The Library will be closed all day Thursday, February 6, 2020 for Staff in Service Day.

General

Your Library Card Just Got Better

Joanna Breen General

Visit BHML to get your new 14-digital library card to become eligible to participate in the Maine Reciprocal Borrowing Program.

The Maine Reciprocal Borrowing Program allows anyone with a valid library card from one of 68 participating libraries to visit any of the other participating libraries and check out materials in person. It’s referred to as “walk-in” borrowing because it essentially turns your local library card into a “statewide” library card!

The program launched in September 2019 as a one year pilot test. Following review of the pilot in August 2020 and incorporating any needed changes, the Maine State Library hopes the program will be formalized and grow over time.

Stop by the library to pick up your new card, and then map out a Reciprocal Borrowing road trip!  Some libraries where your new library card will work are: Skidompha Public Library (Damariscotta), Rockland Public Library, Camden Public Library, and Witherle Memorial Library (Castine).

New BHML library cards feature art by three local artists. It’s a miniature piece of fine art that unlocks the world of culture and literature throughout the state of Maine. Pretty awesome!

Re-imagining the American Family

Joanna Breen General
Sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council

This Let’s Talk About It series offers a compilation of memoirs by contemporary American writers who imaginatively represent, shape, and challenge our conceptions of the American family. Alison Bechdel, J.D. Vance, Marie Howe, Roz Chast, and John Edgar Wideman share a fundamental interest in the formation of identity–familial, individual, national and global. Together, we will investigate the possibilities and limits of literature to shape identity and to construct (or deconstruct) categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Get the books: Copies of each title are available for checkout at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. Call the Library (207-633-3112) to reserve a copy, or drop by.

Facilitated by Larissa Vigue Picard, discussions will take place in the Great Room of the Library.

Light refreshments will be served. No registration is required.

Re-imagining the American Family

February 1: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
March 7: Fun Home by  Alison Bechdel
April 4: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast
May 2: What The Living Do by Marie Howe
June 6: Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman

Americans have long held a particular obsession with the family. What images does the “family” conjure in the American imagination? What does the “family” really mean in national, social, and political discourses? And how do we square societal expectations with reality?

The representations on this reading list attempt to expand, complicate, and challenge our vision of what constitutes the “American family.” This series exposes readers to a wide range of experiences and perspectives, with the goal of broadening our conceptions of individual and family identities. We will also broaden our conception of the memoir genre by exploring traditional long-form writing alongside graphic and poetic self-representations.

This series offers a compilation of memoirs by contemporary American writers who imaginatively represent, shape, and challenge our conceptions of the American family. Alison Bechdel, J.D. Vance, Marie Howe, Roz Chast, and John Edgar Wideman share a fundamental interest in the formation of identity–familial, individual, national and global. Together, we will investigate the possibilities and limits of literature to shape identity and to construct (or deconstruct) categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

The writers of each of our memoirs seek to more fully understand themselves and the worlds they inhabit. They search for authentic modes of self-expression. Particularly, each writer  endeavors to develop a more complete and cohesive sense of self in the face of competing forces in a multicultural and multiethnic America, where “diversity” is purportedly valued but where difference is so often divisive.

Our challenge will be threefold: first, to recognize the strategies our authors use to depict American identity in its many iterations; second, to situate our own ideas about American identity within the context of other articulations inflected by race, class, gender, and sexuality; and third, to come to a deeper understanding of whether there is such a thing as an essentially “American” identity at all.

About the Facilitator: A native of Maine, Larissa Vigue Picard has been executive director of Brunswick’s Pejepscot Historical Society since 2015. Larissa holds a B.A. in English Literature from Bates College and an M.A. in English Literature from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She lives in Topsham with her husband and son and enjoys supporting local organizations and initiatives.

A Maine Humanities Counsel Book Discussion
Second Saturdays, 10:30 AM, February – June

February 1: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

March 7: Fun Home by  Alison Bechdel

April 4: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast

May 2: What The Living Do by Marie Howe

June 6: Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman

 

 

12/14/19: 2020 Census Jobs

Joanna Breen General

Saturday, December 14

10:00 AM – Noon

Drop by BHML for a Census job information session.

2020 Census Jobs pay $17.50/hour and up plus $0.58/mile

“The United States Census Bureau will be hiring for 2020 Census Jobs, a great chance to do enjoyable work with paid training and very flexible hours, right in your local community. BHML will have a member of the Census Bureau available onsite to help people fill out an application, or to answer any questions about these local job opportunities.

If interested, visit www.2020census.gov/jobs for more information or to apply online.”

Books in Boothbay 2020 – Authors

Joanna Breen General

Books in Boothbay 2020

July 11, 2020, 9 AM – 1:00 PM, Boothbay Railway Village

Books in Boothbay gathers contemporary Maine authors from around the state (and those with a connection to the Pine Tree State) for an afternoon of meeting fans and fellow authors in celebration of Maine’s literary heritage.

Authors eligible to apply should live, write, or have a connect to the state of Maine, and have had a book published within the last 18 months prior to the fair (special circumstances will be evaluated on a case by case basis by the Books in Boothbay Committee). To be considered as a selling author for Books in Boothbay 2020 please fill out the application form below.

2020 Books In Boothbay - Author Application

Authors are accepted on a rolling basis. Authors who are selected by the Books in Boothbay Committee will be notified by April 1, 2020. Applications will not be considered after May 1, 2020.
  • Authors having published within the last 18 months may be prioritized for inclusion.
  • Date Format: MM slash DD slash YYYY
  • Please submit a short bio:
  • Please submit the following images:

    1) A photo of you
    2) Dust jackets of your current book, and of any others you wish to sell at the event.

    Please note: You may upload PDF packages; if you have a pre-fab marketing package that must be emailed, you may send it to booksinboothbay@gmail.com with the subject "BIB 2020."

    Drop files here or

  • Important! All books sold at the event are supplied by Sherman's Bookstores. Titles entered here will be ordered by Sherman's and delivered to the event.

    Click the + to add additional titles. 7 titles max.

    TitleISBN 
  • If you were an attendee at last year's Books in Boothbay (2019), please provide any suggestions that you feel would improve the author experience at this event:

New Library Hours

Joanna Breen General

You spoke, we listened.  BHML will now be open more hours to the public.

Beginning this fall, BHML is now open at 9:30 AM Tuesday – Friday.  Thank you to everyone who provided feedback to us.

New Hours:

Tuesday 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Wednesday 9:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Thursday 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Friday 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Saturday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Closed Sunday & Monday

10/31: Halloween Parade

Joanna Breen General

Thursday, October 31, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

The rain won out, we’re moving the Halloween parade to the Boothbay Harbor Fire House…Dress up, and drop by!

Enter through the town office, wind through tables collecting candy from reps from local businesses, and play games with the Methodist Church….plus some eyeballs and brains.

 

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Join us for the Boothbay Harbor Halloween Parade!

Gather at the library at 3:45 PM for some warm apple cider; parade & trick-or-treating through town begins at 4:00 PM!

Route: from the library to Bath Savings parking lot to Union Street. Traffic cones will cordon off parking for a larger pedestrian walkway.

10/26: Author Talk: May Davidson

Joanna Breen General

Saturday, October 26 at 2 p.m.

Book Signing & Talk Local author May Davidson

Memoirist May Davidson will read from her new book Whatever It Takes at this event. After the reading, May will be available to sign books and answer questions. May Davidson has lived 90 years in Lincoln County, Maine and her book is about her adventurous life and the many jobs she and her husband did side-by-side, from farming to lobstering to long-haul trucking.
Learn more about May https://www.islandportpress.com/authors/may-davidson.html.

Books will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop.

10/16: What’s Hot & What’s Not

Joanna Breen General

Wednesday, October 16⋅5:30 – 6:30pm

Join The Wizard of Odds & Ends (Richard Plunkett) for a journey through the current trends in antiques and collectibles.  Bring a collectible to learn about its value.

Richard Plunkett the proprietor of The Wizard of Odds & Ends in, Alna Maine, specializing in antiques appraisals, buying, selling, decorative items, and insurance appraisals.

10/12: Author Talk: Anne Britting Oleson

Joanna Breen General

Saturday, October 12, 2:00 PM

About the book:

“Tapiser is a mystery. On another level, though, it’s a story about family – and how, over time, family stories assume secret lives. That secrecy simultaneously ensures that the stories both hide and reveal truths. Revealed, they have the power to realign family relationships and to forge new families. With each twist and turn of Oleson’s delightful novel, the centrality of such stories is illuminated.” – Frank O Smith, for the Portland Press Herald.

In the novel Tapiser, Emily Harris finds out there’s a fine line between the present and the past, and there is an equally fine line that separates people in the world. She’s recently divorced and over the objections of her estranged mother Elaine, Emily renews her relationship with her grandmother Eleanor. Her elegant and proper grandmother has a passion she wishes to imbue in Emily–but Eleanor dies before the mystery is revealed in full. But she leaves Emily an important clue: a small hand-loomed tapestry, possibly made by an distant English relative.

Join us to hear excerpts from the book and meet the author.

About the author:

Anne Britting Oleson is the author of three poetry chapbooks (The Church of St. Materiana, The Beauty of It, and Alley of Dreams), and two novels (The Book of the Mandolin Player and Dovecote). She is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program of USM, a founding member of Simply Not Done, and lives in the mountains of Central Maine.

Read more about the book: https://www.pressherald.com/2019/07/14/tapiser-deftly-stitches-together-family-stories-separated-by-five-centuries/