Jeanette Winterson’s 2011 autobiography Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? will be the subject of the next book discussion at Memoirs and Coffee, a Bernardsville Library book group.  Our catalog summary notes that Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? “Traces the author’s lifelong search for happiness as the adopted daughter of Pentecostal parents who raised her through practices of fierce control and paranoia, an experience that prompted her to search for her biological mother.”  Winterson’s previous book, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, explored her loveless childhood in England and her adoptive mother’s evangelical mania, which led the author to a persistent search for self-understanding and emotional resolution.  Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a further examination of how her childhood determined her adult struggle to feel happiness and love. Memoirs and Coffee will meet on Tuesday, May 28th, at 10:30 a.m., and copies of this book are available at the circulation desk for anyone who would like to attend.

Fans of biographies might enjoy reading Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey detailing the life of the fifth Countess of Carnarvon and events at Highclere Castle during the First World War.  Noteworthy fiction apropos of the times or dealing with similar topics can be found throughout the display. Here you may borrow Howard’s End, The Remains of the Day, or The Buccaneers, for instance.  In addition, please browse or take our original, complimentary bookmarks for Downton Abbey subject matter or for British historical fiction.   These bookmarks are included in the display and will serve as helpful reminders of what to read next.  And don’t forget to visit “The British Collection” area of our dvd shelving to find other great series as well.

In the 2012 memoir The Cost of Hope, Amanda Bennett writes about life, love and death as she experienced them in her marriage to her late husband Terence Foley.  Recollections of their first meeting in China, stories of raising children and growing careers – the normal things in marriage – are counterbalanced by her story of her husband’s long-term struggle with illness and the confusing system of healthcare they encountered.  The Cost of Hope has been described as a thought-provoking, affecting memoir by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.  Bernardsville Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee, will discuss this new memoir on Tuesday, April 23, at 10:30.  Copies of the book are available at the circulation desk, and new members are always invited to attend the discussions.

To celebrate our community, we have created posters of a few Bernardsville community leaders holding their favorite books.  Each poster is unique, but all posters say the same thing, “Read.”  Posters of the staff with their favorite books are also included in the poster/book display shown in this post.  Additional community leaders will be included in future “Read” posters, again emphasizing the importance of reading and libraries throughout our lives.

Bernardsville Public Library book group, Saturday Samplers, will attend author Mark Di Ionno’s talk on Saturday, April 6th, in the Community Room of the library. The book group has just finished reading his new book, The Last Newspaperman, an acclaimed piece of historical fiction set entirely in New Jersey.  Mr. Di Ionno is an award-winning reporter for The Star-Ledger and has a lot to say about the newspaper business.

The Last Newspaperman recounts the life and journalistic exploits of fictional reporter Fred Haines, now elderly, who reminisces about the years he spent working in tabloid journalism of the 1930′s.  Four sensational episodes in New Jersey history serve as the framework upon which Fred comes to judge the nature of journalism and his own lack of scruples therein. Among those episodes were the Morro Castle fire and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. 

In covering these events, Fred must face a number of moral dilemmas which tear away at his reporter’s distance and dispassion.  The reader is left to compare this era of celebrity and disaster-driven journalism with that of today’s reporting, be it by newspaper or other medium.  Mr. Di Ionna will sign copies of his book following his talk at 2 p.m.  

Winter Journal

Paul Auster is a master of metafiction as seen in his so-called “detective novels,” The New York Trilogy.  His references to earlier New York authors and his love of Brooklyn stand out in these stories as in his later book, Brooklyn Follies.  Winter Journal, on the other hand, allows Auster the platform to finally look within himself for his own story.

In reviewing Winter Journal, Publishers Weekly Review notes that “From the vantage point of the winter preceding his 64th birthday, Auster lets his body and its sensations guide his memories…There is no set chronology; time and place bleed from one year to another, between childhood and adulthood…This is the exquisitely wrought catalogue of a man’s history through his body, a body that has felt pain and pleasure…”

A new iMac computer with extra-large monitor is now available for creators who want to work on photography, music, illustration, and other projects.  Our MakerSpace programs include Apple’s iPhoto, Pages, Numbers and Keynote, as well as Photoshop and Garage Band.  Special headphones, mouse and keyboard are part of a check-out kit which entitles Bernardsville Library members to use MakerSpace in four-hour blocks of time.  Please sign up at the circulation desk to reserve a time slot.  For more information about this brand new library feature, refer here.

Saturday Crafters, a monthly craft group organized by Bernardsville Public Library, recently received a letter from the Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center in Morristown thanking the group for its donation of 117 washcloth and soap sets.  Many of the cloths were knitted or crocheted by participating Crafters, who purchased the soaps and wrapped the parcels in colorful ribbons.  Bernardsville Library staff member Evelyn Fischel, who founded Saturday Crafters, delivered the items to the Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center where they will be made available to families and individuals in need.

Saturday Crafters welcomes new members who like to practice handwork such as crochet, knitting, rug hooking, cross stitch, needlepoint and jewelry arts. Please bring a project with you to the next meeting on Saturday, March 16th, at 3 p.m. in the Community Room and enjoy an afternoon of conversation and crafting. Participation in community outreach projects (such as the washcloth sets) is purely voluntary. 

Saturday Samplers, Bernardsville Library’s book group, will attempt to crack the perplexing puzzle inherent in Daphne du Maurier’s suspense novel, My Cousin Rachel, when the group meets Saturday, March 2nd, at 3:30 p.m.  Best known for her novel Rebecca, British author Daphne du Maurier also excelled at short fiction.  Her wonderful short stories, The Birds and Don’t Look Now, were made into motion pictures, as were many of her books.  

Conflicting points of view and misunderstandings abound in her stories, and My Cousin Rachel is replete with these devices.  Told by a narrator whose volatile thoughts and emotions quickly become apparent, My Cousin Rachel forces the reader to pay close attention to detail and innuendo throughout the story.  Was Rachel a greedy intruder from a foreign country with murderous designs on a young, impressionable Englishman?  The answer to this question varies with each reader, and that is the beauty of My Cousin Rachel.  For more information about the book group, please link here.