Sinclairville Samplers
2025-06-27 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-07-11 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-07-18 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-07-25 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-08-01 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-08-08 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-08-15 10:30 - 12:00, 2025-08-22 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) and 9 more dates | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Quilting, knitting, crochet, embroidering, and fun with friends.

CLSC Book Club
2025-06-28 09:00 - 10:00 | 3 Lakes Cafe, 11 S Main Street, Cassadaga, United States
CLSC BOOK CLUB
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is the oldest book club in the US.
This book club will meet in person at 3 Lakes Cafe (located on Main Street in Cassadaga) to discuss books from the CLSC book list.

June’s Book Selection: To Be Announced

Hosted by Erin Gray in partnership with the Sinclairville Free Library. Copies are available for checkout through the library’s hold process.
For more information on CLSC.

Book Club @ The Homestead
2025-07-18 15:00 - 16:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, the Lincoln Indian Training School is a pitiless place where Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O’Banion, a lively orphan boy whose exploits constantly earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Odie and his brother, Albert, are the only white faces among the hundreds of Native American children at the school.
After committing a terrible crime, Odie and Albert are forced to flee for their lives along with their best friend, Mose, a mute young man of Sioux heritage. Out of pity, they also take with them a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy. Together, they steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi in search for a place to call home.
Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphan vagabonds journey into the unknown, crossing paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, bighearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
Copies are available through the library system.
No registration is required. Open to the public.

Flower Pounding with Brenda Nickerson
2025-08-04 17:00 - 18:30 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
FLOWER POUNDING with Brenda Nickerson
Flower pounding, or Tatakizome, is an ancient Japanese technique of hammering plants to create patterns on fabric. It is a very simple technique that renders gorgeous results. All you need is fresh flowers, a hammer and either paper, canvas or fabric to transfer the flower “dye”.
Learn the basics of flower pounding: which flowers and/or leaves work well and how hard to pound to get the desired results.
Cost is $10 per person. Seating is limited.
Registration Required (add payment method to comment section)
Pay at the library’s front desk or using our PayPal (select Donate, enter amount in Other, select Share My Name/Email to match to registration)
Part of program cost is funded by the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System’s Mini Summer Reading Grant 2025.

Book Club @ The Homestead
2025-08-15 15:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-17 15:00 - 16:00 | Bergquist Library at the Homestead in Gerry @ 4600 Route 60 Gerry NY 14740
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Artist’s daughter Penelope Keeling can look back on a full and varied life: a Bohemian childhood in London and Cornwall, an unhappy wartime marriage, and the one man she truly loved. She has brought up three children – and learned to accept them as they are. Yet she is far too energetic and independent to settle sweetly into pensioned-off old-age. And when she discovers that her most treasured possession, her father’s painting, The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family, or be split apart.
Copies are available through the library system.
No registration is required. Open to the public.

Books Unlimited Book Club
2025-08-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I—the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory.
“An eye-opening and detailed novel about remarkable female soldiers. . . Chiaverini weaves the intersecting threads of these brave women’s lives together, highlighting their deep sense of pride and duty.”—Kirkus Reviews
In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed telephone operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.
At the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women—but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them.
More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard instructor with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College; Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer; and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium.
They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. Army under the Articles of War. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds.
Deployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flu. Not all of them would survive.
The women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now.

Copies are available through the library system.
No registration is required.

CLSC Book Club
2025-08-30 09:00 - 10:00 | 3 Lakes Cafe, 11 S Main Street, Cassadaga, United States
CLSC BOOK CLUB
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is the oldest book club in the US.
This book club will meet in person at 3 Lakes Cafe (located on Main Street in Cassadaga) to discuss books from the CLSC book list.

August’s Book Selection: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Hosted by Erin Gray in partnership with the Sinclairville Free Library. Copies are available for checkout through the library’s hold process.
For more information on CLSC.

Books Unlimited Book Club
2025-09-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
You never know what’s happening on the other side of the wall.
Your neighbour told you that she didn’t want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn’t stand her crying.
Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You’ll have the baby monitor and you’ll take it in turns to go back every half hour.
Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She’s gone.
You’ve never had to call the police before. But now they’re in your home, and who knows what they’ll find there.
What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?

Copies are available through the library system.
No registration is required.

Virtual Adult Book Club
2025-09-25 19:30 - 20:30 | VIRTUAL EVENT
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
“Every family is a ghost story…”
Mitch Albom mesmerized readers around the world with his number one New York Times bestsellers, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.
For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?
As a child, Charley “Chick” Benetto was told by his father, “You can be a mama’s boy or a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both.” So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.
Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.
He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother, who died eight years earlier, is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened..
What follows is the one “ordinary” day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.
Through Albom’s inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love and may have thought they’d lost in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom’s millions of fans worldwide.

Register using the Event & Program Registration.
You can request a copy be reserved during registration. Virtual link will be provided after registration.

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Poetry Class & Workshop with John Brantingham
2025-10-09 17:00 - 19:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Poetry Class & Workshop
Join John Brantingham, professor emeritus of creative writing for a free poetry class and workshop.
Brantingham will help you write poetry and publish it in magazines if you like. Students have published in The New Yorker, McSweeneys, and The Paris Review among other places. The class is completely free to you and you can join in as little or as much as you like.

Poetry reading following the class: Poetry Reading with Poet, Sarah Freligh

To register, email johnmbrantingham@gmail.com. In the subject line write, “Poetry Class”.

Poetry Reading with Poet, Sarah Freligh
2025-10-09 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Share your poetry with other poets and writers. Open to the community.
Poet, Sarah Freligh, will share about her work and writing journey.
Presented by author/educator, John Brantingham.

Anecdotes & Ancestors with Tom Jordan
2025-10-18 10:30 - 12:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Anecdotes & Ancestors with Tom Jordan
A discussion of a few colorful leaves from the Jordan family tree.
Former Sinclairville resident Dr. Tom Jordan will present a few anecdotes about some of the characters in his family tree as told to him by his dearly departed relatives. Penhollows, Harpers, Torreys, Edsons, and McClarans may be interested in attending.
Afterwards at Evergreen Cemetery view a few of the graves of those discussed and assist with collecting ground penetrating radar data across areas of interest.
Tom Jordan, PhD, PG Researcher & Part-Time Faculty GIS Map Tech Specialist Youngstown State University

Books Unlimited Book Club
2025-10-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
An immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China.
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus , they tell from adversity beauty can bloom.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights.
How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts? A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.

Copies are available through the library system.
No registration is required.
