Calendar

Join us for an outdoor storytime under the trees on Russell Library's South side lawn! We will read books and share rhymes and songs for kids birth to 6 years old and their families. Participants are welcome to bring chairs and blankets! This summer family storytime will be repeated twice a week: Tuesday at the Library and Friday at the Farmers Market! (Same books, same songs, on two different days so more people can enjoy!) Registration is required and will close 24 hours before the event starts. For kids age 0-6 (Babies - first grade), siblings and families welcome! In the event of inclement weather we will move this program indoors to the Activity Room! Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Join us in conversation with Dr. Marcia Chatelain as she discusses her Pulitzer prize-winning book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. Dr. Marcia Chatelain set out to answer the question of how fast-food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods. McDonald’s has often been blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans. In Franchise, Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast-food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who–in the troubled years after King’s assassination–believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Join Russell Library and our friends from Eleanor Buck Wolf Nature Center for a session where we will meet live animals such as an African spur-thighed tortoise and corn snakes! This session will take place in the Russell Library Activity Room. This is a family program for all ages. Registration is required (and will close 24 hours before the event begins). Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety we request that if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This program is made possible though the generosity of the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: https://russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Come build with us in the Activity Room! Each Monday there will be different building toys available such as Legos, Lincoln Logs, Hotwheels tracks, and more. Follow our blueprints or simply build from your imagination. We supply the materials, you supply the creativity! This is a program for ages 4 and up. Registration is required (and will close 24 hours before the event begins). Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety we request that if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This program is made possible though the generosity of the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: https://russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Age Group: 6 months - 11 years. The clinic will be set up on the library's Court Street lawn. In the event of rain, the clinic will be held inside the library. No appointments necessary! Click here for more information.

Join us for an outdoor storytime under the trees on Russell Library's South side lawn! We will read books and share rhymes and songs for kids birth to 6 years old and their families. Participants are welcome to bring chairs and blankets! This summer family storytime will be repeated twice a week: Tuesday at the Library and Friday at the Farmers Market! (Same books, same songs, on two different days so more people can enjoy!) Registration is required and will close 24 hours before the event starts. For kids age 0-6 (Babies - first grade), siblings and families welcome! In the event of inclement weather we will move this program indoors to the Activity Room! Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Join us for an evening with New York Times Bestselling author Liz Moore as she discusses her international bestseller, Long Bright River, and her other works. Drawing on deeply personal volunteer work, Liz Moore spins a story that is both graphically honest and dignified. Long Bright River puts a very human face on the effect that addiction can have on generations of families and communities. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Special Guest Dr. Marcia LaReau Join Dr. Marcia LaReau and Christy Billings for MORE questions being asked by today's job seekers... and bring YOUR questions as well! Learn current and up to date info for your job search. Russell Library presents weekly opportunities to network with other job seekers, as well as receive the advice of professionals. The focus will be on the job market and provide updated industry information during this uncertain time of COVID19. The Job and Career Group hosts virtual workshops and a weekly networking session via WebEX. You will need to download WebEx to attend. Registration is required. Questions? Bob Carlson rcarlson@russelllibrary.org or Christy Billings cbillings@russelllibrary.org This group is possible from a City of Middletown Block Grant, Liberty Bank Foundation Grant, and The Family of Thomas J. Regan.

Books and Brews RETURNS Our Aug title is Dutch House by Ann Patchett At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures. Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested. (from Goodreads) Join us IN PERSON at Stubborn Beauty Brewing at 180 Johnson St, Middletown, CT. Join us! Questions? E-mail Christy Billings at cbillings@russelllibrary.org Sponsored by the Friends of Russell Library. Place a hold for curbside pick-up or E-copies are available at www.russelllibrary.org. No purchase is required. More on author: Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. Patchett said she loves her home in Nashville with her doctor husband and dog. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. "Home is ...the stable window that opens out into the imagination." In 2010, when she found that her hometown of Nashville no longer had a good book store, she co-founded Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes; the store opened in November 2011. In 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

Come build with us in the Activity Room! Each Monday there will be different building toys available such as Legos, Lincoln Logs, Hotwheels tracks, and more. Follow our blueprints or simply build from your imagination. We supply the materials, you supply the creativity! This is a program for ages 4 and up. Registration is required (and will close 24 hours before the event begins). Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety we request that if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This program is made possible though the generosity of the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: https://russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Join us for an outdoor storytime under the trees on Russell Library's South side lawn! We will read books and share rhymes and songs for kids birth to 6 years old and their families. Participants are welcome to bring chairs and blankets! This summer family storytime will be repeated twice a week: Tuesday at the Library and Friday at the Farmers Market! (Same books, same songs, on two different days so more people can enjoy!) Registration is required and will close 24 hours before the event starts. For kids age 0-6 (Babies - first grade), siblings and families welcome! In the event of inclement weather we will move this program indoors to the Activity Room! Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/

Join us to discover the history of your home. Whether you want to learn how to document a historic property for preservation, to learn a bit more about your home’s prior residents, or to get a glimpse of an ancestor’s home, there are resources available to help. This program will teach you how to navigate land records to build a timeline of the home's ownership and how to use maps, photos, local histories, and more to help tell your home’s story. While this program will focus on resources to document Middletown area homes, many of the featured collections can be used to document homes elsewhere in the state.

Mystery! is a Russell Library-run book club for mystery lovers. The book group discusses a new mystery novel every month. The group meets on Thursdays at 3pm, the last Thursday of the month (or, if Russell is closed at that time, the latest Thursday in the month that we’re open). Starting July 29th, 2021, our meetings will switch back to in person at Russell Library in Meeting Room 2. Books are available at the Circulation desk. No registration required. Questions? Contact Amy Slowik. Click Here to See the List of Upcoming Mystery! Books.

Attention young people! Stop by the library for a work session on the library lawn on Court St, to get you ready to go back to school. Bring your thoughts and ideas on your summer reading and brainstorm with your peers, a librarian and some of our friends who work at the Middletown Public Schools on how to translate what you read into a creative project. Haven't thought about anything school-related all summer? No sweat! Drop in anyways and hear what everyone has been up to-- maybe it will spark an idea or two for you. Take a look at the Summer reading assignments by clicking here! This event is for rising 6th graders and up! Registration is required and will close 24 hours before the event starts. In the event of inclement weather we will move this program indoors to the Hubbard Room! (We encourage you to bring a blanket to sit on if we are able to meet outside!) Covid Library Event guidelines: to ensure everyone's safety if any member of your household is experiencing Covid symptoms or is quarantining, we ask that you and your family stay home. This event is co sponsored by the Middletown Public Schools and the Friends of the Russell Library! Find out more about how you can support them here: russelllibrary.org/friends-of-the-library/