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Gale Virtual Reference Added to Your Research Toolkit
Now, with a Kanawha County Public Library card and an internet connection, you have 24/7 access to the new Gale Virtual Reference library featuring premier reference works.
On Cold Winter Nights Reading Delights: Adult Winter Reading Program
The adult winter reading program is back after a one-year hiatus. As the cold winds blow, and the snow comes down, winter is the perfect time to curl up under a nice warm blanket and catch up with that book you’ve been meaning to read. Is it “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand? Stephen King’s latest? Something by an author you’ve never read before? Make it your New Year’s resolution to read those books you’ve always wanted to read but just never got around to. The only guidelines are:
- Books must be checked out from a KCPL library
- They cannot be children’s books
- Unabridged audiobooks, Playaways and WVDeli items also count
The program continues through March 31, with small prizes awarded each month, in addition to a grand prize during National Library Week in April. Sign up at your local library to pick up your sheet of slips for the prize drawings. Please sign up at one location only. Each month you may enter up to three titles you’ve read. Drop the entry slips in the box at your local library by the date on the slip for your chance to win that month. All entry slips will be reentered into the grand prize drawing. This year’s prize will be a creation by local glass artisan James Woodson.
Beat Cabin Fever with Sunday Jams
Cabin fever is setting in? Take a mid-winter music break at the Main Library in Charleston.
The 11th annual Sunday Jams, a series of five, free, live music programs featuring local and regional musicians starts February 7 and features music in a variety of styles, including old-time, rock, chamber music, world beat and golden classics.
5 Things We Love This Week
Blackout By Connie Willis
In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds-great and small-of 
ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide-and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening. If you love time travel, don't miss it!
Letters from Black America By Pamela Newkirk, Editor
This fine volume of letters fills a literary and historical void by presenting the African American experience in the most intimate way possible-through the heartfelt correspondence of the men and women who lived through monumental changes and pivotal events, from the 1700s to the twenty-first century, from slavery to the war in Iraq. Moving, delightful and impossible to put down.
The Murderer's Daughters By Randy Susan Meyers
A compulsively readable debut that deals with the aftermath of a shocking act of violence that leaves two young sisters with nothing but each other-in the tradition of White Oleander, this haunting novel is a testament to the power of family and the ties that bind us together, even as they threaten to tear us apart.
King for Kids: (Audio CD) By Martin Luther King, Jr.
Its one thing to read Dr. King's stirring I Have a Dream speech but another experience entirely to hear Dr. King deliver it in his own voice. For today's children it is now possible to hear this speech and several others in this CD collection. It contains 
eight excerpts from two speeches, "A Call to Conscience" and "A Knock at Midnight". Introductions, to give historical perspective, are provided to each excerpt by notable figures such as Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, and Senator Edward Kennedy. Please note that the sound quality, especially for his earliest speeches, varies because the recordings were compiled from a variety of sources.
Newes from the Dead By Mary Hooper
Anne can't move a muscle, can't open her eyes, can't scream. She lies immobile in the darkness, unsure if she'd dead, terrified she's buried alive, haunted by her final memory-of being hanged. Beautifully written, and meticulously researched, this novel is based on the true story of the real Anne Green, a servant who survived a hanging to awaken on the dissection table.
Do-It-Yourself Books Recalled
Oxmoor House and the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have recalled nine do-it-yourself books because of errors in certain electrical wiring diagrams and instructions. They are concerned that the errors could lead to incorrect installation or repair of wiring, posing a shock or fire hazard. KCPL is removing the recalled titles from this list that we own from the collection.