Beverly Public Library

Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and MassDOT have issued a number of safety tips to assist residents and commuters in dealing with the recent heavy rains and flooding. Among them are Flooding Safety Tips, Flooding and Sewage Back-ups: Home Care Guide , as well as information on the 211 non-emergency assistance line which is the Commonwealth’s primary telephone information call center during times of emergency. For more tips, visit their website at www.mass.gov.

The library is pleased to announce its new ebook collection! All of the 200 ebooks in this growing collection are in the EPUB format. This is a newer open standard, and is supported by many devices including the Sony Readers and Nooks, but not unfortunately, the Kindle.

The titles for our opening collection are a mix of recent, popular books for adults, teens and older children, including reading group favorites, romances, memoirs and biographies, history, and more. Visit our ebook information page to learn how to search for and download these titles. Classics and public domain titles are not included at this time as these books are often readily available at no cost in a variety of formats (including EPUB and Kindle) on sites like Manybooks.net and Google Books.

We hope to add other e-book formats and types of material later and welcome your suggestions for additional titles.

What challenges did Greg Mortenson face as he climbed K2, the second highest mountain in the world? What does it feel like to climb straight up the face of a mountain? Experience rock climbing on the Greater Beverly YMCA (Sterling Center)’s well equipped 25 foot indoor rock wall on Sunday, March 14 from 1 – 3 PM. There are four different routes, for all abilities for ages 6 and up. This event is free and open to the public.

“Harriet Zabrosky believed in love at first sight – until it happened to her. He became a monk. She moved back to America.” Sound intriguing? Then please join us on Thursday, March 11 for a visit by Massachusetts native Elizabeth Dembrowsky, who will present a lively reading from her new first novel, My Monk. A young idealist American arrives in England for graduate school and finds herself soon involved in an unlikely friendship with a very religious and temperamental Romanian poet. Harriet – a liberal atheist – soon draws closer and closer to her fellow graduate student, attracted to him because of their differences. Weaving in back story and taking the character forward in time to life in New York City, the novel is unique in format and style. My Monk is a delightful story of love and growth. It reminds us to be open to the wild ride that love can take us on, but to still remember we don’t control where it will leave us.

Ms. Dembrowsky’s visit will also include an appearance by Beverly author Julia Newman, who will read a selection from her collection of short stories, Blood in the Water. The program starts at 7:30 PM in the Sohier Room of the main library, 32 Essex Street, and is free and open to the public. For information please call the library at 978-921-6062 or email bev@noblenet.org.

This spring, John Tischio will be presenting a series of 10 classes on opera at the Beverly Public Library. He has been teaching this course, called “Opera, The First Broadway” for almost 20 years and has lectured at many libraries and community colleges in the area including Lexington, Carlisle, Newton, NSCC, and Middlesex CC. Each week he will present a different opera to the class and discuss the literary work on which the opera is based, the composer of the opera and finally the opera it self. This part of the presentation is accompanied by an excerpted video presentation of the work. The first class is Wednesday, March 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. and the rest will be on March 24 and 31, April 7, 14, 21, 28 and May 5, 12, 19. Registration is required and limited to 15 people. To register, please contact John Tischio directly at 978-535-1796 or verismo@comcast.net.