Sinclairville Free Library

Sinclairville Samplers
2026-05-15 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-05-22 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-05-29 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-06-05 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-06-12 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-06-19 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-06-26 10:30 - 12:00, 2026-07-03 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) and 4 more dates | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Quilting, knitting, crochet, embroidering and fun with friends.

Book Club @ The Homestead
2026-05-15 15:00 - 16:00 | Bergquist Library at the Homestead in Gerry @ 4600 Route 60 Gerry NY 14740
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Book #1 in series of 3 titles

Goodreads Choice Award: Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction (2016), Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Debut Goodreads Author (2016)

Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades.
On the eve of a fateful war, New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she sinks deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspect neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. But, once hired, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious female-only Nazi concentration camp. The tragedy and triumph of their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, and Germany to Poland—capturing the indomitable pull of compassion to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
In Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly has crafted a remarkable novel of unsung women and their quest for love, happiness, and second chances. It is a story that will keep readers bonded with the characters, searching for the truth, until the final pages. (from Goodreads)

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

CLSC Book Club
2026-05-16 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.
Meets in person at 3 Lakes Cafe (located on Main Street in Cassadaga) to discuss books from the CLSC book list.
May’s Book Selection: Bog Queen by Anna North
The story of an anthropologist’s monumental discovery and the clash of civilizations it sets off over the fate of the land that holds us
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she has ever seen: Although its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved.
Soon Agnes is drawn into a mystery from the distant past, called to understand and avenge the death of an Iron Age woman more like her than she knows. Along the way she must contend with peat-cutters who want to profit from the bog and activists who demand that the land be left undisturbed. Then there is the moss itself: a complex repository of artifacts and remains with its own dark stories to tell. As Agnes faces the deep history of what she has unearthed, she is also forced to question what she thought she knew about her talent, her self-reliance, and her place in the world.
Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with contemporary urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects two young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a mysterious and complex landscape. (from Goodreads)

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
2026-05-18 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
The Green Mile by Stephen King

At Cold Mountain Penitentiary, along the lonely stretch of cells known as the Green Mile, condemned killers such as ‘Billy the Kid’ Wharton and the possessed Eduard Delacroix await death strapped in ‘Old Sparky’. But good or evil, innocent or guilty, prisoner or guard, none has ever seen the brutal likes of the new prisoner, John Coffey, sentenced to death for raping and murdering two young girls. Is Coffey a devil in human form? Or is he a far, far different kind of being?
There are more wonders in heaven and hell than anyone at Cold Mountain can imagine and one of those wonders might just have stepped in amongst them. (from Goodreads)

Copies are available through the library system.
Registration is requested. A copy of the book club selection can be reserved during registration.

Virtual Book Club
2026-05-28 18:00 - 19:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Join the discussion from the comfort of your living room!!!
Title Selection: The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself? (from Goodreads)

Register at Event & Program Registration.
You can request a copy be reserved during registration. Virtual link (Zoom) will be provided after registration.

Books Unlimited Book Club
2026-06-15 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction (2024)

A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.
Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.
Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?
Capturing the paranoia of the McCarthy era and evoking the changing roles for women in postwar America, The Briar Club is an intimate and thrilling novel of secrets and loyalty put to the test. (from Goodreads)

Copies are available through the library system.
Registration is requested. A copy of the book club selection can be reserved during registration.

Book Club @ the Homestead
2026-06-19 15:00 - 16:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
A Family Affair by Martha Hall Kelly
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels comes a captivating and heartfelt new novel, as a young dancer finds an unexpected partner–and gains the courage to live according to her heart. . .
In a city built on dreams, Trisha Holiday makes her living moving like one. But out of her dancer’s costume, she’s as down-to-earth as they come. That’s why she ignores the admiring note–and the accompanying $1000 bill–that arrives backstage after one of her ethereal performances. Yet the sender, a wealthy foreign prince, isn’t easily dissuaded. Seven years living and studying in the United States have made Malik long for the freedom to choose his own bride–and the woman he wants is Trisha.
After a breathtaking visit to Malik’s kingdom culminates in a marriage proposal, Trish attempts to adjust to an opulent new lifestyle complete with servants, sumptuous surroundings, and vast wealth. None of that matters to Trish as much as Malik’s love. With Malik’s sister Soraya proving a trusted new friend, they plan a lavish wedding surpassing anything she could have imagined.
Yet Trish’s new life will have challenges too–adjusting to a new and complex culture, to the myriad demands of Malik’s royal position, and to the expectations she faces as his wife. In the midst of her own major changes, Trish vows to help her sister, Emma, whose marriage has ended in a bitter breakup. And through it all, Trish will strive to stay true to what matters most–love, true friendship, and the ties that hold family together across the miles and the years. (from Goodreads)

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

Virtual Book Club
2026-06-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Join the discussion from the comfort of your living room!!!
Title Selection: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Readers’ Favorite Fiction (2025), Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Audiobook (2025)

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is a deeply moving literary novel that explores the meaning of friendship, loyalty, and the invisible ties that shape our lives.
With warmth, humor, and emotional depth, Backman tells a powerful story about human connection and the lasting impact of the people who stand beside us through life’s most defining moments.
Richly layered and beautifully written, this novel captures both heartbreak and hope, making it an unforgettable reading experience.
Perfect for readers who love character-driven fiction and emotionally resonant storytelling.

(from Goodreads)

Register at Event & Program Registration.
You can request a copy be reserved during registration. Virtual link (Zoom) will be provided after registration.

Unearth Your Talent: Music with Susan & Rico
2026-07-13 18:00 - 18:30 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Unearth Your Talent
Music
with Susan & Rico
Join local musicians, Susan & Rico, as part of our UNEARTH YOUR TALENT series as they share 30 minutes of original music.
Light Refreshments
Do you have a unique skill or talent that you would like to share or teach??? Contact the library…We would love to hear about it…
Information on all of our Summer Reading Programs.
Refreshments provided by sponsor CVCS Sinclairville Elementary School PTO

Unearth Your Story: Life Story Writing (Hybrid)
2026-07-16 18:00 - 19:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Join us to explore life themes together and to create a written life story for personal reflection or to share with friends and family members.
All materials (scrapbooking, etc) provided. For ages 12 and up.
Event is held in person and online. Register to receive online link.

Book Club @ The Homestead
2026-07-17 15:00 - 16:00 | Bergquist Library at the Homestead in Gerry @ 4600 Route 60 Gerry NY 14740
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle was “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
“Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did.” So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town — riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car (“I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn’t need to be fed if they weren’t working, and they didn’t leave big piles of manure all over the place”) and fly a plane. And, with her husband Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.
Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds — against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa or Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix audiences everywhere. (from Goodreads)

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

Poetry Reading in Memory of John Brantingham
2026-07-20 17:00 - 19:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Poetry Reading
in memory of
of author/educator, John Brantingham
Poetry reading in memory of poet and teacher John Brantingham, who taught and published widely in the world, but locally at Chautauqua and JCC and also gave classes at our library. This will be a time to share our own original poetry and/or readings from John’s work.
Please join us on Monday, July 20 from 5 to 7 pm for a time to honor John and the inspiration that he gave us.
We hope that it will be a meaningful time spent together in John’s memory.
John Brantingham

Books Unlimited Book Club
2026-07-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

The New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie returns with a thrilling story of Christie’s legendary rival Dorothy Sayers, the race to solve a murder, and the power of friendship among women.
London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second-class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.
May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.
Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels. (from Goodreads)

Copies are available through the library system.
Registration is requested. A copy of the book club selection can be reserved during registration.

Virtual Book Club
2026-07-23 18:00 - 19:00 | VIRTUAL EVENT
Join the discussion from the comfort of your living room!!!
Title Selection: The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood

She built a monument for all time. Then she was lost in its shadow. Discover the fascinating woman who helped design and construct the Brooklyn Bridge.
Emily Roebling refuses to live conventionally—she knows who she is and what she wants, and she’s determined to make change. But then her husband asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.
Emily’s fight for women’s suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when her husband Washington Roebling, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. But as the project takes shape under Emily’s direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building—hers, or her husband’s. As the monument rises, Emily’s marriage, principles, and identity threaten to collapse. When the bridge finally stands finished, will she recognize the woman who built it?
Based on the true story of an American icon, The Engineer’s Wife delivers an emotional portrait of a woman transformed by a project of unfathomable scale, which takes her into the bowels of the East River, suffragette riots, the halls of Manhattan’s elite, and the heady, freewheeling temptations of P.T. Barnum. The biography of a husband and wife determined to build something that lasts—even at the risk of losing each other. (from Goodreads)

Register at Event & Program Registration.
You can request a copy be reserved during registration. Virtual link (Zoom) will be provided after registration.

Unearth Your Talent: Flower Pounding & Embroidery with Brenda Nickerson
2026-07-27 17:00 - 19:00, 2026-08-10 17:00 - 19:00 | Sinclairville Free Library @ 15 Main Street, Sinclairville NY 14782
Unearth Your Talent
Flower Pounding & Embroidery
with Brenda Nickerson
Join local artist, Brenda Nickerson, as she unearths her talent of flower pounding, embroidery and applique. Flower Pounding is a fun art that uses a hammer to smash fresh flowers and leaves onto fabric. Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric using a needle and thread. You may also incorporate other embellishments like beads. The designs are sewn directly onto the material to add texture, color, and visual appeal. Applique is a decorative needlework technique where smaller pieces of fabric are cut and fused onto a larger background fabric to form a picture.
Framed Completed Project Example
Close-up of Flower Pounding and Embroidery
This is a two-part class: Monday, July 27th & Monday, August 10th from 5 to 7 pm.
For ages 12 & up.
Each class has a fee of $10. Cash, Check, PayPal*
Registration is Required

*Framing of project is not included in the class.
*PayPal Giving Fund (no fees, visit Support Your Library )
This program is made possible through the CCLS Summer Reading 2026 Mini Grant, provided by the Southern Chautauqua Community Foundation
