Memoirs & Coffee Book Discussion Group to Meet

The next meeting of Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held at 10:30 am on Tuesday, July 20 in the library’s Community Room. Pat Kennedy-Grant, Readers’ Services Coordinator for the library, will lead the discussion of The Liars’ Club: A Memoir (1995) by Mary Karr. [The author will not be present.]

When it was published in 1995, the book received rave reviews: it was a National Book Circle Award Finalist and a PEN Nonfiction Award nominee. Selected as one of the best books that year by People, Time, The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly, it quickly rose to the top of the bestseller list in 1996 when the paperback was released.

The book recounts Karr’s memories of a difficult childhood in a small East Texas town. Her alcoholic, at times psychotic mother married six times, and her father was also hard-drinking and frequently absent. Author Tobias Wolff wrote about the book, “The Liars’ Club is the vivid recollection of a childhood no one would have chosen, but such is the ferocity of Karr’s love for her family, and the gritty eloquence of her voice, that we enter her world with pleasure and leave it with regret.” The book has been credited with a dramatic revival in the literary form of memoir writing.

There is no charge to attend the book discussion, and no sign-up is needed. For further information, call the library at 908-766-0118.

Mark Twain’s Wonderful Words

Mark Twain exhorted his readers, “Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!” These are among the many selections of “wonderful words” to be read by three professional actors from Toma Jama Productions at Bernardsville Public Library on Wednesday, July 14 at 7:00 pm.

Dressed in traditional Reader's Theater attire (black pants and black shirt), the actors, Tom and Maggie Worsdale and James Dyne, will read selections from Twain’s essays and as characters in works such as The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, and The Diaries Of Adam And Eve.

Born Samuel Clemens in 1835, Mark Twain grew up to become a newspaper reporter and celebrated writer. His time as a riverboat pilot led to his pen name: "mark twain" means the water is safe to navigate. Listeners will be transported back to a hot July evening, 150 years ago, on a glorious riverboat taking a ride down the ol' Mississippi at dusk.

Tom Worsdale has been acting and directing for the past 35 years. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he holds a B.A. from Clemson University in South Carolina and an M.A. from the University of Northern Colorado. He is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. As a Hollywood liaison, he advised on numerous films and helped coordinate Hollywood and celebrity functions associated with the military. Mr. Worsdale worked as producer and coordinator for Jay Leno's shows for the troops overseas and assisted on three Bob Hope events for both the stage and television. Currently, he is the head of public relations at Lakehurst Navel Base in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

James Dyne is a native of London, England and holds a degree in business and graphic design. Mr. Dyne has been associated with the theater for over 30 years designing and building sets for some 40 productions in New York and New Jersey. In his professional life, James is the director of corporate university global operations for a major telecommunications company.

Maggie Worsdale is a native of Hightstown, NJ and holds a B.A. in English and Theater from Marietta College, Marietta Ohio. She is an international cabaret singer and has worked with Bob Hope and George Burns. Having lived all over the country with her Air Force husband, Ms. Worsdale has done professional theater from coast to coast. She is now touring the country in a two-woman musical show, THE GAUDY GIRLS: Starring Mae West and Sophie Tucker.

There is no charge to attend the library program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at http://www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/ and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up. This show is appropriate for ages ten and older.

Patient Advocacy in the Healthcare System

Learn how to advocate for yourself and your family throughout the healthcare system when Jacqueline O’Doherty of Health Care Connect discusses the topic at Bernardsville Public Library on Thursday, July 15 at 7:00 pm.

When a patient and his or her family are grappling with the stress of illness, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by treatments, medical options, follow-up care and insurance issues. Ms. O’Doherty will explain how people can navigate through confusing and complex medical situations, enabling them to make educated decisions after considering all their options. This includes the navigation of medical treatments from multiple providers, insurers, pharmaceuticals and other details that accompany healthcare.

Ms. O’Doherty will also talk about how to find the resources the patient needs to facilitate rehabilitation, follow-up care and long-term care options while stressing the importance of communication and coordination of care, as well as effective discharge planning. She’ll provide tips on managing the intricacies and complexities of the healthcare system.

Ms. O’Doherty came into Patient Advocacy after spending years in the medical industry, in medical device sales and then lab outreach, and seeing first hand the difficulties patients encountered when traveling the healthcare system. She says she “understands the guidance patients need to navigate the complex intricacies of our healthcare system.” She completed the Alpus Patient Advocacy Program at the University of Miami and now resides in Peapack-Gladstone where she runs her Patient Advocacy practice, Health Care Connect, LLC.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Saturday Samplers Book Group to Meet

Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, July 10 at 3:30 pm to discuss Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000) by David Sedaris. [The author will not be present.]

Sedaris has been compared by The New Yorker magazine to Mark Twain, and this book is a collection of humorous essays that deal with the author’s unconventional life story. They include hilarious pieces, including the eponymous chapter, “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” about Sedaris’s attempts to learn French when he moved to Paris. His family is another inspiration.

Sedaris was discovered reading from his diary in a Chicago club by the radio host Ira Glass. This led to his appearance on Glass’s National Public Radio show, “The Wild Room,” and eventually led to his reading, in December 1992 on the NPR show Morning Edition, of his “SantaLand Diaries" in which he describes his stint working as a Christmas elf in SantaLand at Macy's department store. The piece was well-received and provided Sedaris with his first major break.

Led by Readers’ Services Assistant, Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction. Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books. Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com/. No sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.

Film Screening - “Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture”

Theodore Roosevelt said in 1907 about the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens: “There is no greater artistic genius living in this or any other country.” Bernardsville resident and award-winning filmmaker Paul G. Sanderson has produced and directed an acclaimed feature documentary film on Saint-Gaudens which was recently broadcast nationally on PBS and had its premiere at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Sanderson will introduce the Director’s Cut of the film when it is shown at Bernardsville Public Library on Thursday, July 22 at 7:00 pm.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture documents the life and work of this great American sculptor who was born in 1848 and lived into the 20th century. Trained in Paris and Rome, Saint-Gaudens is considered America’s premier sculptor of the 19th and early 20th centuries. During a career that spanned three decades, he created nearly 150 works of art including a number of major public monuments to heroes of the Civil War. Master of American Sculpture traces Saint-Gaudens’ life, both personally and professionally, from his birth in Dublin, Ireland to his work in New York City and Paris to his death in Cornish, New Hampshire. The film reveals him as a leader among artists who was one of the first to integrate architecture, landscape design and monumental sculpture as well as becoming the pre-eminent creator of bas-relief. Often compared to the great artists of the Italian Renaissance, he invigorated sculpture in the United States and raised it to new heights during his lifetime.

As producer/director and president of Our Town Films, Inc., Paul Sanderson has enjoyed considerable success in creating television documentaries and educational programs. Since founding Our Town Films in 1992, Mr. Sanderson has won over 30 national awards, including nine CINE Golden Eagles. The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has honored Mr. Sanderson by placing one of his films in its permanent collection. His programs have appeared on NBC, PBS, The Discovery Channel, A&E Network, The History Channel and CNBC. His films have premiered at Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian.

There is no charge to attend the library program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at http://www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/ and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Photo: Sherman Monument, New York City

Pastel Society of New Jersey to Display Work at Bernardsville Library

During the month of July, Bernardsville Public Library is pleased to present the Fifth Annual Members Show of the Pastel Society of New Jersey (PSNJ). The public is invited to the award reception for Focus on Pastels on Thursday, July 8 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Work by over forty artists will be exhibited, many of whom are signature members of the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and the PSNJ. [Being a signature member means that the artist must be juried into a certain number of the organization's shows.] The Pastel Society of New Jersey was founded in 2005 to promote public interest in the traditional medium of dry pastels.

The show will be on exhibit from June 28 to July 30 in the Community Room during regular library hours unless a meeting is in progress. For further information, please call the library at 908-766-0118.

Picture: "Fairview Farms" by Stephanie Amato

“Accentuate the Positive” at Bernardsville Library

Inspirational speaker Andrea Mastrobattista will lead a session of her monthly group, “Accentuate the Positive,” at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, June 30 at Bernardsville Public Library.

This discussion group is about leaving our troubles at the doorstep and spending an hour talking about all the good things that are in our lives...a reminder of the positives. It means taking a step back from working on a specific goal or goals, which may indeed be too much for people at this point with the state of our world and the economy. When times are tough, our tendency is to dwell on the bad rather than think about all the wonderful things in our lives. This group aims to reverse that tendency.

There is no charge to attend the library workshop, but advance registration is requested. Register online at http://www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/, and follow the link under Programs/Activities, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Bees and Beekeeping in New Jersey

If you are concerned about the state of bees in New Jersey and the United States in general, come to Bernardsville Public Library on Tuesday, June 22 at 7:00 pm to watch a short film on beekeeping and hear long-time beekeeper Bob Hughes talk about the problems facing the industry as a whole.

Mr. Hughes has been keeping bees for about 30 years and maintained about 250 colonies at the peak of his beekeeping. He has held the position of president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association and also president of the Central Jersey Beekeepers Association. For about 20 years, he has worked as a part-time bee inspector for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. There will be a question and answer period after his talk.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Saturday Samplers Book Group to Meet

Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, June 12 at 3:30 pm to discuss Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. [The author will not be present.] The subject of the book is Dr. Paul Farmer, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist and recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, who finds his calling in medical school: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the tools of modern medicine to those that need them most.

In countries like Haiti, Peru, Cuba and Russia, he demonstrates his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.” He gets funding from the Gates Foundation, George Soros, and help from the U.N.’s World Health Organization, and he spreads the optimism of hope. As in the Haitian proverb, “Beyond mountains there are mountains:” he solves one problem and another presents itself, but he goes on to try to solve that one too.

Author Tracy Kidder graduated from Harvard and studied at the University of Iowa. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, and many other literary prizes. Also the author of Strength in What Remains, My Detachment, Home Town, Old Friends, Among Schoolchildren, House, and The Soul of a New Machine, Kidder lives in Massachusetts and Maine.

Led by Readers’ Services Assistant, Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction. Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books. Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com. No sign-up is needed to join the discussion. Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.

Museum Lecture on Picasso Exhibition at Bernardsville Library

Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, an exhibition that opened last month at The Metropolitan Museum, will be the subject of a slide lecture at 7:00 pm on Thursday, June 10 at Bernardsville Public Library. Vivian Gordon will discuss this landmark exhibition, the first to focus exclusively on works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) in the Museum's collection.

The show features three hundred works, including the Museum's complete holdings of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and ceramics by Picasso—never before seen in their entirety—as well as a selection of the artist's prints. At the library program, Ms. Gordon will focus on exhibition highlights that reflect the full breadth of the artist's multi–sided genius as it asserted itself over the course of his long and influential career.

The key subjects that variously sustained Picasso's interest—the pensive harlequins of his Blue and Rose periods, the faceted figures and tabletop still-lifes of his cubist years, the monumental heads and classicizing bathers of the 1920s, the raging bulls and dreaming nudes of the 1930s, and the rakish cavaliers and musketeers of his final years—are represented in the exhibition and will also be discussed.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Bernardsville Library Summer Reading Clubs Make a Splash

Make a splash @ your library this summer! Join in Bernardsville Library’s Summer Reading club activities which will begin on Monday, June 21 at 6:30 pm with popular magician Jim Vagias entertaining the whole family.

Take a Tromp through the Swamp and a Break by the Lake, a performance with a catchy title by widely acclaimed singer/guitarist Tom Sieling will mark the official beginning of the “summer season” on Saturday, June 26 at 3:00 pm. Mr. Sieling will accompany himself and the audience on guitar, banjo, harmonica and a drum machine; there will be singing parts for everyone in the family.

Make a splash @ your library is the summer reading club theme adopted by New Jersey and across the United States for children aged 2½ to Grade 6. Make waves @ your library will be geared toward teens in Grades 7 to 12. Water is the universal theme and will be the underlying subject of many of the activities. There will be weekly craft programs, drop-in story times, and incentives and prizes to encourage reading, and all of which will entertain and challenge children through the summer months.

There will be plenty of special events too, ranging from the appearance of a 59-foot inflatable whale (Starfish Enterprises, Monday, July 12 at 7:00 pm), open chess tournaments with Martin Sobin on Wednesdays (June 30 to July 21 at 7:00 pm), and “Water Works” with Mad Science (Friday, July 23 at 1:30 pm for ages 3-5), and “Shakespeare for Children" with Gemma Richardson (Fridays, July 9-30 at 11:00 am for Grades K-3).

Sign-Up
The summer reading clubs are open to readers aged 2½ through high school. Sign-ups for all programs begin in the morning of Monday, June 28 when the library opens. They will run from Tuesday, July 6 through Friday, August 20. Younger participants will receive a special logbook in which to record reading minutes. Middle and high schoolers will be able to earn community services hours in a book buddy reading program as well as at pre-teen knitting nights. Registration is open all summer. Check the library website for more program details and to sign up for individual programs.

Importance of Reading
Studies show that reading as a leisure activity is a powerful tool to increase reading comprehension, speed and vocabulary. Significant learning losses can occur over the summer if children don't read. The idea behind the summer reading programs is to help students raise their reading skills during the vacation by encouraging them to participate in the library programs which help students maintain and improve reading skills while they have fun. For further information about summer activities, call the Library at 908-766-0118. Sign up for individual programs at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org; follow the link under Kid Stuff.

Photos, Abstracts & Digital Art by Charles Miller On Display at Bernardsville Library

“From Florals to Fantasies: Photographs, Abstracts and Digital Art” by Charles Miller will be on display at Bernardsville Public Library during the month of June. The public is invited to the opening reception on Sunday, June 6 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

Mr. Miller, who lives in Ringoes, is an emerging photographer with a background as a theatre designer for sets, lights, costumes and props. He has worked in colleges in Kansas, New York City and New Jersey and has done set and lighting design off-Broadway. For the last 30 years, he has worked in theatre management, arts administration and arts programming and is currently the manager of the Arts Upstairs Gallery at the Community Theatre in Morristown, NJ. He began working seriously in photography and digital abstractions in 2008. He is a member of The Contemporary Arts Group (CAG); Millburn Short Hills Arts Center (MSHAC); NJ Photographers Forum; and Visions (a collective of artists that present shows around throughout New Jersey). His works have been shown in the Morris County Library, Overlook Hospital, Chatham Library, the NJ Photographers Forum Juried Show at Watchung Arts Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Hunterdon County Library and Cranes Mill Gallery.

“Art IS in the eye of the beholder,” says Miller, “But, hopefully, vision is in the eye of the artist. As a photographer, abstractionist and visual artist, I try to find the vision within the larger picture. Whether it is working to bring out the beauty of an image or manipulating an image into some ‘new life,’ I hope to find something that has been missed by others.”

For further information on the show, call the library at 908-766-0118.