The Seneca Falls Library features many different programs during the year focusing on different issues and goals:
The 10 to 12 members of Myndwich, the friendly group that meets Wednesdays at the Seneca Falls Library, present a background as diverse as the topics they discuss each week.
Members currently include housewives, former teachers, businessmen and women, a former librarian, and an artist - all who continue to seek knowledge.
Programs include book reviews, readings of items clipped from newspapers and other publications, travel reports and slide shows and general discussion.
The name is a combination of Mynderse (the former name of the library) and sandwich, because originally members brought their lunch to meetings. Today however, it's coffee and tea and occasionally cookies.
The group, which actively supports and helps staff library used book sales, welcomes residents and guests to its Wednesday noon meetings.
The Red Tent Book Club is a group of women who meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Library. The name of the club derived from one of the books read, "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant, a novel based on the life of Dinah, daughter of Jacob (Old Testament), where the women supported each other in small ways and large. The book club reads a book the month before and discusses it at the meeting. The group has been together since 1999 and is always open to new members.
The books read are often fiction and range from best sellers to reflections of individual members' interests. An occasional offering of non-fiction is welcome.
Members of the club have donated copies of most of the past books read to the library, and many are now available, along with the updated list.
Books for 2008
January: Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks) – suggested by Lucinda – "...describes the 17th-century plague that is carried from London to a small Derbyshire village".
Feb. 5: ALL SENECA FALLS READS – To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - Jen Bartlett, Romulus English teacher, will overview themes and story lines. Also suggested we read a biography of Harper Lee – for example, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (C. Shields).
March 4: ALL SENECA FALLS READS – To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - Jen Bartlett, Romulus English teacher, will lead discussion.
April: Telmenu Saimnieks: The Lord of Telmeni (G. Goncarovs) – suggested by Dottie - "...fast-paced, character centered family saga ... WWI ... main character is caught between loyalty to the Czar, his ... country, ... desires of his future."
May: Two Old Women (Velma Wallis) – suggested by Cathy J D – "...two Native American women abandoned by their tribe in the Alaskan Yukon"
June: Three Day Road (Joseph Boyden) - suggested by Judy – two Cree friends shaped by WWI "we all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy."
July: Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York (Marge Piercy) – suggested by Sally, Jane, Ginny – interesting range of Amazon reviews. According to the reviews, you will love or hate the writing - novel about post-Civil War America portrays women's rights crusader Elizabeth Cady Stanton maturing in an era when if a married woman "earned or inherited any money, it was [her husband's].
August: Infidel (Ayaan Hirsi Ali) - recommended by Willie. Author is the native-born Somali member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated).
September: Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Elizabeth Gilbert) suggested by Jan. "This is not a travel book, but rather a book of searching for self discovery and strength. Gilbert finds both in great measure. She describes her journey and escapades along the way wonderfully with fun wit and nice depth."
October: The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) - recommended by Wendy. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents -- Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father ... Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them -- despite their overwhelming self-absorption -- resonates from cover to cover.
November: A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - recommended by Carol (hardcover). Hosseini takes us behind those walls for forty some years of Afghanistan's bloody history and while he does not spare us any of the descriptions of the terror that continues to besiege that country, he does offer us a story that speaks so tenderly about the fragile beauty of love and devotion and lasting impression people make on people.
