Stay Connected through Library Programs

Weekly Program eNews

December 30, 2024

In this Issue

• Spotlight: Hygge at the Library

• Spotlight: New Year's Closures

• Spotlight: Family Movie: The Wild Robot

• This Week at the Library

• Upcoming Program Highlights

• Staff Review: Dear Fahrenheit 451

• Teen Book Beat: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• Ask a Librarian

See our full calendar here.

ABOVE RIGHT: Drop-In Monday and Tuesday to decorate a party hat to help ring in the new year. All supplies provided. This activity is provided in the Children's Library and in the Teen Lounge.

In the Spotlight

The Danish concept of hygge is many things, including an opportunity to unwind and take things slow. Drop in to The Community Library all week for puzzles, games, coloring, and of course, reading! Each afternoon from 1:00-3:00 p.m. we'll have free cookies and warm treats in the Lecture Hall. All are welcome! More here.

Monday-Saturday

December 30 - January 4 (CLOSED January 1)

Our digital collections are available 24/7 FREE. More here.

Join us as part of Hygge at the Library for a FREE movie with popcorn provided

(while supplies last). The Wild Robot, produced by Universal Pictures, is based on the popular children's book. The PG movie is open to all ages and runs 101 minutes. Children under age 9 must be accompanied by an adult caregiver. More here.

3:00 - 5:00 p.m., Friday, January 3

Lecture Hall

This Week at the Library

Story Time

Monday, December 30

10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Treehouse

Drop-In: Decorate a New Years Hat

Monday, December 30, 10am-6pm

Tuesday, December 31, 10am-3pm

Children's Library and Teen Lounge

While supplies last.

Community Gingerbread Contest

Stop by the Sun Valley Lodge this holiday season to see the charming and intricate gingerbread houses and vote for your favorite. The winning nonprofit (hint-hint) will receive a cash prize. Thank you Magpie and Monkey Co. for creating your masterpiece "Wild & Free" on behalf of

The Community Library! More here.

Through December 31

Sun Valley Lodge | Boiler Room

Pop-In Poetry

Brown Bag Poetry has a new name! Come join us as we read and discuss a few short poems together. This week: I celebrate myself, and sing myself... Whose voice launched a thousand verses?

Thursday, January 2

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Learning Commons

Sensory Time & Social Hour: Construction Site

Enjoy a morning of sensory time for your toddler, while connecting with other parents and guardians at The Community Library. Sensory bins for the toddlers, and coffee and tea for the adults will be provided.

Friday, January 3

11:00 - 11:45 a.m.

Children's Library

Wood River Writers'

Focused Writing Group

Saturday, January 4

10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Idaho Room + Zoom

Upcoming Program Highlights

January 6: Lunchtime Language: Spanish moves to Mondays

January 7: Beginning Knitting starts weekly on Mondays

January 7: Behind the Start Gate: World Cup Course Design with Riley Berman

January 8: Hooked on Salmon: Protecting the Run with Youth Salmon Protectors

January 9: Christopher Preston, A Conversation with the January Writer-in-Residence at the Hemingway House

January 14: English Language Learning Winter Classes Begin

January 15: Preserving Family Recipes Writing Workshop with Cynthia Nims

January 15: Landscape-Scale Conservation: From the Heart of the Rockies Across Six Continents

January 16: TV Discussion Group and Nature Journaling classes begin

January 20: The Library will be closed in observance of

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 21: Sun Valley Ski Patrol in the 1960s with David Laster

January 22: On Being Jewish Now with Zibby Owens and Alli Frank

January 28: "The Question of God" Discussion Group begins

January 30: WINTER READ Kickoff Event! Presenting Four Treasures of the Sky

January 30: Literacy/Creativity presented by Footlight Dance Centre in Hailey

February 4: Conversational Spanish begins

February 5: Middle Grade Book Club: The Color of Sound

February 5: Library Book Club: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

February 6: The Long Road: Building a Writer's Life and Community

February 7: WINTER READ: Bitter Creek with Teow Lim Goh

See our full calendar of events/register here.

Book Review

"Sometimes what helps most is to curl up in front of my fireplace with a book that makes me laugh, and Dear Fahrenheit 451 does just that."

Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian's Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence.

Sometimes, life is hard. Really hard. Don’t get me wrong... life is wonderful, too. Love is the most wonderful thing of all, but it sure can sucker-punch you. It happened to me recently. Both of my beloved parents passed away six weeks apart this fall. It is hard to imagine a world without them...

Sometimes what helps most is to curl up in front of my fireplace with a book that makes me laugh, and Dear Fahrenheit 451 does just that.

I love this little gem of a book even more because a librarian wrote it. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is a collection of letters the author, Annie Spence, writes to library books. Some are love letters to books she adores, like Ray Bradbury’s seminal classic about a world after books, Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Others are “Dear John” letters to books that—to put it gently—have not aged well.

Spence’s funny, irreverent take on literary classics captivated me when I needed it most. She is clearly a colorful, salty soul. An author who could moonlight as a stand-up comic, her chosen books are personified...

Read Andrea's entire review here.

Find more staff book recommendations here.

Book Beat: Student Book Review

My name is Judah. I like to play soccer, alpine ski and x- country ski. Some of my favorite books are The Golden Goblet and A Night Divided. For my Book Beat review, I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Janet and Geoff Berge.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an historically accurate book written by Janet and Geoff Benge. Bonhoeffer was born to a German family on February 4, 1906. He grew up with many siblings, being one of eight to grow up in the Bonhoeffer house.

At age twenty-one Bonhoeffer went to the University of Humboldt Berlin. Although having a theology degree, Bonhoeffer was used by the Lord to teach and help pastors to stay strong in times of trouble under Hitler.

Bonhoeffer would also go on and work with many others in a secret attempt to kill Hitler and end his evil dictatorship. Although they came up with several assassination attempts, none of them proved to be successful...

Read Judah's entire book review here.

See all Book Beat Reviews here.