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 Friday, October 3 Mayor Derek Slaughter will review Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. This memoir is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe bestseller, one of the most acclaimed books of our time.
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Westover, the youngest of seven children, was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her father made a living salvaging scrap metal while her mother worked as an unlicensed midwife and herbal healer. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to build a new kind of life for herself. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Mayor Slaughter graduated from Williamsport Area High School, earned his undergraduate degree in Information Sciences & Technology with a minor in Spanish from Penn State University, and completed his Master of Education from the University of Maryland. He taught mathematics in the Williamsport Area School District and was an adjunct professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania College of Technology. He sat on the City of Williamsport’s Zoning Hearing Board, was a board member of the Greater Lycoming Habitat for Humanity, as well as a board member of the Lycoming County United Way. Also, prior to becoming mayor, Slaughter was on the steering committee for the Mayors’ Innovation Project, President of the Pennsylvania Municipal League and he was appointed by Governor Wolf to serve as a Commission member on the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. He also served as a Williamsport City Councilman. He began his tenure as mayor in January 2020 and is currently in his second term.
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.