Milton Public Library to host adult events through December

Events include floral arrangement workshops, book clubs, Tuesday night at the movies, and more

In December, the Milton Public Library will offer some fun programs to help us through the holiday season. First of all, there will be a “Holiday Floral Arrangement Workshop” with Lisa Ahearn, Floral Designer at Cedar Grove Gardens, on Monday evening, December 3rd starting at 7:00 p.m. Lisa will generously offer her floral designs as raffle items to audience members, so please come and get some holiday decorating inspiration at this fun workshop! Then on Wednesday, December 5th at 7:00 p.m. Library Director Will Adamczyk will hold his “Local History Book Group” and the title to be read in advance is Unredeemed Captive by John Demos (Alfred Knopf, c1994). This book was nominated for the National Book Award and was winner of the Francis Parkman Prize. The setting for this haunting and well researched work of history is colonial Massachusetts, where English Puritans first endeavoured to “civilize” a “savage” native populace. There, in February 1704, a French and Indian war party descended on the village of Deerfield, abducting a Puritan minister and his children. Although John Williams was eventually released, his daughter horrified the family by staying with her captors and marrying a Mohawk husband. Out of this incident, The Bancroft- Prize-winning historian John Demos has constructed a gripping narrative that opens a window into North America where English, French, and Native Americans faced one another across gulfs of culture and belief, and sometimes crossed over. John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. He lives in Tyringham, MA and has won several prizes for his writing, including for his work called Entertaining Satan. Please come join Will for this fascinating educational chat.

Next there will be meetings of our ongoing programs of Knitting and Drop-in Device Help with Chris in December. The dates for the Milton Knitting Group with Nina Zonnevylle are Thursday, December 6th starting at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 15th at 10:00 a.m. in the Conference Room. Come join other knitters in this fun and social drop-in, and get some valuable tips and tricks for your projects from Nina and meet new friends. And then Chris Callaghan’s “Drop-in Device Workshop” will be held on Tuesday, December 11th at 10:00 a.m. and Wednesday, December 19th at 6:00 p.m. in the Conference Room. So if you need help downloading materials including electronic books, audiobooks, movies or more, or just want to ask questions about your device, come see Chris because he has all the answers. No sign-up is required. Just stop by.

The next event is a new book group called the “Celebrity Book Group” and this will happen also on Thursday, December 6th at 7:00 p.m. with hosts Sally Lawler and Sara Truog. Read what the celebrities are reading! Join this brand-new program where you will be able to engage in a fun and relaxed discussion of books recommended by popular celebrities (who are unlikely to attend..!). The book to be read in advance is: Still Lives by Maria Hummel. This is a book recommended by Actress Reese Witherspoon so please check it out and join us. This group will be held in the second floor Trustees Room, so check in at the Reference desk when you arrive. There will be the third concert in our Fall series happening on Saturday, December 8th starting at 2:00 p.m. and this will be a celebration of the holidays with a return by “The New England Irish Harp Orchestra.” You may remember seeing and hearing this wonderful group from a couple of years ago here at the Library, so I am bringing them back for more fun. The band consists of about 12 Irish harpists, a few other instrumentalists, and their Director, Regina Delaney, who performs an Irish dance as well! Their repertoire includes traditional Irish dance tunes, slow airs, and songs. Members range in age from mid-twenties to mid-eighties and come from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. The Orchestra has been performing for over 12 years throughout New England and Ireland. Regina Delaney is a New Hampshire Council on the Arts artist on the Traditional Arts and Arts in Health Care Roster. For this concert, the group will bring us beautiful songs to celebrate the holiday season with their lovely melodic instruments. Please come and catch the spirit at this event, where we will also offer holiday refreshments for all. This is an all-ages event, so bring the family too.

And last but not least, our “Tuesday Night at the Movies” will be held on a Monday in December because of meeting space limitations. So, the new date is Monday, December 10th starting promptly at 6:00 p.m. and the movie is “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” which will be shown in a free screening open to all except it is perhaps not appropriate for children under 13 years of age. This film tells the story of Fred Rogers, TV childrens programming host. For over 30 years, Mr. Rogers, an unassuming minister, puppeteer, writer and producer, was beamed daily into homes across America in his beloved television program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” takes an intimate look at Fred Rogers, a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination. There hadn’t been anything like Mister Rogers on television before and there hasn’t been since! Please come and enjoy this highly acclaimed movie. It is rated PG-13 for “some thematic elements and language” and the running time is 1 hour and 35 minutes.

For more information about events:

All of these events are kindly sponsored by the Friends of the Milton Public Library and are free and open to the public. They will be held in the Keys Community Room unless otherwise noted here, and we are hoping to see you all at the library in December for an enjoyable program! For more information about any of them, go to our website which is www.miltonlibrary.org or call Librarian Jean Hlady at the Reference desk at 617-698-5757, x. 3.