One, Two or Three Love Affairs to Remember

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the December 29, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

It’s not the holidays for me without a Love Affair. The movie, that is. It might be the original 1939 black-and-white film. Love Affair. Or it could be the 1957 color remake, An Affair to Remember. Or perhaps it’s the1994 Love Affair, Warren Beatty-style. It’s that ending scene on Christmas Day in Terry McKay’s apartment that makes my holiday season a classic affair of the heart.

New Year's Reading Resolution

Read Kate Tigue's column in the December 22, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

“You must have read every book in this library!” I frequently hear this comment while I’m working at the desk in the library. Most people look a bit disappointed  when I tell them I haven’t read every book in the whole library. Not even close. Librarians try to be well-versed in different kinds of literature but we are just like most people with different preferences. I have to admit, as much as I’d like to pretend I have broad literary taste, I am a niche reader. I have my groove, my comfort zone, my sweet spot when it comes to books and I really have to make an effort broaden my reading horizons. Since 2017 is almost here, it’s a great time to break out of a rut and try new things.

Comic Snob

Read Nicole Guerra-Coon's column in the December 15, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Nicole is a part-time Reference and Children's Library Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

When I was a kid, I did not read comic books.  I didn’t know much about them, other than that occasionally my brother got to buy one at the grocery store, while I got the more sophisticated (I thought) YM or Seventeen magazines.  I thought comic books were for boys, although that really never stopped me in other areas in my young life, like being the only girl on the baseball team. But the stories in comic books seemed silly and boring, and they always seemed to be about Superman or Batman or Archie.

A Taste for Reading ... About Food

Kirstie David is a Simmons College graduate LIS student at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Kirstie's column in the December 8, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

It is remarkable how much of an impact the mention of food has on me when I’m reading. One of my earliest recollections of this comes from the childhood memory of reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Even as I judged the traitorous Edmund for selling out his family, and indeed all of Narnia, to the horrible White Witch simply for Turkish Delight, I was mindful of the magic it had over him. My sympathetic sweet tooth kicked in as I read about how he gobbled down a few pounds of the enchanted candy – each piece “sweet and light to the very center” – and washed it down with a sweet, foamy and creamy beverage he’d never tasted before that “warmed him right down to his toes.”

Giving Thanks for Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the December 1, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

            My holiday movie-watching tradition starts Thanksgiving weekend, the four-day holiday during which I usually have some pleasant and relaxing down-time. These days, it happens when the grown children and their children have left for their own homes after some chaotic few days of high chairs, potty chairs, sippy cups, and Sesame Street.

I nestle on a couch with my knitting needles and yarn, the remote and the dozen or so of my holiday favorites. It’s a contest to see how many I can watch in one marathon sitting.