Children's Story Hour Sessions
Join us for stories,songs, finger-plays, and a craft.
Twos on the Floor. For 2-year-olds,with an adult. Thursdays at 10:15 am. Spring session runs through May 14. No registrationrequired. Call the third week ofJune to find out dates for the summer session.
Older Twos, Threes & Fours Together. For older 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds, with an adult. Thursdays at11:15 am. Spring session runs through May 14. No registration required. Call thethird week of June to find out dates for the summer session.
Read to Me: Family Stories. Allages, with an adult. Wednesdays at 4 pm for both sessions. Springsession runs through May 15. No registration required. Call the third week of June to find outdates for the summer session.
Book Discussions for Adults
Facilitated by volunteer Joan Marik. New participants are always welcome, even if you read the book some timeago. E-mail Suzanne Embree (suza1@comcast.net)to learn more. Call 703-228-6330 to sign up for a discussion or toreserve a title (usually available a month in advance).
Monday, May 12 (7:30 pm): Brother, I’m Dying, 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalistfor Autobiography, and nominee for the National Book Award, by EdwidgeDanticat. Arlington County BIG READ selection. .
Monday, June 9 (7:30 pm): Last One In, by Nicholas Kulish, who grew up in Arlington’sMaywood neighborhood. Amazon reader rating: 4 stars (out of a possible 5stars), paperback published 2007; 261 pages. One friend of a member of ourdiscussion group read Last One In and pronounced it “Not just good—great!” According to this reader, the males and the female character were sharply drawnand engaging.”
Kulish is a graduate of HB-Woodlawn and played tennis for Washington-Lee. He began writing short stories in the 7th grade at HB and went on totake a Fulbright creative-writing grant in Berlin.
”An appendix to Nicholas Kulish’s debut novel about a gossip columnist whofinds himself embedded with the Marines at the outset of the Iraq invasionnotes that among the authors favorite books are Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop andSword of Honour trilogy, Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana andJoseph Hellers Catch-22. Normally, this might be leading with ones chin.But Mr. Kulish, the Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times, was actuallyembedded with the Marines in 2003 while working for The Wall Street Journal,and he has brought home a story worthy of his literary idols. This is a verygood book: funny, harrowing and sympathetic”—The New York Times. . . .”Compelling...Uses humor to illuminate thedeadly absurdities of war...a deft command of tone—from the slapstick to thetragic.”—Kirkus Reviews.
Monday, July 14 (7:30 pm): Unbowed: A Memoir, by Wangari Maathai, the first African woman andfirst environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004). Amazon readerrating: 4-1/2 stars (out of a possible 5 stars). The paperback waspublished on September 4, 2007; 368 pages. A member of our group has readthe book and highly recommends it: “Unbowed is really interesting - forMaathai’s personal story, what she went through, and what she accomplished -very inspirational and a ‘take’ on Kenyan/African history through Africaneyes...”
”*Starred Review* In her engrossing and eye-opening memoir, a work oftremendous dignity and rigor, Maathai describes the paradise she knew as achild in the 1940s, when Kenya was a “lush, green, fertile” land of plenty, andthe deforested nightmare it became. Discriminated against as a femaleuniversity professor, Maathai has fought hard for women’s rights [and] undertookher mission to restore Kenya’s decimated forests . . . . Maathai’s ingenious, courageous, andtenacious activism led to arrests, beatings, and death threats, and yet she andher tree-planting followers remained unbowed. Currently Kenya’s deputy ministerfor the environment and natural resources, Nobel laureate, visionary, and hero,Maathai has restored humankind’s innate if nearly lost knowledge of theintrinsic connection between thriving, wisely managed ecosystems and health,justice, and peace.” --BookList, American Library Assoc.
“[Maathais] story providesuplifting proof of the power of perseverance and of the power of principled,passionate people to change their countries and inspire the world.” --The Washington Post