Library News

Michelle and her Mom at Ale Together Now
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Ale Together Now: NA Beers!

If a beer doesn't contain alcohol, does it still offer the same flavor and complexity as a regular beer? Our most recent Ale Together Now program evaluates the many flavors and styles of non-alcoholic beer, and dives into the interesting process of brewing an NA beer, too!
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A child posing next to the new sensory/manipulative toys in the Youth department.
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Learn about the Friends of Cromaine, and the Incredible Impact They Make on Our Library and In Our Community!

The Friends of Cromaine formed in 1976 to serve the Library and the Hartland community through fundraising and volunteerism. Learn about the many projects that the Friends have taken on over the years, the tremendous impact they've had on our Library, and how easy it is to get involved!
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Brian standing in front of his World of Pollination presentation.
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Exploring World Pollinators with Bees in the D!

Last week, the Hartland Home and Garden Club hosted local non-profit, Bees in the D, in the Community Room to discuss pollinators of the world! Learn about Bees in the D, explore amazing pollinators around the world, and learn how we can all do our part to protect our local pollinators.
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New at Cromaine

Book cover for "The Old Fire"

The Old Fire

“Vivid and intriguing...Evokes unresolved family history with subtle heat.” —The New York Times

From National Book Award–winning Elisa Shua Dusapin, a subtle yet powerful portrayal of family, secrets, and silence set against the backdrop of a crumbling house in the French countryside—perfect for readers of Katie Kitamura and Elena Ferrante.

“A bewitching meditation on tenderness and violence, intimacy and estrangement, The Old Fire will transport you to an ancient and wild place, immersing you in its temperatures and rainfalls, its grief and grace and sound and silence. You won’t be the same when you leave it.” —Tess Gunty, National Book Award–winning author of The Rabbit Hutch

Through the window, I can see a light inside.

Agathe leaves New York and returns to her home in the French countryside, after fifteen years away.

She and her sister Véra have not seen each other in all those years, and they carry the weight of their own complicated lives. But now their father has died, and they must confront their childhood home on the outskirts of a country estate ravaged by a nearby fire before it is knocked down. They have nine days to empty it. As the pair clean and sift through a lifetime’s worth of belongings, old memories, and resentments surface.

Tender and tense, haunting and evocative, The Old Fire is Elisa Shua Dusapin’s most personal and moving novel yet. An exploration of time and memory, of family and belonging, it is also a graceful and profound look at the unsaid and the unanswered, the secrets that remain, and whether you can ever really go home again.

“A touching, mysterious novel, imbued with the beauty and strangeness of a fairy tale.” —Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists

“Dusapin has a rare and ferocious gift for pinning the quick, slippery, liveness of feeling to the page: Her talent is a thrill to behold.” —Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Book cover for "Super Nintendo"

Super Nintendo

An exuberant, behind-the-scenes look at the designers and the company that brought us Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, and so much more, illuminating Nintendo's singular ethos, its massive cultural impact, and the innovative solutions behind its creative triumphs

“Comprehensive but never too dense, informative but approachable, and packed with an unwavering passion for Nintendo that I'd wager even the company's biggest detractors would find infectious. In short, if you want to learn about Nintendo, this is the book to do it.” —Jim Norman, Nintendo Life

What magical mushroom could have turned an unassuming playing card company into one of the dominant cultural forces of the twenty-first century?

In Super Nintendo, lifelong gamer and a renowned video games journalist Keza MacDonald traces Nintendo back to its quirky beginnings in 1889. Leaping from game to game, she tells the remarkable story of the people who brought us Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and more—not to mention the SNES, N64, Game Boy, Wii, Switch, and a host of other wacky gizmos—and charts the delights they’ve offered over the decades. 

MacDonald draws on private interviews with icons like Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, who continues to leave his stamp on the company, and takes readers on a trip to the secretive Nintendo HQ—making her one of the few Western journalists to have set foot inside the building. Along the way, she provides a close-up look at the company's willingness to take risks and place long-term success over short-term profits.

A carousel of wonders, Super Nintendo whisks you back to the couch in the den, a controller in your hands for the very first time, staring up at a screen of infinite possibilities.

Book cover for "Plant This, Not That"

Plant This, Not That

A comprehensive guide to creating a native plant garden anywhere in the contiguous United States, with an easy-to-follow, "this, not that" format.

"A timely, ever-so-useful guide" --Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature's Best Hope

These days, home gardeners know that many traditional, non-native garden plants--like English ivy, barberry, and burning bush--don't support our bees, butterflies, birds, and other creatures. And that native plants are more likely to thrive, because they evolved as part of the local ecology, so they often require less fussy maintenance and don't depend on pesticides and fertilizers. But gardeners ready to make the switch may ask: Where do I begin? And how do I find the best native plants for my landscape?

Plant This, Not That considers some of the most common non-native (and often, invasive) plants in North American gardens and suggests substitutions for more beneficial and equally beautiful natives. Each native plant listing includes a full-color photo, along with sun, water, and soil requirements; ornamental features (including bloom time and color and whether the plant has berries, fruit, and/or fall color); and the pollinators known to depend on and support that plant. Accompanying maps show every plant's locally native range, down to the county level. The book also features an overview of how native plants contribute to our local ecosystems, where to shop for them, advice on maintaining a mostly native garden, and resources to learn more about native planting.

Book cover for "Burnout Recovery"

Burnout Recovery

A neurodivergent-friendly and holistic guide to identifying, recovering, and growing from the stress and burnout cycle

Burnout is a fact of life for most working adults, but many people lack the tools they need to truly recover from it. Even those of us who have tried therapy or self-help guides in the past may continue to cycle in and out of burnout for years, unable to find something that really works. 

Burnout Recovery offers a holistic and neurodivergent-friendly approach to burnout. In this practical self-help guide, Alicia King Anderson argues that for many of us, burnout is not just a symptom of a stressful workplace. When reducing our workload slightly or taking a vacation doesn’t seem to help, we need to consider the entire network of intersecting stresses in our life: physical, psychological, sensory, social, environmental, and political.

Taking the metaphor of “burnout” literally, Anderson skillfully maps the stages of wildfire burns to the psychological experience of burnout. Drawing from her training in ecopsychology and mythology, she finds profound lessons in the natural cycle of wildfire to help us explore our own potential for healing and growth after a “burn” period. This unique book:
 

  • goes beyond ‘work stress’ to address all kinds of burnout, including autistic and ADHD burnout, creative burnout, and professional burnout; 
     
  • introduces grief work as an essential part of burnout recovery, to let go of idealized and unsustainable versions of yourself; and
     
  • provides step-by-step guidance to identify where you are in the burnout cycle—and make a plan ahead of time for the next stages ahead.
     


Each chapter includes a variety of practical tools, including self-discovery exercises, activities, rituals, and journal prompts. For those tired of one-size-fits-all burnout advice, Anderson’s guidance will help you identify your unique burnout cycle, helping you get beyond short-term recovery and toward a more sustainable, nourishing, and meaningful life.

Book cover for "The Other Side of Change"

The Other Side of Change

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, AS FEATURED ON NBC TODAY SHOW, CBS MORNINGS, ON PURPOSE WITH JAY SHETTY, AND MORE!

"A rare combination of beautiful storytelling, cognitive science, and wholehearted wisdom. —Brené Brown

A revelatory exploration of how we can find meaning in the tumult of change, from a renowned cognitive scientist and host of the critically acclaimed podcast A Slight Change of Plans

Life has a way of thwarting our best-laid plans. Out of nowhere, we’re confronting the end of a relationship, an unexpected diagnosis, the loss of a job, or some other twist of fate. In these moments, it can feel like we’re free-falling into the unknown.

As a cognitive scientist, Maya Shankar has spent decades studying the human mind. When an unwanted change in her own life left her reeling, she sought out people who had navigated major disruptions. In The Other Side of Change, Shankar tells their riveting, singular stories and weaves in scientific insights to illuminate universal lessons hidden within them. The result is a rich portrait of our complex reactions to change and a deep well of wisdom we can draw from during these experiences.

Shankar invites us to rethink our relationship with change altogether. When a big change happens to us, it can lead to profound change within us. The unique stresses and demands of being thrust into a new reality can lead us to uncover new abilities, perspectives, and values, transforming us in extraordinary ways. What if we saw moments of upheaval as an opportunity to reimagine who we can be, rather than as something to just endure? What potential could we unlock within ourselves?

Whether you're processing a past change, grappling with a present one, or bracing for a future one, this book is a wise and thought-provoking companion to help you discover who you can become on the other side of change.

Book club for "The Price of Mercy"

The Price of Mercy

A former public defender takes us behind the closed doors of America's criminal courts, revealing how the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite—and offering a blueprint for finally fixing it.

“A searing, compassionate, and utterly necessary book that pulls back the curtain with the clarity of a lawyer and the heart of someone who’s seen the criminal legal system’s devastating consequences up close.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

As Americans, we are told a rose-tinted story about our criminal courts—that these are the hallowed halls of justice, that the purpose of our legal process is to find the truth, and that those who enforce the law are both equitable and heroic. But what if the reality is purposefully obscured to hide something rotten at the system’s core?

In The Price of Mercy, attorney and former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza weaves hard data and unforgettable stories, dark humor and compelling evidence to tell us the truth about what’s really going on behind the closed doors of America’s criminal courts. She shows us how jails actually increase future crime, the dirty tricks police use to make millions in overtime pay, how a man could spend decades in prison because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, the perverse incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions even when they themselves don’t want to, and how judges may decide cases differently after lunch.

We’ll learn what’s working, too: how public defenders can improve public health and even economic mobility, and how planting more trees can reduce a neighborhood’s murder rates. But a lone defender winning a case won’t change the system. Galvin Almanza argues that we need an engaged public to confront the stark reality of our crime-generating, poverty-entrenching, health-destroying legal apparatus and rebuild it into something that can save our collective present and prevent our future from being torn apart.

Provocative and eye-opening, The Price of Mercy lifts the curtain on the way our laws really operate and presents a path forward for true transformation of the American criminal court system. Justice, and the law itself, is not some static thing. It is something enacted together, decision by decision, in acts of inhumanity or mercy.