Upcoming Events
Celebrate the season! Come for a special storytime and craft. Sing and dance, be prepared to get messy!
Join the No Book Book Club where there's no assigned reading. This book club gives you the opportunity to make new friends and learn about many books in a one-hour meetup.
Do you like audiobooks? Share your favorite listen.
Are you an ebook fanatic? Tell us all about what you're reading.
Looking for some great recommendations? Join us and find out what's new & popular, a forgotten classic, and what's on the horizon.
We'll chat about classics, nonfiction, new releases and favorite authors.
Monthly Makers is a low stakes arts and crafts program for Adults. You don’t need to be crafty to enjoy this program, it’s about the process NOT the product. Each month we will try different crafts, mediums, and styles, without the pressure of perfection. Join us for this one hour of ADULT arts and crafts time each month at the Barney Library.
This month we'll be making: Air Dry Clay Gift Tags
Roar! I'm a Dinosaur! Storytime
Romp, stomp and roar with us at the Barney Library for a special DiNOVEMBER storytime! Come enjoy some dinosaur stories, songs and a special craft. Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers, siblings welcome! Registration required.
New Books at Barney
-
We Solve Murders
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
“Madcap fun, with an entertaining new cast of characters and Osman’s trademark wit. Delightful!” —Shari Lapena
From the #1 bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club Series
A brand new mystery. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .
As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer?
Solving murders. It’s a family business. -
A Christmas Duet
A solo holiday trip inspires one woman to rediscover her passion—and remember that, sometimes, duets are more fun—in this romantic Christmas novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber.
“A perfectly delicious Christmas bonbon of a novel.”—Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of The Santa Suit and Bright Lights, Big Christmas
Hailey Morgan’s life has always revolved around music. She once had big dreams of becoming a professional songwriter, but the reality of life has led her to working as an assistant high school band teacher in Portland. As the holidays approach, Hailey dreads the annual tradition of spending Christmas with her family and dodging her mother’s meddling questions about her love life.
When Hailey’s close friend offers her the use of her family’s empty cabin for a rejuvenating solo holiday retreat, Hailey finally decides to do something to make herself happy. However, her arrival in the small town of Podunk, Oregon, is anything but peaceful when she discovers the cabin has been invaded by several wild animals. Luckily, Jay, the son of the town’s main store proprietor—and an incredibly handsome and charming former musician to boot—is more than willing to help.
Soon Hailey and Jay are nearly inseparable, chopping down and decorating a Christmas tree, sipping hot cocoa in front of a cozy fire, and best of all, playing music together. Jay’s positive feedback and encouragement inspire Hailey to believe she might succeed as a songwriter after all. But even in her snow-dusted oasis, family holiday drama still finds Hailey, interrupting and threatening her newfound peace and confidence. Meanwhile revelations from Jay present complications of their own. Suddenly her Christmas paradise has become a winter storm and Hailey must weather through the challenges to stand up for herself and embrace the holiday spirit. -
I Was A Teenage Slasher
A USA TODAY Bestseller
From New York Times bestselling horror writer Stephen Graham Jones comes a classic slasher story with a twist—perfect for fans of Adam Cesare and Grady Hendrix.
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic. -
Kill the Beast
The eleventh book in the New York Times best-selling Villains series follows the downfall of Disney's slickest, quickest, and smarmiest villain: Gaston.
He knew he was the best. He knew he was everyone's favorite guy.
You may think this tale as old as time has been told before.
You may know about the Beauty, and the Beast, and the curse they broke together. But some stories have more than one ending. Some stories have more than one villain.
Such is the story of Gaston. Growing up, young Gaston and the prince were brothers in all but blood. Their boyhood adventures led them throughout the many rooms of the castle, and into the deep woods beyond. The woods that were home to the legendary Beast of Gévaudan, a terrifying creature whose presence loomed larger than life in their imaginations.
Then one fateful night, a violent tragedy changed their lives--and their friendship--forever, setting each of them down a very different path: the first, of greed and entitlement, the second, of determination to right the wrongs of the past.
The prince, as we know, paid a price for his wicked ways. And Gaston, fueled by the magic of three meddling witches, grew ever more haunted by a singular mission: to become the hero who killed the Beast. -
Such Charming Liars
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The newest mystery from the author One of Us Is Lying, the Queen of thrillers, Karen M. McManus! When mother-daughter grifters set out on their final job, the heist gets deadly and dangerously personal.
For all of Kat’s life, it’s just been her and her mother, Jamie—except for the forty-eight hours when Jamie was married and Kat had a stepbrother, Liam. That all ended in an epic divorce, and Kat and Liam haven’t spoken since.
Now Jamie is a jewel thief trying to go straight, but she has one last job—at billionaire Ross Sutherland’s birthday party. And Kat has figured out a way to tag along. What Kat doesn’t know, though, is that there are two surprise guests at the dazzling Sutherland compound that weekend. The last two people she wants to run into. Liam and his father—a serial scammer who has his sights set on Ross Sutherland’s youngest daughter.
Kat and Liam are on a collision course to disaster, and when a Sutherland dies, they realize they might actually be in the killer’s crosshairs themselves. Somehow Kat and Liam are the new targets, and they can’t trust anyone—except each other.
Or can they? Because if there’s one thing both Kat and Liam know, it’s how to lie. They learned from the best. -
By Any Other Name
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring” (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.
“You’ll fall in love with Emilia Bassano, the unforgettable heroine based on a real woman that Picoult brings vividly to life in her brilliantly researched new novel.”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women
Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.
In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.
Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten. -
The Summer Pact
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the wake of tragedy, a group of friends makes a pact that will cause them to reunite a decade later and embark upon a life-changing adventure together—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Meant to Be.
Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl with a flair for drama; Tyson, a brilliant scholar and aspiring lawyer from Washington, D.C.; Summer, an ambitious, recruited athlete from the Midwest; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner who is content to quietly round out the circle of big personalities. Soon after arriving on campus, they strike up a conversation in their shared dorm, and the seeds of friendship are planted.
As their college years fly by, their bond intensifies and the four become inseparable. But as graduation nears, their lives are forever changed after a desperate act leads to tragic consequences. Stunned and heartbroken, they make a pact, promising to always be there for one another, no matter how separated they may become by circumstances or distance.
Ten years later, Hannah is anticipating what should be one of the happiest moments of her life when everything is suddenly turned upside down. Calling on her closest friends, it soon becomes clear that they are all facing their own crossroads. True to their promise, they agree to take a time out from lives headed in wrong directions and embark on a shared journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and acceptance.
In this tender portrayal of grief, love, and hope, Emily Giffin asks: When things fall apart, who will be at our sides, helping us pick up the pieces? -
Six More Months of June
A romantic debut about the exhilarating highs and messy lows that swirl together when high school comes to an end, perfect for fans of Carley Fortune and Jenny Han
Golden boy Caplan and bookish Mina have been unlikely soulmates since third grade. Bound by growing up in single-mother households on the same cul-de-sac in Two Docks, Michigan, their friendship exists miraculously outside their high school’s social order. Mina is class valedictorian, expected by her late father’s parents to attend his Ivy alma mater; Caplan is laughing off prom-king predictions and the fear that he’s peaking too soon.
When Cap’s skateboard-toting, detention-dodging best friend confesses his feelings for Mina, she is whisked into a social life she never imagined, bumping shoulders with the likes of Caplan’s queen-bee girlfriend. Caplan is determined that things stay just as they’ve always been, while Mina faces the perils and privileges of opening her heart just in time to say goodbye.
As the sun sets on senior year, everything glows. What will Cap and Mina discover in the last-chance light? -
There Is a Door in This Darkness
A magic-tinged contemporary YA about grief and hope from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm novels.
Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with a shocking presidential election and ended with a pandemic. In the midst of this global turmoil, she also lost one of her beloved aunts, a loss she still feels keenly. Having deferred college, Wilhelmina now lives in a limbo she can see no way out of, like so many of her peers. Wilhelmina’s personal darkness would be unbearable (especially with another monumental election looming) but for the inexplicable and seemingly magical clues that have begun to intrude on her life—flashes of bizarre, ecstatic whimsy that seem to add up to a message she can’t quite grasp. But something tells her she should follow their lead. Maybe a trail of elephants, birds, angels, and stale doughnuts will lead Wilhelmina to a door? -
The Unwedding
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
"Our June Reese's Book Club pick is the perfect summer read!!! The Unwedding by Ally Condie opens with a wedding at a gorgeous resort in Big Sur... but everything begins to fall apart when the main character Ellery discovers a dead body the morning of the ceremony."
- Reese WitherspoonThe White Lotus meets Agatha Christie in this bold novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling author, "a knife's-edge whodunit that's as much a thriller as it is an exquisite meditation on grief and loss." (Nicola Yoon)
Ellery Wainwright is alone at the edge of the world.
She and her husband, Luke, were supposed to spend their twentieth wedding anniversary together at the luxurious Resort at Broken Point in Big Sur, California. Where better to celebrate a marriage, a family, and a life together than at one of the most stunning places on earth?
But now she's traveling solo.
To add insult to injury, there's a wedding at Broken Point scheduled during her stay. Ellery remembers how it felt to be on the cusp of everything new and wonderful, with a loved and certain future glimmering just ahead. Now, she isn't certain of anything except for her love for her kids and her growing realization that this place, though beautiful, is unsettling.
When Ellery discovers the body of the groom floating in the pool in the rain, she realizes that she is not the only one whose future is no longer guaranteed. Before the police can reach Broken Point, a mudslide takes out the road to the resort, leaving the guests trapped. When another guest dies, it's clear something horrible is brewing.
Everyone at Broken Point has a secret. And everyone has a shadow. Including Ellery.
History
D. Newton Barney gave The Village Library to the people of Farmington, as a memorial to Sarah Brandegee Barney, his mother. A portrait of D. Newton Barney, by Rogert Brandegee, can be viewed in the main reading room along with Sarah Brandegee Barney and other notable Farmingtonians. The building was designed in the Greek revival style by Stephen Brainerd Lawrence in 1917. A plaque in memory of Mr. Lawrence is located in the library’s front hall.
The Village Library remained the principal town Library until the Farmington Library was commissioned in 1983. This new modern 52,000 square foot building consolidated Farmington and Unionville libraries into one Farmington Library.
The Village library was renovated three times: The Children’s wing in 1959 and again, in 1983, after being closed a year, the library reopened as the renovated Village Branch Library. In 1999, the Village Library was renamed, Barney Library, in thanksgiving to William and Harriet Barney Lidgerwood and the Barney Family for their largesse. They have served Farmington quietly, effectively and with great generosity giving of their time, talent and treasure to support and sustain that which makes Farmington unique. The latest modifications were affected between 2008 and 2009 and reopened as Barney Library on December 1, 2009. The following lists the people who together supported the renovations and additions project with $1,000,000, which in conjunction with a $1,000,000 State Grant and $1,000,000 Town referendum provided for the magnificent building and destination place standing at 71 Main Street.