Princeton Eating Clubs Tour

Join author Clifford Zink on Saturday, October 8 at 10 a.m. for a walking tour outside Princeton University’s storied and majestic eating clubs. Learn about the architecture, origins, and development of the 16 Classical and Gothic-style clubhouses, which date from 1895 to 1928. There will be an opportunity to visit inside one of the eating clubs; masks will be required during this portion of the tour. Copies of Zink’s 2017 book, The Princeton Eating Clubs, will be available for sale at a discounted price at the tour.  more

Morristown Festival of Books Presents An Evening With Frank Bruni

Frank Bruni

On Friday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. join the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown for The Beauty of Dusk: An Evening with Frank Bruni. Tickets are $60 per person. 

Bruni has been a prominent journalist form more than three decades, including more than 25 years at The New York Times, the last 10 of them as a nationally renowned op-ed columnist who appeared frequently as a television commentator. He was also a White House correspondent for the Times, its Rome bureau chief, and for five years, its chief restaurant critic. more

“The Pigeon Comes to Jersey City!”: A Mo Willems Exhibit

On view through September 5, 2022, at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, “The Pigeon Comes to Jersey City!” celebrates the art and characters of beloved children’s book author and illustrator Mo Willems. This young learner exhibition features best-friend duo Elephant and Piggie, faithful companion Knuffle Bunny, and The Pigeon, the wiley city bird best known for his antics in Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! more

Author Jennifer Weiner on Tour For “The Summer Place”

On Tuesday, July 26 at 6:30 p.m., Princeton Public Library and the Historical Society of Princeton welcome bestselling author Jennifer Weiner to the Updike Farmstead at 354 Quaker Road in Princeton. Tickets are $30 and include a copy of The Summer Place, plus sparkling beverages, sorbet, and other sweets. Purchase tickets here: https://bit.ly/3Pj61Vz. This event is presented with support by Labyrinth Books.  more

Hopewell Theater’s “The Art of Living Well” Series Continues on July 12

Join Hopewell Theater on Tuesday, July 12 at 7 p.m. for the continuation of their Art of Living Well Series, which focuses on inspiring films, speakers, and interactive discussions that examine our personal relationships with the natural world. 

The event will include a showing of Big Wave Guardians, a surf film that takes an honest, behind-the-scenes look at how the lifeguard profession began and what it means today. The lifeguards in this film occupy the world’s most dangerous 7-mile stretch of surf on Hawaii’s North Shore.  more

From Books to Cinema: A List of Summer Reads

Summer is the perfect time to address that pile of books lingering on your bedside table. These recommended titles from New York Public Library are being made into feature films set to arrive in theaters this summer. Our suggestion — read the literary form before you see it on the big screen. It’s a wonderful way to put your imagination to the test and see how your own interpretation matches up to Hollywood’s. more

Princeton Children’s Book Author Maggie Edkins Willis at Labyrinth

Labyrinth Books welcomes Maggie Edkins Willis and Samira Iravani for an in-person event (with the option of virtual) on Sunday, June 12 at 2 p.m. Willis will discuss her debut middle grade graphic novel entitled Smaller Sister, which touches on the author’s own real-life experiences navigating confidence, body image, and the everlasting bond of sisterhood.  more

Special Event Screening: “Beethoven in Beijing”

Princeton Garden Theatre, a nonprofit community arthouse theater located at 160 Nassau Street in downtown Princeton, presents a screening of Beethoven in Beijing on Wednesday, May 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Dispatched by President Nixon in 1973 to help open the bamboo curtain separating Chinese and American people, the iconic Philadelphia Orchestra now turns to its past as a cultural ambassador to strengthen its future at home. Mixing archival images and audio with present-day observational footage, and enlivened with animation, Beethoven in Beijing dramatizes how the revival of classical music in China is energizing the world of music.  more

Historical Fiction Book Group: “Libertie: A Novel”

The Historical Society of Princeton introduces their next historical fiction book group on Monday, May 23 at 6:30 p.m. with Libertie: A Novel by Kaitlyn Greenidge.

Named by the New York Times Book Review as the Best Historical Fiction of 2021, Libertie is “a coming of age story, tracing the travails of a free-born Black girl raised in Deconstructionist-Era Brooklyn. Libertie Sampson defies her doctor mother’s stifling dreams that her daughter will follow in her footsteps, instead following her fiancée to his home country of Haiti — where Libertie escapes American-style racism but not the misogyny that leaves her subordinate to all men.” more

Food for Thought: “Julia” Film Screening and Supper Club

Photo Credit: Julia Child in her kitchen as photographed ©Lynn Gilbert, 1978, Cambridge, Mass. (wikipedia.org)

On Tuesday, May 24 at 6 p.m., Hopewell Theater presents never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, first-person narratives, and cutting-edge food cinematography that traces Julia Child’s 12-year struggle to create and publish the revolutionary Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, and her rapid ascent to becoming the country’s most unlikely television star. It’s the empowering story of a woman who found her purpose — and her fame — at the age of 50 and took America along for the whole delicious journey.  more

PU Public Lectures Series Welcomes Marc M. Howard, March 16

Princeton University’s Public Lecture Series will continue March 16 from 5 to 6:15 p.m. at McCosh 50 with Marc M. Howard of Georgetown University, one of the country’s leading voices and advocates for criminal justice and prison reform. He is a professor of government and law, and the founding director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University. He is also the founder and president of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, a nonprofit organization that launched in 2020.  more

PU’s Fund for Irish Studies Presents James Logenbach on W.B. Yeats

Poet James Longenbach. Photo Credit: Adam Fenster.

Princeton University’s Fund for Irish Studies (FIS) presents a lecture by James Logenbach on W.B. Yeats and his poem, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” on Friday, January 28, the 83rd anniversary of Yeats’ death, at 4:30 p.m. via Zoom webinar. 

Princeton University professor and Co-Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Paul Muldoon will provide a welcome and introduction. The lecture is free and open to the public. Register online at https://arts.princeton.edu/events/fund-for-irish-studies-poet-james-longenbach/. 

Logenbach will give an account of William Butler Yeats’ (1865-1939) poem, discussing how it assumed its shape, and, more importantly, the influence of that shape on subsequent long poems written throughout the 20th century. Yeats won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.  more

Book of the Month: Each Month’s Best Books, All in One Place

Treat your bookshelf and home library to a book subscription box from Book of the Month (www.bookofthemonth.com), the original book subscription service.

This convenient subscription is perfect for bibliophiles who would like to support the publishing industry and rely less on ordering from Amazon and other big-box retailers. The other great thing about Book of the Month (BOTM), is that it provides a curated list of wave-making titles in a variety of genres and sub-genres. From new fiction to thrillers, romance, “quick reads,” history, family sagas, mysteries, and more, readers are sure to find a monthly title that appeals to them and will be shipped in the form of a hardcover, directly to their front door. more

Special PPL Event on the Anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection

Join Princeton Public Library (PPL) for a virtual Crowdcast event on Thursday, January 6 from 8 to 9 p.m. with writers Karen J. Greenberg and Julian E. Zelizer. On the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Greenberg and Zelizer will discuss the “subtle tools” that were forged under George W. Bush in the name of security and their impact on how the Trump administration was able to weaponize disinformation, xenophobia, and distrust of law. more

Book by PU Professor Named to “Financial Times” Best Books List

A book authored by local historian Harold James has been named to the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2021: Politics List. 

The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization, published by Yale University Press, reveals the origins of key buzzwords and concepts used in contemporary political debate such as “neoliberalism,” “geopolitics,” and “globalization,” while highlighting communication challenges associated with their misuse.  more

Paul Muldoon Livestream Event, December 1

Labyrinth Books in Princeton will host a hybrid, livestream event with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon on Wednesday, December 1 at 6 p.m. Muldoon will introduce his 14th collection of poetry, entitled Howdie-Skelp: Poems. He will be joined by fellow poet Michael Dickman.  more

Celebrating Community and the Library: 2021 Virtual Events

Princeton Public Library invites book lovers to connect and enjoy community at the Beyond Words 2021 events. The virtual talks for November and December will conversations with journalist and novelist Omar El  Akkad on November 12 at 7 p.m. and novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz on December 3 at 7 p.m. The cost to attend is $60 per participant, per event.

El Akkad is the author of the recently-released What Strange Paradise, which has been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian fiction. He is also the author of the award-winning 2017 novel American War. He will be joined in conversation by Professor Deborah Amos, the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, an NPR international correspondent, and recipient of a 2021-22 Berlin Prize Fellowship. more

Hopewell Theater Screening of Moby Documentary, November 19

As part of the Hopewell Theater’s ongoing series, Films That Made Music, the central New Jersey theater presents Moby Doc on Friday, November 19 at 8 p.m. 

With his first electronic single, “Go,” in 1991, Moby helped to define the music of an era. The mega-success of his 1999 album Play brought him into the stratosphere of fame when it became the best-selling electronic album of all time.  more

Poets at the Princeton Public Library, August 16

On August 16, from 7 to 8 p.m., Princeton Public Library presents a virtual Poets at the Library featuring readers Catherine Doty and John David Muth. Each reader will share their work for 20 minutes followed by an open mic session. Poets who sign-up in advance may share one poem during open mic. To sign-up via crowdcast to attend this virtual event, or to reserve a spot during open mic, visit https://princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/5414024.

Doty is a poet, cartoonist, and educator from Paterson. She is the author of Wonderama and Momentum, volumes of poems from CavanKerry Press and Just Kidding, a collection of cartoons from Avocet Press. She is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as an Academy of American Poets Prize and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. more

Authors Pam Jenoff and Lisa Scottoline in Conversation, July 8

Princeton Public Library (PPL) presents an evening of historical fiction featuring two bestselling authors discussing their latest novels, one set in Poland during WWII and the other in prewar Italy. This is a virtual event hosted by the platform Crowdcast. The authors will be speaking from 8 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 8.

To register, visit https://princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/5300423. This program is free to attend and is best suited for teens and adults. more

On This Day In History: April 14

Noah Webster

It was on this day in 1828 that Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was published. Webster put together the dictionary because he wanted Americans to have a national identity that wasn’t based on the language and ideas of England. And the problem wasn’t just that Americans were looking to England for their language; it was that they could barely communicate with each other because regional dialects were so vastly different. more

Historical Society of Princeton’s Lewis B. Cuyler Lecture, March 8

1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar

One hundred years later, there is a continued fascination with “The Roaring Twenties,” the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname. How did a surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of WWI? Eric Burns, author of 1920: The Year That Made the Decade Roar, will look back at that critical (and often misunderstood) time, highlighting events that set the tone for the century that followed.  more

PPL Virtual Fundraiser, “Restoring Civility and Bringing Social Justice to American Life”

The Friends of the Princeton Public Library will host a virtual fundraiser on Saturday, January 30 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. “Restoring Civility and Bringing Social Justice to American Life: A Virtual Brunch and Talk” features four lifelong advocates for social justice as they share their vision for a more just, egalitarian, and united America. more

Shakespeare Book Club: Reading the Bard Aloud, Virtually and In-Person

The Shakespeare Book Club unites Bard-ophiles and Shakespeare novices via fun, social, thought-provoking, and informative exploration of his plays. This fall, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey has announced that the Shakespeare Book Club can now be experienced in-person at its Kean Theatre Factory or through Zoom for participants who wish to engage remotely. more

Join NYPL’s #BookCoverDouble Challenge

The New York Public Library (NYPL) has admired all the creative energy some people have been able to muster while they are staying at home these days. Having an outlet for imagination and play is a great strategy for keeping your energy up and creative juices flowing. more

At-Home Fun and Adventure with Free American Girl Digital Library

American Girl (AG) has announced that it will share its most popular book series for free online at https://www.americangirl.com/explore/articles/onlinelibrary. Each week, AG will release a new set of books that highlight the brand’s many historical fiction and advice offerings.  more

Virtual Historical Fiction Book Group: “Caleb’s Crossing,” May 14

This May’s Historical Fiction Book Group session presented by the Historical Society of Princeton is Geraldine Brooks’ Caleb’s Crossing. The novel is one of several best-selling works by New England-based writer Brooks. more

Penguin Teen’s “We Are YA” Podcast – New Episodes Daily

Hosted by Anna Borges, a mental health journalist formerly at Buzzfeed, senior editor at Self Magazine, and author of The More or Less Definitive Guide to Self-Care, We Are YA can help keep teens company in these days of social distancing.  more

Toni Morrison Tribute in Celebration of NYPL’s 125th Anniversary

By Taylor Smith

Produced in partnership with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library (NYPL) at 476 Fifth Avenue (at 42nd Street) presents an evening of performances and conversations centered around Toni Morrison, the American icon, writer, and intellectual, on Wednesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. more