Saratoga Reads and its community partners will offer a series of Sunday afternoon programs in March, ranging from discussions on such topics as cognition, memory loss, and aging to a family movie matinee with showings for both adults and kids. All events are open to the public.

The events will revolve around the current Saratoga Reads book of choice, The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. The novel, set in Japan, tells the story of a once-brilliant mathematics professor and baseball enthusiast who has lost all but 80 minutes of short-term memory. He is tended by a housekeeper and her young son, with whom he forges a deep relationship, though he forgets them every day. In addition to this title, Saratoga Reads has recommended a list of companion books for young readers that explore related themes.

The series will begin on March 13 with a panel discussion titled Memory: Lost and Found—A Conversation About What We Remember, or Don't, sponsored by the Friends of the Saratoga Public Library. The event will take place in the library's H. Dutcher Community Room, 2 to 4 p.m.

The panel will include Christopher F. Chabris, assistant professor of psychology at Union College and co-author of The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, and Peter Gernert-Dott, neuropsychologist and health care administrator, most recently affiliated with Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital and Northeast Health. The discussion will be moderated by Marcie Fraser, author and YNN health reporter. Tasty snacks proven to aid memory and boost brainpower will be served.

Also on March 13, the Children's Museum of Saratoga will offer kids' craft activities related to The Housekeeper and the Professor from 2 to 3 p.m. at the museum, 69 Caroline St., Saratoga Springs. The program is $6 per person (free of charge for museum members).

On the following Sunday, March 20, Saratoga Reads will host a family movie matinee beginning at 2 p.m. in Gannett and Davis auditoriums of Palamountain Hall, Skidmore College. The afternoon will feature simultaneous showings of two movies. For adults the feature will be The Professor's Beloved Equation (in Japanese with subtitles), the film version of The Housekeeper and the Professor. The movie for children will be Ponyo (rated G), an animated Japanese film about a 5-year-old boy and his relationship to a goldfish princess who longs to become human.

The matinee will be a supervised showing for school-age children. Parents are invited to bring their children in grades K and up, and to watch The Professor's Beloved Equation in an auditorium down the hall (parents must stay on the premises). Children not yet in kindergarten must view the movie with an accompanying adult.

The March series will conclude on the 27th with a discussion on aging sponsored by the Saratoga Vital Aging Network at Barnes & Noble, Route 50, Wilton, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The session will be lead by Margie Ingram, co-director and transitions life coach for the Saratoga Springs-based HUMOR Project, Inc.

Other events will be announced for April and May, but Saratoga Reads fans should mark their calendars for May 1, when the program will celebrate Japanese culture with a bus trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, home of the largest display of flowering cherry trees outside of Japan. Trip participants will have the opportunity to experience the garden's Sakura Matsuri Festival, including tea ceremonies, drumming, kite flying, and more. The cost is $65 per person including round-trip coach transportation and garden admission. The registration deadline is April 1. For more information, contact Rhona at busplus1@gmail.com or call 518-505-1303.