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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Travel to Costa Rica With Journeys International

Wednesday January 24, 2018: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Adults

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

'Top Chef' and Author Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques

Monday November 27, 2017: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Pittsfield Branch: Program Room

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Blog Post

Amazing geography/travel books for kids!! The "This Is" series by M. Sesek.

by -alex-

The "This Is" series by M. Sasek are all-around great works of children's nonfiction. Originally written between 1959 and 1970, the titles span the globe.

Here are some of our personal favorites:

"This is Paris"
"This is London"
"This is San Francisco"
"This is Hong Kong"
"This is Edinburgh"

Informative and entertaining for kids, the series teaches about the sights, sounds, and cultural landmarks of a total of 17 "must-see" places. Adults will enjoy these books too - the illustrations are perfect examples of mid-20th century graphic design at it's best, it's boldest, and it's most colorful.

All of the books in this series have been recently updated and re-released. Feel free take a look!!

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Blog Post

News of the World: an exquisite, morally challenging Western

by eapearce

News of the World, the brand new novel by Paulette Jiles, is a riveting, complex story of the Old West that features two unlikely characters. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels across North Texas reading the news to paying audiences hungry for news of the end of the war and the world in general. He enjoys his itinerant, solitary existence, and is torn when he’s offered $50 in Wichita Falls to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. The ten-year-old girl was kidnapped by a band of Kiowa raiders when she was just four years old. Although they killed the rest of her family, they spared the little girl and raised her as one of their own. Now, being torn away from the only “family” she remembers and having forgotten the English language entirely, Joanna presents a unique challenge to Captain Kidd. As the two embark on a 400-mile journey south to San Antonio, the two lonely survivors—both used to only themselves for company—gradually develop trust in one another. And when they reach San Antonio and realize that the “relatives” Joanna is to be delivered to are a cruel aunt and uncle who want nothing to do with her, both the Captain and the young girl have a terrible choice to make.

News of the World is a beautifully written story that asks readers tough moral questions and goes far beyond the scope of a typical Western. This is a great read even for those who do not typically read historical fiction.

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Where To Go In The New Year: Top Travel Destinations in 2017

Monday November 14, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Westgate Branch: West Side Room

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Blog Post

Short stories from Jojo Moyes: Paris For One

by eapearce

New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, who penned Me Before You and After You, has just published her first short story collection, entitled Paris For One. Fans of Moyes’ charming, irresistible voice won’t want to miss it! In the title story, twenty-six-year-old Nell has never had a romantic getaway anywhere before, let alone to Paris. She’s eagerly anticipating traveling to the City of Love with her boyfriend… but when he doesn’t show up for their vacation she’s forced to make a decision. Should she return home and hole up in bed for the remainder of her time off, or stay alone in the city and prove everyone—including herself—wrong about her ability to be independent and adventurous?

Readers will be happy with the option that she chooses, and will enjoy equally the other eight stories that comprise this collection. In “Love in the Afternoon,” a sexually frustrated man tries to get his wife in the mood by suggesting that they watch “Snakes on a Plane” together. In “A Bird in Hand,” a woman is made even more uncomfortable at a stiff dinner party when she is seated next to a man with whom she had an affair with years before. Overall, the stories tell of transformations and realizations, and remind us all that nobody has it perfect, but we can make do very well with gratitude for what we do have.

Along with Paris For One, Me Before You and After You, Moyes is the author of One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, The Ship of Brides, and Silver Bay.

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Supporting Students with Dyslexia Lecture

Wednesday November 30, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

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Blog Post

Fabulous Fiction Firsts #612

by muffy

A Hundred Thousand Worlds * by Bob Proehl is a mother-son cross-country road trip through the world of comic-cons,

New York actress Valerie Torrey, who has a successful run playing Bethany Fraser in a syndicated X-Files-ish TV show called Anomaly is taking her 9 year-old son Alex on a road trip to LA where his father Andrew lives.

Along the way, Val agrees to make appearances at comic book conventions. From Pittsburgh to Cleveland, from Chicago to Las Vegas they are increasingly being drawn into the lives and drama of the other regulars - artists, writers, agents, publishers and a strange world of "cosplay" (costume play), mostly young women who dress up as comic book characters.

For Alex, this world is a magical place where fiction becomes reality, but as they get closer to their destination, he begins to realize that the story his mother is telling him about their journey might have a very different ending than he imagined.

Debut novelist "Proehl has done an excellent job of integrating all of the story lines and creating memorable characters to populate them. Though not without its melancholy moments, the story is deeply satisfying and will delight both comics fans and general readers." (Booklist)

* = starred review

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Changing Behaviors: How ABA Therapy Can Help Your Child With Autism Succeed

Monday November 14, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room