by Library Admin | 7 Jan 2023 | latest
From Wednesday 1 February, a group of people, one of them a trained Reader Leader, reads a great novel, short story or poem aloud. We stop and talk about what we have read. There is no need for group members to read aloud or speak – it’s fine to just listen. The idea is to create a space where people feel at ease.
Reading the literature aloud in real-time, means that everyone is involved in a shared, live experience. Group members are encouraged by the Reader Leader to respond personally, sharing feelings, thoughts and memories provoked by the reading.
Everyone experiences the text in their own way, but the literature provides a shared language that can help us to understand ourselves – and others – better.
Shared Reading helps us to understand our individual and collective inner lives, round the same table, at the same time.
by Library Admin | 31 Oct 2022 | Cricklereaders, Cricklereaders Read, FRONT PAGE NEWS, reading
The book chosen for the last Cricklereaders of the year is Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.
Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can.
Demon’s story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking ‘like a little blue prizefighter.’ For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn’t an idea, it’s as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn’t an abstraction, it’s neighbours, parents, and friends. ‘Family’ could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he’s willing to travel to try and get there.
Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.
If you’d like to join the group, email cricklereaders@cricklewoodlibrary.org.uk for more details.
Next meeting: Sunday 11 December, 1030-1130
by Library Admin | 8 Oct 2022 | Cricklesingers
We’re on a short pause while our MD, Anna, rehearses for an opera. Regulars will hear via Whatsapp when we are resuming. If you’re not yet a regular, sign up!
by Library Admin | 18 Sep 2022 | Cricklereaders, Cricklereaders Read
This month Cricklereaders will be enjoying Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
‘The most exquisite kind of literature… I’ve put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that demand to be revisited every now and then. ‘
OLGA TOKARCZUK, author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
‘Could not be more timely… It’s funny and absurd, but it’s also frightening, because even as Gospodinov plays with the idea as fiction, the reader begins to recognise something rather closer to home… A writer of great warmth as well as skill‘
GUARDIAN
‘In equal measure playful and profound, Time Shelter renders the philosophical mesmerizing, and the everyday extraordinary. I loved it’
CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Woman Upstairs
‘A genrebusting novel of ideas… Gospodinov’s vision of tomorrow is the nightmare from which Europe knows it must awake. And accident, in combination with the book’s own merits, may just have created a classic’
THE TIMES
‘Gospodinov is one of Europe’s most fascinating and irreplaceable novelists, and this his most expansive, soulful and mind-bending book’
DAVE EGGERS, author of The Circle
The September group will meet at the library at 1030 on Sunday 30 October. Do join in.
by Library Admin | 12 Aug 2022 | Cricklereaders
The 2022 Booker Prize longlist has been announced. I wonder which of them, if any, will make it onto the Cricklereaders reading list? I’m personally delighted to see that Alan Garner has made it into the list. One of my favourite authors from childhood, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Owl Service are two books that have stayed with me across the decades. I look forward to reading Treacle Walker.
by Library Admin | 11 Aug 2022 | building works, FRONT PAGE NEWS, news
Finally, after many long months of research, negotiations, decision-making and hard work, the library sign is UP! We think it looks rather fine, what about you?
by Library Admin | 11 Aug 2022 | children, Cricklereaders Juniors, FRONT PAGE NEWS, reading
We are very excited to announce that Cricklereaders Juniors, our book group for children aged 7-11, starts in September this year.
Reading for pleasure is an important skill for children and has more impact on their life chances than that of their socio-economic background. We’re all about reading for pleasure at Cricklewood Library, and are happy to announce we’ll be encouraging even more young readers to come in, browse around, find a book to enjoy and treasure, and have fun talking about their reading adventures with our group of talented and enthusiastic volunteers.
The group will be run by local parents and grandparents, and will take place on Friday afternoons from 23 September 2022. Places are limited, so to secure yours, sign up here.
by Library Admin | 10 Aug 2022 | Cricklereaders Read
This month Cricklereaders will be enjoying Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen
A captivating novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inextricably reshaped. This stunning debut is “vast in scale and ambition, while luscious and inviting … in its intimacy” (The New York Times Book Review).
When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless, and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. As she and her boys begin to settle in to life in America, she continues to send letters and tapes back to Cong, hopeful that they will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.
The September group will meet at the library at 1030 on Sunday 18 September. Do join in.
by Library Admin | 5 Aug 2022 | children, Cricklereaders Juniors, FRONT PAGE NEWS
The Summer Reading Challenge has dropped at the library! Come in and collect your Gadgeteer pack, start reading (anything you like!) and collect stickers and digital rewards to show your progress!
For parents, this is a great way of encouraging your children’s reading over the summer, and a great way of getting them off those electronic devices while still getting a bit of peace and quiet!
This year the Reading Agency have partnered with the Science Museum, so there’s loads of activities for inventive young minds to get involved in. Sign up online here and get cracking!
by Library Admin | 5 Jul 2022 | FRONT PAGE NEWS
Did you know we have air conditioning and an ice-machine? Don’t swelter at home – pop down to the library and sit in our nice, air conditioned library, and sip an iced coffee to take the heat off…
On a more serious note, if you are having problems with the heat, you’re free to come and sit in the cool, no obligation to buy anything. All welcome.
