Ester Village Library

Book Club
2025-01-04 15:00 - 16:30, 2025-04-05 15:00 - 16:30 (America/Anchorage) | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725

Book Club
2025-02-01 15:00 - 16:30 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
Blue Highways, A Journey into America, by William Least Heat Moon
Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation’s backroads.

William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about “those little towns that get on the map — if they get on at all — only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi.”
His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Book Club
2025-03-01 15:00 - 16:30 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse
When Herman Hesse visited India in the early days of the 20th century, he was captivated by the people, their customs, their culture, and their religion. On returning to Germany, he wrote a masterpiece on a young man’s search for identity and meaning in a civilization that has lost its way. Loosely based on the early life of the Buddha, the book documents the journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening of a character called Siddhartha.
The name Siddhartha was the one the Buddha was known by before his renunciation. Siddhartha in Sanskrit is translated as “Siddha” (achieved) and “artha” (what was searched for). The novel follows Siddhartha from a life of comfort of privilege to his quest for truth in a world plagued by sorrow and suffering.
The themes of Siddhartha are universal in that they are an account of a young person’s search for meaning — one that all readers can relate to. As Hesse skillfully takes us on a journey, he uses his poetic prose to challenge our preconceived notions of what a spiritual life and meaningful self-enrichment entail. Blind adherence to all systems of belief is shunned in favor of living in the moment and appreciating its ever-changing nature. Generations of readers have and will continue to find wisdom in the pages of Siddhartha.

Lynda Sather, local author, presentation
2025-09-06 16:00 - 17:00
Join us to hear local author Lynda Sather talk about her latest book,” A Smack of Jellyfish: Fear, Fish and Finding Yourself in Alaska”, a coming-of-age story about a young woman experiencing Petersburg, Alaska for the first time in 1973.
This will be a 20-minute talk about her book, and the process of writing fiction versus memoir, followed by a Q & A session afterwards.
Here is more of a description of the book:
A Smack of Jellyfish

Annual Fall Garlic Sale
2025-09-13 12:00 - 14:00 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725

Adult Book Club
2025-10-04 15:00 - 16:30 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
This month’s selection: West With Giraffes, by Lynda Rutledge
From Amazon:
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.
Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

Annual Membership Meeting
2025-10-19 16:00 - 17:00 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
Join us for a recap of the previous year, and a look into the future of the John Trigg Ester Library!
Additionally, we will be discussing the following topics for potential inclusion in updated Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation:

Change to the name of the Organization

Reason for change to both Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
1) A search for “Ester Library” through Pick, Click, Give did not yield any results. If someone did not know the entire name (John Trigg Ester Library), they would not be able to donate to us. It is unknown how many other search engines do not recognize just “Ester Library”
2) The Board felt that many residents in the current village population neither remembers John Trigg and/or recognizes his name
3) The Board believes the Ester Village Library better represents who we are as well as where we are
Proposed change: Change the name of the Organization from the John Trigg Ester Library to Ester Village Library. These changes will occur in all applicable sections in both the Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws. A commemorative ceremony and plaque honoring John Trigg will be dedicated at a time in the very near future.
2. Changes to the number of directors
Reason for change to the Bylaws

We have, on occasion, had difficulty filling board member positions
State law allows dropping the number of board members to 3:

AS 10.20.086 – The number of directors of a corporation shall be at least three. The number of directors shall be fixed by the bylaws…
AS 10.20.121 – Two or more offices may be held by the same person, except the offices of president and secretary.

The Board of Directors is proposing a new minimum of 5 board members with the following (2) text changes to the Bylaws:

Article V, Section 2. NUMBER OF DIRECTORS. The board of directors may number seven (7): four (4) officers and three (3) additional elected directors. Two or more offices may be held by the same person, except the offices of president and secretary. The minimum number of directors shall be five (5).
Article VI, Section 1. DESIGNATION OF OFFICERS. The officers of the corporation shall, at a minimum, be two: a president and a secretary. The positions of vice president and treasurer can be combined into the president and secretary positions.
3. Change from Robert’s Rules of Order to Modern Rules of Order
Reason for change to the Bylaws

The Modern Rules of Order are not as cumbersome as Robert’s Rules. For example, if all members present come to a unanimous consensus, there is no reason for a formal vote (motion to vote, etc).
Formal voting will still occur if there is no unanimous consent
The Board of Directors is proposing a change to the way Board meetings are conducted with the following (2) text changes to the Bylaws:

Article IV, Section 10: Conduct of Meeting. …. Membership meetings will be conducted based on Modern Rules of Order
Article V, Section 13: Conduct of Meeting …. Board of directors meetings will be conducted based on Modern Rules of Order.
4. Change to number of check signers
Reason for change to the Bylaws – We have had single signer checks for several years. This change to the Bylaws officially recognizes this with the following word change:
Article VIII, Section 2: CHECKS AND NOTES. Except as otherwise specifically determined by resolution of the board of directors, or as otherwise required by law, checks, drafts, promissory notes, orders for the payment of money, and other evidence of indebtedness of the corporation shall be signed by one officer of the corporation.

Adult Book Club
2025-12-06 15:00 - 16:30 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
Join us for a discussion of “Why We Sleep”, by Matthew Walker.
This is from Amazon:
The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert – Professor Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab – reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better.
Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don’t sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life – eating, drinking, and reproducing – the purpose of sleep remained elusive.
But an explosion of scientific discoveries in the last 20 years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Among so many other things, within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity.
Walker answers important questions about sleep: How do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us, and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and immensely accessible, Why We Sleep is the crucial account on sleep that will forever change listeners’ minds on the subject.

Adult Book Club
2026-01-03 15:00 - 16:30 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
Please join us for a discussion of “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. This is from Amazon:
Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, is a Hazara – a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.
The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons – their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope for redemption.

Adult Book Club
2026-05-02 15:30 - 17:00 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
“The World According to Color” by James Fox
From Amazon:
We have an extraordinary connection to color―we give it meanings, associations, and properties that last millennia and span cultures, continents, and languages. In The World According to Color, James Fox takes seven elemental colors―black, red, yellow, blue, white, purple, and green―and uncovers behind each a root idea, based on visual resemblances and common symbolism throughout history.
Through a series of stories and vignettes, the book then traces these meanings to show how they morphed and multiplied and, ultimately, how they reveal a great deal about the societies that produced them: reflecting and shaping their hopes, fears, prejudices, and preoccupations.
Fox also examines the science of how our eyes and brains interpret light and color, and shows how this is inherently linked with the meanings we give to hue. And using his background as an art historian, he explores many of the milestones in the history of art―from Bronze Age gold-work to Turner, Titian to Yves Klein―in a fresh way. Fox also weaves in literature, philosophy, cinema, archaeology, and art―moving from Monet to Marco Polo, early Japanese ink artists to Shakespeare and Goethe to James Bond.
By creating a new history of color, Fox reveals a new story about humans and our place in the universe: second only to language, color is the greatest carrier of cultural meaning in our world.

Annual Plant Sale
2026-05-30 12:00 - 15:00 | Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester, 99725
See the Plant sale flyer
Come on down to the library and get your starters for the year! Ornamental and edible plants for sale, all to support the library.
