Art Circle Public Library: What's Happening

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(931) 484-6790  Library

(931) 456-2006  Archives

(931)  484-2350 Public Fax

(931)  707-8956 Business Fax

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Art Circle Public Library

3 East Street

Crossville, TN  38555

Library News Article for March 21

The Plateau Women’s Chorus presenting Roots and Wings with Michael Ruff from the Playhouse will appear at the Library in the Cumberland Room tomorrow, March 22, at 12 noon. You won’t want to miss this momentous performance.

Great New Books

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear

Elinor DeWitt's happy childhood in Belgium vanished in 1914 with her father's disappearance. She was only 12 in 1916 when she was trained as a resistance fighter, sabotaging trains and having to kill several German soldiers to protect her sister. She tried to put the past behind her when she taught languages in England years later but was recruited to help the Allies in the next war. A traumatic experience and a head injury ended her wartime operations. Now, in 1947, Elinor White lives in a cottage provided for services to the country. She's 43, a silent figure to most in the small village. A little girl, Susie Mackie, breaks through Elinor's protective layer. Then, Jim Mackie's family comes calling. They're a powerful crime family in London, but Jim escaped from them. They want him back in the family fold, and they threaten Jim's wife and daughter, Susie. Elinor turns for help to several of her wartime acquaintances. That's when she discovers the treachery and lies she never knew about during her wartime years.

Change Your Brain Every Day: Simple Daily Practices to Strengthen Your Mind, Memory, Moods, Focus, Energy, Habits, and Relationships by Daniel G Amen, MD

Amen, a renowned psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist, distills more than 40 years of knowledge and experience into this engaging, approachable daily reader. The book presents manageable daily practices to improve brain function and develop positive lifestyle habits. The author incorporates physical, mental, and emotional strategies based on the thousands of patients he has worked with and the brain scans he has studied throughout his career. Practices range from limiting caffeine and assessing health habits to scheduling a doctor's appointment or completing a mindfulness or memory exercise. Each entry includes a reflective prompt or action related to the day's topic. The practices are organized effectively so that they build on each other over the course of one year. The variety of techniques included will likely appeal to a broad readership.

Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family by Rachel Jamison Webster

Discovery of her "lost" African American ancestry set white poet Webster on an unexpected path. She spent years immersed in archival research and in extensive conversations with her newly found Black cousins who had gathered documents and oral histories tracing their connections to the extraordinary mathematician, naturalist, astronomer, writer, and freedom fighter Benjamin Banneker. A free man of color, Banneker created best-selling almanacs and was hired by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to help survey Washington, DC. Webster writes candidly about her white privilege in telling this story and her decision to give voice to the "thoughts and feelings" of her ancestors in sections based on "grounded imagination" that bring spare genealogical and historical facts to intimate, vivid life. This complexly involving chronicle of revelations and conscience begins with a young English indentured servant, Molly, who was exiled to the colony of Maryland in 1686. She eventually married an enslaved African man, Bana'ka. Their oldest daughter, Mary, a healer and herbalist, had five children, including Benjamin and Jemima, Webster's direct ancestor. Drawing on her acute sensitivity to language and bias, sharing long discussions with her cousins, and meshing their family history with the brutal realities of Banneker's time, Webster has created an engrossing, multifaceted, profoundly thoughtful, and beautifully rendered inquiry that forms a clarifying lens on America's ongoing struggles against racism and endemic injustice.

Library Laugh I

Why is the letter A like a flower? A bee comes after it!

Libraries=Information

Pathways to better sleep: Cultivate better breathing habits: practice deep breathing before going to bed which can reduce heart rate and blood pressure, calm the nerves, and promote relaxation; Take a warm bath; Use aromatherapy; Reduce screen time; Practice stretching exercises which can relieve muscle tension and encourage slower breathing; Switch indoor lighting to warm colors; Avoid drinking and smoking before bedtime; Head to bed as soon as you feel sleepy; Use the bathroom before bed; Watch your diet; Get some sun; Adjust room temperature to between 61 and 68 degrees in winter and 77 and 82 degrees in summer.

Library Laugh II

What type of case can you not carry? A staircase.

Stingy Schobel Says

If you use disposable coffee filters to make your morning cup of Joe, two things in the supermarket aisle can help you make the greenest choice. First, choose undyed brown filters over white ones, which are bleached using chlorine or other chemical methods. Second, look for filters made with bamboo fiber. They have the feel and function of paper filters, but they come from a fast-growing, renewable resource with no ties to deforestation. The greenest choice is a reusable filter. Consider investing in one to save money and time and to reduce waste.