Learn about: Wills, health care proxies, powers of attorney, what documents to keep and for how long.

A volunteer lawyer will explain it all so you can begin to make more informed personal health care and financial decisions!

Now in its fourteenth year, the New York State Bar Association Elder Law Section has sponsored this public service program annually.

Handouts and sample documents will be given out to the audience to assist people in making informed decisions about important legal issues.

For more information please call the library at (845) 341-5479.

Book: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 7-9 PM
Scholar: Mary Makofske, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Orange Dept. of English and Foreign Languages.
"How much does a house know?" In the vice president's mansion in an unnamed South American country, a lavish party is taking place to celebrate the birthday of a visiting Japanese businessman. An American opera singer is entertaining the guests, dignitaries, and high-ranking officials from around the world, when suddenly the room is plunged into darkness. Terrorists invade the mansion and demand that the president of the country come forward. It turns out that the president is not at the party; he has stayed home to watch a popular soap opera on television. Events set in motion irrevocably alter the lives of everyone involved.


Book: Jim the Boy by Tony Earley
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2008, 7-9 PM
Scholar: David McTamaney, English Dept. Monroe-Woodbury High School (retired).
Tony Earley gives us a luminous portrait of a ten-year-old boy growing up in the Depression-era town of Aliceville, North Carolina. His mother is a widow. They live in Aliceville with Jim's three uncles, Zeno, Coran, and Al. They're content. Alice McDermott, author of Charming Billy writes, "Jim the Boy is a delight. A sweet, graceful novel that charms the reader with marvelous language, honest emotion, and authentic characters who are no less human, no less complex, for being sincere and straightforward, and good."


Book: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 7-9 PM
Scholar: Anne Sandor, Assistant Professor, SUNY Orange Dept. of English and Foreign Languages.
Lily is haunted by memories --- of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness. In 19th Century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Discover the deep bond between Snow Flower and Lilly and their sequestered world.


Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 7-9 PM
Scholar: Chris Godwin, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Orange Dept. of English and Foreign Languages.
Hosseini brings compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women, Mariam and Laila. Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss, and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them, in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul, they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other and will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.


Book: I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 7-9 PM
Scholar: Peggy Abt, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Orange Dept. of English and Foreign Languages.
Mark Brian, a young priest, is sent to the Native American village of Kingcome in British Columbia by his bishop who knows that Brian has less than thee years to live. In the village, Mark comes to understand the Kwakiutl Indians around him and sees how their traditions are being destroyed through the influence of white men. Mark slowly becomes a part of the Indian world, learning its language and ways until "time has lost its contours". The contrasts of two cultures form the backdrop of this moving look at the relationship between Mark and his parishioners and their vanishing way of life.