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The Provincetown Public LibraryA Cultural Storytelling Center at Lands End
Open Daily:
Monday and Friday: 10-5
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: 10-8
Saturday and Sunday: 1-5
Please note: The doors are locked 15 minutes before closing time to ensure an empty and secure building. Thank you for understanding.
2019 Provincetown Book Festival
The fourth annual Provincetown Book Festival is a weekend of literary events for readers, writers, and book lovers of all kinds, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 13 – 15, 2019. All events are free and open to the public. All events take place at the Provincetown Public Library.
Headlining the 2019 Festival is a conversation between Christopher Castellani and Andre Dubus III, scheduled for 4:30 on Saturday, September 14. Christopher Castellani has published several novels, most recently Leading Men, about Tennessee Williams. Andre Dubus III’s most recent book is the novel, Gone So Long. Recipient of a Guggenhim Fellowship and many other awards, he is perhaps best known for the novel House of Sand and Fog and his memoir, Townie.
Other featured authors include African American memoirists Darnell Moore and Casey Gerald; and novelists Karen Dukess and Whitney Scharer. Three women writers who have spent time in the arctic or the Antarctic will speak on their experiences: poet Elizabeth Bradfield, novelist Julia Phillips, and non-fiction writer Bathsheba Demuth.
The Provincetown Book Festival opens on Friday night, September 13, with a reading and reception for the recipient of the Rose Dorothea Award, given annually by the Board of Library Trustees to an outstanding author from or influenced by the Outer Cape. The 2019 recipient has yet to be chosen.
On Saturday and Sunday, there will be a giant book sale on the Library lawn. On Saturday at 9:00 a.m., six local authors will read from their work in “Reading Local,” a special program curated by members of the Festival Advisory Committee. This will be followed by a session on New Writing for New Media, with Instagram artist Trent Preszler and podcast writer Helen Ellis. A full schedule of all Festival participants and events is available here. More information about all featured authors is available here.
The 2019 Reading Challenge
We’re told, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but what if someone gave you permission to choose a book just for the cover? What about that book that you don’t want to be caught dead reading, but secretly are dying to read? How about expanding your horizons by reading a book about books, a memoir, or a genre you don’t usually read?
The Provincetown Library 2019 Reading Challenge gives you permission to read just for fun while expanding your horizons. Read 12 books in 12 months. Choose your own books from 12 different categories, all of them guaranteed to bring you pleasure. Discuss your choices, have fun, and win prizes!
Anyone interested in a reading adventure can join our group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/614236512111364/), sign up on the Library website or at the circulation desk in the Provincetown Library. Signing up for the Reading Challenge qualifies you for a prize upon completion at the end of the year. You do not have to live in Provincetown to participate in the Reading Challenge, but anyone who checks all 12 books out of the collection at the Provincetown Library will get an extra prize.
The Provincetown Library Reading Challenge already has its own Facebook group page! Reading Challenge participants will be able to discuss their progress on Facebook, or in person at the Library’s Friday morning coffee hour. This will begin on January 4, 2019, at 10:00 a.m., and continue on the first Friday of each month thereafter.
This reading challenge originally appeared on a blog called “The Modern Mrs. Darcy.” Members of the Provincetown Library staff decided to challenge the Provincetown community to finish a similar list in 2019.
Here is the complete 2019 Provincetown Library Reading Challenge:
• A book you chose for the cover
• A book with a reputation for being un-put-down-able
• A book set somewhere you’ve never been but would like to visit
• A juicy memoir
• A book about books or reading
• A book in a genre you usually avoid
• A book you don’t want to admit you’re dying to read
• A book in the backlist of a new favorite author
• A book recommended by someone with great taste
• A book you were excited to buy or borrow but haven’t read yet
• A book about a topic or subject you already love
• A book you envy your best friend reading
Get out your library card and start reading!
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COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK FICTIONWHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia OwensSHADOW WARRIOR by Christine FeehanUNSOLVED by James Patterson & David EllisCITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth GilbertFALL by Neal Stephenson COMBINED PRINT & E-BOOK NONFICTIONUNFREEDOM OF THE...
Nan’s March Book Highlights
Juicy Memoirs! One category in the 2019 Reading Challenge is "a juicy memoir," but how do you know which books have the juice? Here are some guaranteed juicy books, as brainstormed by the library staff.
Nan’s January Book Highlights
Un-put-down-able! One of the categories in the 2019 Reading Challenge is a book that has the reputation of being un-put-down-able. Library staff members chose these 12 titles as suggestions to fit the bill. (You don't have to take the reading challenge in order to...
About the Provincetown Library:
Located downtown on Commercial Street, the Library is both a literal and metaphorical center of the Provincetown community, housing nearly 40,000 items, more than 30 works of art from the Town’s Art Collection, and the Rose Dorothea Schooner model.
Now Accepting Online Donations
Latest Video from the Provincetown Public Library:
Julie Lythcott-Haims at the PPL
August 2017 Writer's Voice Café
Brittany's Tech Tips: Uploading Video to YouTube
February 2017 Writer's Voice Café
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