The 2026 concert series kicks off at noon Wednesday, Feb. 11, with Blind Date performing tunes to celebrate love, lovers and dreams of love.
The concert will take place in the Cumberland Room.
AARP tax season has kicked off. Check the library brochure or website for how to schedule an appointment.
Art Circle Public Library is at 3 East St., Crossville. Visit artcirclelibrary.info or call 931-484-6790 for more information.
Great New Books
Stolen in Death By J. D. Robb. Wealthy businessman Nathan Barrister is found murdered in his home following a break-in.
When tireless Lt. Eve Dallas arrives at the gruesome scene, there is another startling discovery. A secret vault, filled with priceless stolen art and jewels, appears to be the robbers’ goal.
The only item missing is the Royal Suite, a set of emerald jewelry worth billions.
In utter shock, the surviving family shares that the vault had belonged to the victim’s late father. Its discovery was recent, and they’d been taking steps to quietly return its contents to the rightful owners.
During the investigation, Dallas and her thief-turned-consultant husband, Roarke, discover the Barrister family is not quite as perfect as they’d like others to believe and that this crime has connections to Roarke’s past.
When her life is threatened, Dallas becomes even more determined to find answers.
Wolf Hour by Jo Nesbo. In 2016 Minneapolis, homicide detective Bob Oz is at a turning point. His wife has kicked him out, he’s drinking himself into the grave, and he’s being sidelined at work.
Meanwhile, a killer kicks off a spree of revenge for the murder of his family.
His first target is a gun dealer known for no-questions-asked deals with local gangs.
Bob snags the case by arriving first on the scene. Forensics confirm that the shooter is Tomás Gomez, but he isn’t leaving MPD much of a trail.
Bob’s best bet is a receipt for preservation of Gomez’s beloved cat at Mike Lunde’s taxidermy shop. It’s the one spot to which Gomez is likely to return.
Nesbø has crafted a powerhouse here, a profoundly human exploration of loneliness and grief driven by a twisting procedural plot and grisly shocks.
Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon by Toni Morrison. This collection of lectures from Morrison’s Princeton University class, “Studies in American Africanism,” provides unprecedented insight into her roles as cultural critic and thought leader.
By examining the works of 12 canonical 19th- and 20th-century American authors in light of their use, misuse, and abuse of African American imagery and stereotypes, Morrison inverts our understanding of classic American literature.
Morrison begins by defining “”Africanism”” as a “mythic construct” white authors use to subdue and take ownership of the Black experience.
Whether it’s Harriet Beecher Stowe’s pious Uncle Tom, Willa Cather’s unsympathetic enslaved mother, Till, in Saphhira and The Slave Girl, or Mark Twain’s stoic Jim, white authors, even those sympathetic to Black causes, are rarely able to represent Black characters as fully human and fully equal to whites.
Rather than relate their own experiences, Black characters function primarily as symbols or moral tests for white characters, most notably in Huckleberry Finn. An insightful invitation to revisit the familiar with new eyes.
Library Laugh I
Where do bees come from? Stingapore and Beelivia.
Stingy Schobel Says
Soft, rotten whole onions should never be eaten, but they don’t have to be thrown away. Use them to clean dirty grill grates instead.
Simply cut the onion in half and use it like a scrubber to loosen burnt-on residue. Rinse the grates with water, then rub them again with the onion.
The natural sulfur compounds in onions react with the metal, helping create a naturally nonstick surface that can make future grilling easier.
Library Laugh II
What sound do porcupines make when they kiss? “Ouch, ouch.”
Libraries=Information
What do you do with the used coffee grinds in your coffee maker?
They are compostable and can be a great nutritional boost for your garden.
But if you have a dog at home, you can also take advantage of the flea-repelling properties found in coffee.
At your dog’s next bath time, massage used coffee grinds into its coat, then rinse.
The residual scent of coffee not only smells nice, but it also repels fleas and other biting insects.
Added benefit: Your dog’s coat will be softer and shinier.
Snow Bonus
What happens when the frog’s car broke down? It had to be toad away.