Library News

Michelle lecturing our Ale Together Now program in the Community Room.
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Ale Together Now: Back to Basics - Water!

We went back to basics for our most recent Ale Together Now program, exploring how water contributes to beer and how it is used in the brewing process.

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A castle with a blue sky and the text "Fairytale Writing and Art Contest" in blue
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Fairytale Writing and Art Contest: 2025!

Our annual Fairytale Writing and Art Contest has concluded, and once again, we received fantastic entries!

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A graphic of an orange cookbook with a measuring cup and a wooden spoon.
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Recipe Club and Potluck: November 2025

November's Recipe Club and Potluck program featured a variety of delicious, cozy recipes!

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New at Cromaine

Image for "All Is Calmish"

All Is Calmish

Stop forcing holiday cheer and start embracing the season in a way that truly resonates with you. Discover simple, daily strategies for cultivating peace, balance, and genuine joy as you navigate the holidays with grace.

Merry and bright? Yeah, right. During the holidays, many of us are anything but cheerful. Thanksgiving, Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's often make us frazzled and frantic. Stressed and stretched. Distressed and depressed.

From psychotherapist Niro Feliciano, author of This Book Won't Make You Happy and frequent TODAY show contributor, comes a book to help you move beyond holiday pressures and maintain perspective when it matters most. All Is Calmish dispenses a therapist's strategies for surviving the season. As a mother of four and sought-after expert on mental health, Feliciano sees our valiant attempts to be happy and create a magical holiday. Meanwhile we are actually exhausted and anxious from managing family drama, loneliness, grief, crazy schedules, and overwhelming debt. The truth is, the holidays can be the hardest time of the year. But with Feliciano's help, they don't have to be.

In thirty-one short chapters, Feliciano gives us daily prompts and rituals rooted in research, brain science, and the wisdom of spiritual traditions, to help us set boundaries, create meaningful connections, start new traditions, and manage the season with greater ease.

While the holidays may not be perfect, All Is Calmish reminds us that with intention and grace, we can still make them meaningful and memorable, finding our way to wholeness and well-being--and maybe even something that feels a bit like calm.

Image for "This Is Christmas, Song by Song"

This Is Christmas, Song by Song

Celebrate the merriest season of the year with award-winning author and music journalist Annie Zaleski's collection of the 100 most popular and beloved holiday songs of all time.



'Tis the season! Break out the eggnog, hang the mistletoe, blast those Christmas songs, and settle down in your favorite armchair with this beautifully illustrated volume exploring well-known and lesser-known behind-the-scenes stories of the 100 most cherished holiday songs of all time and their everlasting impact. From artists such as Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald all the way up to Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande, this all-encompassing collection of holiday favorites (called one of "the 25 best Christmas books of all time" by Book Riot) is sure to warm your heart during the merriest season of the year. 



What song was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling single of all time? Which popular Christmas tune was reportedly written to commemorate Thanksgiving? What holiday song led to a special meet-and-greet between the song's 10-year-old singer and a 700-pound hippopotamus? 

Spanning musical genres and decades of classics and modern hits, some of the featured songs include:

  • "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby
  • "All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey
  • "Deck the Halls" by Mannheim Steamroller
  • "Christmas Tree Farm" by Taylor Swift
  • "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)" by The Beatles
  • "Feliz Navidad" by José Feliciano
  • "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Gene Autry
  • "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" by Gwen Stefani
  • "Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt
  • "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee
  • "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" by NSYNC
  • "Run Rudolph Run" by Chuck Berry

And many more!



Including full-color illustrations throughout, this gorgeously packaged compendium is the perfect gift for you and your loved ones to experience the holiday magic year after year.

Image for "Filled with Fire and Light"

Filled with Fire and Light

Here are magnificent insights into the lives of biblical prophets and kings, talmudic sages, and Hasidic rabbis from the internationally acclaimed writer, Nobel laureate, and one of the world’s most honored and beloved teachers.

“This posthumous collection encourages a path toward purpose and transcendence.” —The New York Times Book Review

From a multitude of sources, Elie Wiesel culls facts, legends, and anecdotes to give us fascinating portraits of notable figures throughout Jewish history. Here is the prophet Elisha, wonder-worker and adviser to kings, whose compassion for those in need is matched only by his fiery temper. Here is the renowned scholar Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, whose ingenuity in escaping from a besieged Jerusalem on the eve of its destruction by Roman legions in 70 CE laid the foundation for the rab­binic teachings and commentaries that revolutionized the practice and study of Judaism and have sustained the Jewish people for two thousand years of ongoing exile. And here is Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad Hasidism, languishing in a Czarist prison in 1798, the victim of a false accusation, engaging in theological discussions with his jailers that would form the basis for Chabad’s legendary method of engagement with the world at large.
 
In recounting the life stories of these and other spiritual seekers, in delving into the struggles of human beings trying to create meaningful lives touched with sparks of the divine, Wiesel challenges and inspires us all to fill our own lives with commitment and sanctity.