Archives: Events

This is the last Coffee House before the summer break! Save the date of September 16th to kick off the new year of friendship and fun! Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything (in English of course!). Just come in and chat with others, have a cuppa and enjoy the company! Coffee House is free and open to all library members. No need to reserve! Donations welcome as always!

Come along and bring your knitting,

Have a natter while you’re sitting,

Or learn to knit with wool provided,

Needles loaned and stitches guided.

Knitted garments are très chic,

So be in vogue and start this week.

Knit and Natter is a free activity, open to all library members. No need to reserve, just come and enjoy! If anyone has some extra yarn please bring it in.

This is the last Coffee House before the summer break! Save the date of September 16th to kick off the new year of friendship and fun! Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything (in English of course!). Just come in and chat with others, have a cuppa and enjoy the company! Coffee House is free and open to all library members. No need to reserve! Donations welcome as always!

Come and play (simple) Bridge (cardgame) at the library! Engage in a brain-stimulating sport: the Mini Bridge Exclusive Society. Discover, learn and play Mini Bridge in a relaxed, casual and informal ambiance. Mini Bridge, as developed by MBES allows and encourages

• conversations while playing the game,
• comments and remarks before, during and after the game,
• second thoughts,
• not taking oneself too seriously,

…in a nutshell, MBES (Mini Bridge Exclusive Society) proposes a different concept from the competing conventional Bridge Clubs.

Feel free to sign up and come and discover this new activity for library members! It is free and open to members of the library. Please contact the library to join!

The Saturday Reading Group is for anyone who loves to read, socialize in English, and meet new people. For this meeting, the group will read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

Meetings are once a month on Saturday afternoons starting at 3 pm. Open to all library members. To sign up please contact the group coordinator at bookgroup@ellia.org.

The September read for the book club is “Middle England” by Jonathan Coe.

The country is changing and, up and down the land, cracks are appearing – within families and between generations. In the Midlands Benjamin Trotter is trying to help his aged father navigate a Britain that seems to have forgotten that he exists, whilst in London his friend Doug doesn’t understand why his teenage daughter is eternally enraged. Meanwhile, newlyweds Sophie and Ian can find nothing to agree on except the fact that their marriage is on the rocks…

As acutely alert to the absurdity of the political classes as he is compassionate about those who have been left behind, this is a novel Jonathan Coe was born to write.

To join the book club please send an email to the group coordinator here.

Come along and bring your knitting,

Have a natter while you’re sitting,

Or learn to knit with wool provided,

Needles loaned and stitches guided.

Knitted garments are très chic,

So be in vogue and start this week.

Knit and Natter is a free activity, open to all library members. No need to reserve, just come and enjoy! If anyone has some extra yarn please bring it in.

This is the last Coffee House before the summer break! Save the date of September 16th to kick off the new year of friendship and fun! Join the library community for a special moment to talk about anything and everything (in English of course!). Just come in and chat with others, have a cuppa and enjoy the company! Coffee House is free and open to all library members. No need to reserve! Donations welcome as always!

“Books and Tea” is a monthly meeting for bookworms and tea drinkers. Bring a book you’ve really enjoyed, talk about it and pass it on! The group meets from 2:15 to 3:45. Note that the group will be meeting at La Cour…23 rue de la Roe. No need to sign up, just come and enjoy!