Welcome!

This week is all about welcomes. First of all, welcome to This Week on Martine. We decided to upgrade our newsletter from a monthly to a weekly to help us highlight all the programs and activities happening here at the Library. Look for announcements about programs, new services, the latest content, as well as other activities happening in White Plains.

This past week also saw the installation of some new signs at the Library, including the sign above our Welcome desk in the lobby. Featuring “welcome” in over 40 languages—we solicited input from our patrons—we hope this sign makes everyone feel at home in the Library. It’s fun to staff the desk and watch as families and children search for their “welcome” on the sign.

We also installed the mega Hub sign—quite the feat!—which will designate where patrons can get help in our new library for adults. The sign employs many of the words (connect, discuss, explore, learn, technology) that participants in our focus groups used to describe what they wanted in the library.

More about the Hub: the week of October 23 our new furniture will be installed, and the following week our collections and staff will migrate from the second floor to their permanent home on the first floor. Look for the café to open in early December.

Gala Auction Items

Art Returns to the Castle

Art in the Castle is rolling out its second season with the help of Lily Fearon, a talented Bachelor of Fine Arts candidate at Purchase College. The monthly art classes offer 3rd-5th grade White Plains residents the opportunity to try their hand at a variety of artists' media including pencil, oil pastels, charcoal, collage material, water color and acrylic paints.

Fearon displays library books on famous artists from various periods to encourage conversation in a nurturing and fun environment. She teaches the children new techniques at each session covering concepts such as mixing colors, brush stroke, still life studies, shading and more.

Art in the Castle is one Saturday a month 10/21, 11/18 and 12/16 at 2:00 p.m. in the Trove. Registration is required and opens at 10:00 a.m. the Monday prior to the Saturday class. Register at the Compass or by calling (914) 422-1476.

This Week in White Plains

Who is Lying, Who is Spying?
Old Books and New

The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman (2015) Dead drops. Secret meetings. Suicide pens. Fact that reads as thrilling as fiction about Russian engineer Tolkachev who daringly passed critical military secrets to the CIA case officers in Moscow in the early days of the Cold War, eluding the KGB just blocks away. For a while at least….


Defectors by Joseph Kanon (2017) Not only does Simon lose his State Department job when his beloved, charismatic, self-interested brother is exposed as spy in the CIA and defects to the Soviet Union, but years later he is drawn into Frank's treacherous schemes when he travels to Moscow to help him edit his memoir.


A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carré (2017) Narrator Peter Guillam, retired spy and protégé of George Smiley, reflects on the moral ambiguities of the work they all did during the Cold War—especially his role in the deaths of a fellow agent and recruit. A nuanced weaving of past and present with the fascinating characters from Le Carre’s earlier books making appearances.

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (2013) (First in a trilogy -- followed by Palace of Treason and the forthcoming Kremlin’s Candidate – by a veteran CIA spy. Steely and gorgeous Dominika Egorova, rising star in Putin’s ruthless intelligence service, is tasked with ensnaring dapper CIA agent Nate Nash and identifying the mole who is spying for the Americans. She and the CIA have other plans. Look for the movie version starring Jennifer Lawrence this spring.

Photo of the Week