by Library Admin | 7 Jan 2024 | activities, Cricklereaders, Cricklereaders Read
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga, ‘victory city’.
Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s as she attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception.
New members always welcome.
by Library Admin | 17 Dec 2023 | activities, FRONT PAGE NEWS
What a treat is in store next month when we welcome Aeolian Winds Quintet to the library.
The programme looks lovely – expect to hear
Szeligowski Wind Quintet
Reicha Wind Quintet in Eb, First Movement
Bacewicz Wind Quintet
Zemlinsky Humoresque
Dvorak American Quartet arranged for Wind Quintet
For the curious, Aeolian Winds are a London-based wind quintet who strive to create imaginative and rounded concerts through their vibrant playing and inspired programming. They were formed in September 2021 at the Royal College of Music, where they were recently awarded the distinguished Woodwind Ensemble Prize.
Aeolian Winds have performed in a variety of prestigious venues across London, and the South of England. They aim to perform diverse and unknown works, with a focus on 20th century, and contemporary music. Their performances have been described as “pure joy” and “something very special”.
Whilst also taking a liking to more conventional programming, Aeolian Winds have also expanded into multimedia with their feature in David Bruce’s YouTube video, exploring the unique and vibrant sound of the chamber group through re-orchestration and storytelling. They are also interested in creating cross-genre and disciplinary projects, including immersive and intimate concerts in unconventional venues.
The quintet were recently been invited to be fellows, in December 2023, at Ensemble Ouranos’ Wind Quintet Academy in Paris.
Get your tickets here.
by Admin | 26 Nov 2023 | activities, Crickleknitters, FRONT PAGE NEWS
The amazing knitting enthusiasts of our weekly Wednesday group, Crickleknitters, have submitted their annual report for this year. It has been an incredible year and they’ve turned out so many wonderful garments for a variety of good causes. Don’t take my word for it – read below what one of the group’s regulars, Amanda, has to say:
Crickleknitters have been very busy this year and loved every minute of it. We have knitted little cardigans and blankets for UCL Hospital. Purple hats for the neonatal ward, for World Prematurity Week, at St. Marys Hospital, and 50 Orange and white hats for the Maternity ward there. Cosmic at St. Mary’s crowd funded to buy the wool. Scarves and hats for the Seafarers Mission. Baby cardigans and hats for Coventry and Warwick Hospital. Hats for the premature babies at the Royal Free Hospital. Baby hats and cardigans for the Royal Brompton Hospital. Hats, scarves and mittens for Homeless Women at Glass Door. We have knitted out own Bunting and a Christmas Garland for the library as well as our own projects!
I’m sure you’ll agree the things they’ve made are gorgeous, and the causes very, very worthy.
They’re making an appeal for yarn and needles in order to allow new knitters to get started straight away when they join. Oh, and they’d love some new members too! If you have any lying around at home that you’d like to see put to good use, please drop it off at the library desk.
by Admin | 20 Nov 2023 | Cricklereaders, Cricklereaders Read
New book is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Waterstones said:
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.
But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Next meeting Sunday 7 January at 1030. Please note there is now a waiting list for membership of this group.
by Admin | 9 Nov 2023 | activities, FRONT PAGE NEWS
Incredibly, it’s time for our annual Carols by Candlelight sing along at the library. Please join us on Sunday 17 December between 5 and 6pm for a lovely sing along of all of your old favourite carols.
Songsheets provided, but if you would like a copy to and print your own (or load onto your tablet), so much the better, just email info@cricklewoodlibrary.org.uk.
We will, as usual, be serving mulled wine and mince pies.
by Admin | 8 Nov 2023 | activities, Cricklereaders Read, FRONT PAGE NEWS
A n out-of-season South Korean resort, a mysterious foreign visitor and a young woman whose dual nationality and anguished diffidence mark her out as an anomaly among her community are the main components of French-Korean author Elisa Shua Dusapin’s compact first novel. The book is set in Sokcho, a city so close to South Korea’s impenetrable northern counterpart that it is possible to take a day trip over the border.
Dusapin’s unnamed narrator has returned to her home town from university in Seoul. Working as a live-in receptionist and cook at a dead-end guesthouse run by the grumpy Old Park, she has resisted opportunities for further study abroad as obstinately as she holds out against an anticipated engagement to her vacuous model boyfriend. Winter has encased Sokcho like a snow globe: in this precarious frozen landscape, figures move as languorously as the crabs and octopuses occupying the glass tanks of its vast fish markets. [The Guardian]
This month’s choice sounds amazing! Read along at home, or better still, join the group on Sunday 19 November, 1030 at the library.