May
Who dunnit?
Wednesday, May 1
10:00 – 11:00am
“The Flight Attendant” by Chris Bohjalian
Filled with turbulence and sudden plunges in altitude, “The Flight Attendant” is a very rare thriller whose penultimate chapter made me think to myself, “I didn’t see that coming.” The novel — Bohjalian’s 20th — is also enhanced by his deftness in sketching out vivid characters and locales and by his obvious research into the realities of airline work.
“The Flight Attendant” is the ultimate airplane book, and not just because of its name: entertaining and filled with inside info on the less glamorous aspect of flight crew’s lives, it may even make you more politely attentive the next time you’re asked to listen to that in-flight lecture on emergency water landings.
Review by Maureen Corrigan, who teaches literature at Georgetown University, is the book critic for the NPR program Fresh Air.
Books available at the circulation desk. All are welcome to attend.
Second Friday Foreign Film Series
Friday, May 10
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Bread and Tulips (Italy 2000)
This masterpiece of hope-fulfilled traces a married woman’s hesitant first steps from a complacent nuptial bed to a giddy and lighthearted freedom she had never experienced and hardly even knew existed. (First Look Pictures review)
New England Lighthouses and the People Who Kept Them
Thursday, May 16⋅7:00 – 8:30pm
Everyone knows there’s “something about lighthouses” that gives them broad appeal, but their vital role in our history and culture is little appreciated. Our early nation was built on maritime economy, and lighthouses were part of the system that made that possible. Due to automation, traditional lighthouse keeping is a way of life that has faded into the past. Jeremy D’Entremont tells the history of New England’s historic and picturesque lighthouses primarily focusing on the colorful and dramatic stories of lighthouse keepers and their families. This is a NH Humanities program. FREE and open to the public.
Book Party and Dessert
Wednesday, May 22
7:00 – 8:00 pm
“Varina” by Charles Frazier
Who has given a second thought to the wife of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy? Not me, I must confess. Still, Charles Frazier centers his new Civil War novel on the story of her life, taking us from her heady days at the center of the nation’s political and social circles in Washington, D.C., to her failed attempt to escape to Havana at the end of the war. A smart woman, who might have achieved a lot in different times, Varina never had much control over her own life. But looking back on it, she knows she won’t be forgiven for the part she played on the wrong side of history.
Books available at the circulation desk. All are welcome to join in the discussion.
