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The City of Cambridge offers free access to hundreds of datasets on its Open Data Portal, covering everything from crime and traffic to property and even dog names. Join us for a hands-on workshop at the Cambridge Public Library to explore what's available and learn how to analyze and visualize this data — including how to use AI tools for data exploration. No prior experience or expertise is required. Register now for this free, one-hour course. Sign up for the Cambridge open data newsletter to be informed about future open data courses.

August selection: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride Reading Interests: We read mostly contemporary Fiction, with forays into non-fiction, 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.

Children and their grown-ups are invited to this special kid-centered cookbook club! This month, we're celebrating favorite characters and pop culture recipes! Bring a dish to share, or just come to talk about your experience with a chosen cookbook. No need to bring a dish to join. Visit Valente for a selection of cookbooks that are ready to check out. This book group is for children of all ages and their caregivers and families. For more information contact Maggie at mfrench@cambridgema.gov or call 617-349-4015.

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Stephen Greenblatt—Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, a leading scholar of English Renaissance literature, and author of sixteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winner The Swerve—to celebrate the paperback release of Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival, which released in hardcover in 2025 and received immense praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to the paperback release of Dark Renaissance, Greenblatt's first work Sir Walter Ralegh: The Renaissance Man and His Roles, originally published in 1973 and based on Greenblatt's dissertation, will be rereleased in paperback on September 1, 2026 with a new foreword from Greenblatt. Registration is required.

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Francis Fukuyama—Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the author of The End of History and the Last Man—for a discussion of his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man. More than a conventional memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man is personal history as political history—the story of a life that illuminates the troubled fate of democracy and liberalism over the last fifty years. Registration is required.

Hand Embroidery will cover an assortment of basic embroidery stitches that can be used to embellish your clothing and hide (or highlight!) holes and stains! Leave class with a sampler of embroidery stitches you can refer back to, along with knowledge of tools, materials, and techniques for stitching up embroidered designs. Suitable for beginners with little or no embroidery experience, or those who want a refresher on the basics.

Hand Embroidery will cover an assortment of basic embroidery stitches that can be used to embellish your clothing and hide (or highlight!) holes and stains! Leave class with a sampler of embroidery stitches you can refer back to, along with knowledge of tools, materials, and techniques for stitching up embroidered designs. Suitable for beginners with little or no embroidery experience, or those who want a refresher on the basics.

Hand Embroidery will cover an assortment of basic embroidery stitches that can be used to embellish your clothing and hide (or highlight!) holes and stains! Leave class with a sampler of embroidery stitches you can refer back to, along with knowledge of tools, materials, and techniques for stitching up embroidered designs. Suitable for beginners with little or no embroidery experience, or those who want a refresher on the basics.

Hand Embroidery will cover an assortment of basic embroidery stitches that can be used to embellish your clothing and hide (or highlight!) holes and stains! Leave class with a sampler of embroidery stitches you can refer back to, along with knowledge of tools, materials, and techniques for stitching up embroidered designs. Suitable for beginners with little or no embroidery experience, or those who want a refresher on the basics.

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Daniel Pollack-Pelzner—cultural historian, theater critic, and professor of English and theater at Portland State University—for a discussion of his highly anticipated biography of Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda, titled Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist. He will be joined in conversation by Dani Snyder-Young—esteemed Northeastern University theater professor, who appears in Lin-Manuel Miranda as his director for the Wesleyan production of Jesus Christ Superstar that launched him into collegiate superstardom. Registration is required.