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Weston Public Library Newsletter - December 2023

Schools and Libraries

December 6, 2023

From: Weston Public Library

Special Events/Announcements

Library Closed: Christmas Weekend

December 22 - December 25

The Weston Public Library will be closed in observance of Christmas starting Friday, December 22 through Monday, December 25. We will reopen at 9am Tuesday, December 26. Happy Holidays!

Native American Stories & Experience with Hoopla

Native American Heritage Month may have just ended, but that doesn't mean you should stop reading about American Indian culture, history, or books by indigenous authors! Continue your reading journey by checking out some titles from a special Native American selection from Hoopla, the Weston Public Library's digital book, audiobook, and movie resource! Click here and check out a title today. Happy reading!

Celebrate Hanukkah with Hoopla

Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights, begins at sundown on December 7 and continues for 8 days and nights. Help children learn about this holiday while also having fun reading and listening to a curated selection of title just for them on Hoopla. Click here to check out some titles for free using your library card!

Happy Kwanzaa with Hoopla 

Kwanzaa is an annual holiday taking place from December 26 through January 1 that celebrates community, culture, and family. Learn more about the holiday or ways to enhance your celebrations with a special collection from Hoopla. Check out something from a host of great materials including audiobooks and ebooks FREE with your library card on Hoopla!

Best of the Holidays with Hoopla

For many, the Holidays are about spending time with family and enjoying some holiday-themed books and movies. Hoopla has a special collection where they have brought together what they deem "The Best." Click here to check out something special from this selection of holiday staples. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Play With Your Food: Seasons Readings! 

Sunday, December 10 at 3pm

Ring in the holiday season with the Friends of the Weston Library when JIB Productions (Play With Your Food) brings its holiday program SEASONS READINGS to town on Sunday, December 10 at 3 pm. A delightful hour of heartfelt and hilarious holiday-themed short stories and plays, SEASONS READINGS offers a literary take on the joys, tribulations (and everything in between) to share with family and friends followed by an opportunity to mingle with guests and actors and enjoy seasonal refreshments.

Registration is required and admission costs $20 per ticket. Click here to register!

Virtual Gallery and Art Tour with Riva Blumenfeld:

Roberto Lugo, Chase Hall, Jeffrey Gibson, and Ghada Amer

Thursday, December 14 at 7:00 pm (ZOOM)

Artists have been telling stories for generations, but contemporary artists add to the complexity of their narratives by using materials that resonate with the meaning of their stories like coffee, cotton, beads, and thread.  We'll look at recent exhibitions by young and mid-career artists: Roberto Lugo, Chase Hall, Jeffrey Gibson (the artist representing the U.S. in the Venice Biennale in 2024), and Ghada Amer.  Please join Riva this month as she takes us on a specially curated tour of this fall’s most intriguing gallery shows. Riva Blumenfeld is an art historian and educator with 40 years of experience in the art field. Riva was educated in Art History at Washington University in St. Louis and has taught Art Education at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum. Having owned an art gallery in Soho for a short period, Riva has a unique knowledge of New York City’s art scene and offers insight into the sometimes-intimidating world of New York City art galleries. Prior to the pandemic, Riva conducted small group tours of NYC’s art world.s.

Register here. All registrants will be sent the Zoom link the day of the program. Please register no later than 4 pm that day to receive the link.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Weston Public Library.

Special Events for Parents

Children's Author Visit - Laura Prior

Tuesday, December 5 at 4:00pm

Come discover your favorite book at this in-person author visit with local Connecticut writer, Laura Prior! Join us in the Community Room as Lauar reads the first chapter of her new book, Emma Just Medium: The Beach Dilemma. Then get creative with us as we play with magic sand, sea shell painting, and more!

This book is great for children in grades 3-4. However, all ages are welcome to join us for this read-aloud and activity. No prior reading is necessary. Click here to register!

Recurring Events

Cookbook Club
Monday, December 4 at 12pm

The Weston Public Library Cookbook Club is an opportunity for those who love cooking to share favorite recipes and try new recipes with neighbors and friends! Make your favorite dish to share and bring the recipe! This month's theme: Vegetables.

Looking for favorite recipes from previous meetings? You can check out all of the recipes here. 

Please register. This group meets monthly in the Community Room.

New Yorker Roundtable

Tuesdays, Dec. 5, 12, 19 at 11:30am

Meetings are hybrid, in-person at the library and online via Zoom.

Join the Friends of the Library New Yorker Group to discuss articles from the current issue on politics, current events, literature, and more. The New Yorker is available online with your Weston Public Library card at https://researchitct.org/popularmagazinespublic/

Sponsored by the Friends of the Weston Public Library.

Sip and Stitch/Wrap and Yap
Thursday, December 7 at 7pm

Come spend an evening with friends and neighbors and share your projects. We can share our progress on old projects and the new ones we are starting! Don't forget your red scarf if you are working on one!!

Bring your holiday gifts to wrap.  We will supply the paper!

Please register.

Book Discussions

Friday, December 8, 11:00am 

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Thursday, December 14, 10:30am

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

To reserve a copy of the book, please email [email protected]  If you would like to join either group virtually, please email [email protected] for the Zoom link.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Weston Public Library.

Service Spotlight

AtoZ World Food and AtoZ Food America

AtoZ Food World and AtoZ Food America showcase recipes, prep instructions/videos, cultural insights, culinary history, and regional etiquette. Going to visit France for Christmas? Why not learn how to make a bûche de Noël. Visiting Mexico for the first time? Learn what makes Chapulines, a street food, so special. Visit our website to access these great new offerings using your Weston Public Library card!

Local History Resources

Learn more about the rich history of Weston through the library's Local History Resources including digitized versions of The Chronicle Quarterly, the Weston Forum, and more! 

Click here for access.

Prepare for Your Next Big Trip with Transparent Language Online

Learn over 110 languages from all over the world, including indigenous languages from the Americas, English as a Second Language, and Irish Gaelic!

Sign up through the library website.

Homebound Delivery Service

Weston residents who are temporarily or permanently homebound due to health or disability issues or COVID concerns are eligible for the Library's free homebound delivery service.

Call the library at 203-222-2665 or email [email protected] for more information.

Consumer Reports Online Access

Did you know that you can access current and back issues of this popular magazine for FREE? Through the state library's ResearchIT resource, you can read, download, and print individual sections including the popular Buyer's Guides. Check it out here!

Librarian Picks

December Releases

What new releases are librarians most looking forward to in December? Check out the selection below from Weston's Adult Services Librarian, Anne.

Avoid the rush and place your holds early at www.westonpubliclibrary.org.

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong  After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn, delivering a box of books to Penryth Hall, the home to her once dearest friend, Tamsyn, is drawn into a mystery when Tamsyn’s husband is murdered and the crime is blamed on a curse—one that could claim Tamsyn’s life as well.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey  In an elegy to our humanity, environment and planet, six astronauts, selected for one of the last space station missions, leave their lives behind to travel at a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour to orbit Earth, witnessing the marks of civilization below.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch  With Ireland caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack, as the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, must decide how far she’ll go to save her family and what—or who—she is willing to leave behind.

Familia by Lauren E. Rico  A fact-checker for a popular magazine, Gabby DiMarco, takes a DNA test and discovers she has a sister in Puerto Rico who has been desperately trying to find her for 25 years, despite her parents saying it is impossible.

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen  Cursed to live in her sister Clara’s shadow, Natasha gets her chance at revenge when an enchanted Nutcracker offers entry into a deceptively beautiful world where she uncovers her dark destiny and, reckoning with forces both earthly and magical, must decide to which world she truly belongs.