RESCHEDULED Defying the Crown in Early Cambridge: The 1664 Petition Campaign and Grassroots Constitutionalism
This event was rescheduled from May 22 and will now take place on May 28.
The new king Charles II sent royal commissioners to New England in 1664 in order to pressure colonists into compliance with his metropolitan agenda. When these royal commissioners tried to claim full authority over local courts and militias, Cambridge inhabitants were among the first to act in defiance. Their grassroots petition campaign drew on the experience of the English civil wars and pointed the way forward to the American Revolution.
Adrian Chastain Weimer is a Professor of History at Providence College and is currently a Long-term Fellow at the John Carter Brown Library. She is the author of A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) and Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Contemporary Book Group (Main)
This month's book: Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Reading Interests: The group concentrates on fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some past selections include: Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book and digital audiobook through OverDrive or the Libby app.
Registration is not required.
For more information, contact Susannah (sbtkacz@cambridgema.gov).
Contemporary Book Group (Main)
This month's book: Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Reading Interests: The group concentrates on fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some past selections include: Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book and digital audiobook through OverDrive or the Libby app.
Registration is not required.
For more information, contact Susannah (sbtkacz@cambridgema.gov).
Adult Book Group (O'Connell)
June selection: Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Hoopla.
This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome.
For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019.
Contemporary Book Group (Main)
This month's book: Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara
Reading Interests: The group concentrates on fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some past selections include: Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book through OverDrive or the Libby app.
Registration is not required.
For more information, contact Brita (bzitin@cambridgema.gov).
Adult Book Group (O'Connell)
November selection: Erasure by Percival Everett
Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: Wellness by Nathan Hill, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Hoopla.
This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome.
For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019.
O'Connell Branch Book Group (O'Connell)
December selection: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: Wellness by Nathan Hill, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Hoopla.
This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome.
For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019.
Contemporary Book Group (Main)
This month's book: The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie
Reading Interests: The group concentrates on fiction and narrative nonfiction. Some past selections include: Colored Television by Danzy Senna, Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, and Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book and digital audiobook through OverDrive or the Libby app.
Registration is not required.
For more information, contact Susannah (sbtkacz@cambridgema.gov).
Adult Book Group (O'Connell)
February selection: James by Percival Everett
Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction and Non-Fiction, with forays into older works and classics. Past selections include: Wellness by Nathan Hill, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel, and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
How to get the print book: Copies of the book are set aside at the O'Connell Branch. Click here for O'Connell Branch Hours
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as a digital audio and e-book through Hoopla.
This book group meets in person at the O'Connell Branch. No registration is needed. Drop-ins welcome.
For more information contact the branch at 617-349-4019.
True Crime Book Group (Main)
This month's book: The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty, by Valerie Bauerlein
Audience: Adults who are true crime fans.
How to get the print book: Copies of the print book are set aside at the Main Library. Visit the Main Library Q&A Desk at 449 Broadway during service hours and a staff member can help you check out a copy.
How to get the e-book or digital audiobook: This month’s book is available as an e-book and digital audiobook through the Libby app.
How to register: Click the registration link below to register.
We'll meet in the Rossi Room on the first floor of the Main Library.
For more information, contact Amie at alemire@cambridgema.gov.