Blog: Author: Sarah Silvia

Stealing Rembrandts: An Evening with Art Crime Expert Anthony Amore RESCHEDULED TO FEB. 24

Join us on Tuesday, February 24, at 7 p.m. at the Malden Public Library for a rare look at the world of high-profile art heists with art crime expert Anthony Amore. Anthony Amore is the Director of Security of the Isabella Stewart Art Museum in Boston and author of “Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists.” The fascinating stories Amore reveals span the globe from Stockholm to Boston and include a cast of exciting, diverse characters, from the robbers who steal priceless paintings, to international criminal masterminds, to security experts who track them down.

As Director of Security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Mr. Amore has for more than eight years served as the museum’s chief investigator into the 1990 theft of 13 priceless works of art from that institution. Prior to joining the Gardner Museum, he served as an Assistant Federal Security Director working to rebuild security at Logan International Airport after the attacks of 9/11. His next book, “The Art of the Con” will be published in 2015 by St. Martin’s Press. The discussion will be followed by a brief tour of the Converse Memorial Building art galleries.

Malden Reads Movie Night: Wed., March 4th: 6:00-8:30pm

Join us on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 6:00-8:30pm in the Maccario Room for the Malden Public Library’s first Malden Reads film screening. We will be showing a movie which explores some of the themes in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore—the power of books, technology, and knowledge, new and old.

Set in the near future, an ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son–a robot butler programmed to look after him. Robot & Frank become a pair of unlikely friends in this “tender sci-fi comedy-drama” starring Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and James Marsden. The Los Angeles Times calls the film, “charming, playful and sly….” Additionally, Rotten Tomatoes, states, “Led by a brilliant performance from…Langella, [the movie] works both as a quirky indie drama and as a smart, thoughtful meditation on aging.”

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation honored the film for “raising profound questions about the role of technology in our collective future.”

A discussion of this year’s Malden Reads book selection, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore will follow the movie. This film is free and open to the public and is accessible. Please call us at 781-324-0218 for more information.

Book Discussion Groups

Hear what others think about a book, and then share your own ideas. You don’t have to create a book club to do it, because The Malden Public Library already hosts two discussion groups:

THE BOOKER PRIZE DISCUSSION GROUP meets at 7:00 p.m. in the library on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Since 1969, the “Booker Prize” has been awarded to the best full-length novel written in English by a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth, Eire, Pakistan, or South Africa. As of September 2013, selection for the “longlist” has been opened to American authors.
Upcoming Books:

• Feb. 25, 2015 – When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Summary:
Born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age of nine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, more than twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents’ alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own, painful past.

• Mar. 25, 2015 – The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi
• Apr. 22, 2015 – The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert
• May 27, 2015 – The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor

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THE FIRST MONDAY BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP meets at 7:00 p.m. in the library on the first Monday of each month to discuss titles selected by members of the group.
Upcoming Books:

• Mar. 2, 2015 – People of the Book by Gwendolyn Brooks
Summary:
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding–an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair–only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.

• Apr. 6, 2015 – Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
• May 4, 2015 – State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Just pick a group that’s convenient! New members are always welcome! Copies of books for discussion are available at the information desk.

Movie Night: Wednesday, Feb. 25th: 6:00-8:30pm

Join us for Movie Night at the Malden Public Library on Wednesday, February 25, 2015, from 6:00-8:30pm. We will be showing a recent biographical film about legendary singer and creative genius, James Brown. The movie, produced by Mick Jagger, stars Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Jill Scott, and Octavia Spencer. The film includes the song, “Get On Up.”

Born into extreme poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina in 1933, James Brown struggled with a tough childhood and emerged as “The Godfather of Soul.” Brown was instrumental and influential in creating the soul, funk, and R&B music which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s. His dynamic life is shown through historic recreations of his early concerts where he once upstaged The Rolling Stones, and then later concerts in Vietnam, the Apollo, and a particularly poignant recreation of Brown’s concert at The Boston Garden in 1968 on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

The Guardian says “It’s one of the year’s truly outstanding performances….” Also, The Chicago Tribune says the movie “is better than inspirational…in finding the truthful emotional extremes inside a difficult American life, suffused with music.”

This film is free and open to the public and is accessible. Movie times are approximate. Please call the Malden Public Library at 781-324-0218 for more information. Rated PG-13 (139 min.)

Volunteer Orientation

Would you like to volunteer at the Malden Public Library? Sign up for one of the following orientation sessions by calling the library at 781-324-0218 and fill out the online form:

Monday, October 6th 7-8pm
Tuesday, October 7th 4-5pm

You can volunteer at the Malden Public Library in the “Adopt-an-Aisle” program. After attending an orientation session at the library, you choose an aisle to keep neat and in order. Volunteering can be done any time the library is open, and done according to your own schedule. This volunteer program is best for people looking to do no more than a few hours of community service per week.

If you are 18 years of age or older, you will need to need to pass a CORI background check as is required of all volunteers for the City of Malden. Please bring your Massachusetts license or state ID to the orientation session to fill out the paperwork, which will then be sent to Malden City Hall. If you are under 18, you don’t need to bring anything.

Please be advised that we cannot accommodate court-ordered community service.

Creative Drama for Kids!

Every Friday at 4:00 p.m., Laurie Rae Tressler from Library Creative Drama, Inc. offers a drop-in Creative Drama program for kids. Children ages 7-10 can come by to participate in theater games and other creative activities.No registration necessary.

This program runs from October 3 through June 12. Regular attendance is appreciated, but not required. Questions? Call the Children’s Room at (781) 388-0803.

Details

Fridays, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
October 3 – June 12
Program Room

Origami Workshop for Adults

Please join us on Wednesday, October 15, from 6:30-8:30, for an origami workshop at the Malden Public Library! Origami enthusiast James Hollis will be teaching several models including the dragon and a bulldog bookmark. Materials and instruction are free and will be provided, thanks to the funding of the Friends of the Malden Public Library. Space is limited to 15 people and advance registration is required, so please sign up early by calling the library at 781-324-0218 or visiting us at 36 Salem Street.

Join the Adult Creative Writing Group!

The Malden Writers’ Collaborative, the creative writing group for adults, meets every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at 7PM beginning October 2nd. The first meeting will be an introductory meeting to the group, and there is no registration. You must attend the first meeting. Join the group if you would like to discuss writing with peers, develop your writing, and have the opportunity to read your work to the public. To learn more about the group, visit its website, or contact Evangeline at tmwc@evangelinevickery.com.

One thing’s for sure: readers will want to be along for the ride.

Gr 9 Up-Richard and his cousin Malley are best friends. But while Richard is pretty levelheaded, Malley tends to get into trouble. So Richard is only mildly surprised to discover that she’s run off with a guy she met on the Internet in order to avoid being sent to boarding school in New Hampshire. Richard wants to go find her, and luckily he runs into what may be the perfect person to help him do just that: a ragged, one-eyed ex-governor of Florida named Skink. With Skink at the helm, the two set off across Florida in search of Richard’s cousin. While Malley’s character is not as fully developed as the others and the story seems highly improbable, Skink, a favorite character from Hiaasen’s adult novels, is incredibly memorable. Whether it’s diving in to a gator-infested river after a rogue canoe, getting his foot run over by a semi while trying to save a baby turtle, or hiding out in the sand to save the next turtle, Skink is always full of surprises. And like a cat with nine lives, one never knows how he’ll make it out or what will happen next. One thing’s for sure: readers will want to be along for the ride. Although the ending meanders, fans of Hiaasen’s novels won’t mind the detours one bit.-Necia Blundy, formerly at Marlborough Public Library, MA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.