News and Links
TONIGHT engage with a discussion of recent history, politics, and society by Darryl Pinckney and Caryl Phillips!

THIS WEEK explore Puerto Rican literature with Ivelisse Rodriguez!

NEXT WEEK visit the real Tibet with Barbara Demick!

Participants in our poetry workshop with Esther Cohen shared their poems about What Life Feels Like Now (Join in on December 3 and 17!)

Another wide-ranging list of eye-catching recent titles from our acquisitions staff: In Case You Missed It: Part 8

Enjoy the recording from the first event in our four-part series: Black Literature Matters: The 1700s - with dramatic readings, historical context, and images.

And join us for the streaming premieres of our Fall 2020 events, starting December 17!

A Library membership - or one of our handsome and sturdy tote bags - makes a great holiday gift.


Not only books...but also PIZZA.


For anyone who loves children's and young adult books: the Children's Library would love to select a book bundle for you.
One-Question Survey
What book(s) are you looking forward to reading in the final month of 2020? ADD YOUR ANSWER HERE.

Last month we asked what book you loved to re-read or look forward to re-reading. Responses included classics like Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, and Anthony Trollope, contemporary hits such as Amor Towles' Rules of Civility, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, and several people who return to mystery series by authors like Rex Stout and Dorothy L. Sayers. One respondent noted that the recent film adaptation of Little Women inspired a re-read of the book - that's the kind of inspiration we like!
TONIGHT! CONVERSATION - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Darryl Pinckney
Blackballed: The Black Vote and U.S. Democracy
with Caryl Phillips

Tuesday, December 1, 6:00 PM
online | $10 per person | registration required
 
In this combination of memoir, historical narrative, and contemporary political and social analysis, the essayist, journalist, and author investigates the struggle for Black voting rights from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement to 2020, in conversation with award-winning novelist, essayist, and playwright Caryl Phillips.
WRITING LIFE WORKSHOP - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Write What Life Feels Like Now with Esther Cohen

Thursdays December 3, December 17, 3:00 PM
online | by donation | registration required

It's an unusual year. There are so many words to say how we feel. Let's try together.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the next date.
SEMINAR - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Puerto Rican Literature: From New York to Puerto Rico and Back
with Ivelisse Rodriguez
 
Thursdays December 3, December 17, January 7, January 21, 6:00 PM
online | $60 for the four sessions | registration required
 
The author of PEN/Faulkner finalist LOVE WAR STORIES explores memoirs, poetry, and fiction covering almost 100 years of Puerto Rican writing from the continental United States.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the date.
LECTURE - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Barbara Demick
Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town

Tuesday, December 8, 6:00 PM
online | $10 per person | registration required
 
Illuminating a culture that has long been romanticized by Westerners as deeply spiritual and peaceful, Demick reveals what it is really like to be a Tibetan in the twenty-first century, trying to preserve one’s culture, faith, and language against the depredations of a seemingly unstoppable, technologically all-seeing superpower.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the date.
THE WRITING LIFE - FOR MEMBERS ONLY
Prompt!
with Terena Elizabeth Bell
 
Friday, December 11, 11:00 AM
online | by donation | registration required
 
Join your fellow member writers for a fun and stimulating hour and a half of prompts, writing, and sharing.
 
Terena Elizabeth Bell is a fiction writer. She has published in more than 100 outlets, including The Atlantic, Playboy, The Yale Review, Juked, and Natural Bridge. Follow her on Twitter @terenabell.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the date.
SPECIAL EVENT - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Michael Lasser
An American Songbook Afternoon: Irving Berlin's Miracle Year

Sunday, December 13, 2:00 PM
online | $10 per person | registration required
 
In this lecture with recorded music, American Songbook expert and radio host Michael Lasser takes us back to the year almost a century ago when one of America's most iconic songwriters came fully into his own voice.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the date.
THE WRITING LIFE - FOR MEMBERS AND GUESTS
Celebration of Member Writers

Monday, December 14, 6:00 PM
on the Zoom meetings platform | free of charge | registration required
 
Members and guests are cordially invited to a celebration of Library members who have published books during 2020. Browse this year's member writers on this growing special shelf provided by the Corner Bookstore.

Did you publish a book in 2020 but not yet receive an invitation to this event? Please email Carolyn Waters.

Interested in this event, but not ready to register? Get a reminder closer to the date.
THE WRITING LIFE - FOR MEMBERS AND GUESTS
Now Streaming! Our Fall 2020 Season

various dates
online | free of charge | drop in

We're pleased to make our full season of major fall events available for streaming as of the dates at this link. Join us at noon on any listed date to chat with others at a streaming premiere watch party! Following each premiere, the videos will be available anytime.

At right: Meredith Talusan spoke on October 22.
OUTSIDE EVENT OF INTEREST
The Royal Oak Society
Beyond the Figgy Pudding: Victorian Food and Dining in the World of Charles Dickens
Tuesday, December 15, 6:00 PM | register here | discount code for Library members: NYSL20
It wouldn’t be Christmas for many without the images of the steaming holly-bedecked Christmas pudding and roast goose with sage and onion stuffing made famous in Charles Dickens’s immortal holiday tale A Christmas Carol. In this illustrated talk, writer and food historian Carl Raymond will take us on a tour through highlights of Dickens’ stories, focusing on how he portrayed food and what is said about his most famous characters, with a general overview of Victorian food and dining.
PLUS

Digital Teatime (Fridays, 3:00-3:30 PM, for members, drop in. Teatime will not take place on December 25 or January 1.)



Events for early 2021 will be announced soon.
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The Writing Life events in 2020 are generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.
Quick Links
 
Library Hours
Monday and Friday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

This holiday season, the Library closes at 5:00 PM on Thursdays, December 24 and 31 and is closed Friday, December 25, Saturday, December 26, Sunday, December 27, and Friday, January 1.