When it rains, it pours, apparently. “One week after a Newton elementary school teacher was arrested on child pornography charges, a Newton Free Library staffer has been arraigned on similar charges in Newton District Court.” from Newton Patch
“For the second time in two weeks, residents of Newton, which touts its reputation as one of the safest cities in America, were staggered by the accusation that a trusted public employee was involved in child pornography.
Authorities announced yesterday that they had arrested Peter Buchanan, a 10-year city employee who had worked most recently in the Newton Public Library’s audio visual section.
State Police accuse Buchanan, 47, of downloading and sharing child pornography. He pleaded not guilty in Newton District Court to three counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of material depicting a child in a sexual act.” from Boston.com
Newton Library Employee Arraigned on Child Porn Charges (Newton Patch)
Father of Newton child porn suspect says his son needs help (Boston.com)
Second child porn arrest made in Newton (Boston.com)
Newton library pedophile faces child porn charges (Wicked Local Newton)
Mindy Kaling will not be able to make the Spring Fling due to a scheduling conflict.
Mindy Kaling, author and actress on
“The Office,” will be one of our honored authors this year.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
More Honored Authors:
Mix & mingle with hosts Tom Ashbrook and Bill Novak,
distinguished authors, friends, and library lovers —
while savoring delicious food from Bakers’ Best, bidding on the
silent auction, and listening to live music.
Tickets go fast, so make your reservation
online today at
Leah Hager Cohen’s The Grief of Others is a 2011 New York TimesNotable Book of the Year. Losing a newborn is terrible enough, but when the baby comes wrapped in a shroud of secrets, insufferable grief often tears family members apart. The Ryries are just such a family.
Edith Pearlman
Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories is a feast for fiction aficionados. The 2011 recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award, Ms. Pearlman gives new meaning to the word “storyteller” in these 21 short stories, which include themes of young love, old love, thwarted love, and loved denied — and span settings from Jerusalem and South America to New England locations.
Tim Riley
Tim Riley is NPR’s music critic and biographer of John Lennon in Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – the Definitive Life. Mr. Riley’s well-researched account of Lennon proves that there is still room for one more biography of this legendary figure.
Lou Ureneck
InCabin: Two Brothers, a Dream, and Five Acres in Maine, memoir writer Lou Ureneck turns his disappointments that come from middle-age job loss, the death of his mother, a health scare, and a divorce into a moving meditation on brotherhood and a return to a simpler, more meaningful way of life.
For more information about the event and authors, please visit website .
Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Exciting News!!! EVERYONE WHO LEFT A COMMENT WINS!
HI Mia –
Thanks SO very much for all the concert hype, we truly appreciate it. I just noticed that 14 people have commented on the story so far. Originally we said we’d like to giveaway 5 Family Tickets but we have decided to give a Family ticket to everyone who has commented. The venue holds something like 500 people so there’s no reason not to bring as many people in as we can!
If more people respond, I can giveaway a total of 80 tickets.
To redeem their tickets, they need only e-mail me (krobbins@newphil.org) with their full name by 10am on Sunday, January 29th. They should reference you somewhere, either in the message or subject line. Unless they say otherwise, I will assume they want tickets to the Family Concert.
Will you be able to join us?
Thanks again and please let me know if this works for you!
Many thanks,
Kara
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Anna Larsen’s composition is being performed on Saturday, February 11 at 8pm and Sunday, February 12 at 3pm in a special concert featuring young artists and composers.
The New Philharmonia Orchestra is a Newton-based community orchestra under the umbrella of the Newton Cultural Alliance.
“Our mission and motto is Music for All and we accomplish this by providing a Classics Concert Series, Family Discovery Concert Series, Pops Concerts, Summer Concerts, and music outreach and education. We strive to produce high-quality classical music accessible. New Phil would also love to be added to your resource roll. Our next three programs this winter should be rather interesting to your readers. We are doing a Family Discovery Concert & Instrument Petting Zoo side-by-side with student performers and narrator this month, our February Classics concert features the World Premiere of a symphony by a 12 year old plus a concerto performance by teenager Aaron Wolff, and we are doing a “karaoke” concert on St. Patrick’s Day.”
GIVAWAY: 5 Family Tickets (2 Adults and 2 Students) to attend ANY Family or Classics Concert. Maybe you’d love to use it for …
Winter Dreams Family Discovery Concert and Instrument Petting Zoo
Sunday, January 29 at 3pm
Featuring a side-by-side performance with Newton All-City Orchestra
Greg Livingston, Director
Narrated performance of the musical adventure How Bear Lost His Tail
by local composer Pasquale Tassone
Narrated by Emily Paley, NNHS Senior
Click here to purchase tickets
To win tickets, please leave a comment. Winners will be selected at the end of January.
Check out these extraordinary faces painted by Newton Elementary School Special Education Aide and an Afterschool Teacher Marisol Santana! She really has fanciful creations and is available for birthday parties or events! She can be reached at marisol (at) zeebree (dot) com . She is offering a discount of $25 off any face painting party of 2 hours or more if you mention this post.
In addition, she also has a recycled crayon business and she is giving away a set of 6 Cupcake Zeebree crayons. To win, please leave a comment.
p.s. Yes! These are all crayons! You can actually color with them!!!
p.p.s. She is always looking for large crayon donations to repurpose into these cool crayons. If you have a crayon donation, please email her or leave a comment and she will pick up herself.
This year the MidWinter Coffeehouse returns on February 11th, 2012 at the First Unitarian Society in Newton (1326 Washington St., West Newton), to benefit the F.A. Day PTO.
The MidWinter Coffeehouse is a fun evening of live folk (and other) music, featuring traditional Irish music trio Corvus, event founder and former Day parent Rob Siegel , emcee Eric Moore, and Day parents and friends including Barb Cassidy, Eric Chasalow, George Attisano, and Pam McA’Nulty.
Beer, wine, and soft drinks will be available for sale along with light refreshments.
Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door if available (Adults over 21 only, please).
Doors open at 6:30, music starts at 7.
For tickets and more information please visit the website www.mwch.org or email midwintercoffee@gmail.com.
After thirteen years at its present location, Newtonville Books is moving to Newton Centre in April. As you know, we host somewhere between 75 and 100 events, writing workshops, and bookclubs each year. We feel the role of the independent bookstore is to enliven its community with quality literary programming; but there is a wide swath of book lovers who can’t attend our events because we’re not off the subway system. For this reason, we decided to move to Newton Centre. We’ll be updating you on the move in our weekly newsletter, and on our Facebook page.
A couple of items of note relating to the move:
All gift certificates, rewards cards, memberships and store credits will be valid in the new location, too.
We will no longer be carrying used books; instead, we’ll be expanding the size of our children’s section in the new location.
I know the bookstore’s exit from Newtonville leaves a void in the village. I can only hope something terrific goes into the space we currently occupy, especially as my family and I live in Newtonville, just a block from Walnut Street. So you’ll continue to see me in and around the village. I hope to see YOU at our new location at Langley Place in Newton Centre, next to Jumbo Seafood, starting in April. (And I hope that you’ll keep shopping with us in Newtonville until then!) It’s our intention to keep growing the store and servicing the Newton community with a terrific selection of books and literary programming.
Mary Cotton
Owner
P.S. We’ll still be called Newtonville Books, to honor our heritage!
Since becoming the administrator of an existing mom neighborhood book club, I’ve discovered that Newton moms like to read. Some moms are even in multiple book clubs! My husband is even in a “book club” — that is to say it’s actually a drinking club that takes an annual golf trip in the guise of a book club.
My Moms’ book club struggles to pick a book each month. I think it’s a combination of factors. Some moms are extremely well read, so it’s hard to find a new (or good) book for them. Some moms want newly published top selling books. And some, like me, don’t like to read books that are violent containing nightmare inducing imagery such as child abuse and/or rape.
My book club also likes to alternate between a serious read and a “beach” read. I’m listing the books that we’ve reviewed, but PLEASE make suggestions!!
Reader Suggestions
Roberta says, “a friend’s just-completed book: One Writer’s Garden, Eudora Welty’s Home Place, by Jane Roy Brown and Susan Haltom. It’s about Welty as an iconic writer, as well as her skill as a talented gardner. A gorgeous, big coffee table book with beautiful photos for just $35 in the stores….less on line!”
Sue suggests, “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, this book was so funny, have you read it?”
Best Serious Multi-Cultural Novel
The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga
The winner of the 2008 Booker Prize, it’s a riveting story of an ambitious servant with deep insight into what life is like for the rank and file in modern day India.
Best Light Romance/Mystery Novel
Following Polly by Karen Bergreen
My college stand up comedienne turned author writes a delightful and sweet love story set in New York City with flashbacks to undergraduate life at Harvard that turns on a murder mystery plot of a college queen bee bully who is found dead by our endearing but not fully self actualized heroine.
Best Yummy Hybrid Cookbook Romance Memoir
Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser
A romantic memoir cookbook based on the real life happily ever after story of New Yorker writer and author Tad Friend and New York Times food critique turned social media entrepreneur Amanda Hesse. Their story is based in New York City but they also have collegiate roots near Newton. Tad went to Harvard as is detailed in his book Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor . Amanda has blue blood roots as well; she got her marketing and business chops at Bentley College. Check out her home cook foodie website Food52. Her frenchie foodie memoir looks fun too, The Cook and the Gardener : A Year of Recipes and Writings for the French Countryside.
Most Popular Mom Book Club Book of 2011
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
If you looked at what women were reading around any pool or beach last year, you could always find someone reading this book.
Best Eclectic but Beautifully Written Book That Everyone is Talking About
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
This was our most recent selection though not too many people make it through it. Our issue is that our last book club meeting was spaced to closely together. Newtonville Books has a review here and they discount books by 20% if you buy in quantity for your book club!
Best Comedic Memoir of a 30 Something NYC Society Mom
Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut: Essays and Observations by Jill Kargman
Abby in our Mom Book Club is good friends with Jill nee Kopelman, the daughter of Chanel CEO Ari Kopelman. She’s a riot if you can understand her NYC hip mommy slang. Lucky for us, there’s a dictionary included in the book.
Best Local Bad Boy Gone Good Memoir
Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus has come to several Newton Free Library events including Book and Author and ladies in my book club have had the opportunity to meet him several times and they SWOON about him. Apparently, he’s not only a warm, funny and lovely person but extremely easy on the eyes (and happily married!). My husband read this book and was so blown away that he’s ordered more books by Dubus.
“Telling his story straight from the heart and relating for the fi rst time the role that violence played in his life, how it kept him alive until he was able to channel it into writing and how it served as a guide in his father’s absence, Andre Dubus’memoir Townie is a riveting, visceral and profound meditation on physical violence and the failures and triumphs of love. Join him for a compelling author talk on Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30 pm. The talk will be followed by a book signing with books provided by New England Mobile Book Fair.
After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fi sts so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed, or killing someone else. Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids out on Sundays. The clash of worlds couldn’t have been more stark, or more diffi cult for a son to communicate to a father. Only by becoming a writer himself could Andre begin to bridge the abyss and save himself.
Andre Dubus III is a National Book Award fi nalist and the author of the novels House of Sand and Fog andThe Garden of Last Days, a New York Timesbestseller. His writing has received many honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Magazine Award and a Pushcart Prize.” from Newton Free Library
If you now feel motivated to keep up with Newton Free Library events, here’s the February 2012 schedule.
Andre Dubus III
Best Insight into Growing Up Latino in America Book
The Maid’s Daughter: Living Inside and Outside the American Dream by Mary Romero
“In The Maid’s Daughter, Mary Romero explores this complex story about belonging, identity, and resistance, illustrating Olivia’s challenge to establish her sense of identity, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in her life. Romero points to the hidden costs of paid domestic labor that are transferred to the families of private household workers andnannies, and shows how everyday routines are important in maintaining and assuring that various forms of privilege are passed on from one generation to another. Through Olivia’s story, Romero shows how mythologies of meritocracy, the land of opportunity, and the American dream remain firmly in place while simultaneously erasing injustices and the struggles of the working poor.” from Newtonville Books
Thu, Feb 16, 6:30 PM – Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Bookclub meets to discuss this book at Newtonville Books.
“It is 1948 and a young American couple arrive in France for a holiday, full of anticipation and enthusiasm. But the countryside and people are war-battered, and their reception at the Chateau Beaumesnil is not all the open-hearted Americans could wish for.” from Amazon
Getting nostalgic and want to have a keepsake of these memories? You are in luck! Click here to purchase.
This gorgeous coffee table book that depicts the old Newton North High School is $85 and was lovingly photographed by Newton photographer, Sharon Schindler.
She also has more images available. Here’s a sampling:
Please join us for Slow Flow Vinyasa in the upstairs secret room at L’Aroma Cafe in West Newton (behind the movie theater).
When: Mondays, 9:30-10:45
Session 1: January 9-March 26 (no class 1/16 and 2/20)
Session 2: April 2-June 11 (no class 4/16 and 5/28)
Cost: $150 for the session, $48 for 3 Pass
Bea Abascal, CYT, RYT provides a warm and playful environment for your practice. Alignment, breath and core work are the primary focus, along with a soothing energy to refuel you for the day. You will be nurtured and challenged. And then stay for tea … or espresso.
Beginners welcome … this is a small class setting so you can get extra attention if you want it.
For more info on Bea, please visit her website or her blog.
This new Funnel Ball makes shooting baskets much easier. You just aim for the big funnel at the top. This was the Class Gift from Peirce’s Class of 2011 5th Graders and was recently installed.
The next time you drive by the 4-square courts along Temple Street take a look … it’s the tall blue pole with a red bucket sitting on top. Balls are tossed into the large hole on top and then they exit through 1 of 3 different holes. It should offer added fun to the playground for many years to come. Bring your 4 square ball!
Peirce Elementary School is located at 170 Temple Street in West Newton.
Thank you again to Peirce’s Graduating Class of 2011!
image Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe
