The Jones Library is holding its fifth On the Same
Page community reading program, this year featuring the book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by bestselling
author Elizabeth Kolbert. The book
explores the five mass extinctions that have occurred over the past
half-billion years, when the diversity of life on earth has been severely
reduced. Kolbert explains how humans
have altered life on the planet and how these actions may become our legacy.
This year, the Jones Library is pleased to partner with the
Hitchcock Center for the Environment as we bring programs and discussions to
the Amherst community during this community-wide read. The following series of programs will
be held during January and February at the Jones Library and at the Hitchcock
Center, and are based on topics and themes from the book. The author event will be held at the
Amherst Regional Middle School.
For complete program descriptions, visit the program’s webpage at
http://www.joneslibrary.org/onthesamepage.
Tuesday, January 31 at 7:00 pm – Jones Library
"Climate Change and the Connecticut River: What Unexpected
Events We Should Begin to Expect" - Dr. Richard Palmer explores what we can expect to occur to
with respect stream-flows in the Connecticut River basin as we move into the
21st century. Richard Palmer is
Department Head and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the
University of Massachusetts; and Northeast Climate Science Center, Director and
Principal Investigator.
Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 7:00 pm – Hitchcock Center for
the Environment
"From Hurricane to Climate Change Film Screening and Panel
Discussion" - This short film documents how the Monadnock region of New
Hampshire is addressing the challenges of an increasingly unstable climate. The
film highlights a range of regional responses designed to adapt to this new
norm and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. A panel discussion follows,
with the film’s director and editor Doug Challenger as well as local experts
Dwayne Breger, Christine Hatch, Chris Mason, and Michael Sen.
Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 7:00 pm – Jones Library
"The Human Footprint on the Earth’s Environment" - Dr. Raymond
Bradley explores the impact of humanity on our environment, especially over the
last few decades, and discusses solutions that will lead to a more sustainable
future. These solutions would
require foresight and leadership at an international level. Ray Bradley is a
Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences and Director of the
Climate System Research Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Thursday, February 16 at 7:00 pm – Hitchcock Center for the
Environment or
Saturday, February 25 at 2:30 pm – Jones Library
Book Discussion of The Sixth Extinction – Join us for an
in-depth discussion of our selected title, led by a Jones Library librarian and
an environmental educator from the Hitchcock Center.
Tuesday, February 28 at 6:00 pm – Amherst Regional Middle
School Library
Friends’ Reception –
Please join the Friends of the Jones Libraries and author Elizabeth Kolbert at
this special reception.
Tuesday, February 28 at 7:00 pm – Amherst Regional Middle
School Auditorium
On the Same Page …with Elizabeth Kolbert
Join us for this
author appearance, with an introduction by Julie Johnson, Executive Director of
the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. Elizabeth Kolbert will speak about
the book and the environmental themes she explores in her writing. Books will be available for purchase
and signing.
Copies of The Sixth Extinction can be borrowed from the
Jones Library and branches, requested and checked out from the C/W Mars library
catalog, or purchased at Amherst Books in Amherst.
The Sixth Extinction was the winner of the 2015 Pulitzer
Prize for general nonfiction, a finalist for the PEN Literary Award and the
L.A. Times Book Prize, and a New York Times bestseller. The Sixth Extinction
was included on many “Best Books” list of 2014 and 2015, including The
Economist Magazine Books of the Year, New York Magazine Best Books of the
Year, Washington Post Best Books
of the Year, Time Magazine Top 10 Books of the Year, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, NPR Best Book of
the Year, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, New Yorker Best Books of the
Year, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
of the Year, and New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year,
Elizabeth Kolbert has been a staff writer at The New Yorker
since 1999. Previously, she worked at the New York Times, where she wrote the
Metro Matters column; from 1988 to 1991, she was the paper’s Albany bureau
chief, and, from 1992 to 1997, she was a political and media reporter, and also
a contributor to the Times Magazine.
She is the editor of “The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009”
and the author of The Prophet of
Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit; Field Notes from a Catastrophe, and
The Sixth Extinction, for which she won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for general
nonfiction.
On the Same Page – Amherst and its programs are sponsored by
the Friends of the Jones Libraries.
For further information about On the Same Page – Amherst, please contact
Janet Ryan at 413/259-3223.
Patrick O'Roark, Hitchcock educator
