Alexander Findley Community Library

Adult Book Club
2020-11-19 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us for a discussion of this month’s book, News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Copies are available for pick up now! We’re a little early this month because of Thanksgiving.

Five years after the end of the Civil War, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd crosses paths with a 10-year-old girl taken by the Kiowa people. Forced to return to her aunt and uncle, Kidd agrees to escort the child across the harsh and unforgiving plains of Texas. However, the long journey soon turns into a fight for survival as the traveling companions encounter danger at every turn—both human and natural.

Board Meeting
2020-11-23 18:30 - 20:00 | Findley Lake Community Center, 2883 North Rd., Findley Lake, NY, 14736, United States
The AFCL board will meet in the Young at Heart room at 6:30 pm to discuss library matters.
Meetings open to the public. Please wear mask and practice social distancing.

Kid's Christmas Craft Bag Pickup!
2020-12-12 09:00 - 14:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Adult's Book Club
2020-12-17 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Join us for our discussion of The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris. We’ll be meeting early again this month because of Christmas. Copies are available for pickup now.
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.
Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.
One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.
A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

Closed Today
2021-01-18
Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. See you tomorrow!

Board Meeting
2021-01-25 18:30 - 20:00
The AFCL board will meet in the Young at Heart room at 6:30 pm to discuss library matters.
Meetings are open to the public. Please wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Book Club
2021-01-28 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” January is Turquoise!
Join us for discussion of our latest book, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, on Thursday, January 28, 2021, at 6:30pm.
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.
At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.

Closed Today
2021-02-15
Closed today for President’s Day. See you tomorrow!

Book Club
2021-02-18 18:30 - 20:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” February is Fuchsia!

Join us this month in discussing Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.
As usual, masking and distancing required.
No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent. (via goodreads)

Board Meeting
2021-02-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library

Book Club
2021-03-18 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” March is Green!

Join us this month in discussing Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson.

As usual, masking and distancing required.

A failed revolutionary attempt drives the hero of Hudson’s novel to seek refuge in the primeval forests of south-western Venezuela. There, in the ‘green mansions’ of the title, Abel encounters the wood-nymph Rima, the last survivor of a mysterious aboriginal race. The love that flowers between them is soon overshadowed by cruelty and sorrow… One of the acknowledged masters of natural history writing, W. H. Hudson forms an important link between nineteenth-century Romanticism and the twentieth-century ecological movement.
First published in 1904 and a bestseller after its reissue a dozen years later, Green Mansions offers its readers a poignant meditation on the loss of wilderness, the dream of a return to nature, and the bitter reality of the encounter between savage and civilized man. (via Goodreads)

Board Meeting
2021-03-22 18:30 - 20:00, 2021-04-26 18:30 - 20:00, 2021-05-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
The AFCL board will meet in the library at 6:30 pm to discuss library matters.
Meetings are open to the public. Please wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Closed for Easter
2021-04-03
Closed today for Easter. See you Monday!

Book Club
2021-04-15 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” April is Wine Red!

Join us this month in discussing Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

As usual, masking and distancing required.

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemí’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. (via Goodreads)

Book Club
2021-05-20 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” May is Orange!

Join us this month in discussing There There by Tommy Orange.

As usual, masking and distancing required.

Tommy Orange’s wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American–grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism. Hailed as an instant classic, There There is at once poignant and unflinching, utterly contemporary and truly unforgettable. (via goodreads)

Closed for Memorial Day
2021-05-31
Closed today for Memorial Day. See you tomorrow!

AFCL Annual Meeting
2021-06-12 09:00 - 10:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Alexander Findley Community Library will be having our annual meeting at 9am on Saturday, June 12th in the Community Center Gym. Masks and distancing are recommended. This meeting is free and open to the public.

Book Club
2021-06-17 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” June is Yellow!

Join us this month in discussing Conversion by Katherine Howe.

As usual, masking and distancing required.

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.
First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.
Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has. Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school, this is the mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s? (via goodreads)

Closed for 4th of July
2021-07-05
Closed in observance of 4th of July. See you tomorrow!

Collaborative Summer Reading Week 1: Bat Boxes
2021-07-07 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
This Wednesday kicked off our Summer Reading program, and was our first time collaborating with Darlene at the Clymer-French Creek Free Library. The bat box extravaganza was a huge success! We had a great time learning about bats and bat boxes, their role in our environment, and how we can help bring them back from the brink of extinction. We listened to a story about bats playing baseball, and then decorated many lovely new homes to keep our bat friends cozy and warm (thanks to a coat of black paint).

Many thanks to Molly Brown from Cornell Cooperative Extension for constructing all 49 bat boxes and for teaching us so much! And thanks to the Community Support Group- Summer Recreation for making this event possible! (Special shout out to Emma for helping us paint all the boxes—someone better make you a Thank You cake! )

Collaborative Summer Reading Week 2: Kaylee & Luckee
2021-07-14 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Week two of our collaborative Summer Reading program with the Clymer – French Creek Free Library may have been a bit more rainy than last week, but we still had a great time hearing stories and learning about training and agility with Kaylee and her dog, Luckee! We learned about commands, different types of collars and leashes, and what kinds of things judges expect when Luckee shows off his skills. Many thanks to Miss Darlene for reading some stories, and to Kaylee (and her mom) and Luckee for a fun-filled morning!

Book Club
2021-07-15 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” July is Blue!

Join us this month in discussing Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk.

As usual, masking and distancing required.

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind.
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Collaborative Summer Reading Week 3: Farm Animals
2021-07-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
On a chilly, drizzly Wednesday, the intrepid Miss Darlene enlisted the help of her family to introduce some of the animals from their farm. We met:

A mama goat and her two kids.
Two anxious chickens, one of whom made a daring escape but was soon recaptured.
Two big, very soft chinchilla rabbits, one named Jose.

We also heard two wonderful stories and a couple of us even checked out some books and got some prizes!

Many thanks to Miss Darlene and her family for bringing the animals over for a visit!

Board Meeting
2021-07-26 18:30 - 20:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
The AFCL board will meet in the library at 6:30 pm to discuss library matters.
Meetings are open to the public. If you are not vaccinated, wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Collaborative Summer Reading Week 4: Worm Farms
2021-07-28 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Miss Molly returns to teach us about worms, vermicomposting, and we will make worm farms!
Pictures forthcoming!

Collaborative Summer Reading Week 5: Wool Friendship Bracelets
2021-08-04 10:00 - 11:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Yesterday was our last Wednesday collaboration with Clymer – French Creek Free Library, and our friend Molly came back to read to us again, to show us a few different kinds of dyed wool, and teach us how to make friendship bracelets. These bracelets require teamwork and lots of twisting, so it’s best to grab a friend!

Many thanks go to Molly Brown, educator from Cornell Cooperative Extension, for teaching us so many amazing things this summer! And even more thanks to Darlene from Clymer for joining forces with us for Summer Reading this year! We’ve learned a lot and had a blast, so we can’t wait to see what happens next summer!

Remember, there are still lots of activities and crafts to come as we continue with Summer Reading through the end of August. Stay tuned here on Facebook to see what’s coming up. If you haven’t had a chance to come in and add your hours yet, or get a prize, or if you’ve just run out of books, come to the library and we’ll help you out!

Book Club
2021-08-19 18:30 - 19:30 | Alexander Findley Community Library
Our Book Club 2021 Challenge is “Reading Colors Your World.” August is Mimosa!

Join us this month in discussing The Cat Who Went Underground by Lilian Jackson Braun.

If you are not vaccinated, please wear a mask and socially distance.

Jim Qwilleran packs up his old kit bag and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, for a sun-and-fun summer at his log cabin in Moose County. Their vacation starts out ominously with the disappearance of a handyman hired to patch up Qwilleran’s cabin. But the felines really start throwing catfits when they come across a dead body or two…A serial killer may be right under Koko’s nose, and now this ingenious Siamese must dig deeper to clear poor Qwilleran of suspicion—and dig up the motive for a catastrophic crime. (via goodreads)

Board Meeting
2021-08-23 18:30 - 20:00 | Alexander Findley Community Library
The AFCL board will meet in the Young at Heart Room at 6:30 pm to discuss library matters.
Meetings are open to the public. If you are not vaccinated, wear a mask and practice social distancing.
