Category: Featured Content

29 Reasons to Love Your Library

Get more than books with your library card!

If you imagine a library as a building full of books, you’re not wrong. But 21st-century libraries have evolved with the changing needs of their communities.

“We serve as a community center for Auburn,” said Dan Szczesny, the Director of the Griffin Free Public Library. “For seniors, families, kids and whatever, we are ground zero for coming to talk about the town or seeing people that you haven’t seen, or that sort of thing.”

Caroline Pynes, the Director of the Chichester Town Library, explained the role a modern library plays for children and teens.

“I think a lot of kids don’t really understand what a resource the library is,” Pynes said. “I think it’s only [when] they grow up and get older that they realize what an asset it is for each community to have a public library and that we offer more than just books. We offer museum passes. You can ask us different questions, and we’ll try to find the answer for you. In some ways, we’re almost better than the internet.”

Here are some more reasons to love your library.

1. There are even more books to borrow than you see on the shelves. Tanya Ricker, the Director of the Whipple Free Library in New Boston, said that while it might take longer to get a book from another library, you will still get most books you request. “The current state of interlibrary loans,” she said, “is that we are still getting them. There is funding for it. However, unfortunately, they are very short-staffed at the State Library, and because there is a hiring freeze, we are not getting as many van deliveries as we have in the past. But other than that, it’s still business as usual right now, which is fortunate.”

You might be able to browse another library on your own.

Erin Matlin is the Director of the Leach Public Library in Londonderry. She said that, like many local libraries across the state, hers belongs to an association that allows patrons to check out books from other libraries.

“We are part of the GMILCS Consortium,” Matlin said. “That [gives] us access to a number of other libraries in the area. We share their catalog, so if we wanted to request a book from Derry, for example, one of our patrons could do that. They could either pick it up in Derry or have it sent here. When we joined, we were told by the consortium that it increased our patrons’ access to a collection by 1.4 million items.”

GMILCS includes libraries in Amherst, Bedford, Derry, Goffstown, Hooksett, Hudson, Londonderry, Manchester, Merrimack, Milford, Salem, Windham and New England College.

What are you reading?
I am personally reading a book by Neil Shusterman called All Better Now. It’s a young adult book and it takes place in post-Covid world. There’s a new virus that has been getting people sick and it’s a very interesting book as this virus has interesting consequences. Neil Shusterman is a pretty big author in the young adult publishing world, so it’s a fun book. —Dori Eisenstat, Teen Librarian, Manchester City Library

2. You can browse from a bike. There are two E-Bike Bookmobiles in Concord.

“When the weather is on our side, we go to local parks and people can check out books, return books, sign up for a library card,” said Jennifer Needham, Archivist, Reference, and Outreach Coordinator for Concord Public Library. “It’s a great way to promote the library.”

3. The books can come to you. Many area libraries will deliver books by mail or in person.

“We deliver books and other materials to clients who are homebound, “ said Dianne Hathaway, Director of the Goffstown Public Library. “For example, I deliver to a client who makes her own requests. She places her own requests online and I just really swap things with her. I never see her. But then we have another client who’s been with us for many years and the staff member who delivers to her sits and chats with her. Sometimes it’s about more than just books; it’s socialization as well.“

4. You can download digital books. Virtually all libraries provide access to digital content. Libby/Overdrive and Cloud Library allow library patrons to download e-books and audiobooks online as does Hoopla, which also offers e-books and comics. Search through a library’s catalog in person or online, and if a specific library doesn’t have a particular title the catalog will note if it is available for download from the State Library.

5. There are many ways to listen to stories. If a library patron wants to listen to a particular audiobook, many libraries lend out Playaways, small digital devices preloaded with a specific book including kids’ books.

“Playaways are good for people who don’t have a smartphone or might not have access to high-speed internet,” said Jennifer McCormack, Director of the Nashua Public Library, “Or they just want a simple plug-and-play. You just stick your headphones in, press the play button, and now you’re listening to an audiobook.”

What are you reading?
Currently I’m reading Perestroika in Paris. It’s a book told from the point of view of a horse. It’s a little different. It’s by Jane Smiley, who wrote A Map of the World. I’m enjoying that right now. —Sarah Leonardi, Assistant Director, Amherst Town Library

6. The library can be your emergency office. Most area public libraries offer photocopiers, computers and internet access, including wi-fi. Sarah Leonardi is the assistant director of the Amherst Town Library. She said this includes technology you might not expect.

“We do still have a fax machine,” she said, “because people still are using that. There are still some industries, [such as ] legal or medical, that require a fax, so we certainly offer that as a service.” People can use the library’s printer, she said, even from their own devices. “They can also print from mobile devices like their phone or their laptop, using another third-party service that we coordinate with called Princh. [They] can also send a print job from home and come to pick it up here.”

Many patrons depend on their library for a wi-fi connection, Juliana Gallo said. She is the Youth Services Librarian at the Baker Free Library in Bow. “We actually just updated our Internet and wi-fi just a couple of weeks ago so the signal is strong now throughout the building and even reaches into our parking lot, so we sometimes have people using it before we’re open or after we’re closed.”

7. You can experiment with a 3D printer. Some area libraries also have 3D printers that allow patrons to create plastic reproductions of physical objects. “We have a 3D printer in the children’s department,” said Jennifer Needham from the Concord Public Library. “If you go to our website, there’s actually a link that families can go to with a list of predetermined objects that can be printed, and they choose one. And then it’s free with a library card. Then the next time that family is in we hand over their 3D object.” Some libraries may have 3D printing fees, such as the 20-cents-per-gram cost at the Bedford Library.

8. Librarians will help you figure out technology. Local libraries are a good resource for people confused by technology. Natalie Lapointe is the Technical Services Librarian, at the Whipple Free Library in New Boston. “I basically help anybody who needs assistance,” she said. “That could be anybody elderly; it could be a 6-year-old on the computers here in the library; It could be someone who’s just trying to make a PowerPoint. I provide that service, judgment-free, here at the library.” She said that older patrons often look for guidance navigating some of the new technological challenges of modern living. “A lot of them just want to know the best practices for navigating a smartphone, or deciphering scams and spam messages.”

What are you reading?
What am I reading right now? I actually am reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. It’s like a dystopian sci-fi kind of novel but it was written back in the ’90s and she projected what life was going to be like in 2025, so I thought I should read it this year and see how accurate she was. It’s been interesting so far. —Juliana Gallo, Youth Services Librarian, Baker Free Library in Bow

9. Toddlers (and their parents) can make friends. Universally, libraries are a tremendous resource for people with young children. Many local libraries hold special events — like touch-a-truck events where small children can interact with actual fire trucks and police cars — as well as regularly scheduled events like storytimes or play groups. Karen Metcalf, the Head of Children’s Services at the Weare Public Library, said her library’s Baby and Toddler Playgroup was originally started to help mothers of young children make friends.

“We get moms, we have some dads, we have nannies and babysitters and grandparents,” Metcalf said. “It runs once a week and it’s for an hour and a half. It’s very much a drop -in program, so they can come and go with what fits their schedule. And there’s a staff member there, and we chat and highlight books and other things the library is doing, but the majority of it is just a chance for the kids to play and the adults to get to know each other and create a community.”

10. And puppets will tell you stories. Just about every library conducts story times for young children, where staff members or volunteers from the community read short, engaging books to groups of rapt toddlers and preschoolers, but the staff at the Bedford Public Library takes it a step further. Emily Sennott is the Head of Children’s Services there.

“We’ve been running Puppet Story Time since last September,” Sennott said. “We take the best picture books we can find that will work with puppets and we read a book and we act out the story with puppets.”

11. You can read the news from 100 years ago. One of the greatest and most under-used resources at some libraries is their microfilm collections of historical newspapers.

“Oh, my god — the car ads!” said Jennifer Needham from the Concord Public Library. “Or just like seeing what businesses existed in the area during that time, it was pretty cool.” Just try reading the storyline in a comic strip from long ago, she said, and it will be almost impossible not to get sucked in. Hundred-year-old newspapers are a solid way to research a family tree or the history of a property or local political conditions. “We make sure that all staff is trained on how to [operate] the microfilm machines,” Needham said. “So if someone comes in and they’ve never used it, we take the time. We show them how to load the microfilm and how to open the software and how to print if they did want to print an article.”

What are you reading?
I just finished The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, which I really loved. It is a fantasy book, but also a bit of a mystery and a lot of like court intrigue as well, so I was very into that. That was a good one. —Emily Sennott, Children’s Librarian, Bedford Public Library

12. There are book clubs for everyone’s favorite genres. Bonny John, the Director of the Boscawen Public Library, said the group she is part of meets once a month.

“As the Director, I choose a book and we get enough copies through our library loan system and then we sit on that Tuesday, we just discuss the book and what we thought about it And it’s usually a pretty good discussion because not everybody usually likes the book, which is awesome and the way I like it, because I’d rather have a real discussion.”

Library book groups can be centered around reading current best-sellers or be more niche. The Elkins Public Library in Canterbury hosts The Old Man Boring Book Club, said Director Rachel Baker.

This is for fans of local and military history and, as the group’s name suggests, is largely made up of older men.

“There were some older gentlemen in town who would come in and say, ‘Do you have the history of Dover 1863-1864? I heard that it’s a great book.’ We also have a Murder, Mayhem and Adventure book group.”

“Book clubs are kind of a library’s bread and butter,” agreed Michelle Sprague, the Adult Services Librarian at the Wadleigh Memorial Library in Milford. “[Ours] range on topics from history, reading about racism — that’s nonfiction and fiction — and our evening and morning book groups, who meet often for just fun new novels. We also have a cookbook club. The members bake or cook recipes out of a new cookbook every month or a theme every month and they bring the dishes in to share. They also talk about the writing but it’s mostly about eating the food.”

You can also check on starting your own book club. At the Bedford Public Library, for example, cardholders can start their own discussion group and the library will help track down up to 10 copies of your book for group members, according to the website.

What are you reading?
What is on my desk right now is actually Amanda Grappone Osmer’s The Founding. She wrote a book about the Grappone Automotive Group and she’s presenting here in October, so I’m reading that in preparation for her appearance. —Rachel Baker, Director, Elkins Public library in Canterbury.

13. The whole city can be your book club. In Concord and Nashua, the idea of a book discussion group has been expanded to include each of the cities.

“This year’s [Concord Reads] book was Where You’ll Find Me,” said Jennifer Needham from the Concord Public Library. “What we do every year is we choose a book, we order a number of copies, we have a display as soon as you walk in the library for the public to check out, and then that month leading up to the author coming to speak we’ll have both children’s and adult programming that is thematically related to that Concord Reads. The last event is when the author comes, and for the past few years we’ve held that event at the Bank of New Hampshire stage. It’s so well-attended.”

Jennifer McCormack, Director of the Nashua Public Library, said the organizers of Nashua Reads try to pick a book by a well-known author to come speak about their work.

“They tend to be, I want to say, bigger-name authors,” McCormack said. Some of the authors who have come to speak at the library include Sarah Blake (The Gilded Hour), David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI), and Stephen Puleo (Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919).

14. The clubs aren’t just for books. “We have clubs for all different ages,” said the Director of the Merrimack Public Library, Yvette Couser. “For example, we’ve had a group of people who like to knit or crochet do any kind of hand stitching — right now. It’s usually yarn-work. They come in on Thursday afternoons and they have one of our meeting rooms for two hours and they visit with each other and work on their projects and it’s just lovely. We also have a crew of teenage boys coming after school. [One of the boys] found out that we have games, video games, and consoles, and decided to bring his friends down to the library, borrow a console, bring it into our meeting room, check out some games, hook it up to the TV in there and play.”

Clubs meeting at area libraries span a huge range of activities, from mahjong to a ukulele support group. The Bedford Public Library hosts a Pokemon Club. In Boscawen, there are yoga classes. Children can read to a dog at the Manchester City Library and their parents can learn how to write a resume and interview for a job.

What are you reading?
Oh my gosh I’m reading a book called Isola, by Allegra Goodman. I’m reading it from my book discussion group. It’s set in, I believe, the 1700s. And the main character has a guardian because she was orphaned as a small child. Her guardian takes her on one of his ships and they’re sailing to what turned into Canada and she ends up falling in love with the guardian’s secretary and that’s where I’m at right now. Something’s going to happen; I know it! —Dianne Hathaway, Director, Goffstown Public Library

15. You can watch an earthquake in real time. The Merrimack Public Library has a working seismograph on site. “Our seismograph is connected to an international network of seismographs,” said Library Director Yvette Couser. “The idea [is to have it] in a public space so that we could encourage people in our community to become interested in this level of science and become basically citizen scientists, and watch how the tectonic plates are moving in New England.”

16. You can apply for a passport. “We fill the same duties that most places people would go to a post office for, so we can fill that same role,” said Juliana Gallo from the Baker Free Library in Bow. “It’s a pretty hassle-free process, as long as people bring all the documentation they need.”

17. Or get a document notarized. Many librarians are Notary Publics. “The Brookline Public Library provides limited notary services at no cost to residents of Brookline and Brookline Public Library card holders,” said Stephanie Seales, the Library Assistant for Circulation and Inter-Library Loans. “I’m actually one of them. “We don’t [notarize] anything with real estate, though; that’s long and very complex.”

18. You can learn about a new culture. One of many activities held by the Nashua Public Library is something called Passport to the World, said Library Director Jennifer McCormack. “It’s an event series that we host about every quarter. We feature food from a local restaurant or vendor. We have music. We’ve had some great performers, dancers and other performers.” She said that she and her staff try to choose cultures that are representative of part of Nashua’s diverse population. “For instance,” she said, “Puerto Rico was one. We did a Ukraine Night. We’ve done China, Quebec and El Salvador. We started with Paris in January of 2024. Another really fun one was the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

What are you reading?
Right now, our reading group is reading The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. It’s been on the bestseller lists for months. It’s been pretty popular. —Bonny John, Director, Boscawen Public Library

19. You can explore new music on CD — and borrow a CD player. The Bedford Public Library has a collection of more than 2,700 music CDs from all genres. It’s an opportunity for patrons to explore new music, said Head of Information Services Patricia Kline-Millard — or to do a deep dive into one type, like classical or jazz.

“We just bought a two-CD set that was a live recording of [experimental jazz composer] Sun Ra. A wonderful thing about the library is that we do still have this physical format, especially for music that is harder to find online,” she said. “And we do have a CD player that we circulate, because a lot of people don’t own those anymore.”

20. You can take home a painting. The Manchester City Library has a collection of framed paintings and prints that patrons can take home and hang on their walls. “You can check out any of the framed artwork,” said Dori Eisenstat, the Library’s Teen Librarian. “You can keep it for up to eight weeks. There aren’t any renewals on them but you can bring it home, use it in any way you want, and bring it back in eight weeks.”

21. You can go to a film festival. The Nashua Public Library sponsors a Tiny Film Festival each year. “Our ceremony is approximately the same time as the Oscars,” said Library Director Jennifer McCormack, “so we usually take submissions in February, and then we have a screening of all the submissions early in March. Anybody from any age group can submit, and we judge by age group, so there’s little kids and teens and adults. It’s a one-minute film, on any topic that you want — it just needs to be suitable for public screening. It’s just a blast to do.” One of this year’s winners was The Case of the Missing Pizza. “The movie A Little Worm for the little kids was just so creative,” she said.

22. Or have a movie night of obscure movies at home. For film buffs, many libraries own subscriptions to services like Kanopy, Hoopla or IndieFlix, which allow patrons to stream movies and TV shows, some of which are hard to find elsewhere.

“You can stream films right from home,” said Nashua Library’s Jennifer McCormack. “You can put an app on your TV or on your device. It lets you watch a lot of independent films that are from smaller film houses. There’s also Kanopy Kids, so there’s kids’ content on there.”

What are you reading?
Right now I am reading a book by Kent Haruf, who is an author who has passed away, but he writes books set in rural eastern Colorado. His most well-known one is Plainsong. But the one I’m reading now is actually the first one he wrote, but it wasn’t the first one he published. It’s called The Tie that Binds. I love the roughness of first books. I just think I love that they’re not so polished. —Stephanie Seales, Library Assistant, Circulation and Inter-Library Loans at Brookline Public Library

23. You can plant a garden. Many area libraries maintain a Seed Library, where patrons can share seeds.

“It is basically seeds from plants of all types,” said Stephanie Seales at the Brookline Public Library. “People can come in and take whatever it is that they would like to plant and try to grow and then we also take donations after the growing season if someone knows how to save seeds. We’ve had classes here on how to save and preserve seeds. They can bring back seeds and put them in the library for the following growing season.”

“We actually have a donation envelope,” said Patricia Kline-Millard in Bedford, “that they put the seeds into that ask for information about the plants. ‘How easy was it to grow? How hard was it to grow? How big will it get?’”

24. You can get help writing your novel. As well as nurturing readers, some area libraries help writers develop their skills. The Boscawen Public Library holds a monthly Writers’ Group, said Director Bonny John.

“Sometimes there’s a theme,” she said, “but most of the time it’s just freestyle. We have some people who write poetry. Some people write about personal experiences, and some people just like to write stories. One of our group members two years ago actually had a book published about her experiences and the group was instrumental in helping her to do that, so it was pretty exciting for us.”

Each year, the Derry Public Library hosts the Derry Author Fest. “That’s only in the spring,” said Reference Librarian Erin Robinson. “It’s a full day for writers who are interested in learning the trade and the craft and how to get published. We have a full day of MFA-style [Master of Fine Arts] workshops. It’s free and open to the public.”

25. You can go on a grown-up field trip. Some libraries organize field trips for adults to visit the sorts of places they didn’t pay attention to when they were in school.

“We take a group of adults and we go off site, off campus from the library, to kind of explore [those places] a little bit more,” said Sarah Ballard, Adult Services Librarian for the Hollis Social Library. “We recently went to a local schoolhouse, we went to a restored cooper shed in town, and we went to the Nashua fish hatchery. And what’s fun about those trips is we usually try to partner with somebody who works there or somebody who knows something about those specific experiences and tell us about the history and we learn a little bit about what they do, what the history is, and we get kind of a one-hour education just as if you were a kid, but we’re kind of spending the day as adults learning about these things.”

“We had a field trip recently to the Meadow Ledge Farm in Loudon,” said Caroline Pynes, Director of the Chichester Town Library. “We did some apple picking and did a little tour of the orchard on a wagon. And we also had a cider demonstration, we had some cider after the cider demonstration, and then we had some of their apple cider doughnuts. People had a really great time and we ended up with a lot of apples that we took home.”

What are you reading?
I’m reading a book called My Best Friend’s Honeymoon. It’s a new rom-com by Meryl Wilsner. It’s about a woman who had her marriage fall apart at the last minute at the altar, and she goes on her honeymoon with her best friend, who’s also a woman who’s been in love with her for a long time. There’s laughs and love. It seems like it’s coming together for a happy ending. —Michelle Sprague, Adult Services Librarian, Wadleigh Memorial Library in Milford

26. You can check out museum passes. Almost all area libraries have passes available for patrons to visit museums for free or at a reduced rate, including sites such as the SEE Science Center and the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester; the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in Londonderry; the New England Aquarium, the Boston Children’s Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Children’s Museum in Dover. The Rodgers Library in Hudson, for example, also offers tickets to the Nashua Silver Knights games, passes for New Hampshire State Parks, discounts for New Hampshire Philharmonic performances and passes to the Salem [Mass.] Witch Museum (though not in October), according to the website.

27. You can borrow a pipe wrench or a set of bocce balls. More and more local libraries have a “Library of Things” that patrons can check out tools or equipment from.

“Maybe they only need to use something once,” said Tanya Ricker, the Director of the Whipple Free Library in New Boston. “They don’t need to go out and purchase it, or they want to test something before they decide to buy it, or it’s a matter of convenience. For instance, we have snowshoes. So say you have some family visiting and you all want to go snowshoeing. You don’t have to go buy extra snowshoes, you could use ours. We have a KitchenAid Mixer. Not everybody can afford a $500 KitchenAid mixer, but you can borrow it and make a fancy cake for your kid’s birthday. We have two wheelchairs that we also have available. We’ve got an external CD drive for your computer because most computers don’t come with them anymore. For us, it’s just trying to sort of figure out what our community needs and wants and be able to provide them with the opportunity to have those things.”

“We have board games, telescopes, and a paper shredder,” said Jennifer McCormack, Director of the Nashua Public Library. “We have one of those devices that you can check the code in your car if your check-engine light comes on. It’s a way to try things that maybe you think you might want to have, like a ring light [for filming videos] or a metal detector. We have a podcast microphone too, in the Teen Room.”

“We are lending out portable wi-fi hot-spots,” said Dianne Hathaway, Director of the Goffstown Public Library. “They allow folks to have internet access at home; it gives them that ability either for work or school. We’re circulating an XBox console. We’re circulating a page magnifier for someone who has low vision. We also have a pair of colorblind sunglasses that we’re lending. They’re very expensive so it gives people with colorblind issues the ability to try them out before they spend money.

What are you reading?
So I found the Booker Long List — the books that had been on the long list for the Booker Prize. And I’m going down the list and reading those. The list isn’t as long as I thought it was going to be. I had a patron when I worked at the Nashua Public Library who was reading all of the Pulitzer Prize books. That prize started in the ’40s and she was reading every one that was awarded. I had another coworker who for one year her annual New Year’s resolution was to read one book from each one of the Dewey series. So like the Dewey’s arranged by zeros or 100s or 200s or 300s. And she wanted to read one book from each of the 100s in Dewey.
Anyway, the book that I’m reading right now is called Universality. It’s by Natasha Brown. —Kersten Matera, Director, Maxfield Public Library in Loudon

28. You can also borrow a room. Need a place to host a community meeting? Rodgers Library in Hudson, for example, has a Community Room that can accommodate up to 60 people for not-for-profit groups, according to its website. For smaller groups, two study rooms are available, one that can be reserved in advance and another that is first come first served, the website said. Or if you just need some peace and quiet for yourself, Rodgers has study carrels available. Many libraries have a version of these offerings; see websites for information on reservations.

29. You can score a new puzzle, research your ancestors or find other new hobbies or adventures. Many libraries hold puzzle swaps, or crafting swaps where people can exchange crafting supplies. There are exercise classes for seniors. Many libraries hold genealogy classes and maintain special collections of documents to help people research their family trees. There are crafting classes, and movie screenings. There are first aid classes. There are escape rooms for children, teens and adults. There are groups for playing bridge, or cribbage, or Scrabble, or Dungeons & Dragons. There are chess clubs, and Lego groups for children and adults. Check out the “events” section of your library’s website for yet another reason to visit.

Your local libraries

  • Allenstown Public Library 59 Main St., Allenstown, 485-7651, allenstownlibrary.org
  • Amherst Town Library 14 Main St., Amherst, 673-2288, amherstlibrary.org
  • Bedford Public Library 3 Meetinghouse Road, Bedford, 472-2300, bedfordnhlibrary.org
  • Boscawen Public Library 116 N. Main St., Boscawen, 753-8576, boscawenpubliclibrary.org
  • Baker Free Library 509 South St., Bow, 224-7113, bowbakerfreelibrary.org
  • Brookline Public Library 16 Main St., Brookline, 673-3330, brooklinelibrarynh.org
  • Chichester Town Library 161 Main St., Chichester, 798-5613, chichesternh.org/town-library
  • Concord Public Library 45 Green St., Concord, 225-8670, concordnh.gov/1983/Library
  • Derry Public Library 64 E Broadway, Derry, 432-6140, derrypl.org
  • Dunbarton Public Library 1004 School St., Dunbarton, 774-3546, dunbartonlibrary.org
  • Elkins Public Library 9 Center Road, Canterbury, 783-4386, elkinspubliclibrary.org
  • George H. & Ella M. Rodgers Memorial Library 194 Derry Road, Hudson, 886-6030, rodgerslibrary.org
  • Goffstown Public Library 2 High St., Goffstown, 497-2102, goffstownlibrary.com
  • Griffin Free Public Library 22 Hooksett Road, Auburn, 483-5374, griffinfree.org
  • Hollis Social Library 2 Monument Square, Hollis, 465-7721, hollislibrary.org
  • Hooksett Library 31 Mount Saint Mary’s Way, Hooksett, 485-6092, hooksettlibrary.org
  • Hopkinton and Contoocook Town Library 61 Houston Drive, Contoocook, 746-3663, hopkintontownlibrary.org
  • Leach Public Library 276 Mammoth Road, Londonderry, 432-1132, londonderrynh.gov/leach-library
  • Manchester City Library 405 Pine St., Manchester, 624-6550, and West Branch Library, 76 N. Main St., 624-6560; manchesterlibrary.org
  • Maxfield Public Library 8 Route 129, Loudon, 798-5153, maxfieldlibrary.org
  • Merrimack Public Library 470 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5021, merrimack.aspendiscovery.org
  • Nashua Public Library 2 Court St., Nashua, 589-4600, nashualibrary.org
  • Nesmith Library 8 Fellows Road, Windham, 432-7154, nesmithlibrary.org
  • Pembroke Town Library 313 Pembroke St., Pembroke, 485-7851, pembroke-library.org
  • Wadleigh Memorial Library 49 Nashua St., Milford, 249-0645, wadleighlibrary.org
  • Weare Public Library 10 Paige Memorial Lane, Weare, 529-2044, wearepubliclibrary.com
  • Whipple Free Library 67 Mont Vernon Road, New Boston, 487-3391, whipplefreelibrary.org
  • Wilton Public and Greg Free Library 7 Forest Road, Wilton, 654-2581, wiltonlibrarynh.org

This Week 25/10/02

Thursday, Oct. 2

The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance (7 Eagle Square, Concord, 224-2281, nhpreservation.org) holds its biennial Statewide Preservation Conference featuring its Seven to Save announcement today from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. The day’s activities will provide information and networking for preservation advocates, students, community leaders, planners, architects, and others. Visit nhpreservation.org/events-calendar/2025-conference.

Friday, Oct. 3

The theme for October’s First Friday in downtown Concord, which runs today from 4 to 8 p.m., is Spooky Season. There will be food trucks on Capitol Street, including Cali Arepa, the Deadproof Pizza Co. and Teenie Wienies. There will be live music from The Wandering Souls Band from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Capitol Plaza with The Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region (pictured, from their Facebook page) slated to perform a dance at 6:30 p.m. And there will be street soccer matches in costumes with Samba X. In Bicentennial Square, events will be Oktoberfest themed, with live music from Joe Begin from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and a stein holding competition at Penuche’s Ale House, according to the website. Downtown businesses will stay open late and offer specials. Visit firstfridayconcord.com/october.

Saturday, Oct. 4

Broadway’s Next Hit Musical presents The Phony Awards, an original improvised awards show, at the Stockbridge Theatre (22-98 Bypass 28, Derry, 437-5210, pinkertonacademy.org/stockbridge-theatre) tonight at 7 p.m. Master improvisers gather made-up hit song suggestions from the audience and create a spontaneous evening of music and comedy. Tickets start at $33.

Saturday, Oct. 4

Legendary blues guitarist Robert Cray will perform at the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $54 through the Nashua Center’s website.

Tuesday, Oct. 7

Fantasy author R.A. Salvatore returns to Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) at 6:30 p.m. for a launch day event for his newest series, The Finest Edge of Twilight: Dungeons and Dragons. An author talk and Q&A will be followed by a signing line.

Wednesday, Oct. 8

As part of the Walker Lecture Series, hiker Carey Kish presents 7,400 Miles on Foot: Tackling the Triple Crown of American Hiking at the Concord City Auditorium (2 Prince St., Concord, 228-2793, theaudi.org) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Experience the highs and lows of long-distance hiking across America’s Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail, the “Triple Crown” of hiking. This event is free and open to the public.

Save the Date! Monday, Oct. 13

Pink Martini will perform at the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) Monday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Featuring three of the band’s favorite singers and long-time collaborators, the Pink Martini All-Stars tour conjures up a mix of old favorites and new treats, glittering with the band’s unique brand of catchy classic pop, big band sound, and Hollywood glamour. Tickets start at $64.

News & Notes 25/10/02

PFAS funds

NH Attorney General John M. Formella announced that the state has received an initial payment of nearly $8 million from the 3M Company’s nationwide PFAS settlement of public drinking water systems claims, according to a Sept. 24 press release. “The funds will be deposited in the N.H. Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund … for distribution to eligible public drinking water systems across the state,” the release said. “I am proud to announce this initial influx of substantial settlement funds to support the Granite State’s public water systems as they work with our Department of Environmental Services to address PFAS contamination and continue to provide safe, clean drinking water to Granite Staters,” said Attorney General Formella in a statement in the release. “This payment is the first installment of New Hampshire’s approximately $56 million allocation (before payment of attorneys’ fees and litigation costs) of settlement funds from Phase One of the 3M settlement, with an additional allocation of funds scheduled in Phase Two sometime after 2026. A second, larger, Phase One payment is expected near year-end with subsequent smaller annual payments continuing through 2033,” the release said.

CMC ER in Nashua

Catholic Medical Center, which is part of HCA Healthcare, is planning a nearly 10,000-square-foot freestanding emergency facility at 338 Amherst St. in Nashua, according to a Sept. 22 press release. A ground-breaking on the site, the former Leda Lanes location, is slated for Oct. 28 with the facility project to open in mid-2026, the release said. “The Nashua Emergency Room will provide patients with convenient, 24/7 access to high-quality emergency care … Equipped with advanced diagnostic technologies, including computerized tomography (CT), ultrasound and radiology, the facility will also feature an on-site laboratory, covered ambulance entrance, and a dedicated pediatric waiting and treatment area,” the release said. See catholicmc.com.

Fire prevention

Fire Prevention Week in New Hampshire and nationwide runs Sunday, Oct. 5, through Saturday, Oct. 11, according to a post at the NH State Fire Marshal’s Office Facebook page. This year’s theme is “Charge Into Fire Safety” with the mission to teach people “how to safely buy, charge, and recycle lithium-ion batteries” according to the National Fire Prevention Association. Lithium-ion batteries cannot be thrown away in the regular garbage, according to nfpa.org. As of July 1, it’s been illegal to “throw lithium-ion batteries into the waste stream to end up in a landfill or waste-to-energy incinerator” in New Hampshire because “these batteries can explode, give off caustic gasses, and catch fire spontaneously” according to a newsletter from NH Recycles in July. See call2recycle.org for a local lithium-ion battery dropoff spot.

See “Passion for Progress: Serigraph Prints by Corita Kent,” selections from the permanent collection at Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. The works will be on display through Dec. 5. “Kent’s contemporary ‘Pop’ style and motivation emerged from within her very own life as a sister of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in California, and folded into the revolutionary period of the 1960s, the peace movement, alongside tremendous social change and contradiction in both the secular world and her religious life in the Catholic Church,” according to the show description at anselm.edu. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m., the website said.

Dartmouth CARES (Community Awareness Research and Education) will hold a heart health screening on Thursday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Derry Public Library, 64 E. Broadway in Derry. The event offers free community screenings for cardiac health, including blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose screening, according to a library release. No registration required.

The United Way of Greater Nashua seeks volunteers to support the city of Nashua’s Winter Warming Station at the former Elm Street Middle School, according to a press release. The warming station will be open nightly, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Dec. 1 through April 15, and volunteers help with tasks such as facilitating activities for guests, overseeing supplies and monitoring guest belongings, in two-hour shifts, the release said. See tinyurl.com/StayWarmNashua2025.

Rock ’n’ roll revival

A classic celebration with The Dreamboats

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

The musical world of The Dreamboats begins with Elvis and ends around the time The Beatles stopped touring, but the tribute quartet casts a wide net within that time frame. Their sets include everything from “Wooly Bully” to Fats Domino’s deep track “My Girl Josephine,” along with “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Jailhouse Rock” and Motown favorites.

Performing in matching attire, they exude energy onstage, dancing in sync and showing genuine passion, even if none of them were born in time for the era.

“We’re just four young guys that truly grew up loving this music,” Dreamboats front man Chris Hummel said recently. “We don’t have anything else in our lives, performance-wise, other than this band.”

The band formed 16 years ago in Ontario, Canada, after singer and guitarist Hummel met drummer Johnny “G. Whiz” Marco at a music store jam session. The two bonded over a shared appreciation of ’80s movies like La Bamba, Great Balls of Fire and Back to the Future — their name came from a Lea Thompson line in the latter film.

After years of playing in their home country and occasionally touring Europe, the band received a life-changing invitation to perform in Palm Springs in 2017. They played the kickoff party for Modernism Week, a celebration of architecture that annually attracts crowds of up to 50,000. It went over so well that they were asked back the following year.

“They said, ‘We’ve never booked the same band twice in all the years we’ve had this festival,’” Hummel recalled. “So we ripped the place up again, and we gained this staple reputation. Then we did this other thing called Camp, and had more of a response in two weeks than we did for six years back in Mississauga.”

After the pandemic decimated live entertainment and reduced The Dreamboats to just Hummel and Marco, the two made a decision to relocate.

“We had a built-in crowd here,” Hummel said to explain the move to Coachella Valley. “There’s only so many places you can play in Canada … so much more of the vibe and demographic we’re going for is all here.”

That said, it wasn’t an easy journey.

“There was a lot of stress, tears and finances we had to work through,” Hummel said. “I’m thankful we did, because now we’ve got great momentum. We’re getting a lot of gigs, I have great support on the left and right-hand side of me, and people have really fallen into the place. I feel like we’re an unstoppable machine.”

That support comes from bass player Justin Zoltek, and lead guitarist Andy Alvarez, whose stage name is Andy Zappa. In a business where tribute acts often pay the bills for musicians who’d rather make their own music, The Dreamboats are the rare exception, Hummel insists.

“This isn’t just some whipped up thing, we’re a group of guys that’s on a mission,” he said. “We honor the ones that are still with us, we try to meet up with them and play their songs and also contribute to the people that influence us that are not with us anymore. We’re always trying to keep the vibe of ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll alive.”

Their lead guitarist’s frenetic fretwork adds a modern flourish to music — Andy Zappa can shred. Beyond that, every band member gets a spotlight vocal, even though Hummel is mostly the front man. It’s a nod to The Beatles, who were the first popular band of the British Invasion partly because everyone in it was personally endearing.

Overall, they tear into the music with both studied precision and good-time gusto.

“We honor the classic way it was delivered,” Hummel stressed. “No bells and whistles, nothing crazy. Real, raw guitar, no auto-tunes, no fancy effects. What you see is what you get when it comes to us. We’re doing our best to take that original, minimal approach and still try to blow your mind in the process with everything else in the show.”

The Dreamboats

When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Where: Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St., Derry
Tickets: $33 and up at pinkertonacademy.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Get your Märzen and festbier

Local breweries hold Oktoberfest celebrations

By John Fladd

jfladd@hippopress.com

According to Carla Reardon, the Event Manager for the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Merrimack, the Oktoberfest event taking place at the brewery this weekend is the recontinuation of a time-honored tradition.

“The last time that we held Oktoberfest here at the Brewery was in 2018,” Reardon said, “and we decided to bring it back. It’s a three-day event and we’re going to have a variety of live music performances, games, German beer, and vendors, and it’s going to take place at our newly developed event space down at the stables.” She explained that the Stables used to be actual stables to house visiting Clydesdale horses, “but we have repurposed the space.”

One of the highlights of the event will be the German beer. Most Americans think of Anheuser-Bush as a quintessentially American company, but it’s actually a worldwide corporation, including breweries in Germany, making German beer, like the three types being served at the Merrimack event.

“We’ll have our Spaten lager,” Reardon said, referring to a mild, Munich-style lager. “We will have our Spaten Oktoberfest [a darker Märzen style of beer], and also our Franziskaner [a German Hefeweizen, a copper-colored wheat beer].”

There will also be food vendors on site, as well as food trucks, live music, and local artists and craftspeople from all across New England, Reardon said.

More Oktoberfests

Several area breweries are holding Oktoberfest celebrations in the next few weeks. Know of any not mentioned here? Let us know at jfladd@hippopress.com.

• Candia Road Brewing Co. (840 Candia Road, Manchester, 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com) will host Füt Fest on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 1 to 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28, from 1 to 5 p.m., to celebrate the release of its seasonal Märzen beer. The weekend will feature a special menu and line up of bands on both days

• There will be an Oktoberfest Party at Concord Craft Brewing (117 Storrs St., Concord, 856-7625, concordcraftbrewing.com) Saturday, Sept. 27, from noon to 9 p.m. Celebrate Oktoberfest with German food specials, special glass steins, give-aways and house-brewed kolsch and festbier. Visit facebook.com/ConcordCraftBrewing.

• To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) will hold its seventh annual Oktoberfest on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 1 to 8 p.m. to celebrate the release of its Oktoberfest Altbier. The day will feature drink specials, beer bratwurst, oompah music, stein holding contests and more; lederhosen and dirndls are encouraged. Visit facebook.com/tosharebrewing.

• Oktoberfest 2025 will take place at the Spyglass Brewing Co. (306 Innovative Way, Nashua, 546-2965, spyglassbrewing.com) Saturday, Sept. 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. There will be live music, food specials, yard games, Das Boots for drinking and buying, and more. Visit facebook.com/spyglassbrewing.

• Henniker Brewing Co. (129 Centervale Road, Henniker, 428-3579, hennikerbrewing.com) will hold its Oktoberfest Friday, Oct. 3, through Monday, Oct. 6, with Oktoberfest competitions, food vendors, the taping of the Oktoberfest Marzen Cask (Saturday at 1 p.m), live music each day and more, according to hennikerbrewing.com, where you can find the schedule of the weekend’s events

• 603 Brewery in Londonderry will hold a Fall Fest on Saturday, Oct. 4, noon to 8 p.m. featuring food trucks, live music and a DJ, local artisans, a stein holding contest, kitchen specials and more, according to 603brewery.com.

• Mountain Base Brewery (553 Mast Road, No. 111, Goffstown, 935-7132, mountainbasebrewery.com) will host the Fourth Annual Mount Uncanoonuc Brewfest on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 1 to 5 p.m. There will be brewery reps and food vendors in attendance, as well as live music and more. Visit facebook.com/mountainbasebrewery.

• Sunstone Brewing Co. (298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 216-1808, sunstonebrewing.com) will host Oktoberfest – A Renaissance Faire Celebration and Oktoberfest Beer Release on Saturday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 12., from 1 to 9 p.m. Expect crafts, vendors, competitions and more.

Oktoberfest at the Biergarten

Where: The Biergarten at Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack
When: Friday, Sept. 26, from 6 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Sept. 27, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 28, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (The celebration is 21+ on Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m.)
More: The event will feature German beer, food trucks, live music and more — lederhosen welcome, according to a post on The Biergarten’s Facebook page, where you can find a link for tickets (also via budweisertours.com/mmktours).

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Concord underworld

Homegrown indie film Granite Orpheus premieres

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Watching Granite Orpheus is akin to stepping on board a time machine, but that wasn’t the plan when a group of upstart filmmakers and actors set to work over Concord’s long Market Days weekend in 2015. The movie, which has its official premiere Sept. 26, retells the star-crossed lovers’ tragedy amidst the milieu of the Capital City.

Ongoing construction along Main Street juxtaposed with the annual three-day street fair and music festival gave Rick Broussard the idea for the project. He and John Hession run Resurrection Films, a company focused on energizing New Hampshire’s film community. The two began building a script and recruiting actors.

“Downtown was in this kind of weird upheaval; half the street was in construction, the other half was basically complete,” Broussard recalled. “It seemed like a transitional moment, and it reminded me of a movie I’d seen in my college days — when I was pretending to go to college — called Black Orpheus. It’s this classic Greek myth set in Rio during Carnival.”

With Bryan Halperin and Gina Carballo cast as Orpheus and Eurydice, and a motorcycle-riding Yarrow Farnsworth as Hades, they filmed what Halperin called “a love letter to Concord,” with shots of Bicentennial Square, the Train Yard, Pitchfork Records and other landmarks.

In a scene that opens Granite Orpheus, the beloved but now defunct Pat & the Hats play in Penuche’s basement.

“One of those little local miracle bands,” Broussard said. “You just knew that they could do anything and go anywhere, but the limitations of fame and time and space don’t let everybody great become great; but they were a great band.” Their involvement was the spark for bringing Brian Coombes of Rocking Horse Studio on as the film’s Music Director.

The team wanted to use the downtown bar for a scene reminiscent of the Yardbirds’ appearance in the ’60s art film Blow Up. “It’s a very underworld kind of feeling,” he said. “Our Orpheus has to ascend the stairs out into Bicentennial Square, a beautiful plaza full of stonework, sculptures and such, and a fountain. And there’s a band playing out there.”

David Shore’s Trunk O’ Funk, one of a few annual event bands routinely at Market Days, was performing its set during the scene.

“We tried to get as many [festival performers] into the movie as we could because … this was Concord’s portal into Hades. Every place has a different one.”

An initial three-day filming schedule grew.

“We originally said we’ll just cut it off and work with what we got,” Broussard said. “But what we got was all these great additional talents like Bryan and everything that he brought to bear. Friends of John Hession’s who were talented musicians, had a motorcycle gang, and also had great attitudes … it was too big.”

The effort continued for another week.

“Nobody said no, so we just kept working on it,” Broussard said. A year later, they set about cleaning up the footage, hoping to feature it at the next Market Days. Around that time, life got in the way. He and Hession both “went through at least four personal familial crises, and a global pandemic.”

A decade later, they finally got back to work on Granite Orpheus. Early last May, a final scene was filmed at Red River Theatres. Halperin arrived with two pieces of good news: “I had saved the unique black shirt they’d given me years ago, and luckily, I haven’t changed too much in 10 years.”

The crew was further buoyed by the response to a casting call for extras.

“We got about 40 people from our little mailing list,” Broussard said. “Some of them were very talented, and wind up getting featured to a degree [in the Red River scene]. It was a connection of what we had done, and what we needed to get to pretty much the end of the movie.”

For Broussard, the delay was a blip.

“Ten years later was not really that long, particularly when you’re talking in classical Greek terms,” he said. The upcoming premiere will include a post-film discussion with the crew and actors. There will be more screenings of Granite Orpheus, including at Pembroke City Limits, date to be determined, and the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.

He likens the project to Rocky, and not because he believes it’s Oscar-bound.

“It’s going to win by not getting knocked down, it’s not going to knock out everybody else,” he said, adding, “I am perfectly happy to show it to any audience and take their feedback and feel content that we did a great job.”

This faith guides Broussard and Hession’s film company, giving it a higher purpose.

“We need to seek art as desperately as Orpheus sought Eurydice, despite being doomed to crushing disappointments and failures almost every time,” Broussard said. “It’s for those brief glories, and I guess for the permanent illusion that we can all be artists in our lives and in our afterlives, that we carry on. Because it’s one of those myths that won’t die.”

Granite Orpheus

When: Friday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
Where: Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia
Tickets: $20 at etix.com

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!