Thursday, July 25 at 7 p.m.
Dagmara Dominczyk, author of The Lullaby of Polish Girls, will be our featured speaker.
The Lullaby of Polish Girls follows three best friends from their early teenage years on the lookout for boys in Kielce—a town so rough its citizens are called “the switchblades”—to the loss of innocence that wrecks them, and the stunning murder that reaches across oceans to bring them back together after they’ve grown and long since left home.
Praise for The Lullaby of Polish Girls
“In this arresting debut novel, Polish American film and TV actress Dagmara Dominczyk pays homage to her native city of Kielce while capturing the joys, insecurities, and struggles of three girlfriends coming-of-age. Spanning 13 years, Dominczyk’s absorbing story is a triptych of tęsknota (Polish for a kind of yearning) and a profound desire for acceptance, freedom, and home.” — Booklist (starred review)
“This gossipy, feisty debut . . . follows a trio of friends across decades and the Iron Curtain, from Communist Poland to adulthood in the U.S. . . . Fresh and revelatory.” — Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Dagmara Dominczyk was born in Poland and immigrated to New York City at the age of seven. She has acted in numerous films, TV series, and plays. Most recently she appeared in the motion picture Higher Ground and on Broadway in Golden Boy. She is married to the actor Patrick Wilson, with whom she has two sons. She lives in New Jersey.
Books will be available for purchase at this event. Refreshments will be served.
First Look Darien is our debut author series designed to spotlight first novels handpicked by our staff.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Wednesday, August 7 at 7 p.m.
Michael Paterniti, author of The Telling Room, will be our featured speaker.
In the fall of 1991, at Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Michael Paterniti encountered a piece of cheese. Not just any cheese. This was Paramo de Guzmán, a rare Spanish queso, which was one of the most sought-after delicacies on earth. Paterniti travels to Spain and discovers that the story of this cheese is nothing like the idyllic slow-food fable he first imagined. Instead, he’s sucked into the heart of an unfolding mystery, a blood feud that includes accusations of betrayal and theft, death threats, and a murder plot. As the village begins to spill its long-held secrets, Paterniti finds himself implicated in the very story he is writing.

Praise for The Telling Room
“Michael Paterniti is one of the best living practitioners of the art of literary journalism, able to fully elucidate and humanize the everyday and the epic. In his hands, every subject, every moment of personal or global upheaval, is treated with the same curiosity, respect, empathy, and clear-eyed wisdom.” – Dave Eggers, author of A Hologram for the King
About the Author
Michael Paterniti's writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Harper's, Outside, Esquire, and GQ, where he works as a correspondent. He is the recipient of an NEA grant and two MacDowell Fellowships. His first book, Driving Mr. Albert, was a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year.” He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife, Sara Corbett, and their three children.
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).
Thursday, August 8 at 7 p.m.
Join us for this staff-led discussion of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, a classic work of literature now in the public domain. Download this eBook to your eReader or borrow a print copy.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Sunday, August 11 at 5 p.m.
This concert band is made up of members from Darien and surrounding towns. Join us for musical arrangements that will have you dancing in your seat. Then we’ll have our Grand Prize drawing for a brand new iPad. Attendees will receive an extra chance to win!
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
Thursday, September 5 at 2 p.m.
Now is your chance to show your geography chops and flex those cartography muscles! We are holding a geography bee in our Community Room where everyone has a chance to compete!
All attendees who are interested in competing are invited to put their name in a hat. Twenty-five competitors will then be selected at random to participate in a 7-round geography bee! And if you're not interested in competing, spectators are welcome to attend as well.
Here are some sample questions (feel free to put your answers in the comments):
1. Which state is knows as the Mountain State because it is covered almost entirely by the Appalachian Mountains - West Virginia or Colorado?
2. To visit the home and museum of the famous painter Rubens and to walk through the world's largest diamond district in Antwerp, you would travel to what country?
All ages are welcome to attend and compete. Three time state geography bee champion Michael Borecki and his coach Barbara Ivey will judge the competition. The bee will be followed by a Q&A session with Michael and Barbara.
The winner will receive a one-year subscription to National Geographic Magazine and $100!
On Wednesday, May 29, 2013, local poet, Christina Pugh visited Darien Library to discuss her new collection of poemes, "Grains of the Voice."
For more information, please visit the original post.
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?
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Guilt Trip (2012) Starring Seth Rogan and Barbra Streisand; Rated PG-13; 95 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
A traveling salesman talks his mother into heading out on the road with him so that he can, unbeknownst to her; reunite her with a former fling in this comedy.
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, June 21 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – Quartet (2013) Starring Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, and Michael Gambon; Rated R; 105 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
Beecham House is abuzz. The rumor circling the halls is that the home for retired musicians is soon to play host to a new resident. Word is, it’s a star. For Reginald Paget, Wilfred Bond and Cecily Robson this sort of talk is par for the course at the gossipy home. But they’re in for a special shock when the new arrival turns out to be none other than their former singing partner, Jean Horton. Her subsequent career as a star soloist, and the ego that accompanied it, split up their long friendship and ended her marriage to Reggie, who takes the news of her arrival particularly hard. Can the passage of time heal old wounds? And will the famous quartet be able to patch up their differences in time for Beecham House’s gala concert?
For more information, please watch the film's trailer.
Friday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Well-Digger’s Daughter (2011) Starring Daniel Auteuil, Kad Merad, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Darroussin; Not Rated; 105 minutes. Presented in French with English subtitles.
This remake of the 1940’s classic stars Auteuil as the eponymous well-digger Pascal, a widower living with his six daughters in the Provence countryside at the start of World War I. His eldest, Patricia, has returned home from Paris to help raise her sisters, and Pascal dreams of marrying her off to his loyal assistant Felipe. But when she’s impregnated by a wealthy young pilot who promptly abandons her for the frontlines, Pascal is left to contend with the consequences.
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).
Friday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. – The Guilt Trip (2012) Starring Seth Rogan and Barbra Streisand; Rated PG-13; 95 minutes. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired.
A traveling salesman talks his mother into heading out on the road with him so that he can, unbeknownst to her; reunite her with a former fling in this comedy.
"A breezy, funny and warm road-trip comedy." -- Richard Roeper, RichardRoeper.com
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).
On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, we held a coffee workshop in the Conference Room. The presentation was done by Rachel Haughey, owner of Espresso NEAT and barista, Kyle Tush.
For more information about the presentation, visit the event page.
Bookplate sales for the 2013 Spring Gala will kick off on Saturday, March 30th at Darien Library.
"Dedicate a Book to Someone You Love" by purchasing bookplates. Each purchase of a bookplate helps the Library buy books, and they will be placed in our collection with your bookplate dedication.
Bookplate sales are part of the fundraising for the Library's 5th Annual Spring Gala, which will take place on Saturday, April 27th at 6:30 p.m. Purchase your ticket now for the Gala.