Throughout
February

John Hersey described his type of fiction as “the novel of contemporary history.” It is an apt description for A Bell for Adano because it took Hersey just three weeks in September of 1943 to transform a Life magazine article he had written into his debut novel. Each person mentioned in the article became a character in the novel, and each incident he reported became a plot point. Hersey added a character based on General Patton, changed the name of the town, and created the central motif of the village bell. A Bell for Adano was published on February 7, 1944.

A Bell for Adano tells the story of Major Victor Joppolo, the leader of the American military government in the Sicilian village of Adano after World War II. Upon arriving in Adano, Joppolo learns that the townspeople miss the bell from their belltower perhaps more than they miss basic provisions and a reliable infrastructure. The fascists removed the bell and melted it down to make rifle barrels during the war. Major Joppolo promises to replace it and solve the town’s other problems, but his approach conflicts with the military objectives of his superior, General Marvin. In his depiction of the clash between Joppolo’s humanistic intentions and Marvin’s bureaucratic methods, Hersey examines cross-cultural conflict and considers the challenges and ultimate goals of nation building.

Livermore Reads Together 2012 is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

7:00pm

Main Library

The Paws to Read program matches elementary-aged beginner readers with trained and certified dogs in a non-judgmental environment. For 25 minutes, your child will read to their furry friend with the dog’s owner quietly looking on to help with any tricky words. Programs of this type have been successful across the country, and testimonials from Livermore parents have been extremely positive.

The Spring program for 2012 will start with a series at the Civic Center Library, as follows:
• Wednesdays, January 18-March 7, 7 p.m. (two sessions, 7-7:25 and 7:35-8 p.m.). Registration for this series begins Monday, January 9th.
Children may register for up to three sessions during the Spring series, as space allows. Drop-ins may be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Participating children should not be fearful of dogs or have allergies to pets.

For more information about the Civic Center series or to register, please call the Livermore Public Library’s Children’s Desk at 925-373-5504.

7-9pm

The Barn
3131 Pacific Ave

Drawing inspiration from the great bands, performers and composers of the "Jazz Age" and "Swing Era," Don Neely and the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra affectionately and authentically recapture the excitement and fascination of that musical heyday. One of the many things that set this eleven-member ensemble apart is their genuine understanding of the music they perform. By going back and carefully studying the original musical ideas of the period, they have been able to achieve their remarkably authentic sound. The band's entertaining and talented soloists are creatively spotlighted in their exciting and varied show, providing many delightful surprises.

Jean Ma and Bromley Palamountain are award-winning swing dance instructors, choreographers, and performers specializing in the dance patterns of the Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Charleston. Jean and Bromley first teamed up in August of 2004. Jean taught performance swing dancing to UC Berkeley students as part of The [M]ovement and is also well-versed in hip hop, having danced in the professional hip hop troupe Culture Shock. Bromley’s expertise lies in his gymnastics foundation. He trained under Olympic Gold medalist Tim Daggett and was able to pave his way through college as a competitive gymnast for UC Berkeley’s men’s gymnastics team. Together they are known for their explosive aerials, high energy, and passion for the dance.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

10:30am

Main Library

The Alleluia Ringers will play a number of handbell pieces, explain how handbells are made and played, and share a little of their history. This program is aimed for children ages 4 and older and their families.

The Alleluia Ringers consist of fifth through eighth graders from Our Savior Lutheran School and Our Savior Lutheran Church, who have from one to four years of ringing experience. They meet weekly for an after-school rehearsal and typically play for several worship services throughout the year. In addition, they perform for two concerts at Our Savior each year. Ringing is a great way to learn some music basics, to develop teamwork and to make beautiful music together!

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

11:00am

Main Library

These babies-only programs will take place every Tuesday, at 11 a.m., from January 17 through February 21, 2012.

All programs will take place in the Children’s Storytime Room of the Civic Center Library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue, Livermore, and are free of charge. For further information, please contact Youth Services at (925) 373-5504

11:30am

Main Library

This free program is recommended for parents of children from birth to age 2. Contact Youth Services at (925) 373-5504 for more information

7:00pm

Main Library

Viola Buitoni, a descendant of the well known pasta dynasty and an Italian food educator in San Francisco, will talk about her family history, how her heritage shaped her love for cooking, and how to best marry the bounty of California to a classic Italian pantry to create delicious, healthy seasonal food.

Viola Buitoni hails from Perugia, in the heart of Umbria. Viola came to the United States in 1985 to pursue a business degree, but soon after graduation found herself inevitably drawn back into the genetic passion of all things food.

After a few years spent garnering professional experience, she started an Italian catering business in New York with a friend from Milano. The home-based effort was wildly successful and soon morphed into Buitoni & Garretti located in the heart of the upscale Madison Avenue shopping district. In 2001, the shop was sold and, after a couple of years as a freelance caterer, Viola moved to San Francisco to start a family. In 2004 her son Ernesto was born and for a few years work was a part-time affair.

Today Viola is reconnecting to the world of Italian food with a series of educational initiatives, including lectures and cooking classes in collaboration with the San Francisco Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Consulate, as well as an ongoing series of food articles and cooking videos with her son, realized by MissionLocal.org, a UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism blog based in San Francisco’s Mission District where Viola lives. Throughout her more than 25 years in the United States, Viola has never stopped traveling back to her beloved country of Italy, where her family of origin still resides.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

12:00-5:30pm

Main Library

Join us at the Civic Center Library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue, anytime between 12 noon and 5:30 p.m., on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 to for this drop-in craft.

All ages are welcome to this free library program. Contact Youth Services at (925) 373-5504, or visit our website, www.livermorelibrary.net, for more information.

1:30pm

Main Library

Experience the highlights of Sicily, a land that has been shaped by the Greeks, the Romans and the Arabs from nearby Africa before the Normans drove out the Arabs and formed the kingdom of Sicily. Then move on to the scenic Amalfi coast south of Naples and visit ruins of the Greek and Roman civilization.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

7:00pm

Main Library

Not only did the Bay Area make a huge contribution to the war effort, it may well have the nation's finest surviving collection of historic sites, ships and landscapes from the era for us to visit today. Join National Park historian Stephen Haller for a discussion of the Bay Area during World War II and a virtual tour of great places to visit that will bring you back in time and evoke the history and feeling of the period.

Stephen A. Haller is the Park Historian and Branch Chief for Cultural Resources at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Formerly the Curator of Historic Documents for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, he has also been an interpreter at a number of historic sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Alcatraz, Fort Point and the Maritime Museum. His academic background is in nineteenth century American history and he has specialized in the study of shipwrecks, naval and military history. He is the author of Post and Park, an illustrated history of the Presidio of San Francisco, The Last Word in Airfields, a special history study of Crissy Army Airfield (at the Presidio), co-author of The Last Missile Site: An Operational and Physical History of Nike Site SF-88 at Fort Barry, California, and Shipwrecks at the Golden Gate and was editor of the Sea Letter, the journal of the National Maritime Museum Association. He has been principal investigator for World War II oral history projects at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial National Historic Site in Hawaii and at the War in the Pacific National Historic Site on Guam. His recent work assignments include project-managing and co-authoring the Seacoast Fortification Preservation Manual for Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which received the California Preservation Foundation’s 2000 Design Award, managing the three-year project that resulted in the administrative history of Golden Gate National Recreation Area—The Park That Makes Its Own Weather, and managing the preservation of the most extensive network of seacoast fortifications in the National Park System.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

10:30am

Main Library

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

12:00 noon

Vine Cinema

Set during World War II in Italy, The Secret of Santa Vittoria tells the story of Italo Bombolini, the mayor of the winemaking hill town of Santa Vittoria, as he learns that the German occupation forces want to take all of Santa Vittoria's wine with them. The townspeople frantically hide a million bottles before the arrival of a German army commander and his detachment. The Germans are given a few thousand bottles, but know there is a lot more. The two very different men engage in a battle of wits.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

2:00pm

Main Library

John Shirley is the author of I Remember: Stories of A Combat Infantryman in World War II, and served with the US Army’s Third Infantry Division in Sicily, France and Germany. John is a Livermore resident, retired veterinarian, and past mayor of Livermore from 1963-1965.
Moderator Jim Ott is a professor of English at Las Positas College and writes a popular column published in newspapers associated with the Bay Area News Group. He is the founder and host of a television show on TV30 about books and authors, called “In A Word.” As a writer and poet, Jim was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, and on KQED FM radio. Along with a 30-year career as a banking executive, Jim has promoted the value of education in his community. He served as an elected trustee for the Pleasanton Unified School District from May 2006 to December 2010. He is a charter member of the Pleasanton North Rotary Club and a founding board member of the Las Positas College Foundation.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

3:30-5:00pm

Main Library

Learn how to make a duct tape friendship bracelet or other exciting duct tape items for yourself, your Valentine, or your best friends. The library will supply all the duct tape, crafting supplies, gift wrap and instruction. Bring a friend! There is no charge for this event, but registration is required.
To register for this event, please call 925-373-5504 or 925-373-5505. For questions or more information, please visit Teen Space on the Livermore Public Library’s website at www.livermorelibrary.net or contact Sandy at 925-373-5500 extension 5583.

7:00pm

Main library

Jo Caporaso is a Librarian at the Livermore Public Library, and George Caporaso is a scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. George’s work took them to Tuscany in 2007 and to Sicily in 2009. They hope to return someday to visit the hometowns of their grandparents – the southern Italian towns of Gragnano, Vico Equesne, and Lioni.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

7:00pm

Main Library

Within a few years, they gained a solid following in many parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Public demand expanded well beyond the initial Blue Star Mom “support our troops” mission, with performance requests by veteran’s organizations, community service groups, city parades, retirement homes, and quite often, the USS Hornet Museum. In May 2007 they established a relationship with the famous WWII aircraft carrier museum in Alameda, and in January of 2011, they became The Swingin' Blue Stars of the USS Hornet.

In 2006, The Swingin’ Blue Stars gave over 40 performances with audiences ranging in size from 20 to over 1,000. On New Year’s Eve of that year, the Hornet invited them to be the opening act for the Glenn Miller Orchestra in front of 1,400 enthusiastic big-band listeners and swing dancers. They have participated in the San Francisco Veterans’ Day Parade, 4th of July parades, the Wings of Freedom tour of vintage airplanes, the Martinez VA Hospital USO Show, the Alameda County Fair, the Concord Summer Music Series and many more.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

7:00pm

Main Library

All ages are welcome to these free library programs. Contact Youth Services at (925) 373-5504 for more information, or visit the website at www.livermorelibrary.net.

6:30-8:00pm

Main Library

Take your writing a step further as you learn about publishing your works and how to expand your writing horizons. Write and edit each other’s work while making friends and having fun!

For more information, please visit TEEN SPACE on the library’s website: www.livermorelibrary.net, or contact Sandy at 925-373-5500, extension 5583.

7:00pm

Main Library

Laura E. Ruberto is Humanities professor and co-chair of the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at Berkeley City College. Her research and scholarship is on Italian and Italian American Studies. She has authored Gramsci, Migration, and the Representation of Women’s Work in Italy and the U.S. and is currently the co-editor for the book series “Critical Studies in Italian America” at Fordham University Press, and the Film and Digital Media Review Editor for the Italian American Review. She has published numerous journal and book chapter publications, including research on Italian women’s involvement in the Resistance Movement of the Second World War. In 2006 she was Affiliated Faculty member at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II as a Fulbright Faculty Junior Scholar Research Grantee and she was an NEH Summer Institute Scholar at the Bard Graduate Center in July of 2011. Her current projects include research on the cultural practices of Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War as well as a long-term study on the ways Italy has been imagined within California’s cultural landscapes.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.

2:00pm

Main Library

A cast of volunteer readers from Shakespeare’s Associates will bring John Hersey’s A Bell for Adano to life with a dramatic reading, transporting us to Adano, Italy during the Allied occupation in 1943. Meet “Mister Major” Joppolo, an idealistic officer, and a host of colorful characters – from Italian civilians to military generals.

Shakespeare’s Associates, Inc. are the producers of the Livermore Shakespeare Festival, among other theatrical endeavors. Inspired by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Associates are committed to producing professional theater in the Tri-Valley community.

This program is part of Livermore Reads Together, a community-wide reading program featuring John Hersey’s book A Bell for Adano, which takes place in Italy during World War II. The community of Livermore is encouraged to join their neighbors by participating in the Livermore Reads Together free events for children and adults during the month of February 2012. Copies of books and event schedules are available at all Livermore Public Library locations. Livermore Reads Together is generously sponsored by The Friends of the Livermore Library.