I Grew Up with Basketball (A Memoir of the Game)

I Grew Up with Basketball (a memoir of the game)
Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 07:00pm – 09:00pm

Join Keene State College professor Michael Antonucci on Wednesday, November 13, at 7PM, for at talk on the book, I Grew Up with Basketball, which is a memoir by Frank J. Basloe who grew up in Herkimer, New York, where YMCA director Lambert Will developed the game of basketball.

The book offers an eyewitness account of the humble roots of the imposing enterprise that is professional basketball today. Antonucci brought Frank J Basloe’s I Grew Up with Basketball, back into print. His introduction to the book tracks the game—from Basloe’s Globe Trotters to LeBron James—and its trappings as a business vehicle.


David Macaulay: Life in the Studio

David Macaulay, award-winning author and illustrator of Castle, Cathedral, and The Way We Work, will discuss current projects in a talk, “Life in the Studio,” at the Library on Wednesday, November 6, at 7 PM, in the Main Room. The talk is part of the Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesday Lecture series.

Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post–Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award.


David Macaulay: Life in the Studio

Save the date! David Macaulay, award-winning author and illustrator of Castle, Cathedral, and The Way We Work, will discuss current projects in a talk, “Life in the Studio,” at the Library on Wednesday, November 6, at 7 PM, in the Main Room. The talk is part of the Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesday Lecture series

Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post–Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award.


Brooks Memorial Library Looking for Trustees For Upcoming Vacancies in 2014

The Board of Library Trustees of Brooks Memorial Library seeks enthusiastic and dedicated library lovers to fill three upcoming vacancies on the Board. One candidate will be elected at the March 2014 representative town meeting to complete one year of an unexpired term. Two others will be elected at town meeting to fill three-year terms.


New Books at Brooks Library

Be the first to know what new titles are coming into the Brooks Library collection.

Click on this link to see the current online edition of Brooks Memorial Library New Book Alerts. 

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Free Brattleboro Film Festival Daytime Screenings and Discussion at Brooks Memorial Library

This year, the Brattleboro Film Festival has chosen two examples of film-noir that explore greed and the psychology of dependency in abusive relationships for free daytime screenings and discussions presented in collaboration with and at Brooks Memorial Library: 
On Monday, November 4, beginning at 3 PM, “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” (US, 1946, 116 minutes) directed by Lewis Milestone will be screened.


Videoconference with Economist-Entrepreneur Michael Shuman

Brooks Memorial Library is pleased to announce that Michael Shuman, author of several books including “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity,” will be featured at the first annual “New Economy Lunch at the Library” to discuss how buying local can positively impact the economy. The lunch talk will be at noon on Friday, October 11th in the library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. The event is free and open to the public, and a brown bag lunch may be brought into the meeting room. The Library will be using the new videoconferencing equipment received as part of the Vermont Department of Libraries/Google grant. 


A Lifetime of Vermont People: Photo Exhibit & Talk at Brooks Library

A Lifetime of Vermont People
Wednesday, October 09, 2013, 7 pm – 9 pm


Frog Hollow, the nations first state craft center, presents a traveling exhibit A Lifetime of Vermont People – A bold glimpse of the rural people who gave Vermont its character as documented over 60 years by the photographer-writer Peter Miller. This tour coincides with the release of Peter Miller’s new book of the same title and focuses on Vermont Libraries as community hubs to tell the tale of the writing of the book which explores the changing culture of Vermont over the past half century.


Poetry 180 at the Brattleboro Literary Festival

Poetry 180 at the Brattleboro Literary Festival 
Thursday, October 03, 2013, 7 pm –  9 pm

On Thursday, October 3, at 7 PM in the Library’s Main Room, Guilford poet Ken Hebson has organized local published poets Arlene Distler; Barbara Benoit; Charles Butterfield; Wyn Cooper; Ed Rayher; and Tim Mayo, to read their favorite poems from Poetry 180; and which will be paired with their own poetry. There will be several students from Brattleboro Union High School who will be invited to read as well. Copies of Poetry 180 are available at the Library’s main circulation desk. 


The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Seeks Donations of Books

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library seeks donations of books for the fundraising December holiday book sale. Proceeds from the book sale help support the First Wednesday lecture series, computer access services, free museum passes and Children’s Room materials.

The Library needs books donated that “look like new.” Book donations can be hardcover, soft cover and mass-market paperbacks in fiction and non-fiction. In addition, the Library accepts coffee-table books, children’s books, CDs, DVDs and rare first edition and signed books.


Creating a Royal French Capital: Paris As We Know It

First Wednesday Lectures return for 8th Season with talk on 16th-17th Century Paris. 
Wednesday, October 2, 7 PM, Brooks Memorial Library

Amherst College History of Art professor Nicola Courtright discusses how 16th- and 17th -century French kings, seeking national political unity, created a new image of Paris, building the magnificent residences, squares, gardens, and boulevards that endure today.

Nicola Courtright is the Professor of the History of Art and Chair of European Studies at Amherst College. She has taught at Amherst for the past 14 years. Her publications span a wide range of areas within sixteenth and seventeenth-century European art history, including the art and architecture of the Vatican, Bernini sculpture, Rembrandt drawings, and most recently the art and architecture of French royal residences. 


A Lifetime of Vermont People – Talk and Exhibit at Brooks Library

A Lifetime of Vermont People  
Exhibit all October
Talk on Wednesday, October 09, 2013, 7 pm – 9 pm

Frog Hollow, the nations first state craft center, presents a traveling exhibit A Lifetime of Vermont People – A bold glimpse of the rural people who gave Vermont its character as documented over 60 years by the photographer-writer Peter Miller.

This tour coincides with the release of Peter Miller’s new book of the same title and focuses on Vermont Libraries as community hubs to tell the tale of the writing of the book which explores the changing culture of Vermont over the past half century.


Poetry 180 at the Brattleboro Literary Festival

Poetry 180 at the Brattleboro Literary Festival 
Thursday, October 03, 2013, 7 pm –  9 pm

The Brattleboro Literary Festival was founded in 2002.  Since then the festival has gone on to present nearly 300 authors, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Newbery Medal, and the Caldecott Medal.

Since 2003–the first year of Vermont Reads, which featured Brattleboro’s Newbury Award Winning resident Karen Hesse and her book,  Witness–Vermont Reads program has been an integral part of the Festival.


The Colonial Meetinghouses of New England

Photographer Paul Wainwright will present at talk on New England’s colonial meetinghouses.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Using photographs of the few surviving “mint condition” meetinghouses as illustrations Wainwright will tell the story of the society that built and used them, and the lasting impact they have had on American culture.


Poetry to the Earth: The Arts & Crafts Movement in Deerfield

Please join us on Wednesday, September 11, at 7 pm in the Library’s meeting room for a discussion by Suzanne Flynt, Curator at Memorial Hall Museum on her recently published book, Discussion with Suzanne Flynt, Curator at Memorial Hall.

A 1903 article in Gustav Stickley’s The Craftsman declared that “Deerfield is sending all over the country beautiful things…to bring back something of lost poetry to the earth.” This book will appeal to aficionados of American folk arts, decorative arts, textile history, and the Arts and Craft movement. Suzanne Flynt, curator of Memorial Hall Museum, has authored the story of this beautiful Massachusetts town that shows how Deerfield played a pivotal role in the American Arts and Crafts movement.


Fiction and Poetry: New Works by Wolf, Benoit, and Butterfield

Novelist Muriel Wolf, and poets Barbara Benoit and Charles Butterfield will read from their new works on Tuesday, September 10, at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting room at Brooks Memorial Library.

Wolf will read from her debut novel, “The Book of Gone.” Her book has received agent representation and is making the rounds of publishers.  Her short story, “The Chocolate Errand,” won Best Short Fiction Prize from Boulevard Magazine and was finalist in the Crazy Horse short story competition.  She is at work on her second novel.  A visual artist, Wolf’s monotype collages were on exhibit at the Catherine Dianich Gallery last winter.


Jazz From Row Six Book Talk

Jazz From Row Six Book Talk

Join photographer Jean Germain on Wednesday, September 4, at 7 PM, in the Meeting Room for a talk on her great book of jazz musicians.

Whether it is Bucky and John Pizzarelli jamming together or Eartha Kitt showing that she still has “it” at age 80, Jazz From Row Six is a book filled with exciting photographs of legendary musicians performing America’s original art form. Along with the 100 photographs are personal anecdotes documenting a snapshot in the history of the big band sound.


The Great American Songbook: A Night of Jazz and Dancing with Chris Bakriges and Guests

Friends of Brooks Memorial Library present: The Great American Songbook: A Night of Jazz and Dancing with Chris Bakriges and guests.

Saturday, September 21, 7-9 PM
The American Legion Hall, 32 Linden St., Brattleboro, VT

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library is sponsoring a concert to fund the public access computing and lifelong learning programs of the library. 

Chris Bakriges, an internationally recognized jazz pianist living in Southern Vermont, is volunteering his talents again to create a special evening of  instrumental pieces from the Great American Songbook–the most popular and enduring popular songs from the 1920’s to 1950’s–on September 21, starting at 7 PM, in the American Legion Hall in Brattleboro. 


Language, Music and Spirit in Ireland and India: Themes That Inspired a Suspense Novel

Language, Music and Spirit in Ireland and India: Themes That Inspired a Suspense Novel 
Wednesday, August 14, 7 PM

Join Vermont author Kathryn Guare on Wednesday, August 14, at 7 PM in the library’s meeting room to share a multi-media presentation of the elements that inspired the writing of Deceptive Cadence: The Virtuosic Spy, a suspense/mystery released in the spring of 2013. The novel introduces Conor McBride, an Irish musician and reluctant undercover operative who is sent on a mission to India to capture the man who ruined his career: his own brother.