Biblioteca Sandro Penna

Perugia, Italy

It looks like a flying saucer has landed amid the historic houses of the hilltop town of Perugia. In fact, it is one of the world's most unusual-looking libraries. Named for the 20th-century Perugia-born poet Sandro Penna, the Library was designed by architect Italo Rota, who conceived it as a large disk with translucent magenta walls allowing plenty of light to flow in. The airy, informal space is equipped with multimedia stations on all three floors, as well as a colorful area for children. At night, the illuminated building casts an ethereal glow.

Books & Boots Hike/Discussion
Friday, September 15, 6:30 p.m.

Please join us for our next Books & Boots hike. We’ll be hiking on the North Swamp Trail under the leadership of Hartley Mead, and looking for beavers in the early evening when they are usually active. The book up for discussion is Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip. It is not necessary to have read the book first. All hiking abilities welcome. This Norfolk Library program is in partnership with the Norfolk Land Trust and the Norfolk Church of Christ Green Team.

Please note that this hike is now at a different location than previously advertised, which hopefully will have more beaver activity. The trailhead and parking for the North Swamp Trail is at Botelle School. Park by the tennis courts. Bina Thomson from the Norfolk Library and Hartley Mead from the Norfolk Land Trust will be waiting to greet people.

Please visit here to find out more and to register.

Visit here to register for the Puppetry Workshop.

Norfolk Library Book Group with Mark Scarbrough
Marilynne Robinson, Home (2008)
Thursday, October 12
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. or 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. via Zoom 

Mark has chosen Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series—Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack—for the Book Group discussions this fall. Over the past sixteen years, Robinson’s now-mythical world of Gilead, Iowa, and the beloved characters who inhabit it, have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions, and the wonders of a sacred world. Set in the 1950s in the rural town of Gilead, the series chronicles the lives of the families of Reverend John Ames and Reverend Robert Boughton.

A finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale as Gilead, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames’s closest friend. Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.

If you are new to the Book Group and would like to participate, please email Mark at [email protected], and he will email you a formal invitation link to the online discussion group.

The annual Haystack Book Festival, a program of the Norfolk Foundation, brings together writers and thinkers to explore new ideas in literature and the arts. It will take place at the Library on the weekend of Friday, September 29, to Sunday, October 1. Please visit here to find out more and to register.

Mindfulness with Miranda Lee via Zoom
Fridays, 9:15 - 10:00 a.m.

Mindfulness can be defined as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the  present moment, and non-judgmentally.” In this series, mindfulness practitioner Miranda Lee will teach participants how to live a more mindful life and equip them with the tools they need to help build resilience against the challenges of day-to-day life. The class has the same structure in each session: theory, gentle movement (no special clothing or equipment required), meditation, and discussion to foster a sense of community.

This course will be offered via Zoom from 9:15-10:00 a.m. on Fridays. Anyone can join at any time.

September's theme is Finding Balance. Taking a Pause and returning to the present moment can be helpful in finding a counterbalance to the distracted busyness in our lives. Visit here to register and to find out more.

Registration gives you access to the entire mindfulness series. If you register for this session, you do not have to register again.

Click Here to view the The Norfolk Library Night Owl - September 15, 2023