Book Group - Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
2023-12-12 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
The December 14th Book Group will be discussing Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
According to GoodReads:
The latest historical novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, inspired by the true story of a woman physician from 15th-century China—perfect for fans of See’s classic Snowflower and the Secret Fan and The Island of Sea Women.
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a captivating story of women helping other women. It is also a triumphant reimagining of the life of a woman who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Children's Story Time
2023-12-06 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-11-29 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-11-22 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-11-15 08:00 - 10:30 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Wednesday’s 9:30
Songs, Stories, and Art Projects
New theme each week, always fun

Coffee Cafe
2023-12-01 09:00 - 11:00, 2023-11-03 09:00 - 11:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Join others in relaxing conversation and light refreshments on the first Friday of the month 9-11.

Mahjong Start up group @ 3 pm
2023-11-21 15:00 - 16:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Interested in Mahjong please come to our very first meeting to figure out the details

Book Group - West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
2023-11-14 16:00 - 18:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
This month’s Book Group will look at West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge on November 14.

According to GoodReads:
An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.
“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…”
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.
Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

Childrens' Story Time
2023-11-08 09:30 - 10:30, 2023-11-01 09:30 - 22:30 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States

Book Group - Postcard From Italy by Angela Petch.
2023-10-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Oct 10 at 4:00 Postcard From Italy by Angela Petch.

From Goodreads:
Italy, 1945. ‘Where am I?’ The young man wakes, bewildered. He sees olive trees against a bright blue sky. A soft voice soothes him. ‘We saw you fall from your plane. The parachute saved you.’ He remembers nothing of his life, or the war that has torn the world apart… but where does he belong?
England, present day. Antiques-shop owner Susannah feels adrift. Her beloved father has died, and her grandmother Elsie’s memories are disappearing. But everything changes when she stumbles across a yellowed postcard bearing a picture of a beautiful Italian stone farmhouse, tucked away in Elsie’s dressing table. A message dated from the Second World War speaks of a secret love. Could her grandmother, who never talked about the past, have fallen for someone in Italy all those years ago?
With Elsie confused and distressed by her questions, heartbroken Susannah tracks down the house on the postcard. Arriving at what is now a crumbling hotel by the sparkling Italian sea, she feels strangely at home. And after an unexpected encounter with handsome wine waiter Giacomo, she can’t tell if it’s his dark eyes or his offer to help solve her mystery that makes her heart race.
Together they find a dusty chest tucked in a forgotten corner of the building. The white silk of a World War II parachute spills out. And the British pilot’s identity tag nestled in the folds bears a familiar name…
As a story of lost memories, terrible betrayal and impossible choices unfolds, Susannah comes closer to a devastating wartime secret at the heart of her own family. Did she ever really know her grandmother? And when she finally learns the truth, will it help heal her pain – or tear her apart for good?
An absolutely stunning page-turner that will sweep you away to the olive groves and majestic views of the Italian coast. Perfect for fans of Kathryn Hughes, Fiona Valpy and Victoria Hislop.

Book Group - In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
2023-10-10 15:30 - 18:00 | ME
The October 10 book group will be the book In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. Amy will be hosting a gathering at her house for the event this month. She invites you all from 3:30 – 6:00, but the book discussion is still scheduled from 4-5.

According to Good Reads:
In her highly anticipated new novel, Judy Blume, the New York Times # 1 best-selling author of Summer Sisters and of young adult classics such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, creates a richly textured and moving story of three generations of families, friends and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by unexpected events.
In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life.
Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Judy Blume imagines and weaves together a haunting story of three generations of families, friends, and strangers, whose lives are profoundly changed by these disasters. She paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place — Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-09-24 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Jennifer Lunden, author of American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life. Jennifer was named Maine’s Social Worker of the Year in 2012.
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-09-17 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Sunday, September 17, Amy Neswald author of I know You Love Me Too
A novel-in-stories about sisterhood, grief, and discovering one’s true self through the accidents of life.
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

Book Group - David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and/or Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
2023-09-12 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Sept 12 at 4:00 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and/or Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

David Copperfield from Goodreads:
David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations. In David Copperfield – the novel he described as his ‘favourite child’ – Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by ‘Phiz’, a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel’s autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.

Demon Copperfield from Goodreads:
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-09-10 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Sunday, September 10, Kerri Arsenault author of Mill Town: Reconnecting with What Remains. “Bittersweet memories and a long-buried atrocity combine for a heartfelt, unflinching, striking narrative.” Kirkus Review
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-09-03 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Poets – Gibson Fay-Leblanc, Katherine Hagopian and Meghan Sterling.
Fascinating poetry and lively conversation with three outstanding Maine poets!
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

No Book Group in August
2023-08-15 08:00 - 17:00 | ME

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-08-13 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Sally Williams author of Faces of Founders: Hiram, Maine. A conversation about the journey through conceiving your story, writing, editing, pitching your proposed book, publishing your dream book, marketing it, and keeping it alive.
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

Mad Science - Family Fun!
2023-08-12 09:45 - 11:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Mad Science is coming to the Library August 12 – 9:45-11:00!
This exciting science discovery program is for the whole family – ages 4 – 11 especially. Join us!
https://maine.madscience.org/

Denmark Authors Series 2023 -
2023-07-23 17:00 - 18:30 | Denmark Arts Center, 50 West Main St, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Sunday, July 23 Bill Roorbach Author of Lucky Turtle “An epic love story and love letter to the West” Kirkus Review
A series of lively conversations with authors
Sunday afternoons at 5:00 at the Denmark Arts Center.
For more information and registration go to denmarkarts.org/events

Book Group - Lessons in Chemistry by Barbara Garmus
2023-07-11 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
July 11 at 4:00 Lessons in Chemistry by Barbara Garmus
From Goodreads:
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

Book Group - Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning
2023-06-13 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
June 13, at 4:00: Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning
“This “stellar read” ( Los Angeles Times ) is an exhilarating tale of an unforgettable young woman who bravely exposes the corruption that enriched her father’s employers in early 1900s Colorado.
In a voice infused with sly humor, Sylvie Pelletier recounts leaving her family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father and dominates the town. Sharp-eyed Sylvie is awed by the luxury around her; fascinated by her employer, the charming “Countess” Inge, and confused by the erratic affections of Jasper, the bookish heir to the family fortune. Her fairy-tale ideas take a dark turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Their servants, the Gradys, formerly enslaved people, have long known this to be true and are making plans to form a utopian community on the Colorado prairie.
Outside the manor walls, the town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. A handsome union organizer, along with labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The editor of the local newspaper—a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice—is publishing unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates vastly different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie decides to act.
Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, Gilded Mountain is a tale of a bygone American West seized by robber barons and settled by immigrants, and is a story imbued with longing—for self-expression and equality, freedom and adventure.” Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60321424-gilded-mountain?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_1

Book Group - Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley
2023-05-09 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
May 9, at 4:00: Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley. “A wonderful feel-good story, especially for anyone whose world, like mine, revolves not around people but around animals. “Patty
“From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and the New York Times best-selling Last Hundred Years Trilogy, a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals–and a young boy–whose lives intersect in Paris.
Paras, short for “Perestroika,” is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and–she’s a curious filly–wanders all the way to the City of Light. She’s dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn’t afraid. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city’s lush green spaces, nourished by Frida’s strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather and Christmas near, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? Jane Smiley’s beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom.” Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52578294-perestroika-in-paris?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ZSZJsNZdtW&rank=1

Book Group - Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach
2023-04-11 16:00 - 17:00 | ME
Bill Roorbach is back with an immersive love story of two kindred souls
in a world determined to tear them apart.
When Cindra Zoeller, sixteen, is sent to a reform camp in Montana,
she’s a young, privileged white girl who has evaded more severe
punishment for her crime. Even at Camp Challenge, she gets
special treatment, unlike the punishment many of the girls face. She
becomes transfixed by Lucky, a watchful, capable, and mysterious camp
employee, and as the connection between them grows stronger, Lucky
and Cindra quickly become lovers. They escape into the Rocky
Mountains and create an idyllic life, living off Lucky’s vast knowledge of
the wilderness.
But they can run from the outside world for only so long, and the
consequences of their naïve fantasy of a future together—and
circumstances shaped by skin color—will keep them apart for decades.
Lucky goes to prison, and Cindra finds herself in a cosseted and
carefully surveilled life, circumscribed by a man who claims to be her
rescuer. But for Cindra, there will never be another Lucky, and she
knows she must find him, the only man she's ever fully trusted, her
soulmate.
For readers of Richard Russo, Jane Smiley, and John Irving, Lucky
Turtle is a deeply engrossing love story from one of our most
entertaining and perceptive writers." Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56271459-lucky-
turtle?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13

Book Group -The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
2023-03-14 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
March 14 at 4:00, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

Good Reads

Coffee Cafe
2023-03-03 09:00 - 11:00 | ME
Friday, March 3 from 9 -11 am!
We have decided to hold the Denmark Library Coffee Cafés on the
FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH.
We are eager to see you March 3.
Mark your calendar!
Come and and join us for a hot cuppa, delicious treats, and good conversation.
Bring your friends, meet your neighbors. Everyone welcome!
Masks are welcome. COVID vaccinations are encouraged.
The Denmark Public Library is located at 121 E. Main St,
Denmark • (207) 452-04022

Book Group - All That She Carried
2023-02-14 16:00 - 17:00 | ME
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives.
WINNER: PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine Award, John Kelly Memorial Prize, Massachusetts Book Award
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Slate, Vulture, Publishers Weekly
“A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.
Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women’s faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today

Book Group - Night of the Living Rez
2023-01-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Denmark Public Library, 121 East Main Street, Denmark, ME, 04022, United States
Book group – Night of the Living Rez: Stories by Morgan Talty
Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.
In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and community bonds as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson, and thinks he is her dead brother come back to life; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.
In a collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of a Native community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.
