I’ve heard that patience is the art of learning what to do while you’re waiting. So while we are waiting for the start of the NCAA basketball tournament, for the first daffodil buds, for the snow to melt and for above-freezing temperatures, here are some ideas. As usual, an edifying way to pass time is with a book or two.
The Big Read — that multiweek, multilibrary focus on one book as the subject of programming — is being replaced by a multilibrary effort now called ReDiscover to begin in March. Instead of one book, ReDiscover features several, and the inaugural theme is Home.
Among the books recommended are Bill Bryson’s “At Home: A Short History of Private Life,” a social history of the home, going from room to room, examining objects. Bryson is an entertaining and engaging writer, and this should be a good read especially in this stay-indoors weather.
“Howards End,” E.M. Forster’s classic novel of manners and relationships in England at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, is a great novel made into a terrific movie and is another of the recommended reading. “Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy” by Frances Mayes is another of the recommendations and seems a perfect escape at this moment.
Look for announcements of up and coming programming, talks and book studies at the participating libraries, which include of course the Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills and Indian Prairie public libraries. Some topics of interest include a look at Harold Zook architecture, de-cluttering your home, garden design and stocking a healthy pantry. Visit http://www.re-discover.org for more information.
For a delightful, laugh-out-loud funny piece of fiction, I cannot help but promote “The Rosie Project” by Graeme Simsion. Both men and women were observed reading and giggling poolside at a little getaway recently and all agreed this debut novel was fun and should make a terrific movie. The books follows Don, a Ph.D. in Genetics and professor who appears to have Asperger’s syndrome as he decides it is time to get married, and he approaching dating and courting scientifically.
For those of you who need to get out, get busy and serve, this one is for you: at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 10, the Assistance League of Chicagoland West will host a membership open house at its Hinsdale office, 120 E. Ogden Ave., suite 100. This will be a great time to know more about the group which puts on the fabulous Books and Brunch luncheon fundraiser in November.
That fundraiser is the ALCW’s main source of income and raised around $155,000 last year to support the ALCW’s charitable efforts, which provide coats for close to 2,000 elementary school children who live within 20 miles or so of Hinsdale, including Burr Ridge and Westmont. The ALCW helps women and children as they move from homelessness into homes with a kitchen start-up kits and offers books and reading encouragement to Head Start and early reader children.
ALCW members will say again and again that what they enjoy so much about what they do is how hands-on it is. For more information about the March 10 open house, email membership chairman Sue Farrell at membership@alcw.org.
