Catch up on your reading with the Readers’ Cafe Book Club.  Their latest pick is One Thousand White Women: The Journals of Mary Dodd by Jim Fergus.  The novel is a fictional story based on a true event.  Using a document style format, One Thousand White Women tells the tale of a woman who travels West in the late 19th century, and marries the chief of the Cheyenne nation.

The book club meets this week on May 14th at 7 PM in the Readers’ Cafe.  The club meets once a month to discuss excellent light reads.  You can find more information here.

We have a lot of events going on in May, and one of the first one’s coming up is Linda Merlino’s author talk.  Merlino’s first book, Swan Boat Souvenir, was set in Boston and enjoyed a lot of local success.   Her newest book Belly of the Whale (April 2008), is also already highly recommended by reviewers.

The novel is about a young woman with breast cancer, Hudson Catalina, and the day she gives up hope – only to be taken hostage by a murderer more deadly than her disease.  Joann DiFabio of Identity Magazine says that Belly of the Whale “…is smartly crafted with the perfect combination of sympathy, suspense, and sentiment.”

So come to the library on May 5 at 7 PM to meet Linda Merlino and hear her read from Belly of the Whale.

On Wednesday, April 23rd at 7 PM, Carole Berney will be coming to the Watertown Free Public Library to reprise her excellent show, The Green World of Watertown.

This multimedia presentation celebrates, appreciates, and urges us to care for the natural spaces and wildlife in our town. Carole’s color photographic images of the Charles River, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and other public parks and private spaces (including gardens, trees, wildflowers, and wildlife that make these their home) will feature some humorous and surprising stories of animal encounters in our densely settled, semi-urban setting. Also celebrated will be local “green” efforts on the part of citizens and organizations to enhance the environmental health of our natural resources.

If you’ve attended previous performances, feel free to attend again. Or, tell your friends!

The Watertown Library is kicking into full gear next week with a celebration of National Poetry Month. If you like poetry, you can’t miss out on the readings we’re hosting featuring prominent local poets Rosamond Rosenmeier and Gregory Djanikian.

On April 22 at 7 PM, Rosamond Rosenmeier will read from her book “Where Light Answers Light: Poems from Prince Edward Island.” In her book, Rosamond celebrates more than 40 summers spent on Prince Edward Island’s north shore, recreating the season’s progress from “June’s pale green” through the “heaviest heat” of mid-summer to “fall’s silver air striking across the ripe corn.”

Then on Thursday, April 24 at 7 PM, award-winning poet and educator Gregory Djanikian will read from his latest book of poetry, So I Will Till the Ground. The Djanikian’s fifth collection of poems, published by Carnegie Mellon Press, deals with aspects of Armenian history and family life: the Genocide of 1915, the ensuing diaspora, and the emigration of the author and his family from Egypt to the United States. The poems, Peter Balakian has written, “…chart a poetic topography that takes us… from the elegiac to the philosophical and to the heartfelt comedy of human love.”

This month, the Shakespeare Reading Group is starting a new play, King John. This Tuesday kicks off the first round with reading and discussion at 6:30 PM in the library, followed by round two on Tuesday, April 22.

This is a great time to join this lively group - there’s no experience necessary!

The Readers’ Café Book Club will meet on Wednesday, April 9th at 7 PM to discuss Kabul Beauty School: an American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the Readers’ Café Book Club, it is a monthly book club that deals with “lighter fare,” that is, entertaining books from various genres. Discussions are thought-provoking, and readers share their personal reactions while sipping hot beverages from our very own café. Come to just one meeting, or come to all of them.

The Reader’s Café Book Club meets the second Wednesday evening every month from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the library café.

If you’re wondering what to do on all these rainy April days, you might want to consider checking out some of our newest books:

The Prince of Bagram Prison: a Novel, by Alex Carr
New York : Random House Trade Paperbacks, c2008.

“Army Intelligence reservist Kat Caldwell is teaching Arabic at a military college in Virginia when the order comes: Retired spy chief Dick Morrow needs to find a CIA informant who has slipped away from his handler in Spain and may be heading to Morocco.” “Jamal was a prisoner whom Kat interrogated when she worked at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. Having gained his trust, she is now expected to discover his whereabouts on a treacherous trail that leads from Madrid’s red-light district to the slums of Casablanca. But when a British special forces soldier is murdered just as he is about to give testimony on the death of a Bagram detainee, Kat begins to suspect that the real story here is one of the cover-up of U.S.-sanctioned torture. And when in desperation Jamal contacts his former CIA handler, he unwittingly rekindles a bitter struggle between the one man who can save him and the one who wants him dead.”

A Brief History of Anxiety - Your and Mine, by Patricia Pearson
New York : Bloomsbury, 2008.

“Those of us who silently cope with anxiety disorders at last have a witty, articulate champion in Patricia Pearson, an award-winning journalist who has suffered from incapacitating bouts of dread since childhood.” “In this blend of fascinating reportage and poignant memoir, Pearson questions what it is about twenty-first-century American culture that is making people anxious, and offers some surprising answers - as well as some inspiring solutions based on her own fierce battle to drive the beast away.” “Drawing on personal episodes that are by turns gripping and laugh-out-loud funny, Pearson delves into the history and geography of anxiety in a quest to understand this most ancient of human emotions. Why do we feel fear even when it has no cause? What triggers phobias? Why are Americans so much more likely to have clinically significant levels of anxiety than their Mexican neighbors? Why did Darwin treat his hypochondria with sprays from a hose? Why have we forsaken the insights of some of our greatest philosophers, theologians, and psychologists in favor of prescribing addictive drugs? Finally, Pearson documents her struggle to withdraw from antidepressants and to find more self-aware and philosophically grounded ways to strengthen the soul.”

J-Pop Idol, by Toko Yashiro
Tokyopop, 2008

“Everyone dreams about being the next J-Pop Idol! Best friends Mika, Kay, and Naomi win a nationwide singing contest, setting them on their way to stardom. But only Mika is offered a recording contract, and if she takes this chance to pursue her love for music, her friendship with Kay might be finished! And when Mika meets Ken–her boy-band idol growing up–she might have found more than just a music producer who promises to make her a household name. But it isn’t long before she discovers that Ken is paying his own price for his love of music…”

Scoot!, by Cathryn Falwell
New York : Greenwillow Books, 2008.

“Extraordinary paper collages accompany a high-spirited romp at the pond that involves everyone but “six silent turtles [that] sit still as stones.” Strong, predictable rhymes bounce across the pages: “Wood ducks glide./Water striders slide./Salamanders dash./Tadpoles splash.” Unusual, lively words extend vocabulary: “Wriggle! Waggle! Scuttle! Skim!/On every reed and stone and limb!” The creatures hustle along until a strong wind surprises everyone and helps the log the turtles are on speed away. “Notes from Frog Song Pond” shows a photo of the author’s tree house from which she observes critters and lists names of animals in the book and additional information about some of them. Children will also enjoy the “Printing Textures” page, which has directions and examples of creative textures, including bubble wrap and a broccoli flower. This is an engaging book for young children, but it could also inspire older readers to play with language and use vivid word pictures to add life to writing.”—Lee Bock, School Library Journal

And if none of these titles interest you, don’t worry - there’s more where that came from. Check out the complete list of new titles.

Date: Wednesday, April 9
Time: 7 PM
Location: Watertown Savings Bank Room

Have you always wanted to be an author? Have you got some great material? Has everyone told you, “Hey, you should write a book?” Well, according to Ric Wasley, writing the book may actually be the easiest part of the process - it’s everything else that’s hard. It takes skill, tenacity and above all … marketing and communications. Join him in an interactive discussion of how to get major publishers to sit up and take notice of you.

Wasley, whose second novel, Shadow of Innocence, was released internationally this year, started out five years ago like so many would-be authors, with an idea for a story and a need to tell it. However, he found out along the way that it’s not enough to have a good idea; you’ve also got to find a way to get someone to listen to it. That takes skill, tenacity and above all … marketing and communications.

Wasley feels there are ways for authors to stack the deck a little more in their favor. Join him in an interactive discussion of not just the intricacies of structuring a plot and characters, but how to get major publishers to sit up and take notice of you. Just like Mick in his novel, Shadow of Innocence, Ric Wasley thrived on music in the sixties and performed as a folksinger and in rock several bands all over New England. He met the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Wasley has been writing for over 30 years. He has been published in several literary magazines in L.A. and San Francisco while living in California. Wasley has fond memories of living in Watertown but currently lives in a MetreoWest community with his wife and three children, works for a major media company and retains his love of music and writing.

*Handicapped Accessible

Kabul Beauty School: an American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez.
NY: Random House, 2007.

Pauli says : I just finished listening to Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez on CD. I was enthralled by the story of a Michigan beautician (Rodriguez) who started a beauty school in Kabul, Afghanistan, after visiting there with a non-governmental agency and realizing that both Westerners and Afghani women were starved for hair salons. She forms lasting friendships and assists hundreds of women to become as self-sufficient as possible in a conservative, war-torn country.

The Readers’ Café Book Club will be discussing this book at the library on April 9th at 7 PM.

Come hear Watertown author Allan Hunter talk about his book, Stories We Need to Know on Wednesday, March 26 at 7PM.

In Stories We Need to Know Allan Hunter uses stories from 3,000 years of the western canon to explore the six stages that characters progress through and how we might see ourselves and our own journey in a new way.

Come hear Allan talk and see his slide presentation!  All welcome!