Manchester Reads 2023 begins April 1st and runs all month. We will be celebrating laughter, humor and joy with the theme "Lighten Up at the Library." Help us decide what classic film to watch on Friday April 7th by voting between two classic comedies every week. This week it is "The Quiet Man" vs "The Sting" Comment on your favorite on Facebook or Instagram and visit us to vote in person. You can vote once, every time you visit!

Weekly Events

Craft Circle by the Hearthside
SUNDAYS AT 2-3PM

Digital Advice with Expanded Hours
MONDAYS: APPOINTMENTS AT 11:30AM, 12PM & 12:30PM & DROP-IN FROM 1-2PM

ALTERNATING THURSDAYS: APPOINTMENTS AT 6PM          

Registration is required for the 3 appointments on Monday and the 1 appointment on Thursday. Click Here to register. 

F.E.E.D. Families Exploring Equity & Diversity Stories and Activities

7 WEEK SERIES BEGINS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27 AT 3:30—4:15PM

Families and children ages 3.5 - 5 are invited to share stories and activities with educator and diversity trainer, Lindsay Banks and Manchester Public Library Children's Librarian, Carol Bender. Registration is encouraged but not required. Click Here to register or for more info. 

Dungeons and Dragons
TUESDAYS 3:30-5PM

For Ages 11-18. Most Tuesday and registration is required. Click Here for more details and to register. 

Tai Chi Class
WEDNESDAYS AT 9:45-10:45AM

Safety Registration Form must be completed before 1st session. Fill out the form here. 

Shut Up and Write!
WEDNESDAYS AT 10:30 AM-12PM

Virtual over Zoom and registration is required. Email [email protected] for the zoom link.

Stories & Songs in the Children's Room
WEDNESDAYS 10:30-11AM

For our youngest patrons and thier caregivers, ages birth-6. Registration is required and space is limited. Click Here to register.

Mindfulness Meditation
EVERY OTHER THURSDAY AT 11AM-12PM

Alida Bryant is a Dharma Leader and meditation instructor under the guidance of Anam Thubten Rinpoche. She has been meditating for over 30 years (still very much a beginner!) and studying and practicing with lineage holders in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Beginners and experienced meditators are welcome. There will be guided meditation, some silence, and discussion. Registration is encouraged but not required. Click Here to register or for more info. 

Chess Club in the Teen Loft
THURSDAYS AT 3—4:15PM

Come out and "rook" the house (sorry, chess humor) with club organizers Marcel and Milla and their energetic middle school group of aspiring grandmasters! Ages 9-11 must register for every week you can make it as space is limited!

IN-PERSON & HYBRID EVENTS FOR ALL AGES

Diversity Book Group : “Born in Blackness"
TUESDAY, MARCH 21 AT 5:30—6:30PM

Reading “Born in Blackness : Africa, Africans, and the making of the modern world, 1471 to the Second World War” by Howard W. French. Physical book copies available at the circulation desk.

This book will be discussed this month and in April so don't worry if you don't finish it.

Seasonal Stories & Bingo
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 AT 3:30—4:15PM

Join Ms. Carol for stories and picture bingo. For children ages 3-6 and their caregivers. Registration is required, with a minimum of 3 children needed to play.

Beekeeping 101
THURSDAY, MARCH 23 AT 5:30—6:30PM

Manchester residents Mike and Martha Chapman have been beekeepers for over 15 years. Last year, they had five hives at various locations around their neighborhood. Mike is a graduate of Essex County Beekeepers “Bee School”. This is a great intro for beginners looking to get connected and learn the basics.

“Beekeeping 101” will be a brief discussion of bees and beekeeping based on Mike and Martha’s personal experiences over the years. Registration is required.

Author Chat with Stella Nahatis ("Taxi to America: A Greek Orphan's Adoption Journey")
TUESDAY, MARCH 28 AT 6—7PM

Join local author, Stella Nahatis and librarian, Maddy Willwerth as we discuss Stella's newly released memoir, "Taxi to America: A Greek Orphan's Adoption Journey." Registration is required and coffee and tea will be provided. Copies of the book will be available for sale; cash, check and venmo accepted. Stella has also offered to sign books at the end of the chat.

Stella Nahatis was born in northern Greece and lived there until adoption by Greek emigrants landed the 11-year-old orphan in the United States of America. After overcoming the hurdles inherent to the immigrant experience; assimilation language barrier and cultural differences, resilient and strong Stella embraced her new country with fervor. Stella and her husband Charles live in Manchester by the Sea.

Make a Night Sky Painting with Pop-Up Art School
THURSDAY, MARCH 30 AT 5:30—7PM

Join Pop-Up Art School for a fun canvas painting event at the library. Follow along step-by-step to create a magical star-filled night sky with silhouettes of a hillside and trees. It's amazing what you can create with four colors and some simple brush techniques! This event is appropriate for beginner painters ages 11-Adult. Registration is required.

Virtual Events

All virtual events require registration. Click on the events to register.

Romance Authors Rodale & Linden discuss "Dangerous Books For Girls" (Virtual)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 AT 7:00—8:00PM

Join us for a conversation between friends and romance authors Maya Rodale and Caroline Linden! They'll be discussing Maya's re-released and expanded edition of "Dangerous Books For Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels Explained". Bring your popcorn because this is going to be a good one! Due to the nature of the topics discussed this event is suggested for an Adult audience.

About the Book: Long before clinch covers and bodice rippers, romance novels have had a bad reputation as the lowbrow lit of desperate housewives and hopeless spinsters. But in fact, romance novels—the escape and entertainment of choice for millions of women—might prove to be the most revolutionary writing ever produced. Dangerous Books for Girls examines the origins of the genre’s bad reputation—from the “damned mob of scribbling women” in the nineteenth century to the sexy mass-market paperbacks of the twentieth century—and shows how these books have inspired and empowered generations of women to dream big, refuse to settle, and believe they’re worth it. 

This program is is made possible through a partnership with the Ashland Public Library.

Learn All About Fixit Clinics! The How and Why! (Virtual)
TUESDAY, MARCH 28 AT 1—2PM

We are partnering with Peter Mui, the founder of the Fixit Clinic and Kathi Mirza, an Environmental Analyst for MassDEP, to bring you the nuts and bolts of hosting or attending a Fixit Clinic in your very own community! Peter will discuss the history, the resources his organization offer to get a clinic off the ground, and the repair movement. Kathi will discuss local sources that libraries and community members can access to support Fixit Clinic programming in the Commonwealth. Meena Jain, Director of the Ashland Library, will discuss the Fixit Clinics the APL has hosted and the impact they've had. Discover more about the movement to fix it instead of tossing it!

This program is made available through a partnership with the Ashland Public Library. 

Check Out Free Virtual Resources

We are always open online where you can check out our free to use digital collection! There you can find a great selection of eBooks, Audiobooks, movies and TV shows to stream and enjoy along with many other digital resources by using your Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library card.

March is National Women’s History Month. Try out the resources below to learn more about women who changed history! 

American Ancestors, an online repository for family history research, provides free access to 1.4+ billion records spanning the United States, the British Isles, continental Europe, and beyond, including one of the most extensive online collections of early American genealogical records, the largest searchable collection of published genealogical research journals and magazines, and the only online source for records from Boston's Catholic Archdiocese. The database is maintained by the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Ancestry Library is a version of Ancestry.com that contains a variety of collections that can help in educational or genealogical research. These historical records include a network of resources you can search, such as census, church, court, and immigration records. Ancestry Library will guide your research from the beginning and provide downloadable forms that can help organize the content you collect. This free tool can only be used while in the library building.

Historical Journal of Massachusetts “Article Archive” contains 375+ articles on Massachusetts history freely available to the public as downloadable PDFs. They can be reproduced, distributed, and used in any educational or community setting without special permission, if HJM is clearly attributed.

Find even more resources at https://www.manchesterpl.org/resources/all-resources/#History

New Biography and Memoir Available for Checkout!

Taxi to America: A Greek Orphan's Adoption Journey
By Nahatis, Stella
2023-02 - Stella P Nahatis
9798986751108 Check Our Catalog

Stella's journey from Thessaloniki, Greece to America begins with a pre-dawn taxi ride that she and her sister share while the coffin holding a loved one rides along in the taxi's trunk. Orphaned and separated from her younger sister "for her own good" as the culture dictated at the time, Stella ends up being adopted by a Greek couple that had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in the US. At

…More

The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie Ten Boom
By Loftis, Larry
2023-03 - William Morrow & Company
9780063234581 Check Our Catalog

New York Times bestselling author and master of nonfiction spy thrillers Larry Loftis writes the first major biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during WWII--at the cost of losing her family and being sent to a concentration camp, only to survive, forgive her captors, and live the rest of her life as a Christian

…More

Flora Macdonald: Pretty Young Rebel: Her Life and Story
By Fraser, Flora
2023-01 - Knopf Publishing Group
9780451494382 Check Our Catalog

A captivating biography of the remarkable young Scotswoman whose bold decision to help "Bonnie" Prince Charlie--the Stuart claimant to the British throne--evade capture and flee the country has become the stuff of legend.

After his decisive defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart was a man on the run. Seeking refuge in the Outer Hebrides, hoping to escape …More

Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt
By Spiegelman, Willard
2023-02 - Knopf Publishing Group
9780525658269 Check Our Catalog

An evocative portrait of the beloved and acclaimed poet, whose late-in-life success took the literary world by storm

"Clampitt comes to life here...Spiegelman's Nothing Stays Put embodies a different kind of investigation, not surveillance but a thoughtful examination that at times still spins off into a kind of awe." --The Washington Post
…More

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics
By Curwood, Anastasia C.
2023-01 - University of North Carolina Press
9781469671178 Check Our Catalog

Shaking up New York and national politics by becoming the first African American congresswoman and, later, the first Black major-party presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm left an indelible mark as an unbought and unbossed firebrand and a leader in politics for meaningful change. After spending her formative years between Barbados and Brooklyn, Chisholm's political orientation and power did …More