Friends of the Library: News
Shades of Brown Newsletter
The Shades Of Brown newsletter is a bimonthly newsletter and is available in physical and digital formats. You can find the most recent issues here.
Friends Book Reviews
Friends of the Library Host Book Review – 10/3/2025
On October 3 Mary Beth Kibbe will present commentary on short works by major novelists, including Leo Tolstoy, John Steinbeck, Katharine Anne Porter, and Willa Cather. The remarks could be intense, but the review is promised to be relatively short.
As a relatively new development, short stories help readers to sample works of excellent writers without the time investment of a long novel. They can also familiarize a reader with the writer’s style. Short stories provide advantages both for the reader and the writer. Readers can consume a story in a single sitting while experiencing a unified tale with a strong—often obvious—theme. A writer focuses on a limited narrative that incorporates high-quality imagery.
Developed in the nineteenth century when print media became readily accessible and middle classes could read, stories provided ready entertainment and a means of improving one’s reading. Since then, short stories have made fine literature easy to be enjoyed by people of varying ages and backgrounds.
Kibbe was a high school teacher of English and literature at Jersey Shore High School prior to her retirement. She is a member of the Board of the Friends of the J.V. Brown Library and the Rowley House Museum.
The review begins at 12:15PM in the Lowry Room of the Welch Family Wing of the James V. Brown Library with a Q&A from 12:45-1:00PM. Complimentary snacks and bottled water will be available. Attendees are also welcome to bring their own lunch. Reservations are required due to space considerations. Please call the library at 570-326-0536 or use the library’s online reservation calendar (calendar.jvbrown.edu) before 3:00PM on Wednesday, October 1. Parking is available in the public lot off Market Street, adjacent to the Welch Wing.
Friends of the Library Host Book Review – 11/7/2025
On Friday, November 7, Tom Grbenick will review a trilogy of books authored by acclaimed residential architect Gil Schafer.
Schafer describes his unique design approach through stories and images in books titled The Great American House, A Place To Call Home, and Home At Last which offer insights into the architect’s approach to designing houses imbibed with a strong sense of place which meld landscape, contemporary living and classical tradition.
Subtitled Tradition For The Way We Live Now, Tradition Style And Memory In The New American House, and Enduring Design For The New American House, each book features houses that delight and inspire the reader with knowledge to keep in mind when creating one’s own home. Mr. Grbenick’s presentation will feature photo slides illustrating the author’s houses.
Grbenick is a landscape architect with an avocational interest in architectural design. He was the founder and longtime Director of the SEDA-COG Community Resource Center in Lewisburg where he and his staff of landscape architects, environmental and town planners, provided planning, design and development services for regional communities, downtowns and neighborhoods, parks and greenways throughout Central Pennsylvania.
Mr. Grbenick has degrees in landscape architecture from Penn State and Harvard universities and continues to work privately with clients on designs for homes and gardens.
The review begins at 12:15 PM in the Lowry Room of the Welch Family Wing of the James V. Brown Library with Q&A from 12:45 to 1 PM. Complimentary snacks and bottled water will be available. Attendees are also welcome to bring their own lunch. Reservations are required due to space considerations. Please call the library at (570) 326-0536 or use the library’s online reservation calendar (calendar.jvbrown.edu) before 3 PM on Wednesday, November 5. Parking is available in the public lot off Market Street, adjacent to the Welch Wing.
Friends of the Library Host Book Review – 12/5/2025
The Friday, December 5 book review will feature Sascha Feinstein, the Robert L. & Charlene Shangraw Professor of English at Lycoming College.
Dr. Feinstein will discuss his most recent book, Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers, which compiles interviews with 14 distinguished authors conducted since 1999. The talk will address the process of interviewing, from preparation to editing. What makes for a successful interview? What do you do if the person doesn’t talk much? What if they talk too much? Jazz will inevitably be part of this presentation—an appreciation for the music will obviously enhance the experience—but the goal will be to engage anyone interested in meeting truly engaging people and documenting those encounters.
Dr. Feinstein has taught at Lycoming College since 1995. In 1996, he founded Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature, which he still edits. His twelve previous books include two poetry collections (Misterioso, winner of the Hayden Carruth Award, and Ajanta’s Ledge, finalist for the Philip Levine Prize), two memoirs (Black Pearls: Improvisations on a Lost Year and Wreckage: My Father’s Legacy of Art & Junk), and another interview collection (Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz & Literature). His last book review for the Friends of the Library was in December 2018, when he discussed his books Wreckage and Understanding Hans Hofmann as an avenue into the nature of abstract expressionism.
The review begins at 12:15PM in the Lowry Room of the Welch Family Wing of the James V. Brown Library with a Q&A from 12:45-1:00PM. Complimentary snacks and bottled water will be available. Attendees are also welcome to bring their own lunch. Reservations are required due to space considerations. Please call the library at 570-326-0536 or use the library’s online reservation calendar (calendar.jvbrown.edu) before 3:00PM on Wednesday, December 3. Parking is available in the public lot off Market Street, adjacent to the Welch Wing.