PROGRAM CHANGE

PLEASE NOTE: The Lunch With Books program featuring violinist Juan Jaramillo, originally scheduled for January 10, 2012 at noon, has been POSTPONED, most likely until summer 2012. Details will be announced when confirmed. We apologize for any inconvenience.

OCPL

Ring in the New Year with Yodeling Dick

On Tuesday January 3 at noon, Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library will welcome back a true American original. Known only to a select few, Richard Bruce Morriale (aka Yodeling Dick Brooks) has been composing, performing, and recording music for over sixty years. Heard over various radio stations in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Colorado, Arizona and West Virginia as a singer, announcer, and D.J., Mr. Brooks will offer a “one-man folk festival,” featuring as many musical instruments as he can bring for a variety of selections, including original songs and interesting commentary. The Famous Baristas of New Martinsville called him “An American Original,” Marty Stuart presented him as “The Real Deal,” and Jay Leno referred to him as “West Virginia’s Best Kept Secret.” Now you can find out why. Ring in the New Year with Yodeling Dick’s “Feast of Sounds.” Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Dec 27: A "Light-Hearted" Career Criminal

Sisters Debbie Frye and Tracy Mercier, both ex-CIA, will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday Dec 27 to tell the fascinating story of their late father and his life of crime. The bizarre story, discovered by the sisters years after their father had died, has ties to the WV Penitentiary at Moundsville and to Wheeling and the local region. The book is described as “a refreshing look at a light hearted criminal, unlike many of the true crime stories on the market today. It is a book about a boy who...grew to become a notorious opportunist whose crimes netted more money than many legendary outlaws.” Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are provided. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Dec 20 at noon: More Immigrants, Migrants & Neighborhoods...

Pictures, snacks, good times.

Join the Family.

Next Monday Evening and Tuesday at Noon: Seamus McGraw

Author of Fracking Bestseller to Appear at Library

Journalist and national bestselling author Seamus McGraw will be at “Fracking Facts” at the Ohio County Public Library on Monday December 12 at 7 PM. He will then present a second program on Tuesday, December 13 at noon at the library’s Lunch With Books series. At 3 PM on the 13^th, McGraw will stop at Books-a Million at the Highlands for a book signing. A bestselling author of national renown, McGraw will discuss his new book, The End of Country, about the battle that ensued after the discovery of Marcellus gas deposits. The conflict pitted corporate America against locals determined to extract their fair share of the windfall-but not at the cost of their way of life. McGraw, a native of the region whose own mother was one of the first to receive a leasing offer, tells the story of the cutthroat dash by petrodollar billionaires to secure drilling leases that will make some poor residents rich, and put the entire community at risk of having its land and water contaminated. About the book, Tom Brokaw said, "The End of Country" is an elegantly written and unsettling account of what can happen when big energy companies come calling in rural America. This cautionary tale should be required reading for all those tempted by the calling cards of easy money and precarious peace of mind. The result too often is bitter feuds, broken dreams, a shattered landscape."

Seamus McGraw is a full-time writer who has seen his work published in Playboy, Reader's Digest, Penthouse, Radar, Spin, and The Forward. He has received the Freedom of Information Award from the Associated Press Managing Editors, as well as honors from the Casey Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists. McGraw is currently working on a documentary trailer about his family's experiences with the Marcellus shale. He grew up pitching hay and spreading manure on the same fields the gas companies are now prospecting. He still lives in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and four children.

Fracking Facts and Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Please call the library at 304-232-0244 for more information.

Fracking Programs

Thursday December 8 @ 7 PM: The Benefits of Marcellus Shale Fracking: Fact or Fiction?
Ohio County Public Library - Auditorium

Get an alternative view of Marcellus Shale drilling in the local region. Guest speakers Claudia & John Detwiler from the"Marcellus Shale Protest"group out of Pittsburgh, will provide a look at the other side of natural gas drilling (fracking),including an examination of the industry's claims regarding jobs numbers, freedom from dependence on foreign oil, the bridge fuel idea, and impacts on real estate values.

Also, Seamus McGraw (The End of Country) will appear next Monday Dec 12 at 7 and then again on Tuesday Dec 13 at noon. Same location.