Art Exhibit

*Past Due: An exhibition featuring paintings by James Jeffrey and paintings and mixed media collages by John Slaney and James Jeffrey has opened in the library’s lower meeting room. The collection is on view until the end of the month.

Summer Reading Volunteers

Summer reading kicks off on Monday, June 29.

Every year young adults volunteer to help with our independent summer reading program by listening to younger readers talk about the books they are reading. You must be entering sixth grade or older to be a library volunteer.

Two training and information sessions will be held on Monday, June 1, and Thursday, June 4, at 4 pm. If you have never volunteered for our summer program, you must attend one of these sessions.

Applications will be available on June 1 and must be turned in by June 10. Applications received after that date will go on the sub list.  Summer reading ends on August 15.

Young Adult Programs

Chess Club News: The Chess Club will not meet this Saturday (May 23). The library will be closed for carpet cleaning.

As a reminder, the final intermediate chess lesson for the current group of students will be held on Saturday, May 30. All students should try to be present at this lesson to receive a gift.

For Families and Adults

*An Authors’ Talk for Book Lovers: Meet authors Nancy and Lawrence Goldstone on Tuesday, June 2, at 1 pm.

Their talk will focus on three titles they co-wrote: Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World, Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales and Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore.

The Goldstones will talk about why they became interested in collecting books and describe the interesting people they have met in the course of their collecting. Refreshments will be served.

*ReferenceUSA for Job Hunters: A representative from the ReferenceUSA database will be here to show how this powerful business database can be used for job searching on Thursday, June 4, from 9 to 11 am, and again in the evening beginning at 7 pm.

Registration is requested and can be done online or over the phone.

*Book Groups: The Daytime Book Group will discuss The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson on Monday, June 8, at 1 pm; and The Evening Book Group will talk about Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen on Thursday, June 18, at 7:30 pm.

*A Virtual Tour of American History: What can you learn about American history from visiting the New Britain Museum of Art?

Find out on Monday, June 8, at 7:30 pm, when Newtown Historical Society hosts a virtual tour of the museum with docent Alma Kearns.

Here’s a chance to view American history through the artists’ eyes. From Colonial portraiture – which offered the rich a chance to establish their immortality in a pre-photographic age, to artists’ perceptions of 9/11, great moments in history – and many lesser moments – have been fitting subjects for an artist’s pen, brush, engraver or chisel.

We tend to think of historical paintings as the monumental depiction of Revolutionary War events that helped us establish our national identity in the early republic, but what would our development have been had we not had the sublime vistas of the Hudson River School or the biting commentary of an editorial cartoonist?

*Play Ball!

Julie Stern will lead a three part summer book series on America’s favorite past time, baseball. This discussion series is for both baseball fans and those who love a good story. Programs are Tuesday evenings beginning at 7:30 pm.

Discussions will feature Wait Til Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin on June 16, The Natural by Bernard Malamud on June 30, and Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella on July 14.

Multiple copies of each book are available at the circulation desk.

C.H. Booth Library is at 25 Main Street in Newtown. Call 426-4533 or visit CHBoothLibrary.org for information on these and future programs and offerings.