Autumn is my favorite time of year. The brisk, snapping air, the marigold crunch of leaves underfoot, cozy nights under cozy blankets — what’s not to love? One of my favorite autumn activities is curling up with a great book, and since I’m a big mood reader, I like finding books that match the season. […]
Anticipating autumn’s arrival, our library’s first poet-in-residence, Dara-Lyn Shrager, recently taught some eager families about poetic forms in a weekend workshop. The purpose was to learn, have fun, and prepare for an art installation for which original poems are written by community members and hung on colorful paper leaves to form a “poet-tree.” The poet-tree, […]
Thanks, in part, to “The Library Book,” a new work by Susan Orlean, libraries are enjoying a glistening moment in the media. In the book, Orlean, who appears at a ticketed event at Grounds for Sculpture on Monday, Oct. 22, explores the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire, weaving together her lifelong love of books […]
One of the great features of the Princeton Public Library is The Library Store. Since we opened The Sands Library Building back in 2004, the Friends of the Library have run a bookstore on the first floor. From its humble beginnings as two bookcases next to the stairs, the bookstore has expanded to include over […]
As Mason Cooley once said, “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” From Hogwarts and Narnia to East Egg and the Pequod, books have the power to transport us to different times and cities, even an alternate universe. As an avid reader, I most enjoy books that show […]
Once in a blue moon, I read a book so incredible that I can’t stop talking about it. I have to recommend it constantly–at book festivals when I speak on panels, to customers at the Checkout Desk, to friends and family, and on social media. “First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety” by Sarah […]
Recently a colleague posed this question to the library staff: What books are helping you understand the world right now? The results of this survey are compiled in a public book list, and you have the opportunity to contribute your own book ideas to this list. In addition to books, podcasts can help provide context for contemporary events and […]
As my grandmother said, “A change of scene is as good as a rest.” With this in mind, a friend and I have been planning weekly lunch hour work breaks this summer to get in a rejuvenating hour somewhere other than the Witherspoon Street corridor, preferably outdoors. We managed to picnic in the Institute Woods, walk […]
It had been well over a year since the last time I baked chocolate chip cookies. After following a low carbohydrate diet for the past several months, I could no longer tame the voice in my head that had been pleading for homemade cookies. I dug out my treasured copy of “Kathleen’s Bake Shop Cookbook,” […]
Even if most people are not fans of insects, chances are that they tend to have a soft spot for butterflies. Perhaps this stems from memories of raising monarch butterflies in grade school, or watching them feed in a grandmother’s garden. However, despite their popularity, monarch butterflies appear to be fluttering towards extinction. According to […]