Middleburgh Library Notes for Friday, February 9, 2018

From Feb. 12 to 17, the Middleburg Library is celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week. Join us all week long as we cultivate kindness!

Bring in a non-perishable and non-expired food item for St. Mark’s Food Pantry and we’ll forgive your library fines up to $3. Stop in on Valentine’s Day and share some cookies and hot chocolate with the library staff.

Create a “kindness card” to leave around the library for someone else to find. Check out a book from our “Blind Date with a Book” display and write a book review for the next person who checks out that book!

Go on a scavenger hunt around the library and receive a special treat when it’s completed. Check out all the ways that you can spread kindness posted in the library

Trustees meet

On Feb. 12, the library’s board of trustees will meet. The public is welcome.

Story time

Drop-in Story Time starts at 10:45 a.m. on Feb. 13. Get ready to move in this interactive story time designed especially for children up to age 5 and their caregivers. We’ll read books, sing songs, recite fingerplays, dance, and watch a short movie based on a weekly theme. No registration is required.

Mahjong Mania

Every Tuesday afternoon, including Feb. 13, at 1 p.m., a spirited group of people get together in the Community Room to play Mahjong.

Don’t know how to play? No problem! They will teach you how. No registration is required.

Insight Meditation

Join us at 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 13 for a simple group Azaen meditation practice. All are welcome.

This is a place to sit still in safety, to allow understanding and compassion to arise, to cultivate loving kindness and acceptance. Sitting here patiently in the unfolding of our community will help transform our world.

All are welcome. No registration is required.

Book talk

On Feb. 13 at 7 p.m., we’ll talk about “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks. Inspired by a true story, the novel was called “a tour de force” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The book traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding — an insect-wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair — only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.

Hanna Heath is unexpectedly plunged into the intrigues of fine-art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.  No registration is required.

Wednesday Matinee

On Feb. 14, at 1 p.m., the library will screen “LBJ,” rated R, which centers on the political upheaval that Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson faced when he was thrust into the presidency at the hands of an assassin’s bullet in November 1963.

With political battles on both sides of the aisle, Johnson struggled to heal a nation and secure his presidency by passing Kennedy’s historic Civil Rights Act. No registration is required. And free popcorn will be served.

Knitting Circle

On Feb. 15 at 7 p.m., Friendly ladies (men are welcome, but we haven’t seen any yet!) will knit and crochet, embroider and quilt, and more. You can learn a new skill here or share your own special talents with others — or just craft in the company of friends.

Drop in anytime. No registration is required.

HEGS

Home Educators Group of Schoharie County will meet on Feb. 16 from 10 a.m. to noon. HEGS is a group of homeschooling families with a wide variety of backgrounds, approaches to education, and religious affiliations.

It exists to provide secular support for homeschooling families, offer information about homeschooling, and to allow for sharing of educational opportunities. HEGS hopes to increase public awareness, acceptance, and support of home education in Schoharie County.

Vegan cooking

On Feb. 17 at 2 p.m., “15-Minute Vegan” by Katy Beskow will be the topic of the monthly book club, “Cooking by the Vegan Book.” We pick the cookbook, you pick and make the recipe!

How the cookbook club works: Every month, a cookbook will be selected and will be at the circulation desk for you to look at and we will print up the recipe of your choice. Sign up online or at the circulation desk; let us know what you’re cooking so we don’t have duplicates. Registration is required.

Holiday

The library will be closed on Feb. 19 to observe Presidents’ Day.

Please check our calendar on our website for added or future programs.