Brooks Memorial Library

Brooks Memorial Library continues its Vermont Humanities Council program on Latino-Americans with a reading and discussion series ‘Mexican Americans: Experience and Identity.” The series will deal with the experiences of Mexicans living in the United States, from the struggles of migrant farmworkers and day laborers in California to coming of age stories of Chicanos as U.S. citizens. Books are available for checkout at the main circulation desk. Remaining books in the series are: February 17, (Under the Feet of Jesus); March 16, (The Tortilla Curtain); April 20, (Days of Obligation)

Facilitated by Patricia Pedroza Gonzalez Ph.D. who teaches at Keene State College at Keene, NH., Dr. Gonzalez’s international expertise has shaped her research experience and her current teaching involves Chicana/U.S. Latina, and Latin-American Studies, American Studies, Feminisms by Women of Color, and Transnational Education. Her research focus is on politics of knowledge construction and social identities. She is the current Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Keene State College.

Mexican-Americans: Experience & Identity–A Reading-Discussion Series: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. Wednesday 20 January 2016, 7 pm – 8:30 pm. This 4-Part series ‘Mexican Americans: Experience and Identity,’ deals with the experiences of Mexicans living in the United States, from the struggles of migrant farmworkers and day laborers in California to coming of age stories of Chicanos as U.S. citizens. The first book in the series is Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, which chronicles the story of an alienated New Mexico boy who seeks an answer to his questions about life in his relationship with Ultima, a magical healer.

The 10th Annual Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Holiday Book Sale will be held in the Library on Thursday and Friday, December 3 and 4 from 10 AM to 6 PM and Saturday, December 5 from 10 AM to 5 PM.

Gift quality books and gently used fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and CDs will be on sale. Non-fiction titles include art, cooking and gardening, history, music and more subjects. Book sale discount coupons are now available from the Front Desk of the Library. 

Join Middlebury College professor Glenn Andres on Wednesday, December 2, at 7 PM in the library’s main room. He will examine the remarkable range, quality, humanity, and persistence of Vermont’s built landscape. Andres’s talk will look beyond Vermont’s pastoral stereotypes to examine the remarkable range, quality, humanity, and persistence of its built landscape.

Andres has taught, primarily in the areas of architectural and urban history, at Middlebury since 1970. His research spans from the Italian Renaissance through 19th century America to postmodernism. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University and a PhD in architectural history from Princeton University.

His doctoral dissertation on the Villa Medici in Rome was pursued while a fellow of the American Academy in Rome. Underwriter: Crosby-Gannett Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation. The event is free and open to the public. 

In recognition of the Ronald Read bequest, please join us on Thursday, October 29, 2015 at 7 pm for a reception and presentation of “Your Library Looks to the Future,” as we present architectural plans that the staff, community members, and Trustees have been developing since May to make the Library space more welcoming, more functional, and responsive to the changing patterns of library use.

Vermont author and journalist Elayne Clift will read from her latest book, Children of the Chalet: New and Selected Stories, Grand Prize Winner for Fiction in the Greyden Press 2014 Book Competition, on Saturday, October 10th at Brooks Memorial Library at 2.30 p.m. in the library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. Clift will also read excerpts from her novel Hester’s Daughters (based on The Scarlet Letter) and will invite the audience to join in a discussion about the challenges of fiction writing and getting published in a 21st century literary world.

Clift’s latest short story collection has two parts. The first, Children of the Chalet, from which the title is drawn, is a set of connected stories based on a year she spent in the 1960s as a residential counselor in a halfway house for troubled teens. The second part shares a number of short stories not published until now.“I had ruminated for years about the girls I worked with and what brought them to residential living and care,” Clift says. “Their stories, which I’ve fictionalized, were compelling and I often wondered what had become of them as adults. 

Good news! Thanks to the wonderful bequest by Ronald Read his year, the Board of Trustees are restoring Brooks Memorial Library hours open to what existed before the personnel budget reductions of 2010. Beginning Saturday, September 12, the library will be open 10 AM to 5 PM, and Thursday, September 17, the library’s hours will be 10 AM to 6 PM.

Read more here – http://files.ctctcdn.com/eb13a4a9001/5490aea8-ce7c-416f-ab0e-a2af1b2ceb92.pdf

Nonresident library cardholders, thanks for your support! We hope you’re finding more and more reasons to invest in a Brooks Memorial Library card, including lots of resources on our website, and the expanded Catamount Library Network collection of over 400,000 items.

On Sept. 1st, card fees changed to align with Brattleboro resident tax support: 6 months = $32, 1 year = $62, 2 years = $110. If you’re not sure, . You might be surprised!

The Friends of BML & Vermont Country store are hosting the Vermont Humanities Council’s Masters of the Short Story, a four-part reading-discussion series beginning Monday, October 5, at 7 PM. You will read great short story writers such as Beattie, Poe, Chekhov, and O’Connor. Discussions will be facilitated by long-time humanities scholar, Richard Wizansky. Ann Beattie’s Park City will be the first in the series.

The first session of the series is Monday, October 5, at 7 PM, with a discussion of Ann Beattie’s short stories,”Park City.” The other sessions scheduled are:
November 2, “Selected Works” by Flannery O’Connor
November 30, “Five Great Stories” by Anton Chekov
December 7, “Poetry and Tales” by Edgar Allan Poe