Updated 8.30.10

With the long Labor Day weekend coming up, now is a good time to stop by your library.  If you are planning to rest or rusticate, come choose a beach book, bestseller or biography to help you pass the time.  With most of our 285 new books now cataloged, processed and crowding the shelves, the pickings are far from slim.

And speaking of far from slim…
If you are planning to entertain your friends and family around your backyard grill, we have barbecue cookbooks to help you update your menu.  Two are among our newest titles: BBQ Makes Everything Better by Aaron Chronister and Jason Day and The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook by Robb Walsh.  Why have a plain baked potato with your steak or chicken when you can have Bacon Gorgonzola Twice-Grilled Potatoes!  And doesn’t Roasted Red Pepper and Mango Salsa sound better than the stuff made in New York City?  Isn’t it about time for lunch?

If you have had your fill of barbecue, and are ready for an alternative, we also have books designed to promote a healthier diet.  Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food advocates choosing only foods that our ancestors would recognize as edible, eating sensible portions and eating mostly plants.  Bruce Weinstein’s Real Food Has Curves takes more of a sensual approach to a healthy diet.  Food savored with all your senses is much more satisfying than fast food gulped down on the go.  Dr. Neal Barnard’s Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook offers a plan for weight loss and a healthy lifestyle with a diet free of all animal products.

Enjoy a book while you drive?
If you will be travelling a long distance to your vacation destination, why not take along a good audio book?  We currently boast 262 audio books in our permanent collection, and we recently have received our triannual rotation of audio books and movies from the Watauga Regional Library.  There should be something for you!

New Computers!
The library has acquired two new desktop computers, which have replaced our oldest public access stations.  They were purchased with matching funds received from a Library Services and Technology Act technology grant.  Since the old monitors were still serviceable, they were not replaced, saving us a significant amount of money.  The computers were installed by Watauga Regional Library Technical Coordinator Dustin Gingrow last Monday, and have been getting a workout ever since.  Come give our new machines a test drive!

Updated 8.23.10

Our 285 new books have arrived.  They are being cataloged and processed as quickly as possible.  Since the majority of our patrons prefer fiction, most of our new acquisitions reflect that preference.  A library, however, should be a repository of information as well as entertainment, so a number of non-fiction titles were included in the order.   Some of these books are biographies and memoirs.  As we opened up the boxes and checked the books against the packing slips, I noticed the popular new biography of Comanche war chief Quanah Parker nestled against a memoir written by Carol Burnett.  It would be difficult to imagine two persons more different.  My imagination started churning.  What would Quanah Parker and Carol Burnett have found to discuss on their long, stuffy trip to Erwin?

My thought was certainly not original.  Some of you may recall Steve Allen’s award-winning PBS series “Meeting of Minds,” which aired in the late 1970’s.  Allen was the originator of “The Tonight Show.”  “Meeting of Minds” borrowed its talk show format, but each episode brought together a carefully selected cast of historical figures for a friendly (most of the time) chat.  One representative show introduced Marie Antoinette to Sir Thomas More, Karl Marx and Ulysses S. Grant.  Writer Allen gleaned most of the dialog from actual quotations of the show’s “guests.”  Of course, he had to take a little more license with Cleopatra and Attila the Hun, who left few quips for posterity.

If you never had an opportunity to see “Meeting of Minds,” then perhaps you remember “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”  Ten years after “Meeting of Minds,” Napoleon, Billy the Kid, Genghis Khan, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven and “So-crates” joined forces to help Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan pass their history report.  For the first time, my son thought history was cool.

So what do Henry Clay, Quanah Parker, George Steinbrenner, Carol Burnett, Pat Benatar and Rhoda Janzen, the Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, have in common with Duane “Dog” Chapman?  They all are having a party on the shelf where we house new biographies, and you are invited.

And speaking of invitations…
The Unicoi County Public Library will host our own “meeting of minds” here at the library on Thursday, September 23 at 6:00 PM.  In celebration of history and biographies, come as your favorite historical figure.  Costumes are not necessary, but will be welcome.  Merely arrive prepared to tell everybody a little about your alter ego.  After all, others may not know the Marquis de Lafayette or Susan B. Anthony.  Refreshments will be served, so come and mingle with the great minds of history.

Updated 8.16.10

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!  I am not talking about Christmas, or back-to-school.  This is the time of year when we get our interlibrary loan book money.  Because we lend books to other libraries in our region and across the state, we annually are rewarded with funds to buy more books.

During the fiscal year that closed with June, the Unicoi County Public Library borrowed 882 books for our patrons from other libraries.  We loaned 2,930, making us a net lender.  The majority of the books loaned were sent to other libraries within the Watauga Region, but we loaned books to small libraries in west Tennessee and to municipal libraries in Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis as well.  Some of our books are very well-traveled.

With the funds allocated to us, we have ordered 285 books for the library.  They should start arriving any day.  The first books selected were those our patrons have requested, so if you recently have added a book to our “wish list,” it may be in this shipment.  Unfortunately, not every title we wanted was currently available from our supplier, so we were unable to grant every request.  We attempted to fill in gaps in our collection and to replace books that have been lost, stolen or damaged.  Every effort was made to choose materials that would appeal to a broad range of ages and tastes.  There should be something for you!  With so many items arriving all at once, it will take us a while to catalog and process these books, so stop by often to see what is new on the shelves.

Our circulation staff--Ruth, Leanne and Jill--work hard to facilitate the interlibrary loans and process new materials.  Thank you for making our new books possible!

New Books
Sandra Brown’s private investigator Dodge Hanley is one Tough Customer.  So is Oren Starks, the killer who is stalking Dodge’s estranged daughter.  Entreated by his long-lost love to save their child, Dodge flies from Atlanta to Houston to match wits with a madman.

Just in time for Labor Day, James Patterson has teamed up with Swedish author Liza Marklund for The Postcard Killers.  Young couples are being murdered in the picture-perfect capitals of Europe.  There is little to link the shocking crimes except for the postcard that arrives at a local newspaper just before each murder.  The killers have made one mistake: their victims in Rome were the daughter of NYPD detective Jacob Kanon and her boyfriend.  Now Kanon is on the case.

Updated 8.10.10

With the commencement this week of another school year, I find myself waxing nostalgic for my childhood in the hills of Tennessee.  Like most baby boomers, I recall starting out first grade reading the childish adventures of Dick and Jane.  While everybody seems to remember their dog Spot, not everyone recalls my favorite, Dick and Jane’s cat Puff.  Cats may have been second class pets during the heyday of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, but nowadays cats rule the library.

Vicki Myron’s Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World tells the story of a frostbitten kitten who was deposited in the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library’s drop-box one frigid January night.  Christened Dewey Readmore Books, he charmed the library’s staff and its patrons.  He remained the library’s mascot for nineteen years.  A movie about Dewey starring Meryl Streep as library director Vicki Myron is currently in development.

Another book that highlights the special talents and sensitivities of our feline friends is Making Rounds with Oscar: the Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa, M. D.  Oscar lives at a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island.  Being a typical cat, he pays scant attention to anyone until he knows he is needed, but when an elderly dementia patient is approaching the end of life, Oscar knows, even though the doctors and nurses do not.  He goes to the patient’s room and curls up on the bed to keep watch and give comfort when it is needed the most.  Oscar’s concern alerts staff to contact family members.

Writers featuring fictional felines include Rita Mae Brown and her cat “co-author” Sneaky Pie Brown and Lillian Jackson Braun, whose “Cat Who” mysteries currently number twenty-nine.

Cat characters are favorites with younger readers, too.  Erin Hunter’s “Warriors” series of books about rival clans of warrior cats is popular with middle school readers.  Younger children are entranced by the adventures of Judy Schachner’s Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese kitty boy who thinks he is a Chihuahua.

New Book
Scarlet Nights is the latest Edilean novel from Jude Deveraux.  While Sara Shaw ponders the puzzling disappearance of her fiancé just three weeks before her wedding, a strange man climbs up through a trapdoor in the floor of her bedroom in her friend’s apartment.  He claims to be her best friend’s brother, but Sara finds it difficult to trust him.  Mike Newland is indeed her friend Tess’s brother, but he is also an undercover detective sent to protect Sara from her fiancé, who is not the man Sara believes him to be.

Updated 8.2.10

I completed my formal education many years ago, but I have not yet forgotten the bittersweet mixture of anticipation and sorrow that marks the first week of school.  The fun and freedom of summer are gone, but the excitement of new clothes, new friends, new teachers and new classes has just begun!

Here at your library, we want to celebrate a summer well spent and a school year brimming with bright possibilities that lies just ahead.  Join us on Thursday, August 5 for our “Back-to-School Bash.”  From 2:00 to 4:00 PM, our kids will be able to enjoy face painting, snow cones, beanbag toss, sidewalk chalk and giant bubbles.  Come meet Miss Kristy and all your friends for one last fling!

New Books
Among the books that have debuted recently is Shadow Zone, a sequel to Silent Thunder by mother-and-son authors Iris and Roy Johansen.  Marine architect Hannah Bryson recovers an enigmatic artifact from the sunken city of Marinth, a discovery which may explain the civilization’s demise.  When the relic is stolen by a ruthless arms dealer, Russian agent Nicholas Kirov once again comes to her aid.

Also new to the library’s shelves is The Search, the latest from Nora Roberts.  Fiona Bristow is a dog trainer, search-and-rescue volunteer and the sole survivor of the serial killer who murdered her fiancé.  The new man in her life, Simon Doyle, is an artist/cabinetmaker and the frazzled owner of a puppy aptly nicknamed “Jaws.”  When a copycat adopts the modus operandi of the “Red Scarf Killer” who originally targeted her, Fiona fears that she is back in the crosshairs of a psychopath.

Scot Harvath is back and even deeper undercover.  Brad Thor’s Foreign Influence interleaves the investigation of a bombing in Rome that kills a busload of American college students with the inquiry into a hit-and-run in Chicago that leaves one young woman dead.  Of course, these two seemingly disparate crimes are related, and Harvath is challenged to prevent the horrific act of terror they portend.

Phoebe Swift loves high-end vintage clothing for the beauty of luxe fabrics, the superiority of fine workmanship and, most of all, for the history that clings to each garment like an expensive perfume.  Isabel Wolff’s A Vintage Affair follows Phoebe as she leaves a promising career at Sotheby’s world-renowned auction house in London to open her own vintage clothing boutique.  Like the exquisite clothes she sells, Phoebe has a history.  As the story unfurls, her reasons for seeking a change become apparent.

Updated 7.26.10

I love new books, especially on Tuesday mornings when I catalog the new releases that arrived during the previous week.  The books are fresh and clean and full of promise.

Older books, however, have their own peculiar charm.  When an obviously old book in a dust jacket is donated to the library, we on the staff will guess the date the book was published based on the artwork and photos that embellish the jacket.  Most of us have gotten pretty good at guessing the date within a year or two, but we recently received a donation that posed more of a challenge.

The book is Masterman Ready by Captain Marryat.  Its pages are foxed and darkened with age, but its dust jacket is intact, although a bit tattered.  When we had estimated the date of publication, I looked for a copyright date.  There was none, but a clue was provided by a penciled inscription which indicated the book had been a gift from a mother to her son at Christmas of 1936.

Checking online, I discovered that Frederick Marryat had written the book for his children in 1841.  Our edition was printed nearly a century later, when a book cost fifty cents, and a year’s subscription to “Boys’ Life” cost one dollar.  The young owner of the book, who evidently was a Boy Scout, must have used the business reply envelope to renew his subscription as his bookmark.

Marryat, who had indeed been an officer in the British Royal Navy, thought Johann Wyss’s Swiss Family Robinson founded upon the improbable, if not the impossible, so he set out to write a more likely version of a shipwreck adventure.  Masterman Ready became a children’s classic.  Now long in the public domain, it is available for download without charge on the internet.

Children’s Programs
Our theme this week will be “Celebrating Heroes.”  Unless they are called away on an emergency, the Town of Erwin Fire Department will join us on July 27 for our Tuesday morning story hour from 10:30 to 11:30.  On Friday, July 30, our movie day will present an animated feature in keeping with this week’s theme.  Showtime runs from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.

School may start soon, but there is time for one last party!  Mark your calendars now for our “Back-to-School Bash” on Thursday, August 5.  Among the activities planned that afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 are face painting, snow cones, beanbag toss, sidewalk chalk and giant bubbles.  Other festivities are in the works.  Be sure to check next week’s library column for all the details.

Updated 7.20.10

In last week’s column, three members of our staff recommended books that we have enjoyed but which our patrons might have overlooked.  Here are three more staff suggestions.

Kristy King, our Children’s Services Manager, chooses Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin, a winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for 2010.  Although this book is shelved with our middle school collection, it shares a message that transcends age groups.  Jason Blake is the title character, an autistic twelve year old who narrates his story in a language he hopes neurotypical persons will understand.  Jason discovers that even though NTs (neurotypicals) have trouble understanding him, they can understand the stories he writes.  Kristy found Jason’s moving story to be “an eye-opener.”

Ruth Van Sickle, who works at our circulation desk, recommends The Cynical Idealist: a Spiritual Biography of John Lennon by Gary Tillery.  During the course of his abbreviated life, John Lennon was a traumatized child, gifted artist, cultural icon, social activist and popular philosopher.  This biography chronicles the life and life-long quest for peace of “the thinking-man’s Beatle.”  Ruth enjoyed learning about some lesser known aspects of John Lennon’s life, such as the contentment he found in his role as a father and househusband.

John Larrit, aka Parrot, is the son of an itinerant English printer.  Olivier-Jean-Baptiste de Clarel de Barfleur de Garmont is the myopic, asthmatic son of wealthy aristocrats who managed to survive the French Revolution.  When Olivier finds himself in political hot water, his maman arranges for him to go to America with Parrot acting in a dual role as his servant and her spy.  Accompanying them on the voyage are Parrot’s paramour, artist Mathilde Christian, and her mother.  My suggestion, Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America was inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville’s life and his travels in the adolescent United States of the early 1830’s.  Funny and lyrically written, this novel is the best I have read so far this year.

Children’s Programs
Don’t forget that we have planned a story hour every Tuesday morning, and a movie day every Friday for the remainder of the summer.  Story hours run from 10:30 to 11:30, and movies start at 2 PM.  Each week’s programming is built around a theme, with this week’s focus on “Bugs and Other Creepy Crawlies.”  Next week we will “Celebrate Heroes.”  The Town of Erwin Fire Department will join us Tuesday, July 27, circumstances permitting.  You may pick up a schedule for July at the circulation desk, or ask Miss Kristy for details.

Updated 7.12.10

One of the things that is remarkable about our staff is the diversity of the books we enjoy.  I asked each of the ladies who works here at the library to recommend a favorite that our patrons might have overlooked.

Connie Denney, who makes our senior services deliveries, suggested Water for Elephants, which we have available in an easy-to-read large-print edition.  Sara Gruen’s tale of love and survival during the Great Depression is narrated in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, who joined the second-rate Benzini Brothers circus after the death of his parents left him penniless seventy years earlier.  Since Jacob had been a student of veterinary medicine, he is put in charge of the show’s menagerie, which includes an elephant named Rosie.  Look for the movie starring Reese Witherspoon and teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson in 2011.  Connie found this story particularly appealing because of Erwin’s historic bond with elephants and traveling circuses.

Jill Tipton, our Saturday circulation assistant, recommends The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls.  Unlike the genealogy books in our history room, this volume is available for checkout.  If you are curious about your ancestors’ origins, or intrigued by a family legend, this is a place to start your search for information and documentation.  Jill likes the way the authors clearly define the terms they use, which otherwise might overwhelm a beginner.  They also highlight concise “tree tips” and “lineage lessons,” and warn against some common “pedigree pitfalls,” which make this book extremely easy to use.

Leanne Dynneson, who works at our circulation desk, gave Sara Stockbridge’s Grace Hammer: a Novel of the Victorian Underworld five stars on goodreads.com.   Sticky-fingered Grace maintains her four fatherless children by picking the pockets of wealthier London denizens.  Haunted by her past, Grace and her family try to evade the pursuit of the utterly ruthless thief from whom she stole a priceless ruby necklace nearly twenty years earlier.  Leanne’s love of imagery made her “relish” this debut novel with its Dickensian cast of characters.  You may read her excellent review at www.goodreads.com.  Our other staff recommendations will appear in next week’s column.

Board Meeting
The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6 PM on Thursday, July 15 in the library lobby.  The public is welcome to attend.

Updated 7.6.10

Our Summer Reading Program has reached its end, but not the opportunity to read this summer!  We hope to keep the kids coming to the library all season with story hour every Tuesday morning from 10:30 to 11:30 and movie times every Friday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00.  This week’s theme for both events is “Cooking with Kristy.”

The success of our Summer Reading Program was made possible by the support of our community.  We wish to thank our speakers for the gift of their time and talent: Travis Anders with USA Raft, poet Ruth Ann Marotta, Katrina Wilson of TENNder Care, Marsha Edwards with Erwin Utilities and storytellers Libby Tipton and David Claunch.  The Wayne Scott Strawberry Festival and Love Chapel School kindly allowed us to promote the program.  Dari Ace, Flick Video, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart generously contributed incentives to help the kids stay motivated.  Thank you to all who worked with us to impress upon the children of Unicoi County the importance—and fun--of reading!

A donor who does not wish to be publicly thanked sponsored the visit of storyteller Kathryn Atkins-Roberson.  If you or your business would like to sponsor a program at the library, please contact Angie Georgeff at 743-6533 for more information.

Finally, I want to thank “Miss Kristy,” our Children’s Services Manager Kristy King, for her outstanding job with our Summer Reading Program this year.  Credit also goes to Ruth Van Sickle at our circulation desk, who tried to ensure that every child who entered the library knew about the program.

New Books
Have you read the new Patterson?  Which one!  With summer now at its height, it takes two authors named Patterson to satisfy the demand for “beach book” thrillers.  James Patterson and Maxine Paetro’s Private is subtitled with the names of nine cities situated on three continents.  When the world’s most powerful and influential men and women require the discreet services of a team of forensic investigators, they go to “Private.”  If you think Patterson’s premise sounds promising as a television series, then stay tuned.  According to his publisher, a series is in the works.

Richard North Patterson’s well-reviewed In the Name of Honor explores the concept of honor in the context of a murder trial.  Lieutenant Brian McCarran, a general’s son, is charged with killing his commanding officer after they return from a traumatic tour in Iraq.  The dead man’s widow is Brian’s childhood friend, and perhaps something more.  Was it self-defense?  McCarran’s sister, an attorney, is determined to prove his innocence.

Updated 6.28.10

The “SRP Express” is chugging down the track and into the station.  Our Summer Reading Program will culminate this week with our grand finale on Thursday, July 1.  In keeping with our water theme, Judy “Butterfly” Farlow will appear in the guise of Neptuna, along with her mermaid friend Bubbles.  “The lady with the blue hair” will tell us stories enhanced with music, magic and puppets.  The fun for both children’s groups will begin at 2:30 PM.  Butterfly’s show will start at 2:45, with face painting afterward.

We have not forgotten our teens.  On Tuesday, June 29, their finale will begin at 2:30 with the completion of the ice painting project begun on June 15.  Storytellers from East Tennessee State University’s Storytelling Department will provide interactive entertainment from 2:45 to 4:00 PM.  Don’t miss these very special programs!

Holiday Closing
Because the Fourth of July falls on a Sunday this year, the Independence Day holiday will be observed on Monday, July 5.  The Unicoi County Public Library will be closed that day, and no books will be due.  If a book is not yet overdue or on hold for another patron, it may be renewed online.  As always, please feel free to call the library at 743-6533 if you need assistance.  We wish you all a safe and happy holiday weekend!

New Books
According to the blurb on the dust jacket, Janet Evanovich’s Sizzling Sixteen is “so hot, the pages might spontaneously combust.”  New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her co-workers attempt to save Vincent Plum Bail Bonds when Stephanie’s cousin Vinnie becomes dangerously indebted to the mob.  Expect Evanovich’s legions of fans to generate a long hold list for this one!

Danielle Steel’s Family Ties are the bonds of affection between an aunt and the orphaned nieces and nephew she reared to adulthood after her sister’s death.  With her nestlings fledged, architect Annie Ferguson finally has time for a life of her own.

Set in Wise, Virginia, in the midst of the Great Depression, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers is the latest “Ballad” novel from Sharyn McCrumb.  Writing for the Johnson City Staff, Erwin nativeCarl Jennings competes with a trio of big-city reporters to cover the trial of Erma Morton, a pretty young schoolteacher charged with murdering her father.  While the outsiders sensationalize the poverty of the region, Carl searches for the truth.  This novel is a fictionalized account of an actual trial from 1935.

Updated 6.21.10

With two more weeks to go, our Summer Reading Program is just entering the home stretch.  On Tuesday, June 22, our teens will chill out with a movie.  Watching a rousing tale of adventure on the high seas and survival on a pirate-infested jungle island is a great way to pass a steamy summer afternoon.  Opening credits will roll at 2:30 PM.  Popcorn and drinks will be served.

Our kids will learn about the water cycle on Thursday, June 24, with a story or two, a craft and a very wet game (weather permitting) to illustrate the lesson.  Student storytellers from East Tennessee State University will be telling tales about soggy subjects.  Miss Kristy will even serve raindrop shaped cookies to maintain the theme.  All of our children, regardless of age group, will meet from 2:30 to 3:45.

On Thursday, July 1, our kids will be “splashin’ in the library with Neptuna and Bubbles.”  Judy “Butterfly” Farlow will wrap up our Summer Reading Program for 2010 with stories, puppets, magic, music and perhaps a few surprises.  Her show is always a real kid pleaser.  Both children’s age groups will meet at 2:30 for the SRP finale.  Butterfly’s performance will start at 2:45.  Face painting will be available after the show.

New Books
If you listen closely, you just might hear Colin Clive’s mad rant echo across the years.  “It’s alive!  It’s alive!”  “Frankenstein” is still alive.  Dean Koontz intended his Frankenstein series to be a trilogy, but the fourth book, Lost Souls, has just been released, and a fifth chiller is scheduled to debut next spring.  Victor Leben, ne Frankenstein, and his powerful patron are determined to replace humanity with a race of superhumans.  If you want to avoid becoming collateral damage, then for heaven’s sake stay out of Rainbow Falls, Montana!

Catherine Coulter’s Whiplash is her fourteenth FBI thriller.  Special agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock investigate the apparent haunting of a U. S. Senator.  More troubling is the suspicious shortage of a relatively inexpensive chemotherapy drug.  With supplies running out, cancer patients are forced to turn to a much more costly alternative.  With the German pharmaceutical company set to make billions, one of its executives is found murdered at the manufacturer’s U. S. headquarters.

That Perfect Someone is Johanna Lindsey’s latest novel of the Malory family.  An heiress recently freed from an unpalatable betrothal seeks love and marriage at a masked ball.  She meets a man who piques her interest, but does she know just how many masks this gentleman is wearing?

Updated 6.14.10

Summer Reading has gotten off to a great start, but the best is yet to come.  “Conductor Jack” will be pulling into the depot on Thursday, June 17.  While Jack Norton has a degree in Early Childhood Education and years of experience in the classroom, the kids don’t care about his qualifications.  They want to see the show!   Jack’s combination of music, dance, puppets, storytelling and magic will keep young children enthralled.  The Summer Reading Program for both age groups will start at 2:30 Thursday afternoon.  “Conductor Jack” will perform from 3:00 to 3:45.

Our teens will meet at 2:30 on Tuesday, June 15.  In keeping with our water theme, Marsha Edwards from Erwin Utilities will tell us how safe, clean water finds its way into our faucets.  A water tasting demonstration will give participants a chance to compare bottled water to tap water.  Have you ever painted with ice?  Try it this afternoon!  Fair warning:  you will get wet during the game segment of the scheduled activities.  Please do not wear anything you do not want to get wet!

R. E. A. D. S.
Because I have long associated the sensation of lifting a book and turning the page with the joy of reading, I have not yet embraced the eBook readers such as the Kindle and Nook that are being promoted to the reading public.  My son is no more enthusiastic than I, but I suspect that my grandchildren, when they have learned to read, will take the technology for granted.
For those who prefer to read from the compact convenience of an eBook reader or iPod, we have a resource from which patrons can “borrow” books.  You may download selections at home.  All that you need is an internet connection and your library card.  There is never a rush to “return” a book, because the download expires at the end of the loan period.

To try this service, go to our website www.wrlibrary.org/Libraries/unpage.html and click on the link for R.E.A.D.S., which is the Regional eBook and Audiobook Download System.  A tutorial is provided to explain the procedure.  More than 5,000 titles are available as eBooks, ranging from current bestsellers to classics.

New Book
The Lion is terrorist Asad Khalil, whom Nelson DeMille introduced in his prophetic novel The Lion’s Game in January, 2000.  In the previous thriller, Federal Agents John Corey and Kate Mayfield pursued The Lion across the United States as he ticked names off his hit list.  Asad Khalil then vanished, but he is back and bent on revenge and mayhem.

Updated 6.07.10

Our Summer Reading Program is underway!  On Tuesday, June 8, our teens will learn how to write poetry with our special guest speaker Ruth Ann Marotta.  Set your imagination free and compose your own verses starting at 2:30 PM.

On Thursday, June 10, our kids will enjoy story time with Miss Kristy, a game, a craft project and a light snack.  Younger children will meet from 10:30 to 11:30 AM.  Kids in grades 2 through 5 should gather from 2:30 to 3:45 PM.

All aboard!  On the following Thursday, June 17, “Conductor Jack” Norton will be chugging into the station for an engaging children’s program filled with music, dance, puppets, storytelling and magic.  Jack is the top-rated Summer Reading Program entertainer in the state of Tennessee, so make plans now to be in the front row.  “Conductor Jack” will perform from 3:00 to 3:45 PM, but the Summer Reading Program for both kids’ age groups will begin at 2:30 that afternoon.  And please don’t forget the toddlers!  Children as young as age one should enjoy the show, which is constructed around our theme “Make a splash…read!”  After all, a child is never too young to explore the library.

New Books
It is the first of June, and the “beach books” are coming.  You know: the books you read on vacation, when you can sleep late the next morning if you happen to stay up all night with a page-turner.  These three prime examples have just been added to the Library’s collection.

The Spy, from Clive Cussler and Justin Scott, is the third in a series featuring Isaac Bell, the head investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency.  In 1908, during the arms race that preceded the First World War, Bell probes the apparent suicide of a renowned weapons designer.  He reveals a number of suspects, all of whom aim to disrupt the development of America’s naval forces.

Steve Martini’s eleventh Paul Madriani thriller, The Rule of Nine, has the defense attorney again matching wits with “the Mexicutioner.”  Hired assassin Liquida Muerte has a revealing name and a fiendish agenda.  While motivated personally by his vendetta against Madriani, Liquida also is in the employ of Thorn, a terrorist mastermind who threatens the entire country.
The Bourne Objective, the latest Jason Bourne thriller from Eric Van Lustbader, pits Robert Ludlum’s memory-impaired protagonist against another “Treadstone” graduate, Leonid Arkadin.  It eventually becomes apparent that the confrontation between the two agents is being engineered.  By whom, and why?

Updated 6.01.10

Summer will be short this year.  As we grow older, it always seems shorter, but this is a calculable difference.  The summer holiday season in the United States is generally reckoned as the period from Memorial Day in May through Labor Day in September.  Since Memorial Day came as late as possible this year, on the last day of May, we will enjoy seven fewer days this summer season than we did in 2009, which was as long as possible.

There are too many good books to read, and too little time in which to read them all, so we must devise a summer reading strategy.  If you have got to read the book before you see the movie, you need to move Stephenie Meyer’s Eclipse to the top of your list.  The movie is scheduled for release on Wednesday, June 30.

This will give you a month to read Alex Flinn’s Beastly, a modern recapitulation of the classic fairytale “Beauty and the Beast.”  The movie will premiere on Friday, July 30.  This book is a recent acquisition for our teen readers.

Part I of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will reach the big screen on November 19.  Part II is scheduled for release in July of 2011.  If you have not already read the book a half dozen times, you may want to start sometime in October.  We have five copies in circulation, but they are likely to be checked out by November.

Book-to-movie premiere parties are planned for “Eclipse” and “Harry Potter,” so start thinking about your make-up and costumes right now.

Summer Reading
Get ready to “make waves at your library!”  Our Summer Reading Program for teens gets underway at 2:30 PM on Tuesday, June 1.  Matt Moses from USA Raft will be our special guest this afternoon.  Matt will tell us tales and answer your questions about the wettest ride in the county, our own Nolichucky River.

Our kids will “make a splash” beginning Thursday, June 3.  Children from preschool age through first grade will meet from 10:30 to 11:30 AM for a story, a game and a craft project.  Kids in grades 2 through 5 will meet from 2:30 to 3:45.

New Book
Stieg Larsson’s bestselling “Millennium Trilogy” concludes with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  Lisbeth Salander, the “girl” of the novel’s title, lies hospitalized in critical condition with a bullet wound to her head.  Accused of three murders, she will rely on her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, to help prove her innocence.

Updated 5.24.10

Hey, Unicoi County, get set to get wet!  Our children’s room is currently undergoing a transformation from terra firma to undersea grotto.  And not all of the fishes are fake!  This extreme makeover is prompted by our Summer Reading Program for 2010.
Registration for the program will begin on Tuesday, June 1.  Teens will “make waves” each Tuesday in June from 2:30 to 3:45.  On June 1, our special guest will be Matt Moses, who has guided tours with USA Raft for more than twenty years.  Few people have had more experience with water than Matt!

Our children will “make a splash” each Thursday.  On Thursday, June 3, kids in preschool through first grade will meet from 10:30 to 11:30.  Children in grades two through five will meet from 2:30 to 3:45.  Expect to get acquainted with the other readers and listeners, enjoy story time and a game, and make a bookmark to hold your place in all the books that you will read this summer.

Holiday Closing
The Unicoi County Public Library will be closed on Monday, May 31, 2010 in observance of Memorial Day.  No items will be due on that date.  Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, June 1.  You may renew books online or call the library at 743-6533 for assistance.  We wish you a safe and happy holiday!

New Books
In Fever Dream, from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Special Agent Pendergast discovers that the horrific death of his wife a dozen years earlier was murder, not the tragic accident that it had appeared to be.  The still grieving husband is determined to find out who killed her, and why.  This book was donated to the library by the Wednesday Morning Club in memory of Doris Jean Alford.
John Sandford’s twentieth “Prey” thriller is Storm Prey.  Lucas Davenport investigates a hospital pharmacy robbery gone terribly wrong.  Although the perpetrators had not intended to murder their victims, one of the pharmacy workers dies.  The only possible witness to the incident is Davenport’s wife, whose life is soon in jeopardy.

Cross Roads is the eighteenth novel in the popular “Sisterhood” series from Fern Michaels.  After the ladies received presidential pardons for their vigilante actions in Game Over, the Sisterhood renounced their illegal activities and accepted new jobs that paid them well but kept them separated and virtually incommunicado.  Now they have reunited, and they find themselves in danger of slipping back into a life where justice means more than law.

Updated 5.17.10

June is nearly here, and so is the library’s Summer Reading Program.  Our theme this year is water.  While our younger children will “Make a Splash” starting Thursday, June 3, teens will “Make Waves” beginning Tuesday, June 1.  Our Youth Services Manager Kristy King has planned five weeks of programs featuring stories, games, crafts, movies and very special guests such as “Conductor Jack” Norton and Judy “Butterfly” Farlow.  Come by the library or call us at 743-6533 for information.

Board Meeting
The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6 PM on Thursday, May 20.  The public is welcome to attend.

Thank you!
We wish to thank the Conservation Department of the Erwin Monday Club for the beautiful spring flowers in the planters beside our front door.  John Padgett of Indian Creek Nursery generously donated the pretty purple petunias and scaevolas.  Thanks, John, and ladies, for this spring spruce-up!

New Books
When I first opened the box that cradled Blockade Billy, Stephen King’s latest release, I was surprised by its size.  It is a very small book, nothing like its immediate predecessor, Under the Dome.  Only 112 pages long, the novella tells the story of William “Blockade Billy” Blakely, a rookie catcher for the “New Jersey Titans” baseball franchise.  Although Blockade Billy’s career started off on a record pace, every indication he had ever played the game was expunged from the record books.  Why would a rookie phenom be stricken from the pastime he played so well?

Dale Brown’s Executive Intent pits a hawkish U. S. Vice President against his dovish boss in a future made precarious by newly belligerent policies of China and Russia.  Familiar characters from Brown’s previous novels play roles in the current story, while technology moves front and center.  Should a new missile defense system be incorporated in the arsenal or be negotiated into oblivion?

The Three Weissmanns of Westport is Cathleen Schine’s homageto Jane Austen’s classic Sense and Sensibility.  The Weissmanns are a mother and two daughters who are exiled from their posh Manhattan lifestyles by divorce and debt.  Librarian Annie embodies sense, while literary agent Miranda epitomizes sensibility.  This well reviewed new book is a gift to the library from the Parnassus Book Club in memory of Doris Jean Alford.

Updated 5.10.10

A large number of books for young children have just been processed and added to the library’s collection thanks to funds made available to us through the Library Services and Technology Act.  Among these new books is The House in the Night, the 2009 recipient of the Caldecott medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children.  The winning artist was Beth Krommes.  The House in the Night was written by Susan Marie Swanson.

We also have added four titles to our selection of books featuring Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese kitty boy who thinks he is a Chihuahua.  El Skippito’s further adventures take him to Mexico, Egypt and Mars courtesy of his, and author Judy Schachner’s, vivid imaginations.  Come check them out!

Board Meeting
The board of trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will convene at 6 PM on Thursday, May 20. The meeting will be held at the library.  The public is welcome to attend.

New Books
This week’s new releases have garnered glowing reviews.  Sharyn McCrumb has teamed up with NASCAR driver Adam Edwards to tell the story of Judas Grove, Tennessee.  The funeral of the town’s richest race fan is crashed, quite literally, by stock car driver Camber Berkley.  Having no living relatives, the dearly departed had left his substantial fortune to one of the local churches.  Which one?  The one with the Faster Pastor, of course.  Reckless driver Berkley proves a godsend.  He is sentenced to two weeks of community service teaching the village’s slow-moving ministers how to race stock cars in a quest for the cash.

Blue-eyed Devil is a posthumous release from the late Robert B. Parker, the fourth in his western series featuring Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch.  The pair returns to Appaloosa to find the town under the thumb of an ambitious chief of police who finances his high political aspirations through extortion.  Our heroes, as one would expect, take exception to that.

Scott Turow’s Innocent is a sequel to his Presumed Innocent.  It is twenty-two years since prosecutor Rusty Sabitch was tried for the murder of his mistress.  After a sensational trial, he was acquitted of that charge.  He since has risen to become the chief judge of his county’s appellate court and he currently is running for the state supreme court.  When his wife dies, apparently of natural causes, his behavior raises the suspicions of Tommy Molto, the attorney who prosecuted his earlier murder trial.

Updated 5.3.10

As spring slowly slips toward summer, our coats and jackets are being relegated to the closet.  At least three closets in Unicoi County, however, are missing an article of clothing.  If you are a library patron and you have misplaced a jacket, come check our lost and found for your missing item.  Three jackets have been abandoned on the coat rack in the hall.  Two are adult sizes and one will fit a child.  We also have found three spiral notebooks and a wheel to…something.  If you have questions, feel free to call us at 743-6533.

Book Donation
The Trinity Foundation of Unicoi has donated sixty-three books to our library.  These volumes have significantly expanded our holdings in the fields of philosophy and theology.  A number of these books were written or edited by local author Dr. John W. Robbins.  You may find them shelved in new non-fiction.  We are very grateful for this generous gift.

AV Rotation
We have just received a new selection of audio books, playaways, DVDs and VHS movies from the Watauga Regional Library.   As usual, there is a wide variety of book and movie titles from which to choose.  We will keep these until August, when they will be sent to another library.  Come check them out!

A Reminder
Please do not return DVDs to our book drops, which are located at the library in Erwin and at Unicoi Town Hall.  The cases and discs may be damaged if some of our heavier books fall on them.  Please return DVDs to the circulation desk in the library.

New Books
The 9th Judgment is the latest from James Patterson and Maxine Paetro.  San Francisco homicide detective Lindsay Boxer and the Women’s Murder Club hunt the coldblooded killer of a mother and infant and a cat burglar who left the beautiful wife of a movie star dead at the scene of the crime.

When Rosalind “Lin” Townsend got pregnant at seventeen, her father turned her out of the house.  Her baby’s father also rejected her, sending her letters back to her marked Return to Sender.  Fern Michaels’s latest heroine raised her son on her own.  Now Will Townsend is set to start his freshman year at NYU.  On a visit to New York, Lin encounters Will’s father, a wealthy executive who does not recognize her.  Lin sets her heart on revenge.

Updated 4.26.10

George Washington, first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen, has something in common with all too many of our library’s patrons.  He has two overdue library books.  Law of Nations and volume 12 of the Commons Debates, which were transcripts of the proceedings of the British House of Commons, were borrowed by President George Washington during the first year of his first term.  The books were due on November 2, 1789, but apparently they were never returned.  The library’s shelves have been checked for the missing volumes.  They were not found, although volumes 1 through 11 and volumes 13 and 14 have indeed been located.  The fine owed for the tardy tomes has been calculated at some $300,000.
Of course, none of our books are 220 years late, but we would like to recover any that are overdue.  Bring them back now and you will avoid making the news sometime in 2230!

New Books
In David Baldacci’s latest, Deliver Us from Evil, the titular evil is embodied by Evan Waller.  Ostensibly a Canadian businessman, Waller was in his former life Fedir Kuchin, a Ukrainian mass murderer.  In no way reformed, Waller currently is a human trafficker.  Shaw, Baldacci’s protagonist from The Whole Truth, is hot on the trail of Waller.  New introduction Regina “Reggie” Campion is hard on the trail of Kuchin.  Neither realizes that the other is tracking the same prey.  This book was presented to the library by the Parnassus Book Club in memory of Doris Jean Alford.

Eve Duncan’s daughter Jane MacGuire is given Eight Days to Live in Iris Johansen’s new thriller.  Without really knowing why, Jane has painted a disturbing portrait that infuriates a shadowy cult that traces its origins to the time of Christ.  The members of the ancient conspiracy believe Jane must die, but not before she leads them to a priceless treasure.  All of Jane’s friends and relatives share in her peril.

Stuart Woods has penned his eighteenth novel to feature suave New York City attorney Stone Barrington.  Lucid Intervals finds Barrington taking on two new clients in order to bankroll his lavish lifestyle.  Although Herbie Fisher pays a million dollar retainer to compel Stone’s attention, the lawyer is more interested in gorgeous British intelligence officer Felicity Devonshire, who is looking for a defector.

Jodi Picoult’s House Rules features a teenage boy with Asperger’s syndrome who is charged with murder.  Jacob’s consequent inability to interpret everyday social cues makes him appear guilty to the investigating authorities, but his passion for forensic science may produce a clue.

Updated 4.19.10

Unicoi County’s contribution to “Tomfoolery” in the Tri-Cities will be held Thursday, April 22.  Come celebrate Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with us.  You will be privileged to “whitewash” Aunt Polly’s picket fence starting at 4 PM.  Our book discussion for all ages will begin at 5.  Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes and light refreshments will be served.
“The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.”  The Kingsport Big Read is coordinated through the City of Kingsport’s Cultural Arts Office.

New Books
Although The Telling, the third book in Beverly Lewis’s “Seasons of Grace” series, has just arrived, a waitlist has already been started.  Our online catalog shows that twenty-one holds have been placed on this new novel throughout the six counties served by the Watauga Regional Library.  This does not mean that a patron of the Unicoi County Public Library will have to wait for all twenty-one holds to be fulfilled.  New books are not made available for loan between libraries for about six months after they first arrive.  Our patrons will be the first to read our books, and Johnson City’s patrons will be the first to read their books.  Only two of our patrons are in line for our copy of The Telling so far.  Give us a call at 743-6533 if you would like to be added to the list.
A long-held and closely guarded family secret lies at the heart of The Shadow of Your Smile [fifty holds!], the latest from Mary Higgins Clark.  Although she is not aware of her ancestry, Dr. Monica Farrell is the granddaughter of a nun being considered for beatification and a prominent physician, inventor and philanthropist.  This thriller pits the good doctor against her grandfather’s morally bankrupt nephews, who stand to inherit the philanthropist’s fortune in her absence.

Two other thrillers compete for readers this week.  Harlan Coben’s Caught [seventy-three holds!!] entwines a missing teenage girl, a possible sexual predator, and a television reporter specializing in ambush journalism.  Heresy: an Historical Thriller from S. J. Parris is based on the life of historical figure Giordano Bruno.  Charged with heresy by the Holy Roman Inquisition for his belief in a heliocentric universe, Italian monk Bruno flees to England, where he is recruited by Queen Elizabeth’s chief of security, Sir Francis Walsingham.  Bruno’s mission is to unearth a conspiracy that threatens the life and reign of England’s great Protestant queen.

Updated 4.12.10

There is something special about this week here at 201 Nolichucky Avenue in Erwin.  Yes, our tax returns—and yours--are due on Thursday, but that hardly qualifies as “special.”  Terrifying, possibly, but not exactly “special.”  And yes, the twenty-third U. S. Census is currently ongoing, but that will last well beyond this week.  It takes a while to count every person in the entire country.  It is National Environmental Education Week, but we strive to reduce, reuse and recycle every day.

April 11 through 17 is special to us because it is National Library Week.  This year we celebrate with the theme “Communities thrive @ your library.”  Stop by and borrow a book or movie and help us mark this week as a special one.  And if you find you need a tax form or IRS publication at the last minute, we will try to help you with that.  We also have census packets available, and we can assist you in finding information about preserving our environment.  Oh, yes.  Although it is National Karaoke Week, we won’t be singing!

Tom Sawyer
It has been more years than I would care to admit since I first read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  My memory of certain incidents from the tale is clear, while my recollection of other details is clouded by the passage of time and the accretion of experience.  I have started rereading the novel in preparation for the book discussion scheduled for April 22, and I am delighted to find this classic as entertaining now as I did when I was ten years old.  It is, of course, the books that still are read 134 years after they were written and which are enjoyed by persons more than once during a lifetime that earn the appellation of “classic.”  Join me in revisiting Twain’s masterpiece and make plans now to celebrate Tom Sawyer here at the libraryfrom 4 to 6 PM on Thursday, April 22.

New Books
Jerusalem in 1910 was no less volatile than it is one hundred years later.  The notion of an amateur archaeologist poking around the Temple Mount in search of the lost Ark of the Covenant was, even then, a foolproof formula for disaster.  In her nineteenth Amelia Peabody novel, A River in the Sky, Elizabeth Peters sends Amelia and her husband Emerson to Palestine to prevent such a debacle.

Martha Grimes opens her twenty-second Richard Jury mystery at The Black Cat, a pub named for the crime’s only witness.  The cat isn’t talking, but Jury soon discovers that the victim was a librarian leading a double life.  She should have been content to celebrate National Library Week!

Updated 4.5.10

Our patrons who enjoy audio books will be happy to learn that we have added twenty-three new titles on compact disc to our collection, and just in time for the start of the spring driving season!  Choices range from children’s classics like Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess to current bestsellers like Robert B. Parker’s Split Image and Danielle Steel’s Big Girl.
We also have acquired The Help in a sound recording.  Kathryn Stockett’s debut novelis entering its fifty-second week on the “New York Times” list of best-selling hardcover fiction.  As of April 1, it held the number one spot, a place where it feels right at home.  The audio book version is performed with humor and heart by four accomplished actors, and has garnered accolades from reviewers.

Velvet-voiced Garrison Keillor is responsible for two of our new options.  The first is his own Lake Wobegon Days and the second is his abridgement of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Speaking of Huckleberry Finn…
The month that commences with April Fool’s Day is the perfect month for “Tomfoolery!”  Plans continue for our celebration of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on April 22.  Come dressed as a character from the novel.  Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes.  Help Tom “whitewash” Aunt Polly’s picket fence starting at 4 PM.  I’ve had a word with Tom.  He will be content to watch you work.  He won’t even charge you for the privilege!  Aunt Polly will serve lemonade and cookies for those who work up an appetite.  A community book discussion for all ages will take place at 5 PM.
This event is affiliated with Kingsport’s Big Read, which is being celebrated during the entire month of April.  Visit kingsportbigread.com for a complete list of events.  “The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.”  The Kingsport Big Read is coordinated through the City of Kingsport’s Cultural Arts Office.

New Book
Jonathan Kellerman’s latest Alex Delaware novel is the aptly named thriller Deception.  The apparent suicide of a prep school teacher proves to be murder.  Ms. Freeman had kept a number of secrets, and those with whom her life was entwined are still keeping mum.  Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware wade through the lies and deceptions that surround the victim.

Updated 3.29.10

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic.  Most Americans read Mark Twain’s masterpiece as children and absorb the ambience of small-town America during our country’s adolescence.  Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly and Injun Joe are characters that most Americans feel we know well.  Except for the nefarious Injun Joe, we love them all.
During the entire month of April, our neighbors in Kingsport will celebrate The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a part of The Big Read.  There will be movies, dance, picnics, fence painting, barge rides, book discussions and even a visit from Mr. Twain himself.  The point of all this “Tomfoolery” is to get everyone in the community to read, and enjoy, this one book.  See the complete schedule of events at kingsportbigread.com.

The Watauga Regional Library, to which the Unicoi County Public Library belongs, is a partner in this endeavor.  We will host a book discussion about Tom Sawyer at 4 PM on April 22, so pick up a copy of the book here at the library and refresh your memory and prepare your costume.  All ages are welcome to participate!  Further details will follow next week.

“The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.”  The Kingsport Big Read is coordinated through the City of Kingsport’s Cultural Arts Office.

Holiday Hours
The library will be closed on Friday, April 2 for the Good Friday holiday.  We will be open during our regular hours on Saturday, from 11 AM to 3 PM.

The library will be closed from noon until 2 PM on Wednesday, April 7 for a private reception in memory of our benefactor Mr. Kenneth Scott Toney.  We apologize for any inconvenience to our patrons.

New Books
Exclusive, the latest from Fern Michaels, has arrived.  This second volume in the new “Godmothers” series finds Toots Loudenberry and her friends Ida, Mavis and Sophie moving into a hideously decorated mansion in Malibu.  The estate was formerly owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and is currently occupied by a quartet of translucent blue spirits.
Our fans of large print westerns will be pleased to know that our eagerly anticipated quarterly shipment has just arrived.  Come check them out!

Updated 3.22.10

This year April 1 will be more than just April Fool’s Day.  The federal government is going to try to count every person living in the country on that date.  The decennial census, taken every ten years since 1790, is mandated by the United States Constitution.  The numbers it yields determine the apportionment of delegates in the U. S. House of Representatives.  Funds for many state and federal programs are allocated based on federal census figures.  An accurate count ensures that the distribution of federal funding for schools--and libraries—is fair.

This year’s enumeration is the twenty-third in our nation’s history.  Answers to census questions given by our ancestors during the 1800’s and early 1900’s provide valuable genealogical information to persons interested in family history.  Since federal census schedules are kept private for seventy-two years, the most recent schedules currently available to the public are from the fifteenth census in 1930.  The 1940 census should be released in 2012.  If you would like to know your great grandfather’s occupation or your great, great grandmother’s place of birth, you may be able to discover that information in early census records.  If you are intrigued, come to the library and we can show you how to look them up.

Unlike most of the earlier questionnaires, this year’s census form asks only ten questions.  The U. S. Census Bureau estimates that most families will be able to fill it out in just ten minutes.  If you have not yet received your questionnaire, they are available at your library in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese.  This is your opportunity to stand up and be counted for the benefit of Unicoi County.

Schedule Change
The library will be closed from noon until 2 PM on Wednesday, April 7 for a private memorial reception honoring the library’s benefactor Mr. Kenneth Scott Toney.  We apologize for any inconvenience to our patrons.  Please join with us in paying tribute to Mr. Toney’s generosity to our community.

New Book
Think Twice is the latest thriller to hit our shelves.  Fans of Lisa Scottoline will doubtless be pleased to see the return of Philadelphia attorney Bennie Rosato and her evil identical twin Alice Connelly.  Alice drugs her sister and buries her alive in order to assume her identity and steal her fortune.

Updated 3.15.10

Young children are curious.  They explore their brave new world and manage to climb and crawl into places that adults cannot imagine would pique their interest, or even be accessible to them.  Some of those places hold dangers.  Toddlers also are quick to examine products used by adults that are left lying within reach while Mom or Granddad goes to the door or answers the phone.  Unfortunately, accidental poisonings occur every day.

This week, beginning March 14 and ending March 20, is National Poison Prevention Week.  The Tennessee Poison Center in Nashville maintains a free “Poison Help” hotline at 1-800-222-1222, which serves residents of all 95 counties in the state.  Medical professionals answer calls and dispense first aid treatment advice or refer callers to medical facilities when appropriate.  Board certified toxicologists are on call 24 hours a day to provide specialized expertise.  About 80 percent of hotline calls can be handled without a visit to the emergency room or a doctor’s office.

The “Poison Help” hotline also answers questions about drug interactions and toxic ingredients found in common household products and plants.  The Tennessee Poison Center has provided the library with a limited number of cards with tips about how to prevent a poisoning, and stickers with their hotline number to keep handy by the telephone.  Stop by and pick one up.  It just might help to save a life.

Board Meeting
The Unicoi County Public Library Board of Directors will meet on Thursday, March 18 at 6 PM.  The public is welcome to attend.

New Books
The library has received a large shipment of materials purchased with LSTA funds.  Money made available through the Library Services and Technology Act may only be used to purchase library materials that benefit certain underserved segments of the population.  Our large print collection and Spanish language books have been among our several beneficiaries.  Come check them out.

Clive Cussler and coauthor Jack du Brul will soon be back atop the best seller charts with The Silent Sea.  This well-reviewed seventh thriller from the Oregon Files finds Captain Juan Cabrillo, as always, on the trail of adventure.  The action shifts from a WWII-vintage blimp discovered in the jungles of Argentina to an ancient Chinese shipwreck found in the waters off the coast of Antarctica.  And don’t forget the fabulous pirate treasure that may be buried on an island off the coast of Washington State!

Updated 3.8.10

With the release of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” last weekend, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is again in vogue in libraries and bookstores.  Inhabited by Johnny Depp, Tim Burton’s vision of a fluorescent Mad Hatter lends fresh appeal to the classic.  An Alice several years more mature than Carroll’s ten year old muse also adds a new dimension to the tale.
Mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson inverted and translated his first and middle names to yield the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.  Writing nonsense under this nom de plume, he achieved the affection and renown that eluded him in his primary occupation.  Dodgson’s lectures on mathematics at Oxford University are reported to have been dreary affairs.  Alice, however, still charms.

For teens and adults who want to learn more about this classic, John Gardner’s Annotated Alice is now available at our library.  Carroll’s full original text, with “won’t” written “wo’n’t” and “can’t” printed “ca’n’t,” is accompanied by Sir John Tenniel’s familiar illustrations.  Notes alongside the text speculate about the origins of the phrases “mad as a March hare” and “grin like a Cheshire cat.”  The inspiration for Tenniel’s illustration of the duchess is revealed to be a 16th century painting by Flemish artist Quentin Matsys, aptly entitled the “Ugly Duchess.”  Come explore the nooks and crannies of Wonderland with Gardner’s definitive opus.

Board Meeting
The board of directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6 PM on Thursday, March 18.  The public is welcome to attend.

New Books
Kristin Hannah’s Winter Garden unfolds the harrowing story of a woman’s experience in World War II Leningrad through the fairy tale she tells her grown daughters.  Another view of events during the Second World War is revealed in Sarah Blake’s bestselling novel The Postmistress.  While American Frankie Bard reports from London during the Blitz, newlywed Emma Fitch and postmistress Iris James deal with events on the home front on the cusp of America’s final commitment to the war already raging in Europe.

From Laurell K. Hamilton comes Flirt, the latest in her series featuring Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.  Brava, Valentine is the second in a trilogy by bestselling local author Adriana Trigiani.  Shoe designer Valentine Roncalli and her brother Alfred take over their family’s wedding shoe business in New York.  On a trip to Buenos Aires, Val discovers that her family and their business are both larger than she realized.

Updated 3.1.10

Most mornings the library’s mail, like the deliveries you and I get at home, consists of an assortment of bills and catalogs.  Last Monday was a bit unusual.  We received a parcel sent via Royal Mail from London:  not Kentucky; not Ontario; London, England.  It contained a copy of Project Biennale, which is a contemporary art exhibition in book form.  The book is a gift from The Hut Project, one of the participants in the exhibition.  Their contribution to the book was an “advertisement” that invited purchasers of the book to sign and return the book to them in exchange for a signed, limited edition artwork.

Why would the Unicoi County Public Library be given a copy of this book?  Because the artwork that was to be sent in exchange for the book featured Erwin’s world-infamous “Murderous Mary,” the elephant that was hanged for killing her trainer.  The members of The Hut Project asked us whether we would be willing to give the returned books a home, and we said yes.

A collection of books was anticipated, but a publisher’s misprint resulted in an unknown number of books being returned to sender or lost in the mail.  The book we received was the copy The Hut Project had been sent as contributing artists.

Project Biennale will be cataloged and incorporated in the library’s collection, but because it is a limited edition work, it will not be available for checkout.  Come to the library to experience Project Biennale. Visit www.thehutproject.co.uk/mary.html for more information about the work of Chris, Ian and Alec, The Hut Project.

Computer Class
The “Introduction to the Internet” class scheduled for March 4 is full.  Please call the library at 743-6533 if you would like to be added to the waiting list.

A Reminder
Our normal business hours are Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM, and Saturday from 11 AM to 3 PM.

New Books
Among our recent acquisitions is Big Girl, the latest from Danielle Steel. Plus-size woman Victoria Dawson battles her weight and her unfeeling parents.  Split Image is the ninth Jesse Stone novel from the late Robert B. Parker.  Jesse investigates the murder of a mob underling while he helps his old friend Sunny Randall try to extricate a teenage girl from a religious cult.

Updated 2.22.10

Last week the Colonel J. F. Toney Memorial Library was graced by the beauty and fragrance of a floral tribute sent by the family of Kenneth Scott Toney.  Mr. Toney, who died last month at the age of ninety-seven, was a major benefactor to our library.  He was one of the persons responsible for the preservation and restoration of the historic Clinchfield Railroad Depot and its conversion into a library to serve all of Unicoi County.  Our library was named in honor of Mr. Toney’s grandfather, who was a prominent Unicoi County businessman, newspaper publisher and public servant.

Even during the cold, snowy and windy weather we have enjoyed for the past two months, a few hardy tourists have stopped by the library to visit our historic depot.  Many make the trip in more clement conditions.  Our staff and patrons love our beautiful building, and visitors are enchanted by its authentic details.  If you are interested, we will be happy to show you around.

We wish to extend our condolences to the Toney family, as we remember the generosity and public spirit of Kenneth Scott Toney.

Free to a Good Home
We have two large green plants that have outgrown the space we have available for them.  Come check them out.  If you would like to adopt one or both plants, we will be happy to bid them farewell.  Give us a call if you would like more information.

Computer Classes
We will offer our “Introduction to Computers” class at 6 PM on Thursday, February 25.  This is our most basic class, starting with how to turn on the computer, how to navigate the computer keyboard and how to use a mouse.  On the following Thursday, March 4, we will offer our “Introduction to the Internet.”  This class will help you set up an e-mail account and learn to search the web for information.

If you are interested in attending either class, call the library at 743-6533 to reserve a place.  Space is limited by the number of computers that we have available and our desire to give each participant in the program individual attention.

New Book
Game Over, the seventeenth book in the popular Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels, takes the septet to Washington, where they seek a pardon from the President for their vigilante activities.

Updated 2.16.10

In the nineteenth century, there were few, if any, retirement communities or nursing homes in Tennessee.  Most persons entering their golden years lived with a son or daughter.  Some seniors, however, faced a dilemma.  Most of their children were migrating to the western states and territories in a quest for cheaper land.  How could they keep at least one son at home to care for them?

One of my forefathers attempted to solve this problem by entering into an agreement with his youngest son.  The son was given all of his father’s land and some of his parents’ personal property on the condition that he care for both his parents for the remainder of their lives.  This contract was recorded in the deed books of Hawkins County, Tennessee.

The neighbor who drew up the agreement explicitly spelled out the standards of care.  John Mauk, Jr. was given his father’s land on the condition that during each year he deliver to his parents’ residence “sixty bushells of good sound corn, twenty Bushells of good wheat, three Hundred pounds of merchantable pork with wood sufficient for one fire place at all times.”  Clothing and shoes for both parents and pasturage and forage sufficient for one cow also were specified in the contract.

“Genealogical Gems Found among the Deeds,” the third in our ongoing series of family history workshops, will be held at the library on Thursday, February 18 at 6 PM.  Please call the library to register so that we can notify you of any schedule changes due to inclement weather.

Computer Classes
We will offer our “Introduction to Computers” class at 6 PM on Thursday, February 25.  This is our most basic class, starting with how to turn on the computer, how to navigate the computer keyboard and how to use a mouse.  On the following Thursday, March 4, we will offer our “Introduction to the Internet.”  If you are interested in attending either class, call the library at 743-6533 to reserve a place.  Space is limited by the number of computers that we have available.

New Book
Perennial bestselling author James Patterson has teamed up with Michael Ledwidge for Worst Case, the third mystery in their Michael Bennett series.  For the children of New York’s wealthiest citizens, ignorance is not bliss.  One after another, they are being kidnapped by a killer who quizzes them on the cost others pay for their privileged lifestyles.  A wrong answer can be a fatal mistake.  Michael Bennett is on the case, aided by FBI agent Emily Parker.

Updated 2.8.10

Hard economic times are nothing new.  My maternal grandmother often told me how grateful transients were for the onion sandwiches she gave them during the depths of the Great Depression.  In his memoirs, my paternal grandfather wrote that he ran away from home at the age of fourteen when his father remarried.  His departure coincided with the Panic of 1893, and work was scarce for half-grown boys.  Fifty years before the “Cleveland Panic,” my great, great, great grandfather Jeremiah Seaver mortgaged everything he owned to secure a loan of $300.  Jerry was a young married man with two small children.  He eventually would be the father of nineteen.

All of his possessions were listed in the deed of trust that was recorded in the deed books of Hawkins County, Tennessee.  Jerry owned two beds and a “trunnel bed,” a chamber clock, a cupboard, a bureau, two chests, a “falling leaf table,” a dozen chairs, and a looking glass.  His wife Nancy cooked with two pots, two (Dutch) ovens, two skillets and one tea “kittle.”  With a dozen plates and a dozen glass tumblers, she could serve meals for as many as twelve, and each could have a chair.  There were fifty bushels of corn, twenty bushels of wheat, 500 pounds of bacon and milk fresh from the cow.  All things considered, the Seavers’ home must have been comfortable.

Jeremiah Seaver was a saddle and harness maker.  Among “each and every particle of property whatever,” the saddles he had in stock, his tools and raw materials also were pledged to satisfy the debt.  Hawkins County records are not complete, but we know that Jerry prospered.  Just three years later, he bought two lots in the town of Surgoinsville in exchange for $150 in saddlery.

Upcoming Events
As you might already have surmised, the subject of our upcoming genealogy workshop will be gems hidden among the deeds.  Make plans now to join us at 6 PM on Thursday, February 18.  Please call the library at 743-6533 to register so that we can advise you of any changes due to inclement weather.

Looking ahead, a book-to-movie party is planned for Friday, March 5 to celebrate the opening of “Alice in Wonderland,” starring Johnny Depp, and “The Lightning Thief.”  Watch this column for further details as the day nears.

Holiday Closing
The library will be closed on Monday, February 15 in observance of Presidents’ Day.  No items will be due on that day.  If your books are not overdue, you may be able to renew them online.  Otherwise, call the library for assistance.

Updated 2.1.10

The figures are in.  During the fiscal year that ran from July 2008 through June 2009, the Unicoi County Public Library served a population of 17,718, of whom 9,476 were registered patrons.  That is 53 percent of the population of our county.  Registered patrons checked out 48,579 books, videos, magazines, audio books and other circulating items.  Library staff fielded 3,240 reference questions.  The number of computer users jumped 19 percent from the previous year to 10,849.  Attendance at library programs totaled 4,654.

Using values per use provided by the state of Tennessee, the retail value of all these services totaled $1,119,540.  Since the library operated on a budget of $101,212, the taxpayers’ return on investment was $11.07 for each dollar invested!

New Novels
Today is Groundhog Day, which means that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner.  Bestseller M. C. Beaton’s latest Hamish Macbeth mystery, Death of a Valentine, looks ahead to the big day.  Sergeant Macbeth meets Constable Josie McSween when Annie Fleming, the village’s great beauty and queen of the Lammas Festival, is killed by a Valentine letter-bomb.  Previously a confirmed bachelor, Macbeth may have met his lady.

Melanie Benjamin’s Alice I Have Been: a novel tells the story of Alice Liddell, the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  The author has investigated the real Alice’s life and filled in fact with fiction to explain the mystery of the rift that eventually separated Carroll from his muse.

Steve Hamilton’s new protagonist Mike, who is known as The Lock Artist, endured a traumatic experience during his childhood that left him literally speechless.  Betrayed by his singular talent for picking locks, Mike sits in prison as an adult trying to crack the mystery that binds his mind and voice.

New Non-fiction
Our new non-fiction titles include Robyn Okrant’s Living Oprah: my one-year experiment to walk the walk of the queen of talk.  Okrant lived the entire twelve months of 2008 according to the advice of Oprah Winfrey as dispensed on her television show, magazine and website.  Each chapter of her new releasechronicles a month of that journey.
Also new in non-fiction is the bestselling Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Updated 1.25.10

Our foretaste of spring last week was welcome, but all too brief.  We had a golden opportunity to restock our pantries at home, and our bookshelves here at the library.  The Unicoi County Public Library received a large shipment of new books last Tuesday.  They have been processed and are now ready to spend the next two weeks as your ideal houseguest.  They don’t get up too early or go to bed too late.  They don’t use up all the hot water or leave towels scattered on the bathroom floor.  And they are quiet, but always ready to entertain you.  I consider a good book the perfect visitor!

Among our latest acquisitions are several new releases.  Private investigator Stone Barrington is back for the seventeenth time in Kisser, the latest issue from Stuart Woods.  That number must also be lucky for novelist Jack Higgins, whose Sean Dillon returns in The Wolf at the Door for his seventeenth thriller.

Elizabeth Kostova brings us The Swan Thieves, a story of love, art and obsession.  A film based on her smash hit debut novel, The Historian, is in development.  Tracy Chevalier, who as the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring knows something about art, has a new opus, Remarkable Creatures.  It is a novel based on the true story of two Victorian women who find fossils on the stony beaches of Lyme Regis, England.  Working class girl Mary Anning and middle class spinster Elizabeth Philpot develop a mutual respect through their common passion for the curiosities they discover.  Tami Hoag’s Deeper than the Dead, Julie Garwood’s Sizzle, W. E. B. Griffin’s The Honor of Spies and James Rollins’s Altar of Eden are all climbing the best seller lists.

New Biographies
In two of our new biographies, “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” especially a Tudor crown.  The Lady in the Tower: the Fall of Anne Boleyn is Allison Weir’s take on the final months of Henry VIII’s ill-fated queen.  The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey explores the tragic lives of the queen for nine days and her two sisters.  Birthright: the True Story That Inspired Kidnapped, by Virginia Tech history professor A. Roger Ekirch, tells the tale of James Annesley, heir to five noble titles, who was kidnapped by his uncle and transported to America to work as an indentured servant.  Jemmy Annesley’s escape and return to Ireland to claim his birthright is an adventure more improbable than fiction.

Computer Class
The introduction to computing class that will be held on Thursday, January 28 has been filled.  Please call the library at 743-6533 if you would like to be added to the waitlist, or be notified about our next class.

Updated 1.19.10

Mark your calendars now.  Saturday, January 23, has been set aside to celebrate an endangered art.  National Handwriting Day is the natural climax of National Handwriting Analysis Week.  Many ladies and gentlemen past a certain age write handsomely.  They went to school when communication between a student and her teacher depended upon legible handwriting and all social correspondence was handwritten.  Good penmanship was prized.  My foremothers in an unbroken line from my great, great, great grandmother to my mother had beautiful handwriting.  The art, for the most part, has deteriorated as word processors and computers have made handwriting old fashioned, if not downright obsolete.  At least we still can express our personality in some small degree by choosing a font and color to suit an occasion or our current mood.  We also can cultivate a distinctive, and frequently illegible, signature.

Computer Class
If you would like to learn how to use a computer to make your correspondence legible, you are in luck.  Our beginners’ computer class still has space available, but reservations are limited.  The class will be held at the library at 6 PM on Thursday, January 28.  Please call the library at 743-6533 for reservations or more information.

Upcoming Meetings
The Unicoi County Public Library Foundation will hold its annual meeting at the Erwin Town Hall at 2 PM on Thursday, January 21.  Membership in the Foundation is open to all who wish to support library services in Unicoi County with an annual donation of $25 per person.  The Unicoi County Public Library’s board of trustees will meet at the library at 6 PM that same afternoon.  The public is welcome to attend.

Book Club
The library’s book group also will meet at the library at 6 PM on Thursday, January 21 to discuss their December read, A Christmas Ball.  The meeting was postponed from Tuesday, January 12 because of inclement weather.  Members of the group will choose a new book for the month of January.  This meeting will be held in the children’s reading room.

Winter Weather
Inclement weather may cause the library to open late, close early or be closed all day.  Even if the schools are closed, your library may well be open.  Please call if roads are icy and you are unsure whether we are open. 

Updated 1.11.10

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin famously wrote “…in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.”  Although he usually gets the credit, Franklin was not the first to jot down this thought.  Some sixty-three years earlier, Daniel Defoe, speaking of legends and prophecies, wrote “…things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.”  Modern authors have echoed this simile.  In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind,” Scarlett O’Hara complained,“Death and taxes and childbirth!  There’s never any convenient time for any of them!”  Perhaps the best adaptation is anonymous:  “Death and taxes may be certain, but we don’t have to die every year.”

Since we all must pay taxes every year, one way or another, the Unicoi County Public Library will do what we can to help.  We have a number of the most commonly used tax forms and instruction booklets available free of charge.  To insure that there are enough for everyone, we ask that you take no more than two of each form you need.

Upcoming Events
The library’s book group will meet at 6 PM on Tuesday, January 12 to discuss their latest read, A Christmas Ball.  If you would like to join the club, come to the meeting.  A new book will be chosen for February.

The library will be closed on Monday, January 18 in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.  No items will be due on that day.  You may renew your books online if they are not past the due date, or call the library for assistance.

A beginner’s computer class will be offered at the library on Thursday, January 28.  Participation will be limited by the number of computers available.  Please call the library at 743-6533 for your reservation.

New Books
In a story strongly reminiscent of recent headlines, Barbara Delinsky’s Not My Daughter deals with an apparent pregnancy pact among three high school students.  Although it is not exactly a new book, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is one of the best sellers of 2009.  After forty weeks, it has become a fixture on the New York Times list of best selling fiction, and there is still a waiting list for it at libraries across our region.  It tells the story of “Skeeter,” a young woman fresh out of Ole Miss in 1962.  Skeeter wants to become a writer; her mother wants her to marry.  “The help” are Aibileen and Minny, black maids who work for the country club set to which Skeeter’s mother belongs.

Updated 1.4.10

Another January has arrived.  Along with the usual cold weather and checks hastily dated with the wrong year, it brings a new season of “Masterpiece Classic” to PBS.  Each year a number of literary landmarks are dramatized for the enjoyment of a new generation of readers.  Leading off the lineup for 2010 is “Return to Cranford,” a sequel to last season’s Emmy-nominated “Cranford.”  These miniseries are based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian novels Cranford and My Lady Ludlow.  They tell the story of an English country town poised, rather reluctantly, on the brink of social change.

Following “Return to Cranford” come adaptations of a trio of Jane Austen novels, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. “Northanger Abby” and “Persuasion” are encore presentations from 2008, but “Emma” is all new.

On February 28, “Masterpiece Classic” will turn abruptly from comedy and romance to espionage.  “The 39 Steps,” based on the thriller by John Buchan, will revisit a story immortalized by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935.  The drift toward masculinity will continue in March and April with “Sharpe’s Challenge” and “Sharpe’s Peril,” adapted from the adventure novels of Bernard Cornwell.  Cornwell’s “Sharpe’s Series” follows the military career of Army officer Richard Sharpe through the Napoleonic Wars and beyond.  Both of this season’s episodes are set in colonial India.

“Masterpiece Classic” will end its season with dramatizations of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl and Andrea Levy’s prize-winning novel Small Island.  “The Diary of Anne Frank” will air on April 11, Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2010.  The “Small Island” of the title is Great Britain after World War II as seen through the eyes of a newlywed Jamaican immigrant couple and their white landlords.  Whether you first read the book or watch its adaptation, all of these tales are standards worthy of your time and attention.

Book Club
Our book group will meet at 6 PM on Tuesday, January 12 to discuss A Christmas Ball.  Call the library at 743-6533 for more information if you would like to join us.

New Book
Days of Gold is the second in a multigenerational, and non-sequential, series of historical novels begun by Jude Deveraux in Lavender Morning.  The inaugural volume of the “Edilean Series” anchored the saga in the present day.  This second novel pursues it into the past.  Deveraux’s faithful readers may know where they are going, but not how they will get there.  Set in Scotland and Britain’s American colonies during the 1760’s, Days of Gold reveals another segment of the unfolding story.