Within a few weeks we will be saying goodbye to another hot and hazy summer and begin looking for the first red leaves on the swamp maples!  Your library committee will be focusing on activities of the many various groups among our congregants.  If you have special needs within your groups do check into the library as a resource.  During the summer we have continued to refine the flow of our work amongst a great deal of family activities away from Storrs, Do stop by the library when you are in the buildings. 

New purchases that were featured during the summer months were well received by many readers.  We are in the process of ordering some books and we will feature them when they arrive!  Jennie Talbot has kept you informed in the Sunday bulletin on current issues and just “good reads”. Below is a listing of them to refresh your minds.

Staycation Reading selection:

Azaria Alon’s Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves will transport you to Israel and help you plan a future adventure.

Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling is a fun book about his travels across Britain from the English Channel to Northern Scotland. You will experience every pub, stone village and human foible through his vivid detail and humor.

If you dream of owning a villa in Tuscany you will want to read Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes. It is a follow up to Under the Tuscan Skies and you will fall in love with the charming people and countryside of Cortona.

To Bless the Space Between Us, by John O’Donohue. It is a book of blessings to help you through every day as well as life’s thresholds. Blessings are seen as a way of life, and as a lens through which the world is transformed.

Main Magic by Bill Caldwell will give you hours of joy, laughter and insight about Maine. It is a collection of stories that will take you to remote offshore islands, country fairs, and to surprising places. This book could be preparation for a trip to Maine or a substitution.

Atlantic City Memories…and Beyond is Larry Metzgar’s memoir about growing up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, going to Rutgers, raising their family in Darien and retiring to Storrs. You will enjoy reading his stories and seeing photographs of people you know.

Just for Fun Reading:

Notorious RBG, The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knighnik will take you behind the myth of the Supreme Court Justice for a look at Ruth’s life and work for gender equity and civil rights. It is a great tribute to her life and also a laugh out loud joy to read.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a wonderful book that is on the top of the best sellers list. It is a coming of age story of a naturalist as well as a love story and a mystery.

The Widow’s War, by Sally Gunning takes place in a village on Cape Cod before the revolution. It is the story of a young widow’s war with her family and the community after her husband’s death.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is based on the life of a New York socialite who helped a group of concentration camp survivors. It is a story of love, redemption and hidden secrets.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is about a Russian aristocrat sentenced to house arrest in the grand hotel Metropol, in 1922. It is a humorous story of his endeavors to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose while living in two rooms in the hotel’s attic.

The Path Made Clear by Oprah Winfrey is her guide for activating your deepest self-vision and how to create a life of success and significance. It is a beautiful resource to achieve a life lived in service of your calling.

In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Moon Landing you may enjoy:

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly is a biography of the African American women who were mathematicians and engineers at NASA. Their calculations lead to the successful moon landing and return to earth.

Children will enjoy Maya Soetoro-Ng’s Ladder to the Moon and When the Moon is Full, A Lunar Year by Penny Pollack. Ladder to the Moon is a fantasy about people going to the moon by a ladder, their life on the moon and their impact upon life on earth. A Lunar Year is a poem about native American beliefs of the moon on  a monthly basis. It is beautifully illustrated with hand colored woodcut prints. The end of the book has questions and answers about the moon.

The Library is open on Tuesday mornings from 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. and on Sunday’s before and after Worship. If you are looking for something specific, contact a member of the Library Committee: Janet Atkins, Sue Schur, Joan Webster, Jennie Talbot, Marietta Johnson