JMRL blog

Subscribe to JMRL blog feed

““When we share our grief, we validate the fact that the person we have loved and lost made a lasting impression on our lives.”

15 hours 36 minutes ago
This month both the Central Brown Baggers and the Books on Tap book groups read and discussed this year’s Same Page Community Read ” Florence Adler Lives Forever” (2020) by Rachel Beanland. Every March JMRL partners with the Virginia Humanities/Virginia Festival of the Book to read and host an author as part of the Book […]
JMRL Blog

Get ready for the 2024 Eclipse at JMRL!

1 day 10 hours ago
Virginia will not be in the path of totality, but we should still get quite the spectacle during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Find out more about this fascinating phenomenon—and how to view it safely— with programs and activities offered at your local JMRL branch. Featured programs include presentations from NASA affiliate eclipse […]
JMRL Blog

How-To Festival Call for Participation

1 week 3 days ago
JMRL invites individuals, community organizations and businesses to participate in the 6th annual How-To Festival on Saturday, May 4th from 10am-1pm. Share your knowledge/skills/services and promote your business, organization or cause. The How-To Festival is a drop-in Library takeover event, inside and outside Central Library, with short presentations and demos on a variety of topics. […]
JMRL Blog

“Strangely enough I was not at all afraid at this moment.  Instead I found myself thinking as I stood there in the middle of the wreckage, So this is how it is.”

2 weeks 2 days ago
JMRL Brown Baggers met Thursday, Feb. 15th to discuss “My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives”  by Charlayne Hunter-Gault 2022.  Consisting of a collection of articles and essays and divided into six thematic parts, some of our readers had trouble finishing or staying engaged with this month’s selection.  The collected essays were from […]
JMRL Blog

“It is so easy to have principles. Far, far harder to live by them.”

3 weeks 2 days ago
Books on Tap met Feb. 1st at Beer Run to discuss “How Long ‘Til Black Future Month”, a 2018 collection of 22 short stories by N. K. Jemisin.  A few new faces joined us due to their interest in this particular author, some of whom had read her Broken Earth trilogy. Many of the stories […]
JMRL Blog

“There it was again: conscience. Lincoln believed he was acting according to motives higher than the merely political.”

1 month 3 weeks ago
Brown Baggers book club met on Thursday, January 18 at noon to discuss And There Was Light by Jon Meacham. Our readers braved the 720-page tome, then braved very cold and dreary weather to meet. Everyone was impressed by the moving, engaging, and well-researched writing. Meacham has written numerous presidential biographies that have earned him […]
JMRL Blog

Resources for Black History Month

1 month 4 weeks ago
2024 Theme: African Americans and the Arts This year’s Association for the Study of African American Life and History Black History Month theme highlights the important contributions of African Americans in visual arts, dance, music, literature, cultural movements, and more. Explore different facets of African American history and culture with resources from JMRL and various other […]
JMRL Blog

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

2 months 1 week ago
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) is a book gifting organization that sends more than 2 million free books to children around the world each month. The free books are provided by the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Foundation, and local program partners cover the cost of postage.  Children are eligible to receive one book each month […]
JMRL Blog

Brown Baggers Book Club: Potluck Selection Party

2 months 2 weeks ago
Brown Baggers book club met Thursday, December 21 to celebrate the end of 2023 with a potluck. As is our December tradition, instead of discussing one book title, we shared lots of book suggestions for our upcoming reading season, which will kick off this June. After profiling almost 40 books, the group voted on their […]
JMRL Blog

Dial-a-Story

2 months 3 weeks ago
Dial 833-690-0646 to hear a story read in both English and Spanish.  The Library of Virginia offers a new story each Wednesday—a rotation of recent picture books, fairy tales and folk tales, books highlighting equity, diversity and inclusion, and classic picture books.  This program, available to listeners around the state 24/7, presents an analog opportunity for strengthening […]
JMRL Blog

2024 Same Page Community Read

2 months 3 weeks ago
JMRL and Virginia Humanities are pleased to announce that Rachel Beanland’s Florence Adler Swims Forever, winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, is the 2024 Same Page Community Read selection.  About Same Page Community Read: Each year, JMRL invites all book lovers to participate in the Same Page Community Read throughout […]
JMRL Blog

2023: Another Winning Year 

2 months 4 weeks ago
A library is successful when it is a part of people’s everyday lives. By that measure, 2023 was another winning year for JMRL, building off of 2022’s VLA Library of the Year award. JMRL branches welcomed nearly 713,000 library visitors and issued more than 12,000 new library cards. Library patrons checked out more than 1.6 […]
JMRL Blog

Top 10 Checkouts – 2023

2 months 4 weeks ago
In 2023, JMRL cardholders checked out 1,647,297 items from the library. Read on for the Top 10 Checkouts of the year in selected categories. How many have you watched, listened to, or read this year? Magazines in Overdrive/LIBBY eaudiobooks in Overdrive/Libby ebooks in Overdrive/Libby Videos on Kanopy Top DVDs Top Adult Audiobooks on CD Top […]
JMRL Blog

“Truthfully, this is the fabric of all my fantasies: love shown not by a kiss or a wild look or a careful hand but by a willingness for research.”

3 months ago
Books on Tap met on Thursday, December 7th at 7 pm at Beer Run to discuss The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken. We talked about books and librarianship, the balance between surrealism and mundanity, the characters, and even the title. As always, opinions varied wildly, and we had a wonderful time actively discussing this title!  […]
JMRL Blog
22 minutes 8 seconds ago