Spring is springing, subtly, beneath the sleet! Somehow, we've made it to March, which means the Academy Awards are this Sunday. And what do the Oscars have to do with SML, you may ask? Though this year's nominees remain paywalled, the film world is our oyster.

Because if you have a SML card, you can do the following — for free:

Access fantastic films.

-SML's video streaming service Kanopy, which the New York Times calls "a garden of cinematic delights," is full of gems available for immediate viewing. 

-You can download Kanopy as an app on your phone, tablet, and/or smart TV, or stream directly through its website.

-Kanopy currently has a featured "Oscar Winners and Nominees" collection, which gathers classics like "Chinatown" and "8 1/2" alongside recent films like "Parasite" and "Lady Bird." (Its documentary sub-collection is especially fabulous.)

Dig into source material.

-If you enjoy a historical rabbit-hole, may we recommend beginning in the Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay category?

-Current nominee "Living" offers a fun trail for the dedicated bibilo-cinephile. That screenplay was written by Nobel laureate novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who adapted Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film "Ikiru" (Kanopy), which was itself adapted from Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (e-book / audiobook on Hoopla, book in SML's library network).

-Prefer a mini-dig? Check out the inspiration for this year's category frontrunner "Women Talking": Miriam Towes' 2018 novel by the same name (audiobook on Hoopla, book at SML + in SML's library network).

Hang with an underdog.

-There's been one buzzy question this year: who is best actress nominee Andrea Riseborough? Read about the controversy here. (Need a NYT login to view that article? SML offers cardmembers free unlimited 72-hour access passes; learn more here.)

-Search for Riseborough on Kanopy and you'll find six films ready to stream, including an assassin thriller, a WWII drama, and an archeology romance.

— MBW

Image credit: Katharine Hepburn's Best Actress Academy Awards, c. 1933, 1967, 1968, 1981. On display at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

A Literary Seminar by Mark Scarbrough

Scoville Memorial Library

Salisbury Connecticut

Tuesdays, January 24 - March 14, 2023

In person in the Wardell Community Room and on Zoom*

Funded by the Friends of the Scoville Memorial Library

I Think, Therefore I Talk: Stein, Freud, Proust, And Modern Identity

24 January 2023 through 14 March 2023

10:30 a.m. to about 12:30 both in person and via zoom

Who am I? It’s a psychological question, sure. But also a historical question. And a political, cultural one. Today in European and North American society, we answer that question based on the work of writers and thinkers who toiled in the looming wreckage of the nineteenth century, as the great ideals came apart and they struggled to make meaning in an increasingly fragmented world. In this literary seminar, we’ll read three “personal” narratives—or attempts to come at what a person is—by three of the formative thinkers of the beginnings of our world: Gertrude Stein, Sigmund Freud, and Marcel Proust. Prepare for lively discussions, challenging readings, great camaraderie, and mind-resetting narratives as we delve into the heart of the modernist question of exactly who we are.

The In Person section of this hybrid class is full. The class is free and open on Zoom. Required for all who are attending by Zoom:

Please Register Here to receive your unique link if you have not done so already. (This personal Zoom registration is needed for this large hybrid class even if you already signed up on Google forms.)

Or, you may always go to the events section of the Scoville website (either the calendar or the list of events).  When you find the Scarbrough event listed , look for the “registration” button and sign in.. You will be sent one unique link; please hold on to it as it will work for all classes. The Library won't have a copy of your personal link. If needed, you may register again the same way as above to get a new unique link. 

Readings will be from Stein's Three Lives (1909), Proust's Swann's Way (1913), and Freud's A Case of Hysteria (Dora) (1905).

Some copies of these books will be available through SML. For information about the specific editions recommended by Scarbrough and the books available for purchase at Oblong Books, Millerton, please visit Oblong Books Landing Page (oblongbooks.com/scovillelibrary)

Above: Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1913, Collection of George Eastman House.

Current Fiction Book Group led by Claudia Cayne

Saturday, March 11, 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

SML

“Sankofa” by Chinumdo Obuzu

Anna is at a stage of her life when she’s beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother—the only parent who raised her—is dead.

Searching through her mother’s belongings one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive…

When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating.

In person in the Oak Room for those who are vaccinated and comfortable.

Register here — register once for all book groups

White Hart Speaker Series: John Sayles

"Jamie MacGillivray: the Renegade’s Journey" 

Wednesday, March 15, 2023 - 6:30 p.m.

The White Hart Inn

15 Undermountain Road

Salisbury, CT 06068

Presented by Oblong Books in partnership with The White Hart Inn & Scoville Memorial Library. 

John Sayles will read from his epic new historical novel and talk with WAMC/NPR host Joe Donahue about the story that spans 13 years, two continents, several wars, and many smoke-filled and bloody battlefields.

Register here — free, registration requested

The Friends of the Scoville Library are currently accepting donations of books for their ongoing book sales

All proceeds benefit the library's programs. Donated books should be:

-clean and in good condition so that they will be appealing to other readers

-relatively dust free, not discolored or written in

-structurally sound with intact binding and pages which are not ripped.

Please no textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries or travel guides older than four years. Donations can be dropped off on Mondays between 10-Noon, or contact the Friends to make other arrangements.

Bridge with John Dippel at SML

Classes meet on Wednesdays, 2:00 - 4:00 pm

Local resident John Dippel is offering an ongoing, intermediate bridge course. This course, currently full, will run through the fall, at which time there may be some places for new students at a beginner or intermediate level. To inquire, write [email protected]. Please include your phone and email address, as well as the level of bridge you’re interested in. Couples and singles are both welcome. Dippel, a historian and author, returned to playing bridge when he moved to Salisbury 10 years ago and took a similar course. He has been playing regularly ever since.