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 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 19 at 7:00 pm, we will be discussing via Zoom Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Please email Library Director Marija Skoog at mlskoog@mclinc.org for Zoom credentials. All are welcome!

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.”
Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future.
Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.”
In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear “out back.”
Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King’s ringing assertion “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.
Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers. (From the publisher.)

Book Discussion Questions

Discussion questions:

1. In the prologue, the narrator observes that after the truth about Nickel Academy comes out, “even the most innocent scene—a mess hall or the football field—came out sinister, no photographic trickery necessary.” Can you think of a time in your life when discovering the history of a place (a particular building, a statue, a historical landmark, etc.) dramatically changed your perception of it?

2. Elwood says that both he and Yolanda King “woke to the world,” or discovered racism, at six years old. How old were you when you became aware of racism and inequality? How do you think this experience is different for different people?

3. While in the infirmary, Elwood reads a pamphlet about Nickel that details the contributions the school has made to the community, including bricks from the brick-making machine “propping up buildings all over Jackson County.” What do you think of the ways that the wider community seemed to benefit from labor performed by Nickel students? Do you see any historical or modern-day parallels to this symbiotic relationship?

4. One student, Jaimie, is half-Mexican and constantly shuffled between the “white” and “colored” sections of Nickel Academy. Why do you think the author included a character with Jaimie’s ethnic identity in this story?

5. One of Elwood’s takeaways from Dr. King’s speeches is the importance of maintaining one’s dignity in the face of oppression. Is Elwood’s decision to escape (and risk the consequences of capture) rooted in the realization that he can no longer maintain his dignity in a place like Nickel?

6. At one point, the narrator writes that “laughter knocked out a few bricks from the wall of segregation, so tall and so wide.” Does humor truly lighten the burden for the boys? Or is it merely one of the very few things that can’t be taken away from them?

7. Who do you think was the true “villain” of the story? The teachers? The school itself? Something or someone else?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

Evening Book Discussion List

Evening Book Discussion List 2019 – 2020

September – Transcription by Kate Atkinson
October – An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
November – Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
December – Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok
January – The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea
February – My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
March – Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
April –
May – Snow in August by Pete Hamill
June – Empire Falls by Richard Russo
July – The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
August – The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Adult Virtual Summer Reading Program

Virtual summer reading is here from June 22nd – September 4th!

Join us online as we present an interactive, virtual, summer reading program! To get started, simply SIGN UP for BEANSTACK by clicking here.

Write a review for each book you listen to or read to be entered in a weekly drawing. All are welcome to participate!

Afternoon Book Discussion Group

On Wednesday, August 19 at 3:30 pm, we will be discussing via Zoom Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. Please email Reference librarian Barbara Loewengart at bloewengart@mclinc.org for Zoom credentials. All are welcome!

Sullivan introduces four unforgettable women who have nothing in common but the fact that, like it or not, they’re family.
For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.” At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface.
As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.
By turns wickedly funny and achingly sad, Maine unveils the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to Maine and to each other. (From the publisher.)

Book Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions:

1. The epigraph pairs two quotes; the first is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem Aurora Leigh:
Alas, a mother never is afraid,
Of speaking angrily to any child,
Since love, she knows, is justified of love.
The second iquote is from a letter written by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Just do everything we didn’t do and you will be perfectly safe.” Why did the author put these quotes together? Which characters do you think they refer to?

2. If you had to choose one word to describe the overriding theme of Maine, what would it be?

3. Which of the women in the novel would you say is a good mother, and why? Who resents motherhood the most?

4. Discuss how each of the four main characters—Alice, Kathleen, Maggie, and Ann Marie—approaches religion. Who seems to have the most comfortable relationship with God?

5. What was Alice’s motivation for changing her will? Why did she wait so long to tell her family?

6. Speaking of secrets, many of the characters in the novel keep substantial secrets for one reason or another. Whose is the most damaging?

7. What role does alcohol—and alcoholism—play in the novel? How do the characters use alcohol (or abstain from it)?

8. “Even after thirty-three years of marriage, Ann Marie sat at every family dinner and listened to them tell the same stories, over and over. She has never met a family so tied up in their own mythology.” (page 140) What is the mythology of the Kelleher family? Who is helped the most by it? And harmed the most?

9. What does Ann Marie’s obsession with dollhouses tell us about her character?

10. After Daniel’s funeral, Alice says to Kathleen, “You killed him, and now you want me dead too, is that it?” (page 189) Why does she lash out like this?

11. Why did Daniel’s death have such an impact on the family?

12. What did you think of the revelation about Mary’s death? Was Alice right to blame herself?

13. On page 301, Maggie says to Kathleen, “I actually want this baby. I don’t feel it’s a mistake the way you did with us.” Why does Maggie feel this way about her mother? Do you agree with her assessment?

14. And on page 310, Kathleen says to Alice, “News flash, Mom, you really weren’t that talented. None of us stopped you from becoming anything. That was a stupid childish dream like everyone else has.” How does this relate to Maggie’s earlier outburst? How does the notion of sacrifice play into each woman’s story about herself?

15. How did Ann Marie misread Steve so completely? And why does Kathleen’s witnessing the event change her attitude towards Ann Marie? Why do you think Kathleen reacted the way she did?

16. What kind of mother do you think Maggie will be? Who will she take after most: Alice, Kathleen, or Ann Marie?

17. Discuss the last lines of the book: “She prayed until she heard footsteps behind her, coming slowly down the aisle, a familiar voice softly calling out her name: ‘Alice? Alice. It’s time.’” Is this Father Donnelly, Daniel, or someone else?

18. Which of these women would you like to spend more time with? Are there any you’d never want to see again?
(Questions issued by 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 18 at 7:00 pm, the club will be discussing The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg. Meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. All are welcome to join. Please email Debra Duffy at deblrduff@gmail.com to receive a Zoom invitation or for more information.

Medicare

Do you have questions about Medicare? Need assistance with what Medicare options are available? Need to know what plan is right for you? Please call 610-834-1040 ext.120 to discuss your Medicare concerns and questions with an APPRISE counselor. APPRISE is a program funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging and other agencies designed to help Medicare beneficiaries understand their Medicare and health choice options.