JMRL's blog.

Central library Brown Baggers book group met in person on Thursday, July 21st to discussNews of the World by Paulette Jiles.   Set in post Civil War Texas, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels from town to town reading the news from around the country and the world to citizens eager and willing to pay to listen.  … Continue reading →

Books on Tap met outside at Champion Brewing company on Thursday, July 7th to discuss Rocket Boys by (Va Tech graduate) Homer Hickam. This memoir, published in 1998, is the story of a boy with a dream to build rockets, which was inspired by the 1957 launch of Sputnik.  Set in Coalwood, WV, a mining … Continue reading →

Brown Baggers book club met on Thursday, June 16th to discuss Passing by Nella Larsen. This classic work was originally published in 1929. Larsen, a mixed race woman herself, was the first black woman to graduate from New York Public Library’s library school and was the first black woman to win a Guggenheim Award for … Continue reading →

On Thursday, June 2nd a group of  Books on Tap readers met at Champion Brewery (following a power outage) to discuss Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness.  Published in 2015 and a National Book Award Finalist, much of this non-fiction work takes place at the Great … Continue reading →

Brown Baggers book club met on Thursday, May 19 to discuss Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, a story very loosely based on the tragic, comic love story of García Márquez’s parents. This book generated some of the most animated discussions I have witnessed from the group since joining back in … Continue reading →

Books on Tap met Thursday, May 5 at Champion Brewing Company to discuss The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai. This is a beautiful, compelling family story of love, sacrifice, and incredible pain. The Vietnam War traumatizes, wounds, and kills members of this family, but the intricacies of war are kept off the page, … Continue reading →

The How-To Festival is BACK for its 4th annual library takeover event this Saturday, May 14th, from 10-1. Join us at Central Library in downtown Charlottesville (201 E Market St, Charlottesville, VA 22902) for a fun, free, fast-paced learning event. You do not need to sign up or register to attend; stop by for one … Continue reading →

Brown Baggers met in person on Thursday, April 21 to discuss The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan. The book is a work of nonfiction about the Biltmore mansion located in Asheville, North Carolina – “the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.” Having recently read The Yellow House and The Dutch House, our … Continue reading →