Library News

Jacob Edwards Library

December 2025

Library Hours

Monday & Thursday 9 am - 8 pm

Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9 am - 5 pm

Saturdays 9 am - 1 pm

Curbside pickup is available during library hours!

Please note: the Library will close at

1 pm on December 24th and reopen at 9 am on December 29th.

Jacob Edwards Library Chess Park and Performance Space

“A place for everyone across the Board”

The Chess Park Ad Hoc Committee has started the fundraising phase for the project. The library has hosted a chess event on Saturdays for some years and looks forward to developing an open-air venue. To access the rendering (created by Joseph Coen, Landscape Architect) proposed for the space on the southeast corner of the library property and most detailed information, please visit the Chess Park page on the Library's website.

Any questions, please contact Bernadette Meade at bmeade2979@gmail.com.

Mass Center for the Book 2025 Reading Challenge

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their 2025 Reading Challenge. Pick up cards and bookmarks at the Circulation Desk and participate by following the steps below.

Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme - or see the display on the main floor for monthly suggestions. NoveList Plus is a great resource to utilize, as well (library card required). Happy reading!

How it works:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge.
• After you read, fill out this form to tell them about the book. 
• Using the submission manager, you will be able to log in and access the entries you’ve logged throughout the year.
• Dedicated readers will be invited to a year-end celebration hosted by Mass Center for the Book.
• If you read a book in each of the 12 months, you will be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 2 totes filled with books. Additionally, they will be drawing two names on the last day of each month to win a free book!

hoopla Spotlight

Mindfulness Meditation

Fridays, December 5th, 12th, & 19th

2:00 - 3:00 pm

Mills Room

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host Iris Vega, certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher and mentor, to present a series of sessions.

Inviting Mindfulness Meditation into your daily routine is an opportunity to cultivate awareness and presence.

You may bring your Yoga mat if you prefer doing the practice lying down.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

During the month of December, stop by when the Library is open to view art submissions by local students on the main floor!



Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

Mars Exploration: The Next Frontier

Thursday, December 4th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host presenter Dino Tata, NASA Solar System Ambassador, who will present a talk about exploring Mars. The discussion will focus on why it was decided to explore Mars instead of another planet and the reasons in favor and against this exploration. The discussion will center around prior robotic missions, what is happening now and what is planned in the future. It will also discuss the five mass extinctions and why they matter to our settling on another planet and what Hollywood envisions Mars citizens would look like.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

In December, the group will discuss Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. Books are available at the Circulation Desk for checkout.

"Golden Girls meets James Bond" - Buzzfeed

"Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon. They've spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can't just retire - it's kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they've been marked for death. Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman-and a killer-of a certain age" - Provided by publisher.

Poetry Reading

Thursday, December 18th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

Southbridge poet Yvonne Beaudry has recently published her first poetry anthology - Juniper. We are pleased to welcome her for a reading and signing.

Juniper is an exploration of the ups and downs of youth. It showcases the human need for connection: with others, with the world, and with oneself. This collection is littered with moments of healing and appreciation amidst the pain. It refuses to back down or pretend to be anything other than what it is.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.



The Snow Child

Eowyn Ivey


"Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them." - from publisher

Mass Center for the Book

Student Reading Challenge

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their Student Reading Challenge. Pick up your passport at either the Reference or Circulation Desk or at the display in the Teen area and participate by following the steps below:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge prompt. Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme - or see the display in the Teen area for monthly suggestions.
• Once you have read your book, bring your Passport to the Reference or Circulation Desk and tell them what you read. They will give you a sticker for that month.
• Each month, the student (and a parent/guardian if the student is under 13) can fill out a short form to tell us about the book and enter into a raffle. Mass Center for the Book will run drawings for prizes. Monthly participation determines eligibility.

Have fun and happy reading!

Mass Center for the Book

Student Reading Challenge

June 2025 - May 2026

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their Student Reading Challenge. Pick up your passport in the Children's Room and participate by following the steps below:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge prompt. Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme.
• Once you have read your book, bring your Passport to the Children's Room Circulation Desk and tell them what you read. They will give you a sticker for that month.
• Each month, the student (and a parent/guardian if the student is under 13) can fill out a short form to tell us about the book and enter into a raffle. Mass Center for the Book will run drawings for prizes. Monthly participation determines eligibility.

Have fun and happy reading!



Board of Trustees

The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for

December 16th at 12 pm.

Details will be available on the Town of Southbridge website, under Public Meetings Calendar, for all public meetings.

All meetings are open to the public.

The mission of the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library is to be the advocacy and fundraising arm of the Library. We raise money for items such as library programs, books, subscriptions, museum pass memberships, and other materials, as needed. 

The next meeting of the Friends is scheduled for

Monday, December 1st at 1 pm.

New members are always welcome!

Happy holidays!

Jacob Edwards Library

508.764.5426

jelibrary@cwmars.org