Altamont Library Notes for Friday, September 11, 2015

With the kids back in school, shouldn’t the adults get to have some fun too? Well, Trivia Night is back at the Altamont Free Library.

Mary Beth Mulligan will host this always fun and challenging event on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. Bring a team (ages 21 and over, please), and BYOB! Entry is $5 per person and the winning team splits the pot. 

Back to (Wizard) School

Now that school’s back, Sunday hours are back too. With all the homework you’ve got, you’ll need to take a study break. What better way than by joining us to go back to school with our favorite wizard, Harry Potter!

On Sundays in September, we’ll be showing Harry Potter movies, starting with “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” on Sept. 13, at 2 p.m. 

Book discussion

Please join the First Monday Book Club at noon on Monday, Sept. 14, for a discussion of “The Cuckoo’s Calling” by JK Rowling, the author of the beloved “Harry Potter” series, writing under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

This is a hard-boiled detective story about the mysterious death of a supermodel and a private eye who’s in way over his head. There’s still time to pick up a copy of this gripping and entertaining novel, so please join us.

Estate planning

Planning for the future is can be scary and sometimes uncomfortable, especially when finances are involved. Still, it’s something that all responsible people should do, and what better way than with a friendly face in a friendly place without any pressure to buy something?

On Tuesday, Sept.15, at 6:30 p.m., we’ll be hosting our good friend Ronnie Lindberg for a discussion of estate planning. Bring your questions and concerns and bring a friend along too. This will be the first in a series of biweekly programs the library will be hosting on financial literacy.  

Tai Chi is back

After a unplanned break, Tai Chi classes with Kyoshi Joe Mansfield are back. On Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 10 a.m., we’ll meet at the gazebo in Orsini Park for a free hour-long class in this Chinese martial art form, which is renowned for its’ meditative and healing properties. Please join us for the first of a series of four classes. 

Author visit

On Thursday, September 17th at 7pm, the library will be hosting James Schlett, the author of “A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks” just published by Cornell University Press.

In his book, Schlett, a former reporter for “The Schenectady Gazette,” now “The Daily Gazette,” tells the story of an 1858 camping excursion to Follensby Pond in the Adirondack Mountains attended by the famous essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet James Russell Lowell, future United States Attorney General Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar and other intellectual and cultural luminaries of the pre-Civil War period, and the effect the trip had on the participants later work.

The author will give a discussion of his fascinating and widely praised work, followed by a book signing and light refreshments. We would love you to join us for this exciting event!

Bird walk

It’s that time of the year again when the leaves start turning, the sweaters reappear, and the birds start heading south. On Friday, Sept. 18, we’ll be holding a migratory bird watching expedition led by Dan Capuano.

Please join us at 9 a.m. here at the library for a one-hour walk around the village to see what we can see and learn about our bird neighbors.