The Friends of the Library’s annual Book and Author Luncheon will be held Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 10:30 a.m. on the lower level of the Cumberland Mountain State Park Restaurant. Tickets are $12 and are available from members of the Friends group or at the Art Circle Public Library. The guest speaker will be River Jordan who is the author of the following two books. 

The Gin Girl

A sultry Florida adventure complete with drug dealers, a hurricane, a snake woman selling — and occasionally dispensing — venom, this first novel offers plenty of setting and surprises. Set in northern Florida, which anyone familiar with Florida knows is not of Florida, just as Florida is not of the South, we follow a barmaid returning to her island home after hearing her dead father calling in a dream, "It's time to come home, Mary." And for her it is time, after several years of wandering America. But the tranquility of a homecoming and settling down aren't in Mary's cards, even though she does land a job at the bar her childhood sweetheart used to own, for she immediately becomes obsessed with learning the "facts," about this sweetheart's murder. But facts are slippery, especially when people want to hide them. And when people sorely want to hide them, searching can become dangerous...

The Messenger of Magnolia Street

The Messenger of Magnolia Street tells the haunting story of three childhood friends who reunite to fight the unnamed presence that is slowly draining their beloved town of goodness and light. Nehemiah Trust fled his hometown of Shibboleth twelve years ago, after the death of his mother. Now chief of staff for a powerful senator, he has washed his hands of Shibboleth. But when his brother Billy and childhood friend Trice appear at his front door to tell him that something is terribly wrong in Shibboleth, Nehemiah follows them home. This mesmerizing novel of love awakened, purpose abandoned, and legacy reclaimed begins as slow and easy as a southern Sunday. But as the town of Shibboleth begins to sense the approaching darkness, the three friends race against time to save the lifeblood of the place they call home with a solution may require a willingness to sacrifice everything.

These books are available to be checked out at your library.

With the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, your public library is implementing a teacher library card. The library board approved policy states, “All public and private school administrators, librarians, teachers, student teachers and lead day care teachers are eligible to apply for an Art Circle Public Library Teacher Card by completing an application and presenting a current photo ID and current proof of position (such as a school ID or letter from the principal/administrator on school letterhead). All applicants must have a personal card in good standing at the Art Circle Public Library. Teacher cards must be renewed each school year by verifying position and address. Student teacher cards will have an expiration date based upon the duration of applicant’s school assignment.”

The benefits of having a teacher card are a four-week loan period with one two-week renewal; you may reserve curriculum-related materials by phone, in person or by the new teacher e-mail (teacher.library@crossville.com); and 25 curriculum related items may be checked out at one time (maximum of 10 audio/music or vhs/dvd materials per card). No personal materials will be checked out on your teacher library card. Teachers, come into the library and apply for your card! 

Beginning Monday, Aug. 11, you will be able to log onto www.artcircle.crossville.com and check your account, renew and reserve items from your computer at home. In order to do this, you first need to come into the library and provide a personal identification number, which will be the last four digits of your Social Security number. Your PIN will also be used when you are called to pick up library materials that you have reserved. When you give the library staff your number, then they will be able to give you the title of the item that you have reserved. Likewise, if you get a call that you have library materials overdue, when you supply the library staff with your PIN then they will be able to tell the titles of the items you have out.

Did you ever want to visit a foreign country without paying a dime? Solve a mystery with a world-famous detective? Whatever your interests, you can be sure to find them in your library. If you don't have a library card, or yours is getting a bit dusty, it's time for a visit to the library. Even if reading isn't your favorite activity, today's library is filled with movies and CDs to check-out and computers where you can surf the 'Net—guaranteeing something for just about everyone. Libraries aren't just for fun—take advantage of the resources and librarian's knowledge. Finding information either in books or online can be a bit overwhelming. Your librarian can assist you in finding the information you need. 

Local crafters Mary Pollard and Karen Anderson will offer a free Halloween Card Making Workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at 2 p.m. in the library Community Room. Call 484-6790 to reserve your spot by Monday, Aug. 18. Bring scissors and a glue stick!

Every Tuesday morning at 10 a.m., “Miss Patty” has her weekly “Once Upon a Time.” All pre-school age children and their parents or caregivers are invited to attend. The Library’s Community Room is the location of the story time which includes music, movement, fingerplays, crafts and best of all, the reading of some great books by Miss Patty, children’s librarian. The schedule for August is:

• Aug. 19 – 123s! Counting Books

• Aug. 26 – Do You Have a Library Card?

For more information call the library at 484-6790. 

TumbleBooks Library is available on the Children’s Services page of the Art Circle Public Library’s Web site (www.artcircle.crossville.com).

What is TumbleBook? TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they’ll love (reading alone or being read to).

How do I get to TumbleBook Library? Access to the TumbleBook Library is available by going to www.artcircle.crossville.com and clicking on the Children’s Services tab on the left side of the screen.

What is available at the TumbleBooks site? There are over 150 books, educational games, reading comprehension quizzes and a new Record-a-Book function. Story books – picture story books to listen to, or read on your own. Tumble Readables – “Read-On-Your-Own” titles for elementary, middle and high school students. Puzzles and games – jigsaw puzzles, word fun, memory games and more to play after reading a book! Language Learning – read a growing collection of Spanish, French, Russian and Chinese original story books or translations of English story books. Audio Books – listen to tales of Aesop’s, fairy tales, and classics such as Black Beauty, Winnie-the-Pooh and more. You can also find puzzles and games to play. Check out TumbleBooks today!

With the beginning of the new year and homework assignments, parents please come in to the computer lab in the lower level of the library and fill out an application and sign a consent form if you want your child/children (17 and under) to have access to the Internet using the public access computers. We continually have students who need to obtain information for school reports from the Internet but do not have an agreement signed by a parent or guardian on file. We must have a user agreement signed by a parent or guardian for children and teens between the ages of birth to 17 years in order for the child or teen to use the public Internet computers. 

BOOKS—ADULT FICTION

Total Control by David Baldacci — Sidney Archer has the world. A husband she loves. A job at which she excels, and a cherished young daughter. Then, as a plane plummets into the Virginia countryside, everything changes. And suddenly there is no one whom Sydney Archer can trust.

Without Mercy by Jack Higgins — On the pavement, Hannah Bernstein was trying to haul herself up, clutching at the railings as Dillon got to her. “You’re all right, just hold on to me.” But there was blood coming down her face, and he was afraid.

Simply Love by Mary Balogh

Simply Magic by Mary Balogh

Gotcha Down by Chris Earl

Dead on the Dance Floor by Heather Graham – Private investigator Quinn O'Casey thinks Lara Trudeau's overdose is a simple case of death by misadventure — until he goes undercover at the Moonlight Sonata dance studio and discovers that everyone who knew the accomplished dancer had good reason to want her dead. Shannon Mackay is equally suspicious of Lara's death — and equally concerned as the deadly events at the studio start to multiply. But she's asked one too many questions and now fears someone may be trying to kill her. As the drama of broken hearts, shattered dreams and tangled motives unfolds, only Quinn can stop the killing. 
Liar’s Market by Taylor Smith — When Drummond MacNeil, the Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA, is gunned down, no one suspects the truth: that Drummond is, in fact, a traitor and a cold-blooded killer. Now one of his shady accomplices has kidnapped his son, and has given his wife, Carrie, 48 hours to come up with the information that Drummond promised in exchange for the little boy's life. With no one to trust, Carrie confronts a world of political intrigue and terror while the life of her son hangs in the balance. 

The Hanged Man’s Song by John Sandford — #1 "New York Times" bestselling author John Sandford brings back his popular characters Kidd and LuEllen in a electrifying novel of murder and Machiavellian intrigue.

All Night Long by Jayne Ann Krentz — Shy, studious Irene Stenson and wild, privileged Pamela Webb had been the best of friends for one short high school summer. Their friendship ended the night Pamela dropped Irene off at home — and Irene walked in to discover her parents' bodies on the kitchen floor. It was ruled a murder-suicide, and Irene fled Dunsley, determined to wipe out every memory attached to her northern California hometown. But now she has been summoned back. Pamela's e-mail had been short and cryptic. More alarming, it included the code word they had used as teenagers, suggesting an urgency and secrecy that puzzled Irene. What could be important enough to make her former friend get in touch after all these years? She won't find out — at least not from Pamela, who lies dead in the luxurious home of her father, a U.S. senator, pill and liquor bottles beside her. The shock has barely subsided before the rumors begin to swirl. 
Night Heat by Heather Graham

Before and Again by Doris Mortman

Promises by Belva Plain — Margaret and Adam Crane seem to have a near perfect life — she's a teacher, he's a computer executive, and together they are lovingly raising their own children and Margaret's orphaned niece. Then one day the phone rings — and suddenly everything changes forever as a woman from Adam's university days reappears in his life, and an old affair reignites. At the same time, there are problems in Adam's workplace — a possible takeover and downsizing. The reverberations from these two circumstances will touch many lives and bring with them changes that no one could have predicted.

First Impressions by Nora Roberts — Escaping the rat race and the lure of gold-digging women, wealthy businessman Vance Banning moves to a small, rural retreat, telling the townsfolk that he's an out-of-work carpenter. All he wants is peace, quiet and to keep away from women. So the last thing he needs is a charitable neighbor — especially a beautiful, gracious and persistent neighbor of the female persuasion — but there's something about Shane Abbott he just can't ignore.

No One You Know by Michelle Richmond — Twenty years ago, Ellie's sister Lila, a top math student at Stanford, was murdered in a case that was never solved. Now, in a chance meeting with the man accused of the crime, Ellie comes into possession of Lila's secret notebook. She will use the notebook, filled with mathematical equations, to begin a long-awaited search — one that will lead her to a 100-year-old mathematical puzzle, to a love no one knew Lila had, to the motives and fate of the man who profited from their family's anguish — and ultimately, to the deepest secrets even sisters keep from each other.

The Widow by Carla Neggers — Seven years after Boston homicide detective Abigail Browning's FBI Special Agent husband, Chris, was shot dead on their honeymoon on Mt. Desert, Maine, 32-year-old Abigail returns to the resort island to try to find Chris's killer so she can move on with her life. The relentless detective risks both physical and emotional pain as she searches for the truth among the local people and the wealthy summer families who were her late husband's friends. A multitude of well-drawn suspects and the rugged Maine setting help offset some unrealistic initial interludes between Abigail and a potential new love interest, Owen Garrison, a neighbor who was the first to inform her of Chris's murder.

BOOKS-ADULT NON-FICTION

Retribution by Max Hastings

Living Right by Spending Smart by Gregory Karp

Heaven is Real by Don Piper

The Guadal Canal Air War by Jefferson DeBlanc

The Board Book by William Bowen

Social Security Answer Book by Stanley Tomkiel

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell

Digestive Tune-Up by John McDougall

The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn

They Fought Like Demons by Deanne Blanton

The Politics of Command by Thomas Connelly

The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe

The Lost Cause by Andrew Rolle

Two Months in the Confederate Sates by W, C, Corsan

The Congressman’s Civil War by Allan G. Bogue

Army Generals and Reconstruction – Louisiana, 1862 – 1877 by Joseph Dawson

The Union, the Confederacy and the Atlantic Rim by Robert May

Planet Mars by Francois Forget

Travels in the Confederate States by E. Merton Coulter

Do you know that your preschool child (ages birth to their fifth birthday) can receive a free book each month through the mail? If not, come by or call the library to enroll your child in the Cumberland County Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Over fourteen hundred of the eligible children in Cumberland County are enrolled and receiving their book each month! It is very important that you let the Imagination Library coordinator (James Houston, deputy director) know if you have a change of address. If not, your child will not receive their books.

You can sponsor a child for $30 per year. Sponsorship forms are available on the library’s Web site, www.artcircle.crossville.com, or you may bring your money to the library.

There are many ways to reach the library; you may visit the Art Circle Public Library at 154 East First Street, Crossville, TN 38555; or phone us at 484-6790; by fax at 484-2350; on the Web at http://www.artcircle.crossville.com, and by e-mail. Debra Kokes, library director – dhkokes@crossville.com; James Houston, deputy director – jshouston@crossville.com; Patricia Dalton, children’s librarian – pjdalton@crossville.com; Margo Brown, reference librarian – mlbrown@crossville.com.

Library hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wednesday and Saturday – 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Note that the library will no longer be closed 8 a.m. to noon the first Wednesday of the month).