The Falmouth Public Library Book Bike is hitting the road once again for its 2022 touring season!
All members of the community are invited to stop by. You can sign up for a library card, pick up free books and DVDs, and meet FPL staff. We are looking forward to seeing you and spreading our love of the Library throughout town!
Please note all visits are weather permitting:
Mondays at 10:30-11:00am find us at:
June 6, July 25, August 22, September 26, Cape Cod Apartments, 62 Locust Street
June 13, August 8, October 3, Mayflower Apartments, Choate Lane
July 11, August 28, Salt Sea Apartments, Salt Sea Lane
July 18, September 12, Rose Morin Apartments, Rose Morin Lane
August 1, September 19, Harborview Apartments, 115 Scranton Ave
Surf Drive Beach Storytime with Ms. Deirdre. June 30, July 7, July 14, July 21, July 28, August 4, August 11.
Looking for more books? The Friends of the Falmouth Public Library will hold their Annual Summer Book Sale from July 1-July 6, 2022 on the lawn of the Main Library at 300 Main Street. It’s open every day from 10 AM-4 PM, except July 6. July 6 hours are 10 AM – Noon. This is a huge event with thousands of books, most of which will be $2! Don’t miss it!
About the Friends
The Friends of the Library are a group of citizens whose purpose is to support and enhance the programs and services of the Falmouth Public Library in cooperation with the Staff and Library Trustees. They are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing the projects, programs, and services of the Falmouth Public Library. The Friends are happy to accept monetary donations.
Join us on Wednesday, May 25th from 7pm-8pm via Zoom to discuss the 2022WHOI & FPL Community Read, Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Dr. Edith Widder, in a group setting! We will have a special guest, Allan Adams, joining us. Allan is an Adjunct Oceanographer at WHOI in the Applies Ocean Physics and Engineering Department.
This event is free to the public and registration is required. Register online by clicking here or by calling the library at 508-457-2555 x7.
Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea takes readers deep into our planet’s oceans as Widder pursues her questions about one of the most important and widely used forms of communication in nature. In the process, she reveals hidden worlds and a dazzling menagerie of behaviors and animals, from microbes to leviathans, many never before seen or, like the legendary giant squid, never before filmed in their deep-sea lairs. Alongside Widder, we experience life-and-death equipment malfunctions and witness breakthroughs in technology and understanding, all set against a growing awareness of the deteriorating health of our largest and least understood ecosystem.
Come pick up a copy today at the library! Below the Edge of Darkness is also available for purchase at Eight Cousins and the WHOI Bookstore! The 2022 WHOI & FPL Community Read is part of Dispatches from an Ocean Planet: A Celebration of Film and Literature presented by the Yawkey Foundation and WHOI.
To celebrate Juneteenth, please join us at the library for one or all of the following book discussions!
Please join us for the monthly meeting of the Narrative Nonfiction Book Club as we discuss this month’s selection The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom. Come pick up a copy of the book at the Reference Desk and join us, Thursday, June 2nd at 4pm, in the Hermann Meeting Room, to share your thoughts! Register Here.
“This is a story of a mother’s struggles against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina.”
Please join us for a special Book Club meeting to discuss On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed. Come pick up a copy of the book at the Reference Desk and join us, Wednesday June 15 at 6pm, in the Hermann Meeting Room. Register Here.
“As Juneteenth morphs from a primarily Texan celebration of African American freedom to a proposed national holiday, Gordon-Reed urges Texans and all Americans to reflect critically on this tangled history. A remarkable meditation on the history and folk mythology of Texas from an African American perspective.” ― Lesley Williams, Booklist, starred review
The FPL Fiction Book Club is currently meeting in person in the Hermann Room this month. June’s book is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and we’ll be meeting on Tuesday June 21st at 4pm. Register Here.
“Two half sisters, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle…Esi will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle’s women’s dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the 18th century to the present, this modern masterpiece moves through generations and places.”
We’ve got three public events scheduled for Falmouth Reads Together in June – two documentary films and a discussion of the book The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. Read on for details and registration links.
Documentary film screening of My Octopus Teacher.
Watch as a filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world. “One of the best nature documentaries I have ever seen. Absolutely beautiful and wonderfully narrated and educational–tremendous with its scientific breakthroughs on these amazing creature’s behavior and intelligence. “
Friday June 10, 2pm.
Location: Hermann Meeting Room.
Duration: one hour; appropriate for most ages. Discussion follows (optional).
Documentary film screening of Octopus: Making Contact
Follow an Alaskan professor as he raises and studies a day octopus in his home, making remarkable discoveries about its extraordinary intelligence, personality and skills.
Friday June 24, 2pm.
Location: Hermann Meeting Room.
Duration: one hour; appropriate for most ages. Discussion follows (optional).
The Falmouth Public Library is hosting a free, online Libby webinar by the experts at OverDrive on Wednesday, May 11th at 10am! With the Libby app, you can access the entire CLAMS digital library collection to read and listen to eBooks, eAudiobooks, and eMagazines all for free with your library card!
Register today to learn how to sign into Libby, navigate around, browse and search for titles, borrow titles and place holds, manage notifications, and much much more!
Can’t make this webinar but are interested in learning more about Libby? Register and a recording of the webinar will be sent to you for you to watch whenever it is best for you!
We are happy to announce that The Soul of an Octopus: a Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery, has been chosen as the Falmouth Reads title for 2022.
The Soul of an Octopus is described as a book that “explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans.”
Sy Montgomery worked as a volunteer at the New England Aquarium in Boston and developed a unique understanding and connection with their resident octopus. After reading this book your feelings about octopus will be forever changed!
We will encourage children to read Inky’s Great Escape, the fascinating story of Inky, an octopus at the National Aquarium in New Zealand. One night Inky climbed from his tank and slipped through an overflow drainage pipe, escaping back into the ocean!
As we read The Soul of an Octopus and Inky’s Great Escape, we invite the community to borrow library passes to visit the New England Aquarium. Further information about events and activities for Falmouth Reads 2022 will be coming soon.
The octopus in this photo is Ruddy who was a New England Aquarium resident octopus in 2019. Ruddy was particularly photogenic as she like to hang out in the front corner of the tank. We invite anyone visiting the aquarium to submit a digital photo for an online exhibit. While the octopus don’t mind having their photo taken, please do not use the flash; they don’t like that.
“The New England landscape has long been battered by some of the most intense weather in US history. Discover the legendary storms that have devastated New England, including: the Great New England Hurricane of 1938 that killed 564 people; the Worcester Tornado of 1953; the Snow Hurricane of 1804 that demolished orchards and killed dozens of sailors off the coast; and the Blizzard of 1978 that brought Boston to a standstill for weeks.”
Eric Fisher is Chief Meteorologist for CBS Boston’s WBZ-TV News and anchors weather segments weeknights at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m., as well as WBZ-TV News at 10 p.m. on TV38 (WSBK-TV). He is also a contributor for CBS News, often found reporting on breaking severe weather across the country. Born and raised in New England, Eric says there are few places on earth that produce weather like this little corner of the U.S. It offers the challenges of blockbuster snowstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, frigid cold snaps and dramatic seasonal shifts. Eric vividly remembers Memorial Day of 1995 as a day that helped solidify his path as a meteorologist, when an infamous tornado ripped through Great Barrington in the Berkshires. Glued to the red warnings crawling across the screen and watching the radar, his career in weather was born. Eric joined WBZ-TV News from The Weather Channel in Atlanta where he spent three years as a Meteorologist. He produced and delivered national forecasts and contributed to numerous live reports on extreme weather for The Weather Channel, NBC Nightly News, TODAY and MSNBC. Previously he worked as the morning meteorologist at WGGB-TV in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Mighty Storms of New England is also available for purchase at Eight Cousins.
Check out the video below of Marie Zahn’s talk from Please Tuesday, January 25th from 7pm-8pm as she discussed the Science and History of Shipwrecks: Archaeology and Conservation and answered audience questions!
The journey of an artifact from the past into the present. When it comes to shipwrecks, archaeologists have a potential time capsule of the past. It’s a safe assumption to claim that most shipwrecks happen unintentionally – all of the objects on board, from the parts of the ships themselves to the cargo and personal items of the crew, sink together. What you have is a single slice of history preserved in one place. A small moment in time captured unexpectedly. This discussion into the world of underwater archaeology focusses on the challenges of artifact conservation and the effects of different underwater environments on ships and their artifacts. See how material objects deteriorate and decay over time by looking at shipwrecks from diverse time periods throughout history as well as spanning the globe in terms of construction and final resting places – from ancient Greece to pirate treasure!
Marie Zahn, a Cape Cod native, is the Director of the Brooks Academy Museum and A. Elmer Crowell Decoy Barn Museum for the Harwich Historical Society, as well as serving as the Administrator for the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth. Prior to this, she spent several years working on an early 18th century shipwreck as an archaeologist, conservator, and science education coordinator. When she’s not talking about history, Marie volunteers as a Solar System Ambassador for NASA, acting as a liaison between the space agency and the public, spreading awareness of current and upcoming NASA missions and sharing news about ongoing work in the space sciences and space exploration. Marie’s work in science and archaeology has given her a unique perspective and appreciation for history. She believes that history is a continuous narrative, and that it is of the utmost importance to make connections between the past and where we are today. Marie aims to make science open, inclusive, and accessible to anyone that’s curious about the past, present, and future.
This morning was the last regular WCAI radio show that I will be doing-you can listen to it here! As of October 30th I retired from the Falmouth Public Library. You can take a look at two blogs I wrote about this departure. One is about my being a reference librarian and one is about my time on WCAI. It has been an absolute pleasure to spend time every month with Mindy Todd and whichever book talker happens to be there that month. When Mindy asked me last month what book topic I would like to talk about for my last show, I immediately came up with RADIO! How it is possible that we had never done this topic, I’m not quite sure, but it was the perfect topic for the last show.
Here is the article that includes the Jack Binns Tribute song we mentioned! Scroll to the very bottom to hear it.
Join us on Tuesday, October 5th, via Zoom, for a talk by Catherine Prendergast, author of The Gilded Edge: two audacious women and the cyanide love triangle that shook America.Kirkus Reviews writes : “The text reads like a dramatic novel fueled by sex, alcohol, and quests for fame and fortune.” Publisher’s Weekly writes: “… this punchy feminist tribute offers a fascinating look at two forgotten women of the Gilded Age.” Booklist writes: “Life in Carmel among its bohemian artists is a captivating subject, but Prendergast deepens it by entering the narrative to relay the difficulties she encountered researching Carrie and Nora, two fascinating women whose lives were largely buried in archives devoted to the men in their circle… Prendergast’s vivid history offers a sobering take on a romanticized time and place in which the men were lauded while the women were nearly erased.”
Cathy Prendergast writes: “Can’t wait to pen my book tour with a talk (virtually) at Falmouth Public Library. My home away from home. Much of this book was written in Falmouth at my uncle’s house (or Coffee Obsession when he was napping.)
Our favorite bookstore, Eight Cousins, will be taking pre-orders for Cathy’s book, with a limited number of bookplates signed by the author.
We hope you can join us. Just click HERE to register for Cathy’s Zoom talk.
