Home > January 2011 through December 2011

The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook, December 11, 2011

Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin have teamed up to write The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Inside the Kitchens, Bars, and Restaurants of Mad Men. It provides more than 70 recipes for food and drink from Mad Men-era New York, set within the historical and cultural context of the 1960s.


Five-Hour Book Sale, December 3, 2011

The Friends will hold a five-hour book sale on Saturday, December 4th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Library’s Community Room. There will be a large selection of children's books (both hard cover and paperback), and fiction (hard cover, trade and mass market paperback) as well as a smaller number of non-fiction books, CDs and videos. Hard cover and trade paperbacks will be $1.00 each and mass market and children's paperbacks will be 50¢ each. Holiday and better/older books in the ongoing sale area will be sold at 50% off during this five-hour sale.


Living Deliberately: Thinking Like Thoreau Today, November 13, 2011

As a new Harvard grad in 1837, Thoreau confronted a country with a troubled banking system, foreclosures, and widespread layoffs, all part of a deepening depression. New England was in the throes of transformation to an industrial economy.

Jeff Cramer is eminently qualified to relate observations by the Concord Transcendentalist to our time. He is Curator of Collections at The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods and author/editor of a number of Thoreau-related books, most recently The Quotable Thoreau.


Book Sale, October 1-2, 2011

On Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2, 2011, we will hold our 39th annual fall book sale. On Saturday, hard-cover and trade paperbacks are priced at $1.00 and mass-market paperbacks are 50 cents each. Sunday is Bargain Day; all items are half price and a brown bag is $8.00. In addition, individually priced books in the ongoing book sale section will be half price on both Saturday and Sunday.

Learn, Laugh, and Let Go: A Comic Stress Management Show, June 9, 2011

Robert Rivest will present his comic stress management show. He shares tried and true methods of stress reduction, showing how to build concentration, calm the body, and quiet the mind. The program follows the brief annual meeting of the Friends of the Library.

Book Sale, June 4-5, 2011

On Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, 2011, we will hold our spring book sale. This sale will include individually-priced books as well as hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and mass-market paperbacks. Sunday will be Bargain Day—everything will be half-price.


Insects and Ticks that Find Us Attractive, April 26, 2011

Dr. Richard Pollack, a public health entomologist and parasitologist, will talk about "bugs" that trouble us year round and seasonally. He will explain how bed bugs, head lice, ticks, and mosquitoes locate us, and discuss both the risks that we incur and what we can do about them.

Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise, March 27, 2011

Paul Revere aspired to become a successful entrepreneur in the young Republic, but was disappointed in efforts to secure loans and contracts necessary to expand his business. Robert Martello, Associate Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Olin College, delves into social and other factors that explain obstacles to Paul Revere's business plan and his rejection as candidate for director of the U.S. Mint.

Friends Now Accepting Online Payment for Memberships and Donations

We are now able to handle online payments for memberships or donations from credit cards or PayPal accounts.


A Sense of Place and Time in The Quickening, February 13, 2011

In December 2010, The Quickening (Other Press) was a shortlisted finalist for the annual Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize awarded by The Center for Fiction. Set in midwestern farmland during the Great Depression, the story unfolds through the course of friendship between two disparate women whose lives are linked by challenging circumstances. Although Iowa-born author Michelle Hoover drew inspiration from a journal written late in life by a great-grandmother, her novel taps into human experience beyond its specific place and time.

Book Sale, January 29-30, 2011

On Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30, 2011, we will hold our winter book sale. This sale will include individually-priced books as well as hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and mass-market paperbacks. Sunday will be Bargain Day—everything will be half-price.

Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes, January 23, 2011

The millennia since Archimedes lived seem to fade away in the telling of his story by Alan Hirshfeld, Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Archimedes was acknowledged as brilliant by his third century B.C. peers. Today, his mathematical understanding of basics, such as buoyancy, levers, and screws, is taken for granted, but still applied. Professor Hirshfeld shows the relationship between sensational feats credited to Archimedes in the ancient world, and modern marvels, such as mechanical cardiac assist systems or wastewater treatment plants.