Books

Retired National Security Agency executive Bill Sullivan will discuss how the NSA works and consider the implications of the leaks of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on April 1 at 7:00 pm.

His talk, “The National Security Agency: The Law, the Media, and the Legacy of Edward Snowden”, is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. 

Sullivan will discuss the NSA’s foreign intelligence mission as well as its process, governance, and oversight, and examine media reports based on material provided by Edward Snowden.

Revenge– A Reading and Discussion Series on Wednesdays 7 pm – 8:30 pm. What are the causes of revenge? What are the consequences? Is taking revenge ever justified? Explore this most passionate and provocative of human desires through drama, short stories, and novels. Join Vermont Humanities Scholar and long-time Brooks facilitator Richard Wizansky for an evening of engaged discussion on this universal topic. First in the four-part series: Agamemnon. Books are available for checkout at the circulation desk.

The books, which will be available for checkout, are the following:
February 25, 7 PM: Aeschylus, Agamemnon
March 18, 7 PM: E.L. Doctorow, Welcome to Hard Times
April 15, 7 PM: Andre Dubus, Selected Stories
May 27, 7 PM: Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter

Philosophy scholar Susanne Claxton explores the key elements of the utopian republic envisioned by Plato and considers their adequacy.

Underwriter: Union Institute & University. Wednesday 4 February at 7 – 9 pm. Location Library Main Room.

For more information contact Brooks Library by phone at 802-254-5290 ext 0, by email at info@brookslibraryvt.org, or on the web at brookslibraryvt.org. Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301. The event is free and open to the public. 

Revenge: A Reading and Discussion Series at Brooks Library. What are the causes of revenge? What are the consequences? Is taking revenge ever justified? Explore this most passionate and provocative of human desires through drama, short stories, and novels.

Join Vermont Humanities Scholar and long-time Brooks facilitator Richard Wizansky for an evening of engaged discussion on this universal topic.

Join independent scholar and Boston author Marc Songini for a book talk on his book, Boston Mob The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer, on Saturday, January 24, at 3 PM in the Library’s Meeting Room.

Author Marc Songini will discuss a true story of revenge, corruption, and power. Hear how Joe turned on the Mafia for killing off his gang; how Joe put away his former friends; then went on the run.

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.

WHATS’ WRONG WITH THE WTO AND NAFTA?  THIS BOOK EXPLAINS! THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION IS BEING RIPPED AND SHREDDED!

This is a good book because it explains the problems with WTO and NAFTA.

Book Title: “If the Gods had meant us to vote, they would have given us candidates” Author: Jim Hightower

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 Friends of Brooks Memorial Library announce that they are selling the 2015 edition of the popular Book Lover’s Calendar as a fundraiser for the Library.  The calendar can be purchased at the Front Desk of the Library and sells for $10.

This innovative and informative calendar offers 365 days of good reading – from beloved classics to the best beach-blanket reads, histories biographies and self-help titles.  Each day features a lively, opinionated capsule review and suggestions for further reading.

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. 

This Marijuana Resolve episode was the  There are occasional lapses in Clint Werner’s responses. .  Mins: 29:57
also .

To learn from Clint Werner, a preventive medicine expert, about the incredible benefits of human consumption of marijuana and how the endocannabinoid system in our bodies act as natural therapeutics to help protect us from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other disease.

LIBRARY RAFFLE: HAND CRAFTED COLONIAL BOOKCASE

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library have announced that they will hold a raffle for a locally designed and built Colonial design pine bookcase.  Tickets for the raffle will be available at the Brooks Memorial Library from Monday, November 10 through Saturday, December 13. 

Donated to the Friends by a local craftsman, Paul Rodrigue, this bookcase is handmade of pine cut from nearby Alstead, New Hampshire. The bookcase is 44 inches tall and 24 inches wide.  The traditional dovetail joints are all hand cut.   

PROLOGUE

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Village was considered the northern extreme of the city. By the time of the Civil War, stables on Christopher Street rented horse carriages for city folk to get away from it all, driving into the countryside above 11th Street. Free from the constraints of city life, Villagers thrived on their rural feeling of independence. Thomas Paine chose to live in a wood frame ‘country house’ at Bleecker and Christopher Streets rather than the congested lower Manhattan.

In 1810, when architect John Randel was assigned to lay out the expanding city streets in grid formation, Villagers resisted his gridiron plans in favor of the quaint, narrow, odd and disjointed layout of streets that infused this colorful neighborhood so unique to the city.

Award-winning French photojournalist Lionel Delevingne discusses “To the Village Square: From Montague to Fukushima 1975-2014,” his new book of photography at 6pm on Friday, November 7th at Everyone’s Books.

Having witnessed the student riots in France in 1968, Delevingne began photographing non-violent protests around the world. After settling in Montague, Massachusetts, the epicenter of New England activism, Delevingne began photographing the protests of the local power plants, including Vermont Yankee and Seabrook. Earlier this year he traveled to Fukushima, Japan.

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.”

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library are seeking donations of “like new” and good condition hardback and paperback books for their Holiday Book Sale to be held on Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6.

If you have books that are in good condition and that you are willing to donate to the Library please contact Therese Marcy at 254-5290 x 106. 

Proceeds from the Holiday Book Sale will go to support the purchase of books, materials and equipment for the Library and the Children’s Room.

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.