History Mysteries: Early Dutch Settlers Saturday, May 31 at 3:15 p.m.

This month's History Mystery focuses on learning more about the Dutch settlers of our great state. We will also use a reading of the fictional picture book On the Day Peter Stuyvesant Sailed into Town by Arnold Lobel to kick off a discussion about how people treat the environment they live in. The program will also include activities and crafts. School aged children (ages 6-11) are invited to join in the fun at the library. Registration is required, please sign up at the library or call 758-6192. The History Mysteries program is a collaborative effort between the Columbia County Historical Society and Kinderhook Memorial Library.

Short Cuts: Man and Nature Sunday, May 18 at 4:00 p.m.

Join the Friends of the Kinderhook Memorial Library on Sunday, May 18 at 4:00 p.m. for a new installment of Short Cuts, a showcase of contemporary and classic short stories and prose read aloud by talented literary performers. The theme will be Man and Nature: Reflections and Revelations. Two selections on the natural world will be read by Friends of the Library Bill Nieman and Mark Wilson. Bill Nieman will read the eloquent prose of the naturalist Loren Eiseley who combined scientific knowledge and imaginative vision to reveal life's wonders. Mark Wilson will read from an essay by the late Edward Abbey, self-styled radical environmentalist, former park ranger, and author of "The Monkey-Wrench Gang." Listeners will find the words and ideas of Eisley and Abbey as revelant today as when they were written decades ago. The program is free and open to the public. Discussion and refreshments follow each reading.

Foreign Film Series: The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006) Friday, May 16 at 7:00 p.m.

We kick off our summer foreign film series on Friday May 16 at 7:00 p.m. with the German movie The Lives of Others (2006). Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police (Stasi). Only a few citizens above suspicion, like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman, were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg's stunning actress-girlfriend, Christa, an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer's apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. Now, what the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives -- as well as his -- in this seductive political thriller. This movie was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. Subsequent films in the series will be Hero (China) on June 20, The Best of Youth (Italy) on July 11, No Man's Land (Bosnia) on August 29, Duck Season (Mexico) on September 26, and Baran (Iran) on October 24.

Teen Book Club Tuesday, May 13 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Patterson (rescheduled from April) Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia, draws upon the facts of the famous 1912 Bread and Roses strike in the mills of Lawrence, MA to tell the story of two children in this moving portrait of friendship and justice. Well-researched and important, this book paints a full picture of the settings, conditions, and events of a turbulent time in the history of the United States. The book club will meet the second Tuesday of each month and is open to all teens (ages 13 and up). New members are always welcome!

Book Clubs at the Library Fiction or Non-Fiction--We've Got You Covered!

The Circle of Readers will meet on Monday, May 12 at 1:00 p.m. to discuss the book A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future. As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state. The Circle's next meeting will be on June 9 at which they will discuss the book Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindburgh. The Next Page Book Club will meet on Wednesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the book The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas. In this sequel to The Three Musketeers, jailbreaks, masquerades, and swordfights pit Aramis against his fellow musketeers and create an incomparable tale of swashbuckling. In their final adventure, the four Musketeers plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king. Next Pagers will next meet on June 11 to discuss the book A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor. The Non-Fiction Book Club will meet on Monday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m. to discuss the book In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. Taking readers on a rollicking ride through Australia, In a Sunburned Country introduces a place where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister who was lost at sea while swimming at a Victoria beach to Japanese cult members who managed to set off an atomic bomb unnoticed on their 500,000-acre property. Leaving no Vegemite unsavored, readers will accompany Bryson as he dodges jellyfish while learning to surf at Bondi Beach, discovers a fish that can climb trees, dehydrates in deserts where the temperatures leap to 140 degrees, and tells the true story of the rejected Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House. The Non-Fiction Book Club will next meet on June 16 to discuss Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.

Teen Stand Up Comedy Night Friday, May 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Do you have what it takes to be the last comic standing? If so, the mic is on and waiting for you at Kinderhook Memorial Library's Teen Stand Up Comedy Night. Bring a friend or two and claim your fifteen minutes of fame on Friday, May 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Join us for a evening of fun as you get a chance to perform in front of your peers! Interested in helping to plan future teen nights? Come to the T.A.B. (Teen Advisory Board) @ 6:00 p.m., right before the start of Teen Stand Up Comedy Night. Come with ideas to share!

Now Accepting Book Sale Donations Annual Spring Book Sale on Saturday, June 7

Time to clean out your attic and pick out the best books to donate to our spring book sale! Books should be in good condition and brought to the library in boxes or sturdy paper bags during open hours only. Please do not donate dirty or mildewed books, text books, encyclopedias, or magazines.

Family Film: My Sister Eileen
Saturday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Dan Schoonover completes his family film series on Saturday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m. with My Sister Eileen (USA, 1955) starring Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, and Jack Lemmon.

Two sisters move to Greenwich Village from Ohio, hoping to find fame and fortune. Instead they find a tiny apartment on Barrow Street, neighborhood kooks, and a playboy publisher!

The series of 16 mm films from the collection of the late Raymond Schoonover of New York City will resume again in the fall. Screenings are free of charge and refreshments will be served. For more information call 758-7244.

Special Thanks to Pi Cafe!

The Kinderhook Memorial Library would like to thank Maria Ruggiero, owner of Pi Cafe, Laura Herbold, and Herminio Ramirez for holding their Guest Chefs for Charity event last week which raised over $1,000 for the library. We would especially like to thank all our friends and supporters who wined, dined, and made contributions to the library that evening.

Feet, Hooves and Rails: Transportation in 19th Century America
Saturday, April 26 at 2:00 p.m. at the Stuyvesant Train Station

Directly after their Rails and Sails Book Sale, the Friends of the Kinderhook Memorial Library will host a presentation by Dr. J. Ward Regan at the Stuyvesant Train Station on Saturday, April 26 at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Regan will present Feet, Hooves, and Rails: Transportation in Nineteenth Century America, a lecture that follows the development of transportation from the pre-industrial period to the introduction of the combustion engine in the early twentieth century. The Transportation Revolution, as it is sometimes called, encompassed a wide range of successes and failures, and goes well beyond the introduction of steam power.

The talk begins with the era of canal building in New York and continues through to the rise of the railroad all the way to the automobile. The presentation encompasses an examination of the technological innovations and ideological shifts that changed transportation and transformed the United States into a world power. It will also address the central role played by New York City in this process.

J. Ward Regan has a Ph.D. in Labor and Cultural History from SUNY Stony Brook. He teaches history and philosophy at New York University, and has also taught at Pratt Institute of Art and Design and Bard College. He has been part of the New York Council for the Humanities Speakers in the Humanities Program since 2003. He has recently been added as a speaker for the "National Endowment for the Humanities on the Road" exhibition Going Places. Additionally, he has worked in off-Broadway theater and independent film in New York for over fifteen years, and currently speaks and performs in and around NYC. His one-man show, "A Paranoid's Guide to History," recently concluded a successful run off-Broadway.

This program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

We would especially

like to thank the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for sponsoring this program. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the New York Council for the Humanities or National Endowment for the Humanities.