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Public Event

Nature Walk at Stapp Nature Area

Thursday September 8, 2016: 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Stapp Nature Area
All Ages

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Public Event

Nature Walk at Kuebler Langford Nature Area

Thursday August 4, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Kuebler Langford Nature Area
All Ages

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Public Event

Nature Walk at Barton Nature Area

Thursday July 7, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Barton Nature Area
All Ages

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Public Event

Nature Walk at Black Pond Woods

Thursday June 2, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Black Pond Woods Nature Area
All Ages

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Edible Ornamental Garden Design

Monday May 23, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Malletts Creek Branch: Program Room

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Building Matters: Rainwater "Borrowing"

Wednesday May 4, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Secret Lab

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Blog Post

The Wonder Garden

by eapearce

Icelandic illustrator Kristjana Williams collaborated with author Jenny Bloom on the new children’s book The Wonder Garden, a gorgeous look into five drastically different habitats. Williams and Bloom use unique locations around the world to introduce young readers to 80 amazing animals that we likely wouldn’t encounter here in the United States. From the Amazon Rainforest, they take us to the Great Barrier Reef, to the Chihuahuan Desert, to the Black Forest, and finally drop readers off in the Himalayan Mountains, where we get to learn about animals like the Asiatic Black Bear and the Bengal Tiger. The diversity in these habitats really allows Williams and Bloom to emphasize the beauty and uniqueness of our planet and showcase some of the world’s more unusual flora and fauna. Kids and adults alike will be drawn to the big, bright illustrations in this book, and will be eager to turn the pages to see what world awaits them next. The cover perhaps says it best: “Fold back the covers of this book and let the gates to Earth’s wonder garden swing wide open.”

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Lectures & Panel Discussions

Building Matters: Net Metering

Wednesday April 6, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: 4th Floor Meeting Room

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Blog Post

A new collection of essays from Marilynne Robinson: The Givenness Of Things

by eapearce

Marilynne Robinson is known for her award-winning series of Iowa-set novels Gilead, Home and Lila, which are underpinned by questions of religion and faith. In her latest collection of essays, which follows her 2012 collection When I Was a Child I Read Books, Robinson dives fully into intellectual and moral queries.

Titled The Givenness of Things, the themes of this philosophical collection are diverse. Robinson discusses neuroscience and metaphysics, and analyzes the affect of the Reformation on how humans learn. She also makes clear her disillusionment with contemporary society, yet cautions readers and humans in general not to give in to “joyless urgency.” Her deep love and reverence for humanity, and for what we as humans can produce and create, permeates her writing. The essays in this collection total seventeen in number, many of which investigate and reference the work of philosophers of old: Calvin, Locke, and Shakespeare to name a few. Robinson manages to weave political opinion into these pieces too, denouncing “unashamed racism,” “incarceration for profit,” and gun violence, along with “cynicism and vulgarism.” Despite the vast array of subjects touched on in this collection, it flows naturally and well from one essay to the next, and Robinson’s strong voice is clear, composed and slightly witty for all three hundred pages. Booklist gives The Givenness of Things a starred review, commenting “These… profoundly caring essays lead us into the richest dimensions of consciousness and conscience, theology and mystery, responsibility and reverence.”

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Public Event

Spice: The Variety of Life (including Herbs)

Tuesday April 5, 2016: 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room
Grade 6 - Adult