Library groups meet at the Newton Free Library, 330 Homer Street, Newton Centre, unless otherwise noted. All meetings are free and open to the public.

NEW! Short Fiction Writing Group

This workshop will provide an atmosphere of expert support to polish short fiction It is geared for published writers as well as those who are actively pursuing publication. Preregistration is required: 617-965-8835. The group will meet the first Tuesday of each month, Meeting Room A, 7:00PM. Meeting Date: June 5. Please bring 5 copies of work to the meeting. Coordinator is Halcyon Mancuso, a writing professor and writer.

African Literatures Discussion Group

Led by Anne Serafin, this group explores the rich variety of writings from Africa. The group meets on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM, in Meeting Room A. Meeting Date: June 20, Black Sunlight, a novel by Dambudzo Marechera from Zimbabwe. For further information, call 552-7145.

Children's Book Writers Group

Meetings are now held on the first Monday or the fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:00PM in Meeting Room A. This group is for writers who have work in progress. Pre-registration required. Please call Ruth Glass at 332-0835 for more information. Meeting Date: June 4 or June 27.

Current Fiction Discussion Group

Meetings are held the first Wednesday of the month, 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Participants should read works in advance. Group coordinator: Alice Simons. For information, call the Library at 552-7159. Meeting Date: June 6: Edna O’Brien, Wild Decembers.

Great Books Discussion Group

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Members read books from the Great Books Foundation (available at the Library). Meeting Date: June 12: "How an Aristocracy May be Created by Industry" by Alexis de Tocqueville. For further information, call the Library at 552-7145.

Landscape of Aging
This group will resume meeting in the fall.

Newton Camera Club
This group will resume meeting in the fall.

Playreading
Meetings are held at Newton Corner on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00PM. Preparation is not necessary. Meeting Date: June 5. For further information, please call the Library at 552-7145 or the branch at 552-7157.

Poetry Workshop
This workshop provides constructive criticism for experienced poets. The group meets every Saturday at 10:30AM in Meeting Room A. Participants should bring 10 copies of the poem they will present. For further information, please call 244-2353.

Sequences: Women Tell Our Stories
In this women's workshop, participants read, discuss and write about literature by women. The group meets the second Wednesday of each month from 10 - 11:30AM in Meeting Room A. Leader: Robin Mayer Stein. Meeting Date: June 13. For further information, call 552-7145.

Short Story Discussion Group

Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7:30PM in Meeting Room A. Group leader is Mary Lanigan. For further information, call 552-7145. Meeting Date: June 11: James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues," and Alice Walker, "Nineteen Fifty-Five."

Sound and Sense Poetry Workshop
This new workshop for experienced poets concentrates on honing literary skills with a focus on publication. The group meets weekly on Sundays, Noon – 2:00PM, in Meeting Room A.

Boston Globe science columnist and author Chet Raymo will speak at the Newton Free Library on his new book An Intimate Look at the Night Sky on Wednesday, June 13, 7:30PM. This event is co-sponsored by the New England Mobile Book Fair who will provide books for the book sale and signing that will take place after the talk.

"We are children of the night" proclaims Raymo in this many-layered guide to the universe and our place in it. Raymo’s central premise is that we have lost a sense of intimacy, a personal connection with the heavens – and he sets about restoring it. On one level An Intimate Look is a unique star guide with star maps and Raymo’s commentaries on identifying stars, planets and constellations through the seasons and across the sky. On another level, through a series of passionate, elegant and thought-provoking essays, Raymo tells readers what – and how – to imagine what is unseeable in the universe, to perceive distance and size and shape that is inconceivable. Blending history, science, mythology, religion and literature, the essays allow us to see the universe we inhabit through new eyes as well as our extraordinary place in it.

Raymo is the noted author of The Dork of Cork, Honey from Stone, The Soul of the Night, 365 Starry Nights and Skeptics and True Believers on which he last spoke at the Library. A professor of physics and astronomy at Stonehill College, he writes a weekly column, "Science Musings," for the Globe.

METCO, America’s longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, has for 34 years bused black children from Boston’s city neighborhoods to predominantly white suburban schools, including Newton, one of the initial seven communities to participate in the program. In contrast to the infamous violence and rage of forced school busing within the city in the 1970s, METCO has quietly and calmly promoted school integration. How has this program affected the lives of its graduates? Would they choose to participate if they had it to do over again? Would they place their own children on the bus to suburbia?

Hear Susan E. Eaton, author of The Other Boston Busing Story, discuss these questions at the Newton Free Library on Tuesday, June 19, 7:30PM. This event is co-sponsored by the New England Mobile Book Fair who will provide books for the book sale and signing after the talk.

Eaton interviewed 65 adult METCO graduates who vividly recall their own stories, assessing the benefits and hardships of crossing racial and class lines on their way to school. Although nearly all the participants believe the long-term gains outweighed the costs, their accounts poignantly show that this type of integration was not easy for them as they struggled to negotiate both black and white worlds.

Even as courts and policy makers today are forcing the abandonment of desegregation, educators warn that students are better prepared in schools which reflect our national diversity. This "candid narrative of courage" (Jonathan Kozol) is a moving account of a rare program that, despite serious challenges, provides a practical remedy for the persistent inequalities in American education.

Eaton is consulting researcher, Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and coauthor of Dismantling Desegregation. For her work as a journalist specializing in education and children’s issues, she received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Very often the best jobs are not advertised in traditional ways. "Uncovering the Mysteries of the Hidden Job Market" will teach participants how to research and uncover opportunities that are not in the classified ads or on the Internet. Those attending will learn telephone techniques, how to target companies and how best to market oneself to employers. Led by George Zeller, a Senior Employment Specialist at Career Moves, the workshop will take place in Druker Auditorium on Thursday, June 28, at 7:00PM.

This project is funded through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners with funds from Library Services and Technology Act, a federal source of library funding.

Stock up on books for summer reading at the Friends June Booksale at the Auburndale branch, 375 Auburn Street. Come Saturday, June 9, 10AM - 3PM for the best selection from the thousands of fiction and nonfiction in all genres for both children and adults. Come Sunday, June 10, Noon - 3PM, when unmarked paperback fiction will be $2/grocery bag and almost all remaining books will be 1/2 price.

All proceeds benefit the programs and collection of the Library.

The Library's Newton History Series will present archaeologist Barbara Donohue speaking on her findings from the Hammond Street building site on the Boston College Campus in Chestnut Hill. The talk will take place on Thursday, June 7, at 7:30PM in the Special Collections Room.

Donohue is a Newton resident who has worked on the archaeology of the Chestnut Hill area since 1993. Her presentation will chronicle the change in this section of Newton from an area associated with farming to its development as a suburban haven. Ceramics from this site which date back to the 1800s will be on display throughout the month of June in the cases outside the Special Collections Room.

The Special Collections Room features the Newton Collection, an historical collection of Newton materials. Staff and volunteers are available in this room to assist patrons with research during regular Library hours.

VOLUNTEERS WANTED!

The Library is looking for volunteers to help clean up the grounds around the Main Library building. For information, please call Volunteer Coordinator Margaret Sudbey at 552-7151 or email her at msudbey@mln.lib.ma.us.

The Library will host a series of open meetings on judicial independence as part of a national project locally managed by the League of Women Voters of Newton.

A League steering committee (including LWV members and students from Newton North and Newton South high schools) will examine the status of judicial independence in Massachusetts and will develop a high school education program about the issues which emerge from their research. Members of the bench, the bar and the general public are invited to listen to the committee's discussion and to comment on Massachusetts issues related to the independence of judges. Of particular interest to the steering committee are the public's views about: the process for selecting judges, reaction to unpopular judicial decisions and the politicization of funding for the judicial branch.

The next two meetings will be held on Wednesday, June 6 and Wednesday, June 20, at 7:00PM.

Florence Rubin, the Project Manager, will chair the meetings. Rubin is a former member of the Library Board of Trustees, a former President of the LWV of Massachusetts and the current president of the National Center for Citizen Participation in the Administration of Justice.

The Judicial Independence Project is funded by the Open Society.