Cinema Discussion Group
This new group engages in discussion and critique of significant films. Led by Paulette Idelson, the group meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00PM in Meeting Room A. Meeting Date: April 16: "Gone with the Wind." Attendees are encouraged to view the film before the meeting if not familiar with it.

The Newton Free Library will host a special seminar for aspiring writers on Tuesday, April 16, 7:00PM. "Put it in Writing @ your Library" is a national program sponsored by Woman’s Day magazine and the American Library Association. Locally, it will feature a talk by free-lance writer Alice Kelly on writing and getting published as well as a presentation by reference librarian Ginny Audet on writers’ resources available at the library. Kelly will speak about her background, about the magazine and book industries, how to get published and how to write an essay. A question-and-answer period will follow and a list of writing/publishing tips will be available. There is no pre-registration; come early for good seating.

Kelly is a local writer who specializes in women's health, mind/body medicine, family issues, stress, nutrition and travel. She has written for Woman's Day, The New York Times, Reader's Digest, Health Magazine, Shape, Glamour, Self, Fitness, Parents, Parenting and other publications. She is co-author of the book Conquering Infertility: Dr. Alice Domar's Mind/Body Guide to Enhancing Fertility and the forthcoming Coping With Infertility.

The Newton Free Library was chosen as one of eight libraries nationwide to host the writing/publishing program during National Library Week, April 14 - 20. Lasell College in Newton will partner with the Library to promote the program to its students.

This year’s Book & Author Luncheon, sponsored by the Friends of the Newton Free Library will feature Sue Miller, author of seven books including The Good Mother, speaking on her new novel The World Below and Marc Gopin, author of Between Eden and Armageddon and Holy War, Holy Peace speaking on the intersection of religion, violence and strategies for peace. The 18^th annual luncheon will be held on Monday, May 6, at noon at the Newton Marriott. Details are listed below.

The World Below spans two generations to explore the hidden fault lines in marriages and families. In 1919, in Maine, Georgia Rice, who has cared for her father and two siblings since her mother's death, is diagnosed, at 19, with tuberculosis and sent away to a sanatorium. Freed from the burdens of caretaking, she discovers a nearly lost world of youth and possibility, and meets the doomed young man who will become her lover. Eighty years later, on the heels of a divorce, Catherine Hubbard, Georgia's granddaughter, takes up residence in Georgia's old house. Sorting through her own affairs, Cath stumbles upon the true story of Georgia's life and marriage, and the misunderstanding upon which she built a lifelong love. Unexpected similarities in the emotional charges and depths of both women’s lives are uncovered – their struggles with attachment and guilt, with marriages that we not altogether comfortable and with feelings of love and betrayal beneath the surface. One of the most astute observers of contemporary women's lives, Miller explores the past and its shadowy influences on the present with poignancy and grace.

Gopin’s professional field of interest is in conflict resolution. He has studied religious, psychological and cultural roots of terrorist and altruistic behavior and the moral dilemmas of diplomacy and intervention. In spite of the incendiary role that religion has played in numerous conflicts and wars, Gopin sees a positive role for religion to play in achieving peace in contemporary struggles. In Holy War, Holy Peace he argues that the religious traditions of Israel and Palestine can become important assets for ending the bloody conflict in the region and offers new tools to policymakers in their efforts to understand and intervene in complex international disputes.

Gopin is a Visiting Associate Professor of International Diplomacy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, a Visiting Scholar at the Program on Negotiation, Harvard University and a consultant on religion and culture in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Copies of the authors’ books will be available for purchase and signing at the luncheon. Tickets are $25 and may be ordered by sending a check, payable to the Friends of the Newton Free Library and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to The Friends of the Newton Free Library, c/o 68 Park Lane, Newton, MA 02459, before April 29. If checks are received afterwards, tickets will be held at the door. Please indicate choice of chicken or fish for lunch. Please call 617-527-7996 for further information.

Many people have wondered about the worth of a beautiful, old piece of furniture, silver, a doll or a painting they have at home. Could it be a valuable antique? Now the Trustees of the Newton Free Library are bringing specialists from Skinner, Inc. to an Antiques Appraisal Day to benefit the Newton Free Library. On Sunday, April 21, Noon – 4:00PM at War Memorial Auditorium of Newton City Hall, bring up to three items for $30 for a verbal appraisal based on current market prices of what an item might bring at auction.

Many Skinner appraisers are active participants on the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow." Consult with an expert and enjoy tea, coffee and pastries from a Victorian Café.

Please do not bring coins, stamps or jewelry and for large pieces of furniture or anything fragile, bring a photograph.

For further information, please call the Library at 617-965-7702 or 552-7151.

The Green Decade Coalition will present a panel discussion on BioTech Food: Dishing Up Trouble at the Newton Free Library on Monday, April 29, 7:00PM. Speakers will include Martha Herbert, M.D., Ph.D, Pediatric Neurologist and Brain Development Researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, M.I.T. Biology Professor Jonathan King, Ph.D, and Linda Setchell, Safe Foods Campaign Coordinator , Clean Water Action.

Another Such Victory is a provocative, forcefully argued and thoroughly documented reassessment of President Truman’s profound influence on U.S. foreign policy and the Cold War. The author contends that throughout his presidency, Truman remained a parochial nationalist who lacked the vision and leadership to move the U.S. away from conflict and toward détente with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Instead, he promoted an ideology and politics of Cold War confrontation that set the pattern for successor administrations. Based on exhaustive research and including many recently declassified documents, this study sharply challenges the prevailing view of historians who have uncritically praised Truman. It provides a strong historical perspective on executive decision-making at a new time of international crisis.

Formerly a professor at Boston University, Offner is currently a professor of history at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. His previous books include American Appeasement: United States Foreign Policy and Germany, 1933 – 1938, The Origins of the Second World War: American Foreign Policy and World Politics, 1917 – 1941 and Victory in Europe, 1945: From World War to Cold War which he co-edited.

This spring, Brigham & Women’s Hospital is presenting two health talks at the Newton Free Library.

	On Thursday, April 11, 7:00PM, Dr. Randy Averback will lead a discussion on Heart Disease Prevention for Women: The Basics as You Age. In this talk, Dr. Averback will explain how aging and menopause can influence cholesterol levels, hypertension, heart attack and other risk factors of heart disease in women. Averback is an internist and cardiologist at Brigham & Women’s at Newton Corner.
	On Tuesday, April 23, 7:00PM, Stacy Kennedy, RD, MPH, LDN will speak on Vitamin ABCs: Savvy Supplement Shopping. If you are confused by the latest information in the media on dietary supplements, vitamins, minerals and herbs, come to this talk and learn how to choose the supplements that are right for you.

The Newton Free Library will present its 29^th Annual Evening of Poetry, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, with readings by Ellie Mamber, Faye George and Anna Warrock on Tuesday, April 9, 7:00PM. This festival and the year-long series are coordinated by Robert K. Johnson.

Mamber’s poems have been published in such journals and anthologies as Connecticut River Review, New Voices, Beacon Review and The Poet’s Job: To Go Too Far. Poems are forthcoming in Salamander and Poems for a Beach House. A Newton resident, Mamber has read twice before in the Library’s series.

The recipient of several poetry awards, George has published work in The Paris Review, Poetry, The Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry, The Four Way Reader #2, Orpheus and Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology and many others. New work is forthcoming in The Larcom Review and Yankee. Collections include A Wound on Stone and her chapbooks Only the Words and Naming the Place: The Weymouth Poems.

Warrock’s work has inspired artists in other disciplines. Her poem "The Birds" and the suite of poems "Tristan and Isolde" have been set to music and performed by the Boston ensemble Row Twelve. Composer Wes York has included two of her "Calendar" poems in a song cycle. "Remembering My Mother’s Face" is inscribed in brick in the Davis Square subway station and also became an inspiration for a dance by Jeryl Ann Owens.