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To see the calendar of programs at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling, WV, please visit the library's calendar page by clicking HERE.

http://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/calendar

Author Matthew Neill Null

Lunch With Books: Honey from the Lion

January 19, 2016

Event starts at 12:00 PM.

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Matthew Neill Null, a New Martinsville native, will discuss his novel about a turn-of-the-century logging company’s decimation of virgin forest in the Alleghenies.

“One of the most assured debuts of the year...Null’s compressed, lyrical prose penetrates every darkness and wheels though time like a soaring bird.”
—Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Quiet Dell

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In this lyrical and suspenseful debut novel, a turn-of-the-century logging company decimates ten thousand acres of virgin forest in the West Virginia Alleghenies—and transforms a brotherhood of timber wolves into revolutionaries.

After fleeing his childhood farm in the wake of scandal, Cur Greathouse arrives at the Cheat River Paper & Pulp Company’s Blackpine camp, where an unlikely family of sawyers offers him new hope. But the work there is exacting and dangerous—with men’s worth measured in ledger columns. Whispers of a union strike pass from bunk to bunk. Against the rasp of the misery whip and the crash of felled hemlock and red spruce, Cur encounters a cast of characters who will challenge his loyalties: a minister grasping after his dwindling congregation, a Syrian peddler who longs to put down his pack and open a store, a slighted Slovenian wife turned activist, and a trio of reckless land barons. Cur must accept or betray the call to lead a rebellion—and finally reconcile a forbidden love.

Manuel Muñoz says of reading Matthew Neill Null’s image-rich prose, “The real pleasure—and certainly not the only one—is in the sentences, as complex, deliberately assured, and lethal as Flannery O’Connor’s.” A startling elegy that establishes its author as a tremendous new literary voice, Honey from the Lion evokes the ecological devastation and human tragedy behind the Gilded Age, and sings both the land and ordinary lives in all their extraordinary resilience.

Lunch With Books: Robbie Burns Day

January 12, 2016

Event starts at 12:00 PM.

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Isabel Harrar returns to lead a celebration of the life and work of Robert Burns, Scotland’s favorite poet, near the traditional celebration of his birthday (aka the “Burns Supper”) on January 25 (1759).

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Jan. 5: Woodsdale Memories

The Neighborhood Nostalgia Series continues with Out the Pike, Stop 2. Share your favorite memories of life in Woodsdale and Edgwood. Bring your photos and have them scanned.

Dec. 22: Wheeling During the Civil War

Members of the Wheeling Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee will discuss the articles they wrote for this compilation that takes a month-by-month look at events in Wheeling during the civil war years using local newspapers as the main primary source.

Wheeling During the Civil War, speakers announced:

Margaret Brennan - Nov/Dec 1860
Jeanne Finstein - May 1862
Ed Phillips - Aug 1862
Wilkes Kinney - Feb 1863
Jon-Erik Gilot - Feb 1864
Joe Laker - Sep 1864
David Javersak - Jan 1865
Kate Quinn - Mar 1865
John Bowman - Apr 1865

Joyeux Noel (Dec 14 and 15)

Joyeux Noel captures a rare moment of grace from one of the worst wars in the history of mankind, World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, as German, French, and Scottish regiments face each other from their respective trenches, a musical call-and-response turns into an impromptu cease-fire. But when Christmas ends, the war returns. See the 2006 film on Monday, Dec. 14 at 6:30 PM, then join WLU professor emeritus Dr. Art Barbeaux on Dec. 15 at Lunch With Books at noon for a discussion.

Saturday: Wheeling Stories and Tuesday: A Mountain Christmas

SPECIAL Saturday edition of LUNCH WITH BOOKS, Dec. 5 at noon Digital Storytelling Premier 

California University of PA students of Professor Christina Fisanick will be at a special Saturday edition of Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on December 5 at noon to debut their digital video stories focusing on local history. These short films take a closer look at the Benwood Mine Disaster, West Liberty University's Nelle Krise Rare Books Room, the creation of the state of West Virginia at Independence Hall, the Sweeney family and glass, and the agricultural legacy of Earl Oglebay. The event is in partnership with the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch and complimentary beverages are provided. Call the library at 302-232-0244 or visit the library's web site at www.ohiocountlibrary.org for more information.

Tuesday Dec. 8 at noon:  LUNCH WITH BOOKS Mountain Christmas 

Author Marc Harshman and illustrator Cecy Rose will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday, December 8 at noon to discuss their new collaboration, Mountain Christmas. Miracles await the reader in this instant Holiday classic. Every page reveals a new glimpse of Santa coming to the mountains with his sleigh and reindeer. You do not have to be a West Virginian to enjoy this book, but natives will certainly recognize iconic scenes featuring such familiar sights as the State Capitol, Green Bank Observatory and Blackwater Falls. Rose has crafted magnificent illustrations to complement the story that add their own rich layer of visual storytelling to Harshman’s compelling voice. With poetic stanzas, each of which teases us with the coming arrival of Santa Claus, this is sure to become a keepsake volume for children of all ages. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring a bag lunch and complimentary beverages are provided. Call the library at 302-232-0244 or visit the library's web site at www.ohiocountlibrary.org for more information.