Dear Walpole Community,

I would like to start by saying how much the library staff appreciates the patience and understanding of our community during the trying times of this past year. It has been a long journey, and it is not over yet.

However, there is some good news on the horizon. After consultation with the Board of Trustees and on the advice of the CDC, we will no longer be quarantining library materials. We are also opening up the children’s room once again so that families can select books from that collection. Patrons will now have direct access to all materials in the library. As we are not yet out of the woods with Covid-19, we will continue to limit the number of people in the library and visits will be for the purpose of browsing the collection or using our public computers/copier/fax machine. The community room will remain closed to outside groups. Properly worn masks (covering mouth and nose) will be required for all patrons ages 2 and up. (This does not apply to babies under 2, but we ask parents to keep their unmasked babies with them at all times.) If you require an accommodation for a medical reason, please contact the library so we can provide you with curbside service.

Beginning on Monday, April 19, we will also be resuming our regular hours with one small change. We will no longer be closed between noon and 1:00 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, instead we will be open from 10:00 am until 7:00 pm both days. Following is the list of our hours effective April 19th:

Mondays 10:00 am to 7:00 pm

Tuesdays 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Wednesdays 10:00 am to 7:00 pm

Thursdays 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Fridays 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Saturdays 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Thank you for continuing to use and support your library. We look forward to seeing you all and will update you as we are able to resume more services.

Sincerely,

Jane Malmberg, Library Director

The Board of Trustees will be meeting via zoom on Tuesday May 5th at 10am to discuss a phased reopening plan for the library. Trustee Meetings are open to the public; please email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org to get the zoom link.

Dear Patrons,

As the library staff continues to find new and creative ways to serve you during this chaotic time, I am thrilled to announce a new service called Hoopla. With Hoopla you can borrow ebooks, audio books, movies, tv shows, and music without any wait times. You’ll need your library card number and a device to use Hoopla. You can access the website (www.hoopladigital.come) from a computer or laptop. You can download the app on a smartphone, ipad, or Kindle Fire. Unfortunately Hoopla is not compatible with other Kindle devices. 

Each library card will be limited to 5 check outs per month. If you need your library card number, or you’d like your spouse or child to get their own library card for their own 5 check outs, please contact me at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org or Julie at jrios@walpoletownlibrary.org

This service is a temporary solution for our current situation; I’m not sure yet if we will be able to continue funding the service once we are open for normal business again. While this is a free service for you, the patron, the library is charged per check out, so please be sure you’re using your check outs wisely. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We will continue to look for new ways to serve our community and we hope you enjoy this new service. 

Justine Fafara, Library Director

To put your name on the wait list for this book, or for any of our materials, you can log in to your account on our website (https://walpole.nhais.bywatersolutions.com/) with your library card number and password, call the library at 603-756-9806 or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org

Coming this September, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a riveting novel about the choices that change the course of our lives.

“Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways–the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices…or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?” -Amazon

To put your name on the wait list for this book, or for any of our materials, you can log in to your account on our website (https://walpole.nhais.bywatersolutions.com/) with your library card number and password, call the library at 603-756-9806 or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org

“Fans of Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah now have a new go-to author.” —Sally Hepworth, bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives

“From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant post-WWII novel that explores the expectations society places on women set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything once believed to be true.

With her father recently moved to a care facility, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.

As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker.

Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.”
-Amazon

Dear Patrons,

Due to the continued precautions being taken, Governor Sununu has canceled Inter-Library Loan services. We will no longer be getting deliveries from other libraries. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We were all hoping for one more delivery before things were shut down.

Thank you for your continued support of the library and our staff during this chaotic time.

Keep an eye on our social media. We’ll be offering new virtual services soon!

Justine Fafara
Library Director

Dear Patrons,

The Library Director and Board of Trustees have decided that the Walpole Town Library will close beginning Wednesday March 18^th at 12pm through April 4^th. The North Walpole Branch Library will also be closed Tuesday March 17^th through April 4^th. We will then reevaluate the situation and decide if it is safe to open on Monday April 6^th.

As of today, Monday March 16^th, all programs are canceled through April 4^th, including any reservations for the Hubbard Community Room. We will also be canceling Inter-Library Loans; we will stop requesting materials for our patrons and stop lending materials to other libraries.

While we remain open Monday the 16^th through the morning of Wednesday the 18^th, we ask that you don’t linger or congregate in the library and that you maintain a considerable distance from others (CDC recommends 6 feet)when possible. This is an opportunity to check out any materials you’d like, use the computer to check your email or do something else quickly (we’ll be implementing a 20 minute time limit for computers), and leave. We greatly appreciate your cooperation with this plan. Our open hours are: Monday the 16^th 1-8pm, Tuesday the 17^th 1-6pm and Wednesday the 18^th 10am-12pm.

Please do not return materials to the library during this time. We do not charge overdue fines, and we will not penalize you for keeping materials out until we open again. The book drop will be locked and any materials returned Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday will be kept in quarantine for 24 hours.

While we are closed Wednesday March 18^th through April 4^th we will be answering phone calls and emails as normal. Please feel free to call with any questions, or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org or Julie at jrios@walpoletownlibrary.org.

March 16^th through March 21^st we will be offering curbside pickup for materials. This service will be offered:

• Monday the 16^th from 12pm through 8pm
• Tuesday the 17^th from 12pm through 6pm
• Wednesday the 18^th from 10am through 2pm
• Thursday the 19^th from 10am through 2pm
• Friday the 20^th from 10am through 2pm
• Saturday the 21^st from 9am through 12pm
• This service will be reevaluated weekly and a new schedule will be circulated.

Please call the library and let us know what you’d like to pick up and when you will be here to pick it up. We’ll leave materials in bags on the front porch for you to grab and go. Remember, you do not need to return materials until we fully reopen.

As always our e-resources are available 24/7. You can download audio books and ebooks on the Libby app. You can now access New England newspapers on our website 24/7 as well. Please call us to get your library card number if you don’t have it handy or if you have any questions about these services.

Please know that a decision like this, to close the library for an extended period of time, is not taken lightly. We know how much this impacts our community and this was not a rush decision. We truly feel that this is the best way for the library to do our part in keeping our patrons safe.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Stay healthy.

Justine Fafara
Library Director

To put your name on the wait list for this book, or for any of our materials, you can log in to your account on our website (https://walpole.nhais.bywatersolutions.com/) with your library card number and password, call the library at 603-756-9806 or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org

One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?From the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night. . . .

“Exhilarating . . . a fiendishly slippery game of cat-and-mouse suspense and a provocative, urgent inquiry into American justice (and injustice) in the twenty-first century.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

“It’s the most sensational case of the decade. Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a twenty-five-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. The subsequent trial taps straight into America’s most pressing preoccupations: race, class, sex, law enforcement, and the lurid sins of the rich and famous. It’s an open-and-shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed—until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades the rest of the jurors to return the verdict of not guilty, a controversial decision that will change all their lives forever.

Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jury, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence—by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.

As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out—with drastic consequences for all involved.”
-Amazon

To put your name on the wait list for this book, or for any of our materials, you can log in to your account on our website (https://walpole.nhais.bywatersolutions.com/) with your library card number and password, call the library at 603-756-9806 or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org

“A sweeping novel about the extraordinary woman who captured Napoleon’s heart, created a dynasty, and changed the course of history—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, and Sisi.

As the French revolution ravages the country, Desiree Clary is faced with the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone and it’s fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine.

A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer. When her beloved sister Julie marries his brother Joseph, Desiree and Napoleon’s futures become irrevocably linked. Quickly entering into their own passionate, dizzying courtship that leads to a secret engagement, they vow to meet in the capital once his career has been secured. But her newly laid plans with Napoleon turn to sudden heartbreak, thanks to the rising star of Parisian society, Josephine de Beauharnais. Once again, Desiree’s life is turned on its head.

Swept to the glittering halls of the French capital, Desiree is plunged into the inner circle of the new ruling class, becoming further entangled with Napoleon, his family, and the new Empress. But her fortunes shift once again when she meets Napoleon’s confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. As the two men in Desiree’s life become political rivals and military foes, the question that arises is: must she choose between the love of her new husband and the love of her nation and its Emperor?

From the lavish estates of the French Riviera to the raucous streets of Paris and Stockholm, Desiree finds herself at the epicenter of the rise and fall of an empire, navigating a constellation of political giants and dangerous, shifting alliances. Emerging from an impressionable girl into a fierce young woman, she discovers that to survive in this world she must learn to rely upon her instincts and her heart.

Allison Pataki’s meticulously researched and brilliantly imagined novel sweeps readers into the unbelievable life of a woman almost lost to history—a woman who, despite the swells of a stunning life and a tumultuous time, not only adapts and survives but, ultimately, reigns at the helm of a dynasty that outlasts an empire.” -Amazon

To put your name on the wait list for this book, or for any of our materials, you can log in to your account on our website (https://walpole.nhais.bywatersolutions.com/) with your library card number and password, call the library at 603-756-9806 or email Justine at jfafara@walpoletownlibrary.org

“The Resisters is palpably loving, smart, funny, and desperately unsettling. The novel should be required reading for the country both as a cautionary tale and because it is a stone-cold masterpiece. This is Gish Jen’s moment. She has pitched a perfect game.” –Ann Patchett

“The time: not so long from now. The place: AutoAmerica. The land: half under water. The Internet: one part artificial intelligence, one part surveillance technology, and oddly human–even funny. The people: Divided. The angel-fair “Netted” have jobs, and literally occupy the high ground. The “Surplus” live on swampland if they’re lucky, on water if they’re not.

The story: To a Surplus couple–he once a professor, she still a lawyer–is born a Blasian girl with a golden arm. At two, Gwen is hurling her stuffed animals from the crib; by ten, she can hit whatever target she likes. Her teens find her happily playing in an underground baseball league.

When AutoAmerica rejoins the Olympics, though–with a special eye on beating ChinRussia–Gwen attracts interest. Soon she finds herself playing ball with the Netted even as her mother challenges the very foundations of this divided society.

A moving and important story of an America that seems ever more possible, The Resisters is also the story of one family struggling to maintain its humanity and normalcy in circumstances that threaten their every value–as well as their very existence.

Extraordinary and ordinary, charming and electrifying, this is Gish Jen at her most irresistible.” -Amazon