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Five local authors will be featured this month at the library.

North Adams Library Sets 'Author Month' for September

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The North Adams Public Library will offer a chance to meet some favorite local authors this month.

A series of meet-the-author events will feature writers who live in the region beginning Thursday evening at 6 with a panel of three fiction writers.

"We used to do a lot of author programs but haven't done any in, oh, 10 months," said Robin Martin, currently the library's interim director. "I thought it was time we get some authors in here and up our adult programming a bit."

Thursday's forum will feature Karen Shepard, author of "Don't I Know You" and "The Celestials," of Williamstown; historical mystery writer Charles O'Brien of Williamstown, best known for his Anne Cartier mysteries; and National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett of North Adams, author of "The Air We Breathe" and, most recently, "Archangel."

Each author will take about 10 minutes to talk about recent works or about their writing and then the panel will open up to questions from the audience for about a half-hour. The panel will take place in the library's third-floor meeting room. It will also be taped for later broadcast on the Northern Berkshire Community Television.

Food writer Jennifer Trainer Thompson of Williamstown will be featured on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 6 p.m. and history and folklore writer Edward Lodi of Middleborough on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 2 p.m.

Martin said the authors were chose in part because of the popularity of their works with library patrons.


"The Celestials" by Shepard, for instance, is based on real events in late 19th century North Adams when Chinese workers were brought in to work in the Sampson Shoe factory while local workers were on strike.

"We were noticing a lot of people asking for this particular book," said Martin.

O'Brien, whose mysteries have been set in Revolutionary France, also just released a murder-mystery set partially in the Berkshires during the Gilded Age. And while Barrett hasn't written about the Berkshires, "she's local and her books are always popular." Lodi's works are of personal interest to Martin because many deal with King Philip's War in Colonial America. His newest title is "The Angel of Hadley: A Legend of King Philip's War."

"This one is really slim, about 120 pages," said Martin. "It just got checked out a few minutes ago."

Trainer Thompson's event will be, naturally, about cooking and eating. She's written a number of cookbooks, including the very popular "The Fresh Egg Cookbook," published by Storey Communications in North Adams. Martin said she's going to try to whip up a batch of lemon squares, one of the recipes in the egg cookbook, to serve at the program.

Both Lodi and Thompson's events will be held on the first floor in the former circulation area.

For more information, contact the library at 413-662-3133 or go to www.naplibrary.com.


Tags: books,   public library,   writing,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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