Friends of the Jones Library System News

The Jones Library and branches will be offering an amnesty period from January 9 – 31, 2017 for library patrons who return overdue library materials. Library patrons are encouraged to bring a non-perishable, non-expired food donation for the Amherst Survival Center when they return overdue library materials during this time. For further information about returning overdue items, please contact Amy Anaya at 413-259-3132.

Friends, maybe Amazon has recently told you something like... Oooooh. Wow. One month. Up your game, Amazon!  The Jones gives you unlimited reading for every month of your life. And? They've got e-readers and play-aways and a personal librarian who will drive to your house and read to you while you lie on the couch and eat bonbons. Okay, well maybe not one of those things...

If, by chance, it's too cold to go sledding and the snow's just no good for snowmen, the Friends have some indoor action for you with your favorite colorer. Go grab your crayons and check out these holiday printables and activities . You could even make one of these wee gifts and then wrap it in one of your finished colored pages. Martha Stewart has nothing  on us, Friends.

The doctor is in.

Yet another reason Neil Gaiman is pretty cool .

A brief article for your perusal on how much Amazon interns make .  (Millions of liberal arts majors quietly die a little inside.)

Each year the Amherst Regional Middle School assigns Harper Lee's classic coming-of-age novel To Kill A Mockingbird to their 8th grade class. Not every American school kid is that lucky .

Last week's NYT article Hotels for Book Lovers was written just for us!  Let's hop in the car and go. We call shotgun.

An Italian winery and a design firm have created fabulous new wine packaging. Check it out . We're kind of wondering if they had to keep it to haikus on the little wine bottles airlines give you...

Hufflepuff PSA.

(Click on image to enlarge.) India FTW!!

Just finished your book and the library's closed? Oh Friend, we feel your pain. In addition to being able to check out e-books from the Amherst libraries any ole time , you can also go to Project Gutenberg . They've got over 53,000 titles to choose from, including that old beloved chestnut The History of Punch . You're welcome.

The Art of the Deal ghostwriter Tony Schwartz reacts to Donald Trump's win. Here are some of his thoughts .

(Click on image to read more.) Guess which house Apple got sorted into?

Look no further! The good folks at NPR have got you covered. More than your usual top 10 end-of-year list, it's got more than 300 recommendations .  If you can't find something to pique your fancy here,  we highly recommend visiting with your local librarian. They're like an end-of-year list but interactive.

We live in such a great community, Friends. Last month the Friends sponsored an art class for 11-14 year olds. The kids were going to paint still lifes of autumnal squashes and pumpkins and gourds. Board members donated veggies but so did Brookfield Farm , a wonderful neighbor. The Friends asked if Brookfield had any vegetables to donate and the farm came through in spades (and trowels). Teeny patty pans and huge butternuts. Rusty oranges and bumpy greens. It. Was. Excellent. So, dear Friends, if you ever think of joining a CSA or if you just want to stop by a farm shop and buy some local meat or cheese, please keep in mind the great folks at Brookfield Farm. Supporting our libraries, one vegetable at a time.

Didn't quite finish up your NaNoWriMo novel? All good. You just need 1,000 words to win this writing contest . Plus? $250. Woot!

Just in case you missed the Barnes & Noble bookfair to benefit the Jones Library, you can STILL make your purchases and help the library out. If you shop at Barnes & Noble online before December 9th and use the code 12048773, the library gets a percent back. Just look for the box at the bottom of the payment screen labeled "Apply Bookfair ID" and enter the code. Easy peasy. (click on image to enlarge) Yeehaw! Go do your holiday shopping right now!

Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir of growing up in Appalachia. This is a wonderful book, very well written. The author credits a few people with encouraging and motivating him to get out of a cycle of poverty. He went to college, completed law school and has a successful career. -- Dorothy, member, Friends of the Jones Library

I'll tell you how I feel: I am absolutely petrified for my friends who do not have the luxury, as I have, of having been born white, male, cisgender, and straight. If this is a nightmare for me, I literally cannot imagine what hell they've already conceived, with the knowledge that reality very well could be worse. I yearn to be a comfort to them, yet I know that nothing I do or say will ever -- could ever -- compensate for what our fellow Americans have unleashed. We're living in a dystopian novel, but there's no plucky hero who can rise up to save us all. So, we'll have to do it ourselves. -- Barry Lyga , author More thoughts by J.K. Rowling, John Green, George R.R. Martin, Grace Lin, and Maggie Stiefvater here .

It's definitely getting chillier out. Need some tights to keep your legs warm? The Friends have you covered . (rim shot.) Literary tights. An idea whose time has come.

The Friends didn't know about this award but now we. Oh ho ho, now we do . Literary Review has bestowed this award since 1993. "Organizers say the purpose of the prize is 'to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction.'" This year's shortlist nominees can be found here .