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In This Issue
JEL Staff Picks
Featured Artist: Stefan Volatile-Wood
Book Club: The Saffron Kitchen
Film Screening: Watchtower
Your Green Oasis: TLGV
Paint Your Own Sunflowers
An Evening of Flamenco
Helpful Hints for Caregiving
Author Michael Ponsor: The Hanging Judge
Children's Corner

Quick Links

Library Hours

Monday:

9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday:

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday:

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Thursday:

9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Friday:

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturday:

9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Sunday:

Closed

Holiday Closings

Closed Sign  

 

The library will be closed on Monday, October 13    for Columbus Day.

New! Old Sturbridge Village Passes

We now offer discounted passes to Old Sturbridge Village through our museum pass program! 

 

The pass grants 50% off daytime admission for up to 4 individuals.

 

Passes are available on a first-come first-served basis, although Southbridge residents may call ahead to reserve passes for a specific day. 

 

Thank you to the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library for sponsoring this program!

 

Check out our website for more details and information on all of the passes we offer.

Book a Librarian

Curious about how to download ebooks to your ereader or tablet - or even just how to use it in the first place? 

Would you like to learn how to use the library catalog to renew your items online or request an interlibrary loan?

How about some assistance getting started with genealogy or a research topic?

For any of these topics and more, you can now "Book a Librarian!"

Call 508-764-5426 or email amalouin@cwmars.org to schedule a 
20-30 minute appointment.
Teen Survey
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All teens are invited to take our survey! Tell us what you want to see at JEL!

Library eBooks!

 

You can download FREE ebooks from the library!

Library ebooks, MP3 audiobooks, and videos are available to download for Kindle, iPad/iPhone, Androids, Nooks, and other devices! 

 

Just visit the Digital Catalog to get started.

Museum Passes

   

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Did you know that the library offers free and discounted admission to area museums and attractions? 

 

Roger Williams Zoo, Ecotarium, and the Mystic Aquarium are just a few of the available passes. For a full list and more information, see here.

 

Thank you to the Friends of the Library for their support of the Museum Pass program! 

Science in Context

  

School is back in session - and that means homework, projects, and papers to write. If you're looking for help with a science project, look no further!

 

Science in Context provides an engaging online experience for hundreds of science topics, and trustworthy resources. It even has a database of science fair experiments.

 

All you need to log on is your library card number!

Contribute to the 100th Anniversary Memory Project!

    

 

We would like to invite all of our patrons, past and present, to share your memories of the library!

 

The notebook is available at the Information Desk to anyone interested. Anything you may recall about visiting the library and what it meant to you in the past is welcome! 

Knitting with Sonya 

 

From 10:30-12:30 every Tuesday, come join our knitting circle in the Reading Room! Any handcrafters are welcome to join, whatever your level of experience.


Friends of the Library

Book bags

 

The Friends of the Library will meet Monday, October 20

at 6:00 p.m. in the Mills Room.

 

The Friends extend an invitation to all library patrons to join their group. To find out more, please visit 

The Friends Page 

on our website.

Board of Trustees 

 

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 The Board of Trustees of the Jacob Edwards Library will meet on Tuesday, October 21 at 12:00 Noon.  

 

All meetings are open to the public.

 

There is currently a vacancy on the Board of Trustees. If you are interested in serving on the Board, please submit a letter of interest and resume.

Join Our Mailing List

JEL News & Events

October 2014

  


There's a lot going on this month at the library!

Learn how to pastel paint your own sunflowers (free, all supplies included!); discover The Last Green Valley, "Your Green Oasis;" drop by the book club to discuss The Saffron Kitchen; or view a free showing on the big screen of Watchtower, an award-winning foreign film.

We also have two authors who will be visiting to read from and sign copies of their books! Leah Hager Cohen, author of No Book but the World on October 23rd, and Michael Ponsor, author of The Hanging Judge on October 30th.

For more information on these programs and more, read on!  

  
   Find us on Facebook

October's JEL Staff Picks 
 

Looking for a good book? Here are some that JEL staff have recently enjoyed! Clicking on the title will take you right to

the library's catalog, where you can check to see if it's available, and put a hold on popular titles.

Featured Artist: Stefan Volatile-Wood
Reception Thursday, October 2nd at 6:30 p.m.

 

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to present an art exhibit by Stefan Volatile-Wood, which will be on display for the month of October. Please join us on Thursday, October 2nd for a reception for the artist - light refreshments will be served.


 

Stefan Volatile-Wood is a Boston-based collage artist who works with found images, exploring the disorientation, ambiguity and surprise created when they are stripped of their original context and presented in a completely new visual environment.  He has a taste for the stately and surreal and has exhibited work in many galleries across New England.  More of his work can be seen at http://stefanvolatilewood.tumblr.com/

 

"I am a product of my environment. I primarily view my art as a 'visual remix': stripping away old contexts and bringing disparate images together to create unexpected new wholes that reveal something new about each element. I am just as interested in how harmoniously foreign elements can come together as I am in creating jarring and discordant juxtapositions. 


 

I believe that the simpler art is, the more universal it is able to become. I appreciate the infinite possibilities that are born from ambiguity. I want the viewer to not just passively absorb an image, but to bring their own thoughts, opinions and prejudices along and allow these to influence their perception of it. I am not interested in having images stand on a pedestal and tell a story-I want a conversation."

Book Club: The Saffron Kitchen
Monday, October 6th at 6:30 p.m.

 

All are welcome to join us for a discussion of Yasmin Crowther's The Saffron Kitchen in the Reading Room. New participants are always welcome (no commitment!) - copies of next month's book, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, are available at the Information Desk for checkout. 

 

"On a rainy day in London the dark secrets and troubled past of Maryam Mazar surface violently, with tragic consequences for her daughter, Sara, and her newly orphaned nephew. 


 

Maryam leaves her English husband and family and returns to the remote Iranian village where her story began. In a quest to piece their life back together, Sara follows her mother and finally learns the terrible price Maryam once had to pay for her freedom, and of the love she left behind. Set against the breathtaking beauty of two very different places, this stunning family drama transcends culture and is, at its core, a rich and haunting narrative about mothers and daughters."

Library Box Office: Watchtower
Thursday, October 9th at 6:00 p.m.

 

"Haunted by a tragic incident, Nihat isolated himself by becoming a fire warden in a remote observation tower far out in the wilderness. Seher lives in a makeshift room at a rural bus station, and she has taken a job as a bus hostess to escape her own traumatic past. Destined to come to a crossroads, they go about their solitary lives until their fates collide. Beginning at first as muted antagonism, their relationship quickly turns into tender domesticity as they settle together at Nihat's mountain-side watchtower. Yet the weight of the past presses on the silence between them, serving as the ultimate catalyst in their impassioned relationship with each other, and with higher powers that guide their spiritual lives."
 
In Turkish w/ English subtitles. 
Running time: 100 minutes.

All screenings are held in the Pioppi Room, lower level.
Your Green Oasis: The Forests of         The Last Green Valley
Thursday, October 16th at 6:30 p.m.

 

Presented by Bill Reid, Chief Ranger of TLGV. This program explores the history and current condition of the woodlands of The Last Green Valley that make up 67% of the total land within the National Heritage Corridor.  


 

The program also provides important information on the latest efforts to conserve the region's forests, and TLGV's role with the Southern New England Heritage Forest Partnership.

Paint Your Own: Sublime Sunflowers
Tuesday, October 21st, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

 

Using van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Monet's famous "Sunflowers" artwork as examples, award- winning artist Greg Miachack will show you how to pastel paint your own "sublime" sunflower!

 

Participants will learn essential pastel techniques, and will leave the workshop with their own finished work of art. All skill levels, from sheer beginners to advanced artists are welcome.

 

Free workshop - all materials are provided! Registration required, limited space available - please call 508-764-5426 to sign up.

 

MA Cultural Council This program is supported in part by a grant from the Southbridge Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Leah Hager Cohen
Author of No Book but the World
Thursday, October 23rd at 6:30 p.m.
 

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to present author Leah Hager Cohen, who will give a talk about her latest novel, No Book but the World. A book signing will follow the talk, and light refreshments will be served. All welcome! A 100th Anniversary Event. 


 

About the author: Leah Hager Cohen was born in Manhattan and raised at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens and later in Nyack, New York. She attended Hampshire College and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has written five novels and five works of nonfiction. 

She is Distinguished Writer in Residence at the College of the Holy Cross and on the faculty of Lesley University's MFA in Creative Writing.

 

About the book: "At the edge of a woods, on the grounds of a defunct "free school," Ava and her brother, Fred, shared a dreamy and seemingly idyllic childhood-a world defined largely by their imaginations and the presence of each other.

Decades later, then, when Ava learns that her brother is being held in a county jail for a shocking crime, she is frantic to piece together what actually happened. Fred has always been different, certainly impaired, never evaluated. Their parents frowned upon labels and diagnoses as much as they did formal instruction and societal constraints. Now, however, the parents are gone, the siblings grown apart, a boy is dead and Fred in jail, and Ava is forced to wonder: is it her job to save her brother? What is our obligation to those we love-and to those we find difficult to love? Convinced that she alone will be able to reach him and explain his innocence to the world, Ava endeavors to tell their enthralling story."

Helpful Hints for Caregiving: Get the Tools You Need with TriValley, Inc.
Tuesday, October 28th at 1:30 p.m.
 

Are you helping to provide care for a parent, spouse, or friend? Please join us in the Reading Room for a presentation from the Caregiver Program at TriValley, Inc. that will discuss the following topics:

  • How to find helpful resources and services
  • Making difficult caregiving decisions
  • Communicating effectively with other family members and professionals
  • Reducing personal stress
You will benefit from this program whether you are helping a spouse, parent, or friend; someone lives at home, in a nursing home, or across the country.

The Family Caregiver Support Program is part of a national old-man-woman.jpg program which helps caregivers manage the enormous personal, social and economic challenges of caring for a relative or friend. A caregiver may be a spouse, partner, friend, or anyone who provides consistent assistance. A caregiver may live in the same household, close by, or even in another state. The Caregiver Support Program at TriValley, Inc. helps caregivers to access information, resources, services, training and support.
The Hanging Judge: A Reading with author Michael Ponsor
Thursday, October 30th at 6:30 p.m.
 

Please join us for a reading of this debut thriller, set in Massachusetts and based on the author's own experiences as a federal judge. Light refreshments will be served, all welcome!

 

  "When a drive-by shooting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, claims the lives of a Puerto Rican drug dealer and a hockey mom volunteering at an inner-city clinic, the police arrest a rival gang member. With no death penalty in Massachusetts, the US attorney shifts the double homicide out of state jurisdiction into federal court so he can seek a death sentence.


The Honorable David S. Norcross, a federal judge with only two years on the bench, now presides over the first death penalty case in the state in decades. He must referee the clash of an ambitious female prosecutor and a brilliant veteran defense attorney in a high-stress environment of community outrage, media pressure, vengeful gang members, and a romantic entanglement that threatens to capsize his trialnot to mention the most dangerous force of all: the unexpected."

Michael Ponsor graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him a life-tenured US district judge. From 2000 to 2001, he presided over a five-month death penalty trial, the first in Massachusetts in over fifty years. Judge Ponsor continues to serve as a senior US district judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Western Division. The Hanging Judge is his first novel. 

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Children's Corner

   

Upcoming and Ongoing Children's Programs

 

La Hora de Cuentos 

Monday,  October 6th at 6:30 p.m.

 

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with a bilingual story time in the Children's Room. Stories and songs will be shared in both Spanish and English. We will have a bilingual story time on the first Monday evening of the month at 6:30 p.m. in the Children's Room!    

 

Vamos a celebrar el Mes de la Herencia Hispana con cuentos y canciones en espaol. El primer lunes de cada mes tendremos una hora de cuentos biling�e en La Sala de Nios.  

 

 

Creepy Craft Night

Monday, October 20th at 6:30 p.m.  

Get ready for Halloween with a special creepy craft! This craft is best suited for those children aged four and up.

  

Goblins and Giggles with Rona Leventhal

 Monday, October 27th at 6:30 p.m.

 

Storyteller Rona Leventhal will present a fun storytelling performance for the 5-8 year old crowd! Who's in the cave? It says its going to eat you! Is there anything scary out there in the dark? How do you get rid of a Belly Button monster? Join us to find out!

 Rona's performance will spark a flame of imagination that will last into the night! Sponsored by Southbridge Cultural Council and Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

 

Pajama Story Time

Mondays at 6:30 p.m.

 

Join us to listen to some stories and sing some songs. Some weeks we will watch a short film or do a craft. This program is geared towards children ages 4-8, but all ages are welcome!

  

  

Super Kids

Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.  

 

Come to story time! It is a fun morning of stories, songs, and sometimes dancing in the Children's Room. The story time is aimed at children aged 3-5, but all are welcome.

 

Crafty Wednesday

Every Wednesday, all day long!  

 

 

Stop by the Children's Room on Wednesday to do a special craft designed by Miss Karola. The crafts in October include a scarecrow, a mask, an owl, and a cat.  We can't wait to see what amazing crafts she comes up with for November!  

 


Lego Club

Thursdays from 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

We'll bring the Legos, you bring the ideas! Each week there is a different theme, recent ones have included boats and skyscrapers.  If you are in the library, stop by the Children's Room to see different Lego projects on display. 



Toddler Time 
Fridays from 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. 
 
This program is designed for children under three and their caregivers, and includes playtime and a short story time. The story time will be at 10:45, with playtime and music before and after. Join us for Toddler Time, and stay to check out our great collection of board books!

  



No registration necessary for any of our regular programs!

Questions? Call 508-764-5427 or email  Betsy

 

Even when our doors are closed you can visit our website to access databases, renew and request materials, download ebooks, and so much more.  

 

Staff

Jacob Edwards Library

Programs at Jacob Edwards Library may be recorded for Southbridge Public Access TV and/or photographed for promotional purposes.