Brooks Memorial Library

Join us for a free live streaming event on Wednesday, January 14, at 5 PM, in the library’s meeting room. Salman Rushdie, author of VHC’s 2015 Vermont Reads Book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, talks about the importance of storytelling.

This event is part of the First Wednesday Lecture Series events scheduled for the Brownell Library in Essex Junction, VT. Presented with the Office of the President, University of Vermont.

Vermont Reads: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. Three events at Brooks Library. A film, a book discussion & a live streaming with Salmon Rushdie. All events are free and open to the public. Save the dates! January 3rd, 8th & 14th, please join us! Details below.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 3 PM FILM: THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) 98 minutes–A classic fairy tale, with swordplay, giants, an evil prince, a beautiful princess. The film will be discussed on Thursday, January 8, in relation to Haroun and the Sea Stories. Director: Rob Reiner. William Goldman (book), William Goldman (screenplay) Stars: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright

The 9th Annual Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Holiday Book Sale will be held in the Library on Friday, December 5 from 10 AM to 6 PM and Saturday, December 6 from 10 AM to 2 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. In addition to the wide range of books and CDs for sale, the Friends will provide free gift-wrapping of purchased items on Saturday from 11 AM to l PM.

On Monday, December 1 at 7 pm, the Library will host a reading and book signing for Vermont author Gary Lee Miller’s short story collection Museum of the Americas. The event will be in the Meeting Room on the Library’s 2nd Floor, and is free and open to the public.

Praised by Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea as “art in its truest sense,” as well as in Seven Days and on WDEV Radio’s Mark Johnson Show, Miller’s debut collection explores the mysteries of the past—and of the human heart. Miller is well known in Vermont as the co-producer of the documentary films Rookies at the Road, which tells the story of Barre’s Thunder Road racetrack, and Act of Faith, which explores the making of the Jay Craven feature film Disappearances.

The November poetry readings at Brooks Memorial Library feature two outstanding Vermont and New Hampshire poets: Sydney Lea and Becky Sakellariou. They will read from their new works on Wednesday November 19, at 7:00 PM. in the BML 2nd floor meeting room. Arrive early to insure a good seat. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact the library at 802-254-5290 ext 101, or info@brookslibraryvt.org.

Join local author, Martha Moravec, for a reading and discussion of her new book, Magnificent Obesity, on Wednesday, November 12, at 7 PM. Magnificent Obesity depicts one woman’s effort to look honestly and compassionately at her obesity through a kaleidoscopic lens of anxiety disorder, addictive behavior, agnosticism and the onset of aging.

Her conviction that it’s never too late to grow up, that it is possible to feel born again at any age and that there is no expiration date on dreams will inspire anyone who yearns to rewrite their story and take their own magnificent leap into a life lived with passion, purpose and authentic power. 

In light of his experiences fighting in Iraq, veteran Tyler Boudreau will discuss PTSD and “moral injury” in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on November 5 at 7:00 pm.

His talk, “The Morally Injured,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. The library sponsor for this event is the Brattleboro Retreat. Sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Funded in part by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library; the Vermont Department of Libraries; and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The event is free and open to the public. 

Boudreau served twelve years in the Marine Corps infantry, deployed to Iraq in 2004, and is the author of Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine. Boudreau told Martha Bebinger of WBUR in an interview,”We were always getting shelled, constant rocket and mortar attacks,” Boudreau says. “An IED, the roadside bomb, blew up right next to my vehicle and I was involved in some firefight that was pretty, you know, pretty intense.”

Poets Baron Wormser and Michael Fleming will read from their works in the Library’s meeting room on Wednesday, October 29, beginning at 7 PM. Baron Wormser is the author of a memoir, The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the Grid, a novel, Teach Us That Peace, nine books of poetry and three books of non-fiction. Michael Fleming is a creative editor, essayist, novelist, and poet.

Award-winning Vermont author Katherine Paterson will consider the importance and many benefits of reading in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on October 1 at 7:00 pm. Her talk, “Reading for the Life of the World,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. 

Paterson has twice won both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. She received the 1998 Hans Christian Andersen Medal as well as the 2006 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for her work. Her books include Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob I Have Loved, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and The Day of the Pelican. An active promoter of reading and literacy, Paterson lives in Barre, Vermont.