The Friends of the Library will be at the Farmer's Market this Saturday,

Come check out the library's fall art sale! Affordable art for your home or as a holiday gift available for $5, $10, and $15. On display in the lobby at the Easton branch.

Check out this extensive list of digital resources for students and parents compiled by the Maryland State Library Resource Center at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Mark your calendar for Community Day – An Easton Arts & Culture Celebration! This new event for Talbot County is the collaboration of ten Easton-based nonprofits that have come together, along with local restaurants and businesses, and will give local residents a way to be outside, enjoy each other’s company, support local businesses, and celebrate the fall season.

Most activities are being held outdoors, and every participating organization is following agreed-upon COVID-related safety protocols including wearing a face covering over nose and mouth, limiting family groups to 6 people, and ensuring groups or individuals are safely six feet apart.

As part of Community Day, the Talbot County Free Library and the Friends of the Library will host a free, self-directed story walk on library grounds on Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Families can read through an interactive picture book as they move through the panels. Craft-to-go kits and free books will be available while supplies last. Other library partners include Easton Cub Scout Troops and members of the Hopeful 2020 Campaign and Dock Street Foundation.

Other community programs range from family art activities, learning about feeding birds and bird watching, educational lectures, a drive-through art gallery, conservation activities, music, and many more. In case of inclement weather, outdoor activities will be cancelled. To learn more click here.

Local businesses and organizations are showcasing their creative side with a fun, festive Scarecrow Decorating Competition sponsored by Discover Easton!

Vote here through November 15 for the library's scarecrow, Edgar Allen Crow. Be sure to take a picture of your favorite scarecrow and share it on social media with #EastonMDScarecrows. Discover Easton will tally voting and announce the winning scarecrow design by November 20 during a live interview on WCEI.

Anyone that takes a picture of one of the Easton scarecrows and posts it on Facebook or Instagram with #EastonMDScarecrows is automatically entered for a chance to win a $50 Hunters’ Tavern gift certificate. That’s not all… one voting entry will be selected to win a free night’s stay at the Tidewater Inn in downtown Easton!

Bill Peak, Talbot County’s “library guy,” has just completed an interview with Alice McDermott, who has been called “the Virginia Woolf of American letters.” Peak’s interview is part of a partnership between the Talbot County Free Library and The Talbot Spy to introduce area readers to the poets and writers behind some of our country’s best literature. 

Alice McDermott’s eighth and most recent novel, The Ninth Hour, made it to the Best Books of 2017 lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine, among others. Her seventh novel, Someone, was long-listed for the National Book Award. Three of her previous novels, After This, At Weddings and Wakes, and That Night were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.  Charming Billy won the National Book Award.  That Night was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Watch this and other engaging Bill Peak author interviews here.

Wednesdays, November 18, 1 p.m.

Register: http://www.tcfl.org/child/programreg/

November 13, 11 a.m.

High School teachers this is for you! Join us for Young Adult Writer's Live as we bring an author to your virtual classroom! Your students will have an opportunity to hear from the author Thanhhà Lại. Thanhhà Lại is a Vietnamese-American writer of middle-grade and young adult novels. Her first novel, Inside Out & Back Again (2011), which won the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor, was partly based on her childhood as a refugee growing up in the southern United States. As she comes to you she will talk about her debut YA novel, Butterfly Yellow (2019). Register here.

Monday, November 16, 6:30pm, Zoom

Join award-winning author Derrick Barnes as he shares about his path from child to published author and a reading from one of his books. He is the author of the critically acclaimed picture book CROWN: An Ode To The Fresh Cut which won a multitude of literary awards, making it one of the most decorated picture books in the history of children’s literature. The event will conclude with time for questions and answers. Register here.

DREAM - BUILD - CREATE: An Exciting Virtual Engineering Experience



DREAM – BUILD - CREATE is an introduction to engineers and engineering for people of all ages, especially families and children. Presented by The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in partnership with the STAR Library Network (STAR Net) and its Project BUILD engineering program, this inspirational program will offer people a free film screening of the award-winning documentary Dream Big: Engineering Our World on November 10, 14, 17, and 24.

Dream Big: Engineering Our World, a giant-screen film about engineering, takes viewers on a journey of discovery from the world’s tallest building to a bridge higher than the clouds. Along the way, audiences witness how today’s engineers are shaping the world of tomorrow by pushing the limits of ingenuity and innovation in unexpected, imaginative, and amazing ways.

English: https://vimeo.com/463655567

Spanish: https://vimeo.com/463459829

Access here: https://youtu.be/WD2jtYSOZ0Q

Cities of the Future

Access here: https://youtu.be/KQNwelSFcMA

Access here: https://youtu.be/W7Hh0uvzgok

Access here: https://youtu.be/utrE8fLhuo8

Sign up for the secure link here: http://bit.ly/AveryChatNov20. Please note—everyone will need to sign up for the secure link for this event.

Access here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWXpG48xBIo&feature=youtu.be

Monday, November 9, 5 p.m.

Explore the foodways and cooking traditions of Maryland through this slide-illustrated talk, just before the holiday season. Since 2015, Kara Mae Harris has been writing about Maryland's rich culinary history on her site "Old Line Plate." From Stuffed Ham to White Potato Pie, Apple Toddy to Tomato Wine, she explores favorite and forgotten recipes and their cultural significance. Visit https://oldlineplate.com/ for more information.

Michael Farris Smith on Blackwood

Monday, November 9, 7 p.m.

Award-winning author Michael Farris Smith discusses his recent book Blackwood, a timeless, mythical tale of unforgiving justice and elusive grace, rural Mississippi townsfolk shoulder the pain of generations as something dangerous lurks in the enigmatic kudzu of the woods. The book was named one of the best books of 2020 by The Times (UK). Access here.

November 10, 7 p.m.

DeRay Mckesson, civil rights activist focused primarily on issues of innovation, equity and justice, will lead a conversation with Devin Allen, self-taught artist, born and raised in West Baltimore. Mckesson and Allen will discuss the importance of art and documentation while building an artistic career and community. Devin Allen gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was published on the cover of Time in May 2015 – only the third time the work of an amateur photographer had been featured. Five years later, after the deaths of George Floyd, Tony Mcaded, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a BlackTrans Lives Matter protest was published on the cover of Time Magazine for the 2nd time in June 2020.  For more details and to register, click here.

November 10, 7 p.m.

National Book Award winner Nathaniel Philbrick talks about his bestselling book, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Q&A to follow. An American Sign Language interpreter will be translating. For more details and to register, click here.

The landscape might be slowing down, but you don't have to! It's never too early to start thinking of spring. Sowing those seeds can be super fun and easy.  Join Talbot County Master Gardeners to learn about sowing native seeds this winter for spring/summer germination.

Registration is free and open to all: https://go.umd.edu/nativeseeds

Monday, November 16, 6:30

Access here: https://www.facebook.com/carrollcountypubliclibrary/

Book Discussion: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

The Easton Book Group (open to all) will discuss The Testaments by Margaret Atwood via Zoom. To participate, email Susan Sherman at susancs@goeaston.net for the Zoom invitation.

November 17, 6 p.m.

Library Guy Bill Peak will offer a Zoom instructional session on Tuesday, November 17, at 6 p.m., and a second on Wednesday, November 18, at 3 p.m. If you’d like to participate, email Bill at mcpeak@tcfl.org and let him know which session you’d like to attend. You will receive an invitation that explains in clear, easy-to-follow language how to join the conversation. Each session should take no more than twenty minutes.

November 19, 7 p.m., via Zoom

Virtually celebrate the Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room in the Central Library with Senator Barbara Mikulski and Ambassador Wendy Sherman in conversation, moderated by Meghan McCorkell.

A trailblazer, Mikulski was the first Democratic woman Senator elected in her own right. As a Senator, she focused on issues of science, technology, the economic and health security of women, as well as jobs and justice. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2015.

Wendy R. Sherman is a professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Ambassador Sherman is Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group and former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She is currently an MSNBC global affairs contributor and on the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Ambassador Sherman is the author of Not for the Faint of Heart: Lessons in Courage, Power and Persistence published by PublicAffairs, September 2018.

Register here.

Saturday, November 21, 2 p.m.

Maintaining a positive mindset is essential during the holiday season. In this workshop, learn strategies to let go of negative thought habits and establish new patterns of thinking. Facilitated by Trenessa Coffey Annibal, MBA, MA, Motivational Speaker/Mindset Coach, Eternally Grateful Coaching. Register here.