The Short List

Pictorial Gazette columnist Terry Hargrove has written a book

called “Don’t Mind Me: A Tennessean Lost In Connecticut” and we will be

hosting a reception for him at the Library on Thursday, June 7^th from 7-8pm.

The Essex Citizens For Clean 

Energy have awarded us a grant 

for $250 to underwrite the 

current Clean Energy Series.

Our series will continue on 

Wednesday, May 16th at 6:30pm with 

a panel discussion including: Sheri 

Dieso from Centerbrook Architects and 

Planners who will discuss the green roof 

on Centerbrook’s building, recycling and 

the commercial use of solar energy; 

Stephanie Degen-Monroe, local architect, will 

address the commercial use of geothermal 

technology; George Penniman of George 

Penniman Architects will address residential 

use of geothermal technology, Marty Bell of 

Bell Power Systems will speak on roof-top 

photovoltaics and his firm’s multi-faceted 

approach to reducing its carbon footprint; 

and a representative from either Essex 

Citizens for Clean Energy or Community 

Energy to talk about purchasing 

wind-powered energy. Admission is free 

but seating is limited and registration is 

recommended. 

Call the library at 860 767-1560 to register or 

for more information. 

There’s a new theme park in town–if you live in England. It’s set to open the end of May in Chatham Maritime, Kent, England and it’s called Dickens World! There has been a revival of interest in Charles Dickens’ books with purchases on Amazon up 160% last year perhaps as a result of the terrific adaptation of Bleak House by the BBC with Gillian Anderson (better known as Scully from The X Files tv show.)

The Dickens World website provides a timelapse video of the construction and descriptions of rides and attractions.

No doubt you’ve seen or heard about the environmental programs we’ve had at the Library this spring. Here is a quick link to books in our catalog that will give you ideas for what you can do to save our planet.

http://catalog.lioninc.org/search/X?d:(environmental%20protection%20–%20citizen%20participation)&searchscope=29&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=D

Author, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam was killed in a car accident in Menlo Park, California yesterday. He was the author of more than 20 books, with one more to be published this fall. He wrote on a variety of topics with books about sports interspersed between the more serious tomes.

The American Library Association (ALA) released their 2007 State of America’s Libraries Report on April 20th. This report provides the most up-to-date national data on library use which was up for adults, kids and students. For the good news–usage is up, programs are increasing, nuts-and-bolts services are still heavily used; and the bad news–despite the research that links school libraries with student achievement were hard hit by funding cuts last year. Read the entire report and learn about all the great things happening at libraries around the country. If you have any suggestions for programs, materials or anything else the Library might provide please let us know–767-1560 or we have a suggestion box on our homepage: http://www.essexlibrary.lioninc.org/
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/march2007/SAL_AnnualReport-FINAL.pdf

This year’s Essex Reads book is “To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.” Please join our town-wide book discussion of the book on Sunday, May 6th at 4pm. Registration is suggested. Please call the library at 767-1560 or drop in to register.

The Friends of the Essex Library Spring Book Sale will be held on Saturday, May 19th from 10am to 5pm and on Sunday, May 2oth from 1to 5pm. The sale items will be half-price on Sunday.

The Library will remain open for patrons to check-out and return items both days but the computers in the adult area will be unavailable on Saturday.

Although we originally scheduled our book launch party for Jenny Tripp on May 18th, we have changed the date to May 11th from 7-8pm instead. Come celebrate with us as “Pete And Fremont” makes its Essex debut. The books will be available for purchase for $16–cash, check or charge.

The formal announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes, made each April, states that the awards are made by the president of Columbia University on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize board. This formulation is derived from the Pulitzer will, which established Columbia as the seat of the administration of the prizes. Today, in fact, the independent board makes all the decisions relative to the prizes. In his will Pulitzer bestowed an endowment on Columbia of $2,000,000 for the establishment of a School of Journalism, one-fourth of which was to be “applied to prizes or scholarships for the encouragement of public, service, public morals, American literature, and the advancement of education.”

The winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Award for Fiction is “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy; for History: “The Race Beat” by Gene Roberts and Hank Kilbanoff; for Biography: “The Most Famous Man In America” by Debby Applegate; for General Non-Fiction: “The Looming Tower” by Lawrence Wright; and for Poetry: “Native Guard” by Natasha Trethewey.