Events
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.
More information about Memorial Day
Veterans History Project from the Library of Congress which includes thousands of oral histories from veterans' wartime experiences.
The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project includes more than 500 individual collections from female soldiers.
A general overview of Memorial Day on Wikipedia which discusses how the observation for fallen soldiers started organically in various communities before Congress made it an official federal holiday with the National Holiday Act of 1971.
Meet the Author - Douglas Kennedy
Written by Erin S on 05/12/2013
Tuesday, May 21 at 7 p.m.
Douglas Kennedy, author of Five Days, will be our featured speaker.
Forty-two-year-old Laura spends her days looking at other people’s potential calamities. She works in the radiography unit of a small hospital on the Maine coast, scanning and x-raying frightened patients. In a job where finding nothing is always the best result, she is well versed in the random unfairness of life, a revelation that has started to affect her personally. Her husband Dan has become a stranger since losing his job eighteen months ago and she feels the distance is only growing between them. Her son, a promising artist, is in college, and her vivacious seventeen-yearold daughter is set to leave home within the year. Laura begins to wonder if her impending empty nest will only deepen the disconnected state of her marriage.
So when the opportunity arises for her to spend the weekend at a radiography conference in Boston, Laura jumps at the chance. She’ll be on her own for 72 hours for the first time since her children were born—and she revels in her temporary escape.
Praise for Five Days
“With Five Days, Douglas Kennedy has crafted a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances that will have you breathlessly turning pages to find out what happened in the past and what will happen next. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, it is a powerful new work of fiction by an internationally acclaimed writer at the height of his powers.” —Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club
About the Author
Douglas Kennedy is the author of ten previous novels, including the international bestseller The Moment. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
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).
Wednesday Mornings at 11 - Meet Us On Main Street
Written by Erin S on 05/11/2013
"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.
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).
Science Café: Attack of the Drones
Written by Erin S on 05/08/2013
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 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 Poet: Christina Pugh
Written by Erin S on 05/07/2013
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).
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).
Staged Readings of Selected Plays from the Catherine Lindsey Memorial Actors/Playwrights Workshop
Written by Erin S on 05/05/2013
Staged Reading of Selections from the Catherine Lindsey Memorial Actors/Playwrights Workshop Series at Darien Library
On Sunday, June 9 at 2 p.m., the Catherine Lindsey Memorial Actors/Playwrights Workshop will present selections from the Workshop plays in the Library’s Community Room.
Now in its 21st year, the Actors/Playwrights Workshop offers local and regional playwrights and actors the opportunity to work together to produce original theatrical works in a supportive and creative environment. Co-founded by the late Catherine Lindsey and her husband Robert, the goal of the workshops is to encourage collaborative efforts in developing new plays, culminating in staged readings of scenes from full-length, one-act plays, musicals, and monologues before an audience. Catherine Lindsey was a beloved friend of Darien Library and director of the Darien Library Theater for over 25 years.
Under the direction of Robert Cusack, the public-staged readings mark the conclusion of the 2013 Workshop series, which began in February.
The plays to be featured are:
442: Go for Broke by Louis DiGiusto
Lenny and Freddy by Kathleen A. Bernadette
Dear Eva by Paul Janensch and Catherine Ladnier
A Tasting Menu by Mary Ellen Murphy
January Scared by Nicholas Troilo
Doors will open at 1:30 p.m. A reception will follow the performance.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen’s).
Exploring Shakespeare's "As You Like It" - A Discussion with Mark Schenker
Written by Erin S on 05/04/2013
Thursday, June 13 at 7 p.m.
Join Shakespeare on the Sound and Yale Professor Mark Schenker for a lively discussion on their 2013 production of William Shakespeare'spastoral comedy, "As You Like It"!
Read from the text and discuss the many elements in the play that make Shakespeare one of the greatest writers of all time!
Bring your copy of the play or we will provide one for you!
Mark J. Schenker has been at Yale College since 1990. He is currently an associate dean of the College and dean of academic affairs. Born and raised in New York City, he received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University and has taught at Columbia, New York University, and Trinity College (Hartford). He has led book discussion series in public libraries in Connecticut for over twenty years through programs sponsored by the Connecticut Humanities Council and lectures frequently on literary topics for public audiences. He was the recipient of the 2001 Wilbur Cross Award for Outstanding Humanities Scholar, presented by the Connecticut Humanities Council.
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.