Author: Jessica O'Connor

Cue The Sun!

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Consider this your invitation to read and discuss narrative nonfiction with us! In the Narrative Nonfiction Book Club we will be reading across the genres of nonfiction, from history to adventure, memoir/biography, and beyond with books that read like a novel.

Join us on Saturday, August 2nd at 11am in the Hermann room as we discuss our latest book pick, 2025 Andrew Carnegie Finalist, Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum. 

This book club is free to the public and copies of the book are available at the adult service desk one month prior to our book club meeting.  To register to attend, CLICK HERE.

Cue the Sun! Synopsis:

“The rollicking saga of reality television – an ambitious cultural history of America’s most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize – winning New Yorker writer.

Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre?  Any why can’t we look away?  In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary” – from its contentions roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump – Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it.  At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.

A shrewd observer who adores television, Nussbaum is the ideal voice for the first substantive history of the genre that, for better or worse, made America what it is today.”

About the Author:

“Emily Nussbaum is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she’s worked since 2011, originally as the magazine’s television critic.  In 2016, she won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.  Previously, she was the culture editor for New York, where she created the Approval Matrix.  She is also the author of I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution, which was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.  She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Clive Thompson, and their two children.”

 

Local Travel Guidebooks Talk and Book Signing

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Join us at the Falmouth Public Library on Tuesday, August 5th at 6:30pm in the Hermann meeting room for a local travel guidebooks talk followed by a Q&A and book signing with authors Linda Humphrey and Kim Foley MacKinnon! 

Linda will be discussing her local travel guidebook Secret Cape Cod and the Islands: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure and Kim will talk about her 100 Things to Do in Massachusetts Before You Die and 100 Things to Do on Cape Cod and the Islands Before You Die guidebooks. 

Copies will be available for purchase at the event by Eight Cousins.  All are welcome!  To register to attend, CLICK HERE or visit/call the library’s adult services desk at 508-457-2555 x7.

Linda Humprey’s Secret Cape Cod and the Islands

“Secret Cape Cod and the Islands reveals the best and most unexpected aspects of the region and shows you how to experience them for yourself. Want to know where to find the best places for watching a sunset, swimming in hidden ponds, savoring a chef-prepared feast in a farm field, making your own jam, or seeing a play with Broadway-level talent? Veteran journalists Linda Humphrey and Maria Lenhart, aka the Hard News Travel Team, left no scone unturned while spending countless hours investigating the secret treasures of a region they have known and loved for many years.”

Linda Humphrey is an award-winning writer and editor based in Falmouth and New York City. A former editor at Cosmopolitan and Travel Weekly, she is the co-author of Secret Cape Cod and the Islands: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful and Obscure (Reedy Press), which won the Lowell Thomas Silver Award (second place) for the best travel guidebook of 2024. Sponsored by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation, the Lowell Thomas Award is the highest national recognition for travel journalists.

Kate MacKinnon’s 100 Things to Do

“Explore the Bay State, from rich historic sites in Boston to stunning beaches on Cape Cod to a world-class arts scene in the Berkshires, and learn about the state’s must-see spots, from museums to markets and everything in between in 100 Things to Do in Massachusetts Before You Die.  While miles of gorgeous beaches are the calling cards of Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, there is so much more to these Massachusetts gems.  100 Things to Do on Cape Cod and the Islands Before You Die offers visitors and locals alike a chance to try and taste the very best, with itineraries and seasonal ideas for the whole family.”

Kim Foley MacKinnon is a freelance food and travel writer who has lived in Boston for more than 25 years. Kim’s other books include Secret Boston: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure and 100 Things to Do in Boston Before You Die, 2nd edition. She is also the executive editor of Girl Camper magazine. Other writing credits include the Boston Globe, Food Network, Forbes Travel, Travel + Leisure, Cruise Critic, and U.S. News & World Report, among others.

Mah Jongg Beginner Open Play

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Are you new to the game Mah Jongg?  Has it been a long time since you played and you need to practice?  Come join our Summer open play sessions on Monday afternoons!

July 7th: 1:30pm-3:30pm in the Hermann Room
July 14th: 1pm-3pm in the Bay Room
July 21st: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room
July 28th: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room
August 4th: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room
August 11th: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room
August 18th: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room
August 25th: 1pm-3pm in the Hermann Room

These sessions are intended for players who are familiar with the rules of American Mah Jongg and are looking for a casual and supportive space to practice and improve their mahjong skills by playing with other beginner players.  No formal play instruction will be provided.

Players must provide their own Mah Jongg sets and National Mah Jongg League cards.  We’ll provide the tables and chairs!

These sessions are drop-in so no registration is required.

Frostbite

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Join us at our next narrative nonfiction book club meeting on Saturday, July 12th at 4pm in the Hermann Room.  We will be discussing Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley.  Author Nicola Twilley will be joining us via Zoom for the first portion of our book club! To register to attend, CLICK HERE.

Synopsis:  “How often do we open the fridge or peer into the freezer with the expectation that we’ll find something fresh and ready to eat?  It’s an everyday act-but just a century ago, eating food that had been refrigerated was cause for both fear and excitement.  The introduction of artificial refrigeration overturned millennia of dietary history, launching a new chapter in human nutrition.  We could now overcome not just rot but seasonality and geography.  Tomatoes in January?  Avocados in Shanghai?  All possible.

In Frostbite, Nicola Twilley takes readers on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri’s subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation’s orange juice reserves.  Today, nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration.  It’s impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it.  Twilley’s eye-opening book is the first to reveal the transformative impact refrigeration has had on our health and our guts; our farms, tables, kitchens, and cities; global economics and politics; and even our environment.

In the developed world, we’ve reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but the costs are catching up with us.  We’ve eroded our connection to our food and redefined what fresh means.  More important, refrigerator is one of the leading contributors to climate change.  As the developing world races to build a US-style cold chain, Twilley asks: Can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration?  Should we?  A deeply researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge-and how our future might depend on it.”

About the author:  “Nicola Twilley is the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (2024), and co-host of the award-winning Gastropd podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science, and which is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater.  Her first book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, was co-authored with Geoff Manaugh and was named one of the best books of 2021 by Time Magazine, NPR, the Guardian, and the Financial Times.  She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Edible Geography.

‘Blink’ Documentary Screening

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Falmouth Public Library will be screening the 2024 National Geographic | Documentary Films documentary Blink on Friday, June 6th at 3:00pm in the library’s Hermann Room.  This documentary screening is free to the public and is courtesy of National Geographic | Documentary Films.  All are welcome to attend!

Blink, directed by Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, is a powerful documentary about a family that embarks on an epic journey to show their children the beauty of the world before it vanishes for good after three of their children are diagnosed with an incurable eye condition.

“ “Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier first noticed their daughter, Mia, was having vision problems when she was 3 years old. The diagnosis took years to pinpoint but, by the time Mia was 7, they had identified it as retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic condition that causes a loss or decline in vision over time. It skipped their second child, Léo, but both their younger sons, Colin and Laurent, received the same diagnosis. “We don’t know how fast it’s going to go, but we expect them to be completely blind by mid-life,” said the parents. The school’s vision impairment advisor suggested they fill Mia’s visual memory looking at pictures in books. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to show her an elephant in a book; I’m going to take her to see a real elephant,” Edith explains. “And I’m going to fill her visual memory with the best, most beautiful images I can.”

As the Canadian-based family began making plans to spend a year traveling around the globe, they canvassed the children’s opinions on what they wanted to do. Four-year-old Laurent said he wanted to drink juice on a camel. “We never found out where this crazy idea came from, but it was very dear to him and made us all laugh,” his mother said. Nothing was off limits. That bucket list became their North Star.

From the frozen fields of Nunavik to Egypt’s haunting White Desert and beyond, the film team spent 76 days with the family and created lasting bonds. “It was as if we had known each other for a long time,” said Edith. In addition to these new ties, the Pelletiers took as many pictures as possible to ensure that even when their children have lost most of their sight, they will still have something to look back on. “Maybe they’ll be able to look at the photographs and the pictures and they will bring back those stories, those memories, of the family together.” “

Blink is rated PG and has a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes. English subtitles will be used if available. To register to attend, CLICK HERE or visit/call the library’s adult services desk at 508-457-2555 x7.

Country of the Blind

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Our next narrative nonfiction book club pick is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight by Andrew Leland.  Come pick up a copy of the book at the adult services desk, register to attend, and then join us at our book club meeting on Saturday, June 7th at 11am in the Hermann room to share your thoughts!  To register now, CLICK HERE!

Synopsis:  “We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades.  He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from outside in.  Soon – but without knowing exactly when – he will likely have no vision left.

Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits him: not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs.  He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability.

Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it – to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.  Brimming with warmth and humor, it is an exhilarating tour of a new way of being.”

Perkins Library Informational Session

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Come learn about the Perkins Library from Mr. Erin Fragola and the services that they have to offer you or someone you know on Friday, May 16th at 3:30pm in the Hermann Room!  This event is free to the public and everyone is welcome.  Click here to attend.

 

Talking Book Player & Book Cartridges

The Perkins Library is a free, accessible library for Massachusetts residents who are unable to read standard print due to visual, physical, or reading disabilities. It provides audiobooks, braille, large print books, and playback devices at no cost via mail. The collection includes fiction, non-fiction, magazines, and audio-described DVDs. They also offer Tele-Fun, a remote social program with games, films, and group activities held by phone or computer. Materials and services are available to adults, teens, and children.

Mr. Erin Fragola is the Marketing and Outreach Manager at Perkins Library in Watertown, the Regional NLS Library providing accessible resources for people living in Massachusetts who have print disabilities as well as the institutions that serve them. Erin has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Worcester State University and a masters degree in Library and Information Science (LIS) from Valdosta State University in Georgia with a focus on information access and accessibility.

Do you have questions about Perkins Library and their services but can’t make it?  Call Perkins Library toll free at 1-800-852-3133 or email them at library@perkins.org.

All We Carry Documentary Screening

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

In partnership with the Falmouth Jewish Congregation, the Falmouth Public Library will be screening the 2024 documentary All We Carry on Thursday, May 8th at 6:30pm in the library’s Hermann Room.

“This feature documentary All We Carry follows a young Honduran family as they flee persecution—migrating in cargo trains across Mexico, claiming asylum at the US border, and enduring separation in detention before being released in Seattle. There, a local synagogue sponsors the family for two years while they await the final decision on their asylum case. As the family tries to settle into their new home, they navigate countless life-altering and every-day moments where memory, joy, and grief collide.”

This documentary screening is free to the public and all are welcome.  All We Carry is Not Rated and has a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes.  CLICK HERE to register to attend!

Check out the trailer below!

American Civil War Exhibit & Events

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Fire and Thunder: A Massachusetts Black Soldiers in the Civil War Exhibit
Tuesday, April 1st – Wednesday, April 30th
Adult Collections Room

For the month of April, the “Fire and Thunder” 16 panel exhibit will be on display in the Adult Collections Room for the public to view during library hours.

“The institution of slavery was a disease deeply embedded in the tissue of the new American republic.  Though abolished in Massachusetts in the 1780’s, on the national stage it survived, to be destroyed only after a long and bloody civil war.  “Fire and Thunder” tells the story of how black soldiers in Massachusetts fought – in the press, on the streets, from the pulpit, the lecture podium, and the battlefield – in defense of human dignity and freedom.”

This exhibit is free to the public and is on loan from the Commonwealth Museum.

 

Ken Burns ‘The Civil War’ Documentary Screening
Monday, April 14th – Friday, April 18th, 1pm
Hermann Meeting Room

‘The Civil War is an epic nine-episode series by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.  Heralded as an unforgettable introduction to a four-year conflict fought in 10,000 places, the film vividly embraces the entire sweep of the war: the complex causes and lasting effects of America’s greatest and most moving calamity, the battles and the homefronts, the generals and the private soldiers, the anguish of death in battle and the grief of families at home.

The library will be screening this entire Civil War documentary series over the course of a week from Monday, April 14th to Friday, April 18th.  It is free to the public and is supported by the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library.  If you can’t make it to our Ken Burns Civil War screening but still would like to watch it, you can watch the entire Civil War series from the convenience of your own home using Kanopy, a free streaming service with your Falmouth Public Library card.

Monday, April 14th: 1pm-2:45pm . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
1861: Episode 1 ‘The Cause’

Tuesday, April 15th: 1pm-3:25pm . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
1862: Episode 2 ‘A Very Bloody Affair’ & Episode 3 ‘Forever Free’

Wednesday, April 16th: 1pm-3:35pm . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
1863: Episode 4 ‘Simply Murder’ & Episode 5 ‘The Universe of Battle’

Thursday, April 17th: 1pm-3:20pm . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
1864: Episode 6 ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ & Episode 7 ‘Most Hallowed Ground’

Friday, April 18th: 1pm-3:20pm . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
1865: Episode 8 ‘War is Hell’ & Episode 9 ‘The Better Angels of our Nature’

 

Bravery & Honor: Falmouth Soldiers & Sailors ~ A Walking Tour at Oak Grove Cemetery
Saturday, April 26th, 1pm
Oak Grove Cemetery (46 Jones Road) . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

“When Abraham Lincoln sent out a call to arms Falmouth men bravely responded, reporting in large numbers to the Union army and navy.  Many of these Veterans are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.  Come hear compelling stories of a select few as this tour stops by personal grave and the renovated Grand Army of the Republic plot – one of the few examples in Massachusetts of this early type of memorial.”

This approximately 75-minutes long tour will be on Saturday, April 26th at 1pm.  It is free and open to the public and will be held rain or shine at the Oak Grove Cemetery located at 46 Jones Road in Falmouth.  We will meet inside the chapel at the cemetery, which is handicap accessible.  If the weather is inclement, we will stay inside the chapel; otherwise, plan on an easy stroll in the park-like setting.

 

Narrative Nonfiction Book Club
Saturday, May 1st, 11am
Hermann Meeting Room . . . . . . CLICK HERE TO REGISTER


The narrative nonfiction book club is back from hiatus and returns with our first book pick of the year The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson.  Come pick up a copy of the book at the adult services desk, register to attend, and then join us at our book club meeting on Saturday, May 1st at 11am in the Hermann room to share your thoughts!

“On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president.  The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one State after another seceding and Lincoln, powerless to stop them.  Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.  Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter, a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals.”

The Christmas Tree Shops with Anthony Sammarco

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

The Christmas Tree Shop was not just an icon of New England, it was a destination with stores that boasted a diverse assortment of merchandise from seasonal decorations, home decor, housewares, food, giftware and just about everything else that the public just had to have. These were items you never thought you needed before stepping through the door, but who could resist a bargain?

Interested in learning more about the history and local charm of the Christmas Tree Shop? Come join us on Saturday, January 25th at 1pm in the Hermann room as local author Anthony Sammarco presents an illustrated lecture on his newest book, The Christmas Tree Shops: Don’t You Just Love A Bargain? After the lecture, there will be a book signing with books available for purchase by Eight Cousins.

Referred to as the “Balzac of Boston History” by the Boston Globe, Anthony Mitchell Sammarco is a noted historian and author of many books on the history and development of Boston, and he lectures widely on the history and development of his native city. He commenced writing in 1995, and his 89th book, published in 2024, was The History of the Christmas Tree Shops. He received the Bulfinch Award from the Doric Dames of the Massachusetts State House, the Washington Medal from Freedom Foundation, a lifetime achievement from both the Victorian Society and the Gibson House Museum. He is president of the Osterville Village Library; past president of the Bay State Historical League and he served as a corporator of the New England Baptist Hospital for a decade. He lives in Boston and in Osterville on Cape Cod.

This event is free to the public and is sponsored by the Board of Library Trustees. Register to attend by CLICKING HERE or by visiting/calling the adult service desk at 508-457-2555 x7.