Library Closure

Due to the anticipated snow storm, the South Thomaston Public Library  will be closed tomorrow, Wednesday, February 2nd. We plan to re-open with normal hours on Saturday, February 5th. We hope you are all safe at home reading a good book.   Don't forget, the Maine Download library is available 24/7 from your home computer.  Pick out a good audio or e-book to enjoy while you're snowed in.

January is Amnesty Month!

Do you have a pile of overdue books that you've been meaning to return but you're worried about the fines?

We have a deal for you.  Overdue books returned during the month of January will have their fines forgiven.

So gather them up and bring them to the library.  Then you can find some new exciting books (we've gotten lots of new ones in lately) to keep you company during these cold winter days.

Important weather announcement!

Due to the impending blizzard approaching the Maine coast,  the library will be closed on Monday December 27th.  In addition, there will NOT be a story hour that morning.  We expect to be back to regular hours on Wednesday December 29th - open from 2PM til 7PM. 


Enjoy the snow - we'll see you on Wednesday!

Book Club Discussion - The Color of Water

James McBride tells us the story of growing up black, in Harlem, then in projects in the Bronx. Raised by his white mother (his black father died before he was born) and black step-father, he was one of 12 children. He describes a loving but very strictly disciplined family life, where children were expected to be successful, respectful, and STAY IN SCHOOL. Children were due in the house by 5:00 in the evening, and slept 5 to a bed. Dinner might often be a jar of peanut butter or several spoons of sugar. He never met his mother's family and did not discover until he had completed his master's in Journalism at Columbia U, and decided to write a tribute to his mother, that she was jewish, that her family had disowned her, that her father was an orthodox Jewish rabbi who abused her, and just how hard her life had been.

The story is told both in the son's and the mother's voices. It is very well-written, and gives us an incredible insight into each mind. James' father was a preacher, and his mother converted to Christianity and insisted on church attendance and prayer from all her children. As he begins to realize that his mother is different from other mothers, he asks her "Is God Black?" "NO" she answers. "Well is he white?" Mom replies in the negative. Still the young boy persists. "Well what color is he?" "The color of water."

As he lovingly recounts his search for his mother's family, and helps her confront a past she has repressed, he comes to an acceptance of his Jewishness, his multi-cultural roots, and gives us a picture of an exceptional family. In the epilogue he gives us a breakdown of the incredible achievements of them all. Every one of the 12 graduated from college. There are two doctors, school teachers, musicians, journalists, nurses, artists, and the mother completes her degree in her late 60's.

The group spent quite a bit of time discussing the differences in parenting style of the author's growing up years and what would be allowed (or frowned upon) today.  Everyone enjoyed the book and would recommend it neighbors and friends.

New Service Available - E books are here!

Popular E-Books are now available from The Maine InfoNet Overdrive Collection

Many of us are anticipating getting an e-reader soon, and others simply want to be able to read the latest books as soon as they come out without having to leave the comforts of home.  Now thanks to your local library, you have access to over 1000 ebooks for free.

Your South Thomaston Library Card is all you need to access this collection.

Note! This collection is offered through Overdrive, the current leader in the e-book lending market. The e-books available here can be read on Mac or PC computers, and can be transferred to the Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony eReader, Borders Kobo, and more (full guide to compatible devices).

 
Unfortunately, these e-books cannot be read on Amazon Kindles or Apple iPads due to licensing and format incompatibility. 





Here's an easy How-To:

Step 1: Visit the Overdrive Download Library. There are almost 1,400 free e-books available and
running!

Step 2: Download the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) Software to your computer (this is the software required to read e-book content).

• Click on the Quick Start Guide to download the software, Adobe will prompt you to create a free Adobe ID
• Once you launch the ADE software, it will prompt you to authorize your computer

Step 3: Search for the e-book you want on the Overdrive site (Limit! Only up to 3 e-books at a time)

• If it’s available, select a 7 or 14 day loan period from the drop-down menu, then click Add to Cart
• If it’s already checked-out to someone else, click Place a Hold, provide your email address and Overdrive will notify you when it becomes available
• When you have chosen the e-book(s) you want to check-out, clickProceed To Checkout
• Download your checked-out e-books to ADE

Step 4: Read e-books on your computer in the ADE software 

• If ADE does not open automatically, launch it from your programs menu
• If the item is not showing, click on Library at the top of the window

Step 5: Transfer an e-book to your e-reader device from your computer.

• Connect your device to your computer via the USB port
• Open Adobe Digital Editions on your computer
• When Adobe recognizes your device, agree to let it authorize this device (like you did with your computer)
• When authorization is complete, an icon for your device will appear in the left column under “Bookshelves”
• Click and drag the e-book title from your Adobe “Library” to this device icon (green + icon will appear) and let go
• Depending on the device, you may need to “check for the new content”in order to see the downloaded e-books files.

Wherever you read your e-book, it is “due” either 7 or 14 days after you checked it out from Overdrive, depending on which option you chose. (A diagonal ribbon across the book cover shows the remaining check-out days.)

If you finish with the item sooner than the due date, you can check it back in to Overdrive early to be eligible to check-out another e-book (3 items max). To check-in the e-book, go to Adobe Digital Editions, in the Book Cover view of your Library, click once on the item you want to return to highlight it. Then click the arrow near the upper left corner of the book cover and choose Return Borrowed Item from the short menu.

Once you return it from your Adobe library, it is removed from your  computer, but it remains on your e-reader device and you can continue reading it for the remaining loan period. If, however, you wait until the e-book expires, the file remains on your reader and your computer but becomes unreadable, so you need to choose to delete it. 

Click for more information about how to use the DownloadLibrary e-books.

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November Book Club

The next meeting of the South Thomaston Library Book Discussion Group will be

at noon on

Wednesday November 15th.

You can pick up a copy of this month's choice

The Color of Water

by James McBride 

at the Library.

Please join us for a discussion of this outstanding book.

The publisher says

"Don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all."

Book Club kickoff - Bel Canto

The first meeting of the South Thomaston Library Book discussion group was quite a success.  Six people met and had a lively discussion of Bel Patchett's Bel Canto.  Several confessed that they did not like the book, and others loved it. 

Here's what it was about.  There are some spoilers here, so if you haven't read it, and are planning to, be aware. Bel Canto is a story of love, of music, of human beings' ability to maintain their humanity in spite of hardship.

Roxann Coss, a famous American opera singer is giving a concert in honor of Mr. Hosokawa in the home of the vice-president of an unnamed South American country.  In attendance are people from around the world who have come ostensibly to wish Mr. Hosokawa a happy birthday, but really are there to court his business. He has come only to hear his idol sing. The guests speak a variety of languages - English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Russian, who knows what else.  Mr. Hosokawa has had the foresight to bring along his brilliant translator, Gen Watanabe who can speak almost every language in the room.

A group of terrorists invades the party, sends all the women home - with the exception of Roxann - and settles in for a long period of 'negotiation' to meet their demands.  They don't seem to have formulated their demands very well.  In fact, they are a disorganized bunch consisting of three apparently has-been generals, and a rag-tag group of very young, eager but inexperienced rebels.  As the siege drags on for months, the real story unfolds.  The hostages become friends with the terrorists; the terrorists become comfortable with their "guests" and feel no compunction to end the stand -off, especially since they are in a gorgeous house with good plumbing, the government sends in good food, they have TV, and they have Roxann to sing opera for them everyday.  In additon, two of the guards are revealed to be women, and this adds even more human interest to the story.

We all had differing reactions to this story, and we all agreed that  it would have been a better book if the author had omitted the epilogue where she tries to wrap all the pieces up neatly. Some thought it was  a dull, dreary story about imprisonment, deprivation, and depression.  Others found it to be an uplifting story of human beings making the best of what they've been given. We discussed the scientific study one of us had seen  someplace about hostages bonding with their captors.  In this story, it is easy to see how it could happen. We all agreed we didn't like the ending, but didn't see any other options. I won't spoil the story by giving it away.

If you're reading this book, or have read it in the past, we'd love to hear your thoughts.  Just leave us a comment here.