Michelle Slatalla's Cyberfamilias column in today's New York Times
Love That Book? Then Set It Free - describes her experiences using bookcrossing.com.

If you want a scavenger hunt, have a party.

Libraries are places where books are beloved, recommended, and provided free of charge.

Readers rarely use the word "serendipity" when describing the library experience.
And librarians never would.
 

A WINE & CHEESE PARTY AT THE LIBRARY

Darien Library wraps up an extremely successful Adult Summer Reading Program with a Grand Finale Wine & Cheese Party on Wednesday, August 22 at 7 p.m. Award-winning journalist Stacy Lytwyn Maxwell will be our special guest. Maxwell’s 13 years of research have yielded a fabulous and fun book, Consummate Connecticut: Day Trips with Panache, which features 48 different Connecticut cities, towns, and villages, and all there is to do and see in the Nutmeg State. 

The Adult Summer Reading Program, which concludes after 10 weeks, had nearly 400 participants. More than 600 entries (each one representing a book read) for raffle prizes were submitted. Each week of the program, the Library held a drawing for a bag of books. The bags of books included autographed books, advanced readers copies of future bestsellers, and/or newly published titles.

Three Grand Prizes (two L.L. Bean duffle bags and a Vera Bradley travel kit) will be announced and awarded at the Grand Finale event, and all who attend will receive a gift of a copy of Maxwell’s book.

Participation in the Adult Summer Reading Program is not necessary to attend the Wine & Cheese Party.

We may have been holding out on the details of some of our "bag of books" prizes, but the truth is...we can barely contain our excitement about this year's Adult Summer Reading Program.

Here's another great title that will find its way into one of our prize bags:

John Lithgow

Not only is it autographed by Lithgow, but it's an advance-reading copy (it doesn't publish until November), and(!) it comes with an Exclusive Preview CD Sampler. Just a sample of what's on the Sampler: "Love is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, read by Jodie Foster, "Afternoon" by Dorothy Parker, read by Glenn Close, "The Tyger" by William Blake, read by Helen Mirren, and "Poetry" by Marianne Moore, read by John Lithgow.

This is one of my favorite prizes being offered this summer. Keep checking back here. I'll be letting more "bag of books" cats out of the bag as we lead up to our big start date.

Don't forget! Our Adult Summer Reading registration begins on Monday.

Okay, so the picture is blurry, but my impressions of meeting Lee Child in person are sharply etched in my memory. He is a very nice man, and did not shy away from a photo op, thanks to his publicist and my trusty photographer (whose camera, we later found out, was on the wrong setting.)

The picture was taken Friday afternoon at BookExpo, my first ever BookExpo, and I'll admit that I had reservations about going. But after meeting the people that write the words that define more than half of my waking hours, I'm sold. I'll go back, in a heartbeat. BookExpo, for those of you who don't know, is the publishing industry's annual event, and librarians have only recently been invited to attend.

I had the opportunity to listen to the likes of Alice Sebold, Ian McEwan, and Alan Alda, and to see Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol Higgins Clark along with countless other authors in the autographing lines. I met and spoke briefly with Kristin Gore, whose recent book, Sammy's House, is a sequel to the very amusing Sammy's Hill.

I started to read Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble, last night and finished it this morning. While there are few surprises in his latest thriller, the writing and detail does not disappoint, and you will find a different side of Jack Reacher (a team player?!!) amidst his cohort of elite army personnel from his last days in the service. Thumbs up, can't wait for the next book!

What better way to celebrate both Earth Day and National Poetry Month than by joining us at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 22nd for The Poet's Voice. Natalie Safir is the author of four collections of poetry and her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. Raised in New York City and now living in Tarrytown Ms. Safir has been teaching poetry and writing for more than twenty years. We are delighted she will be with us for this annual spring Library event.

We mark this five year anniversary in many different ways, some with community memorials, others with a moment of silence. In Darien, a brief ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. at the September 11th Monument, on the rear lawn behind Middlesex Middle School.

For many of us, the memory and the impact of the day is still so fresh, it's hard to imagine that five years have passed. This week, we honor those we have lost and all that has happened since. 102 Minutes is now on the High School summer reading list, in the last five years the Library has acquired over 150 books and other materials related to the attacks, and Wendy Wasserstein and Jay McInerney, among others, have written novels fictionalizing the events of that day.

September 11, we remember.