Wild About Harry and A Golden Retriever and His Two Dads

On Friday July 15, at 2:00 PM in the Hermann Meeting Room, we’ll be hosting a film screening and a book signing! Join producer James Egan for a screening of the film Wild About Harry, followed by a book signing by Dan Perdios of A Golden Retriever & His Two Dads: An Adventure on Cape Cod, whose story takes place on the set of Wild About Harry!

Set in 1973 and inspired by true experiences of filmmaker Gwen Wynne, Wild About Harry tells the story of the havoc wreaked in a teenage girl’s life when she discovers her widowed father is gay. Alternately comic and tragic, the film captures the homophobia of the time and shows how far society has come. The backdrop of small town Cape Cod will bring back memories as well. The film stars Tate Donovan, runs 83 minutes, and is rated PG-13. It is suitable for adult and older teen audiences.

A Golden Retriever & His Two Dads shows that when a Golden Retriever plays matchmaker,
anything is possible! A Golden Retriever named Willy introduces two guys who become his Dads. Together they take off to Cape Cod to make a film. Dan Perdios will read from and sign copies of his book, available for purchase through Eight Cousins.

Register online to attend or call the library at 508-457-2555 X7.

Friends of the Library Book Sale

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 beloved annual tradition is back at its usual time this year, and we’re so excited to see the book-lovers browsing for new reads! Books are very modestly priced, and every purchase goes to support the Falmouth Public Library.  The Friends support these library projects that benefit the whole community:

  • Joy of Learning academic classes covering a wide range of subjects
  • Museum Passes for Boston and local area museums
  • Generous funding for Children’s Programs at all three locations throughout the year
  • Contribute to new furniture for the Chill Zone, the Tween area, in the Children’s Room
  • A new Circulation Desk for the East Falmouth Library
  • Provide additional funds for eBooks
  • Support for area book clubs
  • Upgrades to library technology

The Friends are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Are you interested in becoming a member of the Friends of the Library, or making a direct financial donation? Information is available at their web page.

Please note that the Friends are no longer taking donations for this year’s book sale. Donations will resume on Monday, August 15, 2022. Please call during Library hours at 508-457-2555 ext. 2918 to schedule an appointment.

 

Children’s StoryWalks at Highfield Hall this Summer

Falmouth Public Library Youth Services is thrilled to be working with Highfield Hall and Gardens to facilitate a 10 week summertime series of free family StoryWalks!
 
From Juneteenth until Labor Day, a new story will be installed every Monday.  Start at the gravel parking lot entrance at Highfield and travel down the ADA Accessible Historic Beech Tree Path.  While you are there, enjoy the music garden, perfect for kids of all ages.  Tag us on Instagram at #fpl-childrens and #HighfieldHallFalmouth.
 
Drop in on Thursdays between 10am-12pm for a Coalition for Children‘s hands-on craft with Rosemary on the porch!  This craft is geared towards children ages 3 and up.

Book Bike is Back for 2022!

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 10:30-11:00 am 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

Thursdays 12:30-1:30 pm every week:

Thursdays 4:45-5:15 pm:

  • 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.

Below the Edge of Darkness Book Discussion with Allan Adams: A WHOI & FPL Community Read Event!

Join us on Wednesday, May 25th from 7pm-8pm via Zoom to discuss the 2022 WHOI & 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.

Book Discussions for Juneteenth

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.”

Falmouth Reads Together: June Events

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). 
  • Register here.

Book Discussion: The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery.

You’ve probably read the book by now. If not, get in line for a copy. Then join us to discuss! 

  • Friday June 17, 2pm. 
  • Location: Hermann Meeting Room.
  • Duration: one hour; appropriate for adults or teens. 
  • Register here.

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). 
  • Register here.

Learn Libby From The Experts!

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!

To register, just click this link: https://bit.ly/falmoutlibby

Falmouth Reads 2022: The Soul of an Octopus

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.

Mighty Storms of New England

Virtual Author Talk With Eric Fisher

Check out the video below of Eric Fisher’s author talk from Wednesday, February 2nd, where he discussed his new book Mighty Storms of New England: The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards and Floods That Shaped the Region and answered audience questions!  

“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.

Cape Cod and New England Storm Reads

Fiction

Death on Tuckernuck by Francine Mathews

Girls of Summer: A Novel by Nancy Thayer

Storm of Secrets by Loretta Marion

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Storm Girl  by Joseph C. Lincoln

Nonfiction

Mighty Storms of New England: The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards and Floods That Shaped the Region by Eric Fisher

Historic Disasters of New England: Legendary Storms, Twisters, Floods, and Other Catastrophes by Randi Minetor

Thirty-Eight: The Hurricane That Transformed New England by Stephen Long

Great New England Storms of the 20th century editor Janice Page

Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea by Michael J. Tougias

The Forgotten Cape: 1940-1960 by Mary Sicchio

The Blizzard of ’78 by Michael Tougias

Storms and Shipwrecks of New England by Edward Rowe Snow; updated by Jeremy D’Entremon

Historic Storms of New England: Its Gales, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Showers with Thunder and Lightning, Great Snow Storms, Rains, Freshets, Floods, Droughts, Cold Winters, Hot Summers, Avalanches, Earthquakes, Dark Days, Comets, Aurora Borealis, Phenomena in the Heavens, Wrecks Along the Coast, with Incidents and Anecdotes, Amusing and Pathetic by Sidney Perley

Southern New England Tropical Storms and Hurricanes: A Ninety-Seven Year Summary, 1900-1996, Including Several Early American Hurricanes by David R. Vallee and Michael R. Dion

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger

Coastal Flooding in Barnstable County, Cape Cod, Massachusetts by Water Resources Commission 

Pictures of the Worst Storm in New Bedford’s History, August 26, 1924 (reference department)