Bethel Public Library Programs

Friends Book Sale
Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 2009
10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Lincoln Courtyard, Library lawn

The Friends of the Bethel Public Library will be selling a selection of appropriately seasonal books on the day of the Summer Sidewalk Sale and Street Fair.

Introduction to Digital Photography
with Bruce Preston
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
6:30-8:00 pm
Main Room, Library

The program will address the following topics:

• What is digital photography?
• How to select a digital camera for your needs
• Storage media (replaces film)
• Transferring the image to a computer
• Photo Editing
• Creating a slide show with optional music and text
• Sharing photos via print or internet.

It will include demonstrations and Q&A.
Registration is requested for this program. Register at the Reference Desk or call (203) 794 8756 ext. 4 or by email.

Getting Ahead in These Times
Introduction to PowerPoint
with Bruce Preston
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
6:30-8:00 pm
Main Room, Library

PowerPoint is the popular program used to create presentations of all kinds. It is commonly used in business and professional settings. Topics covered will include:

• selection of design templates
• adding text, bulleted lists, charts, clip-art images, and photographs
• transitions
• special effects.

Registration is requested for this program. Register at the Reference Desk or call (203) 794 8756 ext. 4 or by email.

Getting Ahead in These Times
Buying and Selling a House
with a panel of real estate experts giving us keys to success.
Tuesday, September 22
7:00-8:30 pm
Main Room, Library

The Friends of the Bethel Public Library present

A Centennial Event

Great Scot! It's Andrew Carnegie!
As portrayed by Richard Clark
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
7:00-8:30 p.m.
Library Lobby

He rose from humble beginnings to become the "King of steel" and the richest man in the world. He counted Mark Twain, Helen Keller and Booker T. Washington among his closest friends. His wealth and power shaped the zeitgeist of the time, and he was called "the greediest little devil that ever lived," yet he gave away billions to build thousands of public libraries.

Richard Clark, whose one man shows as Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway were big hits here at the Bethel Library, is now going to perform for us as Andrew Carnegie, America's biggest friend to libraries.

Registration is required for this program. Register at the Reference Desk or call (203) 794 8756 ext. 4 or by email. Please give a telephone number so we can confirm your attendance in case there is waiting list.

Baker Towers
by Jennifer Haigh
Monday, July 13, 2009
7:30-8:45 pm

The story begins with the death of Stanley Novak, wife of Rose and father of five. Theirs was an Italian-Polish marriage, tolerated, but a break with the town's tradition. In Bakerton, life revolves around the mines, the Church, gossip, and sports. Many times throughout the book it seems that Haigh is using a camera rather than a pen, so perfectly does she create a scene for the reader.
Haigh has captured these people's lives as they play out through the Forties and Fifties, more acted upon than acting. This life that Haigh has so carefully described will soon disappear forever, for good or ill, but she has illuminated its current reality with a sure hand.

Room with a View
E.M. Forster
Monday, August 10, 2009
7:30-8:45 pm

A Room with a View is one of the finest "novels of manners" ever written, a hilarious satire of the excessive propriety and mannerisms of the English in an age of repression. It is also the fascinating love story of a young woman stuck in this repressive English culture who is transformed by romantic Italy and awakened to love when she meets the true love of her life there without even knowing it... but will she realize this before it's too late? Even if you've read it before, reread and talk about this classic again.

Snow Falling on Cedars
By David Guterson
Monday, September 14, 2009
7:30-8:45 pm

This month's book is set in the same era as Baker Towers. The characters, however, are quite different. Snow Falling on Cedars is an interracial romance, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and a fictionalized chronicle of the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, which pulls the reader into an accurate rendering of life on an island in Puget Sound.
The novel is narrated by Ismael Chambers, the publisher of the only newspaper on San Piedro Island, whose boyhood romance with Hatsue, the girl that later becomes the accused man's wife, provides fertile material for many flashbacks.

Never Let Me Go
By Kazuo Ishiguro
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
10:00-11:30 am

As a child, Kathy H. attended Hailsham, a private school whose teachers and guardians sheltered the students from reality. Now 31, Kathy has assumed the position for which she was trained at Hailsham so long ago, and she has put the memories of her Hailsham days out of her mind. When she is thrown together with two of her old school friends, she begins to relive experiences that both call into question her friendships and deepen them. Her memories reveal also that the pastoral and pleasant Hailsham harbored dark and mysterious secrets that she now can begin to understand. Ishiguro's elegant prose and masterly ways with characterization make for a lovely tale of memory, self-understanding, and love. – from the Library Journal review

Baker Towers
by Jennifer Haight
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
10:00-11:30 am

The story begins with the death of Stanley Novak, wife of Rose and father of five. Theirs was an Italian-Polish marriage, tolerated, but a break with the town's tradition. In Bakerton, life revolves around the mines, the Church, gossip, and sports. Many times throughout the book it seems that Haigh is using a camera rather than a pen, so perfectly does she create a scene for the reader.
Haigh has captured these people's lives as they play out through the Forties and Fifties, more acted upon than acting. This life that Haigh has so carefully described will soon disappear forever, for good or ill, but she has illuminated its current reality with a sure hand.

A Room with a View
by E. M. Forster
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
10:00-11:30 am

A Room with a View is one of the finest "novels of manners" ever written, a hilarious satire of the excessive propriety and mannerisms of the English in an age of repression. It is also the fascinating love story of a young woman stuck in this repressive English culture who is transformed by romantic Italy and awakened to love when she meets the true love of her life there without even knowing it... but will she realize this before it's too late? Even if you've read it before, reread and talk about this classic again.

Snow Falling on Cedars
By David Guterson
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
10:00-11:30 am

This month's book is set in the same era as Baker Towers. The characters, however, are quite different. Snow Falling on Cedars is an interracial romance, a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and a fictionalized chronicle of the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans, which pulls the reader into an accurate rendering of life on an island in Puget Sound. The descriptive elements are dead-on.
The novel is narrated by Ismael Chambers, the publisher of the only newspaper on San Piedro Island, whose boyhood romance with Hatsue, the girl that later becomes the accused man's wife, provides fertile material for many flashbacks.