I cooked my first turkey in a church cafeteria for 20 college friends doing flood relief in Bluefield, West Virginia.  All went well, until after we had eaten and I found a paper package inside the breast cavity.  Whoa, who knew you had to remove the giblets, hearts and neck? Novice or old hand, Thanksgiving presents promise and possibility. The library has plenty to help you through the terrors of your first Thanksgiving or the boredom of your 30th. Let’s start with the turk

“But, where are the numbers?” I asked Mr. Hartledge, my freshman algebra teacher, after he had sprinkled the blackboard with a dizzying array of x’s and y’s.  It made no sense to me.  I was woefully unprepared for the world of abstract symbols. Too bad Brainfuse , a homework assistance service, wasn’t around.  Brainfuse provides live tutors in math, science, reading/writing, social studies for all ages, 7 days a week.  It’s free with your library card. With help like that alg

Photo courtesy of Fauquier Times The Mary H. Weir Public Library was one block from my elementary school.  A note from my mother freed me to visit the place during lunch time recess.  It wasn’t a hard choice – play vs. Nancy Drew. The girl sleuth always won. To check out three books (that was the limit) a library card was necessary.  Nothing else would do despite the fact I was a well-known customer. I loved my library card. It was my passport to the world of roadsters, clues

Photo courtesy of Fauquier Times It’s hard to believe summer is waning but the signs are all there.  The sun sets earlier, stores stock school supplies, Labor Day looms.  Here at the library, the summer reading program buzz ended with ice cream sundaes for everyone. Flip flops may yield to hard shoes, but some things are not in flux, like our talented community partners who make great programs happen. If you haven’t taken advantage of the Naturalist Is In , there are still pl

Photo courtesy of Fauquier Times The joint is jumping! Since June 1, 14,000 people visited a Fauquier library; 330 signed up for a library card; over 1,700 attended a library program. Those numbers confirm what we knew all along — the library and summer go hand in hand, like sun and sand, baseball and hotdogs or 4th of July and fireworks. All Together Now, this year’s summer reading program, has been a huge draw for children, teens and adults.  There’s plenty of action still

Photo courtesy of Fauquier Times We paid no heed to the fly buzzing lazily among the window shades in our second-grade classroom. The trials and triumphs of Wilber and his new friend Charlotte had our full attention. Every afternoon, Sister Mary Helen would read a chapter aloud from Charlotte’s Web . It was my favorite time of the day, more welcome than lunch or recess.  I was as dreamy as Fern, happy to spend the long afternoon listening to the delightfully spun tale about a

Photo courtesy of Fauquier Times In January, the New York Library announced it had acquired Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s joint personal archives.  The acquisition included a trove of letters, photographs, manuscripts and family records that traces the work of one of America’s most productive literary couples. Here’s the part I like best about the announcement. The collection will be open without restriction to scholars, biographers and anyone else with a library car

I walked out the door the other day and realized I wasn’t hunching my shoulders against the cold.  Why should I? The temperature was a balmy 78!  All around, teenagers in shorts and T-shirts and adults in khakis and wind breakers made the most of the unusual weather. But like a rubber band, the next day snapped back to 40 degrees and revelers sobered up to face several weeks before coats could be shucked for good. That’s ok, though.  A tantalizing glimpse of what lies ahead i

In St. Peter’s Square , if you stand on one of two iron circles and look towards the colonnade, you will see one row of perfectly aligned columns instead of four.  Step to the left or right and all the columns appear again. A shift in perspective can produce some surprising results. Books, said renowned historian David McCullough , can change the way we look at the world or inspire us to make a change in our own life. Interested in looking at things differently? Check out one