Although our buildings are temporarily closed to the public, our friendly staff are still available to help you with our Books-to-Go service. Through Books-to-Go, patrons can reserve materials through the online catalog. Patrons will be notified via email or phone when their items are ready to be picked up. Once notified that holds are available for pickup, patrons should call or email the library to make arrangements to pick up their materials. Chromebooks or WiFi hotspots are not available for checkout at this time.

More specific details on how Books-to-Go works can be found on the library’s website. Staff are available to answer the phone at both branches during limited hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-noon and 2-5 p.m. and on Monday and Thursday from 10-noon and 3-7 p.m. Wi-Fi is available around the clock outside both the Easton and St. Michaels branches.

Bob the Builder. Bob’s Winter Build

The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! Tales from the Cold

Frosty the Snowman

Peanuts. Happy Holidays

Almost Christmas

Fargo

Groundhog Day

In the spirit of the holidays, Bill Peak, the Library Guy, will read aloud his favorite prose-poem, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, on Zoom, Sunday afternoon, December 20, at two o’clock. Dylan Thomas’s beloved story of a little boy’s Christmas day in a small Welsh village, circa 1922, is recommended for all ages between ten and a hundred and ten. You can join Peak at the following address: https://marylandlibraries.zoom.us/j/94771143623. The passcode is 663225.

The Easton Book Group (open to all) will discuss book selections for the 2021 year via Zoom. To participate, please email Susan Sherman at susancs@goeaston.net.

Isabel Wilkerson: Caste

Isabel Wilkerson discusses her critically acclaimed book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In this brilliant book, Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Caste is being adapted into a Netflix film directed, written, and produced by Ava DuVernay. A gifted storyteller, Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal human story of migration and reinvention, as well as the unseen hierarchies that have divided us as a nation, in order to find a way to transcend them. Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first Black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting in the history of American journalism.

Register: https://live-howardcounty.pantheonsite.io/events/mastering-elevator-pitch-and-interview

Watch the exclusive Facebook premiere of “The Library That Dolly Built: Celebrating the People Who Made Dolly’s Dream Come True.” A feature-length documentary covering the history, impact, and future of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the film features the music of Dolly Parton and is narrated by actress and author, Danica McKellar. Click here to view (begins at about 5 minutes in). Read the recent Talbot Spy article by Val Cavalheri: Hello and Thanks Dolly: Imagination Library on the Shore. To find out more about the Talbot County Imagination Library's goal of getting "all preschool-aged children in our county to experience the magic of reading and to possess the skills they need to be ready for kindergarten" go to Imagination Library of Talbot County.

"Library Guy" Bill Peak, spoke recently with Ann Finkbeiner, author of an article in the November edition of Scientific American entitled, “Orbital Aggression: How do we prevent war in space?” Finkbeiner explains why America depends so heavily on its satellite fleet, how our global adversaries are already toying with the idea of destroying those satellites, and how a major attack upon them could, quite literally, endanger civilization. View this and other interesting Peak interviews here.

With the recent uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases in Maryland and other states, Dr. Fredia Wadley, Health Officer for Talbot County, talked via Zoom with "Library Guy" Bill Peak on November 19 to relay the latest information about the coronavirus and the progress on vaccine development. Learn what it means to “flatten the curve,” recommendations for holiday and travel safety, how to protect yourself and others, and what is being done locally to combat the virus and prepare for vaccine distribution. Access Here. After clicking on the link, enter the passcode: *+1NjKnE

Set against the backdrop of a beautiful London garden, this contemporary fairy tale centers on the unlikely friendship between a reclusive young woman who dreams of writing children’s books and a cranky widower. Facing eviction over her neglected garden, Bella (Jessica Brown Findlay) meets her grumpy, loveless, next-door neighbor (Tom Wilkinson), who happens to be an amazing horticulturalist. You can watch the film for FREE here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8yhL0lcQ5g&t=479s

Wednesday, January 13, 7 p.m. Zoom Discussion:

The Zoom discussion will be led by the Chesapeake Film Festival Director Cid Collins Walker and Executive Director Nancy Tabor. Come prepared to have a fun and insightful time! For more information about the Cabin Fever Film Festival, contact Executive Director Nancy Tabor, at executivedirector@chesapeakefilmfestival.com.

Dial-a-Story Available

The stories are updated every week on Wednesday and will be read by librarians from across Maryland's Eastern Shore. Visit our library's website to check out all of the other programs you can enjoy from home.

Kid’s Holiday Art Collage Kits-to-Go are available now in the vestibule of the Easton library and at the back entrance of the St. Michaels library (while supplies last). Each kit includes enough materials for the entire family! (One per family please). Inside each kit are items to be collaged (paper to make cards and bookmarks, large holiday felt & foam shapes) along with materials to be glued (various tissue papers, ribbons, fiber yarns, pom-poms, small foam shapes, & stickers). A glue stick, pencils, and crayons are included. Please use parental supervision with young children. Have fun art collaging!

Spread some holiday cheer and show that you care by decorating cards and writing a message for the elderly or front line workers. Cards and envelopes can be picked up in the vestibule of the Easton branch during the Books-to-Go Hours listed at the top of this eblast. After your family has decorated the inside and written a special message, return them to the drop-box also located in the vestibule, and library staff will distribute them to local nursing homes and assisted living facilities and healthcare workers. A great holiday feel-good activity for the entire family! Thanks for helping make the holidays bright for others.

The challenge is to read at least three hours during the month of January and keep track of your reading on the Beanstack site at tcfl.beanstack.org, or through the free mobile app which can be downloaded to your device. Challenge participants will be able to read any books they like during the challenge and will be provided with recommendations from Simon & Schuster’s featured authors along the way. The Winter Reading Challenge is for all ages, so everyone in the family can participate. The grand prize winner will receive a $50 gift card of their choice from either Flying Cloud Booksellers or Amazon.

Top-performing libraries and schools will earn rewards from Simon & Schuster, including book collections and virtual author visits. For more details on the Winter Reading Challenge, or to order books through our Books-to-Go Service, visit tcfl.org, email askus@tcfl.org, or call 410-822-1626.

To learn more and to participate in this fundraiser click here.