Adult Services | Lower Providence Community Library

Welcome to the Adult Services page of the Lower Providence Community Library website. Find upcoming Programs & Events, check out our Resources for Readers, and send us your recommendations for books, DVDs, and other materials you would like to have in the library. Also, please let us know if you have any ideas for programming. We would love to hear from you!

To register for programs, email Barbara Loewengart or call the library at 610-666-6640 for the Circulation Desk.

Adult Yoga

Yoga taught by certified yoga instructor Kamini Patel via Zoom. Class times are as follows:

Monday @ 4:00 pm
Tuesday @ 7:30 pm
Wednesday @ 12 noon
Friday @ 12 noon

Zoom ID 6568878396
Password 000816

Chair Yoga for Adults

Chair yoga (gentle yoga for people with less mobility) taught by certified yoga instructor Kamini Patel via Zoom on Tuesdays at 2:00 pm and Thursdays at 4:00 pm.

Zoom ID 6568878396
Password 000816

Meditation Sessions

Experience the many benefits of meditation. Meets Monday evenings via Zoom at 7:00 pm. Taught by Roger Shaughnessy, YT-200. Please contact Roger directly via email with the subject line “Monday Night Meditation” at rvshaughnessy@yahoo.com

Please join us for FREE meditation sessions. Open to all levels. Bring your active mind and wear comfortable clothing.

Evening Book Discussion Group

On Wednesday, August 25 at 6:30 pm we will be discussing Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Our discussion will be held outdoors if the weather cooperates. Please email Library Director Marija Skoog at mlskoog@mclinc.org to register. All are welcome!

Maladies both accurately diagnosed and misinterpreted, matters both temporary and life changing, relationships in flux and unshakeable, unexpected blessings and sudden calamities, and the powers of survival—these are among the themes of Jhumpa Lahiri’s extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection of stories. Traveling from India to New England and back again, Lahiri charts the emotional voyages of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations, cultures, religions, and generations. Imbued with the sensual details of both Indian and American cultures, they also speak with universal eloquence and compassion to everyone who has ever felt like an outsider. Like the interpreter of the title story—which was selected for both the O. Henry Award and The Best American Short Stories—Lahiri translates between the ancient traditions of her ancestors and the sometimes baffling prospects of the New World. Including three stories first published in The New Yorker, Interpreter of Maladies introduces, in the words of Frederick Busch, “a writer with a steady, penetrating gaze. Lahiri honors the vastness and variousness of the world.” (From the publisher.)

Book Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions:

1. What kinds of marriage are presented in the stories? One reviewer has written that Lahiri’s “subject is not love’s failure,…but the opportunity that an artful spouse (like an artful writer) can make of failure…” Do you agree or disagree with that assessment?

2. Lahiri has said, “As a storyteller, I’m aware that there are limitations in communication.” What importance in the stories do miscommunication and unexpressed feelings have?

3. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” what does the ten-year-old Lilia learn about the differences between life in suburban America and life in less stable parts of the world? What does she learn about the personal consequences of those differences?

4. For Mrs. Sen, “Everything is there” (that is, in India). What instances are there in these stories of exile, estrangement, displacement, and marginality—both emotional, and cultural?

5. What characterizes the sense of community in both the stories set in India and stories set in the U.S.? What maintains that sense, and what disrupts it?

6. Another reviewer has written, “Food in these stories is a talisman, a reassuring bit of the homeland to cling to.” How do food and meal preparation maintain links to the characters’ homelands? What other talismans—items of clothing, for example—act as “reassuring bits of the homeland”?

7. The narrator of “The Third and Final Continent” ends his account with the statement, “Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept.” In what ways are Lahiri’s characters bewildered?

8. What are the roles and significance of routine and ritual in the stories? What are the rewards and drawbacks of maintaining long-established routines and ritual?

9. In “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mr. Kapasi finds it hard to believe of Mr. and Mrs. Das that “they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves.” What instances of selfishness or self-centeredness do you find in these stories?

10. In “Interpreter of Maladies,” visitors to Konarak find the Chandrabhaga River dried up, and they can no longer enter the Temple of the Sun, “for it had filled with rubble long ago…” What other instances and images does Lahiri present of the collapse, deterioration, or passing of once-important cultural or spiritual values?

11. What does Mrs. Sen mean when, looking at the traffic that makes “her English falter,” she says to Eliot, “Everyone, this people, too much in their world”? What circumstances of life in both America and India account for people being “too much in their world”?

12. Rather than leave his weekly rent on the piano, the narrator of “The Third and Final Continent” hands it to Mrs. Croft. What similar small acts of kindness, courtesy, concern, or compassion make a difference in people’s lives?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

Evening Book Discussion List

Evening Book Discussion List 2020 – 2021

September – The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
October – Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
November – The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau.
December – Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
January – Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
February – The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
March – Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
April – The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
May – A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
June – A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
July – Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
August – Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
September – Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

Afternoon Book Discussion Group

On Tuesday, August 17 at 12:30 pm, we will be discussing Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. Please email Reference librarian Barbara Loewengart at bloewengart@mclinc.org for more information or to register. All are welcome!

London, 1939.
The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up.
Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war—until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided.
Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is—bewilderingly—made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.
Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.
And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams.
Set in London during the years of 1939–1942, when citizens had slim hope of survival, much less victory; and on the strategic island of Malta, which was daily devastated by the Axis barrage, Everyone Brave is Forgiven features little-known history and a perfect wartime love story inspired by the real-life love letters between Chris Cleave’s grandparents.
This dazzling novel dares us to understand that, against the great theater of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs that change us most. (From the publisher.)

Book Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions:

1. Both Mary and Alistair sign up to be part of the war effort almost immediately after war is declared. What are their motivations for doing so? How does each of them serve? Why is Mary surprised by her assignment?

2. When Mary first begins spending time with Tom, she describes him as “Thoughtful. Interesting. Compassionate.” (p. 41) What did you think of him? Discuss Mary’s relationship with Tom. Are the two well suited for each other? Why, or why not?

3. In a letter, Mary writes, “I was brought up to believe that everyone brave is forgiven, but in wartime courage is cheap and clemency out of season.” (p. 245) Why do you think Chris Cleave chose to take the title of his novel from this line? Does your interpretation of the title change when you read it in the full context of the quote? In what ways?

4. Mary’s student Zachary makes a big impression on her. Why? Discuss their relationship. Why does Mary write to Zachary after he has been evacuated to the countryside? How do her letters help both of them?

5. While Alistair is on leave, he returns to London and finds “there was a new way of moving that he could not seem to weave himself into.” (p. 100) Why does Alistair have difficulty adjusting to life in London? Why does Alistair put off seeing Tom? Do you think he is right in doing so? Explain your answer.

6. Early in the novel, while Mary is with Tom, she is “thinking how much she was enjoying the war.” (p. 86) Why might Mary enjoy the war? What new freedoms are afforded to her in wartime?

7. During one of her conversations with her mother, Mary notices that “There was a sadness in her mother’s eyes. Mary wondered whether it had always been there, becoming visible only now that she was attuned to sorrow’s frequency.” (p. 236) Describe Mary’s relationship with her mother. Is Mary’s mother supportive? Explain your answer. Why might Mary’s experiences during the war make her more “attuned to sorrow’s frequency”? Do these experiences help Mary better relate to her mother? Why, or why not?

8. Alistair tells Mary “Nobody is brave, the first time in an air raid.” (p. 164) How do each of the main characters react the first time that they experience an air raid? Were any of them brave? In what ways? Were you surprised by the way any of them reacted to the bombs?

9. When Mary meets with Cooper to discuss going back to work, she tells him “We needn’t put this city back the way we found it.” (p. 228) What prompts Mary to make her comment and what does she mean by it? How has life in London changed as a result of the war? Have any of those changes been positive? Why might Mary be reluctant to return to the status quo?

10. Explain the significance of Tom’s jar of blackberry jam. When Alistair is injured, he worries that “if he opened it, the dust would get into everything he minded about.” (p. 302) What does the jam represent and why doesn’t Alistair open the jar? Is Simonson right to think that “to eat the jam would be a betrayal.” (p. 393) Why? Think about your own belongings. Do you own anything like the jam jar that has special significance? Tell your book club about it.

11. Mary tells Alistair “My mother thinks [happiness] isn’t even a word, in wartime.” (p. 416) Do you think Mary’s mother is right? Why, or why not? Are there any moments of happiness in Everyone Brave is Forgiven? What are they? Discuss them with your book club.

12. What were your initial impressions of Hilda? Did they change as you learned more about her? If so, why? Discuss Hilda’s friendship with Mary. Do you think the women are good friends to each other? Explain your answer.

13. While Alistair is on leave, he, Tom, Mary and Hilda go to see Zachary’s father’s show at the Lyceum. How does each of them react to the show? Does this give you any insight into their characters? Why is Mary ashamed to go over and say hello to Zachary’s father during the interval?

14. After seeing the effects of one of the air raids, Mary “knew, now, why her father had not spoken of the last war, nor Alistair of this. It was hardly fair on the living.” (p. 268) What does Mary see that leads to her have this insight? What effect does not speaking of his experiences in war have on Alistair?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

A Different Kind of Book Club

A Different Kind of Book Club focuses on reading books with happy endings (romance, light fantasy, cozy mysteries and the occasional nonfiction). New members are welcome.
On Tuesday, August 17 at 7:00 pm, the club will be discussing The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan. Meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. For the September 21 meeting the club will be discussing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. All are welcome to join. Please email Debra Duffy at deblrduff@gmail.com to receive a Zoom invitation or for more information.

Mahjong

Mahjong is back! We will begin hosting Mahjong every Tuesday from 11:00 until 1:45 pm. Initially we are limiting this program to 20 participants. Please register by emailing Barbara Loewengart at bloewengart@mclinc.org or you may call the library at 610-666-6640. All are welcome.

Understanding Your Retirement Road Map

Presented via Zoom by John Crowley, MBA

Do you have a clear path on the winding road that is your financial future? Do you fully understand the potential benefits available to you?

In this 4-part ZOOM workshop series, you will learn about several key factors that impact your retirement:
Part 1, August 5th at 6:30 pm will cover Social Security claiming
strategies to optimize your Social Security benefit.
Part 2, August 12th at  6:30 pm focuses on Medicare basics and what supplemental options you have.
Part 3, August 19th at  6:30 pm is Retirement Income Planning; you will learn about the different options available to you when you retire and what the differences are. We will discuss coordinating your Social Security and Pension with your retirement savings, along with various withdrawal strategies.
Part 4, August 26th at  6:30 pm  is “The Income for Life Model.” In this
session, you will learn how to build and simplify your retirement income plan
using a bucket or ladder strategy.
Part 5, Sept 2nd at  6:30 pm is Women in Retirement. This event is for women only. In this workshop Social Security Planning,
managing Healthcare in retirement, retirement income planning and a Bucket approach for creating an income for life will be discussed.
Make sure you have a retirement road map that paints a clear picture of your
financial future to put your mind at ease.

Adult Summer Reading

Summer Reading will begin on Monday, June 21st and run through August 13th, 2021. Leave a review on Beanstack of the books you are reading or listening to and you will be entered into a weekly drawing to win a gift card. Register at: https://lowerprovidencelibrary.beanstack.org/reader365
For more information contact Barbara Loewengart at bloewengart@mclinc.org or you may call the library at 610-666-6640. All are welcome!

Questions about Adult Summer Reading

Memoir Writing Circle

On August 9, September 13 and October 11 the group will be meeting in person from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at the Eagleville Park Pavillion. Each month a member of the group offers a writing prompt. Each member submits their piece to the group by a specified deadline and everyone offers each other supportive feedback. Submitting a piece each month is not required, but definitely encouraged. Please contact Kathy Thomas at k3Thomas@yahoo.com for more information or to become part of the group.

Join writers in finding their voice through memoir writing. The group will use writing prompts, poems, journal entries and images to discover the compelling themes and stories that comprise a memoir. Suitable for writers of all levels and experience.

Medicare

Douglas Keene, the APPRISE coordinator for Montgomery County, wants our patrons to know that state-trained APPRISE volunteer counselors have always offered free, unbiased easy-to-understand information about the best plans for health coverage for Medicare recipients. Counselors are available at (610) 834-1040 ext. 120 to return calls and assist people with their Medicare concerns? In addition, APPRISE has put a number of informative Medicare presentations (and more) on their web site at www.rsvpmc.org/medicare-help. You can watch these presentations on your devices at your convenience.