October 2010 Archives

Presenter Judith B. Margolin will share the basic principles of seeking support for a college education from foundations and other sources on Monday, November 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the Meeting Room at Greenwich Library.

Margolin will discuss the financial aid process, including how to apply, and provide an overview of available resources. Margolin is a consultant on foundations and grants, the author of several books on grants for individuals and a parent who has successfully put two children through expensive private colleges. There will be ample time for questions and answers.

Free and open to all. For more information, please contact Teen Services Librarian Margaret Walsh at 203-622-7915.

Heralded short-story author, Julie Orringer, will speak about her debut novel, The Invisible Bridge, on Tuesday, November 16, at 7 p.m., in Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium.

Orringer tells the story of a love tested by disaster, of brothers whose bonds cannot be broken, of a family shattered and remade in history's darkest hour, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

Connecticut Grand Opera's director and conductor, Laurence Gilgore, will present Greenwich Library's first exploration into the magnificent world of opera on Sunday, November 14, at 3 p.m., in the Cole Auditorium. Designed to enlighten the aficionado, as well as the curious beginner, Maestro Gilgore's insights, historical examples, selected film clips and talented guest performers will present opera as a truly inspirational and timeless art form.

Scotty Reiss, a journalist, business consultant and former magazine editor, collaborated with Stew Leonard, the legendary grocery entrepreneur, to write his biography and the history of his business. Reiss will discuss Leonard's biography Stew Leonard, My Story on Wednesday, November 17, at 7 p.m., in the Greenwich Library Meeting Room.

During the three and a half year project, Reiss learned firsthand the stories, strategies and challenges of Leonard and the company he built. Written from Leonard's first-person perspective, the book is an honest and open telling of not only the tremendous successes that he had in building his renowned store, but the difficulties and tragedies that he faced during his career.

The Berenstain Bears have enchanted young readers for generations. Now a Greenwich Library audience will be captivated with The Berenstain Bears "Family Matters," on Saturday, November 6, at 2 pm, in the Cole Auditorium.

Family Matters, a Matt Murphy Production for TheatreWorks USA, is a fun-filled new musical that weaves together three of Stan and Jan Berenstain's most popular books: The Berenstain Bears Learn about Strangers, The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food and The Berenstain Bears' Trouble at School.

The Musicians from Marlboro return to Greenwich Library with a new group of esteemed performers. The touring extension of the renowned Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont will appear as part of the Friends of Greenwich Library's Cole Concert Series on Saturday, October 30, at 4 p.m., in the Cole Auditorium.

Five musicians and one concert singer will perform the works of Respighi, Dvorák, Cuckson and Mozart.

Greenwich Library has been named a Five Star library by Library Journal (LJ) for the second time. LJ uses four objective measures (visits, circulation, program attendance, and internet computer use per capita) to compare the level of services libraries provide to their communities. Greenwich Library was ranked tenth in the nation among public libraries with budgets between $5 million and $10 million.

Sponsored by Baker & Taylor's Bibliostat, this round of the LJ Index is based on 2008 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), reflecting service since the onset of the recession. 7407 public libraries were rated in this study.

Click here to read more about it in Library Journal.

Colman Andrews, a Greenwich resident and co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Saveur, will discuss and sign copies of his latest book, Ferran: The Inside Story of El Bulli and the Man Who Reinvented Food, on Tuesday, November 2, at 7 p.m., in the Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium.

Andrews had two years of unrestricted access to Ferran Adrià, considered "the greatest chef in the world." The result is a defining and revealing portrait of the chef in a historical and culinary context.

Ferran explores Adrià's origins -- from his childhood of modest circumstances and early food influences, to his first kitchen jobs where he learned fundamental basic techniques and classic dishes to his ultimate transformation at El Bulli where he took the kitchen over in 1987 at the age of twenty-five. Andrews portrays Adrià as a chef eager to share his findings, new products, and techniques with fellow chefs and students. In an industry where chefs tend to practically trademark their techniques and recipes, Adrià is happy to reveal his coveted creations.

Author and historian Kate Kelly will discuss How Women Won the Right to Vote: 90 Years Since Passage of the 19th Amendment, on Monday, November 1, at 7 p.m., in the Greenwich Library Meeting Room.

Kelly will discuss the fight to get the right to vote, starting in 1848 through Susan B. Anthony, the well-known suffragist, urging women across the country to vote in 1872 and the several more decades it took before women received the right to vote.

Award-winning author Mona Simpson will reveal the secrets behind her most cherished work when she discusses My Hollywood as part of AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary on Thursday, October 28, at 7 p.m., in the Cole Auditorium.

"It's the book that took me too long because it meant so much to me," Simpson said of My Hollywood, which took ten years to complete.

The mystery of man's origin and evolution continues to unfold as scientists unearth new evidence of our earliest existence. Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned paleo-anthropologist and author, will speak on his 40-plus years of human prehistory research on Tuesday, October 26, at 7 p.m., in Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium.

Leakey's research in northern Kenya has taken him from the early days of fossil hunting in the region around Lake Turkana -- an area of East Africa virtually unknown to science -- to the years of watershed discoveries of early human fossils that redefined again and again our understanding of human evolution. In recent times, he has refocused much of his energy on protecting Kenya's natural history heritage for future generations.

With the United States plunging into World War II, the race to develop life-saving antibiotics was in full swing. Lauren Belfer's latest novel, A Fierce Radiance, explores the advent of Penicillin in a love story complete with blackmail, espionage and murder.

Belfer will delve into her novel as part of AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary on Thursday, October 21, at 7 p.m., in Greenwich Library's Meeting Room.

The Greenwich Historical Society will host James McPherson, noted historian, preservation crusader and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, at this year's William C. Crooks Lecture. James McPherson is the George Henry Davis Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University and author of many highly respected and compelling works on the Civil War including Battle Cry of Freedom, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize; Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief; and his latest work Abraham Lincoln, a biography that coincides with the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

The free lecture will take place at Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium on Tuesday, October 19 at 7:30 pm. Signed copies of his books will be available for sale at the event.

Kicking Daisies will perform in the Cole Auditorium at Greenwich Library on Saturday, October 23 at 7 p.m. as part of Teen Read Week. Teen Read Week is celebrated nationally October 17-23, with special events and programs aimed at encouraging area teens to read for the fun of it. Thousands of libraries, schools and bookstore across the country will hold similar events centered on this year's theme, Books with Beat @ your library®, which encourages teens to read a variety of materials, including poetry, audiobooks, books about music, and more.

"Teens have more activities to fill their free time than ever -- web videos, social networking sites, video games, afterschool activities, athletics --and increasingly high expectations in the classroom," said Margaret Walsh, Greenwich Library's Teen Services Librarian. "It's important that we show them that reading is something that's fun and relaxing that they can do for free. And that reading for fun can translate into better performance at school."

M&M Productions Acting Company, Inc. presents Neil Simon's Jake's Women, a wildly funny foray into modern relationships that blurs the line between fiction and reality, on Saturday, October 9, at 2 p.m., in Greenwich Library's Cole Auditorium.

Jake is a novelist who is seemingly more successful at imagining the women in his life then at dealing with them in person. Faced with a faltering marriage, Jake retreats inside his mind to seek advice from fantasy versions of the women in his life: independent wife, Maggie; bossy and boisterous sister, Karen; precocious daughter, Molly; cranky and opinionated psychiatrist, Edith; and his impulsively impetuous first wife, Julie. In exchange, he's often dealt hilarious insults, mockery and taunts that help him make his way back to real life.

Julie Jason, author of the AARP Retirement Survival Guide, will address the five critical factors that determine whether you are a good candidate to convert your IRA to a Roth IRA, and what steps to take if you are, on Thursday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Greenwich Library Meeting Room.

The financial services industry sees the newly adopted 2010 Roth IRA conversion opportunity as a way to increase books of business ("gather assets"). Consumers need to explore whether they will benefit from converting based on their unique financial circumstances.

Author Jay R. Tunney will share his personal observations of an unlikely friendship between a heavyweight boxing champion and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright as the latest AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary guest on Tuesday, October 5, at 7 p.m., in the Cole Auditorium.

Tunney penned The Prizefighter and the Playwright, an insider's look at the relationship between his father, boxing icon Gene Tunney, and Bernard Shaw, the most famous playwright of the 20th century. In this unusual and often surprising book, Tunney explores this private friendship in the spotlight of celebrity.