Our Saturday hours are back this month! Starting Saturday, September 7th, we will be open from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. every Saturday.

Thanks to everyone for another successful Summer Reading program! We wish all of our patrons a great back-to-school season.

  

           

September's JEL Staff Picks 

September's Artists: Anna Ozolins and Emma Johnson

Reception Thursday, September 5th at 6:30 p.m.

 

Please join us in welcoming our featured artists for September, Anna Ozolins and Emma Johnson. A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, September 5th - light refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library.

 

Anna Ozolins is well-known for her charming paintings and has devoted her time to the advancement of the ARTS. She is a member of the long-standing Academic Artists Association, Massasoit Art Guild, QVCAH and Monson ARTS. Anna has chaired the Artist Open Studio Trail for the past 7 years with challenges. This show will present some of her current works in pastel, oil and watercolor. She has a quaint gallery and studio in Brimfield, MA, where she teaches and welcomes visitors.

 

Emma Johnson is a young ambitious potter and jewelry maker of Brimfield, MA. Her works capture the imagination with innovative and whimsical designs. Anything from rusty metal to recycled clay finds new life in her hands. She has received several awards and is continuing her dream of being an artist. See more of her work at her parents' upholstery shop located at 1517 Park Street, Palmer MA, open weekdays from 9 am-5 pm. 

 

Book Club: The Dinner by Herman Koch

Monday, September 9th at 6:30 p.m.

 

The book club will meet to discuss  The Dinner on Monday, September 2nd at 6:30 p.m. in the Reading Room. All are welcome! Copies of the book are available to pick up at the Information Desk throughout the month for anyone who would like to participate.

"A darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives -- all over the course of one meal.

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

     Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

     Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy." 

Library Box Office: Found Memories

"Like every morning, Madalena makes bread for Antonio's old coffee shop. Like every day, she crosses the railways where no trains have passed for years; she cleans up the gate of the locked cemetery, and listens to the priest's sermon before sharing lunch with the other old villagers. Clinging to the image of her dead husband and living in her memories, Madalena is awakened by the arrival of Rita, a young photographer who is arriving in the ghost village of Jotuomba, where time seems to have stopped. A deep relationship is forged between the two women, which gradually builds to have a profound effect on both of their lives, as well as the rest of the villagers."

All screenings are held in the Pioppi Room, lower level.

Learn how to search for an item by title, author, or topic; how to request an item from another library or place a hold on something currently checked out; how to log in to your online account to renew items, and more. 

The class will be held in the Pioppi Room, and will take about 30 minutes, plus some time for Q&A.

Lauren Scheuer, author of Once Upon A Flock - Book Signing

When longtime illustrator and lover of power tools Lauren Scheuer was looking for a project, she got the idea to raise backyard chickens. Her husband and teenage daughter looked on incredulously as coop sketches and chicken-raising books filled their New England home. But when the chicks arrived, the whole family fell in love with the bundles of fluff and the wild adventures began. 

Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens stars Scheuer's backyard chickens with their big personalities, friendships, rivalries, and secrets, and the flock's guardian, Marky the terrier. 

This charming story of Lauren's life with her quirky flock is filled with moments of humor and heartbreak: When Lucy is afflicted with a neurological disease, Lauren builds Lucy a special-needs coop. When Lucy's nesting instinct leads Lauren to act as a chicken midwife of sorts, Lauren hatches a chick in her home. And when Lucy's best friend Hatsy falls ill, Lauren finds an unlikely friend for Lucy in a chicken named Pigeon, who requires an emergency bath and blow-dry. Enthusiastically immersing herself in the world of her flock, Lauren discovers that love, loss, passion, and resilience are not only parts of the human experience, but of the chicken experience as well. Throughout it all, Lauren documents the laughter and drama of her flock's adventures with her own whimsical photos and illustrations. At once humorous, poignant, and informative, Once Upon a Flock is a feathered tale like no other.  

 

About the author: Lauren Scheuer's art career began in the fourth grade when Rosemary Bolton traded her lunch money for Lauren's drawing of a cat. Lauren went on to study fine art at UCLA and later launched a colorful illustration career. She has illustrated over a dozen books for children. Her artwork can be found regularly in American Girl magazine; she has illustrated for Birds and Blooms, Muse and Cricket magazines. Other clients include the Boston Museum of Science and Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI.

 

Lauren's writing career began with her blog,

ScratchandPeck.blogspot.com. Her blog stories have gathered an enthusiastic group of followers, and her chickens and her dog Marky have hundreds of adoring fans. Lauren's first book, Once Upon a Flock: Life with my Soulful Chickens, was published Spring, 2013 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

 

Copies of the book will be available for purchase, and the author will sign copies following the reading.

Latinos in Southbridge with Severina Rios

Severina Rios, Board Member of ASPIRA of Massachusetts, will present a discussion on Puerto Rico, its relationship with the United States, and the Latino Community of Southbridge. Please join us for this Hispanic Heritage Month event!

Children's Corner

Pajamas optional!  Geared towards ages 4-8, but all ages welcome.