Pianist Paul Carlson will return to the Newton Free Library to present a program of Brahms’ Sonata No. 3, Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, Valen’s meditative, neo-Baroque style Gavotte and Musette and a new work, Partial Resetting, by Medford composer John McDonald, chair of the Tufts University Music Department. This dramatic, atmospheric piece is a tribute and preamble to the Brahms sonata and was written for the pianist. Carlson will briefly elucidate the modern pieces on the program. The concert will take place on Sunday, January 5, at 2:00PM.

Classical guitarist Sharon Wayne will return to the Newton Free Library with flutist Bridget Kazukiewicz for a concert of music by Bach, Poulenc, Argentinian tangos by Piazolla and Beaser’s "Mountain Songs" inspired by Appalachian folk melodies. The concert will take place on Sunday, January 12, 2:00PM.

Wayne has been lauded as "one of the most appealing new classical guitarists around" (San Jose Mercury News). She has performed widely as both soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and Japan and was twice a featured performer at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC.

First Prize winner of the 1991 ASTA Solo Guitar Competition, she was also a semi-finalist at the Guitar Foundation of America’s International Competition in Buffalo, NY. As a member of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, she commissioned and performed much new repertoire for guitar. Her music appears on five compact discs including her solo recording "From the Heart" which features works by 20^th century composers. Wayne is a former member of the guitar faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and currently serves on the faculty of the New School of Music in Cambridge.

Kazukiewicz has performed on flute and piccolo as soloist, chamber musician and as a member of many orchestras throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and beyond. She is a former member of the Helix! contemporary music ensemble in New Brunswick, NJ and has a special interest in new music. Recently, she performed a solo and chamber music recital sponsored by the

Merrimac Cultural Council to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the town. Kazukiewicz has maintained a private flute studio for many years and serves on the faculty of the Joy of Music Program in Worcester as flute instructor and flute choir conductor.

The Newton Free Library will host its annual Cultural Bridges program: an afternoon of Russian music and poetry in translation. On Sunday, January 26, 2:00PM, violinist Tamara Smirnova, Associate Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Marina Magazinnik will perform works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Veniavsky, Debussy and Sarasate. Poet Anatol Zukerman will read his own poetry in English as well as his translations of Russian poetry which focus on music in general and the violin in particular.

Smirnova is also Concertmaster of the Boston Pops. She was a Bronze Medalist in the 1985 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and in 1988, she received the highest award of the Croatian Musicians’ Association. She has performed as soloist with the BSO, Boston Pops, Belgium National Orchestra, Dubrovnik Festival Orchestra and other major orchestras in the U.S., England, West Germany and other countries.

Magazinnik has performed solo and chamber music concerts at the Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society and other concert halls in this country and in her native Russia. As an accompanist she has worked with many prominent Boston musicians. She is currently on the faculty of Northeastern University and Brookline Music School.

Newton native Charles Slack will speak on Charles Goodyear’s impassioned pursuit of his invention: galvanized rubber, when he speaks at the Newton Free Library on his new book Noble Obsession: Charles Goodyear, Thomas Hancock and the Race to Unlock the Greatest Industrial Secret of the Nineteenth Century. The talk will take place on Thursday, January 30, 7:30PM.

Goodyear was willing to endure years of poverty, hunger and imprisonment to reinvent rubber into the indispensable substance it is today. This book tells the tale of how a single-minded genius risked his own life and his family’s in his goal to unlock the secrets of rubber and how Thomas Hancock, a brilliant English inventor, ruthlessly sought to claim Goodyear's discovery for himself. The story abounds with colorful historical figures of the 19^th century including Daniel Webster, who came to Goodyear’s defense in a stunning courtroom battle.

Exhaustively researched, Slack unearthed obscure files in England and across the U.S., offering fresh perspectives on one of the most crucial scientific discoveries in industrial history.

Slack is also the author of Blue Fairways. A former newspaper reporter in Virginia and Tennessee, he is now a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Esquire, DoubleTake, Reader’s Digest, 64 and other magazines. Slack is a 1979 graduate of Newton North High School where he was editor-in-chief of the Newtonite. He now lives in Connecticut.

What causes dreaming? Why are dreams so strange? Why are they so hard to remember? Join J. Allan Hobson, one of the world’s foremost authorities on dreaming, as he speaks on "Dreaming: Implications for Theories of Human Consciousness" at the Newton Free Library, Thursday, January 16, 7:30PM. The talk will be followed by a booksigning with books provided by New England Mobile Book Fair.

Using findings of basic brain research, sleep lab studies, recent clinical studies of sleep and dreams and his own dream journal, Harvard psychiatrist Hobson builds a new dream theory on the solid and extensive base of sleep science in his new book Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep.

Hobson and his colleagues realized that the most scientifically useful way to define and measure dreaming was to focus on the formal features rather than the content as Freud had. Instead of asking ‘What does the dream mean?’ Hobson asked what mental characteristics of dreaming distinguish it from waking mental activity.

He describes how the theory of dreaming has advanced dramatically over the past fifty years, sparked by the use of EEGs in the 1950s and by recent innovations in brain imaging. We have learned for instance that, in dreaming, some areas of the brain are very active—the visual and auditory centers, for instance—while others are completely shut down, including the centers for self-awareness, logic, and memory. He shows that modern research has disproved most of Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (as one scientist put it, "Freud was 50% right and 100% wrong"), but we have gained new insight into the nature of mental illness. The book also discusses dream disorders (nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking), the possible link between dreaming and the regulation of body temperature and the effects of sleep deprivation.

Financial experts Jim Thompson and Susan Kaplan will lead the second program in the Revitalizing Retirement series at the Newton Free Library. "Can I Really Afford to Retire?" will take place on Tuesday, January 21, at 7:00PM and is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Coming of Age Coalition, SOAR (formerly Metrowest RSVP) and the Library.

Many who retired in the last three years are rethinking their decision as they have watched their retirement income decline. Nest eggs have shrunk and low interest rates have cut retiree paychecks. Still others, like Polaroid retirees, have seen their pensions reduced and health benefits rescinded altogether by bankruptcy. But there are lessons to be learned and steps that can be taken to turn things around.

Thompson, a gerontologist, investment professional and former director of shareholder education for AARP/Scudder Investments will share his expertise about how people approaching retirement or who are already retired can weather bad times. Thoughtful planning and level-headed decision-making are two components as are avoiding common retirement mistakes such as underestimating life expectancy, counting on a will as the sole means to transfer assets, assuming high taxes won’t be a concern in retirement and not taking advantage of the Internet to self-educate.

Juliet Schor, co-editor of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century, Prasannan Parthasarathi and Peter Forbes, contributors to the book, will present a panel discussion at the Newton Free Library. This Green Decade Coalition program will take place on Monday, January 27, 7:00PM.

There is widespread concern that our current patterns of production and consumption are ecologically unsustainable and are leading to a global erosion of community, quality of life and social justice. Sustainable Planet articulates a comprehensive and concrete vision of an alternative to the global consumer economy. The book includes chapters on food, transport, clothing, financial management and design as well as larger structural reforms at both the domestic and global level. Relying on the experience of the activists and researchers who contributed, this collection argues that within many areas of U.S. society, exciting new trends are emerging, such as the growth of regional organic food systems, socially responsible business, empowered community economic development and eco-design. In addition to the three authors represented at the panel discussion, other contributors include Mary Pipher, William McDonough, Bill McKibben, Herman Daly, Vicki Robin, Jeffrey Hollender, and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez.

Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and author of The Overspent American. Her contribution to this volume is called "Cleaning the Closet: Toward a New Ethic of Fashion." She has spoken before at a Green Decade program at the Library on "The Economics of Sustainable Consumption."

Parthasarathi is Associate Professor of History, specializing in South Asia, at Boston College. His contributed a chapter to this book on "Property as Share," which looks historically at the alternatives to the current system of individualized property rights and how they can be the basis of a sustainable approach to economic activity.

Forbes is author of The Great Remembering. He has worked with the Trust for Public Land in New England for many years and serves as a board member of the Center for a New American Dream . He brings a unique perspective on the need for an approach that incorporates both "land and people."