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There’s a nation-wide movement to make neighborhoods more comfortable places in which to grow old. These organized neighborhoods called villages are supported by members of the neighborhood or community. If you would like to find our more about the legal aspects of forming a village, come to the next meeting on Thursday, February 14 at 11:45am in the Malletts Creek Branch Program Room AB to hear Neel Hajra from NEW Center explore the advantages and limitations of becoming a non-profit village. "It Takes A Village" brownbag discussion is sponsored by the Blueprint For Aging.

November 20 is the birthday of two unlikely bedfellows, Alistair Cooke and Chester Gould. Cooke, broadcast journalist and author, was born in 1908 in Salford, England but moved to the U.S. in the 1930's. His program, "Letter from America" on BBC radio was broadcast in more than fifty countries. He is perhaps best known to Americans for his eloquence as a host of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre.

At a session on aging and technology during the Aging in Place Conference, organized by the UM Health System Housing Bureau for Seniors, I learned how computers, sensors and video cameras are being used to monitor the well being of older adults living alone. Paul McAninch, of Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, added that 25%-33% of people of over 65 will fall each year in their homes, and that this is the leading cause of people entering nursing homes or suffering premature death. How to Avoid Falling can be found at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Professor Martha E. Pollack, Dean of the UM School of Information, discussed other monitoring technologies that are still being developed. Both speakers recommended looking for more information through the Center for Aging Services Technologies.

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani is a first novel about Rumi, who at the beginning of the story is a five year old math prodigy, daughter of Mahesh, a math professor at a university in Wales and Shreene, who futilely longs for a return to India. Mahesh is determined that his daughter will enter Oxford at 14 and institutes an arduous program of study at home in addition to school. As Rumi grows up, she feels more conflicted about the roles imposed on her and longs for the more normal life of a teenager. Her father's drive for her academic success eventually leads to tragedy.

Do you have an aging family member or friend who wants to age in place for as long as possible? Perhaps you are thinking about downsizing from your current home to a smaller house or condo to live in after retirement. Take advantage of the University of Michigan Housing Bureau For Seniors, a resource for housing and care options for anyone 55+.

Today, October 31st, besides being Halloween, is the birthday of English Romantic poet, John Keats who was born in London in 1795. Keats was just starting to be recognized as a poet when he received two scathing reviews of his first two books. Then his brother became sick with tuberculosis and Keats moved in to his house to care for him. It was there that he met Fanny Brawne and fell in love with her. It was she who inspired some of his most famous poems including Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn." It wasn't much later that Keats was stricken with the same illness and died at the age of 25.

On October 23rd, 1956, Hungarian students and workers began their protest and demostrations against the Soviet installed government. Although they were able to mobilize many people, the uprising was crushed by Soviet forces by November 4th. Still, it was seen as the beginning of the crack in the Soviet Empire.

Two new books in our collection chronicle the history and effects of the Revolution. Michael Korda's Journey to a Revolution is a history of Hungary's place in post World War II Europe and his personal journey there as a young man during the Revolution. Victor Sebestyen's Twelve Days contains excerpts of previously unreleased documents and eyewitness accounts of that exciting and dangerous time.

Carrie Brown's second novel, The Rope Walk is a stirring, atmospheric coming of age story of ten year old Alice Macauley who is the youngest child of five and the only daughter of Archie MacCauley, Shakespeare scholar, professor and widower. They live in a small town outside the college town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Alice grows up rough-housing with her older brothers who she adores but is anticipating a lonely summer as they all return to work and school after her birthday celebration. But into her life comes Theo, a bi-racial boy and an adventurer like her. They are both invited to come and read to Kenneth Fitzgerald, an artist dying of AIDS who has come to live with his sister. Themes of prejudice, friendship and tolerance pervade this novel whose luminous prose takes us all back to those long idle summers when, as children, days of lying in a hammock climbing trees or buiding forts in a stream were enough to make us happy.

The dark romance, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was published on October 6, 1847 under the title, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Currer Bell, a pseudonym created by Bronte. Thought to be one of the most famous of British novels, the book has all the elements of compelling Gothic romance: a brooding man, a woman madly in love with him and to top it off, a mad wife. The novel has spawned others with the same appeal including Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and a futuristic parody, The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde. Jane has transmogrified to screen and just recently, the musical stage.

Gail Tsukiyama's sixth book, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is the story of Japan before, during and after World War II as seen through the eyes of the two main characters, brothers Hiroshi and Kenji Matsumoto. The boys are raised by loving grandparents in Tokyo. In 1939, Hiroshi dreams of becoming a sumo wrestling champion and Kenji of learning the art of making masks for the Noh theater. But when war breaks out, their plans are put on hold but not extinguished. Tsukiyama brings Japan to life in her vivid yet understated writing about the horror of war, the saving grace of art and the reconstruction of Japan.