Rockland Public Library offers “Let’s Talk About It” Book Group

Rockland, Maine - The Rockland Public Library has been selected by the Maine Humanities Council to offer “Let’s Talk About It”, a free reading and discussion group with copies of books available through the library.  This program is provided by the Maine Humanities Council’s Maine Center for the Book in cooperation with the Maine State Library.

The series “The Mirror of Maine: The Maine Community in Myth and Reality” begins Saturday January 3 at 10:30 AM in the Library’s Community Room in Rockland and continues for 5 sessions, through May 2.

Books to be read and discussed in this series include: The Weir by Ruth Moore, Maine Hamlet by
Lura Beam, Wildfire Loose by Joyce Butler, Twelve Journeys in Maine by Wes McNair, and Empire Falls by Richard Russo.   These books explore community life in Maine. Issues to be discussed include the following: What defines community? What values have been associated with community life in Maine, and how many of these values still exist today? What are the confinements or darker realities that exist in Maine communities? Mary Alice Brennan, a scholar provided by the Maine Humanities Council will facilitate the discussions.

Mary Alice Brennan is a former teacher, educational administrator, and book editor.  In addition to being a discussion facilitator for the Maine Humanities Council's Let's Talk About It program, she has had years of experience with another Council program, New Books, New Readers, which focuses on children's literature-based book discussions with new adult readers.

“Exploring ideas and issues through literature has always been exciting and fun,” said Lizz Sinclair, director of “Let’s Talk About It.”  “We find that there is great interest among adults in getting together to discuss what they’ve read with others.  Having a discussion leader like Mary Alice Brennan who is both excited about the readings and skilled in facilitating can help to deepen this experience.”

Books for the program are available for loan at the library.  Please call the library at 594-0310 to register and come in to pick up the first book of the series, which is Ruth Moore’s The Weir, to be discussed on January 3.  Ruth Moore takes us back to the coast with a light-hearted look at a traditional Downeast community.  The Weir follows the daily routines and the challenges encountered by a family whose sustenance depends primarily on the tending of a weir, which traps fish with the rise and fall of the tides.

This program is offered to Maine libraries through the Maine Humanities Council by a grant from the Belvedere Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.

For more information about “Let’s Talk About It” and the work of the Maine Humanities Council, see www.mainehumanities.org or call the office in Portland at 207-773-5051