y!M: deweydarien.