Author: Peter Cook

Spooky Halloween Bash!

Posted on by Peter Cook

Following the Falmouth Village Association’s Halloween Stroll on Falmouth Main Street (1-3 PM on 10/25/22025), the Falmouth Public Library Main Branch will be hosting a Spooky Party from 3 PM – 6:30 PM. I know I never want the spooky season days to end, so finish your Halloween Stroll at the Main Branch of Falmouth Public Library (300 Main Street, Falmouth)!

Everything is free and there is no registration required, just come in to Falmouth Public Library Main Branch and strap in for some spooky fun!

The Spooky Party is for all ages and will run from 3:00 – 6:30 PM. We will have pumpkin carving, games, crafts and friendly competitions like who can eat the whole donut hanging off a string! There will also be plenty of snacks and apple cider (in all sorts of forms! Donuts, warm drinks and whatever else we can think of!) The party will be held on the first floor of the library. These activities will be running and rocking for the duration of the party!

THEN at 4 PM during the spooky party, a “Tour of Halloween around the World” will be held in the Hermann Meeting room. The Hermann room will turn into a maze guided tour where you will learn about how different cultures (like Mexican, Brazilian, and Ancient Egypt) celebrate spooky season. There may be a few ghosts that find their way into the maze, so get ready for some ghost hunting along the way.

The fun doesn’t stop there!  At the end of the tour, folks will emerge into a fire lit room where professional voice actors, in full costume, will be reading aloud numerous spooky stories for all to enjoy. The tour will swing back around to the Spooky Party for more fun with family and friends!

There will also be a special spooky movie playing in the Bay Room (right next to the Hermann meeting room) for all to enjoy throughout the party! 

As the sun has set by 6:30 PM, we will send you on your way with spooky on the mind to enjoy the rest of the best season of the year!

There will be numerous other events happening throughout the month of October. Check out the schedule here!

10/1/2025 – 10/31/2025: A Scooby Doo Villain Scavenger Hunt throughout the library. Come to the main branch during open hours and see if you can catch all the villains! If you can, you will be awarded an official Mystery Inc. Detective badge!

 

 

The library will also be holding spooky doodling events for tweens and teens followed by a mindful doodling event for adults, all provided by Cara Bean (you may remember her incredible workshops from FPL’s CapeCon!) You can check out these events on our calendar!

Everything is free!

**10/25/2025 at 11AM in the FPL Main Branch Young Adult Room Cara Bean will be running a Spooky Doodling Workshop for Tweens and Teens.

**10/25/2025 at 2:00 PM in the FPL Main Branch Young Adult Room Cara Bean will be running a Spooky Doodling Workshop for Adults.

**Cara Bean’s Doodling events require registration. Please use our online calendar to register, email Clint at cjohnson@falmouthpubliclibrary.org, or give us a call at 508-457-2555.

Cara will also be signing her latest book “here i am, i am me” in between and after her events at the Falmouth Public Library Main Branch.

Zines at Falmouth Public Library

Posted on by Peter Cook

What is a “zine” you ask? Zines are a physical medium (though sometimes digitized for more access) can be about anything and everything. A subculture of knowledge and information shared, free for all. They have long been an outlet of uncensored free speech, and often unpublished, and probably made on a xerox machine. Zines are imperfect, like humans, and can be about ANYTHING. One of my favorite quotes about zines is “if they say it’s a zine, it’s a zine”.

The zine community is very welcoming and anti-gatekeeping. That means, regardless of your personal feelings.

Zines are meant to be shared with the community and respect an individual’s right of self-expression, their intellectual property and their ideas. Zinesters are MORE likely to shout out someone for giving them an idea than in many other communities. Being inspired by fellow zineters is a good thing!

In true fashion, zines are usually free and showered amongst the public. A common zine “genre” is punk rock music. Underground by nature, zinesters will drop off their zines at record stores for anyone to grab. This is how some teenager in Alabama may find their new favorite noisy punk band from North Dakota. The possibilities are endless.

Zines are a sub-culture without ANY rules. It can be about anything and everything. Punk and anarchy zines were some of the first but it branched out into a whole sensational sub-culture reaching topics. A reminder that they are not alone.

Some types of zines include….AND this is such a short list…

Addiction, Anarchism, Art and Design, Conspiracy, DIY,  Feminism, Food/Cooking, Gardening, Houseplants, Mental Health, Movies, Outer Space, Photography, Poetry, Political, Punk, Queer/Trans, Tarot Cards, and Witchy. Anything that you like/dislike or anything in between can be a zine! Do it yourselves are a plenty!

Zines are also released in series! For instance this Star Wars zine is issue number 20! This particular zine is a mix of conversation, fan views, fan fiction, and fan art, all about Star Wars!

Keeping and preserving these zines available can be troublesome due to their flimsy and low quality printing but there are libraries dedicated to zines which specialize in preservation, cataloguing and organizing them! They are usually built on donations from across the world from zine collectors and the zinesters themselves. They want to have their work preserved as well!

So much information can be found in zines. It’s great to pick up a bunch of niche topics like “The Burning Lies: Witches, Radical Feminists, and Nazis”. It goes over how many witches were burned in Germany due to their early feminist ideals. The zine connects this to Germany’s “familiarity” with xenophobia and the eventual genocide committed by the Germanic country controlled by the Nazis.

With all that being said…The Young Adult Room at Falmouth Public Library is now building it’s own zine collection. And we challenge you…to make your own zines! They can be anything and bring your niche knowledge and interests to the Falmouth community! Once the word gets out, there very well may be zine workshops in our future….

A big thank you to all the anonymous donations to our growing zine collection. The people have a voice because of you guys.

“What Happened Here: The Untold Story of Addiction on Cape Cod”

Posted on by Peter Cook

Screening and Panel

Directed by Sam Tarplin and Nate Robertson

At the Falmouth Public Library Main Branch on March 15th at 5:00 PM in the Hermann room, the library is hosting a screening of the independent documentary “What Happened Here: The Untold Story of Addiction on Cape Cod” followed by a guest panel including both directors of the documentary and others who help those with substance abuse problems on the front lines. Please register using our online calendar!

Cape Cod in the summer is filled with tourists, parties, and recreational drug use. Then it begins to get cold and everyone disappears. The party is over for the tourists and they return to their lives off Cape. What about those who do not leave? For year round residents of Cape Cod, the winter is a different story. Once the summer parties end, the locals and “washashores” face a cold reality.

Though it is often overlooked and pushed aside, many of the community members turn to drugs to sooth the sense of cold and loneliness. Opioids including prescription pills, heroin and fentanyl run rampant. Death after death of family, friends, and other community members are mourned daily. Treatment centers face challenges in delivering effective care due to the stigma surrounding addiction and the growing demand that exceeds available resources. That does not mean there is no way out…

The documentary addresses, informs and shows a light in the darkness of addiction. It is not a dramatization, but a symbol for hope and understanding that addiction is a disease and there is a way out. Asking for help. A community of recovering addicts can move mountains. “What Happened Here” brings the disease to light and there can be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Registration for the screening and panel is required. You can access the sign-up page on our Falmouth Public Library events page or give us a call at 508-457-2555 x 7. Please reach out if you have any questions or problems with registering!

Grilled Cheese Social

Posted on by Peter Cook

Grilled Cheese Social

Saturday, February 8th, 2025!

Falmouth Public Library from 12:30 PM – 3:00 PM in the

Hermann Foundation Room

A grilled cheese may seem like a simple meal! Butter on the griddle, two pieces of bread and some cheese. It is certainly a delicious choice, but that can get boring after a while! Many have found their own special remedy for the “normal” grilled cheese…but bringing it up in conversation can bring out the fire in the eye. Some folks don’t use butter at all! Why not some mayonnaise! I hear it gives an extra crunch. Or maybe an obscure mustard, bacon, or even bananas. It’s sort of like your parent’s meatloaf. That meatloaf is the only meatloaf you’ll eat!

At the Falmouth Public Library – Main Branch on February 8, 2025 at 12:30 PM we will be making the grilled cheese sandwiches on our Charlie Cart– the library’s functional mini-kitchen on wheels! We will be providing a variety of bread and cheeses. Don’t forget to bring your secret ingredient(s) and share it with your friends and other library patrons! There will be a friendly competition with judges to answer the age-old question of “what makes the best grilled cheese”.

One suggestion that we can make is use different cheeses! We will have all the basics ready for your mystery …Gouda? Cheddar? Swiss? Alternatively, just plain old American cheese? Do not be scared to try something new! The beautiful aroma will fill the library.

The event is appropriate for patrons ages 8-13. There will be library staff enjoying and overseeing the event (maybe even some celebrity judges). Parents are more than welcome to join in on the fun! We will be having games and activities all about the Hermann Room while we cook up our glorious melted cheese and bread. The games may be a little “cheesy” (without the mess). The event is from 12:30 – 3:00. We hope to see you there!

Registration is required. Click here to do so! Or feel free to give us a call at 508-457-2555 x 7. Please reach out if you have any questions or problems with registering!