I Love My Library!

February is I Love My Library Month, and the Greenwood County Library gives its users a lot to love. Author signings, book discussion programs, story times, puppet shows, computers, information assistance, and online services like Live Homework Help and the eCollection of books and downloadable audio books from NetLibrary.

Valentine's Day

Ready for love and romance? If that's the case, be glad you live in 21st century Greenwood and not 3rd century Rome. There's a legend that Valentine was a priest who continued to perform marriages in secret for young men and women in defiance of the Emperor Claudius' order. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death. The young women brought him flowers to thank him for his help.

Another legend says that Valentine helped Christians escape the prisons where they were beaten and tortured, and was executed for that reason. Whatever the truth, the stories all agree that Valentine was martyred. The Roman Catholic Church recognizes three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus. While we're not sure which one inspired Valentine's Day, we can agree that he's a romantic hero.

Celebrate Black History Month at the Library!

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a history professor at Harvard, was determined that African - American History would be a part of the mainstream of American History. In 1926 he was successful in establishing Negro History Week, and it evolved into Black History Month.

Books you might want to read include:
Addy's Craft Book: a Look at Crafts From the Past With Projects You Can Make Today - Rebecca Sample Bernstein
African - American Historic Places - Beth Savage
Africans In America
1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African - American History - Jeffrey Stewart

Websites:
Biography www.biography.com/blackhistory/
Black History Month www.cnn.com/specials/1998/black.history/
Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History www.britannica.com/blackhistory

Wintertime Reading

It's February 1, and Greenwood has had its first winter storm. It's a great day to curl up with a hot cup of tea and a good book. Two suggestions are:

Next - Michael Crichton
What do you get when you combine a chimpanzee's egg with human sperm?
A humanzee! Is it possible? It may not be as far away as we think. Michael Crichton's imagination and scientific research offer us an interesting look at the future in his new novel.


Hannibal Rising - Thomas Harris
Did you ever wonder what it takes to make a monster like Hannibal Lector? The answers are all here. As a child, he and his sister are captured by deserters from the German Army. Their suffering is terrible, and too much for his sister to survive. Hannibal escapes, but returns as a young man to revenge himself on their captors.