On Our Minds

Details: Published: 14 June 2010; Created: 14 June 2010; Last Updated: 14 June 2010; Hits: 4389

Author Sony Chung will lead a discussion about her new book, Long For This World at the Scarsdale Library on Monday evening June 28. Chung teaches fiction writing at NYU and the Gotham Writer’s Workshop and this fall she will join the full-time faculty of Columbia University’s Creative Writing Program. Her stories, reviews and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals and she was a nominee for the Pushcart Prize. In Long for this World, published by Simon and Schuster, Chung tells the story of a family divided between contemporary America and a small Korean town. To learn more about the book and see a video of Chung, click here:

Registration is required, so if you wish to attend please sign up at the reference desk at the Scarsdale Library.

Here is a description of the book from Library Journal: The title of Chung's exquisite novel seems to be missing a word: "not long for this world" would be the easy, expected phrase. But little is easy or expected in this multilayered story of two brothers—one Korean and the other who chooses to become Korean American—and their scattered families, whose lives converge in a perfectly blended East/West house on a faraway Korean island. When Han Hyun-ku unexpectedly arrives at his younger brother's home, he is escaping an American life circumscribed by a detached wife and troubled son. His exhausted daughter, Jane, a renowned photojournalist of death and destruction, follows her missing father. Strangers that they are even among family, father and daughter are gratefully absorbed into a seemingly easy rhythm, but the temporary peace cannot ease inevitable tragedy. "Some people are not long for this world," Jane remarks. "The rest of us survive."

Sonya Chung
Scarsdale Public Library
Monday Night June 28th
7:00 – 8:30 PM

Details: Published: 02 June 2010; Created: 02 June 2010; Last Updated: 02 June 2010; Hits: 4428

In Watching Walter Cronkite, Austin Ken Kutscher, M.D., reflects on how our lives were shaped by the transformative events of the 1950s and 1960s. As we celebrate our first African-American president, Barack Obama, in a world where American soldiers are still fighting wars halfway across the globe and where the threat of nuclear weapons still exists, generations both young and old need to understand the past events that were so instrumental in shaping our lives today. Kutscher, a Scarsdale High School alum will discuss his book at the Scarsdale Public Library at 3 PM on Sunday, June 13th.

Watching Walter Cronkite had its beginning when Dr. Kutscher realized his teenage daughter was part of a generation, born after 1980, oblivious to issues that have been the foundation of their parents' ideals. Using the historical events of the era of the '50s and '60s as a backdrop, Dr. Kutscher has fashioned a moving memoir of his experiences as a public school and college student, as he tried to make his mark in the world after his Mom had died of breast cancer. He shares not only his personal joys and sorrows, but also the parallel adolescent reminiscences of his wife, Mary Ellen. Their personal journeys are representative of everyday Baby Boomers who were never featured on the CBS Evening News. As Dr. Kutscher recounts our country's pains during the '60s — a decade filled with a tragic war and social and racial injustice — he also brings to life the electrifying feelings of the music of love and protest and the scientific achievements of our nation, not to mention the spirit of the New York Mets' "Miracle" World Series victory in 1969.

Watching Walter Cronkite will resonate deeply with older generations of Americans, as they recall the dizzying array of events that unfolded nightly on their TV screens—including the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr., the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, the counter-culture, the Woodstock Festival, and the crowning achievement of the 1960s—the Apollo XI Moon landing.

By chronicling our lives against this historic period, Dr. Kutscher hopes we can find peace and redemption in the turbulent times through which we are now living—and that we can explore, as did Neil Armstrong, our own "Sea of Tranquility."

Scarsdale Public Library
Sunday June 13th
3:00 PM

Details: Published: 01 June 2010; Created: 01 June 2010; Last Updated: 01 June 2010; Hits: 4569

Edgemont resident and author, Geoff Loftus will be at Borders bookstore at 680 White Plains Post Road on June 6, 2010, at 2 pm for a D-Day Anniversary reading and signing of his new book, Lead Like Ike: Ten Business Strategies from the CEO of D-Day.

Not another leadership book, Lead Like Ike explains how to man up and manage tough in the face of today’s crushing corporate pressure.

In the current business environment, most executives could learn some real lessons from the man who managed what many may qualify as one of the single largest, most important and highest-pressure business projects in all of history.

Lead Like Ike begins with Dwight Eisenhower reporting for work as the CEO of D-Day Inc., facing a tight timeline, having to create an enormous executive staff and company, and then managing the invasion of an entire continent. At stake? Merely the lives of tens of thousands of men, the futures of their families back home, the country for which they fought and quite possibly, the fate of the free world. By analyzing military operations as business operations, and the commanding general as CEO, Ike finds management lessons for modern corporate executives.

Geoff Loftus has been an editor and writer for more than 25 years in print, television, radio and on the Internet. He has addressed large audiences and Fortune 500 companies on numerous business topics. He has been interviewed by Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, in addition to Compliance Week, Directors and Boards, and Corporate Boards. Loftus was Managing Editor of Across the Board, a monthly business magazine of thought and opinion at The Conference Board, and was the first director of The Conference Board’s website, which won numerous awards during his tenure. He has also written and co-written numerous televised original screenplays and teleplays.

Date: June 6, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: Borders Books, 680 White Plains Post Road, Scarsdale

Details: Published: 31 May 2010; Created: 31 May 2010; Last Updated: 31 May 2010; Hits: 4399

The Scarsdale Public Library has an opening for a high school or college student to work as a part-time, public relations intern. The unpaid position would assist the library in promoting events and services.

Requirements for the position include an interest in public relations and a willingness to learn. The intern will keep track of library events, conduct research, write news releases and brief articles and distribute news releases. The intern will be supervised by library staff and work directly with professionals in journalism and public relations.

The hours and days are flexible.

“This is an excellent opportunity for a student interested in learning about public relations to get hands-on experience and work with and learn from professionals,” said Elizabeth Bermel, Library Director.

If interested, please contact Ms. Bermel at 914-722-1304 or email: [email protected].

Details: Published: 15 April 2010; Created: 15 April 2010; Last Updated: 03 May 2010; Hits: 4459

Marilyn Berger, author of This Is A Soul: The Mission of Rick Hodes will discuss her book at the Scarsdale Public Library on Monday May 3rd at 7:30 p.m. Passionately written, This is a Soul is the moving and inspirational story of Dr. Rick Hodes, an American doctor living in Ethiopia who has devoted his life to caring for the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor. Dr. Hodes life and work makes for fascinating reading, especially for those who have been profoundly touched by books such as Three Cups of Tea or Cutting for Stone. This Is A Soul is also the story of the author's personal journey; while doing research for the book in Adis Ababa, she found a small child, alone and suffering. Learn how she rescued him, got him life-saving surgery and secured a new life for him in New York.

In the words of one Amazon reviewer, “Having spent time in Ethiopia I was interested in this book and found it to be an eye-opening account of the work of one man that has changed so many lives in Ethiopia and other parts of the world. I read the book in one day; simply couldn't put it down. It's a book that should be required reading for all college students. No, it should be required reading for everyone.

Learn more about Marilyn Berger and Rick Hodes here:

Admission is free and open to the public