A salacious new book group joins our line up of adult book groups this month! | | |
|
Introducing Somerville Public Library's newest book club:
The CelebriTea Book Club! This monthly group invites
patrons to read a tell-all celebrity memoir and drink
tea while discussing it. For our first meeting we'll be reading Open Book by Jessica Simpson. We'll provide the tea (in both senses) but we encourage you to bring your favorite mug.
Register here to join us at the end of the month!
| | |
If celebrity gossip isn't your cup of tea, check out some of our other adult book clubs, and what they're reading this month! | | |
|
Books and Brews,
meeting at Aeronaut Brewing Company, is reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
| | |
Thursday, March 9 at 4:00pm in the Central Library Auditorium | |
This month, the library is pleased to display the artwork of local artist Pam Greene in the Gallery @ SPL with her exhibition: Antiquities: Speaking Across Time. Please join us for a reception celebrating the exhibit.
About the Exhibit
These are portraits of classical art that I’ve traveled to see around the world, from Sicily and Rome to Athens, Paris, New York City and Boston. I imagine these antiquities as speaking to me across time, whispering their stories and reminding me of how history rhymes over the millennia.
While these sculptures may have been carved 2,000 years ago in Ancient Rome, I feel like they could have been created yesterday with their mischievous smiles and haughty gazes. When these ancient artworks speak to me, I respond by painting their portraits and incorporating other art historical traditions, contemporary colors and patterns.
| |
Thursday, March 9 at 7pm on Zoom | Even before the space age began when the U.S.S.R. orbited Sputnik in 1957, women worked at NASA although many were excluded from the early days of the astronaut corps. Through the movie Hidden Figures, we learned that NASA even had women, many of whom were African American, working as “Human Computers” performing highly complex mathematical calculations by hand. Celebrate Women’s History Month and explore the lives of the many women who made their dreams of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics come true at NASA, and who have been an essential part of the space program since its inception. | |
Saturday, March 11 at 1pm in the Central Library Auditorium | |
Stop by the Somerville Public Library for a Writers & Readers Winter Market! Here's your chance to meet several local Somerville authors, hear readings from their work, discover some fantastic local literature, talk with local writers and readers about book groups, writing groups and more. Come browse, borrow, or buy books by your neighbors and friends!
The following authors will be doing readings and signing books at the Winter Market:
- 1:30 PM - Dave Ortega, graphic novelist
- 2:00 PM - Denise Provost, poet
- 2:30 PM - Lloyd Schwartz, Somerville's Poet Laureate
- 3:00 PM - Lesley Bannatyne, short story author
- 3:30 PM - Kevin M. McIntosh, novelist
| |
Wednesday, March 15 at 6pm in the West Branch Atrium | We all know the Ides of March are the worst here in Massachusetts, so join us at the West Branch for a cozy evening of tea and refreshments. We'll also comfort watch Emma (2020, rated PG) together to fight those end-of-winter doldrums. Cheers! | |
|
Friday, March 10 at 11am in the Central Auditorium
Tuesday, March 21 at 11am in the West Branch Community Room
Monday, April 3 at 10:30am at the East Branch
| Kids of all ages are welcome to join for a fun musical performance with Kat Chapman! Kat has taught music to young children throughout the years. She really appreciates the gift of music, and enjoys sharing it with people of all ages. Her broad history as a singer-songwriter, performer, music educator and parent gives the listener something special when they hear her sing and play. | |
Wednesday, March 22 at 7am in the West Branch Community Room | Create art beyond classification at Bad Art Night. Let your enthusiasm run wild and create with no expectations. We'll provide a variety of materials and then you can go wild creating your masterpiece. | |
Women's History Month Staff Recs | |
|
This month's recommendations are books by our favorite women,
feature women in history, or women's accomplishments!
Looking for recommendations? Check out our
What Should I Read Next? reading recommendation service!
| |
Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson | |
Among the first class of female army officers, and the first Black women to serve, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Grace Steele and Eliza Jones, members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. With so many rooting for their failure, Grace and Eliza must join forces to succeed in this riveting novel inspired by true events.
Recommended by Bethany, Reference Librarian
| |  |
|
This deep dive into the history of weird women's fiction provides background information and recommended reading for familiar and forgotten authors. It's a spookalicious treat, and a necessary reminder that women have been contributing to and mastering these genres for hundreds of years.
Recommended by ShanTil, Community Services & Outreach Librarian
| | |
|
Longworth brings the perspective and research of her much loved podcast You Must Remember This to her book examining the glamour of Old Hollywood from the perspective of the many women in Howard Hughes's life. As a producer Hughes made a career of commodifying male desire, and objectified women who embodied it, here Longworth shows us more than the image and provides crucial backstory to why Hollywood is the way it is.
Recommended by Brigid B, West Branch Generalist Librarian
| | |
|
Dutch Girl chronicles the early life of Audrey Hepburn, award-winning actor, fashion icon, and activist. Growing up in the war-torn Netherlands, Hepburn trained to be a ballerina; however, her aspirations were thwarted, and she joined the Dutch resistance, becoming a doctor's assistant and messenger for the allied forces. A compelling biography that fully captures the hardships and resilient beginnings of this complex, brilliant woman.
Recommended by Carrie, Senior Substitute Librarian
| | |
Cantoras by Carolina de Robertis | |
This historical novel tells the fictionalized story of very real women living under a fascist state in Uruguay in the 1970s, and the courage and resilience that burns in them. Five lesbian women - cantoras, they are called - form connections with each other despite the fear they have of their government, and purchase a house together on a private beach they can almost go unnoticed in.
Recommended by Laura, Generalist Librarian
| | |
|
An engaging and approachable survey of LGBTQ+ women and their refusal to accept patriarchal and heteronormative oppression as the norm. From exiled Greek poet Sappho to persecuted queer activists Naome Ruzindana and Li Tingting, this witty work is packed with vivid details of the lives of queer women written back into history where they belong.
Recommended by Bethany, Reference Librarian
| | | | | |
