Are you in need of help of any sort? Speak with Mass Support! They’re here to help, and they’re doing a lot of stuff virtually this year. You can also just get in touch via MASSSUPPORT@RIVERSIDECC.ORG or 888-215-4920.
Miss the movies? Watch Images Cinema online! Or watch Amherst Cinema online!
You can order Tony DiTerlizzi signed books here from Odyssey Bookshop!
Buy comics from amazing local retailers Comics N’ More! They’re great!
You can join up with the Westfield Athenaeum Monthly Reading Challenge:
Sign up at https://westath.beanstack.org/ to join our Monthly Reading Challenges, running from September 2020 to June 2021. Each month, read a book for a new challenge and then join one or more of our Reader’s Chats to discuss the book you’ve read with other readers on the fourth Tuesdays of every month. Not sure what to read? Check our Facebook page for a themed #shelfiesunday video and Beanstack for book lists for applicable challenges. The challenge and book clubs are for all ages. JANUARY’S CHALLENGE: Read a book you meant to read in 2020!
Monday from 8PM – 10PM you can join a VIRTUAL : Far Out Film Discussion via Zoom : I Am Love!
Far Out Film Discussion will have a zoom meeting to talk about the 2009 film I Am Love by Italian director Luca Guadagnino. The trailer can be viewed here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NjA8CIDvZ8. It can be found online at kanopy https://boston.kanopy.com/product/i-am-love. To virtually attend this discussion, click the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87523942049
Tuesday from 4PM – 5PM you can join folks at Westfield Athenaeum for Book Snacks!
Reader’s Advisory is here for children! Grab a snack and munch as we share a variety of Juvenile Fiction and Graphic Novels. Don’t know what you want to read? Let us know in the comments and we will find a book for you. Or share your favorites with us. The Westfield Athenaeum will be offering Books Snacks at 4pm on the first Tuesday of the month on Facebook Live. For more info email tboulrice@westath.org.
Tuesday from 6PM – 9PM you can join “A regular rendezvous of web makers, designers and creative coders.” at the Northampton Webdive! It’s online now, it had better be online, right? Don’t go if it’s not online. Sign up to find out what’s up! The other one is online, so we’re 90% certain.
Tuesday at 7PM you can join the folks at Odyssey Books for a conversation with Crystal Maldonado, author of Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and Kelly Jensen, editor at Book Riot and cohost of the Hey YA podcast. Email events@odysseybks.com for more info about joining an online event! This event is free and open to the public. To register, please click here.
Wednesday from 7:30PM – 8:30PM you can join Westfield Athenaeum for a discussion: What’s the Legacy of Twilight?
Join us on Facebook Live on the first and third Wednesdays of each month for a group of Westfield Athenaeum librarians to discuss a variety of book and life-related topics. You can either join live and be part of the discussion or watch the episode later on our Facebook page. With the publication of Midnight Sun Last year, Stephanie Meyer proved that people are still into her sparkly vampires. What was it about this young adult series that made such an impact – not just on readers, but on publishing itself. Twilight caused a tectonic shift in young adult publishing that we are still feeling the aftershocks of today. What are these causes and effects, and what do they mean for young adult publishing today? …there’s also a strong possibility we all start talking about our favorite vampire books. You never know, so come discuss with us!
Wednesday from 7PM – 11PM you can hang with the lovely folks from Start Playing Online! They gather at the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/fAM8yJw. Most games are played on Board Game Arena if you want to check it out ahead of time. It’s fun and everyone’s nice!
Thursday from 3:30PM – 4:30PM teens can join the Teen Writing Group at Westfield Athenaeum!
Do you like writing fantasy? Science fiction? Realistic fiction? All kinds are welcome at our Teen Writing Group. Each meeting tackles a new topic – suggested and voted on by group participants – with fun activities and writing prompts. In this class, you help pick what we learn and work on your creative writing skills! This group is for students in grades 5-12. Participents are not made to read their work unless they desire to do so. This class will take place on Zoom on the first and third Thursdays of every month.
Thursday from 3:30PM – 4:30PM you can join the VIRTUAL Teen Book Club: Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust!
Join us for a chat and pick next month’s read! This is a virtual program that will take place on Zoom. Please email mbishop@forbeslibrary.org for the meeting link.
This month, we will be discussing Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust. From the publisher: “There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story. As the day of her twin brother’s wedding approaches, Soraya must decide if she’s willing to step outside of the shadows for the first time. Below in the dungeon is a demon who holds knowledge that she craves, the answer to her freedom. And above is a young man who isn’t afraid of her, whose eyes linger not with fear, but with an understanding of who she is beneath the poison. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming…human or demon. Princess or monster.”
Thursday at 7PM you can join the Yiddish Book Center for a Virtual Public Program, a MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION | On Packing My Library: How I Built My Latin American Judaica Collection—and Shipped It Away, with Ilan Stavans.
For over three decades, Ilan Stavans, the distinguished scholar of Jewish Latin America, built the world’s richest historical and personal collection of Latin American Judaica: books, manuscripts, translations, music, photographs, and other items from colonial to contemporary Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, and beyond in Ladino, Yiddish, Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Polish, Russian, and other languages. As he approached the age of sixty, he decided it was time to house the collection in an institution committed to its long-term expansion as a source of research. In this presentation, Stavans recounts how, with German man of letters Walter Benjamin as his inspiration, he packed 160 large boxes.
Thursday at 7PM you can join the folks at Odyssey Books for a conversation with Gita Trelease, author of Everything That Burns and Stephanie Garber author of the Caraval Series. Email events@odysseybks.com for more info about joining an online event! This event is free and open to the public. To register, please click here.
Friday from 1PM – 1:30PM you can join Westfield Athenaeum librarians for Good Book Hunting!
Introducing Good Book Hunting, a new pre-recorded series where four Athenaeum librarians show you how to use a variety of book resources to find readalikes for the top requested titles by you, our patrons. We will provide you with a list of books you might want to pick up while you wait – and show you how to replicate what we do to do the same for your own favorite books! These videos will be available to watch on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/westath. You do not need a Facebook account to view, just click on the “Videos” tab and look for the Good Book Hunting playlist.
Friday from 1PM – 2PM you can attend the Virtual Book/Movie/Podcast chat online at Forbes! It’s a fun time to chat with folks about media. Join here!
THE VALLEY NERD WATCH 