SouthWest

The Southwest Book Club will meet on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southwest Library in the Meeting Room to discuss The Air We Breathe by Andrea Barrett and The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus lll. Both authors were featured at this year's Winter with the Writers at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Barrett's The Air We Breathe takes place during World War I at a sanitarium in the Adirondacks. A discussion group's weekly conversations lead to tragedy and eventually anti-immigrant sentiment directed at some of the patients.

In The Garden of Last Days, Andre Dubus III fashions a disturbing and revealing encounter between an American woman on the edge and an intense Muslim man.
Pick one or read both!

Anyone age 18 or older is welcome to attend. The book club meets monthly at the Southwest Branch Library. For more information, please call 407.835.7323 or email southwest@ocls.info

Copies of this book may be reserved for home delivery or location pick-up at http://www.ocls.info

For more information, please call 407.835.7323 or email southwest@ocls.info

Discussion Questions
If you are unable to attend the meeting or you would like to join our discussion, you can share your thoughts or respond to the discussion questions below. Simply click "Comments" located at the bottom of this post. Join the discussion!

The Air We Breathe
1. The two opening chapters explicitly contrast conditions at the public sanatorium of Tamarack State, inhabited largely by impoverished immigrants, and the cure cottages of Tamarack Lake, inhabited by wealthy patients. Discuss the role class differences play in the novel.
(from http://books.wwnorton.com/books/ReadingGuidesDetail.aspx?ID=13670&CID=8502&tid=3288&tcid=).

2. What do you think of the following quotation? "We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment." (J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur) How do you think it relates to the story?
(from www.massbook.org/reading_guides/AirWeBreathe_guide.pdf)

The Garden of Last Days
1. What are some possible meanings of this book's title? What various images and interpretations of "paradise" appear here?

2. How do you feel about the particular blend of fiction and history in this book? Should the author have strayed further from or stayed closer to the historical reality?
(from http://books.wwnorton.com/books/readingguidesdetail.aspx?ID=13646&tid=3288&tcid=)

Posted by southwest at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Learn to make a valentine accordion card for someone you love! Come to the valentine craft program with papercraft artist, Mamie Velez.

Recommended for ages 6-12. Registration is required. For more information, call 407.835.7323 or email southwest@ocls.info.

Southwest Library
Saturday, January 30
10:30 A.M.

Posted by southwest at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Southwest Library presents Women in the Arts Inc., "Celebrating the Genius of Women" exhibit January through March 2010. This exhibit features five artists and selected student artwork from the Community School of the Arts. The type of art includes watercolors, photography, printmaking, acrylics, sculpture and jewelry. In March, the exhibit will be part of the celebration of Women's History Month. Women in the Arts Inc. is a 501©3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and raising public awareness of women's contributions to the arts including performing and visual arts at public and private venues. To learn more about Women in the Arts Inc. and watch a video of the featured artists' work, click here.

Women in the Arts Inc. programs include annual scholarships awarded to female art students in visual and performing arts and to the Community School of the Arts program which offers tuition-free quality art instruction boys and girls in grades 4-12 from the Orlando area. For more information, contact Maria Guerrero 407.491.3884 or email information@womenintheartsinc.org.

Take opportunity to talk with the artists and learn more about their creative work at a Meet the Artist event being held at the Southwest Library on Tuesday, March 2, 2010 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.

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The Southwest Book Club will meet on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southwest Library in the Meeting Room to discuss I Feel Bad About My Neckby Nora Ephron. A collection of essays by the woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad. Ephron offers a humorous look at the ups and downs of being a woman of a certain age, discussing the tribulations of maintenance and trying to stop the clock, menopause, and empty nests.

Anyone age 18 or older is welcome to attend. The book club meets monthly at the Southwest Branch Library. For more information, please call 407.835.7323 or email southwest@ocls.info

Copies of this book may be reserved for home delivery or location pick-up at http://www.ocls.info

For more information, please call 407.835.7323 or email southwest@ocls.info

Discussion Questions
If you are unable to attend the meeting or you would like to join our discussion, you can share your thoughts or respond to the discussion questions below. Simply click "Comments" located at the bottom of this post. Join the discussion!

1. In What I Wish I'd Known, Ephron lists things she wishes she had known when she was younger. Were there any entries that were particularly resonant for you? Which ones, and why? Is there anything that Ephron left off that you would like to add? Would your list look similar to hers?

2. Ephron's essays are filled with the humourous anecdotes regarding "maintenance." However there is an edge to this humor. What comment do you think she is making about the place of "women of a certain age" in society?

3. Ephron presents some life questions: Should you live everyday as if it's your last or should you save money on the chance you'll live twenty more years? Is life too short or is it going to be too long? Should you work as hard as you can or should you slow down to smell the roses?
What life questions do you have?
(Questions obtained from Reading Group Guides).

Posted by southwest at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)