Thursday, February 23, 2012

Support Article 16

 SUPPORT ARTICLE 16
VOTE YES
Tuesday March 6

On Tuesday March 6 from 10 am until 7 pm the polls will be open at Martin Memorial Hall in Ascutney for the Annual Town Meeting Australian Ballot voting.

Article 16 on the Ballot is requesting funds for the Library Capital Improvements Reserve Fund. The Weathersfield Board of Trustees is hoping the Town will support this article.

We have really outgrown our current space at 5181 Rte 5 Ascutney and would like to proceed with the library expansion that was proposed many years ago. We'd love to see the library play a greater role in the lives of the residents.


In addition to our great book collection we offer:
Free Wi-Fi and computer access
Access to Online classes
Programs for children, young adults and adults
Book Clubs
Crafts Classes
Books on Tape and CDs
Play Away Books 
Interlibrary Loans
And much more...

 

Article 16 will help maintain the current structure, which is starting to show signs of age and also help build a capital reserve for the future expansion.





With the expansion, the library will be able to offer not only more space for folks to read and work comfortably in but also will allow us to expand on the programs we offer to our residents. We will also be able to offer modern meeting space for various groups in town. And an improved library experience for everyone.

Please stop by the library if you have any questions about Article 16 or any questions about our library in general. We're here to help!

For More Info:
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Post Office Box 519
Ascutney, VT 05030-0519
Telephone: [802] 674-2863 Email: library@weathersfield.org

 
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Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 10:04 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Local author writes novel on commercial fishing conflict

By Michael McCord
seacoastonline.com
February 19, 2012 2:00 AM

NEW CASTLE — Local author Mark Klein admits to being ambitious in his second novel, "The Red Ocean."
Written for young adults, the completed but unpublished novel owes its story to real headlines about the complex balancing act between the struggles of New Hampshire commercial fishermen in an environment of greater government regulations and the reality of diminishing fish stocks.

"The Red Ocean": For more about the book and author Mark Klein, visit www.theredocean.net
"I'm trying to capture the dramatic conflict between the fight of survival for the bluefin tuna and the honest fishermen trying to make living from the sea," said Klein, a recreational fishermen, admirer of bluefin tuna and successful entrepreneur.

Klein, founder and CEO of Portsmouth-based Loyalty Builders Inc., said he also wants to educate his readers about the conflict by including non-fictional chapters about government fishery regulations and articles focused on what he believes is the potential global extinction of the bluefin.

"I wanted to do something along the lines of 'Moby Dick' to give more to the readers," Klein said in regard to Herman Melville's style of merging fact, lore and fiction about the whaling business.
The plight of the bluefin tuna is dear to Klein, who enjoys fishing for it off New Hampshire's coast. "I got really interested in bluefin tuna. It's a marvelous creature, one of the very few warm-blooded fishes," he said. 
"If I could start a zoo, I have no doubt it would be a star attraction."

The book includes chapters highlighting what might be called a fish-first perspective of a bluefin tuna named Big Blue during his ocean travels. Klein is also interested in the fate of commercial fishermen whose livelihood is threatened by government regulations attempting to preserve stocks and fishing industry technological advances that have made large commercial fleets more efficient in depleting fish stocks.

READ MORE 

For More Info:
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Post Office Box 519
Ascutney, VT 05030-0519
Telephone: [802] 674-2863 Email: library@weathersfield.org

 
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Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 11:00 AM 0 comments

NONFICTION: "Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck," by Eric G. Wilson

Article by: KEVIN CANFIELD , Special to the Star Tribune

Near the start of his new book, Eric G. Wilson alludes to one of his earlier efforts, a 2008 title in which he explored misery's transformative influence on creativity and self-awareness. Titled "Against Happiness," it wasn't exactly feel-good fare. "I wish it had made Oprah's uplifting list," he deadpans in "Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can't Look Away."
Though he obviously has a dry sense of humor, Wilson is clearly more interested in life's darker moments. Invoking everything from horror movies and television news footage of the Sept. 11 attacks to Dante's tormented verse and Goya's paintings of cannibals, Wilson makes a strong case that humans are natural-born rubberneckers.

"We are enamored of ruin," he writes. "The deeper the darkness is, the more dazzling. Our secret and ecstatic wish: Let it all fall down."

A hybrid of memoir, journalism and theory, Wilson's book investigates what this impulse tells us about ourselves and how it might inspire constructive reactions like compassion. Surveying the work of his fellow academics -- Wilson is an English professor at Wake Forest University -- he notes, "Some claim that morbid curiosity is only a desire for strong physiological arousal: the unseemly attracts us because it is more stimulating to our bodies than are more pleasant events."

Wilson also travels around the country to interview, among others, a man who collects serial-killer memorabilia and the curator of a ghoulish museum. These chapters are colorful but not particularly insightful.

READ MORE

For More Info:
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Post Office Box 519
Ascutney, VT 05030-0519
Telephone: [802] 674-2863 Email: library@weathersfield.org

 
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Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 10:00 AM 0 comments

TONIGHT-Trustee Meeting

Trustees will meet at 7 pm

Weathersfield Proctor Library Trustees

Wednesday February 22, 2012 7:00 pm

5181 Rte 5 Ascutney VT

February 22 Agenda

 

For More Info:
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Post Office Box 519
Ascutney, VT 05030-0519
Telephone: [802] 674-2863 Email: library@weathersfield.org

 
Join our mailing list

 

Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 9:55 AM 0 comments

Monday, February 20, 2012

Dreaming of Dresses: Transgender Books for Children



B.J. Epstein
Lecturer in literature and translation, University of East Anglia
For the Huffington Post

Young people are coming out as transgender ever earlier, which often means that they want medical treatment at younger ages. This is a thought that worries and bewilders some adults, in part because they do not believe that children can really know who they are or what they want but also in part because they simply don't have enough information about gender dysphoria.

These days, we see some trans and intersex people in the media, although there is often an emphasis on the problems they face. News reports discuss bullying and suicide. Films such as Boys Don't Cry or XXY depict struggles and pain. Novels often do a bit better in terms of nuance (such as Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex or Annabel by Kathleen Winter), but are not always easily available (one thinks here of Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues). So it's not surprising that adults don't always get accurate information or positive ideas about trans issues.

Then there's the perhaps more pressing problem of where trans or intersex young people themselves can read about other people like them. If someone recognizes at a young age that she or he is trans, that person might immediately want to know that she or he is not alone or "abnormal." The media and, more specifically, literature is usually the first stop.
There are two well-known young adult novels about trans characters, Luna by Julie Anne Peters and Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger.


READ MORE

For More Info:
Weathersfield Proctor Library
Post Office Box 519
Ascutney, VT 05030-0519
Telephone: [802] 674-2863 Email: library@weathersfield.org

 
Join our mailing list
Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 12:30 PM 0 comments

New Voices: Sara Benincasa's 'Agorafabulous!'

By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

In debut memoir Agorafabulous! Dispatches From My Bedroom (William Morrow, $24.99), author and stand-up comedian Sara Benincasa describes in hilarious and sometimes horrifying detail her struggle with panic attacks and the dark days when she was too terrified to leave her room.
Posted by Weathersfield ProctorLibrary at 7:00 AM 0 comments
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