Maybe you agree with T.S. Eliot that April is “the cruelest month.” Or maybe you’re inclined to a more hopeful perspective—April showers bring May flowers, right? Either way, though, here’s an indisputable fact about April: it’s National Poetry Month!
Launch...
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This quarantine is killing me. I miss the Institute and the members of our community so much. Even the smallest of interactions, checking out a book, sharing an elevator, raising eyebrows at YOU across the reading room, or just waving at faces I recognize on my way into the building now seem to have a greater meaning in the scheme of life. This separation from you all is a weight on my heart.
Nevertheless, we have to get through the time somehow. I’ve spent a bit of time reading and c...
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Beethoven at 250
During this 250th anniversary celebrating the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), it would be difficult to overstate the extent of the artist’s contribution to western civilization and society. Through his...
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The Metropolitan Opera has launched nightly Opera streams. Each night's performance will be available for 23 hours after it starts. To view/listen online
As book lovers, we all appreciate libraries. In these unprecedented times, it has never been more true that libraries continue to play a vit...
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Due to the coronavirus, baseball season and just about everything else, is understandably delayed; but every year about this time I am reminded of a “curious incident” that took place some years ago.
It was a typical day at the Reference Desk at the Mechanics’ Institute in March 2013 when a young man, clad in a slim, dark suit knocked on the door of the 3rd floor. I opened the door and loudly said “Hi!”
Slightly taken aback, the man asked in a tentative voice, “Have you heard...
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EBOOKS
FICTION
Clare Beams The Illness Lesson
Tom Bouman The Bramble and the Rose
Lynn Brittney A Death in Chelsea
Tim Garvin A Dredging in Swann
Joe Ide...
