Participants share a short piece of their own writing and/or a short selection from a book they have read in a relaxed atmosphere. Francesca Benson will lead these no-pressure sessions, where the focus will be on the pleasure of reading and writing in community.
Tuesday, March 4, 10 a.m. Quiet Room

Come experience the 2007 Microsoft Office system -- and discover what is new and different. Office 2007 is designed to make you more productive. The new fluent user interface speeds-up everyday tasks by keeping the tools you need close at hand. Learn how to use the new tabbed ribbon and experience Live Preview®. Come see what people have been talking about and find out if Office 2007 is right for you! Kristen Callahan has been working in the arena of business and technology for the past thirty years. Currently she shares her expertise with others, as professor at Mercer County Community College, where she teaches business application classes and manages several programs

Rochelle Blank, holistic health counselor, will review the health benefits of eating the freshest, most natural and nourishing organic foods while preparing sample dishes made from simple organic greens, fruit and nuts and not heated over 118 degrees.

U.S. 1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S. 1 Poets' Cooperative, announces the launch party for its 35th Anniversary Issue, Volume 53, on April 6, 2008. The U.S. 1 Poets' Cooperative began in 1973, when a small group of poets in Central New Jersey got together informally to share their poems and their love of poetry. The group has met continuously since then. The journal, which attracts poets from New Jersey as well as throughout the States, publishes an eclectic mix of high quality poetry. The launch party will feature readings from U.S 1 Worksheets and a chance to meet the poets in person.

In this Swedish police procedural, Inspector Ann Lindell and her team must solve the murder of Little John, a well-liked local man who had brushes with the law as a youth.

My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
Discussion

D. Graham Burnett, associate professor of history at Princeton University, will discuss his new book, Trying Leviathan, as part of the Thinking Allowed series sponsored by Princeton University Press. In Trying Leviathan, Burnett recounts the strange story of Maurice v. Judd, an 1818 trial that pitted the new sciences of taxonomy against the then-popular (and biblically sanctioned) view that the whale was a fish. The immediate dispute was mundane: whether whale oil was fish oil and therefore subject to state inspection. But the trial fueled a sensational public debate in which nothing less than the order of nature and how we know it was at stake. Burnett vividly re-creates the trial, during which pea-coated whalemen, pompous philosophers, Jacobin lawyers and other experts took the witness stand, brandishing books, drawings, and anatomical reports, and telling tall tales from whaling voyages.

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Dramatic readings on the life of Paul Robeson with music and dance.
Reader: Cecelia B. Hodges

This discussion group is for people who enjoy reading and talking about politics. Joan Goldstein, sociologist, author, and professor at Mercer County Community College, will provide overviews, suggest discussion questions and mention pertinent further readings. Joan dedicates this series in memory of series co-founder Eugenia Shanklin. All programs in the Quiet Room, first floor

Each year the Reference Section of the American Library Association publishes an updated list of the Best Free Reference Web Sites. Technology Training Librarian Janie Hermann will highlight the best of the list and demonstrate sites that are useful for conducting research in a variety of areas -- everything from food safety to acronyms to lyrics and much more can all be found online in free reference database. Come to this session to find out how to locate and use these resources.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
In a town defined by contradictions, this novel offers multilayered portraits of a trio of childhood friends and, by extension, their quintessentially American hometown.

Princeton-area poets will read poems from around the world in their original language followed by English translations in this event, organized by Carlos Hernández Peña. Past readings have included Akkadian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Russian, Scotts, Spanish, Urdu and Vietnamese.

If you love to scrapbook and are looking for space to spread out and work, these three -hour sessions are for you. Bring your own scrapbooks, photos, and other supplies; the library will supply a cropping station. A scrapbooking expert will be on hand to offer advice and will also lead a make and take session, where you can make a seasonal border or other accent for your pages. To ensure adequate supply of materials, registration is requested. Please call the library reference desk at 609-924-9529 x220 or e-mail refstaff@princetonlibrary.org.

Words That Sing and Songs That Speak
To illustrate how the emotional content of words is enhanced by classical music, Princeton composers Rita Asch and Moshe Budmor will present a live performance of four original works inspired by literary texts. Two Budmor pieces, Three Shakespearean Sonnets for mezzo soprano and guitar and The Sweetest Melody (based on a Hebrew folk tale) for harpsichord, voice, recorder, and clarinet, will share the program with two works by Asch, The Myth of Canens and Picus (based on text by Ovid) for flute, narrator and piano, and Sarabande After Proust for cello, narrator and piano. At the conclusion of the program, the composers will offer a few remarks and answer audience questions.

This playful, game-like alternative to ordinary conversation is designed to enrich interpersonal relationships. Moderated by Alan Goldsmith, Noodle Talks begin with a container filled with 400 fettuccini-like paper strips being passed around. On each strip, there are one or two questions covering the full gamut of life experience. Some questions refer to the past, others to the future; some are concrete, others metaphorical; some invite us to laugh at our foibles while others bring us to tears. There are no right or wrong answers, just the truth of our own inner or outer experience.

Participants share a short piece of their own writing and/or a short selection from a book they have read in a relaxed atmosphere. Francesca Benson will lead these no-pressure sessions, where the focus will be on the pleasure of reading and writing in community.
Tuesday, March 4, 10 a.m. Quiet Room

My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
Exploration: Nirit Yadin, chef at The Whisk & the Spoon, the learning kitchen at Whole Foods Market, will feature recipes that complement the selected book.
Please register at the Welcome Desk, or by calling 924-9529, x218. Space may be limited.

In his book "American Fascists," best-selling author and former seminarian Chris Hedges investigated the Christian fundamentalist movement and its alarming political agenda. In his new book "I Don't Believe in Atheists," Hedges takes on a group he calls New Atheists, whom he believes are actually as dangerous as the religious fundamentalist belief systems they attack. In both books, Hedges, explores and criticizes the extreme sides of the religious spectrum, in an effort to bring nuance, tolerance and moderation to the debate about religion and faith in America.

McCarter artistic director and resident playwright Emily Mann completes her cycle of Chekhov's major work with her own bold adaptation of "The Seagull." Mann' s A Seagull in the Hamptons brings this Russian masterpiece into the 21st century with bright contemporary language and a modern Hamptons setting. In a world of appearance, money, business and celebrity culture, the core of this play is a story about the heartbreaking betrayal of children by their parents. With relevance, humor and flowing, natural language, Mann's adaptation of Chekhov's play challenges us to think about where America's culture is going.

Pianists of all ages and levels of experience (and piano fans) are invited to participate in this three-hour event, which will benefit Small Miracles Foundation, a non-profit organization that matches talented high school musicians with children who want to learn an instrument. The foundation provides training, practice space, music, instruments and orientation for parents. Musicians should come prepared with a song and can register by calling 609.924.9529 ext. 240. Princeton High School senior and Teen Advisory Board member Miriam Eapen is organizing the event.

Kathy Enquist, president of the Master Gardeners of Mercer County, will share her exquisite photographs depicting the miraculous transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. Learn which plants butterflies select when depositing eggs and which flowers they prefer as nectar sources. Turn your garden in to a haven for butterflies with the helpful advice from this session

SCORE counselor Alan Yarnoff, a veteran advertising and marketing executive, will provide both client and agency perspectives at this seminar, which will focus on marketing and advertising basics with emphasis on those elements that make for successful planning and implementation.
Please register beginning at 6:45

Each year the Reference Section of the American Library Association publishes an updated list of the Best Free Reference Web Sites. Technology Training Librarian Janie Hermann will highlight the best of the list and demonstrate sites that are useful for conducting research in a variety of areas -- everything from food safety to acronyms to lyrics and much more can all be found online in free reference database. Come to this session to find out how to locate and use these resources.

Carol Olivieri, Susan Hoskins, Hilary Murray and others will cover all senior services and care options, from home care services to adult day programs and assisted living to support groups and community resources for seniors.

Minick was raised in Glen Gardner and has lived in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Michigan. She completed a master's degree in fine arts at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She has published poetry in Miller's Pond, Poetry International, Chachalaca Poetry Review and Daedalus. She teaches English at Voorhees High School. Poems by Christine E. Salvatore have recently appeared in The Cortland Review, The Literary Review and The Edison Literary Review. She is the recipient of a 2005 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts. She is currently an adjunct professor of writing at Richard Stockton College and teaches English and creative writing at Egg Harbor Township High School.

Founded in 2006 by five professional women from Northern New Jersey and New York City who share a love of chamber music, this woodwind quintet will present a program of spring and summer music, including works by Persichetti, Blumer, Still, Prokofiev, and Gershwin.

Poetry Reading

This unforgettable show is set just decades ago in America, when two African-Americans challenged the racism rampant in the land from the unlikely barricades of the classical concert stage. Paul Robeson, who hailed from Princeton, graduated from Rutgers and spent his last years in West Philadelphia, and Marian Anderson, the pride of South Philadelphia, became world famous singers at a time when crossing color lines was risky business. Hear their stories, and glorious music, in this special tribute performed by Follow the Drinking Gourd, a group named for a song used to guide slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

The bad habit of deficit spending is more apparent than ever, and pressures on the federal budget will soon get worse. It is not enough to support deficit reduction in principle. The challenge is to see what changes most Americans are willing to accept as the best way out of a difficult situation. The public is invited to join the discussion at a National Issues Forum about The $9 Trillion Debt: Breaking the Habit of Deficit Spending.The public is invited to join the discussion at a forum moderated by librarians who have undergone training from National Issues Forums, a network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals, whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. More information at www.nifi.org Registration required; call 609.924.9529, ext.. 220 to register. The library will provide participants with free discussion guides and other books and media to support their deliberations.

In Cecilia's Last Tea Party, Cecilia, the child of a native princess and a Western colonial governor, lives on a small island nation in the midst of an ominous upheaval. She builds a fantasy world with her animal companions, Dodo, an ancient pelican, and Dada, a rare Bengal tiger. The trio's insular world is broken by the island's new commanding officer, Billy Krakatoa, and Cecilia's new guardian, Aunt Tambora. Cecilia's extraordinary nocturnal adventures offer an escape from an increasingly threatening environment, but will they help her move toward the life expected of her now? Fantastical, funny and darkly mysterious, Cecilia's Last Tea Party is a vivid coming of age drama set amidst political and social upheaval.

The New Jersey State Budget:
Where it comes from and where it goes.
Are we really that bad off?
Richard F. Keevey, director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region and a member of the faculty at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, will present an overview of the New Jersey state budget and discuss some of the current and future problems facing the state and the governor. Keevey served as director of the state Office of Management and Budget for Govs. Kean and Florio and was appointed by President Clinton as the CFO for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He also served as deputy under secretary for financial management for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Wednesday April 30, 7:30 p.m. Community Room
Comments From Campus is co-sponsored by the library and the Princeton University Office of Community and Regional Affairs, which provides generous support.