Byron G Merrill Library

Story Time at BGM

2012-02-18T11:05:00.003-05:00

Fun time at story time today - we read First Dog by J Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello which tells the story of how Dog came to live at the White House with the Obama Family. Everyone then worked on 3-dimensional stars as we celebrated Presidents' Day. What a great group of young library patrons!

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

2012-02-15T12:58:00.002-05:00

Many stories have come out of the war in Vietnam but few from a woman's perspective. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist and the main character in this book, is scarred by her time there and learns empathy and compassion.

Join us for Saturday Story Time...

2012-01-19T17:10:00.002-05:00

The winter story time program has been very successful at the Byron G. Merill Library. Children have listened to winter-themed stories, made snowflakes and decorated cookies. Our recent focus has been on books by one of our favorite author/illustrators: Jan Brett. Last Saturday the children got to act in their own play as different animals in the story, "The Hat". What could be next? Come and find out on Saturday mornings from 10:30 - 11:00am. You never know what Mrs. Anderson has planned for our fun time together!

Informative Databases with EBSCO

2012-01-18T12:40:00.001-05:00

Have you noticed that our library might not have older editions of magazines and newspapers in the library? It doesn’t mean that you can’t find the article you need! Instead of keeping (and storing) hundreds or thousands of magazines on the shelves, the articles are available to you through the New Hampshire statewide subscription to EBSCO and Newsbank.

These websites require a username and password. Please contact the library for your login information.

Full Suite of EBSCO Databases

Access to All EBSCO Resources Our subscription to EBSCO offers a wide range of information. You can do everything from find information for homework assignments to read the latest article in your favorite magazine!

Consumer Reports from EBSCOBrowse full text PDF copies of Consumer Reports by date!

Fiction from EBSCO

NoveList: Your Guide to FictionLove to read? Check out NoveList to see book reviews, get read-alike suggestions, and learn more about fiction.

NoveList for Kids!Visit NoveList K-8 to find read-alikes, series lists, and recommendations for kids books!

Newspapers from NewsBank

Read the full text articles for free from the Concord Monitor (10/2002-current) and Union Leader (1/1989-current) from our NewsBank subscription.

Homework Help from EBSCO

Student Research CenterNeed to find magazine, journal, or newspaper articles for a homework assignment? Make the Student Research Center your first stop for finding just what you need.

Searchasaurus: Information for Young StudentsInformation for the youngest students can be found through the colorful Searchasaurus site.

Kids Search: Homework Help for Elementary & Middle School StudentsCheck out Kids Search for magazine and newspaper articles for the younger student.

MAS Ultra School EditionWow! MAS Ultra for high school students contains full text articles for 500 high school magazines and 360 reference books, 85,670 biographies, and a half-million photos.

Health from EBSCO

Health Source: Consumer EditionLooking for health information? Health Source contains full text for nearly 190 journals including Consumer Reports on Health and Men’s Health.

Consumer Health CompleteHave a medical question? Consumer Health Complete is a full text database covers topics such as aging, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, and more.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

2011-12-29T14:51:00.002-05:00

The horrormeister's new novel tells the story of Jake Epping who is let in on the secret existence of a time-travel portal inside a Maine diner. The diner's owner Al, who is dying, asks Jake to go back in time and complete one very important task: Stop President Kennedy from being assassinated.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-28T14:12:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year from the Byron G. Merrill Library! We invite children and the young at heart to come in for some great books to get you through the long winter ahead. For children we have a large selection of winter-themed books and for adults we have many brand new titles that Santa just delivered. We have just the title for your entertainment on a cold, winter night! Another way to keep warm is to join our knitters group which will meet again on Thursday, January 12th at 2:00pm. Whatever your skill level, feel free to join us for a chat and cup of tea while we work on projects together.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-16T07:45:00.002-05:00

The ladies at the Byron G. Merrill Library would like to send Christmas greetings to all our patrons, friends and neighbors and let everyone know that we will be open during all our regular hours throughout the holiday season. Come on in for a lively greeting and some goodies to keep you energized during your last-minute shopping and bring in the kids during vacation to check out some entertaining books as well.

Deck the halls...

2011-12-08T16:49:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Byron G. Merrill Library! We invite children and the young at heart to come in and decorate a cookie during our open hours on Dec. 14th, 15th and 17th. Decorate your cookie to bring home and leave out for Santa or eat it yourself! During your Christmas preparations we hope you'll stop by for a yummy treat and a Christmas greeting on December 21st, 22nd and 24th. During the whole month of December we have Christmas ornaments available for children to decorate and take home. The ornaments also make great gift tags. While you're here check out our selection of Christmas-themed books and movies for every age level. We have just the title for your entertainment on a cold, winter night!

Read your way to Thanksgiving....

2011-11-04T12:22:00.001-04:00

We welcomed a new patron today...

2011-11-02T18:05:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween Everyone!

2011-10-31T09:58:00.001-04:00

We hope that a lot of ghosts and goblins will stop by the library tonight between 5 and 6 o'clock!

Exploring New Hampshire...

2011-10-28T17:41:00.002-04:00

Just in time for fall foliage trips, the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has added an interactive
map of the state's historical highway markers to its website, www.nh.gov/nhdhr.
Visitors to the website can use Google Maps technology to easily navigate a map of New Hampshire and find
locations of the state's 200+ historical highway markers. A photo of each marker, along with its GPS coordinates
and a search feature to find nearby landmarks and attractions, can be accessed by clicking on a marker's location.

New Hampshire's historical highway markers illustrate the depth and complexity of our history and the people
who made it, from the last Revolutionary War soldier to contemporary sports figures to poets and painters who
used New Hampshire for inspiration; from 18th-century meeting houses to stone arch bridges to long-lost villages;
from factories and cemeteries to sites where international history was made.
"Historical highway markers form a trail of the state's heritage from Pittsburg to Hinsdale and Seabrook,:"
said Elizabeth Muzzey, director of the N.H. Division of Historical Resources and state historic preservation officer.
"Each marker is initiated by a group of local advocates; the program reflects what people in New Hampshire
feel is important and unique about our history."

The New Hampshire historical highway marker program is jointly managed by the N.H. Division of Historical
Resources and the N.H. Department of Transportation.
Any municipality, agency, organization or individual wishing to propose a historical highway marker to commemorate
significant New Hampshire places, persons or events must submit a petition of support signed by at
least 20 New Hampshire citizens. They must also draft the text of the marker and provide footnotes and copies
of supporting documentation, as well as a suggested location for marker placement.
New Hampshire's Division of Historical Resources, The "State Historic Preservation Office," was established
in 1974. The historical, archaeological, architectural, engineering and cultural resources of New Hampshire are
among the most important environmental assets of the state. Historic preservation promotes the use, understanding
and conservation of such resources for the education, inspiration, pleasure and enrichment of New
Hampshire's citizens. For more information, visit us online at www.nh.gov/nhdhr or by calling (603) 271-3483.

Stop by and take a look...

2011-10-28T14:47:00.001-04:00

For 11/3/11

The holiday season has begun… the Thanksgiving books are out and ready to be enjoyed. We’ve added a dozen new titles to our selection. Speaking of Thanksgiving, come and build with us! We have many sizes and kinds of LEGO blocks, you just need to bring your imagination. The theme is Thanksgiving. All ages welcome!

We have a new look in our video/reading/gathering room! The videos have been rearranged and two comfy chairs have been added. Stop by and take a look!

The BGM Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet here at the library next Thursday, December 10th at 2. Helen will be bringing some yummy treats to go with our cup of tea. Hope you can join us.

December 10th will be a busy day as Craig Bixby will be removing our outside doors to refinish them. We will be boarded up and the library closed until the doors are reinstalled. We hope to re-open on Wednesday, November 16th if all goes well.

New ebooks Titles Available

2011-10-20T13:03:00.000-04:00

New eBooks for October 21, 2011
Title Author(s)
1225 Christmas Tree Lane Debbie Macomber
The Accidental Courtesan Cheryl Ann Smith
Aleph Paulo Coelho
Angels of Darkness Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, Meljean Brook
Anna's Gift Emma Miller
The Beach Trees Karen White
Black Wind Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler
Bride for a Night Rosemary Rogers
Cemetery Girl David Bell
The Color of Light Karen White
The Confessor Daniel Silva
Curiosity Thrilled the Cat Sofie Kelly
Dead Over Heels Charlaine Harris
Dearly, Departed Lia Habel
The Death Cure James Dashner
Death in the City of Light David King
Die Trying Lee Child
Double Dexter Jeff Lindsay
Drums of Autumn Diana Gabaldon
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Carnival Crime Donald Sobol
The English Assassin Daniel Silva
The Floor of Heaven Howard Blum
The Kill Artist Daniel Silva
The Kingdom of Childhood Rebecca Coleman
The Lost Stories John Flanagan
The Mark of the Assassin Daniel Silva
The Memory of Water Karen White
The Murder of the Century Paul Collins
The Name of the Star Maureen Johnson
An O'Brien Family Christmas Sherryl Woods
On Folly Beach Karen White
Proof By Seduction Courtney Milan
Seduction of a Highland Lass Maya Banks
A Simple Winter Rosalind Lauer
The Unlikely Spy Daniel Silva
Vanishing Act Thomas Perry
The Weight of Silence Heather Gudenkauf
Zone One Colson Whitehead

New Audio Books Titles Available

2011-10-20T13:00:00.001-04:00

For our patrons using our 'Downloadable Audio Books' program, we are pleased to announce these new titles that are available.

New Audio Books for October 21, 2011

Title Author(s)
The Abduction John Grisham, Richard Thomas
The Affair Lee Child, Dick Hill
The Cat's Table Michael Ondaatje, Michael Ondaatje
Comfort and Joy India Knight, Anne Flosnik
The Dark Half Stephen King, Grover Gardner
Dearly, Departed Lia Habel, Kim Mai Guest, Various
Double Dexter Jeff Lindsay, Jeff Lindsay
Heart of Ice Lis Wiehl, Devon O'Day
Lethal Sandra Brown, Victor Slezak
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides, David Pittu
The Medusa Plot Gordon Korman, David Pittu
The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern, Jim Dale
The Night Strangers Chris Bohjalian, Alison Fraser, Mark Bramhall
An O'Brien Family Christmas Sherryl Woods, Christina Traister
Rip Tide Kat Falls, Keith Nobbs
Seriously...I'm Kidding Ellen DeGeneres, Ellen DeGeneres
A Simple Winter Rosalind Lauer, Cassandra Campbell
The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan, Joshua Swanson
Stranger in My Arms Lisa Kleypas
Where Dreams Begin Lisa Kleypas
A Wicked Snow Gregg Olsen, Kevin Foley

Read-a Thon on September 29th!

2011-10-13T16:44:00.002-04:00

For 10/20/11

We’re looking forward to our very first Read-a-thon’ on Saturday, October 29th from 4 until 5:30 pm. This free event promises to be a fun one for our young readers ages 8 to 12. Advance registration is a must – call, email or stop in! Pizza, reading, fun – what is there not to like???

The knitting ladies are knitting up a storm! We are getting a jump start on warm, cozy hats for our students at the Russell School. The cold days are on their way and we want all the children nice and warm as they go out on the playground. You are welcome to join our knitting group or just knit on your own. We have patterns and plenty of yarn right here at the library. Won’t you help? The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet on Thursday, October 27th, at 2 and again on November 10th. You are welcome to join us.

Are you remembering that our hours have changed? We are open Wednesdays 2 until 6, Thursdays 10 until 12 and 2 until 6, and Saturdays 10 until 1.

How To Read More: A Lover's Guide by Leo Babauta

2011-10-05T15:24:00.002-04:00

Reading a good book is one of my favorite things in the world. A novel is a time machine, a worm-hole to different dimensions, a special magic that puts you into the minds and bodies of fascinating people, a transporter that lets you travel the world, a dizzying exploration of love and death and sex and seedy criminal underworlds and fairylands, a creator of new best friends. All in one.

I read because I love the experience, because it is a powerful teacher of life, because it transforms me. I am not the world’s most prodigious reader, but I do read daily and with passion. Lots of people say they want to read more, but don’t know how to start. Read this. It should help.

1. Don’t read because you should — read for joy. Find books about exciting stories, about people who fascinate you, about new worlds that you’d love to visit. Forget the classics, unless they fit this prescription.

2. Carve out the time. We have no time to read anymore, mostly because we work too much, we overschedule our time, we’re on the Internet all the time (which does have some good reading, but can also suck our attention endlessly), and we watch too much TV. Pick a time, and make it your reading time. Start with just 10 minutes if it’s hard to find time — even 10 minutes is lovely. Try 20 or 30 if you can drop a couple things from your schedule.

3. Do nothing but read. Clear all distractions. Find a quiet, peaceful space. It’s just your book, and you. Notice but let go of the urges to do other things instead of read. If you must do something else, have some tea.

4. Love the hell out of it. You’re not doing this to better yourself. You’re doing it for joy. Reading is magic, and the magic will change everything else in your life. Love the experience, and you’ll look forward to it daily.

5. Make it social. Find friends who love to read, or find them online. There’s a world of readers on the Internet, and they’d be happy to make recommendations and talk about the books you’re all reading. Try a book club as well. Reading is solitary, but is also a social act.

6. Make it a habit. Pick a trigger in your daily routine, and consistently read exactly after that trigger each day. Even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes. The more consistent you are, and the longer you keep the streak going, the stronger the habit will become.

7. Don’t make it a chore. Don’t make it something on your to do list or schedule that you have to check off. It’s not part of your self-improvement plan. It’s a part of your Make Life More Awesome Plan.

8. Give up on a book if it’s boring. Reading isn’t something you do because it’s good for you — it’s not like taking your vitamins. You’re reading because it’s fun. So if a book isn’t fun, dump it. Give it a try for at least a chapter, but if you still don’t love it, move on.

9. Discover amazing books. I talk to other people who are passionate about books, and I’ll read reviews, or just explore an old-fashioned bookstore. Supporting your local bookstores is a great thing, and it’s incredibly fun. Libraries are also amazing places that are underused — get a card today.

10. Don’t worry about speed. Speed reading is fine for some, but slow reading is great too. The number of books, and the rate of reading them, matters not a whit. It’s not a competition. You’re reading to enjoy the books, so take your time. It’s like enjoying good food: better savored, not rushed.

Our Hours Have Changed!

2011-09-29T15:51:00.002-04:00

Our hours have changed – Fall/Winter hours are now in effect – We are open Wednesdays from 2 until 6, Thursdays from 10 until 12 and 2 until 6, and Saturdays from 10 until 1. We hope that this makes it easier for everyone to drop by the library.

Attention all people ages 8 to 12 who like pizza, reading and fun… We have a special day planned towards the end of October – October 29th from 4 until 5:30 to be exact – when we will host our very first ‘Read-a-Thon’. We will do some reading, eat some pizza, and perhaps play a game. Space is limited so… if you would like to come please let us know ASAP!

Cool days, crisp apples, colorful leaves – the best part of living in New England for many of us! Those who agree might like to check out a fun link – http://www.travel-new-england.com/fall-fall-foliage-in-new-england/ - for a great list of activities just right for the season. Children might like to check out our fall picture books here at the library.

New issues of Ranger Rick and National Wildlife (Thank you Joy!) have just arrived. Ranger Rick has a neat article about beavers with lots of pictures. National Wildlife has many interesting articles including one on wild turkeys (they are quite tasty!) and another on wildflowers to attract migrating butterflies and hummingbirds.

The Ladies Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet on Thursday, October 13th at 2 pm. We are making winter hats for our school children and can use some help. We have patterns and yarn available at the library. The cold temperatures are coming so we aim to be ready!

2011-09-15T14:14:00.002-04:00

The American Library Association and public libraries around the country have celebrated Library Card Sign-UP Month every September since 1987. Our library is taking part by reminding our community that the return on your library investment is huge when you take advantage of our services and resources. We offer books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio and ebooks, inter-library loans, and an internet based foreign language program.

We also want to remind parents that a library card is a very important school supply and the smartest card a student can own! If your child is in first grade or more, come in with them and get them a library card and learn how we can help your student

Library cards need to be renewed every two years. Is your library card up-to-date???

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on THURSDAY, October 13th, at 2 PM –Please notice the change in day - all are welcome!

Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone: 786-9520, Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com, Website: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

New E-Book Titles Available...

2011-09-08T13:42:00.001-04:00

Oodles of new e-books are currently available to download to your e-book readers. Have you signed up for this popular program at our library???

Title Author(s)
1968 Mark Kurlansky
3rd Degree James Patterson, Andrew Gross
Allies Christie Golden
Almost Perfect Brian Katcher
The American Girl Monika Fagerholm, Katarina Tucker
The Angel in My Arms Stefanie Sloane
Anna and the French Kiss Stephanie Perkins
Ashtown Burials N. D. Wilson
Bearers of the Black Staff Terry Brooks
Becoming Marie Antoinette Juliet Grey
Black Ice Anne Stuart
Blood Promise Richelle Mead
Bloodlines Richelle Mead
Bloodshot Cherie Priest
Blue Smoke Nora Roberts
The Bride Julie Garwood
The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka
Burning Down the Spouse Dakota Cassidy
Buttercream Bump Off Jenn McKinlay
A Chesapeake Shores Christmas Sherryl Woods
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller
Cod Mark Kurlansky
Crave J. R. Ward
Die for You Lisa Unger
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight Alexandra Fuller
Dragonfly in Amber Diana Gabaldon
Falling in Love with English Boys Melissa Jensen
Flirting with Disaster Sherryl Woods
The Food of a Younger Land Mark Kurlansky
Frostbite Richelle Mead
Girls in White Dresses Jennifer Close
Happy Birthday Danielle Steel
The Help Kathryn Stockett
I Don't Know How She Does It Allison Pearson
The Ideal Man Julie Garwood
In Malice, Quite Close Brandi Lynn Ryder
The Invisible Bridge Julie Orringer
The Keeper of Lost Causes Jussi Adler-Olsen
Knit One, Kill Two Maggie Sefton
The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Last Coyote Michael Connelly
Last Sacrifice Richelle Mead
The Ledge Jim Davidson, Kevin Vaughan
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie Jennifer Ashley
Mama Rides Shotgun Deborah Sharp
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron Jennifer Ashley
Matched Ally Condie
The Measure of the Magic Terry Brooks
Next to Love Ellen Feldman
Ready Player One Ernest Cline
Reckless Anne Stuart
Rotters Daniel Kraus
The Secret Julie Garwood
The Secret Mistress Mary Balogh
The Secret to Seduction Julie Anne Long
Shadow Kiss Richelle Mead
Shelter Harlan Coben
Spirit Bound Richelle Mead
Victory and Honor W.E.B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV
Waking Up in Charleston Sherryl Woods
Ways to Be Wicked Julie Anne Long
Would-Be Witch Kimberly Frost
You Are So Undead to Me Stacey Jay
1105 Yakima Street Debbie Macomber
The 5th Horseman James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Ambitious Monica McKayhan
Another Kind of Dead Kelly Meding
The Ask and the Answer Patrick Ness
Back Spin Harlan Coben
Backseat Saints Joshilyn Jackson
Becoming Marie Antoinette Juliet Grey
Blood Bound Rachel Vincent
Blood Rules Christine Cody
Bloodlands Christine Cody
Bloodlines Richelle Mead
Bloodroot Bill Loehfelm
Blue Smoke Nora Roberts
A Bone to Pick Charlaine Harris
Breathless Anne Stuart
The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka
By Grace Possessed Jennifer Blake
Cherished Kim Cash Tate
A Chesapeake Shores Christmas Sherryl Woods
Club Dead Charlaine Harris
Covet J. R. Ward
Craving the Highlander's Touch Michelle Willingham
Dead Angler Victoria Houston
Death in Show Judi McCoy
An Echo in the Bone Diana Gabaldon
The Fiery Cross Diana Gabaldon
Getting Old is a Disaster Rita Lakin
Good Girls Don't Victoria Dahl
Greywalker Kat Richardson
Heir of the Dog Judi McCoy
The Help Kathryn Stockett
Home Improvement Charlaine Harris, Toni L. P Kelner
Hounding the Pavement Judi McCoy
An Ice Cold Grave Charlaine Harris
In Bed with a Highlander Maya Banks
The Invisible Bridge Julie Orringer
Julia London Historical Romance 2-Book Bundle Julia London
Juliet Immortal Stacey Jay
The Julius House Charlaine Harris
The Keeper of Lost Causes Jussi Adler-Olsen
Kind of Blue Miles Corwin
The King's Courtesan Judith James
Kiss of Death Rachel Caine
Knee High by the 4th of July Jess Lourey
The Knife of Never Letting Go Patrick Ness
The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Last Sacrifice Richelle Mead
Lord and Lady Spy Shana Galen
Love Come to Me Lisa Kleypas
Mama Does Time Deborah Sharp
The Many Sins of Lord Cameron Jennifer Ashley
Mice Gordon Reece
Miracle Beach Erin Celello
Mistress by Marriage Maggie Robinson
Monsters of Men Patrick Ness
Murder Past Due Miranda James
Neighborhood Watch Cammie McGovern
Nightshade Andrea Cremer
No Proper Lady Isabel Cooper
No Time For Goodbye Linwood Barclay
A Parfait Murder Wendy Lyn Watson
Pleasure Unbound Larissa Ione
Plugged Eoin Colfer
Poltergeist Kat Richardson
The Postmortal Drew Magary
Raising Stony Mayhall Daryl Gregory
Ready Player One Ernest Cline
Redeeming the Rogue Donna MacMeans
The School of Essential Ingredients Erica Bauermeister
Second Son Lee Child
The Servants of Twilight Dean Koontz
Seven Years to Sin Sylvia Day
Shameless Anne Stuart
Silent Enemy Thomas W. Young
Slow Love Dominique Browning
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion Charlaine Harris
Spiral Paul McEuen
The Square Root of Murder Ada Madison
Storm's Heart Thea Harrison
The Stranger You Seek Amanda Kyle Williams
Succubus Blues Richelle Mead
Succubus On Top Richelle Mead
Succubus Revealed Richelle Mead
Succubus Shadows Richelle Mead
The Third Victim Lisa Gardner
Treasuring Emma Kathleen Fuller
The Twelfth Enchantment David Liss
The Vow Juliana Garnett
Vowed in Shadows Jessa Slade
Voyager Diana Gabaldon
Waking Up in Charleston Sherryl Woods
We the Animals Justin Torres
The Wedding Julie Garwood
The Wedding Affair Leigh Michaels
What Is Left the Daughter Howard Norman
When the Wind Blows James Patterson
Where Demons Fear to Tread Stephanie Chong
A Whisper of Peace Kim Vogel Sawyer
White Heat M. J. McGrath
Working Stiff Annelise Ryan
You Dropped a Blonde on Me Dakota Cassidy

Author Sara Gruen's Favorite Reads...

2011-09-07T19:33:00.003-04:00

Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants has become one of the most beloved and bestselling novels of our time. Readers fell in love with Water for Elephants and its story of Jacob, a young man tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, and Rosie, the untrainable elephant. This instant #1 New York Times bestseller has over 3 million copies in print worldwide. The movie version, starring Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz, and Robert Pattinson is playing nationally.

We are currently displaying Sara's favorite reads: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, the Brief Wondrous Life of oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

School has started!

2011-08-25T15:26:00.001-04:00

The Byron G. Merrill Library sends well-wishes to all Rumney students as they head back to school. Whether looking for a special book for school or doing online research on one of the computers we can help students during our evening and Saturday hours.

The library was packed to the gills on Wednesday, August 10 as a wrap-up party for the summer tic-tac-toe reading program was held. Seventeen children plus parents were in attendance. A short program was held outside in the shade of the maple trees just as the rain clouds cleared. The time consisted of a song, a story of what happens when Farmer Brown goes on vacation, a game of duck, duck, goose, awards and the favorite of all - ice cream! A fun time was had by all. The tic-tac-toe program helped introduce a variety of books to children over the summer and helped prepare them for school as well.

As cooler weather comes an invitation goes out to local knitters to join us for our knitting club held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 2pm. If you are unable to attend you may still help us with our special project of knitting hats for the children of Russell Elementary School. Skeins of yarn and a pattern is available at the library if you would like to help with our project.

New E-Books Available to Download...

2011-08-10T17:01:00.001-04:00

Just copied the list of new e-books available to our patrons - Do you have an ereader? You might like to check out these titles...

Title Author(s)
Abyss Troy Denning
Against All Enemies Tom Clancy, Peter Telep
Among the Wonderful Stacy Carlson
Books Can Be Deceiving Jenn McKinlay
City of the Sun David Levien
Conquistadora Esmeralda Santiago
Dead Is So Last Year Marlene Perez
Delirious Daniel Palmer
Demonic Ann Coulter
The Devil in Disguise Stefanie Sloane
Don't Look Back Karin Fossum
Ecstasy Unveiled Larissa Ione
First 60 Seconds Daniel Burns
A Game of Thrones George R.R. Martin
Ghost Town Rachel Caine
The Girl in the Steel Corset Kady Cross
Grave Sight Charlaine Harris
The Help Kathryn Stockett
Hourglass Myra McEntire
Incognito David Eagleman
An Indecent Proposition Emma Wildes
Keeping the House Ellen Baker
Let's Play Dead Sheila Connolly
Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen Susan Gregg Gilmore
Lye in Wait Cricket McRae
The Magician Michael Scott
Maine J. Courtney Sullivan
A Matter of Class Mary Balogh
May Day Jess Lourey
One Bad Apple Sheila Connolly
Passion Unleashed Larissa Ione
A Perfect Evil Alex Kava
Pleasure Unbound Larissa Ione
Real Murders Charlaine Harris
Runaway Hit Lara Bergen
The School of Essential Ingredients Erica Bauermeister
The Secret Between Us Barbara Delinsky
The Secret to Seduction Julie Anne Long
Seducing the Highlander Emma Wildes
Sex on the Moon Ben Mezrich
Shakespeare's Landlord Charlaine Harris
Shattered Karen Robards
The Shelters of Stone Jean M. Auel
The Silent Girl Tess Gerritsen
The Sinner Who Seduced Me Stefanie Sloane
Slightly Married Mary Balogh
Smokin' Seventeen Janet Evanovich
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See
A Summer to Remember Mary Balogh
The Vanishing Violin Michael D. Beil
A Weekend with Mr. Darcy Victoria Connelly
Where the Dead Lay David Levien
The Winter Sea Susanna Kearsley

2011-08-04T10:01:00.003-04:00

On August 30 and 31, 2011 The Library of Congress Gateway to Knowledge Travelling Exhibition will be at the New Hampshire State House (107 North Main Street, Concord, NH) and will be open for visitors from 10am-6pm each day.

The exhibition outlines the history of the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson's role in re-establishing the Library after the burning of the U.S. Capitol in 1814, and his classification system of Memory, Reason, and Imagination. These three categories define the organization of the content inside the exhibition.

The visit is being co-hosted by the New Hampshire State Library and Concord Public Library.

Summer Fun at the Library

2011-07-21T12:54:00.002-04:00

With just a few short weeks left of summer, it's not too late to join our summer Tic-Tac-Toe Club at the Byron G. Merrill Library. All ages can play along by reading the various types of books listed in each square. As they mark off squares on their tic-tac-toe card not only will children be fulfilling their school reading requirements for the summer, but they'll also earn an extra treat to keep them cool. One of the squares asks children to read a "how-to" book. The library has many books for children to learn new things such as crafts, skateboarding, and even how to make balloon animals. You never know what you'll learn at the Byron G. Merrill Library!

Join Us for a Busy Summer!

2011-07-07T16:33:00.001-04:00

Rumney children are invited to join our summer Tic-Tac-Toe Club at the Byron G. Merrill Library. All ages can play along by reading the various types of books listed in each square. As they mark off squares on their tic-tac-toe card not only will children be fulfilling their school reading requirements for the summer, but they'll also earn an extra treat to keep them cool. One of the squares asks children to read a Caldecott Award book. The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. The Caldecott and the Newbery Medals are the most prestigious American children's book awards. The Byron G. Merrill Library has many well-loved Caldecott Award books to read and borrow.

Highlighting other local libraries, "Saving the Mountains, New Hampshire and the Creation of National Forests" will be presented at the Margret & H.A. Rey Center, Waterville Valley on Friday July 15th at 8 p.m. In 2011, New Hampshire and the nation are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Weeks Act, the law that created the eastern national forests. Marcia Schmidt Blaine of Plymouth State University will present the lecture.

Upcoming Events: The Rumney Historical Society will host their annual Ice Cream Social on the lawn next to the museum on Saturday, July 23rd at one o’clock. Music, cake and ice cream, and a chance to visit will be the agenda for the day. This event is free and open to the public. We hope that you will join us!

The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wednesday, August 10th, at 2 PM – all are welcome! Our next project is to make warm winter hats for the students at the Russell School. Patterns will be available.

The Library Annual Book Sale will take place on Saturday, August 13th, Old Home Day, from 9 until noon on the lawn in front of the library. It will be a ‘contribution’ sale and the proceeds will benefit the children’s collection. Book donations are welcome at the library during our regular hours.

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, genealogy sources, interlibrary loan, and an internet- based foreign language program – stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone: 786-9520, Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com, Website: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

The Rumney Ladies Knitting Society....

2011-06-09T14:15:00.002-04:00

It was a busy and rather noisy afternoon as the ladies of The Rumney Ladies Knitting Society turned out for their monthly event. Patterns were shared, gossip exchanged, and Helen's cookies were enjoyed by all with our usual cup of tea. We talked about knitting up some winter hats to give to the Russell School when the temperatures start to drop in the fall. We have children who come daily to school without warm winter wear so we think that this might be a good project for us to take on. Our next gathering will take place on Wednesday, July 13th at 2 pm here at the library. Everyone is invited to join us!

Thinking Ahead to Summer...

2011-05-26T15:29:00.001-04:00

Have fun reading this summer at the Byron G. Merrill Library. The library has a wide variety of children's books for all ages and skill levels. Whether reading for fun or working on a project for school over the summer, our staff can help your child find just the book they need. This is also a great time to bring your child in for their very own library card. For adults we have a large selection of paperback books for patrons to borrow or keep. They're just right for taking with you on your summer vacation to the beach!

Wherever you go you can take the library with you. Byron G. Merrill is a member of New Hampshire Downloadable Books, a website which allows library card holders to download audio books right to their computers, mp3 players, smartphones, and digital readers. All that's needed is an account set up by the library for you to be able to download the proper software and then browse for an audio book. Minimal technical skills are all that's needed to be able to enjoy all that's offered at "http://nh.lib.overdrive.com".

Spring reading continues for children who visit the library. Many of the specially-themed books have been checked out and enjoyed. Children are invited to read the books and check them off their list for a special treat at the end of the season.

Rumney resident Paul Beaulieu, will be offering free Tai Chi lessons on June 9th and 16th from 6:30 to 7:30 pm on the Common. This is an opportunity to work with a certified instructor and “try out” this centuries old exercise routine. (Paul can be reached at 603/502-8764 and/or taichipaul.beaulieu@gmail.com)
Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wednesday, June 8th, at 2 PM – all are welcome!

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, genealogy sources, interlibrary loan, and an internet- based foreign language program – stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone: 786-9520, Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com, Website: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

Tax Relief at last!

2011-05-25T09:55:00.002-04:00

It is time again for New Hampshire’s Low and Moderate Income Homeowners Property Tax Relief program and we at Byron G. Merrill Library can help. Last year more than 17,100 New Hampshire residents were recipients of this tax relief program, many of whom contacted their local library for assistance. These forms are not distributed through town offices and are not being mailed to last year’s recipients. In an effort to serve our community the BP-8 forms will be available through June 30 during library hours.

The Spring Reading Club continues with children signing out our spring-themed books and checking them off their lists for a treat at the end of the season. One book in particular is great reading right now as local flowers have finally started blooming. Secret in the Garden, inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic tale, is a peek-through picture book which will capture young imaginations as they look through it to find each secret.

Do you have a long commute to work? Would you like a little distraction from your daily chores? Audio books are a great way to multitask! We have a wide variety of books on CD and audio cassette available to our patrons. Whether you like classics such as Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca or recent best-sellers by John Grisham, an audio book will bring more enjoyment to your day.

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wednesday, June 8th, at 2 PM – all are welcome!

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, genealogy sources, interlibrary loan, and an internet- based foreign language program – stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone: 786-9520, Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com, Website: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

Library Happenings

2011-05-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

The Ladies Knitting Society and Yarn Club met yesterday here at the library. Helen brought some delicious treats and it was fun seeing the projects she has been working on - she has embroidered a tea towel and the stitching does not show on the back side!!!

Visitors to the Byron G. Merrill Library will be pleased to know of three new books that have been added to our shelves. "Friendship Bread" by Darien Gee is a novel about three women whose lives are changed by a simple act of kindness - an unexpected gift of homemade Amish Friendship Bread, a moving tale of triumph and hope. Debbie Macomber adds number eight to her Blossom Street series with " A Turn in the Road." This book tells the story of three women, three generations, on a cross-country road trip and their own emotional journeys along the way. Local writer, Jodi Picoult has released "Sing You Home", a complex morality tale told with honesty and dignity from the viewpoints of all three main characters. It's sure to be a hot-button topic for her fans. Whether you're looking for a new release or classic book, the Byron G. Merrill Library has just the book for you.

Spring reading continues for children who visit the library. Many of the specially-themed books have been checked out and enjoyed. Children are invited to read the books and check them off their list for a special treat at the end of the season.

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wednesday, June 8th, at 2 PM – all are welcome! Thank you Helen for our wonderful treats!

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, genealogy sources, interlibrary loan, and an internet- based foreign language program – stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone: 786-9520, Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com, Website: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

Magazines Galore!

2011-05-05T16:26:00.003-04:00

Are the cost of magazine subscriptions getting you down? Stop by the Byron G Merrill Library and read your favorite magazines at our spacious reading table. We carry a wide variety of magazines from Better Homes and Gardens and Country Living to National Wildlife and Smithsonian. The popular women’s magazines will give great ideas for spring cleaning, new recipes and more. Armchair explorers will enjoy National Wildlife for its focus on animals around the world and Yankee Magazine as a perfect guide to all things New England. Smithsonian will take you around the world with its treasures and artifacts featured in world-wide museums. All these magazines and more are great reading and all but the latest issues may be checked out.

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wednesday, May 11th, at 2 PM – all are welcome!

New Books from Baldacci and Woods!

2011-04-30T09:15:00.001-04:00

New to the Byron Merrill Library this week are "The Sixth Man" by David Baldacci and "Bel-Air Dead" by Stuart Woods. "The Sixth Man" is number five in a series featuring the characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell and follows the duo as they investigate an alleged serial killer. Without giving too much away, they encounter their first glitch when the lawyer of the case is found dead before their first meeting. In "Bel-Air Dead" best-selling author, Stuart Woods continues with the 20th Stone Barrington series. Stone is called out to California to help with a friend's stockholder meeting and finds himself in a high-stakes game with the rich and ambitious. If you are a David Baldacci or Stuart Woods fan, or if you are looking for a new suspense series, be sure to check out these newest editions.

Children are invited to be a part of our Spring Reading Club by choosing a book from our Spring-themed selection, then checking them off a reading list for a special treat at the end of the season. One of our spring books is "Ducklings and Pollywogs" by Ann Rockwell and illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell. This book tells the story of a little girl and her father as they visit the local pond. When the ice has melted a fascinating world unfolds among the wild things that live and grow there. Check out this book and more when you stop by!

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wed, May 11th at 2 - All are welcome!

2011-04-21T16:07:00.002-04:00

In addition to shelves filled with new books, we have a section devoted to very old books, books that were part of the library collection in 1909! We have a wonderful catalog entitled "Catalogue of the Books in the Byron G Merrill Public Library, Rumney, New Hampshire 1909" which lists the library's holdings in that year. It reminds us of the long history of our library and how grateful we are to Adelaide Merrill for giving the library building to the town of Rumney over one hundred years ago.
Umbrellas, boots and flowers decorate our area designated for children's spring-themed books. Among the display is the book entitled, "The Bear That Heard Crying" which tells the true story of little Sarah Whitcher who lived near Warren, NH in 1783. You will be enchanted by the storytelling of author, Natalie Kinsey-Warnocki and by the beautiful illustrations by Ted Rand. Children can check off this and other titles from their reading list cards for a special treat at the end of the season.
Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation on Wed, May 11th at 2 - All are welcome!

2011-04-03T16:31:00.002-04:00

The children are continuing to enjoy the large, new assortment of hardcover picture books from the Libri Foundation Grant and have had fun making their selections. Sam, Julia and Josiah particularly enjoyed 'Pigs to the Rescue' by John Himmelman. The pictures are cute and the pigs are all so helpful - a fun read! The librarians' favorite is 'Dog Loves Books' by Louise Yates. If you change the book store setting to a library it is just like us! Again, we thank everyone who supported our book sale which made this matching grant possible.
At last we feel that we can safely end our 'Winter Reading'. Certificates are ready and waiting for everyone who participated. Congratulations to Kieran who read sixteen books! We have selected twenty picture books for 'Spring Reading' so we invite everyone to join in and start feeling spring!

What's Happening...

2011-03-24T14:56:00.004-04:00

Our new books have arrived! Over 80 new picture books are now on display thanks to the Libri Foundation who matched our seed money 2-to-1! The Libri Foundation was established in 1989 for the sole purpose of helping rural libraries acquire new, quality, hardcover children's books they could not otherwise afford to buy. The Foundation has donated over $4,600,000 worth of new children's books to more than 3,000 libraries across the country. Thank you to everyone who supported our Old Home Day Book Sale which provided the seed money and to the Libri Foundation for their vision.

We are very pleased to offer the Mango Language System here at our library. Mango is an internet based program that you can use at home for learning foreign languages. Through membership in our local cooperative we are able to offer six languages to our patrons at no charge - French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The comments from users have all been positive and we have been told the service is similar to the popular, but expensive, Rosetta Stone system. Mango will be helpful for the traveler, the high school student needing extra support for the language they are studying or the independent-learner who forgot all the high school Spanish they thought they knew. A Rumney Public Library card and a password are required to use Mango. You are welcome to stop by and we will help you get started. Bonjour!

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet for tea and conversation next on Wed, April 13th at 2 - All are welcome!

We're in the News - March 3rd

2011-03-03T13:59:00.001-05:00

New Hampshire has a rich tradition in camping which extends back more than 100 years! Our state continues to be the location of some of the finest camps in America. Our beautiful mountains, lakes, forests and weather are ideally suited for every camping activity imaginable. Whether you are looking for a camp to attend or a summer job, you might like to check out www.nhcamps.org. All camps listed on this website are licensed by the State of NH and inspected annually by the NH Dept of Environmental Services.

Fans of James Patterson and Stuart Woods will be pleased to know that their latest books have arrived. 'Tick Tock' is #4 in Mr Patterson's Michael Bennett series - New York City is again in trouble and it is Detective Bennett to the rescue. 'Strategic Moves' is #19 in Stuart Woods' very popular Stone Barrington series - It is New York City again but this time it is the rich and powerful that need Mr Barrington's help. Call or email and we will put your name on the list.

New Hampshire Healthy Kids is a private, non-profit organization that provides access to low-cost and free health and dental coverage for NH's uninsured children. Cost is based on family income and size. If you might be interested you are welcome to stop in for more information.

Find Your Ancestors!

2011-01-12T14:52:00.002-05:00

Find your ancestors — at the Byron G Merrill Library!

How much do you know about your family history? Is your family new to New Hampshire, or have you been here for decades—or even for centuries? Where did they come from originally? When and where were they born? What did they do for a living?

Now you can find out.

Through a program initiated by the New Hampshire State Library, public libraries throughout the state, including the Byron G Merrill Library, now have access to Ancestry.com’s Library Edition, which includes more than 7,000 databases that deliver billions of records using censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, maps and more.

Ancestry.com’s Library Edition is available only at participating libraries; you cannot log in from home. Patrons with laptops can access the information on site at libraries with wireless internet access.

The service is easy to use: to get started, all you need is a name. Ancestry.com’s Library Edition then searches its databases to find everyone with that name, or even names that are similar. The more information you have—country, state, year of birth, etc.—the more Ancestry can filter its databases to help you narrow down your search.

You can learn not only about people’s birth, marriage and death dates, but also their jobs, how long they went to school, who lived with them and other interesting facts. You can even view enlistment records and, in some cases, find the streets they lived on or learn their phone numbers.

New content is always being added, so you can keep coming back to discover more about your ancestors—or even others.

2011-01-08T11:44:00.002-05:00

We are very pleased to offer the Mango Language System here at our library. Mango is an internet based program that you can use at home for learning foreign languages. Through membership in our local cooperative we are able to offer six languages to our patrons at no charge - French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The comments from users have all been positive and we have been told the service is similar to the popular, but expensive, Rosetta Stone system. We have never been able to keep up with the demand for foreign languages so we're hopeful this service suits the many requests we receive from our community. Mango will be helpful for the traveler, the high school student needing extra support for the language they are studying or the independent-learner who forgot all the high school Spanish they thought they knew. A Rumney Public Library card and a password are required to use Mango. You are welcome to stop by and we will help you get started. Bonjour!
T

Getting the Book You Want!

2010-12-30T14:51:00.002-05:00

Our #1 goal is to provide each patron with the book(s) he or she would like to read. When we do not have the book in our library we are often able to purchase the book for our collection or borrow it from another library in New Hampshire through 'Inter-Library Loan'. Two vans circulate throughout the state on a weekly basis dropping off and picking up various reading materials. It helps all of the libraries to do a better job serving their patrons. So if you do not see what you want on the shelves, just ask!

We're in the News!

2010-12-09T13:35:00.002-05:00

Plymouth Record for December 16th

We're packed to the rafters with Christmas books and movies for young and old alike. Check out one, two, or three and feel the Christmas spirit. Speaking of Christmas spirit, we thank everyone who came to our Holiday Open House and we thank Rhubarb Pie for entertaining us so nicely - so much talent in our little community!

We thank the Awana Christmas Carolers and their leaders from the Rumney Baptist Church who entertained us with a selection of holiday songs last Wednesday night - what a talented group! We hope that you will visit us at the library again very soon!

Fuel economy is an important factor when looking to purchase a vehicle. The annual publication, 2011 Fuel Economy Guide featuring fuel economy data for new model year cars, sport utility vehicles, and light trucks is now available here at the library. An electronic version can be found at www.fueleconomy.gov

Upcoming Events: The Byron G Merrill Knitting Society and Yarn Club will meet next on Wed, Jan 12th at 2 and Helen promises to provide us with some yummy refreshments.

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

2010-11-24T08:57:00.001-05:00

The library will be open 2-8, our regular hours, today. We will be closed on Thanksgiving Day and open again on Saturday, 10 until noon. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ancestry.com

2010-11-11T10:16:00.002-05:00

In honor of Veterans Day, Ancestry.com is offering free access to its
military records collection through Sunday:

http://www.ancestry.com/militaryrecords

Records span from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam.

Have fun!!!

We're in the News! (Oct 21, 2010)

2010-10-14T11:02:00.001-04:00

The Ladies Book Club will be meeting on November 4th to discuss The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Twelve copies have been given out and we have a few left. If you are interested you are welcome to pick one up. Author Annie Barrows will be speaking at Inter-Lakes High School in Meredith on Sunday, October 24th at 1pm. This event is free and is part of our Lakes Region Reads.

Our Christmas Club has started. The first assignment is to clear a shelf or two in your home for storing gifts and supplies - everything in one place. Stop in, sign up, and see how to set up your Christmas Control Journal.

Upcoming Events: Rumney Historical Society Program - The Home Front in Rumney during WWII Part 2 - Thur, Oct 21st at 7, Library Trustees Meeting - Wed, Oct 27th at 6:30, Ladies Book Club - Thur, Nov 4th at 7, Knitting Group - Wed, Nov 10th at 2

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com (You must register at the library to use the downloadable audio books and language programs)

We're in the News! (Oct 7, 2010)

2010-09-30T16:23:00.002-04:00

Our involvement with Lakes Region Reads continues - visit http://lakesregionreads.wordpress.com/ to see what is taking place this week. We have checked out a lot of copies of 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' and look forward to our discussion of this delightful novel with its WWII setting on Thursday, November 4th at 7. We are also looking forward to our next event at the Rumney Historical Museum on Thursday, October 21st at 7 when Marcia Schmidt Blaine will return to lead our forum as our residents share their memories of the WWII years here in Rumney. The program will open with a musical presentation of patriotic songs by members of the Wentworth Church choir. Please plan to join us. (This program is sponsored in part by the NH Humanities Council.)
Fall Festival Fun is up and running for our littlest readers. The children are encouraged to check out one of our new fall themed books on each visit. Each child has a special card to track their reading and will receive a certificate at the end.
Upcoming Events: Library Trustees - Wed, Oct 6th at 6:30, Knitting Group - Wed, Oct 13th at 2, Rumney Historical Society Program - The Home Front in Rumney during WWII Part 2 - Thur, Oct 21st at 7, Ladies Book Club - Thur, Nov 4th at 7

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com (You must register at the library to use the downloadable audio books and language programs)

We're in the News! (Sept 30 2010)

2010-09-23T11:55:00.002-04:00

The Byron G Merrill Public Library is proud to be participating in Lakes Region Reads 2010, our first ever One Book, One Community program.To learn more about Lakes Region Reads, visit our website:http://lakesregionreads.wordpress.com/
We're joining eighteen other communities throughout the lakes region in encouraging everyone to read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", a delightful and moving novel set in the Channel Islands during World War II. Stop by the library and pick up your free copy this week! A discussion is planned for Thursday, November 4th at 7.
With over forty events scheduled throughout the Lakes Region in the next several weeks leading up to Veterans Day, there's sure to be something for everyone. Our grand kick-off event is coming up soon at the Wright Museum of WWII History in Wolfeboro on October 2. Special guests Mike Pride and Meg Heckman will lead a discussion and will be sharing some wonderful stories from their book, "We Went to War: New Hampshire Remembers". Tickets for free admission are available from the library.
Our big event, The Home Front during WWII, was held last week at the Rumney Historical Museum and was well attended. Our special guest, Marcia Schmidt Blaine, described life in our area during the early 1940s. A second program is scheduled for Thursday, October 21st at 7 also at the museum. Come share your memories or any stories that you heard about life in Rumney during the war years. (Both programs are sponsored by the Rumney Historical Society and the Byron G Merrill Library and are funded in part by a grant from the NH Humanities Council.)
How nice to go to the mailbox and receive a present! Fishing Without a Hook, Catching Moments at Work, a book of poetry by Nancy Puglisi from PSU arrived today.It "catches moments of experiences and situations that occur in many workplaces as well as the challenges of commuting and the struggles of searching for appropriate work-life balance". The first poem begins, "We want - To work without a hook - But hooked we are - To…" I will let you discover the rest! Thank you Nancy!

This fall, on Saturday, October 2nd, the University of New Hampshire is holding the first ever open house for its Marine Program. Each of the three major marine research laboratories will be open to the public from 10 am until 3 pm offering a unique opportunity to meet and talk with scientists about their work, tour labs and research vessels, and get hands on experience with seaweed, horseshoe crabs, wave tanks and a host of things marine. The UNH Marine Docents will also be part of the day, presenting programs and answering questions. The open house is free and open to all. It will take place, rain or shine.The Coastal Marine Research Facility is located at 25 Wentworth Road in New Castle NH. Learn more at www.unh.edu/knowthecoast

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com (You must register at the library to use the downloadable audio books and language programs)

Smithsonian, Sept 2010, is available!

2010-09-14T14:20:00.002-04:00

The September 2010 issue of Smithsonian magazine has arrived with several articles to spark ones' interest:

The Art of Resilience
Haiti's devastating earthquake is a source of inspiriration for many of the island's surviving painters and sculptors.

Thinking Like a Chimpanzee
Tetsuro Matsuzawa has spent 30 years studying our closest primate relative to better understand the human mind.

The Shock of War
World War I troops were the first to be diagnosed with shell shock, an injury - by any name- still wreaking havoc.

Reinventing Rio
The dazzling but tarnished Brazilian city gets a makeover as it prepares for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games

We're in the News - August 26th

2010-08-19T14:32:00.001-04:00

Old Home Day 2010 takes on new meaning with the news we received this morning of the passing of long-time Rumney resident Roger Winsor. We were so pleased to see him honored last week as the Grand Marshall of the Old Home Day Parade and how he seemed to enjoy the occasion. Roger was always a welcome visitor here at the library and at the Rumney Historical Society events and will be very much missed by all of us. Our thoughts and prayers go out to June and the rest of his family at this time.

What a great time we all had at Old Home Day this year. Gail and her committee did it all just right - beautiful weather, a wonderful parade, the delightful music of the Baker River Band, a full schedule of activities, and the colorful fireworks at the end. Our booksale was very well attended and the children will be enjoying some new books in the very near future. A big and very sincere thank you to the entire committee that put together such a special day for us.

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

We are in the News! (Plymouth Record on 8/12/10)

2010-08-05T10:48:00.004-04:00

Old Home Day is just around the corner, the weekend we have all been looking forward to for so long. Our Annual Book Sale will start at 9 am and run until noon. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will set up tables outside on the lawn with plenty of books to tempt you. We have received a lot of donations this year for the sale so it should be a good one. Proceeds will go towards a matching grant for new hardcover children's books.

The library will be open from 10am to 3 pm on Old Home Day. You are welcome to stop by, peruse the old scrapbooks and enjoy a glass of lemonade. We enjoy seeing everyone.

We are looking for some old photographs from the early 1940's for a project we are working on jointly with the Rumney Historical Society. Our program theme this year is 'Rumney - The Home Front during WWII.' We hope to find some photos which will show Rumney during this time as well as some of the folks who were living here. Can you help?

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

Plymouth Record - August 5, 2010

2010-07-29T14:17:00.002-04:00

We have just one more week until Old Home Day and the Library Book Sale. The sale will start at promptly at 9 am and run until noon. We will have tables set up on the lawn filled with books and videos looking for new homes. Won't you stop by and take a look? Proceeds from this annual event will be put towards a matching grant for children's books. The library will be open from 10 until 3 on Old Home Day and we will set out some of the old scrapbooks to peruse. Stop by, say hello and enjoy a glass of lemonade.

We are looking for some old photographs from the early 1940's for a project we are working on jointly with the Rumney Historical Society. Our program theme this year is 'Rumney - The Home Front during WWII.' We hope to find some photos which will show Rumney during this time as well as some of the folks who were living here. Can you help?

Attention students - get a jump start on your language courses before school starts by trying out our on-line language programs. It is fun and it is easy to get started. Email us and we will send you your password. French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese - we have them for you.

Daniel Silva's 'The Rembrandt Affair', the 10th novel in the suspenseful Gabriel Allon series and a great summer read, just arrived. Who will be the first to claim it?

Upcoming Event: The Rumney Knitters will meet on Wednesday, August 11th at 2. It is always fun to see what everyone is working on. You are invited to stop by for that hour and enjoy a visit along with a cup of tea and a sweet - a pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon.

News from BGM

2010-07-22T15:59:00.001-04:00

Our young patrons are reading up a storm this summer. Two of the children earned free tickets to a Fishercats baseball game and will be taking their Dads on August 3rd. The readers will be invited out on the field at mid-game and recognized for their reading achievement.Several other children are trying to figure out the mystery of 'The 39 Clues'. Our little ones are part of the 'Ladybug Club' and tracking the books they read. It has been a fun summer for all of us.

Our computers are busy most of the time. In addition to our regular users we have grandparents here with their grandchildren. As one patron says, 'I am getting an education', as we learn all sorts of new games.

Two more weeks until Old Home Day and the library book sale. We are busy putting together boxes of discarded books and videos so we will be ready for the big day.We are applying for a grant for new children's books and the profit from the book sale will be put towards the matching part of the grant.

Upcoming Events: Wednesday, August 11th at 2 - Rumney Knitters. A dozen of our ladies took up the challenge and have knitted liners for helmets to give our soldiers comfort and warmth during the winter months in Afghanistan. "We enjoy knitting and supporting our troops", said one of the members of our group. As of last month we have sent fifty-eight of the liners to the troops and we plan to continue this project into the fall. (We would appreciate monetary contributions from our non-knitting friends to put towards the cost of the yarn - we use the 'superwash wool' which is more expensive than regular yarn.) The group, which includes Helen Keniston, June Winsor, and Nancy Kolb, gets together the second Wednesday of each month at two for an hour of knitting, visiting, and enjoying a cup of tea and a sweet. Our ladies are good bakers as well as knitters. Won't you come join us? No experience needed!

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

Book Review: Before You Know Kindness

2010-07-13T09:29:00.004-04:00

Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian (2004)

For ten summers, the Seton family --- all three generations --- met at their country home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, to spend a week together playing tennis, badminton, and golf, and savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season. I thought that I would really like these people but, with the exception of 10-year-old Willow, I did not.

In the eleventh summer, everything changed for the Seton family when a hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, and led to a nightmarish accident.

Before You Know Kindness is a family saga that is timely in its examination of some of the most important issues of our era, and timeless in its exploration of the strange and unexpected places where we find love.

As he did with his earlier masterpiece, Midwives, Chris Bohjalian has written a novel that is rich with unforgettable characters --- and absolutely riveting in its page-turning intensity, NOT. Hope some of our readers will disagree with me.

The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg

2010-06-24T12:54:00.002-04:00

From the beloved bestselling author of Home Safe and The Year of Pleasures comes a new novel about men and women reconnecting with one another, and themselves, at their fortieth high school reunion. As one time classmates meet up over the course of a weekend, they discover things that will irrevocably affect the rest of their lives. Ms Berg deftly weaves together stories of roads taken and not taken, choices made and opportunities missed, and the possibilities of second chances.

Plymouth Record 6/24/10

2010-06-18T18:12:00.003-04:00

The NH Community College System is offering on-line courses to high school juniors and seniors. Students may take these courses for college credits while still in high school. Each course costs $100, plus the cost of textbook(s) and, at the end of the course, the student may request a college transcript showing the credit(s) they have earned which is transferrable to most colleges and universities. Students may enroll for the fall semester through August 25th. Go to www.ccsnh.edu/estart for additional information and enrollment.

Book Club News: Our 3 to 6 year-olds are invited to join the Ladybug Club - Read all 10 Ladybug books and then join us for a special Summer Celebration on Saturday, July 24th at 10 am - Bookies and Cookies for all our little ones. Passports are ready for our 39 Clues Book Club. Attention baseball fans - Our Fans of the Fisher Cats Book Club starts this week - don't be late.

New books include 'Innocent' by Scott Turow, 'Deliver Us From Evil' by David Baldacci, and 'Caught' by Harlan Coben.

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program - stop by and ask. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

It is Happening at the Library

2010-05-27T14:01:00.001-04:00

It has been a busy week as we have been moving books around. The good news for mystery/suspense lovers is that you will have a whole new bookcase of your favorite titles displayed prominently. Let us know what you think of the new arrangement.

Our 'Pajama Party' was a big success. We read 'Sleep Bear Sleep', 'My Shadow' by Robert Louis Stevenson, and 'Pajama Time' by Sandra Boynton. We liked 'Pajama Time' so much we actually read it twice! After cookies and milk everyone scooted home to bed. We are planning another PJ Party so watch for the date.

Did you know that you can access the Concord Monitor and the Manchester Union Leader here at the library or at home? This is a service provided by the NH State Library. Interested in using this service? Let us know.

Upcoming Events: The Rumney Knitters will meet on Wednesday, June 9th at 2 here at the library - Come join us!

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

It is Happening at the Library

2010-05-13T13:20:00.002-04:00

Disturbed by your electrical bill??? You are welcome to borrow a 'Cut the Carbon' kit from the library. The kit includes a 'Kill a Watt Energy Detector' that can be plugged into any household appliance and show how much energy is being used, instructions, and a worksheet to calculate energy costs. Energy efficiency advice and tips are included in a booklet you can keep.

Interested in downloading audio books onto your computer, ipod, or mp3 player??? We will be explaining how this all works on Wednesday, May 26th at 7:15.

Upcoming Events: The Ladies Book Club will be discussing 'Mao's Last Dancer' by Li Cunxin tonight, May 20th at 6:30 at the library. Pajama Time will take place on Wednesday, May 26th at 6:30. Children ages three to six are invited to come in their pjs and bring a favorite stuffed animal for a half hour of cookies and milk and a few night-time stories. The Rumney Knitters will meet on Wednesday, June 9th at 2. Members of our community are welcome to take part in any of our events.

The Byron G Merrill Library offers books, magazines, dvds, videos, downloadable audio books, interlibrary loan, and an internet-based language program. Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com

The Best Love Story of 2010!

2010-04-22T14:55:00.002-04:00

The most romantic hero of 2010 is a stuffy sexagenarian who first appears wearing a bright-pink floral robe. (It belonged to his late wife.)
That may not sound promising, but I assure you Helen Simonson's dryly delightful debut novel, 'Major Pettigrew's Last Stand', is one of the most endearing love stories I've read in a long time.
After the death of his brother, Bertie, the major finds himself unexpectedly unmoored. He strikes up a friendship with Mrs. Ali - a local widow whose tweedy neighbors don't even see her because she is Pakistani and runs a shop. But as the major and Mrs. Ali bond over Kipling and the loss of their spouses, he finds himself forced to consider that his village - Edgecombe St. Mary - may not be the staunch remnant of right thinking that he's loved all this years.
With her dry wit and incisive detailing, Simonson skewers village life as surely as Jane Austen satirized the 19th century. Fans of Austen and Alenxander McCall Smith should adore 'Major Pettigrew's last Stand'. My only real concern now is: How long will it take Simonson to write her next novel?
(Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews fiction for the Christian Science Monitor.)

Watch 'Small Island' on PBS this Sunday

2010-04-17T09:53:00.002-04:00

Small Island premieres Sunday, April 18, 2010 on MASTERPIECE CLASSIC.
When Hortense (Naomie Harris) and her husband Gilbert (David Oyelowo)
leave Jamaica for the promised land of post war Britain, their dreams
are tested by hard realities. In the small-minded country, their saving
grace is Queenie (Ruth Wilson), married to the kind but dull
Bernard (Benedict Cumberbatch). Bonded by high hopes and
broken dreams, these four lives fuse together in a hopeful story based
on Andrea Levy's award-winning novel. (Two episodes; 90 minutes each)

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

2010-03-24T13:42:00.002-04:00

Emotionally powerful from beginning to end, 'House Rules, looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way and fails those who don't. This is not my favorite of her books but it was interesting just the same.

How Sweet It Is!

2010-03-17T17:42:00.002-04:00

The change in seasons in northern New England signals one of our favorite traditions -- maple sugaring. Take a drive anywhere in the region right now and you can spot the signs: old metal buckets hanging from a cluster of maple trees, a complex web of plastic tubing snaking through a forest, and smoke spiraling from a sugar shack tucked into the corner of a neighbor's yard.

It's sugaring time, a wonderful season -- and reason -- to reflect on a traditional art form that has been a hallmark of our northern culture since Native Americans first called this region home. Why do traditional arts continue to be important? They connect us to the land and to the generations of people who relied on practical skills to support their families, generate income, and bring a touch of beauty into their lives -- whether it was quilting, weaving, fiddling or maple sugaring. When traditional arts are practiced today they include a hands-on aspect that is appealing in an era when cell phones, instant messaging, emails and eblasts (like this one!) more and more often take the place of face-to-face communication and interaction. In a word, people are hungry for authentic experiences.

For instance, over 100 people visited The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem last Saturday to enjoy horse-drawn wagon rides, learn about the history of maple sugaring, and sample the sweet syrup produced in the on-site sugar house. Estate manager Nigel Manley said people were pleased to find that they were expected -- and encouraged -- to be participants rather than observers during their visit. "They were amazed that their children could drill a hole in a tree during their visit," he says.

Cultural experiences also fuel the economy. Gail McWilliam Jellie, Director of the Division of Agricultural Development, NH Department of Agriculture, says that maple sugaring adds $3-3.5 million to New Hampshire's economy and is vitally important to the state's agricultural diversification.

So, the next time you see smoke rising from a sugar shack, remember that the folks inside are not only producing a sweet and much-loved product, but that they are also carrying on an important cultural tradition and contributing to the vitality of the North Country.

Want to experience the age-old art of maple sugaring yourself? The Rocks welcomes visitors for an extended stretch during maple sugar season (March 20, 21, 27, 28, and April 3) and on the 27th and 28th joins 64 sugar houses around the state for NH Maple Weekend, as they open their doors to visitors for tours, tastings, and special activities. Visit nhmapleproducers.com for a complete listing.

While the Arts Alliance hasn't yet ventured into the maple sugaring business, we do care deeply about offering culturally authentic and interactive experiences for North Country residents, such as recent appearances by 5th generation Franco-American fiddler Patrick Ross, Irish harper Regina Delaney, and Yankee storyteller Becky Rule. This week, the traditional songs and dances of Mexico are being presented by guest artist Veronica Robles as part of a multi-school residency. You can catch her public performance -- a Mariachi concert -- at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 18, at the Lancaster Town Hall. She's also offering two classes featuring traditional and contemporary Mexican dance, on Tuesday evening at 7 at the White Mountain School in Bethlehem and on Friday at 7 at the Jeanne Limmer Dance Studio in North Conway. Get all the details at www.aannh.org.

Meanwhile, warm wishes for an easy mud season, another North Country springtime tradition!

Eileen Alexander (Arts Alliance of Northern NH)

Author Barbara Kingsolver

2010-03-04T13:27:00.002-05:00

Perhaps it is time to take another look at our collection of novels by Barbara Kingsolver known for her richly drawn characters and tangled cultural crossings.

Kingsolver's newest novel, the first in nine years, is entitled The Lacuna - it tells of the short, extraordinary life of writer Harrison Shepherd. Raised in and shaped by America and Mexico, Harrison discovers that his dual national identity is both a blessing and a curse. Do we make history or does history make us?

The Prodigal Summer (2000) is a trio of linked Appalachian tales about the birds and the bees - city girl marries into country family, stubborn codger is sweet on hippie chick, coyote researcher falls for coyote hunter... What's the difference between lust and love?

The Poisonwood Bible (1998) tells of a white missionary and his family who arrive in the Belgian Congo on the brink of its independence in 1959. The pastor's blind determination to 'enlighten' a Congolese village has awful results for both the native people and his own family. How do you atone for the sins of the father?

In The Bean Trees (1988), a Kentucky girl heads to Arizona, adopts a Cherokee girl and falls for a taken immigrant. Her eye-opening travels and her beloved's ordeal make her 'feel like a foreigner' in her own country. When do you have the right to love somebody who is not yours?

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (Review by Nancy Pearl)

2010-02-06T09:33:00.001-05:00

With good books, it really is better to read them late, long after everyone else you know already has, than to never have read them at all. At least that’s how I felt when I finished Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, which got (as I remember) wonderful reviews in 2009, and which my friend Anne Wyckoff just adored (and I always listen when she recommends something for me to read). It’s a supremely quiet and strangely affecting novel, set in the 1950s. Toibin’s subjects are love, and family, and obligation (to yourself and those you love and how to decide which is the more important). It’s one of those books that you have to read slowly, in order to savor the strength and the powerful simplicity of the writing. I had a weirdish experience while I was reading it, almost as though I had entered a large and empty gothic cathedral, where the atmosphere was hushed and all sounds were muted. Yet I realized that almost everything of importance occurs within those four walls, just as so much of what’s important in Tóibín’s lyrical novel is never said at all: almost everything that matters is written, if you will, between the lines on the pages.

I have to tell you, though, that the plot doesn’t sound prepossessing (maybe that’s why I took so long to pick it up and read it). At the suggestion of a priest coming home from his Brooklyn parish to Ireland for a visit, Eilis Lacey leaves her family and friends in her small Irish town and moves to Brooklyn, where she lives in a boarding house with other young women (all Irish), all watched over (and disapproved of) by “Ma” Kehoe, works days in a department store, and attends night school to get a degree in accounting. Along the way, she meets a young Italian man and falls in love with him.

But it’s Tóibín’s economy of language and his uncanny ability to bring to life both Eilis’s home in Ireland and her adopted city that make this novel so very special.

The Big Read is Coming!!!

2010-02-03T13:11:00.002-05:00

The Byron G Merrill Library is pleased to announce that during March 2010 we will be part of The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a statewide project of the Center for the Book at the NH State Library which will include hundreds of “Big Read” events throughout the state.

All residents of Rumney are invited to participate. The Ladies Book Club will be sponsoring several events. The first, on February 24th at 7 pm, will serve as a ‘kick-off’ and will be an introduction to the book and its historical setting

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) that gives communities the opportunity to come together and read, discuss and celebrate one of 30 selections from U.S. and world literature. In New Hampshire, the program is organized by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library, which received a grant to coordinate the statewide effort. The Center for the Book chose to focus on To Kill a Mockingbird because of its relevant themes of standing up for what is right, relationships between the races, courage, justice and more.

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is one of 268 nonprofits nationwide—including libraries, municipalities and arts, culture and science organizations—to receive a grant to host a Big Read project in this grant round. In 2007, its program “The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads Fahrenheit 451” was only one of two statewide Big Read programs focusing on a single book.

For more information about the Byron G Merrill Library, visit our blog at www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com. For more information about The Big Read: New Hampshire Reads To Kill a Mockingbird, visit www.BigReadNH.org.

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library was established in 2003 to celebrate and promote reading, books, literacy and the literary heritage of New Hampshire, and to highlight the role that reading and libraries play in enriching the lives of the people of the Granite State. It is an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

The NEA, which designed The Big Read as a way to restore reading to the center of American culture, presents the program in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Support for the Big Read is provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Transportation for The Big Read is provided by Ford.

Katherine Wentworth by D E Stevenson

2010-01-23T10:29:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading 'Katherine Wentworth' written by D E Stevenson in 1964. It is a delightful story of a widow in Scotland with three lively children. The description of the cottage they visit in the highlands is wonderful - I want to go there!

Parent Recognition Month

2009-12-23T18:11:00.002-05:00

February is Parent Recognition Month. The NH Children's Trust Fund (NHCTF)is looking to honor and recognize parents throughout communities in NH and would like to include parents from Rumney. If you know of some special parents(or grandparents, aunts, uncles, foster parents or adoptive parents) that should be honored, take a few minutes and write a paragraph or two on why you believe they should be nominated. Please contact Julie Day at jday@nhctf.org with questions or nominations. Nominations need to be submitted by January 15th, 2010.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

We gave ourselves an early Christmas present with the addition of three National Book Award for 2009 winning books. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann was the fiction winner - In this book, McCann offers different perspectives on Phillippe Petit's famed high-wire walk between the World Trade Center twin towers. The nonfiction winning book is The First Tycoon, The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T J Stiles - This biography tells the story of Cornelius Vanderbilt who established a transportation empire that would sustain our fledling nation and lay the foundation of modern capitalism. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose won the award for literature for young people. Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of a major, yet little-known, civil rights figure whose story provides a fresh perspective on the Montgomery bus protest of 1955-56.

We will be maintaining our regular hours during the Christmas/New Year season. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

New Book! Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer

2009-12-09T14:45:00.001-05:00

With Champlain's Dream, historian David Hackett Fischer reconstructs what little is known of Samuel de Champlain's life and his vision for New France in North America. Not only was he an explorer, cartographer, and soldier, but he was also the administrator of the French settlement. His efforts included befriending Indian tribes (which angered those tribes' enemies) and trying to keep the peace. While he was tolerant of Protestants within New France, he also imposed an autocratic rule keeping tight rein over the settlers. Champlain's Dream has received mostly positive reviews with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saying, "Champlain's Dream is an important addition to the debate over the European settlement of the Americas, and an inspiring and bittersweet 'what if' in the history of colonial subjugation and exploitation."

Snowing but we are here!

2009-12-09T13:58:00.002-05:00

Yes, we are open! The snow is sure coming down and my husband is very happy.

New ! John Irving's New Book!

2009-12-01T16:18:00.002-05:00

Dear Readers

Last Night in Twisted River is my twelfth novel. Only once before in The World According to Garp which was my fourth novel have I been able to insert the title of the novel into the last sentence. I don't always try to do that; I don't force it. But it’s usually an idea in the back of my mind, and if it works, I don't hesitate to do it.

I always begin with a last sentence; then I work my way backwards, through the plot, to where the story should begin. The last sentence I began with this time is as follows: He felt that the great adventure of his life was just beginning as his father must have felt, in the throes and dire circumstances of his last night in Twisted River. And there’s the title, waiting for you at the end of the story Last Night in Twisted River.

I was born and grew up in New Hampshire. My uncle was in the logging business, in the northern part of the state. When I was a teenager, there were big log drives on the Ammonoosuc and Androscoggin rivers.
My cousin Bayard is still a timberland man; he manages the Kennett Company in Conway, New Hampshire. He has taught me a lot about logging and lumber. When I was a teenager, my cousin Bayard also taught me how to walk on floating logs. (I wasn’t very good at it; Bayard was better.)

Part One of Last Night in Twisted River starts with a log drive in Coos County, New Hampshire, in 1954.
John Irving

Smithsonian Magazine

2009-11-23T14:48:00.003-05:00

The December issue of Smithsonian arrived today - Lots of interesting articles including one entitled 'Hallelujah'. Handel's Messiah, a musical rite of the holiday season, still awes listeners 250 years after the composer's death. His music is certainly a part of our Christmas celebration.

This magazine subscription is a gift to the people of Rumney from Judith Knight of Tilton.

National Wildlife has arrived

2009-11-21T10:45:00.004-05:00

the December/January 2010 issue of National Wildlife arrived today and has several interesting articles.

'Birding in a War-torn Nation' tells how our US soldiers are cooperating with local scientists and conservationists in an effort to protect Iraq's rich wildlife heritage.

Photography buffs will be interested in Deborah Richie Oberbillig's article entiitled 'Blindsiding Wildlife with a Camera'. At a number of refuges and other locations across the country, permanent blinds provide photo enthusiasts with unobstructed opportunities to get close to wildlife. Two of these blinds are located in eastern Massachusetts.

This issue showcases the 2009 photo contest winners - what beautiful pictures!

Thank you to Joy Sobetzer for giving the Byron G Merrill Library a subscription to this magazine.

The Ladybug Books are IN!

2009-11-19T14:28:00.001-05:00

The Ladybug Picture Book Award is designed to promote early literacy and honor the best in recent children's picture books. A committee of children's librarians from around the state selects 10 picture book titles early in the year. Then, during November, New Hampshire children from preschoolers to those in third grade choose the award winner. The winning picture book is announced at the end of the year. The author and illustrator of the winning book will receive a crystal award created by Pepi Herrmann Crystal.

To be considered for nomination, a picture book must meet the following criteria:

* be published within the last three years
* be in print
* have either the book's author or illustrator from the US
* possess strong child appeal
* have artistic quality with text that supports the illustrations
* not be a title previously nominated

Muriel is having a Birthday!

2009-11-11T13:39:00.002-05:00

Our former Director, Muriel Kenneson, will be celebrating her 90th birthday this year! Family and friends are invited to Gateway Alliance Church in Plymouth on Saturday, November 21st from 2 until 4 to help honor this very special lady. She would certainly enjoy a shower of cards to help mark this special time.

We Look Spiffy!

2009-11-05T13:41:00.002-05:00

We certainly look spiffy here at the library! The floors in the office and Young Adult/Computer room look wonderful. Bob Caristi of Bristol sanded the floors and then applied four coats of a tough new finish. Most of the furniture is back in place and we are waiting a few more days before laying down the rugs. Stop by and take a look. Thank you to Sam and Griffin Coes for moving furniture and to the Reed girls for all their very much needed dusting.

We have been busy this year updating our patron information. As of November 1st, 196 people have joined or renewed their library membership. We look forward to seeing the remaining Rumney residents during the months of November and December.

Rachel Funk will be making a guest appearance on Saturday, November 21st. She will be leading a story time at 10 am and is looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces.

Sadly, it is amazing how many of us have been affected by suicide and how few have connected with fellow survivors and support. We have received several copies of the 2009 NH Survivors of Suicide Newsletter which is written for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. You are welcome to stop in and pick up a copy or go to the website at www.theConnectProject.org . Saturday, November 21st is the 11th Annual National Survivors of Suicide Day with gatherings planned in Concord, Durham, Lancaster, Merrimack, Portsmouth, and Westmoreland. For additional information you may call 1-800-242-6264 and you may also watch the webcast online from your home computer. Register by going to www.afsp.org

New books include True Blue by David Baldacci, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, and Her Fearful Symmetry by The Time Traveler's Wife author, Audrey Niffenegger.

Upcoming Events: Story Time - Saturday, Nov 21st at 10am; Ladies Book Club - Wednesday, Dec 2nd at 6:30; Knitters - Wednesday, Dec 9th at 2. All of our events are open to all.

Located at 10 Buffalo Road, the library is open on Wednesdays 2-8, Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5, and Saturdays 10-12. Phone:786-9520 - Email: rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com - Web: www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com See you at the library, Susan.

Change in Hours

2009-09-15T17:24:00.001-04:00

The open hours at the Byron G Merrill Library are changing! Our new hours will be: Wednesdays 2pm until 8pm, Thursdays 10am until noon and 2pm until 5pm, and Saturdays 10am until noon. As we have become more involved with 'Interlibrary Loans' we have decided to change our schedule to fit the schedule of the book loans. Requested books will arrive early on Wednesday and thus be quickly available for pickup on either Wednesday or Thursday .We feel that this will help us to offer more prompt service to the readers of Rumney. The new hours will begin on Wednesday, September 23rd.

‘Interlibrary Loan’, administered by the State Library, is a wonderful program that supplements our offerings by allowing our patrons to borrow books from other libraries in the state of New Hampshire. We regularly request and receive books and occasionally even loan a book to others. Our patrons may request a book when they are in the library or can email a request to rumneylibrary@roadrunner.com . Let us know if this system is working for you.

A New Kind of Library

2009-09-05T12:38:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.
Cushing Academy embraces a digital future

ASHBURNHAM - There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings. There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and well-manicured fields. There’s even a clock tower with a massive bell that rings for special events.

Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.

Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.

“Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,’’ said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.’’

Not everyone on campus is sold on Tracy’s vision.

They worry about an environment where students can no longer browse rows of voluptuous books, replete with glossy photographs, intricate maps, and pages dog-eared by generations of students. They worry students will be less likely to focus on long works when their devices are constantly interrupting them with e-mail and instant messages. They also worry about a world where sweat-stained literature is deemed as perishable as all the glib posts on Facebook or Twitter.
Page 2 of 2 --

Liz Vezina, a librarian at Cushing for 17 years, said she never imagined working as the director of a library without any books.
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Cushing library goes bookless
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Cushing library goes bookless

“It makes me sad,’’ said Vezina, who hosts a book club on campus dubbed the Off-line Readers and has made a career of introducing students to books. “I’m going to miss them. I love books. I’ve grown up with them, and there’s something lost when they’re virtual. There’s a sensual side to them - the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something really special.’’

Alexander Coyle, chairman of the history department, is a self-described “gadget freak’’ who enjoys reading on Amazon’s Kindle, but he has always seen libraries and their hallowed content as “secular cathedrals.’’

“I wouldn’t want to ever get rid of any of my books at home,’’ he said. “I like the feel of them too much. A lot us are wondering how this changes the dignity of the library, and why we can’t move to increase digital resources while keeping the books.’’

Tracy and other administrators said the books took up too much space and that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to give their collection - aside from a few hundred children’s books and valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries.

“We see the gain as greater than the loss,’’ said Gisele Zangari, chairwoman of the math department, who like other teachers has plans for all her students to do their class reading on electronic books by next year. “This is the start of a new era.’’

Cushing is one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books.

“I’m not aware of any other library that has done this,’’ said Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association, a Chicago-based organization that represents the nation’s libraries.

He said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren’t free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There’s also the question of the durability of electronic readers.

“Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don’t see how that need is going to be met,’’ Fiels said. “Books are not a waste of space, and they won’t be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.’’

William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he published at Harvard called “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal,’’ called the changes at Cushing “radical’’ and “a tremendous loss for students.’’

“There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books,’’ he said. “There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.’’

Yet students at Cushing say they look forward to the new equipment, and the brave new world they’re ushering in.

Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. She’s not alone. School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children’s books.

“When you hear the word ‘library,’ you think of books,’’ Alliy said. “But very few students actually read them. And the more we use e-books, the fewer books we have to carry around.’’

Jemmel Billingslea, an 18-year-old senior, thought about the prospect of a school without books. It didn’t bother him.

“It’s a little strange,’’ he said. “But this is the future.’’

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Smithsonian Magazine, Sept Issue

2009-08-25T14:40:00.002-04:00

The September issue of Smithsonian magazine arrived today with all sorts of interesting articles - Frances Mayes, author of a celebrated memoir about life in Tuscany explores the storied cities of Krakow and Gdansk in Poland - Journalist Paul Theroux fulfills a a boyhood dream and drives across America in the spirit of Kerouac, Steinbeck and other poets of the open road

Pulitizer Prize Fiction

2009-08-22T09:36:00.002-04:00

We've just started a new project! We're finding and labeling books that have won the Pulitzer Prize for best fiction. The Pulitizer Prize was established in 1904 by Joseph Pulitizer, a 19th century journalist. Administered by Columbia School of Journalism, the Pulitizer Prize is awarded each year "for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." We are displaying these books in the main lobby.

Book Review: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

2009-08-15T11:18:00.002-04:00

"Following Bridge of Sighs—a national best seller hailed by The Boston Globe as “an astounding achievement” and “a masterpiece”—Richard Russo gives us the story of a marriage, and of all the other ties that bind, from parents and in-laws to children and the promises of youth.

Griffin has been tooling around for nearly a year with his father’s ashes in the trunk, but his mother is very much alive and not shy about calling on his cell phone. She does so as he drives down to Cape Cod, where he and his wife, Joy, will celebrate the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. For Griffin this is akin to driving into the past, since he took his childhood summer vacations here, his parents’ respite from the hated Midwest. And the Cape is where he and Joy honeymooned, in the course of which they drafted the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their lives together that’s now thirty years old and has largely come true. He’d left screenwriting and Los Angeles behind for the sort of New England college his snobby academic parents had always aspired to in vain; they’d moved into an old house full of character; and they’d started a family. Check, check and check.

But be careful what you pray for, especially if you manage"

Old Home Day, 2009

2009-08-13T11:30:00.003-04:00

Old Home Day has come and gone - what a wonderful day it was for all of us. We enjoyed having friends, old and new, stop by to say hello. The scrapbooks received a lot of attention as well as Nancy MacDonald's beautiful photos of Rumney.

Thank you to everyone who helped make our book sale a wonderful success. Thank you to Toni and Anne who spent the day tending the sale - it was scheduled to end at noon but we kept very busy until after three! Thank you, too, to my daughter who came to help and to the gang who helped set up Friday night - Tom, Pat, Mike, Patrick, Adam, and Jim. And, of course, everyone who helped to clean up.

Our farewell party for Rachel was very well attended. Thank you to Pat for getting the cake here and to the Reed Family for serving the cake and ice cream. I was very sad to have Rachel leave but know that her new job will be a wonderful challenge for her - I look forward to visiting her soon in Stowe, Vermont.

Baker River Water Quality Workshop

2009-05-26T14:33:00.000-04:00

The Rumney Natural Resources Network will again offer a workshop to assess the diversity of insect life, a measure of water quality, in the Baker River in Rumney. Led by Rumney resident and PSU Professor Emeritus Larry Cushman, we will gather, categorize, and analyze aquatic insects in a stretch of the Baker River. Participants will meet at 9 AM on Saturday, June 13 (rain date: 9 AM, Sunday, June 14. We will be wading on rocky river bottom, so wear appropriate footwear - all other equipment is provided.

Organized by the Rumney Natural Resources Network, this workshop was well-received by thirteen hearty souls who participated in June two years ago. This, the 10th workshop offered in our home town, in addition to teaching participants how to identify aquatic insects, will also use results of the study to determine water quality at the site, of use to the Baker River Watershed Association to which Professor Cushman belongs.

This year’s outing will again be held at the State Rest Area on Rte. 25 in West Rumney. Families with kids welcome. Please, no pets! Signs for the workshop will be posted at the rest area.

For additional information, contact Ted Giebutowski at tedg99@gmail.com, or Northam Parr at oblio786@roadrunner.com.

Rumney Baker River Recreation and Conservation Area

2009-05-14T15:39:00.000-04:00

The town of Rumney welcomes all citizens to visit and enjoy the new river front property purchased by the town. The property was purchased in the fall of 2007 and consists of 21.8 acres in West Rumney. It is located east of the corner of Rt. 25 and Sand Hill Road and borders 25 and the Baker River with over 2,200 ft. of river frontage. The purchase was approved at the 2006 Town Meeting. The Rumney Selectboard would like to thank Foreco for their contributed survey of the property and help during the process of purchasing this property.
The property offers conservation, recreation, and educational opportunities. It has a mix of open fields and wooded areas as well as natural beaches. Near Sand Hill Road, Creamery Brook crosses the property as it flows into the Baker River. There are two fields on the property, a small 1-2 acre field near Sand Hill Road and a large 5+ acre field near the center of the property where the access driveway and parking area are located. The fields contain a mix of native grasses and wildflowers including milkweed and goldenrod that provide nesting and feeding habitat for several birds, notably turkeys and grouse. Please keep in mind that dogs must be on a leash during bird ground-nesting season, March15 through July 15.
The remainder of the property consists of forests along the banks of the Baker River. There are many sugar maple, butternut, white ash, black cherry and birch trees that will provide for a shady walk on a sunny day. A walk through the marked trails might allow you to sight a bluebird or perhaps a wood turtle or other wildlife found along the river, fields or woods. Plans for the 2009 season include a small mowed parking lot near the access driveway off Route 25, field mowing, a seasonal Porta potty, walking trails and beach access for swimming/wading. The driveway access should be ready around Memorial Day.
This past winter you may have travelled across a corner of the small field on the existing snowmobile trail which will continue to cross the property there. Traditional non-motorized recreational uses are also encouraged.
The town of Rumney is looking for suggestions for a name for this beautiful land. Please send your recommendations to the town office (786-9511) by June 1.

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

2009-04-02T12:08:00.002-04:00

Looking to get away??? Escape to Ireland with this gentle read . . .Whitethorn Woods is the latest entry in Maeve Binchy’s lengthy and bestselling career. The book is essentially a collection of interconnected short stories that take place in a small town in Ireland. By turns sweet and somber, the overall tone of Whitethorn Woods is uplifting, and will please Binchy’s fans looking to revisit her unique depiction of today’s Ireland.

Have you read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson?

2009-03-26T12:14:00.001-04:00

Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement.
When Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read (especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and an endorsement by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas), spending several weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT in 1972 in the United States.
The book documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Carson said that DDT had been found to cause thinner egg shells and result in reproductive problems and death. She also accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.
Silent Spring has made many lists of the best nonfiction books of the twentieth century. In the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Nonfiction it was at #5, and it was at #78 in the conservative National Review. Most recently, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine.

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

2009-03-24T12:46:00.002-04:00

Jodi Picoult's latest book, Handle with Care, has arrived!

Can being too good a mother make you a bad mother? Charlotte's young daughter was born with a rare disease that causes her bones to break easily. But Charlotte's driving need to protect her child at all costs tears apart the other relationships in her life. In her trademark style, Picoult weaves together multiple plot twists with heart-wrenching insight into the power and fragility of love.

You may email us to reserve this book.

(This paragraph was from Family Circle magazine April 1 2009)

Looking for something to do???

2009-03-10T15:23:00.002-04:00

PSU & Silver Center for the Arts Concerts & Events
Plymouth State University

Plymouth (603) 535-2787 or (800) 779-3869

Thursday, March 12, 7pm - Reading: Women of Words
As a part of Women's History Month, the Women of Words, a local writing group, will read poems inspired by artwork of local women artists. A Women's History Month Event.
Call for free tickets. At Smith Recital Hall

Thursday, March 12, 7pm - Hanover Chamber Orchestra performs A Little Night Music
Program includes "Eine kleine Nachtmusic" by Mozart, "Verklärte Nacht" by Schoenberg, "Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky" by Arensky and "Divertimento (1930)" by Bartok.
At Hanaway Theatre

Monday, March 23, 7pm - Faculty Piano Recital
Pianist Carleen Graff is professor of music at PSU, where she teaches piano performance and pedagogy. She has performed solo and chamber recitals in New England, the Midwest and Germany. Call for free tickets. At Smith Recital Hall.

Tuesday, March 24, 8pm - Sidore Lecture Series: The US-Mexico Border: Chasing Cross-Border Activism
Guadalupe Luna says that rather than see viable alternatives, the US Congress continues to adopt an increasingly slippery slope of punitive measures that are difficult to reconcile with domestic law and international human rights principles. She will discuss the border fence that is under construction in the US southern border region. All Sidore events are free and open to the public; advance reservations are recommended. Each talk is followed by a reception with refreshments.

Wednesday, March 25, 4pm - Artist Panel: The State
In some creative and artistic circles, "craft" is a bad word; in others it's absolutely essential. PSU and the Fuller Craft Museum present a panel discussion that looks at craft in the context of contemporary academia, theory and practice, as part of a regional discussion. At Heritage Commons. Free.

Saturday, March 28, 8pm - Silver Series: Sam Bush Band
Sam Bush, a master of the mandolin, fiddle and guitar, is considered to be an American bluegrass virtuoso. He is also an accomplished composer, singer, standout performer and multiple Grammy Award winner. Bush has toured as the leader of Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers, and more recently with Lyle Lovett, Bela Fleck, Mark O'Connor and David Grisman. Hanaway Theatre.

Tuesday, March 31, 5pm - Student Concert: All New England Jazz Festival
PSU Jazz Band and guest artists perform with high school musicians from throughout the region.

Happenings at D Acres Farm
D Acres of NH Organic Farm & Educational Homestead
218 Streeter Woods Road, Dorchester (603) 786-2366
www.dacres.org
Friday, March 13, 2-4pm - Northern Forest Pruning
With Josh Trought & S. Tyler Durham, focusing on fruit and nut trees.
Friday, March 13, 3pm - Open Trails
Snowshoe or cross-country ski in the winter, hike in the summer.
Friday, March 13, 6-9pm - Full Moon Potluck
Bring a dish to share with neighbors. Join us after for a talk about Climate Change led by Sam Miller. Free
Saturday, March 21, 1-3pm - Maple Sugaring
Join Neil Dominieki in the Sugar Shack to learn how D Acres creates maple syrup from trees tapped on the property. Sliding scale suggested donation.
Saturday, March 21, 6pm - Wood Carving Demonstration
Learn the basics of wood carving with Barbara McAllister in conjunction with Soup Night.
Saturday, March 21, 6-8pm - Equinox Saturday Soup Night
Sliding scale donation for all-you-should-eat organic farm soup.
Friday, March 27, 10am-12noon - Writing Group with Ivy Page
All levels and styles are welcome; emphasis is currently on poetry and short-stories. Beginners are certainly welcome. Preregistration is required.
Friday, March 27 - Last Friday Open Mic Night
8-10:30pm is the scheduled Open Mic (sign up when you arrive); 10:30pm-12:00am is the Open Jam... join right in. Free. Potluck drinks and snacks are welcome.
Wednesdays, 6:30-7:45pm - Yoga with Sarah Hall

Squam Lakes Natural Science Center Programs & Events
23 Science Center Road, Holderness (603) 968-7194
www.nhnature.org
Saturday, March 14, 9:30-11:30am - Opening the Gates to Winter
Come find out what happens at the Science Center during the long, cold winter months. Be ready to snowshoe; snowshoes available at no extra fee. All ages.
Saturday, March 21, 6-9pm - Celebrate Night
Join staff at the Science Center for a night of family fun to shake off the winter blues and welcome the spring season. There will be several activities to choose from including a campfire with storytelling, night sky watch (weather permitting), night hikes, and a "Creatures of the Night" live animal program. All ages.
For a complete list of programs and for registration information, call or visit the website.

Byron G Merrill Library Happenings
Tuesday, 2-8pm; Thursday, 10am-12noon & 2pm-5pm; Saturday, 10am-12noon
10 Buffalo Road, Rumney (603) 786-9520
www.rumneylibrary.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2:30-3:30pm or 7-7:45pm - Rumney Genealogists
Are you interested in getting your family tree? We will explore various ways for doing this as well as how to research on the internet using Ancestry.com. Third Tuesday of each month.
Tuesday, March 31, 2:30-3:30pm or 7-7:45pm - Rumney Rudolph Club
Do you find Christmas sneaking up on you each year? Join the Rudolph Club and start planning now! Stop by and find out what this is all about. You are welcome to join us in the afternoon or evening.
Thursdays, 3:30pm and Saturdays, 10:30am - Byron G Bear Story Club
Themed storytimes and activities for preschool and primary age children Visit http://rumneylibrarybyrongbear.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Pease Public Library Programs & Events
Monday-Wednesday, 10am-8pm; Thursday & Friday, 10am-5pm; Saturday, 10am-2pm
1 Russell Street, Plymouth (603) 536-2616
www.peasepubliclibrary.org
Tuesday, March 17, 7pm - Wordless Books
David Berona will discuss the first wordless books, and show slides of woodcut artists from the early 20th century featured in his book, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels, recently chosen as one of the winners of the 2009 New York Book Show. Book signing and reception to follow.
Thursdays, 7pm - Winter/Spring 2009 Lecture Series: Modern China
An exploration of the tumultuous political and cultural landscape of 20th century China.
March 19, 7pm - Chinese Holidays and Pastimes, with Ying Xia Peterson
March 26, 7pm - China Under Mao and After, with Dr. Xiaoxiong Li, PSU
Thursday, April 2, 7pm - Beauty and Meaning in Chinese Art, with Bruce MacLaren, Assistant Curator of Chinese Art at Peabody Essex Museum
All events are free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Young Ladies Library Association Endowment Fund in cooperation with the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire.
Mondays, 10am - Toddler Time for parents and children up to 36 months. Sessions, with stories, singing and movement, followed by playtime.
Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 10am - Preschool Storyhours for ages 3 to 5
The program will consist of stories, music, arts & crafts and a snack.

Events at Plymouth Regional Senior Center
Old Plymouth Railroad Depot
8 Depot Street, Plymouth (603) 536-1204 or (603) 536-9639 or (603) 536-2090
www.gcscc.org/plymouth.asp
The center is open every day, with a continuous and full schedule of activities. All welcome.
Mondays, March 23-April 27, 1-3:30pm - Powerful Tools for Caregivers
This is a 6-week educational program for caregivers at Speare Memorial Hospital. For more information, call Jane Conklin at (888) 634-9412 or Fran Olsen at (603) 744-8395.
Wednesday, April 1, 1pm - Monthly Writing Class
First Wednesday each month
Mondays, 9am-12noon - Wood Carving Class
Beginners are welcome. Bring your own tools or come by and see what it's all about.
Mondays, 9:45-11am - Tai Chi and Dao Yin
Wednesdays & Fridays, 8:15am - Yoga
Wednesdays, 9am - Central New Hampshire Artists
Wednesdays, 9am - Computer Classes
Thursdays, 9-11am - Crafters, Knitters, Crocheters, Cross Stitchers & Rug Hookers
New and experienced crafters welcome. Bring ideas and work to be completed. Materials will be provided. If you have available frames & hooks to loan, bring them in.
Thursdays, 10:30am - Memoir Writing Workshop
Each year our goal has been to finish up with a small book utilizing the combined stories of all participants. All are welcome.
Thursdays, 1pm - Quilting Class
Fridays, 10:15am - Country Line Dancing
Join Joan Randlett, who will show you some kick-up-your-heels moves. All ages are welcome

Rumney Knitters

2009-03-09T17:52:00.001-04:00

I am looking forward to seeing the Rumney Knitters tomorrow - we'll have two sessions, one at 2 and another at 7. I will bring my scarf - looking forward to seeing your new projects.

An Interesting Website

2009-01-22T13:12:00.002-05:00

I came across 'Simple Living' several years ago and have enjoyed the email newsletters ever since. I honestly believe that we need to change some of our ways and find lots of good ideas on this website. You are welcome to check it out (http://www.simpleliving.net), and if you are interested, you can sign up for their free newsletter.

What Is Simple Living?

Simple living — aka voluntary simplicity — has just about as many definitions as there are individuals who practice it. Simple living is not about living in poverty or self-inflicted deprivation. Rather, it is about living an examined life — one in which you have determined what is important, or "enough," for you, discarding the rest.

"Living in a way that is outwardly
simple and inwardly rich."
— Duane Elgin

There are many "flavors" of simplicity.

Come Join Us . . .

2009-01-06T17:05:00.001-05:00

January Events

January 13th at 2:30-3:30 or 7-7:45 – Rumney Knitting Group.
Join experienced and beginner knitters alike for a session of conversation and shared interests. Bring your current project.
Come in the afternoon or early evening – whichever works best for you!
All ages are welcome.

January 20th at 2:30-3:30 or 7-7:45 – Rumney Genealogists
Are you interested in getting your family tree in order?
We will explore various ways for doing this as well as how to research on the internet using Ancestry.Com
We are offering two sessions so come at your convenience.

January 27th at 2:30-3:30 or 7-7:45 – Rumney Rudolph Club
Do you find Christmas sneaking up on you each year? Join the Rudolph Club and start planning now! Stop by and find out what this is all about.
You are welcome to join us in the afternoon or evening.

A Delightful Story

2009-01-06T16:57:00.002-05:00

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

News from Kinsey Moritz in Guam

2008-12-09T13:54:00.003-05:00

Kinsey Moritz and her family moved to Guam this past August - Today she tells us about Thanksgiving in a very different climate

Hello all,

Some of you have asked how my Thanksgiving was. Well, it is sort of a long story,so I will send it to you all.

As we have done for years, we ate Thanksgiving dinner early and packed up the leftovers for Thanksgiving Day. There were a lot of them!

On Thanksgiving day, we went on a hike called Talofofo Caves. It was a bunch of fun. The first cave we went into really didn't look like much from the outside, but on the inside, it was huge! There were a lot of stalagtites that were very sparkley. Even Heidi went in that cave!

The next place we stopped at was a beautiful overlook. The breeze was very nice. there was lots of greenery and flowers. It was my favorite place on that hike.

Then we stoppen at a very wide cave that looked like a mouth with lots of stalagtite teeth. Some of the 'teeth' were very glittery ang very wide. There was a very nice light breeze comeing through the huge cave, so that is were we had our break. Me and Mom tried to go down in the cave, but it was very steep and very slippery. So no one went in that cave.

All the others were either to little to explain or to exiting to remember.

Have a great day and sorry for sending this out late!!

Kinsey

Special Fun This Sunday - Come Join Us

2008-12-02T16:51:00.003-05:00

Celebrate the spirit of the holidays with the Rumney community this Sunday, December 7th. Join us first at 5:00 p.m. on the common for the Rumney Christmas Tree Lighting, where we'll sing carols with the Rumney Baptist Church Youth Choir, visit with Santa, and receive this year's ornament. Warm up afterwards at the Rumney Historical Museum from 5-7 p.m. for the Annual Christmas Tea, a chance to relax, enjoy some quiet conversation, and celebrate the blessings of the holidays with friends and neighbors. Do one, or the other, or both! Look forward to seeing everyone this Sunday.

Krista in Italy

2008-11-20T14:40:00.003-05:00

Krista Tunnell is spending the fall semester in London. As part of her studies she spent a recent weekend in Italy - Enjoy the trip along with her . . .

Ciao!!
I kept a written journal of every activity I did, every food I ate, and every penny I spent while in Italy and preparing for it. I will not attempt to write all of that information on my blog, but I will share with you the most enjoyable and interesting bits.

I arrived in Rome on Friday night, and we took a bus to the metro station to get to our hostel. "hostel" is an interesting word. This turned out to be a "bed and breakfast" or, rather, a nice apartment where all of the bedrooms are for guests, a small kitchen, and two shared bathrooms. I enjoyed our stay there, it was a very cheap price. I was traveling with my friends Tasha and Ellen.

Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the Vatican. We met up with our friends Jenna, Megan and Sally. We went into St. Peter's Basilica and saw the tombs of the previous popes, then we also went into the actual building which was artistically astounding. I also got to see some Swiss guards in their funny uniforms. After St. Peter's we stood in line for over an hour to get into the Vatican Museum. Now, a word of advice, go to the museum first thing in the morning. Or, try not to go on a sunny saturday. The crowds are overwhelming. It feels like you're in a can of sardines, you can only move as fast as the people in front of you, and if you get there too late you need to rush to get to the Sistine Chapel, which is the only thing that I knew about in the Museum. I was very confused about this, because you go in one door, go through a lot of halls with art and papal artifacts, see lots of domes (that i kept thinking were the Sistine chapel...) and then you finally follow the signs and the crowd and end up in the chapel itself. Maybe it's just me, but on tv the ceiling looks round, and really big. The sistine chapel is rectangular, small, and.. it's a chapel. You're squished, silent, and craning your necks upwards. I couldn't take pictures, but it was beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't have gone to Rome without seeing it, but I just wish it were a more relaxed setting.

Rome overall, is very touristy. And, that's probably because I wanted to do all of the touristy things, obviously, but don't expect to go anywhere without crowds, rediculous prices, and aggressive souvenir vendors. Sunday we went to the Colloseum. We got there early so didn't have to wait in line, and it was really great. The weather was fabulous. One thing I forgot to mention, is in Italy they love cats. I love cats. I saw three at the Vatican, and two in the colloseum. There was also a cat sanctuary by the Pantheon for homeless cats.

On Monday we continued wandering around Rome, we went to the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Stairs, the Pantheon and the Forum. .
Tuesday morning we got on a train (note: don't be dependant on trains to be on time, they aren't). Ellen and I went to Florence for the day. Then we got on another train and went to Venice. Venice was my favorite part of the trip. They also had cats, and lots of gelato, but they were on the adriatic sea too. We stayed on the island of Lido in a nice hotel and so we had to get a waterbus pass (big waste of money, they don't check your tickets on public transportation in Italy). We went to the island of Murano and saw how they made glass, and bought a lot of glass as well. We also went to the Doge's Palace, which I believe to be the most beautiful building I've ever been in, and I was even more impressed by this place than I was by the louvre or the vatican, and that could be because there was hardly a crowd, and I actually got to look at stuff. (but, alas, no pictures allowed).

These flowers are made out of glass and they are so gorgeous.

my attempt at being artsy.

I didn't actually ride in a Gondola, but they are pretty!

okay, that's it for now. I'll attempt more pictures later. I have a lot of school work to do, and I just registered for classes for spring back at SMC...crazy! My only trip left is a weekend to Ireland which I haven't confirmed yet. Hopefully tonight I will go see High School Musical 3!

XOXO
Krista In London/ Italy

Another Update from Ghana

2008-11-03T15:25:00.002-05:00

Enjoy another adventure as Zack Nolan travels around the African nation of Ghana - Zack works on an archeology dig, travels by bus across Ghana, and attends a political debate. Thank you Zack for sharing your adventures with us.

Good morning,

Since i only have a month and a half left in Ghana, i decided to start
sending out emails more regularly, especially when this is only the
third update.  Ive also had a pretty exciting week.

As i may have mentioned, due to my internship and develoment studies
classes organized through my program, im only taking two classes
offered by the university, archaeology 403 and 405.  the latter is a
field studies and methods class which only meets for the first 6 or so
weeks and then the students have to fundraise for their own
archaeological  research in january.  since the americans in the
class, including me, arent going to be in Ghana in january, we were
allowed to go with a grad student to his archaeological dig this past
weekend.  myself and 4 other americans travelled up to Wa, which is in
the northwest corner of Ghana, with the grad student, Malik, in an old
landrover.  We left at 4 in the morning, were in the car as the sun
rose and set, and got to the village outside of Wa at about 7.  We
stayed in the house of Maliks aunt, since he was from this village,
which was mostly made of concrete and had a big courtyard in the
center with a groundwater well.

the dig site was a 10 minute ride away at the house of a village elder
who lives right across the river from Burkina-Faso.  the 6 of us,
another grad student, and one of the professors cleared a field next
to the house with the help of some relatives and villagers, surveyed
and divided the field of about 30mx30m into 3x3 squares, then malik
chose two plots and we started to dig.  Using trowels, then small pick
axes we dug 10cm down the first day and then 30cm more the second in
even smaller areas, sifting through all the dirt we dug up.  we found
alot of pottery shards, malik thinks theyre from around the 12th
century, some animal bones, oyster shells, and grinding stones.  not
much, but the experience was worth the blisters.

While the other 4 stayed until thursday, i went back to accra on
monday, which is a story in itself.  due to the fluid nature of time
and schedules in rural africa, my tro-tro to Wa was late and then i
missed my bus, which meant i had to take a night bus to Kumasi and
then a dawn bus to Accra.  After spending the day with a friend of
Maliks, and riding around on the back of his moped, i left on the
night bus, which was very old, full of people and babies and random
packags, and without a/c.  as you can imagine, not all the roads are
paved in northern Ghana, and by the time we reached Kumasi i was
coated in dust and not exactly rested after trying to sleep with my
head bumping against the window for 8 hours.  the trip to accra and
then legon was a little better but by that time i was so dirty and
tired that all i could think about was taking a shower and brushing my
teeth.

the reason i couldnt wait for the direct route bus (with a/c) was
because i needed to get back for the ghana presidential debate which
the IEA, where i intern, was hosting.  the debate was on wednesday in
accra, and about 300 people attended but almost the whole country
watched on television.  after helping out with the preparations i got
to sit in the back and watch the debate.  it was more like a question
and answer since there were four candidates, but it was still very
interesting to listen to their ideas and actually watch a debate like
this going on.  i even had about 2 seconds on ghana national
television when the cameraman was focusing on someone important
sitting in front of me. a couple of ghanain friends even called me to
tell me they saw me on the tv.  it probably wasnt aired in the US, but
the debate was still a big deal in ghana, and this will be a very
important election for ghana.  i can finally relax this weekend, and
celebrate halloween with all the other americans here, im still trying
to think up a costume. well, ill leave it at this, my email is already
long enough. i hope everyone is doing well.

zack

Update from Zack in Ghana

2008-10-21T16:07:00.001-04:00

Summer resident, Zack Nolan, is spending this semester in Ghana and has sent us this update on his activites . . .

... life continues in West Africa. Problems with the water
and electricity continue to remind me that I'm not living in the US,
as well as staying up late to watch evening baseball games. While I'm
really bummed the sox lost last night, my body is very relieved not
too have to stay up another night to watch the game. Luckily, I have
a Nigerian friend who lives above me and has DSTV, which broadcasts
ESPN. The games have been on from midnight to generally 4 in the
morning, and I've been jumping around his room in the dark, silently
yelling at the TV as he and his roomate sleep.
School is going well, we're just past the midway point in the
semester, and my Twi class ended a week ago, I'm not fluent by any
means, but at least I have an understanding of the language. Notably,
this weekend I'm traveling to the Northwest corner of Ghana with a
couple of American classmates and our Archaeology professors to stay
at their dig site for the weekend. I'm really excited to actually go
to an Archaeological dig, and hopefully I'll get to do some work for
them. I'm sure I'll have some good stories about it next week.
I've gone on small excursions the last couple of weekends, both with
the program and without. Last weekend I traveled to Takoradi with a
number of friends. We stayed in the town, and we were able to explore
the modest market and somehow find a back alley chop bar (food stand)
where we had rice balls with chicken in groundnut soup. Alot of
dishes necessitate eating with your hands, this one included. The
most common are Banku and Fufu, which are made from some local
variation of corn, i think. Anyway, its like eating very nutritional
playdoh, which you scoop up with your hand and dip in a soup
(groundnut is the best). Chop bars and restaurants all provide bowls
of water and soap for washing your hands. Its an experience. While
in Takoradi we also went to the World Cup Qualifier football match
between the Ghana National team and Lesotho. The stadium was built
for only 15,000 people but about 30,000 crammed and stampeded (of
which i was a part of) into the stadium to watch. We won 3-0, and
Ghana moved on to the next qualifying round.
This past weekend, CIEE took us to Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti
region. Kumasi is known as the cultural center of Ghana, and still
preserves the history of the Ashanti kingdom, the most powerful in
Ghana. They have a very interesting culture, which includes a
matrilineal system of succession, with the queen mother choosing the
next Ashanti king. Women are very important in Ashanti society and
history, and in Kumasi's market, which is the biggest in West Africa
(its an enormous maze of little stalls filled with people selling
everything from cow heads to
machetes to beauty care products) 90% of the shops are owned and
operated by women. Kumasi is also famous for its Kente cloth, which
is, on the other hand, only woven by men. The traditional belief was
that women could not get pregnant while weaving (which was
unacceptable), so now it is a skill passed down by men. We visited
one of the local towns where they weave Kente, and saw how they
operate their looms. All in all, the weekend was not that exciting,
especially because we stayed in a big, new hotel with a distinctly
Western feeling, but still interesting. This week I plan on catching
up on sleep, logging some time at my internship, and crying about the
end of my baseball season. Hope to hear from you all sometime soon,
and I promise I'll send out another email soon. I can't believe my
semester is already half over.

Yebehyia Bio,

Zack

A Dog Story for the Ages

2008-10-21T15:16:00.003-04:00

I am completely smitten. The object of my newfound devotion is, alas, fictional. She’s a heroine of surpassing grace and faithfulness, equaled only by her intelligence and sense of smell. This paragon of virtue is named Almondine. And I should probably mention that she’s a dog.

Wait! Come back! Would it help if I promise that at no time does she break into song, perform a soft shoe, or crack wise about 1990s pop culture? Nor does she slurp spaghetti or battle the Red Baron. (I happen to find those last two traits endearing in a canine, but I understand some people grow weary of anthropomorphic animals.)

Almondine is all dog. Specifically, she is Edgar’s dog. And Edgar Sawtelle is the utterly disarming teenage hero at the center of David Wroblewski’s wonderful debut novel of the same name. Set on a small farm in rural Wisconsin, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle takes all kind of risks. The hero is mute, a few chapters are narrated from a dog’s point of view, and there are all kinds of ways the novel could have dissolved into a syrupy mess.

Instead, Wroblewski creates a tender coming-of-age story and grafts onto it a literary thriller with strong echoes of Shakespeare and “The Jungle Book.” The result is the most hauntingly impressive debut I’ve read all year.

Edgar grows up in a modest farmhouse, surrounded by his loving parents and several dozen dogs, which the family breeds and trains. (This isn’t the kind of training offered by the local PetSmart; it takes more than a year for them to teach the dogs how to communicate.)
The family business was started by his grandfather, who read the work of geneticist Gregor Mendel and spent his life trying to create a new breed of dog that was marked by its intelligence and humor.

“Your grandfather didn’t care about breeds. He always thought there was a better dog out there somewhere,” Gar, Edgar’s father, tells him. “The only place he was sure he wasn’t going to find it was in the show ring….” John Sawtelle also was very choosy about whom he would sell his dogs to and wasn’t above “rescuing” a dog if its new owners didn’t treat it properly. “Most of the time he just sent them a check and told them to get a beagle.” (Speaking as a beagle owner, ha!)

Almondine is the ultimate in “Sawtelles,” as the dogs are known. After Edgar’s birth, she takes on the job of being his voice and companion. Edgar can’t cry, so Almondine makes his needs known to his parents, licking his mom awake when the dog hears the baby’s faint huffing sound. (Edgar’s inability to speak is never explained; a little girl tells him her grandma “says that before you were born, God told you a secret he didn’t want anyone else to hear.”)

The companionship between Edgar and Almondine is beautifully written; anyone with memories of a beloved childhood pet will be charmed.

Into this Eden returns Edgar’s Uncle Claude, who’s got the family knack with animals but an unsettling manner about him. “Fixing the barn roof, it turned out, was a perfect job for Claude. It hadn’t taken long to see how ferociously solitary the man was. A day spent alone climbing the ladder and ripping tarpapered shingles from old planking left him whistling and jaunty…. He might have been earning his keep, but the barn roof was also a convenient surveyor’s point, a perch from which their entire, insular little kingdom was revealed.”

He and Edgar’s father have a falling-out, and it looks as if Claude is gone for good. Then Gar dies suddenly, and an overwhelmed Trudy turns to Claude for help with the kennel. The doctor diagnosed an aneurysm as cause of death, but 14-year-old Edgar becomes convinced that his uncle poisoned his father.

That’s about when a reader notices that Trudy tends to be a nickname for Gertrude and that Claude sounds an awful lot like Claudius. Egad – Edgar’s trapped in the plot of “Hamlet.” Run, kid, run! And he does, gathering up his pack and heading for the Canadian woods like a mid-century Mowgli.

Jane Smiley is obviously the most successful author to rewrite Shakespeare onto an American farm, but despite some superficial similarities with her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1991 novel “A Thousand Acres” “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” reads like an entirely different breed. Wroblewski’s novel is a bit less of a remake, for one thing.

For another, I found “Edgar Sawtelle” more enjoyable on a personal level than “Acres.” After all, it’s hard for an English major not to be tickled by the idea of a mute Hamlet. (Plus, I just like “Hamlet” more than “King Lear.”) Edgar might be silent, but his story will echo with readers for a long time.
Dog lovers of the world, what are you waiting for? Fetch!

This article by Yvonne Zipp appeared in the Christian Science Monitor.

3rd Grade Visit

2008-09-18T13:38:00.005-04:00

Mrs. Hinckley's 3rd grade class is studying 'community' and learning about what makes up our community of Rumney. Today the class visited our common, our historical museum, and our village library. While at the library they listened as Ms Funk read a story about a missing library book and then joined her in a few musical selections.

Most of the children have library cards and were able to select a book to check out. We hope that the remaining children will visit again soon with their Mom or Dad and sign up for a card.

The children were wonderful guests at our library and we hope they will all come again soon.

Anne Turns 100

2008-09-11T13:44:00.004-04:00

That's right, 'Anne of Green Gables' was first published in 1908. L. M. Montgomery, as the author was known, then went on to write seven more full-length books about Anne and her family. Later, Anne even became the subject of several movies and television series.

In the first book, the spunky girl is an 11-year-old orphan who accidentally ends up with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a brother and sister who live in the imaginary town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Matthew and Marilla had planned to adopt a boy, someone to help with the farm work. Instead they got Anne, and like millions of readers, they fell in love with her much to their surprise.

Like Anne, Ms Montgomery lost her mother when she was very young. She spent many of her growing up years with her grandparents on PEI. With her vivid memories and just a touch of imagination, Anne was born. Montgomery also loved nature and she especially loved the spruce grove and the brook near the one-room schoolhouse and some of the quirks of the schoolhouse ended up in her stories.

People all over the world still adore Anne today - they read her books and visit Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. For Anne's anniversary, a Canadian author named Budge Wilson wrote a prequel called 'Before Green Gables', a book about Anne's orphan years. A new television movie, 'Anne of Green Gables - A New Beginning' will be broadcast in Canada later this year. We hope that it will soon be shown in this country.

How will you celebrate 100 years of Anne? Will you dive into the new prequel or re-read some of the series? Will you introduce a young reader to this special heroine. Stop in and take a look at our Anne books.

(This information was taken from an article which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper on September 9th, 2008)

Good News!

2008-08-23T09:18:00.003-04:00

We have received our first email from the Myles and Sondra Moritz Family reporting on their travels. Sondra writes that they have survived the ten hour flight from Newark in New Jersey to Honolulu. About half way through the flight, little Heidi announced that she was ready to go home!
The family has a trip planned to the Polynesian Cultural Center and then will spend another night in Honolulu before continuing on to Guam. What a wonderful experience for all of them.

Krista Tunnell has her bags all packed and leaves tomorrow for London. Krista will spend the fall term at the American International University in London. She has side trips to Stonehenge and Scotland already scheduled. What a wonderful time she will have.

We've talked with Dorothy and her recovery is going well. She is still at her daughter's in Nottingham but should be back home soon. We all miss her.

Rachel is back to work at the library after a ten-day trip to eastern Canada. She travelled in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. This year is the 100th anniversary of the book 'Anne of Green Gables' - a special time to visit PEI. And she had a wonderful trip!

And we have a pile of new books for our readers to enjoy!

Old Home Day has come and gone

2008-08-12T14:30:00.002-04:00

Who could have asked for a better Old Home Day weather-wise than what we had??? The perfect weather, after days and days of rain, put everyone in a festive spirit.

We kept very busy here at the library. We'll soon be shopping for some additional books for children with the money earned at our book sale - thank you to everyone who contributed. Many people stopped in at the library and enjoyed our video presentation, 'Remembrances of Rumney' by Nancy MacDonald. What a photographic eye she has.

Dorothy is recovering from recent surgery at her daughter's in Nottingham and we all wish her a speedy recovery. Rachel is enjoying a well-deserved vacation touring Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. This year is the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables - an exciting year to visit.

Old Home Day this Saturday

2008-08-07T13:35:00.002-04:00

It's just two days until Old Home Day on Saturday, August 9th so we are busy getting ready. We'll have our annual book sale in the morning from nine until noon. The Library will be open from ten until three for people to stop in and visit. We will have the infamous Rumney scrapbooks out and Nancy MacDonald's dvd, Reminiscences of Rumney, playing. It is always fun to see the many people who grew up in Rumney who now live elsewhere - they have such happy memories.