We’re excited to continue our beloved children’s playgroups.

The next weekend playgroup is going to be Sunday February 25th at 10:00 am. Please RSVP to Jackie to receive the location.

Our February weekday playgroup will be on Tuesday, February 27th at 10:00 am. Please RSVP to Michelle to receive the location.

Let's get together & play!

We had a great discussion last month about our January book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, as well as many other subjects. Thanks to Jen for hosting. For our February meeting, we will be discussing The World According to Garp, by John Irving. This was chosen by the library to be the One Book, One Holliston read. The library will be hosting its own Garp events:

Join us at the library for a viewing of an Author Talk with John Irving, and an in-person book discussion of The World According to Garp at the Library Monday February 12, at 6:30pm. One Book One Holliston Discussion and Author Talk Viewing Sign Up. Also, why not come by and check out a screening of the movie featuring Robin Williams and John Lithgow? Thursday 2/8 at 2:30pm in the Gilman Room. 

Our HNN meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 21, at 7:30 pm. Please don’t feel that you shouldn’t attend if you haven’t finished (or even started) the book—Book Club is mainly an opportunity for old and new friends to get together and chat and snack. All are welcome—we would love to have some new members join our group.

We hold most meetings in person but also have a Zoom option if you can’t attend. Please contact Debbie if you have any interest in hosting a meeting.

The opening sentence of John Irving's breakout novel, The World According to Garp, signals the start of sexual violence, which becomes increasingly political. "Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater." Jenny is an unmarried nurse; she becomes a single mom and a feminist leader, beloved but polarizing. Her son, Garp, is less beloved, but no less polarizing. From the tragicomic tone of its first sentence to its mordantly funny last line-"we are all terminal cases"—The World According to Garp maintains a breakneck pace. The subject of sexual hatred—of intolerance of sexual minorities and differences—runs the gamut of "lunacy and sorrow." Winner of the National Book Award, Garp is a comedy with forebodings of doom.

Happy New Year! 

I'm excited for the 2024 HNN year!

This year marks the 300^th anniversary of Holliston and the town has an amazing celebration planned. You can be certain that HNN will be participating and we'd love for you to join us!

To start off the year, please join us at our General Meeting on Wednesday, January 24th at 7:30 p.m. This is one of our two General Meetings each year in which all members are welcome. Also in January we'll have playgroups!  If you have little ones, mark your calendars for a playgroup on Wednesday, Jan. 24and Sat., Jan. 27, both at a member’s house.  And we're reading a fantastic book for the January Book Club, so learn about it in the newsletter.

Keep your eyes and ears open for more HNN activities & events in 2024, including another Poker Night! Lastly, we want to thank all of our past and returning HNN Club & Event Business Sponsors.

Best, 

Jennifer

New Year, New Friends

We’re excited for our beloved children’s playgroups to start up in January. There will be two playgroups - one that will occur on a weekday and one that will occur on a weekend.

The weekday playgroup will be on Wednesday, January 24th. Please RSVP to Michelle to receive the location.

The weekend playgroup will be on Saturday, January 27th. Please RSVP to Jackie to receive the location.

Dear Members,

HNN had a fabulous year of social events, civic activities and fundraisers thanks to its amazing members and dedicated Board & Committee Leaders! But before I reveal all of our successes, I want to give a BIG shout-out to Cheap Laughs Inc., Paul Gillespie and his hilarious comics who helped host and donated to HNN's first-ever Comedy Night at Anthony's on the Green. We had a blast, so please check-out Cheap Laughs Inc. on Facebook, sign-up for their newsletter and go to their next show on Dec. 6th at Prezo in Milford. And of course, visit our Club and Event Sponsor businesses listed on this newsletter!

Now take a look at the fun and success we had this year:

• 6 Social Events, including dinner gatherings at local restaurants, poker night and a Kentucky Derby Party.

• Recurring monthly activities, including Book Club and a restart of our playgroups in 2024.

• 4 Civic Activities that included delivering Thanksgiving meals to Holliston Senior and raising $7K for the Holliston Pantry Shelf and other organizations that serve local families & children in need!

• 4 super fun fundraisers that resulted in $8K of Community Grant Funds for us to share with Holliston organizations, services & departments!

Our organization is small, but mighty. Our Community Grant Fund supports the Holliston Summer Concert Series organized by the town's Parks & Rec. Dept., purchases MA museum passes for the town library to give its patrons, has purchased equipment for the police & fire departments, and funded the flowers planted throughout town by the Marigold Project. So, join us for some more laughs, fun and community spirit in 2024. Don't miss out!

Best,

Jennifer Mott

President

Happy Holidays from Book Club! We take the month of December off but hope you will join us in the new year. We meet the third Wednesday of each month. Our books for the coming year are listed below.

The Holliston Public Library reserves several copies of each book for us—they can be found (typically about a month ahead of each meeting) on the shelves along the windows on the right as you enter the library.

Please contact Debbie at cd.mp@verizon.net if you are interested in hosting any of our future meetings.

January 17—The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

February 21—One Book One Holliston choice (we will be reading the book chosen as the town-wide read; there will likely be other non-HNN events related to the book held at the library)

March 20—Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

April 17—How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery

May 15—Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

June 19—Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline

Robin & Debbie

Book Club Co-Chairs

Dear Members,

November is upon us and the season for cozy nights in or festive nights out is upon us. We say goodbye to the October sunshine, bright colored leaves and close-out another great month of HNN activities. Thank you for the good times at the Adults-only Halloween Party at Casey's, thank you to all those who volunteered and brought your kids to the Pumpkin Rail Trial Fundraiser and thanks to the elderly residents of Mission Springs, who let our member kids do a "warm-up" or "trial-run" of trick or treating before Halloween.

But HNN is not ready to hibernate, we have more to do as the holiday season approaches! Need I say our COMEDY NIGHT Fundraiser on Nov. 3rd at Anthony's on the Green, hosted by Holliston's own Paul Gillespie is SOLD OUT! Thanks to all that bought tickets as we laugh the night away and support our Holliston Community Grant Fund at the same time!  Next up is our annual Thanksgiving Basket Drive. Your donation to the Thanksgiving Basket Drive helps to provide grocery gift cards to patrons of the Holliston Pantry Shelf. And finally, our Thanksgiving Meals for Seniors. If you're available to volunteer to help assemble and distribute meals, before the Thanksgiving holiday, look for Amy Forman’s signup genius coming out soon. We'd love to continue this important civic activity with our members' support! Lastly, see you at COMEDY NIGHT!

Best, 

Jennifer Mott

President

Holiday Gift Exchange Party with a twist - Friday, December 1st, 2023 at 7 pm

This year we decided to combine two fun events (Holiday Ornament Making from Quilt and Holiday Gift Exchange) to make this holiday season even more festive! The event will take place at a picturesque barn of a beautiful Quilt Studio (Studio on the Hill) in Holliston. The cost for the Holiday Ornament Making is $10 per person, CASH only and payable directly to the instructor at the event. After the ornament making, we will do our ever so popular Yankee Swap. This event is so much fun and laughter, you don’t want to miss it! So mark your calendar, shop at a local boutique for the perfect gift (value of $25) and bring a dessert or drink to share. And don’t forget to RSVP to Timea by 11/28!

DATE & TIME: Friday, December 1st, 2023 starting at 7pm

LOCATION: Studio on the Hill, 1038 Washington Street, Holliston MA

Parking is limited, so please plan on carpooling.

COST FOR THE ORNAMENT MAKING: $10 (cash only, payable at the event)

We are looking forward to seeing you at this terrific event!

Cheers,

Timea & Christel

Social Event Coordinators

We hope you will join us for our November Book Club, when we meet on Wednesday, November 15, at 7:30 p.m., to discuss Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Please don't feel that you shouldn't attend if you haven't finished (or even started) the book—Book Club is mainly an opportunity for old and new friends to get together and chat and snack. All are welcome—we would love to have some new members join our group.

We hold most meetings in person but also have a Zoom option if you can't attend. Please contact Debbie if you have any interest in hosting a meeting. We typically meet on the third Wednesday of the month (but we're taking the month of December off).

The Holliston Public Library reserves several copies of each book for us—they can be found (typically about a month ahead of each meeting) on the shelves along the windows on the right as you enter the library.

"From the author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear. Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University's library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. The authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic. When Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find his mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power--and limitations--of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact"-- Provided by the publisher

Robin & Debbie

Book Club Co-Chairs

RSVP to Debbie