November 2010 Archives

Award winning actress and best-selling cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey will share her expertise on Indian cuisine when she discusses her latest book, At Home with Madhur Jaffrey, on Wednesday, December 8, at 7 pm, in the Cole Auditorium at Greenwich Library.

Jaffrey, regarded by many as the world authority on Indian food, deconstructed age-old techniques and reduced the number of steps in a recipe to help readers understand the nature of each spice and seasoning. The end result makes seemingly exotic Indian dishes part of your everyday cooking. Throughout, Jaffrey's knowledge of and love of these foods is contagious. There are the dishes she grew up on in India and then shared with her own family and friends in America.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was announced today as the book chosen by the selection committee for Greenwich Reads Together. Greenwich Reads Together is a community-wide reading experience which will engage all of Greenwich in exploring a single book. This initiative has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, also announced at today's ceremony.

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking novel, The Book Thief, is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist, books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was chosen by the selection committee for Greenwich Reads Together. Greenwich Reads Together is a community-wide reading experience which will engage all of Greenwich in exploring a single book.

More information is available on the Greenwich Reads Together website. The page has been updated with new content about the book and author, reviews, interviews, discussion guides and more.

Readers are encouraged to share their feedback about the book by posting a comment here.

Award-winning author Mona Simpson read from and discussed her latest novel My Hollywood as part of our AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary series.

The Cole Concert series continues on Sunday, November 21 with world class pianist Vassily Primakov at 4 pm.

Vassily Primakov was born in Moscow in 1979. He entered Moscow's Central Special Music School at the age of eleven as a pupil of Vera Gornostaeva. At 17, he studied at the Juilliard School with the noted pianist, Jerome Lowenthal and won the William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which presented his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He was awarded a Susan W. Rose Career Grant, and won both the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2002 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition. In 2007, he was named the Classical Recording Foundation's "Young Artist of the Year" and in 2009, his Chopin Mazurka CD (BRIDGE 9283) was named "Best of the Year" by National Public Radio. Gramophone said, "Primakov's empathy with Chopin's spirit could hardly be more complete." His performance will feature works by Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

This concert is free and open to the public through the support of the Friends of Greenwich Library. For more information, please call the Friends Office at (203) 622-7938.

Networking activities should generate leads and opportunities and allow you to meet new people and develop mutually beneficial relationships. Join us on Tuesday, November 9, at 6:30 p.m., in the Cole Auditorium when expert David Volkman presents the Art of Effective Networking.

"You never know where your next opportunity will come from," says Volkman, a financial planner who developed his first business at age 15 and sold it upon high school graduation for $800,000.

Participants will learn strategies, tactics and tools including creating an effective elevator speech and mastering your body language. Volkman will explain the give-and-take nature of referrals, and how best to utilize them once accrued.