This Friday, May 31, the Delaware County District Library will officially “launch” our 2019 Summer Reading Club. The theme this summer is “A Universe of Stories,” and we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Our library patrons know that the Summer Reading Club is not only filled with great book recommendations and reading lists, but also excellent performers and activities for the whole family.
Stop by the Orange Branch Library this Friday between 6:30 and 8 p.m. to celebrate the start of summer with some of our favorite performer pals. Musician Zak Morgan is coming and bringing his guitar for some singing, dancing and laughing. With silly songs like “When Bullfrogs Croak” and “The Case of the Dry Markers,” Zak is a mainstay among our summer performers, and he always entertains.
Erica Carlson will be back with her airbrush tattoos and balloon art. Erica debuted her airbrush tattoos at our 2018 Great GeekFest, and they were a huge hit among all attendees. She also showed off her balloon art skills to those who were at the Koo Koo Kanga Roo performance in 2017.
Your favorite Star Wars characters will roam the building and the Imagination Garden posing for photo ops and answering your questions of the Force (or the Dark Side). COSI and Engineered Beginnings will show other examples of “force” with their science demonstrations.
I could argue that I’m most excited to taste the delicious ice cream and snacks provided by Sticky Fingers Ice Cream Parlor. If you haven’t heard of Sticky Fingers, you can visit their establishment in Galena located on Cheshire Road. With hard dip ice cream, shakes and sundaes, ice cream sandwiches and more, you’re sure to find something you love.
Crafts, scavenger hunts, photo ops, a storytime video from space and more are just the beginning of what you can expect next Friday. I hope you can make it to help us blast off into this summer of fun.
This week my recommendations come from new titles on our Biography and Memoir booklist from this May.
• “Southern Lady Code: Essays” by Helen Ellis. Uproarious insights on Southern womanhood, life, and culture, written by the Alabama-raised author of “American Housewife.” Ideal for fans of Southern pop culture staples “Designing Women” and “Fried Green Tomatoes.”
• “Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen” by Mary Norris. New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris’ discusses her passion for Greek language, history, and culture, which began in unlikely earnest after she saw the science fiction film Time Bandits, partially set in ancient Greece. Norris traveled solo to remote Mediterranean locales, performed in Greek-language productions of Elektra and The Trojan Women, and convinced her employers to subsidize Greek language courses to aid her in her copy editing work.
• “Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy” by Eric O’Neill. Enjoy this white-knuckle account of rookie FBI agent Eric O’Neill’s 2001 undercover mission to capture fellow agent Robert Hanssen, a longtime Russian mole.
• “A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win WWII” by Sonia Purnell. Undeterred American Virginia Hall, who didn’t let workplace sexism and the loss of her leg in a hunting accident stop her from serving as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) spy in occupied France, established an underground resistance network.
