We are open this week Monday 10-6pm, Tuesday 10-8pm, closed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for Christmas, and back open Saturday 10-2.

Tomorrow, December 23, I will be telling Christmas stories and singing Christmas carols in the Children’s area at 10:30 am.  Please join us!

I wish you all a very merry and safe holiday season!

We have just added over 100 new titles to our DVD video collection.  Guaranteed everyone will find something to enjoy.

For our history buffs check out Battle for Europe; WWII the War that Shook the World or Great Battles of World War II.

Oldies but great movies might include Bridge on the River Kwai or The Man Who Shot Libery Valance.

Among our many musicals you might enjoy The Music Man, Carousel, or Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Did you miss any of the episodes of the many shows on TV.  Catch up on them by borrowing from our wide selection like House, Numb3rs, Smallville or the old shows like Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, All in the Family. 

We even have many titles for the younger members of the family.  Enjoy watching one of the episodes of Curious George, or sing along with Sesame Street

County Administration has updated our holiday hours as of December 18, 2008.

December 22 and 23, the library will be open regular hours.  We will be closed December 24, 25, and 26, reopening Saturday, December 27th at 10am.

December 29 and 30, are regular hours also.  December 31, the library will be open from 10am until 1pm.  We will be closed January 1 and 2.  January 3, the library will be open 10-2.

Everyone have a safe and eventful holiday season.

With Christmas coming, we are encouraging people to curl up with a good holiday read.  Check out the display by the front door featuring holiday fiction or the display by the meeting room doors for holiday craft books and cookie books.  In our children’s room, there are many choices for holiday reads above the bookshelves.

Next Tuesday, December 23, at 10:30 am, I will be reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas carols for children’s story time. 

Have a wonderful and safe week!

Given all that we hear right now about global warming, can you imagine a world where all the humans disappeared? That is the challenging premise of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. He posits a planet not that NEVER had humans, but one in which the entire population just disappeared. How much of what we have built would survive, and for how long?

Some of what he writes is simply interesting, such as the fact that because we have to pump water constantly out of New York’s subway tunnels, they would flood in less than a hundred hours without power. Some was scary, such as when he was discussing the likelihood of crowded apartment buildings surviving a major earthquake in Istanbul. And some, yes, was shocking, such as when he described 40 mile gyres in the worlds oceans that are feet deep in plastic bags.

This isn’t the first time Weisman has written this sort of story, either. He wrote a feature article on Chernobyl some ten years after the accident, detailing how the wildlife had returned where people could not. He speaks with hundreds of experts about everything from ancient forests in Poland to the megaconcrete factories all around Houston.

I found The World Without Us a fascinating read that ran a wide and eclectic range of research. Weisman pulls so many threads together to weave a whole of how we have in the past and how we continue to affect everything around us. Whether you agree with all of his ideas or not, this is one must read.

Christmas is in the air as we are playing Holiday music at the circulation desk and celebrating in other places in the library. 

This week for Pajama Storytime, we are going to be singing Christmas songs and reading Christmas books.  Please come join us Wednesday, December 1oth from 6-7 pm.

Check out the new displays by the circulation desk featuring books by Jane Austen, Christmas music, Christmas fiction and Holiday non-fiction.  Check above the shelves in the children’s area for holiday books, dvds and videos.

Book angels are on our Christmas tree again this year.  If you wish to donate a book, please take one of our book angels from the tree and either buy the book on the angel or donate the money to the library for the book.  If you have any questions, please ask at the circulation desk.

So, Charles and I have traded writing duties for the rest of the year… he is going to tell everyone about upcoming programs and what-not. I am going to do some book-pushing! Now, I just need to decide which of the books I am reading to suggest. Not Twilight, although I was surprised how much I really loved the books, and have been re-reading them off and on since the movie came out. I’ll save non-fiction for next week. I know! I’ll run true to type! My first selection is going to be a fantasy-romance-mystery.

Phoenix Unrisen by Kathleen Nance is just the sort of non-historical romance that I like. Natalie Severin has been badly burned by magic in her past. Her husband practiced Dark Magic (yes, the really bad kind); when a working blew up in his face, he would up dead and her twin simply disappeared. The last thing she wants to do is get herself involved in anything smacking of the Arts again.

However, when investigating a story for her newspaper, she stumbles into local veterinarian and super-wealthy Ramses Montgomery. She isn’t altogether sure what is happening, but she recognizes healing magic when she sees it. 

Ram is everything one (okay, I) would want in a hero. He’s mysterious, masculine, highly competent and knowlegeable about the forces behind what they are hunting. Together, they spiral ever deeper into a case of exotic animal smuggling and dark magic. This is a book that is loosely ties to other books by the same author, but it is easily a stand-alone — I haven’t read any other of Nance’s books… yet!

Check out Kathleen Nance’s Phoenix Unrisen if you would like a slightly steamy romantic suspense novel. Modern magic, New Orleans, impressive spellcasting, and a fun romance. What could be better for a fun holiday read?

Tim Lewis, the author of The Virginiad, a four hundred year history of Virginia is coming to the James L. Hamner Library Friday, December 5th at 2pm.  It took Mr. Lewis four years to write the history of Virginia with many tours of Virginia while doing his research.  The poetry in the book  is all original mixing of “songs, hymns, cultural customs, religious awakenings, social beliefs and political movements to present a far wider cultural context for the history of Virginia than usual.”

Mr. Lewis is a 54 year-old Englishman who currently resides in Charlottesville, VA.  He is a published author, historian, and poet with six other books to his credit.  Mr. Lewis travels around the country running writing classes and tutoring authors.  He has also judged and won poetry competitions, including the Virginia Writing Competition. 

Please come and experience this unique opportunity to listen to the history of Virginia.