Saturday, June 8 | 3pm-5pm | Pittsfield Branch | Grades K-Adult

June 8 is International Yarn Bomb Day! We have two yarn bomb programs at Pittsfield to celebrate.

Grades kindergarten through adult are invited to create fiber arts pieces to help complete the yarn bomb exhibit at Pittsfield. What is yarn bombing? It’s a form of knit graffiti and public art.

We’ll have a variety of yarn and supplies on hand for you to make unique fiber pieces, including pom poms! No experience required. After we make our pieces we’ll head outside and hang up our creation.

There will be NO knitting instruction at this event, but if you do knit or crochet, you’re welcome to bring needles and come stitch with us! Or if you have a piece already made, bring it to the program and we’ll direct you our yarn bomb zones!

For more info on yarn bombing see this great website, and check out the book Yarn bombing: The art of crochet and knit graffiti. For better visuals, visit the Downtown library garden, which was yarn bombed in May!

Father Andrew Greeley, devoted and devout Chicago Catholic priest, author of forward-thinking (read: controversial) scholarly articles on the future and relevancy of the Catholic Church, and bestselling author of mysteries and stand-alone romances that were so steamy, they earned him the label,of a clerical Harold Robbins, has died.

Father Greeley was ahead of his time on a number of social issues that still make headlines today. He believed in the ordination of women. For decades he urged the Catholic Church to relax its stand on birth control and divorce. He never stopped pushing the Church to stop defending and hiding priests guilty of child sex abuse. He did, however, never waver in his support of the Church's opposition to abortion.

It was his bestselling novels and the popular Father Blackie Ryan mystery series (i.e., The Bishop in the West Wing (2002) and The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood (2005) that really put him at odds with the Catholic Church, so much so that Cardinal Bernardin (Chicago) rejected Father Greeley's million dollar pledge from his book royalties.

In 2008, Father Greeley published the last Blackie Ryan mystery -- The Archbishop in Andalusia. That same year his clothing got caught in a taxi's closed door. The resulting head injury ending his writing and speaking career.

Father Greeley, who was 85, died in Chicago at home.

Jack Vance, one of the most underappreciated masters of science fiction and fantasy and mystery, died Sunday at his Oakland, CA home.

The award-winning author (he won an Edgar, a Nebula, and a couple of Hugos, among others) got his start writing short fantasy stories for pulp magazines in the 1940s while serving in the merchant marine during WWII. In 1950, he published the first of his Dying Earth stories, which have since been collected in Tales of the Dying Earth (2000).

Vance had a unique, beautiful writing style that was described by fellow science fiction writer, Norman Spinrad as a "...baroque tapestry..." Vance was not much of a Gadget Guy. He found gadgets boring and said that his forte was telling "...a history of the human future."

Two of his closest chums, Frank Herbert and Poul Anderson built a houseboat together which they used on the Sacramento Delta.

Vance was 96 when he died on Sunday.

If the fish out of water scenario appeals to you, check out Morgan Spurlock’s television show 30 Days. In this reality TV series Spurlock, or some person or people, spend 30 days immersing themselves in a lifestyle that is completely different from their own. In the pilot episode, Spurlock and his fiancé attempt to live 30 days on minimum wage. (At the time of filming minimum wage was $5.15 an hour.) They allow themselves one week of pay as a cushion (approximately $300), and are not allowed to use any form of credit. What unfolds is a window into the life of living paycheck to paycheck, without health insurance or reliable transportation, all while battling hunger. The concept for the show stemmed from Spurlock’s documentary Super Size Me where he goes on a McDonald's only diet for 30 days straight. The film documents the physical and mental toll this lifestyle change makes on him and explores the world of the fast food industry. The documentary series 30 Days touches on issues in American life that ranges from poverty, outsourcing and binge drinking. This is a great experiment on walking in other people’s shoes as a way to understand who they are and why they have their beliefs and ideas.

Mia Couto, born in Mozambique of Portuguese parents, has won the Camoes Prize for Literature for 2013. The Camoes, one of the prestigious international literary awards, is given to writers of the Portuguese language.

Couto, who pens novels, short stories, poetry, attended medical school (he is a professor of ecology), was a key player in Mozambique's struggle to achieve independence which it did on July 25, 1975, in part due to Couto's articles in the newspaper A Tribuna.

His first poems were published at age 14 in a Mozambique newspaper. His first novel Terra Sonnambula was published in 1992; 16 years later it was translated into English (Sleepwalking Land. In 2000, he wrote O Ultimo Voo do Flamingo, which was translated into English, The Last Flight of the Flamingo in 2004.

Couto was the first African writer to receive, in 1998, the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Couto, who is 57, has a home in Maputo, Mozambique's capital, but spends the majority of his time in the coastline forests pursuing his multiple interests in the legends, myths, and ecological offerings that he loves.

One of the most anticipated book of 2013 is The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards * by Kristopher Jansma. It has been compared to Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists and Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning (2011) A Visit from the Goon Squad with its "elegantly constructed exploration of the stories we tell to find out who we really are".

Can a leopard ever really change his spots? Can a person ever change? These are the timeless questions that Kristopher Jansma asks in this enchanting debut novel about three great friends--two men and one woman--their triumphs and failures in life and love and their globe-spanning adventures : from the jazz clubs of Manhattan to the villages of Sri Lanka, these three remarkably engaging characters grow up and grow old, fall in and out of love, write novels and wed wealthy European aristocrats.

"(I)nventive and witty".

"(I)t will delight readers with its near perfect alchemy of emotional depth and warmth, formal playfulness, and sophisticated but always accessible exploration of what it means to grow up".

"A smart, searching debut about art and identity.".

* = starred review

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope *, Rhonda Riley's debut novel is set at the end of WWII when Evelyn Roe is sent to manage the family farm in rural North Carolina, where she finds and rescues what appears to be a badly burned soldier buried in the heavy red-clay during a driving rainstorm. The stranger heals rather remarkably fast and morphs into an Evelyn lookalike whom she names Addie. The two fall in love. When a chance encounter with a grifter offers an opportunity to avoid small town scrutiny, Addie transforms into Adam. Together, they raise 5 daughters who shares in their father's supernatural gifts.

When tragedy strikes, Adam's extraordinary character is revealed and the family must flee. "Intensely moving and unforgettable, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope captures the beauty of the natural world, and explores the power of abiding love and otherness in all its guises. It illuminates the magic in ordinary life and makes us believe in the extraordinary."

"First-time novelist Riley's exquisite language draws the reader into this improbable, beautifully rendered, somewhat biblical love story with a wildly imaginative premise that is irresistible, tender, and provocative. " ~ —Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI (Library Journal).

Highly recommended for fans of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

* = starred review

Ray Manzarek, keyboard genius and co-founder (with the late Jim Morrison) of The Doors died yesterday in Rosenheim, Germany.

A chance meeting on a California beach in 1965 between Morrison and Manzarek sparked one of the most successful rock bands in U.S. music history. After Morrison's death in 1971, Manzarek stayed busy in the music world, working with the punk band X and collaborating with Michael McClure on the documentary Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rossett and Grove Press (2008).

Manzarek loved to tell the story about how The Doors seriously aggravated Ed Sullivan on September 17, 1967 for their first and only appearance on his variety show. Sullivan made the band swear they would NOT sing the word 'higher' when performing Light My Fire ("You know that it would be untrue, You know that I would be a liar, If I was to say to you, Girl, we couldn't get much higher"). The group promised -- "Yeah, yeah, sure, sure." -- and then performed it as written. Sullivan cancelled all their future performances.

Mr. Manzarek, who was 74, had been battling bile duct cancer.

Bernard Waber, who turned his commercial graphic arts training into a successful career as a children's book author and illustrator, died May 16th.

Waber, a World War II veteran and devoted movie buff, first introduced Lyle the lovable crocodile in his 1962 book, The House on East 88th Street. In this fanciful, gentle, funny story, the Primm family discovers Lyle hanging out in the bathtub of their Upper East Side brownstone. Lyle made several more appearances, including in Lyle Finds His Mother (1974) and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (1965). His final Lyle book, Lyle Walks the Dog: A Counting Book (2010), was a collaboration with his daughter Paulis Waber.

While most of Waber's books involved whimsical illustrations of animals -- The Mouse that Snored and the delightful A Lion Named Shirley Williamson (1996) -- Waber also had a gift for using human subjects to zero in on and allay common childhood anxieties. In Ira Sleeps Over (1972), little Ira frets about whether or not he can bring his teddy bear to a sleepover. In 2002, Waber published Courage in response to September 11th. He had started it before the attacks, but added firemen and police officers to his examples of people, both ordinary and extraordinary, who exhibit courage every day.

Waber forever endeared himself to book and movie lovers when he said that the way he endured frequent relocations as a child was to seek reassurance from his parents that wherever they moved, a library and movie theater would be close by. "...The Library and cinema were life-giving urgencies, a survival kit for any new neighborhood."

Waber, who was 91, died at his home in Long Island.

Last week, Dan Brown's new novel, Inferno was released and is in hot demand. In this 476 page blockbuster, Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor whose specialty in symbology takes him to Italy to unravel the secrets of Dante's Inferno, races against time to save the world.

Dan Brown came to the public's attention in 2003 when his intriguing, provocative, controversial The Da Vinci Code broke all sorts of publishing records and is, to this day, one of the bestselling novels of all time. Ever since, he has had one #1 bestseller after another. Just two years after The Da Vinci Code was released, Brown was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most influential People in the World.

Are you on the wait list for Inferno? Never fear, we have a list of great titles that share Brown's powerful formula of mixing history, religion, and/or literature and cryptography to tell a compelling story. Try some of these to tide you over until your number comes up.

Umberto Eco's very first novel, published in English 30 years ago, is considered a classic. In The Name of the Rose, Brother William of Baskerville, a 14th century monk, is sent to Italy to investigate seven deeply disturbing murders. Three years later, Sean Connery starred in the award-winning film version.

In The Eight (1988), Katherine Neville, tells the story of Catherine Velis, a computer pro for one of the Big Eight accounting firms. Velis is fascinated by the relationship between chess and mathematics and sets out on a dangerous quest to gather the pieces of an antique chess set, scattered across the globe. If found, the complete set will reveal a world-changing secret, which began in 1790.

Jonathan Rabb, in his popular 2001 The Book of Q, moves back and forth between sixth century Asia Minor and 20th century Croatia. Father Ian Pearse is a researcher at the Vatican Library who cannot forget his passionate affair eight years earlier with Petra. When he comes across the translation of an ancient scroll that reveals a shocking code, he returns to Bosnia (and, oh yes, Petra) to save the world from the secrets buried in the scroll.

Scrolls and diaries that beg to be decoded to reveal earth-shattering religious secrets, are at the center of The 13th Apostle (2007), by Richard and Rachael Heller. This time, the sleuths are Sabbie Karaim, a biblical scholar and ex-Israeli commando and Gil Pearson, an American cybersleuth who discover there are those who are willing to kill for this possible link to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

If you are too impatient for your hold for the print version of Inferno, why not try Paul Michael's dramatic narrative performance in the audiobook version?