Alexander Findley Community Library

Book Club
2022-08-18 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us for a discussion of this month’s book We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker.
Summary
Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released.
Duchess is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. At school the other kids make fun of Duchess―her clothes are torn, her hair a mess. But let them throw their sticks, because she’ll throw stones. Rules are for other people. She’s just trying to survive and keep her family together.
A fortysomething-year-old sheriff and a thirteen-year-old girl may not seem to have a lot in common. But they both have come to expect that people will disappoint you, loved ones will leave you, and if you open your heart it will be broken. So when trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.
Chris Whitaker has written an extraordinary novel about people who deserve so much more than life serves them. At times devastating, with flashes of humor and hope throughout, it is ultimately an inspiring tale of how the human spirit prevails and how, in the end, love―in all its different guises―wins. (via goodreads)

Saturday Storytime
2022-08-20 11:00 - 13:00, 2022-08-27 11:00 - 13:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Every Saturday in July and August, we’ll have Storytime at 11am. Come for a story read by the fabulous Judy Hunt, stay for a craft and/or activity! Some of the Saturdays, there will be a StoryWalk on the Nature Trail behind the Mina Community Center where our library is located. On those days, we’ll have Storytime on the trail (weather permitting).

Book Club
2023-07-20 18:00 - 19:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library at 6pm for a discussion of July’s book, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Head’s up: next month we will read the follow-up, Olive, Again.
Summary:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life – sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. (via goodreads)

Summer Reading Storytime and Craft!
2023-07-22 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library on Saturday, July 22 at 11am for a Storytime, followed by a craft and other playtime activities!

Garden Club
2023-07-29 11:00 - 13:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Summer Reading Storytime and Craft
2023-08-05 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Coming soon!

Arts & Crafts for Adults
2023-08-10 15:00 - 17:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Pots from our first go-round in May.
We’re going to découpage terra cotta pots again—but smaller ones this time. They’re going to be so cute! All supplies are provided, so come visit us, have some fun, make a bit of a mess!

Author Talk: Destiny Kinal
2023-08-17 17:00 - 18:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Book Club
2023-08-17 18:00 - 19:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Meet us in the library at 6pm for discussion of July’s book, Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout. As part of Summer Reading, this is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge that we read in June.
Summary:
Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.” (via goodreads)

Summer Reading Storytime and Craft!
2023-08-19 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Garden Club
2023-08-26 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Show off your Nature Journal and check in on the garden!

Arts & Crafts for Grownups!
2024-07-11 15:00 - 17:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library for Paintapalooza! There will be different kinds of paint, and lots of things to paint (birdhouse, glass jar, terra cotta pot, etc.)!

Saturday Storytime: Bubbles!
2024-07-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Bubble Painting
2024-07-17 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Wednesdays with Summer Recreation Week 1
This week we’ll be trying our hand at bubble painting! This event is held for the kids attending Summer Recreation at the Mina Community Center, but all our patrons are welcome to join in on the fun!

Book Club
2024-07-18 18:00 - 19:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library for a discussion of July’s book, Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward.
Summary:
“‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” — Inferno, Dante Alighieri
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.” (via goodreads)

Saturday Storytime: Crocs!
2024-07-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

WILD Creatures Reptile Show!
2024-07-24 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Wednesdays with Summer Recreation Week 2
Join us in the gymnasium for WILD Creatures as Chris Duckett shows off some of his incredible reptile friends. It’s sure to be an educational and entertaining time! This show is held for the kids attending the Summer Recreation at the Mina Community Center, but everyone is welcome to join us for the fun.

Saturday Storytime: Geodes!
2024-07-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library for a story and a snack. Then we’ll smash some geodes and see what we find inside!
Note: This activity is meant for older kids, but there will be an alternative for our youngest patrons.

Could You Be a Grape Farmer?
2024-07-31 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Wednesdays with Summer Recreation Week 3
Josie Allen from the Cornell Cooperative Extension will be here to see if we have what it takes to be a grape farmer. This event is held for the kids attending the Summer Recreation at the Mina Community Center, but all our patrons are welcome to join in!

Saturday Storytime: Stars!
2024-08-03 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Soil Health & Erosion Demonstration
2024-08-07 10:00 - 23:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Wednesdays with Summer Recreation Week 4
Josie Allen is back for our last Wednesday with the kids from Summer Recreation. This week she’ll teach us about soil health and the problems with soil erosion. This event is held for the kids attending Summer Recreation at the Mina Community Center, but all our patrons are welcome to join!

Arts & Crafts for Grownups!
2024-08-08 15:00 - 17:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Bicentennial Play Day!
2024-08-10 11:00 - 13:30
Since it’s Mina’s Bicentennial Celebration this weekend, we will not be having a regular Storytime. Instead, we will have a Play Day! We are borrowing the button maker and the paint spinner from CCLS, so folks can stop in and play for a bit and still participate in the festivities downtown. Be sure to check out the Vintage Parade at 10am, and wave hello to library trustees and friends!

Book Club
2024-08-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us in the library for a discussion of August’s book, Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy.
Summary:
“Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.
Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?
Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy’s Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.” (via goodreads)

Saturday Storytime: Dinos!
2024-08-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Tabling Event: Learn How to Save Energy & Improve the Efficiency of Your Home
2024-08-22 13:00 - 19:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Saturday Storytime: Hiking & Camping!
2024-08-24 11:00 - 12:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library

End of Summer Reading Shindig!
2024-08-31 11:00 - 14:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us for an End of Summer Reading Shindig as we celebrate all the fun adventures we had this summer! We’ll be drawing prizes, so be sure to have your Adventure Maps and Classic Adventurer Scavenger Hunt turned in by Thursday, August 29th (and don’t forget to put your name on everything!).

Arts & Crafts for Grownups!
2025-07-10 15:00 - 17:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
We’ll be making mosaics on tiny terra cotta pots using cut glass pieces and Weld Bond adhesive. We won’t have time to grout, as the adhesive will need to dry and set, but we can do it on another day!
