Cakes & Makes with the West Kirby Knitters

The Knit & Natter group invite you to a sale of work and homemade cakes, plus refreshments. Beautiful handcrafted items will be available at very reasonable prices.

Join us on Friday, 22nd February from 10.am to 4 pm.

Valentine's Day

The "Friends" invite you to spend Valentine's Day afternoon at West Kirby Library for an hour of song with "The Concourse Singers". Join in or just listen; we promise this event will be most enjoyable! Then we will serve a delightful afternoon tea, with both sweet and savoury items to tempt you!

The afternoon starts at 2.30 and will end around 4 pm. Tickets (available from both Hoylake & West Kirby Libraries) are priced at just £3 (£2.50 for "Friends") and includes the cost of refreshments.

Adult Reading Group - February

The adult reading group will meet on February 7th at 6 pm to discuss "Frankie and Stankie" by Barbara Trapido. All welcome, and refreshments are provided!

In "Frankie and Stankie" Barbara Trapido returns to her South African roots
with a highly autobiographical novel which tackles one of the most divisive
political issues of the twentieth century as she tells the story of Dinah
growing up in 1950s South Africa. Using simple straightforward language, Trapido
wields humour to great effect in exposing the lethal combination of prejudice
and ignorance.Dinah’s father, a maths lecturer, shouts loudly at the daily
championing of apartheid on the radio. Her mother, a quieter dissenter, makes
friends with Francis-the-Gardener, an Indian who helps her create a gorgeously
exotic front yard. Since racism is not a part of the de Bondt household, Dinah
is mystified when she is asked at school if she would ‘rather have a native girl
or a koelie to make her sandwiches.’ (page 30). She has never heard a black
women referred to as a ‘native girl’ and has no idea what a ‘koelie’ is. The
novel follows Dinah through the increasingly dark days of the National Party’s
rule, to her marriage to a one-time political activist and the couple’s arrival
in 60s Britain. As Dinah grows from a thin asthmatic little girl into a bright
stylish university student, she makes a succession of increasingly colourful
best friends: Angela chooses the non-academic domestic science route and is
displaced by a wilder friend; Catherine, the daughter of a rabidly anti-Catholic
mother, eventually converts to Catholicism; and Maud is the daughter of a
coalminer’s wife and her racehorse-owning lover. Shortly after Dinah arrives at
university in Durban she begins a three-year affair with the urbane but slippery
Didi which finally ends when she realises that he has betrayed her. Her
friendship with Sam leads to marriage and then to London, as Sam flees the
persistent attentions of Special Branch.

Knit & Natter 11th January 2008 (and then following alternate Fridays)

The West Kirby "Knit & Natter" Group meets alternate Fridays mornings at 11 am, for an hour of knitting, crochet, sewing and of course a good chat! Refreshments are provided. This friendly and enthusiastic group ran a beginners knitting course for schoolchildren during the October 2007 half-term holiday and held a Sale of Work in aid of library funds on 30th November 2007. The range of goods and the quality of the workmanship was outstanding(see photos below!)



The next meeting is on Friday, 11th January and alternate Fridays after that. All ages and both sexes are very welcome. Informal tuition and advice is available and beginners most welcome.


Both charitable and personal work is catered for. Donations of unwanted wool, needles etc would be gratefully received.Why not come along, make new friends, improve your knitting skills and have fun!

Playaways!

Coming soon to West Kirby Library!

What is Playaway?

Playaway is the newest format of audio, combining a wide variety of content with an easy-to-use player all in one small unit. When you borrow your Playaway, all you have to do is press play to start listening immediately – there is no need for a separate player.

Playaway is the most simple and immediate way to enjoy music and audiobooks. Its portability allows users to enjoy their favourite authors and titles on-the-go, whenever and wherever.

What makes Playaway unique?

Playaway is the easiest way to listen to a book or music – the only thing you need to do is press play! Each Playaway contains an entire book or music compilation, regardless of length (up to 80 hours!). A Playaway weighs only 2 ounces and can easily fit in a pocket for ultimate portability and multitasking. They come with an automatic bookmark function that remembers where you left off. Playaways have a universal headphone jack that can be used with a number of mobility accessories including portable speakers, FM transmitters, and audio cables to listen in virtually any environment.

Look out for Playaways available to hire from late January onwards.

"When Cotton was King" - a "Friends" event at Hoylake Library

The "Friends of Hoylake & West Kirby Libraries" present a talk by Dr Nigel Hall MA (Oxon), D. Phil. entitled "Liverpool; when cotton was king" on Thursday, 17th January at 7.30 pm,

at Hoylake Library.

Tickets £2.00 (£1.50 for "Friends") available from both libraries.

Reading Group

The adult monthly reading group is meeting on 3rd January to discuss "The man who ate the 747" by Ben Sherwood.

“This is the story of the greatest love, ever. An outlandish claim,
outrageous perhaps, but trust me..." And so begins the bestselling novel hailed
as a new kind of American love story with a fresh voice and whimsical style that
critics called “masterful,” “mesmerizing,” “wonderfully inventive” and
“heartwarming.”J.J. Smith is Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, an
ordinary man searching for the extraordinary. J.J. has clocked the world's
longest continuous kiss, 30 hours and 45 minutes. He has verified the lengthiest
single unbroken apple peel, 172 feet 4 inches. He has measured the farthest
flight of a champagne cork from an untreated, unheated bottle, 177 feet 9
inches. He has tasted the world's largest menu item, whole-roasted Bedouin
camel. But in all his adventures from Australia to Zanzibar, J.J. has never
witnessed great love until he comes upon a tiny windswept town in the heartland
of America, where folks still talk about family, faith, and crops. Here, where
he least expects it, J.J. discovers a world record attempt like no other: Piece
by piece, a farmer named Wally Chubb is eating a Boeing 747 to prove his love
for a woman.

(Please visit Ben Sherwood's website for more information)

Happy New Year!

West Kirby library staff would like to everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous

New Year!