Music for Lovers & Music Lovers: Earle Jager & the Memory Laners

Valentine’s Eve - Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 pm

Bring your sweetheart or find a new one in the Barth Community Room on Thursday, February 13 when San Marino resident Earle Jager and his Memory Laners perform tunes from the 1930s through the 1960s. The band will evoke pop tunes from the past and surely send listeners into a state of nostalgic reverie. You might even be moved to dance cheek to cheek!

What Is Hospice Anyway?

with author Kathleen Vallee Stein

Sunday, February 16 at 2:00 pm

There is no guidebook on when and how to stop treatment of a terminal illness. On Sunday, February 16 at Crowell Public Library, author Kathleen Vallee Stein will share her family’s experience with hospice which she chronicled in the book, Loving Choices, Peaceful Passing: Why My Family Chose Hospice.  Ms. Stein will offer an intimate account of how the myriad end-of-life decisions affect a family.  Bob Vallee had the courage to accept his impending death and lived out his final days at home in his daughter’s care. He passed peacefully, in his sleep, twenty-nine days after entering hospice.

Ms. Stein’s personal experience as a family member, not as a doctor or hospice nurse, provides a window into how to solve problems of mortality, of caring for a loved one, and of the terrors and rewards of responsibility. She presents a lens-shifting view of role reversal as she takes on more, and sometimes unexpected, responsibility for her parents.  Stein also contends with the onslaught of family issues, such as when her estranged brother showed up and resurrected family feuds and unleashed sibling rivalry.

The topic of hospice is monumentally difficult for families to discuss. Most Americans want to pass peacefully at home, but sixty percent die in acute care hospitals and another twenty percent in nursing homes,^* often enduring aggressive and futile treatment. Stein’s candid recounting of her difficult, but also transformative journey can allow family members to talk honestly and plan ahead, thus avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering for their loved ones, and for themselves.

Kathleen Vallee Stein was the Manager of the California Department of Aging's Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) from 1989 to 1995. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star-News and the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Visit her at valleeview.com.

Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life

with author Diane Tavenner

When Bill Gates places a book title in his top five for the entire year, people sit up and notice.  And they take advantage of opportunities to learn more, as when Diane Tavenner comes to Crowell Public Library to discuss Prepared:  What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life.  “Preparing our kids for college, a career, and life is a long journey,” Gates writes. “Diane has written a wonderful guidebook to help all of us make the most of the adventure.”^* Because of the significance of this title, Crowell Library will offer Tavenner’s program at two different times on Wednesday, January 29:  9:00 am and 7:00 pm, so that working parents and stay-at-home parents can all benefit from Tavenner’s expertise.  The program will be moderated by Beyond the Book’s Julie Lin.

Diane Tavenner is the cofounder and CEO of Summit Public Schools, one of America’s most innovative public school networks. Gates visited a Summit school several years ago and was “blown away” by his experience there. In Prepared, Tavenner explains the philosophies on which her schools are built: self-directed learning, project-based learning and mentoring. She shares a blueprint for how parents can stop worrying about their children’s future and start helping them prepare for it.  She will give tips on what students need to succeed in college, thrive in the workplace and lead confident fulfilled lives.  Tavenner has worked as a school teacher, administrator and leader in traditional public schools throughout California.  She has an undergrad degree in psychology and sociology from USC and a master’s in administration and policy from Stanford University. 

Beyond the Book with Julie has been bringing book authors into homes and businesses for over two years.  Authors such as Julie Morgenstern, Drs. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, have sat down with Julie for interviews about the journeys that brought them to write books and how they hope to inspire, educate and make real differences in people’s lives. Julie Lin, born and raised in Southern California and a graduate of San Marino High School and USC, has worked as a morning news anchor, producer and show host for a CBS affiliate.