Updated 1.30.12
In 1914 and 1915, and again in 1920, veterans of the Civil War who resided in Tennessee were sent questionnaires that gathered biographical data and stories about the experiences of the veterans before, during and after the war. Some men who had served in Tennessee units but who then lived in other states also responded to the surveys. The five volumes of The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires, which we have housed in our History Room, preserve this priceless information.
I regret that none of my lineal antecedents had the opportunity to fill out a questionnaire, but I am grateful that several of their relatives, friends, neighbors and fellow soldiers did record their answers. From their responses, I learned how these men were housed and educated before the war began. I also read about their experiences in the Union and Confederate armies. Most importantly, for me, I finally was able to understand why my great, great grandfather John Wesley Dotson had taken his family and left his home in Grainger County after the war. His cousin, in his questionnaire, tells of the abuse he suffered at the hands of “Union Soldier,s and stragglers” “some months after ‘Lees Surrender.’” Apparently Grainger County was not a safe haven for Confederate veterans after the war.
Tennessee Remembers
Once again the State of Tennessee is giving its veterans a chance to document and preserve their experiences. The men and women who served their country in Korea and Vietnam are invited to participate in separate online surveys at www.tn.gov/tsla/VetsProject/koreanwar (or /vietnamwar). If you would prefer to set your pen to paper, hard copies of the questionnaires are available from the Tennessee State Library and Archives at: Tennessee Remembers: Korean War Veterans (or Vietnam Veterans); TSLA; 403 7th Avenue North; Nashville, TN 37243.
The Tennessee State Library and Archives is also accepting donations of original material concerning the Korean and Vietnam Wars for inclusion in their “Tennessee Remembers” projects. Letters, photographs, film, audiotapes, maps, artifacts and all other kinds of original material relating to these conflicts are being sought. Professional archivists and conservators will preserve the materials for the benefit of future generations and organize them so they are accessible for research by the public.
Our veterans were participants in our nation’s history. The Tennessee State Library and Archives wants to preserve their unique perspective. If you have questions about the Veterans Projects or you need assistance taking the online questionnaire, please call the Unicoi County Public Library at 743-6533. And thank you for your service!
Updated 1.23.12
We are back after the (week-long) intermission with the second half of our “Staff Picks for 2011” award winners. Last week we announced Kristy’s choice, Lost December by Richard Paul Evans, and Leanne’s favorite, Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch.
Connie enjoyed Sharyn McCrumb’s latest, The Ballad of Tom Dooley. For that matter, so did Leanne and I. I took my copy to the Czech Republic last September. It was somewhat surreal reading about Tom Dooley in Prague, but I couldn’t wait. Since Prague was the birthplace of Franz Kafka and the setting of the Jewish legend of the Golem, I suppose surreal actually was appropriate.
Both Connie and I are looking forward to McCrumb’s next novel, which we are told will be set during the American Revolution. As a “local girl,” Sharyn McCrumb enjoys a strong following among our library’s patrons. Four months after Tom Dooley’s debut, we still have readers on the hold list. Expect her next “Ballad Novel” to generate another long queue.
My pick is Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. Based on a kernel of history, the author vividly imagines what the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard, might have been like. His story is narrated by the fictional Bethia Mayfield, the brilliant daughter of a Calvinist minister living on Martha’s Vineyard in the seventeenth century. Although deprived of a classical education by the customs of her time, Bethia absorbs the lessons offered to Caleb and her brother as she goes about her chores. When the boys go to Harvard, Bethia accompanies them, but as a servant, not a scholar. Still, she will not be denied an education. We have Caleb’s Crossing available in regular print, large print and audio book versions.
New Books
Kristy and I have been cataloging a sizeable shipment of new books. We have kept Leanne busy getting them ready to go out onto the shelves or to those patrons who already have them on hold. By tackling and taming the challenge of 1Q84, she has proven herself mistress of the art and science of covering dust jackets. Haruki Murakami’s homage to George Orwell’s 1984 comes with a translucent dust jacket that our supplier would not even try to cover. Leanne, however, took it in stride and 1Q84’s evocative dust jacket is beautifully protected and ready to lend. Come check it out, (or any of our sixty-eight other new books)!
Updated 1.17.12
With the old year fresh in our memory and the new year encouraging us to celebrate, the season of awards has begun. The Golden Globes were given out last Sunday and the Oscar nominations will be broadcast on January 24. In the spirit of the season, the staff of the Unicoi County Public Library would like to announce our picks for the best books of 2011. Kristy and Leanne’s favorites appear below, and the remainder will be revealed in next week’s column.
Kristy’s choice is Lost December, a retelling and updating of the parable of the prodigal son, by Richard Paul Evans. Recent business school graduate Luke Crisp blows through his sizeable trust fund with the help of his “friends” rather than return home to take over the family business. Of course, he comes to regret that decision. Too ashamed to face the father who has disowned him, Luke accepts a low-level position in one of his father’s shops.
Leanne liked Man Booker Prize finalist Jamrach’s Menagerie. Carol Birch’s beautifully written tale of the sea begins in Victorian London, where young Jaffy Brown survives a much-too-close encounter with a tiger that escaped from the menagerie. Given his apparent affinity for animals or, at least, luck, Jaffy goes to work for Jamrach and, years later, is sent on an expedition to bring back a Komodo dragon. Even if he is able to find the fabled beast, can he get it--or himself--back home to London?
Library Foundation Annual Meeting
The Unicoi County Public Library Foundation will hold its annual meeting at the library on Thursday, January 19 at 10:00 AM. Patrons and the public are invited to attend. You may join the Library Foundation as a patron with an annual contribution of $25.00 or more. A $25.00 donation will pay for the purchase and processing of one book.
The purpose of the Foundation is “to supplement the operating budget of the Unicoi County Public Library and to help maintain the library building in order to continue to improve library services to the residents of Unicoi County, Tennessee and of all its communities.” The Foundation provides more than a quarter of the library’s annual budget. If you would like to support your library, then please consider joining the Foundation.
Board Meeting
The Board of Trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 19 in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
Updated 1.9.12
Library Foundation Annual Meeting
The Unicoi County Public Library Foundation will hold its annual meeting at the library on Thursday, January 19 at 10:00 AM. Patrons and the public are invited to attend. You may join the Foundation as a patron with a contribution of $25.00 or more. The purpose of the Foundation is “to supplement the operating budget of the Unicoi County Public Library and to help maintain the library building in order to continue to improve library services to the residents of Unicoi County, Tennessee and of all its communities.” The Foundation provides about a quarter of our annual budget. If you would like to support your library, this is one way you can do that.
Board Meeting
The Board of Trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 19 in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
New Year, New Releases
Janet Evanovich has teamed with Dorien Kelly to produce the new novel Love in a Nutshell. “The Nutshell” is a summer house that Kate Appleton, newly single and newly jobless, hopes to transform into a bed-and-breakfast. To earn the capital she needs, Kate takes a job spying for a brewer who suspects he is a victim of sabotage. The $20,000 bonus she has been promised if she fingers the saboteur keeps Kate motivated, along with a ripening romantic interest in her new boss.
In Breakdown, Sara Paretsky’s fifteenth V. I. Warshawski novel, the Chicago private eye focuses on the death of a man found in an abandoned cemetery with a stake driven through his heart. Was it merely coincidence that a group of privileged young girls were nearby performing a ritual inspired by their favorite vampire novels? A partisan political television host thinks not, but V. I. seeks the truth.
A Devil Is Waiting to assassinate the U. S. president when he visits London, but not if Sean Dillon can help it. A fanatical mullah has issued a fatwa blessing anyone who will accomplish the mission. Banking heiress and Afghan war hero Sara Gideon joins the “Prime Minister’s private army” in Jack Higgins’s most recent Sean Dillon thriller.
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro have joined forces once again for Private: #1 Suspect. The prime target of the police investigation is “Private” director Jack Morgan himself, who falls under suspicion for the murder of a former girlfriend when her body is found in his bed. Will his crack team of investigators be able to prove his innocence?
Updated 1.3.12
Welcome, 2012! This promises to be an especially eventful year. The presidential election is likely to dominate our national news, but there will be much more to excite our imaginations during this leap year.
The Games of the XXX Olympiad will be held in London from July 27 to August 12, 2012. The 2012 Summer Paralympic Games will commence seventeen days later. Expect your library to mark the occasion with suitable programs for children and adults.
What do the novels Les Miserables, The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit, World War Z, Cloud Atlas and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter have in common? Not much, except that each is the inspiration for a movie scheduled for release this year. If you want to read (or reread) the book before you see the film, you still have plenty of time. Four of these movies are set to premiere among the Oscar contenders in December.
Another event scheduled for April has been seventy-two years in the making. The 1940 census will be released to the public on April 2, after that information has remained private, in accordance with federal law, for more than seven decades. If you are new to genealogy, these population schedules may be a good place for you to start your search for ancestors. If you are an old hand, you will enjoy this peek into the lives of your grandparents and great grandparents.
This information will be available for online searching free of charge from the National Archives website. The 1940 census will not be indexed by name when it opens. In order to locate your relatives, you will need to know their address and the enumeration district in which they lived during the census. If you have their address, you should be able to locate the enumeration district. If you don’t know their address and you are unwilling to eyeball the more than 132 million entries, be patient and wait for the names to be indexed. Ancestry.com has announced that they will make both the images and their indexes available free of charge until the end of 2013, but it will take some time to complete the project. If there is sufficient interest, we will arrange a genealogy workshop to help you navigate the census websites.
New Books
Among the last books we cataloged in 2011 were 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz, Deadline by Fern Michaels and D.C. Dead by Stuart Woods. If you have had your fill of company and parties, open Koontz’s tale of a lethally haunted luxury apartment building. You soon will appreciate the benefits of companionship once again.
Updated 12.27.11
How many of you got an eReader, tablet or smartphone for Christmas? If you are among the millions who did, I want to tell you how your public library can still help you save money by borrowing books instead of buying them. First, go to our library’s website at www.wrlibray.org/libraries/unpage.html. If you find our address unwieldy or hard to remember, just type “Unicoi County Public Library” into your search engine. You can’t miss us.
Under the heading “Quick Links,” click on “R.E.A.D.S.” This will take you to the Regional eBook and Audiobook Download System for Tennessee. In the upper left-hand corner, under the “download digital media GUIDED TOUR,” click on the link “Supported Portable Devices” to see whether your Christmas present is compatible with R.E.A.D.S. Most devices are supported, but some will work more easily than others.
Then take the tour and consult the “Quick Start Guide.” If you need assistance, go to “My Help” for answers. In order to use R.E.A.D.S, you will need an account with a Tennessee library. If you already have your library card, a supported device and the software that it requires, then you are ready to begin. If you still need to apply for a library card, then bring your photo ID and proof of address to the library and we will process your application. It takes about twenty-four hours for R.E.A.D.S to validate your card number.
R.E.A.D.S is available to you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and any place you have internet access. When I visited the Czech Republic last September, a member of our mission team borrowed books while we were dining at an internet cafe. Another reason our patrons like R.E.A.D.S is because there are never any late fines. At the end of the loan period, the book automatically returns itself.
Holiday Closing
In observance of New Year’s Day, the Unicoi County Public Library will be closed on Monday, January 2. No items will be due on that day. If you should want to return a book, you may use our drop boxes which are located at the northeast corner of the library in Erwin and at Town Hall in Unicoi. Please do not deposit DVDs in the drop boxes, as they may be damaged when heavy books fall on them. Bring them into the library during our regular business hours.
We will be open our usual weekend hours, from 11:00 AM until 3:00 PM, on Saturday, December 31. On behalf of all our staff, I wish you a happy, safe and prosperous New Year!
Updated 12.19.11
‘Tis the season for holiday gatherings. Most organizations host a luncheon or dinner for their members and most workplaces organize a party of some sort for their employees. We who work at the Unicoi County Public Library see no reason to break with tradition. We prefer theme parties. Last year we chose “Feliz Navidad” as the theme for our office Christmas party and enjoyed Mexican food amid south-of-the-border decor.
This year we chose as our inspiration “Food in Literature.” The frugal feast lovingly prepared by Mrs. Cratchit for her husband and their six children in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol sprang immediately to my mind. Just about every year I reread the classic and share once again in Mrs. Cratchit’s anxiety about her plum pudding. That confection, “like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top,” has intrigued me since my childhood.
I was even more fascinated when I learned that plum pudding is made with raisins, currants and candied fruit peel, but not with plums. In seventeenth century England, the word “plum” (or “plumb”) was used to refer to raisins and other fruits. When Little Jack Horner sat in the corner eating his Christmas pie, he probably pulled out a raisin, but “raisin” doesn’t rhyme with “thumb.”
Since I have survived my fair share of culinary disasters, I can sympathize with Mrs. Cratchit’s fretful fantasies. Nevertheless, I promptly volunteered to bring plum pudding to our office party. Considering my own limitations in the kitchen and Mrs. Cratchit’s expert opinion about the delicacy of plum pudding, I utilized my better-honed skills and searched the internet for a Christmas pudding to purchase. It currently is biding its time in my refrigerator, waiting for its big reveal.
And by the way, don’t worry: Our books are safe. While our pudding may be garnished with a modest sprig of holly, and perhaps a dusting of powdered sugar snow, it definitely will not be set aflame in the library!
Holiday Closings
In celebration of Christmas, the Unicoi County Public Library will be closed from Friday, December 23 through Monday, December 26. No items will be due on those dates. If you would like to return a book, please use the drop boxes located at the northeast corner of the library building in Erwin and at Town Hall in Unicoi. Since heavy books may damage DVDs, please return DVDs to the library during regular business hours. If you need to renew an item, please call the library at 743-6533 by Thursday, December 22.
Updated 12.12.11
Hey, kids! Have you ever come to the library in your pajamas? We normally would not encourage such extremely casual dress, but Friday afternoon will be an exception. Our “Polar Express” Christmas party on December 16 will take the concept of “casual Friday” to new heights. Put on your best pajamas and join us from 4:00 to 5:30 to hear the beloved story and enjoy snacks and crafts suggested by the book.
And speaking of crafts, if you have any of the round plastic Coca-Cola bottles that look like ornaments sitting around, please bring them to the library. Miss Cindy has plans to recycle the bottles into a craft project for our younger patrons. As always, we appreciate your help.
Thank you!
We want to thank the Erwin Monday Club for putting up and decorating the Christmas tree in our reading room. The red felt cardinals and poinsettias and the glittering snowflakes and pinecones have gotten our staff and patrons into the holiday spirit!
New Books
Red Mist, Patricia Cornwell’s 19th “Scarpetta” thriller, takes up where Port Mortuary left off. When chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta sets out to investigate the murder of her deputy Jack Fielding, she finds herself caught in a web of terror that may well span the globe.
When Death Comes to Pemberley, the victim is a familiar scoundrel whom Jane Austen fans will not mourn more than civility demands. Mr. Wickham, the seducer and all-around bad egg made infamous in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is dead, and his widow Lydia brings the news to her brother-in-law Mr. Darcy’s palatial estate at Pemberley. Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, always warned her nephew that the Bennett family would pollute “the shades of Pemberley.” Now they have brought danger and a mystery to that great house.
Austen aficionada P. D. James begins her book with an apology to Miss Jane, who certainly did not relish such indelicate subjects as murder.
Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend is a biography of the dog who saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy and who became Hollywood’s top box office draw. Susan Orlean begins Rinty’s story with his rescue as a puppy from a bombed-out kennel in France during World War I. She follows the original dog and his successors on their journey through silent films, talkies, radio, and television to today’s current Rin Tin Tin. This recent release was a donation from one of our generous patrons.
Updated 12.5.11
Last Tuesday was just like Christmas at the Unicoi County Public Library. Our friendly UPS driver and his seasonal assistant wheeled in thirteen boxes of books purchased with our latest allotment of LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) funds. Since we were busy that afternoon, it took us until close of business just to unpack them and check them off the packing list. It may take us until Christmas to get all 381 books cataloged and processed, but you may look forward to seeing a large number of new books on the large-print shelves and in the children’s room shortly. And for those who prefer our audio books, expect new titles to hit the shelves soon!
Career Coach
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development will send their mobile career center, the Career Coach, to the Unicoi County Public Library’s front parking lot on Tuesday, December 6. The Coach is scheduled to arrive at 10:00 AM and will be here until 2:00 PM. The Coach’s friendly and professional staff will help job seekers hone their resumes and interview skills and develop search strategies. Their onboard database of available positions covers the entire state of Tennessee. So come on down and get your job search rolling with the Career Coach!
Please note that any time Unicoi County schools are closed because of inclement weather, the Coach will not be able to make the trip from Knoxville.
New Book
Michael Connelly’s Detective Harry Bosch has been given three years in which to retire from the LAPD. In other words, he has been put on The Drop—Deferred Retirement Option Plan. Determined to make the most of the time he has left, he wants cases. Bosch gets his wish: During the course of one morning, he and his partner David Chu are assigned two cases.
Can DNA evidence point the finger at an innocent man? Well, a match has been found between a twenty-nine-year-old criminal and a twenty-one-year-old crime. Could an eight-year-old boy have raped and murdered the victim, or is there something seriously amiss at the new Regional Crime Lab?
The potential for problems with all the crime lab’s current cases is one political hot potato, but another is tossed to Harry (or perhaps at him) before he can blink. The son of city councilman Irvin Irving, Bosch’s former colleague and enduring nemesis, apparently commits suicide, and Irving insists that Bosch spearhead the investigation. Can there possibly be a connection between the two cases?
Updated 11.28.11
Snow Business
With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas looming large, it is time to remind you that we may close the library in case of ice or snow. As long as our dedicated staff can safely drive to and from the library, we will be open. If driving becomes dangerous, we may open late, close early, or even be closed all day. If you notice that the roads are covered with snow or ice, please call the library at 743-6533 for information about schedule changes. Let’s all drive carefully and have a safe winter season!
Career Coach
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s mobile career center, the “Career Coach,” will be rolling into our front parking lot on Tuesday, December 6. The Coach is scheduled to arrive at 10:00 AM and its staff will be available to help job seekers polish their resumes and search for employment around the state until 2:00 PM. They have informed me that they will not be able to come if the Unicoi County schools are closed for inclement weather, so hope for a sunny day.
New Books
With V is for Vengeance, Sue Grafton has worked her way through the alphabet from “A” to “V.” California private investigator Kinsey Millhone is hired to prove that Audrey Vance, a woman whom Kinsey helped arrest for shoplifting, did not commit suicide.
What Sue Grafton has done for the alphabet, Janet Evanovich has done for numbers. The last time I checked, Explosive Eighteen had 121 patrons in the Watauga Region waiting for their turn to read her latest. Happily, the waitlist for our library’s copy is not nearly so long. Give us a call if you would like to add your name to it.
When Michael Crichton died in 2008, he left a biological thriller unfinished. Richard Preston has completed the novel. When I opened Micro to catalog the book, I found the map of a familiar landscape--a map on which I could practically pinpoint the location of my former home in Honolulu. Recalling the lush vegetation and the exotic wildlife that surrounded our quarters, I have no trouble imagining the microbiological riches--and perils--that might dwell there. Consequently, I am glad this book was published decades after I left the Islands. The flowers were beautiful and fragrant and those playful mongooses were captivating, but the unseen microorganisms might have been deadly!
Updated 11.21.11
As much as I like turkeys (both in the wild and on my plate), my favorite symbol of our Thanksgiving holiday is the cornucopia. The horn of plenty is a colorful and graceful design and one that is rooted in Greek mythology. While hidden from his murderous father, the newborn god Zeus was nursed by a divine goat named Amalthea. When the playful infant broke off one of her horns, it continued to supply boundless nourishment and became the cornucopia, spilling forth a never-ceasing stream of fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers and—occasionally--coins. It is a very appealing image. If we had a cash-dispensing cornucopia at the library, just imagine what we could do!
Exhibiting the classical iconography favored by our Founding Fathers, the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina portrays Liberty standing and Plenty seated with a cornucopia at her feet. Who would not want to live in a state blessed with freedom and prosperity? Tennessee may be just a bit more practical than our neighbor to the east. Our seal emphasizes “Agriculture” and “Commerce,” presumably as the path to prosperity, golden goat’s horns notwithstanding.
Classical imagery is something that young adult readers may not encounter often. Nevertheless, many are familiar with the cornucopia, thanks to the wildly popular “Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins. In a post-apocalyptic North America characterized by hunger and brutality, young people from each district are chosen to fight as gladiators. The Cornucopia that is the centerpiece of the Hunger Games is filled with weapons and supplies, but like its mythological counterpart, it provides the things that are needed for survival. Look for the premiere of “The Hunger Games” movie on March 23 and, this Thanksgiving, be grateful we live in Tennessee and not in “District 12!”
Holiday Closing
The Unicoi County Public Library will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25. The library will be open our regular hours, from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, on Saturday, November 26.
No books or videos will be due on the days when we are closed. Books may be returned to the book drops located at the northeast corner of the library in Erwin and at Town Hall in Unicoi. Please do not return DVDs to the drop boxes, because they may be damaged when heavy books fall on them. We thank you for your help in preserving these materials for all to enjoy!
Updated 11.15.11
Where were you on Friday, November 22, 1963? Most Americans born prior to 1955 can tell you precisely where they were when they heard the news that the President had been shot. I was in Mrs. Boling’s fourth-grade classroom at Avoca Elementary School when the principal made the announcement over the school’s intercom. We went home early that afternoon and watched TV for four days: the news; the speculation; the funeral; the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. I learned more about history and “civics” in those four days than I would have learned in four ordinary weeks.
If you had the opportunity to do so, would you go back in time to prevent the assassination that changed our history? In Stephen King’s latest, 11/22/63, thirty-five year old English teacher Jake Epping is given a chance to visit a time that he never knew, when cars were big, gas was cheap and service stations were called that for a reason. But can he alter the future? The newspaper headline on the front of the dust jacket shows history as we know it. The headline on the back cover suggests a happier ending. Only 842 pages from the fertile imagination of Stephen King stand between you and the answer.
Board Meeting
The board of trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, November 17 in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
New Book
Catherine Coulter offers us a new “Sherbrooke” novel, Prince of Ravenscar, wrapped in a particularly attractive black damask dust jacket. A glimpse of a raven flying toward a lakeside castle supplies an intriguing relief to the elegant severity of the cover art. The title character and his young nephew, who, in 1831, fancies himself a vampire before vampires were in vogue, romance a debutante and her charming aunt. The sugar is spiced with the mystery surrounding the death of Ravenscar’s first wife and the danger posed by her vengeful brother.
Coming Attractions
With the holidays fast approaching, publishers are jockeying for a share of the Christmas buying bonanza. Expect a new novel from one or another of your favorite authors just about every week. Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, Michael Connelly and, of course, James Patterson will release new titles later this month. Be on the lookout for them, or call us at 743-6533 if you would like to be added to the list.
Updated 11.7.11
When I look back over my family’s history, I take pride in the accomplishments of all my ancestors, but the veterans who served in wars from the American Revolution to World War II hold a special place in my heart. My father and his five brothers were sailors in the Pacific during the Second World War. As a young man, their father braved the jungles of the Philippines during the Philippine Insurrection that followed the Spanish-American War.
They were discharged after their service relatively unscathed, but one of my Revolutionary ancestors miraculously survived fifty-four saber cuts received in a “minor” skirmish with “Bloody” Banastre Tarleton. If you are not familiar with “Bloody Ban,” Tarleton was the model for the brutal Colonel Tavington in the movie “The Patriot.” It is no wonder we craved our independence.
While I am proud of the service of all my forefathers and grateful they survived, I am thankful to all the veterans who have served and died in the cause of liberty.
In honor of Veterans Day, the library will be closed on Friday, November 11. No books will be due on that date. We will, however, be open our regular hours (from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM) on Saturday, November 12.
Board Meeting
The board of trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, November 17 in the library lobby. As always, the public is welcome to attend.
New Books
A mailman attempting to deliver a package discovers a gruesome crime scene. An Army colonel, his wife and their two children have been executed in a small house in rural West Virginia. Since they had lived near Washington, DC, why had they even been there? Crack military investigator John Puller is assigned to help the local homicide detective find out in David Baldacci’s Zero Day.
A little girl growing up in a five-star hotel in New York City. Sound familiar? Danielle Steel’s heroine is not Eloise, but Heloise, and her home is not the Plaza, but Hotel Vendome. Heloise’s father, Hugues Martin, transformed the sow’s ear Hotel Mulberry into a silk purse which demands constant attention. Heloise learns the business from childhood at her father’s heels and later at school in Switzerland. Of course, both father and daughter find romance at the Hotel Vendome. Give us a call and make your reservation. Who wouldn’t enjoy a few nights in a luxury hotel?
Updated 11.1.11
When I visited the Czech Republic in September, I made a point of visiting local libraries and bookstores. The town of Slany, where our team stayed most of the time, has a population roughly equivalent to that of Unicoi County. Their library, located on the town’s central square, is housed in half of a building, formerly a grammar school, which was built in the seventeenth century. Individual rooms open off a hallway that surrounds an open courtyard where teens gather to study and chat. Filled with natural light like our own library, it seemed to be a very pleasant place to spend an hour or two, but we had lots of sightseeing to squeeze into our free hours.
The bookstores in Slany were small, but interesting, with the latest translations of novels by Dick Francis and John Sandford taking pride of place. Thinking ahead to our weekend destination, I bought a map of Prague and a volume of fairy tales in Czech and English. A book designed to help a Czech child learn English can also help an American adult learn Czech!
The five-story bookstore on Wenceslas Square in the heart of Prague was a huge treat. Since Prague is a capital city with a sizeable population of diplomats, international residents and tourists, books and newspapers were available in many languages. Most of our group purchased English/Czech dictionaries and other language books, but they are heavy and I can order those here. The Czech rendition of Pride and Prejudice I deemed to be worth the effort to lug back home. After all, I could readily translate the novel’s justly famous first line, since I know it by heart. The rest of it might take a while…
Career Coach
Because they have been asked to attend a job fair on November 1, the Career Coach will not be coming to the Unicoi County Public Library this month. Barring any other job fairs or mass layoffs (or really bad weather), it should return here December 6.
New Book
John Grisham is back. The Litigators are ambulance chasers Oscar Finley and Wally Figg and their new associate David Zinc, an overworked young attorney with a leviathan firm who burned out one day and wound up drunk on the doorstep of Finley and Figg. When Wally stumbles upon a potential class-action lawsuit goldmine, the prospects of Finley and Figg start to look up. The maker of the alleged bad drug, however, will fight to the bitter end and take the battle to the Supreme Court.
Updated 10.25.11
Halloween Happenings
Get in the spirit of the holiday on Thursday, October 27 with “Ghost Stories by Candlelight” here at your library. Join us at 6:00 PM as we turn down the lights and turn up the goose bumps.
Before you trick-or-treat in downtown Erwin on Monday, October 31, stop by the library for our Halloween party. The program of snacks, crafts and face painting will begin at 4:30 and last until 5:30. With their faces painted, their treat bags decorated and their tummies tamed, Unicoi County’s ghouls and boys will be ready for their big night!
New Books
Fans of Iris Johansen’s “Eve Duncan” thrillers are on tenterhooks awaiting the final installment in the trilogy that promises to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of Eve’s daughter Bonnie. The reviews that I have read agree that this conclusion is “stunning,” so call and add your name to the reserve list as soon as possible.
In case you are wondering just what a tenterhook is, it was a metal hook which held freshly cleaned and newly woven woolen cloth tautly onto a frame, called a tenter, while it dried so that it would not shrink or crease. Fields full of tenter frames were once common sights in English manufacturing districts, but now the term tenter has become rather mysterious. The phrase “on tenterhooks,” however, still evokes an image of something, or perhaps someone, tightly stretched and threatening to snap--like someone who has been waiting for six months to find out what happened to Bonnie!
Marcia Muller’s San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mailed plea for help from her mentally ill half-brother Darcy Blackhawk. When her reply goes unanswered, she sets out to discover his whereabouts. While following Darcy’s trail through the City of Whispers, Sharon stumbles upon the body of a young woman, and clues that appear to link her brother to the unsolved murder of an heiress two years earlier.
Authors James Patterson and Richard DiLallo request the pleasure of our company at The Christmas Wedding. Gaby Summerhill is a fifty-four year old widow with four busy children who have not spent Christmas together since their father’s death. Gaby has a plan to bring her brood home for the holidays. She invites them to her wedding, but refuses to tell them which one of her suitors will be the groom. Wouldn't you be curious?
Updated 10.18.11
October is my favorite month of the year. I love the tawny autumn foliage, the bright blue skies and the soothing juxtaposition of warm sunshine with cool breezes. October, however, has a dark side. I am not referring to witches or vampires or anything that has to do with Halloween, but something which, to me, is much more alarming: the annual Public Library Survey, which gobbles a prodigious portion of my time each October.
As with most things we dread, the anticipation has proven worse than the reality. The bulk of the annual survey is behind me now. All the numbers have been added, and the percentages calculated, so now we have some time to reflect on the fiscal year gone by. Our collection has grown to 63,433 items, so I don’t want to hear anyone in the county say that he or she has nothing to read! If you would like to borrow a book, audio book or DVD, come to your library. You just might meet your friends and neighbors. Library attendance is up by four percent, and circulation has risen by eight percent.
Of course, there are some books that we don’t own, but we can get just about any book you want from one of the eighteen other libraries in our region. We were very happy to borrow 1,259 books for our patrons during the past fiscal year. We were even happier to lend 3,153 of our own books to patrons of other libraries in the Watauga Region. The greater the number of books we lend, the greater the amount we get to spend on books each September!
Halloween Movie
Join us Thursday evening at 6:00 PM for a Halloween classic. We will serve popcorn and candy, so bring your favorite soft drink for a theater experience.
We will be telling “Ghost Stories by Candlelight” next Thursday, October 27. I have been told that we share our building with thirty-six spirits, so the library is a venue suited to spooky stories. Join “all” of us next Thursday at 6:00 PM. Don’t worry. Although I have been here late at night, I have never seen or heard anything that frightened me. At least, not yet!
New Book
A young woman born to comfort and respectability and a young man born to lawlessness and violence fall in love, are separated and each go their own way. Some authors might let them part and never meet again, but Nicholas Sparks is not one of them. His lovers will meet once again, and one will offer the other The Best of Me.
Updated 10.10.11
The foliage cloaking the higher elevations has started to blush. Pumpkins destined to be jack-o-lanterns huddle on porches awaiting their big night. Bats chatter and flutter through the twilight chill. The “Count”-down to Halloween has begun.
We should be wearing warm sweaters and craving hot soups, but our recent sunshine and warm afternoon temperatures may have you clinging to summer. To get in the spirit of America’s second favorite commercial holiday, join us at 6:00 PM this Thursday, October 13 for a classic movie that never fails to evoke the proper Halloween atmosphere. Bring along your favorite non-alcoholic beverage and enjoy the popcorn and candy which we will provide.
We will show another classic horror flick next Thursday evening. The following week our Thursday program will be “Ghost Stories by Candlelight.” If you would like to share your favorite spooky story, please call the library at 743-6533 for further details. If you just want to listen and shiver, gather your courage and come to the library at 6:00 PM on Thursday, October 27.
New Books
Kyle Mills is the author of Robert Ludlum’s The Ares Decision, the latest entry in the “Covert –One” series created by Ludlum. A lethal parasite which produces violent insanity in its victims has returned to life after a periodic dormancy. U.S. Army Colonel Jon Smith, Covert-One’s top microbiologist, matches wits with forces that perceive the parasite as the ideal weapon of terror.
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Virgil Flowers is back on the case in John Sandford’s Shock Wave. Not everyone in the small town of Butternut Falls is happy about the “PyeMart” that will be built on the banks of the scenic Butternut River. Local merchants and environmentalists are up in arms, but someone is angry enough to bomb PyeMart headquarters and the Butternut construction site. With two people dead and two badly injured, Virgil goes up against an increasingly sophisticated bomber.
The Affair, Lee Child’s sixteenth “Jack Reacher” thriller, harks back to the time when Reacher was still a military policeman. Why did the career soldier leave the Army? Because of a difference of opinion with the top brass about how a politically sensitive murder case should be handled. Fans certainly would not expect Reacher to don kid gloves even when the prime suspect is an Army officer and the son of a hawkish U.S. Senator, so they will not be disappointed.
Updated 10.03.11
I recently returned from a trip to the Czech Republic. I previously visited the beautiful city of Prague and the fertile countryside of the old kingdom of Bohemia in 1986, when the country was a part of Czechoslovakia and shrouded by the Iron Curtain. The nation is now a member of the European Union. It appears much more prosperous and modern, and its people much happier than before.
Even while at work and play in the Czech Republic, I occasionally encountered reminders of Unicoi County’s upcoming Apple Festival. Although we found no apple pie—let alone apple butter--on the table there, the Czech version of apple strudel appeared fairly often on dessert menus. When we visited a museum devoted to medieval art, I noticed that paintings of the Madonna and Child often portrayed the infant Jesus holding an apple as a symbol of his humanity. And I was happy to know that when my adventure there ended, I still had our Apple Festival to look forward to!
As usual, the Unicoi County Public Library will be open during both Friday and Saturday of Apple Festival. Taste-tempting treats, rousing entertainment, and booth after booth of appealing craft items will crowd downtown Erwin on October 7 and 8. Although several streets will be blocked by vendors, your library will still be accessible. Just take Elm Avenue south past Love Street and Erwin Utilities to Iona Street. Turn right at Iona and cross over Main Avenue to Nolichucky Avenue. Turn right at Nolichucky. The Unicoi County Public Library will be on your left in our beautiful and historic old depot building.
Park at the Library!
The parking spaces in front of our main door will be reserved for those patrons who are using the library. There is no charge for parking while you are using our facility. For those who want to attend the festival, convenient parking will be available in the library parking lot on Friday or Saturday for a donation of $5. All funds raised will help support library programs. Our parking lot will open at 8:00 AM each day of Apple Festival. Business hours will be the same as usual. The library will be open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Friday, and from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Saturday.
Book Sale!!
While you are enjoying Apple Festival, be sure to visit our book sale in the basement. The sale will be held during our normal business hours. Our shelves are filled to overflowing with a variety of books and videos that should appeal to virtually every age and taste, so come discover a hidden treasure at a bargain price!
Updated 9.26.11
We get reference questions every day here at the library. Some we can answer off the top of our heads. What is the state postal code for Mississippi? Well, it isn’t MI. Since there are four states whose names begin with MI, that abbreviation will send your letter to Michigan. Mississippi is MS; Missouri is MO; and Minnesota is MN.
Many inquiries are easily answered with a quick search of the internet. What is the highest point in Unicoi County? Big Bald, at the North Carolina state line, has an elevation of 5516 feet. That is more than a mile, or 1.68 kilometers, above sea level. Whether English or metric, that is a very impressive height.
Some questions require more extensive research. Requests for genealogical information frequently fit this category. Since our staff and our time are limited, we can’t always answer these questions for you, but we will try to set you on the path to the right answer.
And then a few questions are simply unanswerable. This is my favorite. A patron recently called to renew her DVDs, but she also had a question for me. Her toddler had been helping her put away the groceries, and had put away one item a little too well. She couldn’t find it. Her question: “If you were two years old and you put away the Shake and Bake, where would you have put it?” Anticipating a midnight snack, my son once stored the ice cream under his bed. I hope the Shake and Bake enjoyed a better fate!
Adult Program
This week’s “Thursday at the Library” movie will be a comedy adapted from a literary classic. Join us at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 29 for popcorn and laughter.
Our first three meetings in October will feature movies suitable for Halloween. On October 27, we will gather for an evening of candlelight and ghost stories. Our beautiful, historic depot is alleged to be the home of some thirty-six spirits. I, personally, have not seen one, and that is fine with me, but I do enjoy hearing stories about ghosts. If you would like to spin a yarn--or just to shiver--plan to join us at 6:00 PM on the last Thursday before Halloween and get into the “spirit” of the holiday.
New Book
Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues is the new Jesse Stone novel written by Michael Brandman. Paradise, MA stands on the brink of its lucrative summer tourist season when a rash of auto thefts and then a murder generate bad publicity and political pressure for the police chief.
Updated 9.19.11
Story Times
Miss Cindy would like to invite preschoolers to listen to a story on Friday, September 23. Just come to the Children’s Room at 10:30 AM, and bring your mom, dad, grandparent, or other responsible adult with you. Our preschool story time will last for half an hour.
School age children may take their turn from 3:00 to 4:00 on Friday afternoon. Join your friends at the library to hear a story and make a craft that relates to the story’s theme.
Adult Program
Our adult reading program will not meet this week, but will resume at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 29. Join us that evening for a movie comedy with a literary provenance.
New Book
I met author Sharyn McCrumb when she spoke last fall at the high school. I asked her then what the subject of her next novel would be, so I have been eagerly anticipating The Ballad of Tom Dooley for nearly a year. I still remember, as a little girl, hearing the Kingston Trio sing “Hang down your head, Tom Dooley.” I believe it was one of the first songs I ever learned, not counting “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Of course, at five years old, I did not fully comprehend the implications for poor Tom. I simply thought it was a catchy tune.
Researching my family history reintroduced me to Tom when I traced one of my 19th century ancestors to a mountaintop farm at Trade, Tennessee. After fleeing Wilkes County, North Carolina, where he was suspected of the murder of Laura Foster, Tom stayed near Trade under an assumed name for about a week. Soon after Tom Dula left Trade, he was captured by Colonel James Grayson and two Wilkes County deputies. On a research visit to the Johnson County courthouse at Mountain City, I discussed the incident with one of Colonel Grayson’s descendants.
Publicity for McCrumb’s The Ballad of Tom Dooley promises to tell the true story behind the ballad and the legend, and hints that Tom may have been innocent of Laura Foster’s death. The story, which in the mid 1860’s was avidly covered by the sensation-hungry national press, is much more complex than the ballad suggests. As someone who appreciates historical research, I am looking forward to hearing the evidence.
Updated 9.12.11
The American Library Association designates September as “Library Card Sign-up Month,” so I recently checked our numbers. The Unicoi County Public Library currently has 10,568 registered borrowers. According to the 2010 Census, our county has a population of 18,313. When I calculated the percentage, I noticed it is the same [58 percent] as the percentage of gold in 14 karat gold, which is an alloy of pure gold and other metals. That sounds pretty good, but there is room for improvement.
In August, we issued fifty new library cards. If you have been meaning to visit the library and get your own “passport” to books, videos and audio books, well, come on down and bring the kids. We will be happy to sign you up as we go for the 18 karat gold!
Board Meeting
The Board of Trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet in the library lobby at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 15. The public is welcome to attend.
Because of the board meeting which is scheduled for Thursday, our adult reading program will meet at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, September 14. There will not be a program during the following week. Our regular weekly meetings will resume on Thursday, September 29.
Story Times
We will offer two story times for children on Friday, September 23. Miss Cindy will entertain preschoolers with a story from 10:30 to 11:00 AM. School age children may come for a story and make a craft from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. Come join the fun!
New Book
Clive Cussler’s latest offering, co-written with Justin Scott, is another adventure for Isaac Bell. The detective who investigated crimes associated with railroads in The Chase and The Wrecker, andespionage aboard battleships in The Spy, takes to the air in The Race. In 1910, aviation was still a budding and hazardous technology, and crossing the country by air in less than fifty days was a feat worthy of fame and a $50,000 prize. [According to several internet inflation calculators, that $50,000 would now be worth more than $1.1 million.] The publishing magnate who offers the prize sponsors daring aviatrix Josephine Frost, whose violent and vengeful husband Harry has just killed her lover and tried to kill her, as well. Any man who attempts to defend Josephine will find himself in peril. Bell’s mission is to keep Josephine, publisher Preston Whiteway and himself alive for the duration of the race.
Updated 9.07.11
The Unicoi County Public Library has wonderful patrons. Not only do most of you bring back your books on time and in good condition, you bring us donations of books and videos and even gifts of overabundant produce. You drop coins into our little blue piggy and occasionally tell us to keep the change when you pay for a copy or fax. Perhaps best of all, you smile when you find that eagerly anticipated new novel or open a new email account so you can see pictures of your grandchildren. Thank you! You give us all a chance to do a job we love.
Board Meeting
The Board of Trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet in the library lobby at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 15. The public is welcome to attend.
Adult Program
Our adult reading program is ongoing. We meet at 6:00 PM each Thursday for a movie, game or discussion that celebrates our love of reading. The exceptions will be September 15 and 22. Because of the board meeting on September 15, we will meet instead on Wednesday, September 14. There will be no meeting on September 22.
New Books
I have noticed a pattern in some recent new releases. Novels by two or more authors with very different styles--but released in the same week--can, surprisingly, share a common thread. It makes me wonder whether there might be some unspoken, unwritten “memo” shared among those writers, like those random days when a group of friends or co-workers all choose to wear pink, or green. This week is one of those weeks and those tantalizing threads are jewels, thieves and danger.
James Patterson has teamed with Marshall Karp, author of the Lomax and Biggs mysteries, for Kill Me If You Can. For struggling art student Matthew Bannon, luck has many facets. Fortune seems to smile on him and leads him to a medical bag filled with diamonds. Well, we know Fortune is fickle. “The Ghost” has already killed once to possess those diamonds, and he is more than willing to kill once again. Are diamonds a guy’s best friend?
Heartwishes is Jude Deveraux’s latest offering in the Edilean series. “The Heartwishes Stone” is a long-lost talisman reputed to grant wishes to members of the Frazier clan. When the intimate dreams of the Frazier family start to come true, it appears that the legendary stone has awakened. But where is it? And why is an international thief pursuing the family jewel?
Updated 8.29.11
I recently have rhapsodized about the hundreds of new books and audio books we have purchased with our ILL money. We now have added scores of new DVDs to our video collection. I know that many of you have missed the triannual rotation of audiovisual materials from the Watauga Regional Library that we used to enjoy. Since it fell to the axe of state budget cuts, we now will have to build and maintain our own video collection. This acquisition will help us do just that.
Kristy and I are busy cataloging more than 100 DVDs. There should be something for everyone. Recent releases for children (and all fans of animation) include Rio, Rango and Tangled. (Now try repeating those titles five times, fast!) Older movie buffs may prefer films based on bestselling novels, such as The Lincoln Lawyer and I Am Number Four. Secretariat, Soul Surfer and The Fighter are inspirational true stories adapted from real lives. Whether you choose comedy or drama, action or romance, recent release or cinema classic, we have a movie for you.
Both videocassettes and DVDs may be borrowed for three days. Be sure to bring them back on time! The fine for late returns is $1.00 per movie, per day. If you are an established patron of the Unicoi County Public Library, you may borrow up to ten items at a time, but you are limited to just two DVDs. Come on down to the library and choose a DVD or two for your holiday weekend!
Holiday Closing
In observance of the Labor Day holiday, the library will be closed on Monday, September 5. No books, videos or other items will be due on that day. If you need to renew items, please call the library at 743-6533 before the holiday. Books may be returned anytime in our dropboxes, which are located at the northeast corner of the library in Erwin and at Town Hall in Unicoi. We wish you all a safe and happy Labor Day!
Career Coach
If you are looking for a new job, come to the library on Tuesday, September 6. The Career Coach, a mobile Career Center provided free of charge by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, will be parked in front of the library from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM. The Coach’s professional staff can help you hone your job-seeking skills and search their database for positions available all over the Volunteer State. If you have questions about the Career Coach, or wish to request their help with your resume or interviewing skills, please call the library for reservations. The nice folks on the Career Coach are eager to help you find a new job!
Updated 8.22.11
With our once-a-year bounty of ILL book money, we have ordered more than 300 new items over the past month. You might expect to find our “new book” shelves groaning under the weight of shimmering volumes crammed back-to-back, but they instead seem strangely bare. Most of these new books have not sat around waiting for a partner, but have checked out just as soon as they were processed and circulated like the belle of the ball. If you have been patiently waiting for a recent release, check our online catalog to see whether it is available. If we own it, but it is currently checked out, you may call us and reserve your turn with the belle or beau of your choice.
Judging a book by its cover
Many books have been stacked on my desk for cataloging during the past month. Almost all of them have cover art that makes a compelling case for readers of their particular genre to pick them up and take them home. A couple, however, have stood out as being especially clever and effective.
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt, is a dark Western with a comic blush. The dust jacket spells it out for you. Stylized silhouettes of gunslingers Charlie and Eli Sisters, pistols drawn and taking dead aim on the prospective reader, are framed by a full moon. With the brothers’ heads becoming sinister eye sockets, the moon takes on the appearance of a glowering skull. The Sisters Brothers has been longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.
Nassir Ghaemi’s A First-Rate Madness is fronted by another arresting image. Dr. Ghaemi, who heads the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, explores the relationship between leadership and mental illness. He theorizes that persons such as Winston Churchill and William Tecumseh Sherman, who embodied certain qualities associated with mental illness, make better leaders during times of crisis than do their “sane” counterparts. As examples of leaders handicapped by sanity in times of crisis, Ghaemi cites Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister who remains infamous for appeasing Hitler before World War II, and George McClellan, the Union General who infuriated Lincoln with his paralyzing caution.
A face of leadership composed of portions of three photographs adorns the jacket of Ghaemi’s book. One face is clearly--to me--John Kennedy and another Abraham Lincoln, but I can’t manage to place the third. If you would like to hazard a guess, I would be happy to hear your opinion.
Updated 8.15.11
May I have the envelope, please? And the winner is…Leanne Dynneson! Leanne has been awarded the library’s coveted “Golden Screwdriver” award for her outstanding service in repair and maintenance during the past week. After sending me on a quest around the Tri-Cities for a particularly rare and valuable screw, Leanne managed to return our drop box to active duty. If you are happy to have it restored to service after its recent malfunction, just imagine our joy!
As if the drop box were not enough, Leanne then took on the challenge of changing the light bulb in our vintage microfilm reader. Believe me: this was not as simple as it sounds. A number of screwdrivers of various sizes were involved in the process, along with an assortment of knives and coins. This was followed by an internet search for the plans of the ailing machine. The removal of the burned out light source gave Leanne a measure of satisfaction, and it gave me another quest. It also provided me with another opportunity to try out my car’s navigation system. This lamp was no simple sixty watt bulb: it occasioned an expedition.
It was, fortunately, available, if a trifle expensive and hard to find. Which brings us to today’s question: “How many librarians does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer is three. During a lull in patron activity, Leanne, Kristy and I got the lamp installed and lifted the reader back onto its stand. So if you want to read your great grandfather’s obituary, our old microfilm reader is back in service, thanks to Leanne’s tenacity and ingenuity and Kristy’s staunch willingness to help.
Career Coach
We have good news for those who were disappointed when the Career Coach cancelled its appearance in Unicoi County earlier this month. The Career Coach has been booked for a return visit on Tuesday, September 6. Barring additional mass layoffs in our division of the state, it should arrive at the library about 9:30 AM and remain here for four hours.
If you would like to request special instruction from the professionals who staff the Career Coach, please call the Unicoi County Public Library at 743-6533 to register your request. Job search strategies, resume preparation and interview skills are among the topics that can be addressed. As always, computers will be available for viewing the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s employment database. The nice folks who bring the Career Coach up here from Knoxville are eager to help you find a job, and will assist in any way they can.
Updated 8.8.11
With the start of the school year, our Summer Reading Programs have come to an end. Our Thursday evening adult program, however, will continue. It will, of course, not be a “summer” reading program, and there will not be drawings for prizes, but we will still enjoy movies, games and book talk each Thursday at 6:00 PM. There also will be an occasional special event. On the last Thursday in October, for example, we will share an evening of candlelight and ghost stories. Mark your calendar now for what I hope will be a night of chills and thrills.
Movies have come a long way since the first commercial exhibition of moving pictures at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Eadweard Muybridge, who in 1877 had finally answered one of the most contentious questions of the nineteenth century by publishing a photograph of a galloping horse that showed all four of its legs off the ground at the same time, gave lectures on the “Science of Animal Locomotion” accompanied by moving pictures. Children accustomed to the special effects of movies like “Avatar” would not be impressed, but their great, great, great grandparents were fascinated!
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, technical and artistic innovations elevated films from a novelty to an art form. By the 1920’s, Hollywood was in full flower and movie stars outshone mere mortals. Movies may have been black-and-white and silent, but they were still the “bee’s knees.” Join us this Thursday for one of these silent classics and see what caused our grandmothers to swoon!
Audio Books
If you are planning a vacation in Florida over Labor Day weekend or a business trip to Atlanta, you will be happy to know that we have new audio books to keep you company while you cruise down the highway (or sit in traffic). I have heard that some of our patrons do housework or work on hobbies while listening to the latest novel from their favorite author. Audio books are great for multitasking.
Most of these titles are current bestsellers, but a few selections are nonfiction or literary classics. Some claim that when read by a gifted actor, stories come more vividly alive than when we read them ourselves. This seems especially to be true when accents, archaic words or period speech patterns are a part of the dialogue. If you find this to be true for you, don’t feel bad. Most of us don’t have a dialect coach on call like the actors do!
Updated 8.1.11
Cue the Christmas music. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” The old Staples commercial referred to children returning to school, but I am talking about shelves filled with new books! Because we “play nice and share,” lending books to other libraries within our region and around the state, we annually are rewarded with money to spend on books and other library materials. Our first large order of books has arrived and is being processed, with more to come.
Our collection of audio books on compact disc will soon be enlarged by nearly fifteen percent, and just in time for Labor Day vacations. We recently inherited (literally!) a collection of videos, so we are going to have to inventory those before we order any DVDs, but we will be buying those, as well. And the moral of this story is…it actually pays to share.
Among our newest acquisitions is the long-awaited fifth installment of George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire.” A Dance with Dragons continues Martin’s fantasy epic with the Seven Kingdoms facing grave new threats.
Conquistadora, by Esmeralda Santiago, is a saga written on a more human scale than A Dance with Dragons. Still, Santiago’s heroine must battle hurricanes, cholera and slave rebellions in order to conquer her empire in the New World.
In Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman, Inspector Harry Hole tracks a serial killer who leaves snowmen as clues to his crimes. After one of the signature snowmen is crowned with the victim’s head, Harry realizes that the grim message was meant for him.
The subtitle of Mitchell Zuckoff’s Lost in Shangri-La: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II gives you the outline of this fantastic tale, but it is the detail Zuckoff provides that takes your breath away. Like injury, enemy soldiers and cannibals. When their plane crashes in New Guinea in 1945, the three surviving American military personnel--two male, one female--find themselves a little too close to the Stone Age culture they had set out to observe.
Career Coach
The Career Coach, which had been scheduled to come to the library on Tuesday, August 2, has been requested to assist workers affected by a mass layoff occurring elsewhere in East Tennessee. We had been warned that this might happen, and that the Coach would go where it is needed most desperately, so its appearance here was cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience to our patrons. The Career Coach will return as soon as we can make the necessary arrangements.
Updated 7.25.11
Our children’s and teens’ Summer Reading Programs come to the end of the road this week in Europe. Since the typical Unicoi Countian can trace his ancestry to Scots-Irish, English and German forbears, we tend to identify with Europeans to a certain degree, although most of us are many generations removed from our mother countries and fatherlands. Still, we are bound by the common threads of our history, folk tales, music and cuisine. This week, honor our shared heritage and celebrate la difference.
Back to School Bash!
The end of your summer vacation is near, Unicoi County, but before you cut your hair and stuff your backpack, come to the Back to School Bash at your library. Our Summer Reading participants will be heading back to school with their academic skills honed and ready for new challenges. We want to applaud their achievement! The celebration will commence at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 29 and last until 5:00. If any of our local merchants would like to donate refreshments or prizes for the children in attendance, please contact Kristy or Cindy at 743-6533.
Adult SRP
Join us at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 28 for a movie set in the newsworthy yet timeless region of Tibet. This will be our last Summer Reading Program of 2011, but not the end of Thursday night gatherings during which to enjoy books, games and movies. This grand finale is just the beginning of fun at your library!
New Books
If we were asked to match our new book authors with the protagonists of their novels, we would not have much of a challenge this week. Since Split Second is Catherine Coulter’s fifteenth “FBI thriller,” her fans would have no problem connecting her to husband-and wife FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock. Matching Eric Van Lustbader with Jason Bourne would not be difficult either. While the late Robert Ludlum conceived the character of the secret agent with the faulty memory, Lustbader has since written more of the Bourne novels than Ludlum did. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Dominion is Lustbader’s fifth entry in the series.
A woman’s name like Thayer Wentworth O’Neill just has to be Southern, so matching her and Burnt Mountain with their creator Anne Rivers Siddons does not require a Sherlockian feat of deduction. Dr. Watson could have managed this one quite nicely on his own. That leaves Valerie and April Wyatt and Jack Adams for Danielle Steel’s Happy Birthday. The trio share the same day and month of birth, but not the year. I suspect that by the end of the novel, they may have even more in common.
Updated 7.18.11
The penultimate stop on our world tour will be India and the Middle East. The region that spawned the legend of Scheherazade and inspired British authors Rudyard Kipling and Hector Hugh Munro (better known as Saki) is a virtual goldmine for fiction. Our favorite storytellers David Claunch and Libby Tipton will mine that vein at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 22. A PG-rated movie about travel will be shown from 4:00 to 6:00, rounding out an afternoon of fun and learning. Next week our Summer Reading Program will conclude with a week of tales about Europe capped with our “Back to School Bash” on Friday.
Adult SRP
Join us at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, July 20 for a movie about an exchange of identity mostly set in France. If you are thinking it sounds like “A Tale of Two Cities,” that is a very good guess, but wrong! As always, if you are curious, come to your library to find the answer.
Board Meeting
Our adult Summer Reading Program will be held on Wednesday night for this week only because the board of trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 21. The public is welcome to attend.
New Books
Dreams of Joy, the eagerly-awaited sequel to Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls, follows Pearl’s daughter Joy to China in search of her biological father. Determined to locate Joy and persuade her to come home, Pearl returns to Shanghai. With the People’s Republic of China groaning under the privations of Chairman Mao’s “Great Leap Forward,” both women soon find themselves in mortal peril.
Paris, on the other hand, is seldom associated with deprivation. The American artists and scholars who crossed the Atlantic during the 19th century to imbibe the culture, the erudition--and the wine--of the European capital are the subject of David McCullough’s The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris.
The reviews for Iris Johansen’s Quinn are enthusiastic. Quinn, following Eve, which was released in April, and preceding Bonnie, which is scheduled for publication in October, is the second installment of a trilogy that promises finally to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Eve Duncan’s daughter Bonnie. With critics using descriptors like “pulse-pounding” and “breathless,” it seems possible for a reader to get a workout without ever leaving the sofa!
Updated 7.05.11
Greetings from Mexico and South America! Our children’s and teens’ Summer Reading Programs will be traveling south of the border this week. Reliable sources have informed me that our teens will be preparing Mexican food and making Guatemalan worry dolls, so expect the aroma to make you hungry Tuesday afternoon. Perhaps the worry dolls will bring our teenagers good luck, as they do in the old Mayan legend. Just tell the dolls the troubles that keep you awake at night, put the dolls under your pillow and go to sleep. You may find the next day that your troubles have resolved themselves.
Remember that the classes which normally would have met on Monday have been rescheduled to Friday, July 8 because of the Independence Day holiday. All the other groups will meet on their usual days. There will be no special guest or movie Friday afternoon.
Summer Reading has just passed the halfway point, but there is still a lot of ground to cover. Next week we will be hopping back across the Pacific to Japan and China to explore the mysteries and charms of these Asian empires. We then will travel to India and the Middle East and wind up our world tour in Europe during the last week of July. Our Back to School Bash on July 29 will bring us home with a grand celebration. It’s not too late to join the fun! Just drop by the library or call us at 743-6533 for more information.
Adult SRP
Join us at 6:00 PM this Thursday, July 7 for a movie that evokes the warm sunshine, cool breezes and enchanting triple rainbows of our fiftieth state. If you weren’t able to go to the beach for the Fourth of July, let the beach come to you! Feel free to bring yourself a snack and soft drink if you would like. Kalua pig or lomi-lomi salmon would be appropriate choices--or perhaps another Hawaiian favorite, Spam! Thank goodness it doesn’t have to be poi!
New Book
New York attorney Nina Bloom has a thriving career, a loving daughter and a secret past that threatens everything she values in the present. A quintessential “beach read,” Now You See Her by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidgewill undoubtedly be tucked into thousands of suitcases this summer. It seems that one or two of our books are dropped into pools or left in hotel rooms each year. If you are planning to take our copy to the beach, just take care to keep it clean and dry and bring it home for others to enjoy!
Updated 6.27.11
Our children’s and teens’ Summer Reading Program continues its journey around the world in eight weeks with a stop back home in North America. Canada and the U.S.A. are our focus for this week. Celebrate Canada Day on Friday, July 1 with a program featuring Mr. Bond, the Science Guy. Mr. Bond’s cool experiments will showcase electricity from England, explosions from France, the periodic table of the elements from Russia and fireworks from China. In spite of the promised pyrotechnics, Bond has assured me that no library books will be harmed during the performance! Mr. Bond will perform at 3:00 PM and he will be followed by a G-rated movie set in the northern half of North America.
Next week we will complete our tour of our home continent with a trip to Mexico. The library will be closed for Independence Day on Monday, July 4. All of our Summer Reading Programs that normally meet on Mondays will be moved to Friday for that week only. There will not be a movie or any other special program for the other age groups on Friday, July 8. Please call the library at 743-6533 if you have any questions.
Adult SRP
Join us at 6:00 PM this Thursday, June 30, for an evening of games (and prizes!) exploring our international literature theme, “Novel Destinations.” If you enjoy reading, it is not too late for you to join in the fun!
New Books
Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder transports her protagonist and her readers to the Amazon rain forest. Research scientist Marina Singh is dispatched by her employer to locate a former mentor who is conducting pharmaceutical research there. She hopes to discover details about the mysterious death of a colleague who preceded her in that quest, but she may learn more about herself than about any other person during the course of her investigations.
Tom Clancy has stayed true to the thriller genre in his most recent tome. He and Peter Telep have taken arms Against All Enemies. They introduce us to Max Moore, formerly a Navy SEAL and currently a CIA operative, who discovers that the Taliban has formed a deadly alliance with vicious Mexican drug cartels.
Johanna Lindsey’s When Passion Rules pits a lost-and-found princess against the captain of the palace guards, who suspects that she may be an imposter.
Laurell K. Hamilton has placed her vampire hunters Anita Blake and Edward on a Hit List. Apparently the original vampire, the “Mother of All Darkness” requires a new body, and she has chosen Anita’s.
Updated 6.21.11
G’day, Unicoi County! This week our children’s and teen’s Summer Reading Programs visit Australia and New Zealand. Our local storytellers Libby Tipton and David Claunch will return on Friday, June 24 at 3:00 PM. A G-rated movie set in Australia will be shown from 4:00 to 6:00 that afternoon.
Next week we will globetrot home to North America to celebrate Canada and the U.S.A, with an emphasis on Native American cultures. Don’t worry about Mexico: they’ll get their chance to shine during the following week!
Our programs are made possible by all those who have supported our fundraising efforts this spring. Thank you for your donations and your participation!
Adult SRP
This week our destination is France! Join us at 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 23 for a movie set in the land of croissants, champagne and coq au vin. If 6:00 or 7:00 is your dinner hour, feel free to bring yourself a sandwich and pommes frites. Bon appetit!
Tales of Two Lighthouses
Authors do surprise us, but most writers seem to find the genre that suits their style and stick to it. If I had been asked to guess who wrote One Summer, and I had been allowed to see only the title and the artwork for the dust jacket, I would have surmised the author must be Nicholas Sparks. After all, a sandy shoreline anchored by a black-and-white lighthouse is the focus of the cover. When I gave Leanne an opportunity to speculate, she supposed it was Jodi Picoult. Kristy cast her vote for Dorothea Benton Frank. David Baldacci was not our first or second or even third guess. The master of the legal thriller is trying his hand at a different kind of drama.
Terminally ill Jack Armstrong is preparing to bid his beloved family farewell when his wife Lizzie is killed in a car accident. His three children have been farmed out to relatives by his mother-in-law when Jack miraculously recovers. Jack moves from Ohio to the coast of South Carolina and struggles to reunite and heal his family after their devastating loss.
Now, will the real Dorothea Benton Frank please stand up? Folly Beach, Frank’s new “Lowcountry Tale,” extends our vicarious vacation in the “Palmetto State.” This novel juxtaposes the story of the creation of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with the contemporary tale of a woman who finds her future entangled in her family’s past. And yes, there is a lighthouse on the dust jacket!
Updated 6.14.11
In celebration of our multicultural theme, our children’s Summer Reading Program will focus on a different area of the world each week. This week the spotlight will shine on the varied landscapes and peoples of Africa. Next week our attention will shift “down under” to Australia and New Zealand, two countries where the constellation called the Southern Cross lights the night skies--and both nations’ flags.
Judy “Butterfly” Farlow will be our featured performer this Friday. Children of all ages are invited to join us at 3:00 PM on June 17 for “Butterfly’s Magic Rainbow Adventures,” which will feature stories, music and magic from around the world. Butterfly’s newest puppet friend, Jamaica Joe, will help her with the program. To complete the afternoon, a PG-rated movie about Africa will be shown following Butterfly’s performance.
This week the adult Summer Reading Program will return our focus to books, with a lively group discussion about one of our favorite subjects. Join us at 6:00 PM on Thursday, June 16 to share in the book talk!
For example…
Steve Martini is an obliging author. The slogan for our adult Summer Reading Program is “Novel Destinations,” and Martini’s latest Paul Madriani novel, Trader of Secrets, has attorney Madriani fighting terror on three continents. The aptly named assassin Muerte Liquida is back and still tracking Paul’s daughter Sarah. Will Paul and his friends be able to protect Sarah and prevent the “trader of secrets” from peddling top secret government technology that could endanger the entire world?
Apparently Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood got the memo about this year’s multicultural theme, as well. The Kingdom, their third “Fargo Adventure,” leads treasure hunters Sam and Remi on a tour of Europe and Asia to the ancient Tibetan kingdom of Mustang. This time the Fargos are searching for people, both living and very long dead.
Geraldine Brooks offers us a more profound opportunity to explore a collision of cultures. Set on Martha’s Vineyard and mainland Massachusetts in the 1660’s, Caleb’s Crossing tells the story of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the son of a Wampanoag chief who converts to Christianity and is sent to Harvard to study Latin, Greek, rhetoric and the other elements of a classical education. Narrating Caleb’s journey is Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of the Calvinist missionary who first tutors Caleb and a gifted—albeit clandestine--scholar. The character of Caleb is built upon slender historical foundations, while Bethia is entirely the product of Brooks’s fruitful imagination.
Updated 6.8.11
Our Summer Reading Programs for children and teens get underway this week. All of our programs have been constructed around this year’s multicultural theme. Our children’s slogan is “One World; Many Stories.” Kids will be encouraged to learn what life is like for young people living all around the world.
Children who will be attending preschool or kindergarten will meet on Mondays from 10:30 to noon. Kids in grades one and two should arrive on Mondays at 1:00 PM and plan to stay until 2:30. Youngsters in grades three through five will take their turn Monday afternoons from 3:00 to 4:30.
Children under the age of three may attend our “Mommy and Me” program on Tuesday mornings from 10:30 to 11:30. Mommies, daddies or grandparents will be required to remain with their toddlers. Our high school students will enjoy our teen Summer Reading Program “You are here” on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 4:00.
Grades six through eight will get together each Wednesday afternoon during June and July from 2:30 until 4:00. The adult Summer Reading Program will meet each Thursday evening at 6:00. It is open to all individuals ages eighteen and up.
All Summer Reading Program participants will be required to register, so we will have emergency contact numbers and any other vital information (such as food allergies) that may be pertinent.
While we will be learning and having fun each day, Fridays are reserved for special programs. This Friday, June 10, Erwin’s own Ralph Hood will be entertaining us with magic at 11:00 AM, followed by local story tellers David Claunch and Libby Tipton at 11:30. Be sure to mark your calendars for all of these special occasions!
Career Coach
The Career Coach, a mobile career center operated by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, will visit the Unicoi County Public Library from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM on Tuesday, June 6. If you are looking for a new job, be sure to bring your Social Security card for the most complete access to the Coach’s services, which include a job search database with access to positions available throughout Tennessee. The Career Coach staff can help job applicants polish up their resumes, develop a search strategy and prepare for interviews.
With ten computer workstations on board and a dedicated staff numbering between three and five, the Career Coach will be ready to help you. Just look for the thirty-five foot long motor coach in the library parking lot. You will not be able to miss it!
Updated 5.31.11
The Career Coach, a mobile Career Center, will be coming to the Unicoi County Public Library on Tuesday, June 7. The Coach is scheduled to arrive at 9:30 AM and will stay at the library for about four hours.
The Career Coach is an outreach of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It offers, in a compact and mobile package, most of the services available to Tennesseans in the Tennessee Career Centers located in larger cities around the Volunteer State. Of course, in this case “compact” is a relative term. The Coach is thirty-five feet long, with ten computer workstations and a staff of between three and five.
If you are searching for a new job, be sure to bring your Social Security card for the fullest access to the Coach’s services, which include a job search database with access to positions available throughout the state. Coach personnel can help applicants learn the skills they need in order to successfully market themselves to employers.
With subsequent stops from the Career Coach already scheduled for July 5 and August 2, we hope to host these visits on the first Tuesday of every month.
Thank You!
We want to express our thanks to the Erwin Monday Club for the beautiful new planters and flowers that greet our patrons at the front door. John and Bill Padgett of Indian Creek Nursery donated the pretty petunias that have been brightening everyone’s day. Thank you to John, Bill and the ladies!
Camille Griffin also receives our gratitude for her heroic efforts at controlling our junipers-run-amok. With her trusty little chain saw, she hacked a path through the overgrown evergreens and now the library is much safer and more accessible. Thanks, Camille!
A Summer Reading Program for Adults?
Yes, indeed, and it starts this Thursday evening, June 2, at 6:00 PM. If you like books and travel, this program is tailor-made just for you. Join us each Thursday during June and July for a literary tour of our “Novel Destinations.” It is the easiest--and the least expensive--way to explore the wonders of our world.
We will enjoy games and movies, as well as books. And there will naturally be drawings for prizes, with the grand prize being a Kindle e-reader! This year don’t let the kids have all the fun: experience “Novel Destinations” at your library.
Updated 5.23.11
Tomorrow is the 208th anniversary of the birth of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Although I prefer to celebrate good writers, given this special occasion, I will make an exception. Lord Lytton was a British politician and a prolific author of poems, plays and–-especially—novels.
Lytton had a way with words. Most of us are familiar with several of the phrases he coined. “The almighty dollar,” “the great unwashed” and “the pen is mightier than the sword” have survived the decades as staples of the English language. Lytton’s most enduring contribution, however, is one that he might have preferred we forget. His 1830 novel Paul Clifford opens with a line that many Americans might attribute to Charlie Brown’s beagle Snoopy: “It was a dark and stormy night…”
Snoopy borrowed only the first clause. The full sentence reads, “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.” As a rule, English teachers do not consider Lytton a model to be emulated. The line that inspired Snoopy’s forays in fiction has begotten the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which gifted writers attempt to surpass Lytton’s notoriously bad opening line.
Lord Lytton’s books were wildly popular when they were written. They made him a rich man. With their overwrought plots, several of his novels were made into operas. Rienzi, Last of the Roman Tribunes, elevated by the music of Richard Wagner, is probably the best known.
Since stories that make good opera are no longer fashionable, it is difficult to find Bulwer-Lytton’s novels in print. While we have none in our own collection, we will be happy to request books from other libraries in the Watauga Region. So the next time you are enjoying “a dark and stormy night,” think of Lord Lytton and imagine your own opening line. You can hardly do worse.
Golf Tournament
The Elks Club of Unicoi will sponsor a golf tournament and raffle to benefit the Unicoi County Public Library’s Summer Reading Program on Saturday, June 4. The three man team, blind man draw tournament, which will begin at 9:30 AM, will be held at the Elks Club golf course. The cost, which includes lunch, is $25 per player. Cash prizes will be paid for first, second and third place finishes, and a prize will be awarded for the closest to the pin. Please call the library at 743-6533 for further details.
Updated 5.18.11
Attention, golfers! Mark your calendars now! The Elks Club of Unicoi is sponsoring a golf tournament and raffle to benefit the Unicoi County Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. The tournament will begin at the Elks Club golf course in Unicoi at 9:30 AM on Saturday, June 4.
The cost is $25 per player which may be paid at the start of competition. Cash or checks will be accepted. If you are writing a check, please make it payable to the “Unicoi County Public Library” and write “Summer Reading” in the memo line.
Tournament participants will be assigned to three man teams with a blind man draw. Cash prizes will be paid for first, second and third place finishes, and a prize will be awarded for the closest to the pin. A lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs and side dishes will be provided at no additional expense, so come on out and spend a morning in the fresh air of beautiful Unicoi County.
For more information, please contact Kristy or Cindy at the library at 743-6533 or call Ron Taylor at 321-543-3565.
Our Summer Reading Program helps prepare young children to read and helps young readers maintain their skills over the carefree summer months. This year’s multicultural theme is embodied in the program’s slogan “One World, Many Stories.” Money raised by the golf tournament and other fundraising activities will pay for supplies, special programming and incentives. Help us make SRP 2011 the best ever!
Board Meeting
The Board of Trustees of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, May 19 in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
New Books
Two girls kidnapped in 1985 and never seen again are the Buried Prey of John Sandford’s latest release. Twenty-five years ago, a young Lucas Davenport was assigned to the investigation. Now he may have a chance to solve the mystery that was never a closed case as far as he was concerned.
According to author Dale Brown, when the United States experiences A Time for Patriots, we can rely on the Civil Air Patrol. Brown visualizes an America in crisis. A sudden economic collapse triggers massive budget cuts that endanger public safety and unleash terrorist elements within our own society. With the very existence of our republic threatened, the U. S. Air Force’s auxiliary flies to the rescue.
Updated 5.9.11
Yum! Strawberries! The 2011 Wayne Scott Strawberry Festival will be held in Unicoi on Saturday, May 14, and the Unicoi County Public Library will be there. Be sure to visit our booth while you are making the rounds of vendors. We will be there from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, telling everyone about our upcoming Summer Reading Program. This year’s multicultural theme is embodied in the children’s slogan: One World, Many Stories.
Our theme has guided the decoration of our float for the Strawberry Festival Parade. Be sure to take your place along the parade route in time to see our Teen Advisory Group riding on the float and promoting our Summer Reading Program. Our Youth Services Manager Kristy King promises that it will be a “multicultural experience.” The parade will start at 9:00 AM this Saturday.
New Books
Sixkill, the late Robert B. Parker’s thirty-ninth novel to feature his Boston private investigator, is billed by his publisher as “the last Spenser novel Parker completed.” One simply cannot help but suspect there is a partially completed Spenser manuscript somewhere out there in the hands of another writer. Zebulon Sixkill is the Native American bodyguard of bad boy movie star Jumbo Nelson. When a female fan dies after visiting Jumbo in his hotel room, Spenser investigates. He takes an interest in Sixkill and becomes the young man’s mentor.
The South is not entirely comfortable in Fern Michaels’s latest stand alone, Southern Comfort. Atlanta detective Patrick Kelly gives up his home, his career and his sobriety when his wife and children are murdered. Escaping to Mango Key in Florida, he slowly emerges from his cocoon of grief with the help of his brother. Kate Rush, a former DEA agent who is investigating a human trafficking ring on the island, will do her part to complete his recovery.
These new releases have two things in common: an author named Patterson and a tenth anniversary. James Patterson and Maxine Paetro are celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the “Women’s Murder Club” series along with Detective Lindsay Boxer’s wedding. The ladies investigate the disappearance of a newborn baby whose teenage mother is found dazed, bleeding and unwilling to talk. Since the release of Richard North Patterson’s The Devil’s Light has coincided with the recent death of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind’s role in the novel may seem anachronistic. The subject, however, a nuclear threat from al-Qaeda on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, still appears to be chillingly plausible.
Updated 5.2.11
Unicoi County, Tennessee is no stranger to the reading public. Local folks can tell you precisely which house in Erwin is described in certain of Sharyn McCrumb’s novels. The county’s most recent appearance in fiction, however, may not be quite so recognizable.
I discovered Kendra Reguly’s Shadows of Unicoi during a keyword search of the word “Unicoi” while mulling over a memorial book order. As usual, most of the results yielded by the search were local history or genealogy books that we already own. Shadows of Unicoi was an unexpected and intriguing new title. I read the synopsis to determine whether the book pertains in any way to Unicoi County. It does. Sort of.
When Jenna leaves New York City to study radiology at East Tennessee State University, she moves in with her aunt and uncle who live in a fabulous house by the lake in Unicoi, Tennessee. Yes, by the lake. While I was wondering where the lake is, Jenna drove ninety miles per hour between Unicoi and Hampton. Since half that speed is more than I can manage, I started to comprehend that Shadows of Unicoi is more than a common work of fiction, it is a fantasy. After all, Jenna’s new boyfriend Eric is an “Elve” and Jenna herself may be more special than she ever imagined. And then, of course, there are the “shadows” of the book’s title, which are not something the Chamber of Commerce would want to advertise. In Shadows of Unicoi, our hills are alive with a menagerie of fantastic creatures both good and evil.
Well, I always knew these mountains and woods are enchanting. Now they are enchanted.
Monday Closing
At the urging of the Watauga Regional Library, the Unicoi County Public Library will be closed on Monday, May 9. Most libraries in the region will be closed that day. A major server maintenance issue necessitates the closure. Books that are due May 9 will incur no fines until the following day. We apologize for any inconvenience to our patrons.
New Book
Bel-Air proves more perilous than posh in Stuart Woods’s latest, Bel-Air Dead. StoneBarrington’s erstwhile love interest Arrington Calder is now a widow, and a very rich widow at that. First, the good news: her actor husband has left her a fortune in Centurion Studios stock. Now, the bad news: real estate developer Terry Prince will do anything—absolutely anything—to get his hands on the studio’s acreage.
Updated 4.25.11
Chuck E. Cheese will visit the Unicoi County Public Library from 1:30 to 3:00 PM this Thursday, April 28. His appearance will precede the fundraiser for our Summer Reading Program which will be held at Chuck E. Cheese’s in Johnson City from 3:00 to 9:00 that evening. Fifteen percent of purchases made by our library’s supporters will be donated to our children’s Summer Reading Program. Simply inform the cashier that you are participating in our fundraising event. Be sure to make all purchases of game tokens at the register so they will benefit the library, as well.
If you would like a coupon good that day for ten free tokens with any food purchase, just stop by our circulation desk, or ask any member of our staff. Please join us Thursday afternoon at 3020 Peoples Street in Johnson City and help us raise the funds to make our Summer Reading Program 2011 our best ever!
A Request
If you would like to make a donation of books or movies, please bring them inside the library rather than depositing them in the drop box. While we are happy to receive gifts of items in good condition, a recent large donation clogged the drop box so that borrowed books could not be returned. We thank you for your cooperation, and for your donations!
New Books
The bright red door at 44 Charles Street welcomes a schoolteacher, a single father and a cookbook author into the life of Francesca Thayer, an art gallery owner struggling with financial problems and the breakup of a relationship. Danielle Steel’s heartwarming novel will mold this quartet of strangers into an impromptu family.
Nora Roberts has her legions of loyal fans Chasing Fire. Her latest explores the life of Rowan Tripp, a smoke jumper who is determined not to let romance interfere with her work. Just how long do you imagine that resolution will hold after rugged Gulliver Curry joins the “Zulies,” the celebrated wildfire fighters of Missoula, Montana?
With Eve, Iris Johansen embarks on a trilogy that promises finally to solve the mystery of who kidnapped and murdered Eve Duncan’s daughter Bonnie. Expect a cliffhanger ending and an anxious wait: Quinn is due out in July and Bonnie in October.
David Baldacci’s The Sixth Man finds Sean King and Michelle Maxwell investigating the execution-style murder of King’s college mentor, an attorney who had engaged them to assist in his defense of an accused serial killer. Their inquiry is hampered by the victim’s client, a federal government employee who refuses to talk.
Updated 4.19.11
Chuck E. Cheese’s in Johnson City is sponsoring a fundraiser on Thursday, April 28 for the benefit of the Unicoi County Public Library’s Summer Reading Program. They will donate to our program fifteen percent of purchases made that day by our library’s supporters between the hours of 3:00 and 9:00 PM. Simply notify the cashier that you are participating in our fundraising event. Be sure to make your purchases of game tokens at the register so they will benefit the library, as well. If you would like a coupon good that day for ten free tokens with any food purchase, just stop by our circulation desk, or ask any member of our staff.
To promote the event, Chuck E. Cheese himself will visit the library from 1:30 to 3:00 PM on Thursday, April 28. Celebrate Spring Break by bringing the kids by the library to see Chuck E. Cheese, check out some books or movies and then head out for food and fun at 3020 Peoples Street in Johnson City. You will have a good time and, incidentally, support a good cause. We will look forward to seeing you here and there!
Holiday Happenings
Hey, kids! Hop on over to an Easter party at the library this afternoon, April 19, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM. We will dye eggs, enjoy snacks and generally have a good time. The library will be closed on Good Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23. No books will be due on those dates. We will resume our regular hours at 10:00 AM on Monday, April 25.
New Books
In I’ll Walk Alone, Mary Higgins Clark takes identity theft to a new level of danger. Interior designer Alexandra “Zan” Moreland discovers that someone has been using her credit cards and tapping into her bank accounts. If that is not bad enough, now somebody is trying to frame her for the kidnapping of her son two years earlier. This person evidently aims to ruin her life, and he, or she, may even want to take it.
Cynics claim that no good deed goes unpunished. Reading Lisa Scottoline’s Save Me, you just might be tempted to agree. Rose McKenna, concerned about mean girls who are victimizing her young daughter, volunteers to work as a lunch mother in her daughter’s school cafeteria. When an explosion ignites the cafeteria, Rose leads the bullies to safety before she rescues her own daughter. Is her bravery applauded? Not exactly. Because one of the girls was injured in the conflagration, Rose discovers that she may face civil and criminal prosecution for the suspicious fire.
Updated 4.11.11
On this date seven score and ten years ago (April 12, 1861), our fathers—and mothers--embarked on a great and tragic Civil War. The sesquicentennial of the War Between the States will be observed over the next four years.
Many of us know the war secondhand from stories passed down within our families. Since childhood, we have heard tales of grandfathers who fought and died in battle and of grandmothers who stayed behind to mind the children and work the farm. Women secreted their silver, hid their horses, cattle and hogs and hoarded their cornmeal and bacon. They feared the clatter of hooves, since horsemen—especially in East Tennessee—were as likely to be hostile as friendly. They yearned for letters, yet dreaded news from the front. Boys and girls had to grow up fast during the early 1860’s. Men, women and children strove simply to survive.
Even if we have no stories of our own ancestors, we feel we know the war from books. Reading Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, we have been torn between fear and shame just like Henry Fleming. We have thrilled to Ann Blackman’s true adventures of the Wild Rose: Rose O’Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy. While reading Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, we have struggled alongside Scarlett O’Hara to escape the chaos of war and regain the security of peace. The Civil War is embedded in our consciousness.
If this 150th anniversary has piqued your interest in the Civil War, we can help you learn more about it. If you are curious about whether your great, great grandfather fought for the Confederacy or served with the Union army, you may be able to find the answer in Tennesseans in the Civil War. Volume 2 is a roster of all men who served in Tennessee units during the war. Volume 1 gives brief histories of each unit, so you can follow your ancestor’s odyssey from battle to battle as each anniversary is marked. Come discover your Civil War heritage at the Unicoi County Public Library.
New Book
If the new movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” has whetted your appetite for Michael Connelly’s legal thrillers, you are in luck. In a timely release, Connelly’s fourth “Lincoln Lawyer” novel is now available. To make ends meet, Mickey Haller agrees to represent a feisty woman in a foreclosure proceeding. If that sounds dull, just wait. When the banker she blames for her troubles is murdered, Haller finds himself defending her on criminal charges even while he suspects she may be guilty.
Updated 4.5.11
Thank you! “Book money” supplied by the State of Tennessee through the Watauga Regional Library has enabled us to purchase thirty-nine recently released books. I just finished cataloging the majority of them; a few will require further processing. Since most of you who are reading this are citizens and taxpayers of the Great State of Tennessee, thank you! There is nothing I enjoy more than filling our “new book” shelves with volumes hot off the presses!
These are a few of the more eagerly anticipated titles. Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife tells us the story of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. Living in the “City of Light” during the Roaring Twenties was an intoxicating experience for Chicago girl Hadley, but more literally so for Ernest, whose weakness for women and alcohol was exacerbated by Jazz Age excess. American expatriate literary lions such as Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound have cameo roles in the novel, but the focus remains on Hadley, Ernest and their complicated relationship.
In Sarah Addison Allen’s The Peach Keeper, the glue that links the lives of Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood is the “Blue Ridge Madam.” The decaying Victorian mansion that once was owned by Willa’s family is being restored by the Osgoods as a B & B. Although the two have little else in common, when a skeleton is unearthed during the renovation, the women come together and try to identify the remains.
When Detective Delia Peabody overhears a heated exchange between two policemen which reveals they are guilty of murder and corruption, she takes the information to her boss, Lieutenant Eve Dallas. In strict secrecy, Dallas and her squad organize a sting to trap the dirty cops in J. D. Robb’s Treachery in Death.
A Massachusetts state trooper allegedly shot and killed her husband in Lisa Gardner’s Love You More. Tessa Leoni’s bruised face appears to give her a motive for murder, but she refuses to talk about her husband, her bruises or even her missing six-year-old daughter.
A Little Help, Please!
If you would like to assist with preparations for our children’s Summer Reading Program which will be held during June and July, please save the cardboard tubes from your paper towel rolls and bring them to the library. They will be used for one of the craft projects that will celebrate 2011’s multicultural theme “One World, Many Stories.” Just imagine the possibilities! Call the library at 743-6533 and ask for Kristy or Cindy for more information about the program.
Updated 3.28.11
You just never know what you might encounter at the Unicoi County Public Library. While working in my office last Wednesday afternoon, I heard the chirping of crickets—a lot of crickets. Now I sometimes joke that I can hear crickets in the corners when business is slow, but this was real, and business was not that slow. I had to investigate.
Fortunately, we had not suffered an invasion of musical insects. The threat was contained. Leanne, who works our circulation desk, is a lover of—and expert on--all creatures slinky and scaly. Knowing that he could find her at work, a delivery driver had dropped off her order of live crickets at the library. Soon the building sounded as though it had been transported to Japan, where crickets are kept in cages like canaries so people can enjoy their song, or in this case, a chorus!
And speaking of Japan…
The theme for this year’s adult Summer Reading Program is “Novel Destinations.” This phrase reminds us that books provide our active imaginations with the means to travel anywhere on earth--or beyond—and on a very tight budget. If you would like to visit Japan to listen to caged crickets and admire the snowy cherry blossoms, you have only to visit your public library. Check out a novel like David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet or Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, and you can transport yourself to Japan whenever you want simply by cracking a book.
New Books
Two of our most prolific authors have new novels on our shelves. James Patterson and Neil McMahon visit the future for Patterson’s latest, Toys. In the authors’ vision of times to come, it is good to be an “Elite,” a genetically engineered perfect person boosted at birth with superhuman skills. Humans are an underclass and they are threatened with extinction. Hays Baker and his wife Lizbeth are Elites, Special Agents in the Agency of Change, tasked by the President with eliminating all opposition to Elite ascendancy. Is there any hope for humankind?
Late Edition is the latest addition to Fern Michaels’s new “Godmothers” series. When a séance reveals that Ida’s husband Thomas was murdered, the Godmothers leave Los Angeles for Toots’s plantation near Charleston, SC. They may be intent on resting and recuperating from the shocking suggestion, but don’t expect this vacation to be idle or idyllic.
Updated 3.21.11
Now that spring has officially arrived, movies adapted from books can’t be far behind. In fact, they already are here. “The Lincoln Lawyer,” starring Matthew McConaughey, is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly. The movie’s recent release has caused the book to enjoy a resurgence of popularity. Of the nineteen copies owned by libraries in our region, only five were available for checkout when I last checked our catalog. That is pretty impressive for a book published in 2005.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is experiencing a similar spike in reader interest. No copies of this title were “available” in English, but Johnson City had one in Spanish. Our new audiobook version will soon be on the shelf. It will join our regular print, large print and playaway editions currently in circulation. The movie will be released on April 22. Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon and teen heartthrob Robert Pattinson head a stellar cast.
Part 2 of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is scheduled for release in the United States on July 15. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have grown up in the limelight over nearly a dozen years of filming. Expect a “premiere party” here at the library to celebrate the release. These gatherings of “witches” and “wizards” have been an almost annual occurrence for the past decade, so this should be an especially festive farewell.
Kathryn Stockett’s The Help has been on the “New York Times” list of best-selling fiction for nearly two years. A movie was inevitable, and production has evidently proceeded smoothly. The film will be released on August 12. In the early 1960’s, “Skeeter” Phelan graduates from Ole Miss with dreams of becoming an author. Going home to Jackson, she interviews the black maids who clean the homes and rear the children of her childhood friends, the city’s elite. The book Skeeter writes turns the town on its ear, just as The Help has done.
Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?
Ulysses S. Grant, right? Well, yes and no. Grant and his wife Julia are entombed in the mausoleum, not buried.
Well, then. Who wrote the immortal plays of William Shakespeare? According to the film “Anonymous,” which is scheduled to be released on September 30, it was Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Shakespeare was an actor who got the credit. Since the movie’s director is Roland Emmerich, who gave us “The Patriot,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012,” expect an historical thriller rather than scholarly debate. Fortunately for authors and moviemakers, Tudor times supply a never-ending source of drama and intrigue.
Updated 3.14.11
The topic of parties in literature has provided the library staff with conversational fodder during the past week. Connie considers the lavish parties of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby especially noteworthy. Fitzgerald’s masterpiece has recently become newsworthy. The twenty-five room colonial mansion on Long Island Sound that may or may not have inspired Fitzgerald’s vision of Tom and Daisy Buchanan’s “old money” home is slated for demolition. The estate will be subdivided and the valuable land sold in lots. Many mansions still standing may be considered models for Gatsby’s ostentatious digs. It is a mark of distinction for all of them. The passage of some eighty years is a sure cure for the nouveau riche.
In addition, Baz Luhrmann, the Australian director of “Moulin Rouge,” currently has a new movie version of The Great Gatsby in pre-production. Leonardo Di Caprio reportedly has been cast as Gatsby and Carey Mulligan as Daisy. Tobey Maguire is set to play Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor and narrator. The movie is scheduled for release next year. If you have not yet read the book, this might be a good time to catch up with a classic. Who knows? It might inspire you to throw a party.
On the Other Hand…
I would be happy to attend one of Jay Gatsby’s extravagant “Jazz Age” bashes, but I would rather decline an invitation to one party which Leanne brought to our attention. Sealed in his magnificent “castellated abbey” in order to avoid the ghastly plague ravaging his realm, Prince Prospero plays host to an uninvited—and unwelcome—guest in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” I also would try to avoid anyone who chose to attend a masquerade ball clad in a costume inspired by Poe’s Gothic short story. You may recall that it was not a good omen when Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera showed up at a ball dressed as the Red Death.
Board Meeting
The board of directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet in the library lobby on Thursday, March 17 at 6:00 PM. The public is welcome to attend.
New Book
Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul are back with The Jungle, another maelstrom of a novel from the “Oregon Files.” A potentially devastating weapon originally developed in 13th century China has resurfaced. The hunt will lead Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon from mountains through jungles to the mind of a megalomaniac.
Updated 3.7.11
Recently I have been reading Stacy Schiff’s new biography Cleopatra: a life. The “Queen of the Nile” certainly knew how to throw a party. Schiff recounts the sumptuous feasts Cleopatra hosted for Mark Antony in Tarsus in 42 B. C. One evening she draped a dozen banqueting halls with embroidered purple tapestries, covered three dozen couches with precious textiles and set her table with gem-encrusted golden dishes. When the extravagant meal was eaten, Cleopatra sent her guests home with party favors: the tapestries, textiles, couches and bejeweled gold tableware. Even the stars at the Oscars would envy such swag.
On a subsequent evening, Antony waded into the dining room through roses up to his knees. Can you even imagine the fragrance--and the florist’s bill! Schiff equated the tab to the sum that six doctors would have earned in a year. I will never think of Tarsus in quite the same way again.
Few of the parties to which I ever was invited have measured up to the ones that I have attended in books. I would be hard pressed if I had to choose only one invitation to accept, with Bilbo Baggins’s eleventy-first birthday party in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring and the fateful barbecue at “Twelve Oaks” in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind vying for top honors. Which party would you most like to attend?
Board Meeting
The board of directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6 PM on Thursday, March 17 in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
New Books
The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman, tells a series of stories separated by time, but linked by a small plot of land where the red soil allows only red blossoms to flourish. Beginning in colonial times, the red garden is visited by wild animals, Johnny Appleseed, Emily Dickinson, a Civil War soldier—and love.
Sometimes it does take a village to raise a child, especially when the baby’s mother is dead and her father is a newly recovering alcoholic. That is why the entire population of St. Jarlath’s Crescent seems to be Minding Frankie in Maeve Binchy’s new novel.
Fern Michaels has a new stand-alone novel. With a few notable exceptions, a story of Betrayal begets a tale of revenge, so prepare for a “dish best served cold.” After all, revenge is Fern Michaels’s specialty of the house.
Updated 2.28.11
Amy N. Edwards, Unicoi County High School English teacher and newly published author of Seeker of the Rose, will beour guest at abook signing and meet-and-greet on Tuesday, March 1. Join us from 4:30 to 6:00 PM as we help Amy launch her debut novel.
Seeker of the Rose is set in Germany during World War II. Fifteen-year-old Matthias and his sister Katherine are left to fend for themselves when their father and mother choose different paths as each copes with the nightmare of war. When their father joins the Nazi SS, their mother devotes her energies to saving Jewish refugees from the Gestapo. The children eventually find themselves residents of a medieval fortress, which they unnervingly share with a fanatical officer and a ghostly “Lady in White.” Can either one help them survive?
If you have questions about the creative process, or would like to purchase a copy of Amy’s book, be sure to join us this afternoon and talk to the author.
New Books
In Brad Meltzer’s The Inner Circle, Beecher White has what I, for one, would consider to be a dream job. He is an archivist with the National Archives, who apparently has the run of the place and access to perhaps too much. To impress his former love interest, White shows her a room reserved for the use of the President. While there they discover a dictionary that once belonged to George Washington, and which may have a connection to the Culper Ring, the spies who served the General during the American Revolution. The book, which was concealed inside a chair, may have more than historical significance.
A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness, also revolves around the rediscovery of a literary treasure. A scholar descended from powerful witches unwittingly frees a horde of supernatural beings who seek the enchanted manuscript she unearthed in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Finding herself under attack, she turns to an ancient and alluring vampire for protection.
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.” Newcomer Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters are strange, but their father is stranger still. Like Shakespeare’s three witches in “Macbeth,” Professor Andreas tends to speak in iambic verse. Obsessed with the Bard, he named his daughters Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia after beloved Shakespearean heroines. With names of such dramatic provenance, how could their lives be mundane?
Updated 2.22.11
Most of us love a challenge, at least every now and then. Recently, Leanne took up a gauntlet. She bears primary responsibility for processing our books. After Kristy or I catalog a book, Leanne will cover its dust jacket or wrap a softcover book with vinyl. She stamps the library’s name and address in the front of the book, attaches a date due slip in the back of the book, prints a spine label to identify the book and checks it in to clear its status. It then is ready for lending.
Leanne is good at this and very fast. When we have lots of books to process and Leanne gets on a roll, she clears a shelf in no time flat. When our latest large book order arrived, one of the volumes presented Leanne with a puzzle. Shadowfever, the satisfying conclusion to Karen Marie Moning’s “Fever” series, has impressive cover art. The book itself is printed with a picture of a woman’s bare back covered with black tattooed wings. The transparent acetate dust jacket is elaborately embellished in red and gold, but the plain center permits a tantalizing glimpse of those black wings. As the designers no doubt intended, it catches your eye and almost compels you to pick it up for a closer look.
The dust jacket covers we use are lined and made for opaque dust jackets, which are, of course, the norm. Shadowfever’s cover is not sturdy enough to stand up to library use, so Leanne had to reinforce it. The question was how to do it without destroying the beauty of the art. At the end of the day, I looked for Shadowfever to see how Leanne had dealt with it. I didn’t find it, and assumed it had checked out. I was curious, but I would just have to wait.
Monday morning Leanne presented me with the volume. Going above and beyond the call of duty, she had taken it home with her over the weekend. Creative cutting and pasting has reinforced the cover while preserving the art. Thank you, Leanne, for a job well done!
Tax Forms
At long last, most of the tax forms have arrived. The 1040, 1040A and 1040EZ forms and instructions are available. A few schedules are still missing, casualties of the late passage of last December’s tax legislation. We expect them to arrive shortly. We do have masters of all the forms, from which we can make copies, and we can print any publication from the IRS website at www.irs.gov. If you need forms, come in and we will try to help.
Updated 2.14.11
Have you noticed the signs around town—and around the region--marking the SunnySide Early Country Trail? Beginning at the Sevierville Visitor Center and winding away into the greener pastures of Northeast Tennessee, the trail enters Unicoi County along the Nolichucky River Road from Jonesborough. The tour of Erwin starts at the Unicoi County Chamber of Commerce. It proceeds down Main Avenue to Iona Street where it takes two right turns to bring the traveler up Nolichucky Avenue to the 119th “point of interest,” the Colonel J. F. Toney Memorial Library.
A stop in the library parking lot can cross two points off the list, because Number 118, Stegall’s Pottery and Crafts Gallery, is located directly across the street from the library in the old bus station. Nolichucky Avenue was our transportation hub in days gone by, but it remains a destination to this day. Several familiar downtown businesses complete the Erwin circuit, after which the traveler drives north toward the Erwin National Fish Hatchery and the Unicoi County Heritage Museum, before heading for Unicoi, Johnson City and beyond.
After meandering through the Tri-Cities and exploring a dozen counties and 328 points of interest, the trail returns to Sevierville. Highlights include numerous historic homes and churches, antique shops and restaurants, caverns, rivers and lakes, three covered bridges and one library. We are proud to be the library that made the list of sights to see in Northeast Tennessee!
New Book
Heartwood, a sequel to Evergreen, is Belva Plain’s last novel. Plain achieved “overnight success” with Evergreen, her first book, in 1978 at the age of fifty-nine. She died last year at the age of ninety-five after more than three decades as a bestselling author. Plain completed the manuscript for Heartwood shortly before her passing.
Heartwood revisits Iris Stern, now in her seventies, who once again displays the strength she inherited from the previous generations readers loved in Evergreen as she copes with the disintegration of her daughter Laura’s marriage and the revelation of a closely held family secret.
Good News!
State funds recently were made available to the library for the purchase of books. A large order [well, large for us!] has been placed, and currently is anticipated each time the big brown truck rolls down Nolichucky Avenue. We were not able to fulfill every wish, but we are expecting a number of exciting new books, so stop by often!
Updated 2.07.11
Losing weight is almost always a positive change. It can, however, have a negative side effect: a ring that once fit snugly can become perilously loose. This is how one of our patrons lost her ring. While browsing our basement book sale, her precious wedding band slipped from her finger. She did not notice that it was missing.
When a wedding band was found among the sale books by a young patron, it was brought to our circulation desk and turned in. I was just writing that week’s library column, so word went out to all Unicoi County—and beyond—that a ring had been found.
The next Tuesday came and went without anyone coming forward to claim the ring, but two days later, a woman checking out at the circulation desk mentioned to Kristy that she had been shopping for a wedding band to replace the ring that she had lost. She was not sure where she had lost the ring, but she had called every place that she had visited the day it disappeared—including the Unicoi County Public Library—but it had not been found. None of the replacements she had tried on would do. She wanted her ring.
The patron had called the library some time before the ring was eventually found, but she had not left her name or phone number. Kristy brought the lady to me and she was able to identify the ring, so it was restored to her. The ring has returned to the library several times recently, but it is now kept securely on its owner’s finger with a ring guard. Everyone involved is thrilled that this story of loss has had a happy ending!
Valentine’s Party
Be sure to join us for our kids’ Valentine celebration on Monday, February 14. The party will start at 4:00 and close, along with the library, at 6:00. Heart-themed face painting, craft projects and refreshments will be the highlights of this special occasion.
New Book
Fadeaway Girl is Martha Grimes’s sequel to Belle Ruin, both of which feature twelve year old cub reporter Emma Graham as a sleuth savvy beyond her dozen years. Emma investigates a crime which is older than she herself, the kidnapping of four month old “Baby Fay” Slade twenty years earlier. The return of Baby Fay’s father and the sudden appearance of a charming drifter coincide with increasing danger for the inquisitive Emma.
Updated 2.01.11
With Valentine’s Day coming up in less than two weeks, I asked our staff to recommend their favorite love stories. Leanne did not hesitate: she chose Emily Bronte’s Victorian classic Wuthering Heights. Few English-speaking girls have survived their adolescence without falling under the spell of Heathcliff’s consuming love for Catherine Earnshaw. When his beloved Cathy scorns him to marry a wealthy, respectable neighbor, the dark, brooding Heathcliff seeks revenge. Wuthering Heights still lures romantics to the bleak but beautiful Yorkshire moors.
Kristy’s choice is A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks. Congressman’s son Landon Carter needs a date for the homecoming dance but he is currently without a girlfriend. In desperation, he asks minister’s daughter Jamie Sullivan to go with him. Jamie agrees, but only if Landon promises not to fall in love with her. Was Jamie merely teasing, or is there some genuine motive behind her conditional acceptance?
Connie recommends James Michael Pratt’s The Last Valentine. Broadcast journalistSusan Allison interviews Neil Thomas, Jr. about the book he has written detailing his parents’ romance. During World War II, Navy pilot Neil Thomas, Sr. left his pregnant wife on their first anniversary, Valentine’s Day, 1944. He promises to return on their anniversary, but he is reported as missing in action eight months later. His wife, however, never loses hope.
My favorite is Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence, which is both an exquisitely crafted love story and a vivid portrait of upper crust life in New York City during the final quarter of the 19th century. Newland Archer, engaged to May Welland, finds himself attracted to May’s unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. Martin Scorsese’s brilliant film adaptation of the novel is also available at your library.
Valentine’s Party
Kids of all ages are invited to join us at the library on Monday, February 14 for a Valentine’s celebration. The party will start at 4:00 and continue until 6:00. Current plans call for face painting, stories, crafts and refreshments.
New Book
Tick Tock has never sounded quite so ominous. James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge have recalled Detective Michael Bennett to duty from a beach vacation with his grandfather, his ten children and their attractive nanny. A psychopath has left a booby-trapped laptop at the main branch of the New York Public Library, and he has promised more mayhem. The clock is ticking.
Updated 1.24.11
This may be January, but it is not too early to start thinking about our Summer Reading Program. Why should young children have all the fun? Our program this year will accommodate all ages from toddlers to adults. Pursuing 2011’s multicultural theme, our kids will explore “One World, Many Stories.” Our teen slogan will be “You Are Here,” while adults will visit “Novel Destinations.” The goal for all age groups is to motivate individuals to read for pleasure and success. Learning a bit more about the world we share with seven billion other people is like the roses on the birthday cake!
We already have begun to schedule entertainment and special activities to enhance the experience for all who participate. Since our programming budget is limited, we would be delighted to hear from volunteers who have a talent that can be adapted to this year’s theme. If you can play the bagpipes, for example, or perhaps dance a mean tarantella, give us a call at 743-6533 and ask for either Angie or Kristy. Storytellers, jugglers, magicians and mimes are all welcome. On the other hand, if your talent—like mine—is better suited to writing a check, we would be thrilled if you or your local business would like to sponsor a program with a professional entertainer. Either way, you can have a lot of fun and encourage Unicoi County to read more this summer!
Hey, Kids!
With January nearly spent, it is high time to start planning for Valentine’s Day. Join us from 4:00 to 6:00 this afternoon, January 25, to make handcrafted valentines for your loved ones. A variety of fancy materials will be available to help you express your affection and creativity.
A Valentine’s Day celebration will be held at the library on the big day. The party will begin at 4:00 on Monday, February 14, and continue until 6:00. Plans currently call for face painting, cookie decorating, and lots of surprises. Circle Valentine’s Day on your calendar right now!
New Book
We recently have received the latest “Stone Barrington” novel from Stuart Woods. When rainmaker Barrington brings a high-flying new client to the prestigious New York law firm of Woodman and Weld, Stone finds himself in possession of a big bonus and on the fast track to partner. So, can anything mar his success? How about embezzlement, murder, MI6 and the CIA!
Updated 1.18.11
William Shakespeare was not the only writer to pen a “Winter’s Tale.” In Shakespeare’s day, his play’s title promised a frivolous entertainment with a happy ending. As usual, he did not disappoint his audiences.
Unlike my fun-loving Elizabethan ancestors, when I think of winter tales, I envision stories like Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. The novel, starkly beautiful and anything but frivolous, is so permeated by the season that its original translation into French was entitled L’Hiver, the French for “winter.” Charles Frazier’s Civil War odyssey Cold Mountain is another American novel which inevitably comes to mind.
Of course, nobody understands winter like the Russians. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is a kaleidoscope of jewels, furs, uniforms, overheated rooms and troikas. If only winter were so glamorous! While the movie version of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago celebrates the season with one of the most magical scenes of winter’s artistry, the return to Varykino, the novel does not dwell on the beauty of winter. The howling of wolves in the winter woods mirrors the peril the Bolsheviks pose to Lara and Zhivago.
Among our newer books, Daphne Kalotay’s Russian Winter promises a story suited to a snowbound evening. A former Russian ballerina who defected to the West during Stalin’s reign of terror puts her collection of exquisite jewels on the auction block. Her amber bracelet and complementary earrings match a fabulous pendant owned by another person. An investigation into the provenance of these pieces may reveal a long-held secret.
Library Meetings This Thursday
The Unicoi County Public Library Foundation will host its annual meeting at the library on Thursday, January 20 at 2:00 PM. Everyone who is interested in supporting the library is invited to attend. Yearly dues of $25 are used to buy books for the library’s collection.
The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 20. The public is welcome to attend. The board will convene in the library lobby.
Book Drop in Unicoi
Residents of the upper end of the county need not drive all the way to Erwin to return their books. We have a library book return at the Town Hall in Unicoi, which is conveniently located and accessible twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. With our recent snow, this service has become increasingly popular.
Updated 1.11.11
With apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in January, a taxpayer’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of big refunds--and dreams of vacations, new cars and large screen TVs. Similarly smitten, many of our patrons have been coming into the library asking for tax forms. We expect to receive a large assortment of the forms, but they are not here yet.
The Internal Revenue Service notified their outlets late last month that delivery would be delayed because the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was not signed into law until December 17. Printing of some of the more popular products, such as Forms 1040 and 1040A and their accompanying instructions, was not begun until the legislation took effect. We have been informed that products will ship as they become available.
If you are unable or unwilling to wait for us to receive the forms you need, you may visit the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/. Forms and publications are available for you to download or order to be sent to you via the United States Postal Service. And about that trip to Florida, we wish you many happy “returns.”
Annual Meeting January 20
The annual meeting of the Unicoi County Public Library Foundation will be held Thursday, January 20. Everyone who is interested in supporting the library is invited to join us in our lobby at 2:00 PM. The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6:00 PM that evening. The public is welcome to attend this meeting, as well.
Ring Found
A ring has been found in our basement. Please call us at 743-6533 or come into the library to identify it. Other items in our “lost and found” collection include jackets, caps and an umbrella. If you, or your child, have lost something, be sure to check with us. Your misplaced item may be here waiting for you to reclaim it.
New Book
New York Times bestselling author Jack Higgins has just released a new thriller, The Judas Gate. Given the book’s title, you expect a tale of betrayal, and that is what you get. An audiotape of voices recorded at the scene of an ambush in Afghanistan reveals that not all of the Taliban insurgents responsible were Afghans. British and Irish accents stand out among the Pashto majority. Sean Dillon is assigned to track the traitors.
Updated 1.4.11
If you are browsing our “New Books” section and pull Grow Old with Me by Melinda Evaul from the shelf, you may be startled by the photograph on its cover. The quaint “Mosey Inn” pictured beneath the title is our very own Unicoi County Heritage Museum. The three horses at the hitching post, however, were never visitors to the museum, but were borrowed from another photograph.
I spoke with the author at a book signing event at Erwin’s town hall last month. Evaul and her pastor husband Phil discovered the museum as they followed the Quilt Trail through northeast Tennessee. As soon as she saw the big yellow house she knew it was the home she had imagined as the setting for her novel. Museum curator Martha Erwin helped Evaul obtain permission to use the photograph.
Grow Old with Me is the first novel in the new “Quilt Trail” series by the freshman Christian fiction writer. The horses were added to the picture on the book’s cover not because the story is set in the past but because it is set in the contemporary town of Love Valley, North Carolina.
Love Valley was founded in 1954 by Andy Barker, a young man who forged his two visions into one village. Barker first wanted to establish a Christian community, but like many young men of the “Gunsmoke”-filled 1950’s, he dreamed of being a cowboy. Today Love Valley, which is located an hour north of Charlotte, is the “Cowboy Capital” of North Carolina. The saloon, general store, post office, blacksmith’s shop, hitching posts, horses and buggies are all overlooked by the Love Valley Presbyterian Church.
Author Evaul likens the middle-aged proprietress of the Mosey Inn and her physically and emotionally scarred guest to a “modern day Beauty and the Beast.” Cantheirstory have a fairy tale ending?
A Reminder
Please remember throughout January and February that the library may open late, close early, or be closed all day if road conditions become treacherous. You may call the library at 743-6533 if you have any questions or need assistance. Thank you!
New Books
If our recent spate of cold and snow has not yet chilled you to the bone, perhaps our latest thriller from Dean Koontz will. What the Night Knows is a supernatural tale of murder and revenge, perfect for a dark January night. For a lighter read, Home Free is the twentieth novel in Fern Michaels’s vigilante “Sisterhood” series.
Updated 12.28.10
While everybody knows “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” hardly anyone can name an event that occurred during the previous year [Henry VIII was born] or during the year that followed [Leonardo da Vinci sketched a speculative design for a “helicopter”]. Some years seem destined for greatness, while others fade away into an insignificant tick on the timeline of world history. For what will 2010 be remembered?
Americans know the significance of the year 1776, while our cousins across the pond know equally well the watershed event of 1066 [Norman Conquest]. You only have to watch the regular “Jaywalking” segments on “The Tonight Show,” however, to realize that some Americans have a tenuous—but frequently very funny--grasp on historic dates. Memorably, a few could not guess when the War of 1812 started. History teachers, nevertheless, should not despair. Since contestants on “Jeopardy” get most of the answers right, there still is hope.
Memorable Books of 2010
Each year pundits and critics devote the last few weeks of December to compiling various lists of the year’s best or worst. In the same spirit, I asked members of our staff which book they considered the best of 2010. Of those who expressed a preference, Leanne liked The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and I wholeheartedly concur. Jacob was my choice, as well. Cultures clash, morals strain, rescuers dare and love comes unbidden. We give this epic story of feudal Japan two enthusiastic thumbs up!
Kristy chose Mockingjay, the breathlessly anticipated final installment in Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy. Collins’s universal themes of love, sacrifice and survival couple with her unmatched talent for cliffhangers and plot twists to keep readers enthralled. Kristy found the series as a whole “addictive” and this finale “riveting.” “Hunger Games” merchandise is already in stores, and a movie is reported to be “in development.” Both of these rousing reads are available through your library. Come check them out!
Happy 2011!
With 2010 now stooped and grizzled with age, we soon will welcome a baby New Year. In order to celebrate his arrival, the library will be closed on Friday, December 31 and Saturday, January 1, 2011. We wish you a happy, safe and prosperous New Year, and we look forward to seeing and serving you all throughout 2011!
Updated 12.20.10
Electronic Books
If Santa has a new eBook reader with your name on it, you may be happy to know that you can borrow books from your library to read on your new device. Electronic editions of current best sellers cost less than the print versions, but the tally for an electronic collection can still add up quickly. Why buy when you can borrow? All you will need is your library card. Even when you explore new technologies, your Unicoi County Public Library can still meet your needs and save you money!
Most eBook readers currently on the market are compatible with R.E.A.D.S, our Regional eBook and Audiobook Download System. Please call the library at 743-6533 if you have any questions about your reader’s compatibility. In order to borrow an eBook, you need a compatible reader, a computer with a compatible operating system and a software download available free from the R.E.A.D.S website. There is a link to R.E.A.D.S on our library’s webpage. A “guided tour” of their site will get you started.
A variety of genres are available for you to borrow, including mystery, romance, science fiction and classic literature. On the day I last checked, 12,231 titles were listed in the category of general fiction. Non-fiction titles covering a broad spectrum of topics are offered to patrons, as well. There also is a collection of books geared toward children and teens. If you are among the millions joining the digital revolution during this holiday season, I hope you will take advantage of this free resource.
Holiday Hours
Because Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, the library will close at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, December 22 and reopen at 10:00 AM on Monday, December 27, weather permitting, of course. We will close at 6:00 PM on Thursday, December 30 for the New Year’s holiday and reopen at 10:00 AM on Monday, January 3, if “Old Man Winter” is willing. We wish you all a very happy, and very safe, holiday season!
If you have books to return, they may be deposited in the drop box at the northeast corner of the library in Erwin or in the drop box at the town hall in Unicoi. If you want to renew items, please call the library before we close for the holiday. If they are not past due or on hold for another patron, you also may be able to renew online with your library card. No items will be due on the days when we are closed.
Updated 12.15.10
In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare wrote, “When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” Some might add geniuses to that august company. Mark Twain, christened Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in November of 1835, the month in which Halley’s Comet made its sole appearance of the nineteenth century. He “came in with Halley’s Comet,” Twain wrote in 1909, and he “expect[ed] to go out with it.” Twain died, as he had anticipated, on April 21, 1910, the day after the fabled comet reached perihelion on its subsequent passage.
Mark Twain dictated his autobiography more than a century ago, and portions of it were published soon after his death, but he directed that the work not be published in its entirety until a hundred years had passed. He had spoken freely, holding back none of his opinions and moderating none of his criticism. The century that now has elapsed has diluted the poison and blunted the dagger of his acid wit. None of its victims is alive to care.
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and others, has just been added to our library’s collection. After many false starts, Twain dictated his life’s story to his stenographer without regard to chronology. He wandered at will among the entirety of his experience, exploring one particular narrative or opinion until he abandoned it for another. He succeeded in writing a masterpiece.
Although this is just volume 1, this book stands alone. I mean that literally. Despite its small font, this tome is so wide and weighty it does not require bookends to stand. Do not let that intimidate you. Of its 736 pages, 58 are contained in the introduction and 267 are consumed by explanatory notes, appendixes, references and the index. After all, the editors have approached their work very seriously. The remaining 411 pages are Mark Twain at his best. I feel certain he would be pleased, in spite of himself, to receive the critical and popular acclaim this volume has garnered one hundred years after his death. Way to go, Sam!
Party Time!
Our kids’ holiday party is scheduled for Friday, December 17 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. I have been informed by a reliable source that Santa, his elves and even his reindeer are expected to be in attendance, so this will be a particularly festive occasion! Party guests will have an opportunity to craft an ornament, smash open a piñata, and enjoy light refreshments. Come share the fun!
Updated 12.06.10
During the month of October each library in the state of Tennessee compiled statistics—a LOT of statistics--for our annual report to the state and federal governments. That mysterious sound you may have heard on October 12 was my sigh of profound relief as I sent the survey on its way to the regional library for its first review. I want to share with you a few of the more interesting figures I gathered for this report.
During the fiscal year which began in July of 2009 and ended in June of 2010, 28,461 people walked through our doors. More than 11,000 of those individuals used our public access computers or wireless internet access during their visit. The rest borrowed books or movies, attended a library program, asked us a question, or simply sat down and relaxed while reading a newspaper or magazine. A few nodded off, and one or two even snored! We took it as a compliment to our comfortable green leather sofa and chair.
We increased by 1,484 the number of items housed in our beautiful and historic old depot. Counting our electronic resources, our patrons now have access to 52,311 books, movies, audio books, microforms, e-books, magazines and databases. When you add in the items available through interlibrary loan via our regional courier, the total tops 1,000,000. I know we can find something you want to read!
Some 10,000 Unicoi County residents are registered library card holders. Last year they borrowed 46,090 items. Although books comprised the lion’s share of our circulation, videos accounted for 13.5 percent and audio books for 3.2 percent. We count ourselves fortunate to host a collection of videos and audio books from the Watauga Regional Library which circulates three times each year. We currently are preparing for the December rotation, so watch for new arrivals later this month.
Return Books in Unicoi
Remember that there is a library book drop at the town hall in Unicoi. It is available twenty-four hours a day for the convenience of our patrons who live or work in Unicoi or Limestone Cove.
New Book
In Port Mortuary, Patricia Cornwell gives her forensic expert Kay Scarpetta a new job and a new voice. The novel is written in the first person, and the doctor is both protagonist and narrator. As chief of the cutting-edge Cambridge (Massachusetts) Forensic Center, Scarpetta masters new technologies that enable her to comprehend the magnitude of the threat she battles in this eighteenth installment.
Updated 11.29.10
With December comes the threat—or the promise--of snow and ice. It is time once again to remind you that the library may close without notice in case of inclement weather. If roads in our lower elevations are hazardous, the Unicoi County Public Library may open late, close early or even be closed all day. If we are forced to close without warning, any late fines incurred on that day will be waived upon request.
Please do not assume that if our schools are closed, the library will not be open. We frequently are able to open when classes are cancelled. In spite of the harsh weather we endured last winter, there were several occasions when we were open, but larger libraries in our region were closed. Call us at 743-6533 if you have any questions.
For patrons who live in our higher elevations, please call to renew your books if you cannot get to Erwin. If your library materials are not already late, you also have the option to renew online with your library card. Be sure to keep an eye on the weather forecast so that you always have a good book or movie handy for those long, snowy evenings!
Genealogy Workshop
Join us at 6 PM on Tuesday, November 30 to learn about the role your ancestors may have played during the Civil War. Did your great, great grandfather fight alongside Lee and Stuart or march with Grant and Sherman? This workshop will help you look for evidence of his military service. Every story is different, but all are fascinating!
New Books
Your library has just received a sizable shipment of books purchased with federal funds distributed through the Library Services and Technology Act. These funds are directed toward serving certain segments of our population traditionally considered “underserved.” In this latest order, the largest number of books are ones suitable for beginning readers, and for parents to read to their young children in order to encourage reading readiness.
Among Miss Kristy’s favorites are Liz Pichon’s The Very Ugly Bug and Laura Adkins’ Ordinary Oscar, tales that encourage children, with wit and humor, to see the beauty of individuality. Luminously iIllustrated by Oleg Lipchenko, Humpty Dumpty and Friends: Nursery Rhymes for the Young at Heart, is a sophisticated selection of the best-loved children’s songs and verses. Ken Geist’s The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark hilariously reshapes the nursery staple “The Three Little Pigs.” These and many others are waiting for you at your Unicoi County Public Library. Come check them out!
Updated 11.22.10
On October 3, 1863, “in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity,” Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation which set aside “the last Thursday of November next” as a “day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” During the following year, Jefferson Davis declared a day of Thanksgiving for November 16. Since Sherman commenced his “March to the Sea” on that date, the Union day of feasting on November 24 was considerably more festive than the Confederate day of prayer had been eight days earlier.
Were your ancestors battling Yankees or eating turkey in November of 1864? If you are curious, join us at 6 PM on Tuesday, November 30 for a genealogical workshop designed to help answer your questions about your ancestor’s Civil War service. Call Angie at 743-6533 for more information.
Holiday Closings
The Unicoi County Public Library will be closed on Thursday, November 25 and Friday, November 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday. No items will be due on those days. We will be open during our regular hours from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, November 27. Please call the library by Wednesday if you would like to renew your books. We wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
Children’s Programming
Our kid’s movie day for next week will be Monday, November 29. Both the popcorn and the show will be served up at 3:30 PM. The film will run for about two hours.
New Books
The queue already has formed for Hell’s Corner, David Baldacci’s fifth “Camel Club” thriller. Oliver Stone is set to take on Russian drug gangs when the attempted assassination of the British prime minister in Washington, D. C.’s Lafayette Park (also known as “Hell’s Corner”) fundamentally alters his mission.
Alex Cross is back in James Patterson’s latest, Cross Fire. Patterson’s seventeenth “Alex Cross” thriller takes up where the sixteenth left off, with Cross and his loved ones under threat from his old nemesis Kyle Craig, the “Mastermind.”
Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars is a shining constellation of four grim tales, no fairies. Neither do vampires nor werewolves rule, but the devil does make a cameo appearance in the shortest story, “Fair Extension.” These creepy novellas seem custom tailored to chill autumn nights and rustling fall foliage. Come check them out!
Updated 11.15.10
In September of 1861, John Wesley Dotson of Grainger County, Tennessee joined the Army of the Confederate States of America. He was a corporal in Company D, 26th Tennessee Infantry. John’s association with the 26th Tennessee was brief. Just five months later, he barely escaped capture when Fort Donelson fell to U. S. Grant on February 16, 1862. The majority of John’s comrades were taken prisoner. Fort Donelson earned Grant the sobriquet “Unconditional Surrender.” Disenchanted with war, John Wesley hired a substitute and was allowed to return home. I, for one, am grateful for his decision. His daughter Sarah Matilda, born the following year, is my great grandmother.
John Wesley’s home in Grainger County lay near the road to the Cumberland Gap. It was not a safe or comfortable place to live during the Civil War, and many of John’s neighbors were Union sympathizers. John joined Lieutenant Harrell’s Company of Local Defense Troops in July, 1863 in order to protect his family. J. J. Harrell was the uncle of John’s wife Eliza. John’s fifty-two year old father-in-law James S. Acuff also joined the unit, so it became something of a family affair.
Lieutenant Harrell’s company was attached to the 12th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion as Company G in October of 1864. John Wesley Dotson was the company’s third lieutenant, and he served in that capacity until the end of the war, enduring hardship and danger.
If you would like to discover your Civil War heritage, come to the library at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, November 30 for a genealogical workshop. We will be looking for evidence of service. Call Angie at 743-6533 for more information.
Board Meeting
The board of directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet on Thursday, November 18 at 6 PM. The public is welcome to attend.
Youth Programs
Come to the library to hear a story! Miss Kristy will be reading stories to our four and five year old kids on Monday, November 15 and to our children aged three and under on Wednesday, November 17. Story hours will begin at 10:30 and end at 11:30 AM.
The eagerly-anticipated feature “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)” will premiere on Friday, November 19 and we are going to celebrate! The party will commence at 4 PM with activities and refreshments for Potter fans of all ages. Costumes are not required, but we are hoping to see a variety of witches, wizards, werewolves and other fantastic folk. Get creative and join the celebration!
Updated 11.08.10
This Thursday, November 11, will be Veterans Day, and the Unicoi County Public Library will be closed in observance of the holiday. Now honoring veterans of all wars, the November 11 holiday originally commemorated the armistice that ended hostilities during the First World War. Since the Germans capitulated on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” Veterans Day is still celebrated on November 11, regardless of the day of the week on which that date falls.
Although the active participation of the United States in World War I was relatively brief, it produced several icons of American culture. The famous “I want YOU for U. S. Army” recruiting poster debuted in 1917. James Montgomery Flagg’s depiction of a goateed, pointing Uncle Sam has remained the personification of the United States for nearly a century.
Because so much food was needed for the war effort, citizens were encouraged to plant “war gardens,” later called “victory gardens,” in their backyards. Colorful posters urged them to “Can vegetables, fruit and the Kaiser, too” by canning and drying their produce. The poster shows jars of peas and tomatoes flanking a canning jar confining a sullen Kaiser Wilhelm and labeled “Monarch Brand Unsweetened.”
Several novels set during or around the First World War have been published recently. Wilbur Smith’s Assegai recounts a tale of a former British officer spying on a German arms merchant in Africa on the eve of war. Disappointed in her former husband and her friends, Annabelle Worthington, Danielle Steel’s A Good Woman, flees New York to work as a medic on the battlefields of France. The Children’s Book, by A. S. Byatt, is a saga of two troubled families of artists from the closing years of Queen Victoria’s reign through World War I.
Board Meeting
The board of directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet in the library lobby at 6 PM on Thursday, November 18. The public is welcome to attend.
Youth Activities
Our Teen Advisory Group will meet at 4 PM on Friday, November 12. Story hours are planned for our younger children next week. On Monday, November 15, our four and five year olds will meet, and on Wednesday, November 17, our children aged three and under will have their turn. Story hour will run from 10:30 to 11:30 AM both days. A party to celebrate the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) will be held at 4:00 PM on Friday, November 19. Plan your costume now!
Updated 11.02.10
In the United States of America, every election is important, and every vote counts. Some elections, however, have more far-reaching consequences than others. One hundred fifty years ago, Election Day 1860 fell on November 6. It was a presidential election year, and there were four major candidates. The Democratic Party split, with Northern Democrats nominating Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Southern Democrats fielding John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Former Whigs and “Know-Nothings” joined to form the Constitutional Union Party, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was given the nod by the Republican Party.
Lincoln won, and the union began to crumble. The Civil War began in April of 1861, one month after Lincoln was inaugurated. The sesquicentennial of the War Between the States will be commemorated over the next four years.
Tennessee reluctantly seceded from the union after Lincoln called for volunteers to punish the Confederate States of America for taking Fort Sumter. Unionist sentiment, particularly in East Tennessee, remained strong throughout the Civil War. The state suffered tremendously, enduring more battles than any other except Virginia. The people and land that in 1875 became Unicoi County saw their share of the trouble.
If you have studied your own family’s history, you may be familiar with stories of their involvement in the war. If you are not, but want to know whether your great, great grandfather served in the Union Army or with Confederate troops, come to the library on Tuesday, November 30. At 6:00 PM, we will be holding a workshop to help you answer that question.
This will be an intermediate genealogical workshop, designed for those who already know the names, dates of birth and places of residence of forefathers born between approximately 1810 and 1850 who may have served during the Civil War. We will be looking specifically for evidence of military service. If you would like more information, call the library at 743-6533 and ask for Angie.
Story Hours
A program of story hours, movie days and parties for kids of all ages is planned for November. Copies of this month’s schedule are available at the library. Story hours for our youngest patrons, ages 3 and under, are planned for Wednesdays, November 3 and 17, from 10:30 to 11:30 AM. Miss Kristy will be telling stories to our 4 and 5 year old children from 10:30 to 11:30 on Monday, November 15. Kids 6 and up are invited to our after-school story hour from 4:00 to 5:00 PM on Friday, November 5. Movies suitable for kids of all ages will be shown from 3:30 to 5:30 PM on Mondays, November 22 and 29. Come join the fun!
Updated 10.25.10
We just received a large shipment of books, fulfilling numerous patron requests and anticipating many others. Bestsellers, new releases, biographies and non-fiction each have their fans. One small art book, however, garnered the most comments and excitement from our staff.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter of the 16th century who is best remembered for the fascinating portraits he composed from arrangements of fruits, vegetables, seafood, flowers and, best of all, books. An artfully arranged stack of books takes on a human aspect in Arcimboldo’s “The Librarian,” painted circa 1570.
The “soup genie” character from the animated feature “The Tale of Despereaux,” based on the book by Kate DiCamillo, is named “Boldo” in honor of the Renaissance artist. Embodying the spirit of soup, Boldo is constructed of fruits, vegetables, pots and pans.
What Arcimboldo did for portraits, Carl Warner’s Food Landscapes does for landscapes. Warner’s medium is photography, and his pigments and textures are supplied by a smorgasbord of foodstuffs. One of my favorites is called “Cowboy Valley.” Avocado cowboys wrapped in bacon serapes and topped with pepperoni and hot dog hats sit around a campfire constructed of peanuts, vanilla beans and a Scotch bonnet pepper. Saguaro cacti made of zucchini and pickles stand among bread boulders and bean and buckwheat sand. A breadstick wagon covered with a flour tortilla has wheels of onion rings with pretzel spokes. Mesas in the background are imitated by joints of beef. With evocative dusky lighting, it looks just like a scene from the Old West.
A nocturnal image provides one of the most dramatic photographs. “Cabbage Sea” finds a boat with a marrow squash hull and asparagus masts tossed on a dark, stormy sea of red cabbage and radicchio. A zucchini lighthouse in the distance offers hope. Each photograph is followed by a brief essay detailing the construction of the scene.
Halloween Party
Young boos and ghouls are invited to join us at the library on Friday, October 29. Spooky stories will start at 4:00 PM, with our Halloween party getting underway at 4:30. Costumes may be optional, but fun is not! Our Unicoi County High School Drama Club will be on hand to set the appropriate atmosphere.
Face painting will be offered and refreshments will be served. Guests will be able to make their own spider snacks and masks and to transform their own handprints into a witch’s hand. Join us and have a chillingly good time!
Updated 10.18.10
One trend in dust jacket design that has become apparent to all of us working at the library is the increasing prevalence of headless--or at least eyeless--women on the covers of our newest novels. I first noticed “headless ladies” on the cover of a DVD: Season One of the Showtime series “The Tudors,” released in 2007. Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII sits on a throne with three women in Tudor dress standing behind their monarch. The models were photographed from their brocade skirts to their bejeweled throats, but their faces are not seen. Since Henry was infamous for beheading inconvenient spouses, I thought it clever. I did not know it signaled a trend.
Now a large number of novels, including today’s new book, summarized below, are wrapped in covers that portray women from the neck or the nose down. Unless the photographer’s model has told her parents about her latest gig, her own mother is unlikely to recognize her. And that is probably the point. Our Youth Services Manager Kristy King suggested that it allows a reader to project her own face onto the character and assume her identity. I suspect that economics plays at least as great a role as art in the decision to crop the photo, but undeniably, the reader’s imagination is freed to inhabit the fantasy world of a faceless heroine. Come to the library and choose a world where your own dreams can escape the everyday!
TAG Meeting
Our Teen Advisory Group will meet at 4:00 PM on Friday, October 22 to carve pumpkins and to make invitations for the children’s Halloween party, which will be held on the following Friday. All teens are welcome to attend the meeting, but you will need to call the library at 743-6533 by October 20 to reserve your pumpkin.
Halloween Party
Prospective witches, princesses, superheroes and monsters are invited to our Halloween party on Friday, October 29 at 4:30 PM. Stories suitable to the spooky season will start at 4:00, so come early, if you dare.
New Book
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Playing the Game is set in the rarified world of art. Annette Remmington, the wife and protégée of veteran art dealer Marius Remmington, finds herself at the pinnacle of fame and success when she auctions a long-lost Rembrandt for twenty million pounds. Managing his wife’s publicity, Marius chooses celebrity journalist Jack Chalmers to pen Annette’s profile for a London newspaper. Doting husband Marius cannot foresee the consequences of this action.
Updated 10.12.10
The Unicoi County Public Library is frequently blessed with donations of time, money and new or used books. We recently have received gift subscriptions to magazines, and we are grateful for all this assistance. It enriches our collection, enhances our programming and benefits the entire community.
On the last day of September, we received a particularly appealing donation. Florida author Janie Upchurch and her husband Eddie came to the library to present us with a copy of Janie’s novel Finding Herself Blessed. The tale is set in Erwin, a small town in Middle Tennessee. That’s right, Middle Tennessee! Janie took her inspiration for the town’s name from a friend’s business. She did not learn until after the book was published that there already is an Erwin in Tennessee, but considerably farther east than her fictional community!
Finding themselves traveling north on family business, Mr. and Mrs. Upchurch could not resist stopping off in Erwin to visit the town. The Chamber of Commerce will be very happy to learn that they were delighted. After lunching on barbecue, visiting several stores on Main Avenue, and driving around town they pronounced the real Erwin, Tennessee as warm and welcoming as its fictional namesake.
As its title suggests, Finding Herself Blessed is the story of a young woman, her family and her spiritual journey. It is being cataloged and processed and will be shelved with our new fiction, if you would like to check it out.
New Books
Since Robert B. Parker died back in January, one might expect his posthumous mystery Painted Ladies to be Boston PI Spenser’s last hurrah. Good news! Following a brief, painless and very un-Spenser-like investigation, I have discovered it is not. It appears that a thirty-ninth novel is scheduled for release next May, and a fortieth Spenser waiting in the wings would not surprise me. The death of an art professor during an attempt to ransom a priceless painting leads Spenser to probe the history of the Dutch masterpiece, the museum that owns the artwork and the victim himself.
Catherine Coulter’s The Valcourt Heiress is the seventh of her “Medieval” novels, set in England during the reign of King Edward I. Life for the unwashed masses may have been “nasty, brutish and short,” but for an heiress in hiding, it was a series of adventures.
Michael Connelly’s The Reversal teams defense attorney Mickey Haller with his half brother, LAPD detective Harry Bosch, to retry a suspect whose twenty-four year old murder conviction was overturned based on DNA evidence.
Updated 10.4.10
Teen readers, your library wants you! We value your advice and input. Would you like to help plan library activities? Do you want to make a difference in your community? Do you need volunteer hours for Capstone credit? All interested teens are invited to the organizational meeting for our new Teen Advisory Group (TAG) on Thursday, October 7 from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. Come tell us which books you want to read and what programs you would like to see at your library.
If you have questions about TAG, call the library at 743-6533 and ask for Kristy. You also can find more information on our Facebook page. Just search Facebook for the Unicoi County Public Library for Teens and Young Adults.
Thank you!
We want to thank all of our patrons and friends who parked at the library or shopped at our book sale during Apple Festival. Your contributions will help us keep our budget on track. Thank you!
New Books
When Ken Follett’s newest tome arrived, I let the staff members present that afternoon guess the number of pages in the 3 pound, 1 ounce book. Kristy won the prize truffle for the closest guess, but even her winning estimate fell nearly 300 pages short of the 985 page total. Fall of Giants is the first volume of the epic “Century Trilogy,” which will follow generations of five interconnected families through the twentieth century. This novel introduces readers to Follett’s five families and covers the tumultuous events of the early years of the last century: the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the often bitter struggle for women’s suffrage.
The nineteenth novel in Fern Michaels’s “Sisterhood” series is perhaps aptly titled Déjà Vu. Even when the ladies have earned some peace and quiet, it seems they can’t pass up an opportunity for revenge against an old enemy.
Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan is a thriller about a turf war between Italian and Russian mafia in New York City. A reporter in possession of the crucial piece of evidence in a mob assassination is threatened by those responsible for the murder.
Danielle Steel’s Legacy tells the story of a woman who loses her boyfriend and her job within the span of two days. Returning home, Brigitte helps her mother with her genealogical research and finds herself captivated by an intriguing ancestor, an 18th century Indian princess who married a French marquis.
Updated 9.27.10
Medieval European artists cast the luscious apple in the role of Eve’s forbidden fruit. The pomegranate, a more likely suspect, was unfamiliar to them and to their patrons, and what could be more tempting than a big, juicy ripe apple! Apples were the standard by which other fruits were judged--and named. When they became known to Europeans, Asian pomegranates were called pomum granatus, Latin for “seeded apple.”
Neither the popularity nor the reputation of apples has suffered from their association with the expulsion from Eden. In fact, when something American is deemed wholesome, it is claimed to be “as American as Mom and apple pie.” Historians believe the first apple pie was baked in England, but perhaps the best apple treats ever are baked right here in Unicoi County each October. They are just one facet of Apple Festival, our annual celebration of autumn and the harvest.
Tempting treats, rousing entertainment, and booth after booth of appealing craft items will crowd downtown Erwin October 1 and 2. Although several streets will be blocked by vendors, the library will still be accessible. Just take Elm Avenue south past Love Street and Erwin Utilities to Iona Street. Turn right at Iona and cross over Main Avenue to Nolichucky Avenue. Turn right at Nolichucky. The Unicoi County Public Library will be on your left in our beautiful and historic old depot building.
Convenient parking will be available at the library on Friday and Saturday for a donation of $5. The parking spaces in front of our main door will be reserved for patrons while they are using the library. The parking lot will open at 8 AM each day of Apple Festival. Business hours will be the same as usual. The library will be open from 10 AM to 6 PM on Friday, and from 11 AM to 3 PM on Saturday.
Book Sale!!
While you are enjoying Apple Festival, be sure to visit our book sale in the basement. The doors will open on Wednesday, September 29, so you will have a chance to beat the rush. The shelves are filled to overflowing with books that should appeal to every taste, so come find your new favorite.
New Book
Bad Blood is the latest from John Sandford. A Minnesota farmer delivering a load of soybeans to a grain elevator is hit with a T-ball bat and dumped into the elevator with his crop. The young man who staged the “accident” is found hanging in his cell the morning after his arrest. When the sheriff suspects one of her deputies may be involved, she calls Virgil Flowers in to investigate.
Updated 9.20.10
What do the following five books have in common: The Call of the Wild, Gone with the Wind, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird? All are American classics, and all have been either challenged or banned from schools or libraries because someone thought they were unsuitable.
Picture a day when a reader asking for Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight is told that it is no longer available because all books featuring vampires have been banned from the library. Now imagine a time when a patron asking for The Courtship of Nellie Fisher series by Beverly Lewis is informed that because some people find books about Amish romance offensive those novels have been pulled from the shelves.
Fortunately, books about vampires and young Amish women are available at our library and among our most popular reading materials. Each year during the last week of September, Banned Books Week sheds light on the costs of censorship and the benefits of intellectual freedom. Check out a book next week and honor your freedom to read!
Our “meeting of minds”
Join us at 6 PM on Thursday, September 23 for our celebration of the art of biography. As many discerning readers already know, a well-researched and well-written biography has all the drama, humor and pathos of a great novel. Plus, you learn something that may come in handy while you are watching “Jeopardy!” Come prepared to share a few facts about your favorite biographical subject. If you would like to dress or act the part, feel free to exercise your creativity (within reason, Genghis Khan!). We will be serving light refreshments.
New Books
This week’s new releases are sure to spend little time resting on the shelf. With Wicked Appetite, Janet Evanovich begins a new series starring “Diesel,” Stephanie Plum’s sidekick from 2002’s Christmas truffle Visions of Sugar Plums. Diesel’s other-worldly cousin, Gerwulf Grimoire, is seeking the legendary Seven Stones of Power which represent the Seven Deadly Sins. Diesel’s mission is to stop Wulf from acquiring the Stones. He can expect help from pastry chef Elizabeth Tucker, a rude monkey and a ninja cat.
Nicholas Sparks offers us Safe Haven. When a young woman with a hidden history suddenly appears in the small town of Southport, NC, she avoids establishing relationships with anyone until a widower with two children and a friendly neighbor break through her defenses.
Updated 9.13.10
The American Library Association has designated September as Library Card Sign-up Month. Your library card is your passport to the world of information and entertainment contained in the books, audio books, videos and other library materials we have available to lend you. There is no cost to you if you return them on time and in good condition.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius counsels his “college-bound” son Laertes: “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Excellent advice, but Polonius was talking about money, not books. Back in Shakespeare’s day, books were costly and libraries were the personal property of the rich and of powerful institutions. The owners of these private collections would lend books to each other and to promising young men whom they wanted to patronize, but not to the general public.
Subscription libraries in the eighteenth century made reading materials available to the middle classes. Reading novels became a popular pursuit for fashionable young ladies, who could afford the price of a subscription. Jane Austen’s own novels reflect the growing trend. In Mansfield Park, Fanny Price, a dependent relative of the gentry, is “amazed” when she becomes “a renter, a chuser of books.”
The Unicoi County Public Library encourages you to become a borrower and “a chuser of books.” There is no charge to apply for a library card, but if you should lose it, a replacement card will cost you $1.00. Adult residents of Unicoi County should bring their photo ID. An application is available in Spanish. The application for a child’s card must be filled out by a parent or guardian who has an account with us and who is willing to be responsible for the child’s fines and losses.
A “meeting of minds”
While most of our patrons prefer fiction, a significant number enjoy biographies and memoirs. Truth can be stranger than fiction, and even more entertaining. Join us on Thursday, September 23 at 6 PM to celebrate the art of biography. Come share your thoughts about one of your favorite biographical subjects or even adopt his or her persona. Costumes, props and foreign accents are not necessary, but might be fun! Refreshments will be served.
Board Meeting
The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet at 6 PM on Thursday, September 16. The meeting will convene in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
Updated 9.07.10
On the last day of August, the Unicoi County Public Library had a somewhat unusual visitor. While selecting books for delivery to our local nursing homes, our senior services coordinator Connie Denney noticed a furtive movement among our adult stacks. It was not a shy patron wanting assistance or a disoriented tourist wanting directions. Thankfully, it was not a rodent wanting a new home. It was a very handsome lizard who, although shy and disoriented, only wanted out. And we, as usual, were happy to be of service!
So how many librarians does it take to rid a library of a lizard? Apparently, three. With our “staff herpetologist” Leanne Dynneson enjoying her day off, it fell to Connie, youth services manager Kristy King and me to evict our scaly trespasser. When offered an opportunity to escape, he gladly took it. Kristy jokes that she will add the title “reptile wrangler” to her job description. It was more like “herpetological herding,” but it got the job done.
After consulting our new National Audubon Society Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians, I believe that our reluctant guest was a Five-lined Skink. Our lizard or a close relative had been spotted outside the library once before. I hope to see him again some day, but not skittering across my keyboard!
Celebrating Biography
During the month of September, we will be celebrating the art of the biography here at the library. A well-researched and well-written factual account of an extraordinary life can compete with fiction any day. The result can be as enlightening and stimulating as it is entertaining. Join us at 6 PM on Thursday, September 23 to share a little information about your favorite biographical subject. If you would like to come in costume, feel free to indulge your fancy.
Board Meeting
The Board of Directors of the Unicoi County Public Library will meet on Thursday, September 16 at 6 PM. The meeting will convene in the library lobby. The public is welcome to attend.
New Books
Treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo are back in Lost Empire, the latest globe-spanning adventure from Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood. Body Work, Sara Paretsky’s fourteenth V. I. Warshawski novel, finds the private investigator working to clear an Iraq war veteran of a murder charge.
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. |