You asked for it and we answered...below is a list of the items we discussed at our Adult Summer Reading Kickoff Party!
Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures by Eva Marie Beale
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell
The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Domiczyk
The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll by Jean Nathan
Transatlantic by Colum McCann
And remember to read for prizes!
Prizes: Our weekly prize drawings will feature tote bags filled with new and yet-to-be-published books. And we’re providing you the chance to win a brand new iPad in our Grand Prize drawing!
How to Participate: There is no need to register for our Adult Summer Reading Program. To enter our weekly and Grand Prize drawings, all you have to do is read. Each review of a book, audio book, or eBook counts as a prize entry. To submit reviews, visit Darien Library’s Welcome Desk to pick up and fill out a Review/Prize Entry Card. You can also write your review online at darienlibrary.org. If you review your books online, you still need to fill out a Prize Entry Card at the Library with your name, email address, and the date and title of your online review in order to enter our drawings. The more you read, the more chances to win!
Bonus Book List Journeys: Stop by our Welcome Desk to find new staff-curated reading lists designed to highlight a specific reading experience. If you read through an entire list, not only will you receive a prize entry for each book but you will receive 5 additional prize entries.
June 10 through July 18 on the Lower Level
Come view the winners of the Darien Arts Center's 55th Annual Art Show & Sale! The adult winners in first, second, and third place will be available for viewing at the Library. Darien's residents exhibited a broad range of talent across various media types from paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and photgraphy.
For more information, please visit the Darien Arts Center. To inquire about purchasing a work, please contact Cathy.
Thursdays from 3 to 4 p.m.: June 20 to July 18
Would you like to know more about borrowing eBooks from the Library? Check in with a savvy senior on Main Street and let him or her show you how to use your eReader. Walk through the steps to downloading eBooks or eMagazines!
Thursday, June 20 at 6:30 p.m.
Did you receive a brand new iPad for Father's Day? Want to learn some basic tips and tricks like locking the screen orientation, creating folders for your apps, and changing the background image? This is the class for you! We’ll even go over downloading eBooks from the Library’s collection.
Please remember to bring your Apple ID and password to class.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).
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?
"Hoffman directs with elegance, allowing the denizens to be dignified, as well as adorable. We get a strong sense of each major character." -- 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).
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 June 18, 25 and July 9, 16, 23 and 30, we’ll meet in the conference room from 7-8 p.m. If the daytime is better for your schedule, join us Tuesdays from 3-4 p.m. starting June 25. 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, June 26 at 10 a.m.
Have you ever wondered how the green seed of a cherry is transformed into the brew of your morning cup? You’ve never seen a coffee tree (yes, coffee cherries grow on trees!), but you’re curious how the different steps from seed to cup might affect your flavor experience. Or you’ve never quite figured out how the caffeine is removed to keep you from getting the jitters. Come learn and discuss over tastes of NEAT coffee.
"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, 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.
"It's classical moviemaking of a sort rarely seen now, a love story of surprising joy with rounded, flawed but humane characters." -- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
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).
Tuesday, July 2 at 7 p.m.
Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins
After two kids and more than 30 years, Edie and Richard Middlestein’s solid family life together is disintegrating due to Edie’s lifelong obsession with food—she eats, sleeps, and dreams about her local Chinese restaurant. When Richard jumps ship, it’s up to the next generation to take charge. Robin, the schoolteacher daughter, is determined that her father pay for leaving Edie. Benny, an easy-going, pot-smoking family guy, just wants things to be copacetic. His uptight wife Rachelle, who obsesses about being uber-thin, is intent on saving her mother-in-law’s life, but this task proves more complicated and a lot more emotionally draining than planning her twins’ extravagant b’nai mitzvah party.
Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking with Men
Starting with her misspent youth in the bar car of a regional railroad, where at 15 she told commuters’ fortunes in exchange for beer, and continuing today as she slings cocktails at a neighborhood joint in Brooklyn, Schaap has learned her way around both sides of a bar and come to realize how powerful the fellowship among bar patrons can be. Now in a poignant and deeply funny memoir told from a distinctively female perspective, Rosie celebrates the camaraderie and community one can only find at her local haunt.
Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings
The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. The novel follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.
A book signing will follow the authors’ presentations. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend Library programs available on Thorndal Circle (behind Nielsen's).