Thank you Warwood!

157 people turned out for the Warwood Memories program yesterday. Sorry we underestimated the seating but many thanks to all who were there and especially to those who shared. We enjoyed it immensely and thought it a great success. And since it ...was such a success, we now hope to do a similar program for every neighborhood from North Wheeling to Benwood. THANKS WARWOOD!

Our next program will be Tuesday, January 8, 2013. Hal Gorby will return to discuss his research on Wheeling during the Progressive Era.

Happy Holidays!

Next: REMEMBER WARWOOD!

Dec. 18 Warwood Memories: Share your memories of growing up in Warwood at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday December 18 at noon. From long lost island amusement parks and airplane factories, to exotic places like “the jungle” and “the bloody bones,” plus standards like Brooke’s Restaurant, Hecks, McNamara’s Drugstore, Lincoln Theater, Sobray’s Bakery and more — discover the history and nostalgia ofWarwood from those who lived it. Copies of the new local history book, The Wheeling Family Volume 2: More Immigrants, Migrants & Neighborhoods, which contains sections called "Warwood Memories, an Experiment in Nostalgia Through Social Media" and "Warwood A to Z" will be available for purchase. One dollar for every book soled will be donated to the library. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

Reflecting on the end of a classic rivalry...

John Antonik, Director of New Media for Intercollegiate Athletics at WVU, will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday December 11 at noon to discuss his book, The Backyard Brawl: Stories from One of the Weirdest, Wildest, Longest Running, and Most Intense Rivalries in College Football History. 
WVU Press website description: The West Virginia University Mountaineers and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, separated by less than eighty miles of highway, have battled it out on the football field for more than one hundred years. Now, with Pitt announcing its departure from the Big East Conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and West Virginia becoming a member of the Big 12 Conference, this intense rivalry has come to an abrupt end. Thousands of players and dozens of coaches - some among the very best to ever play the game - have been a part of this famous series known as the “Backyard Brawl.” With fantastic tales about this feud’s star-studded rosters, including White, Slaton, Harris, Luck, Huff,Nehlen, and Rodriguez for West Virginia and Fitzgerald, Marino, Dorsett, Green, Majors, and Sherrill for Pitt, The Backyard Brawl celebrates the tradition, heritage, and pride of two outstanding universities. With unparalleled access, John Antonik, a 20-year West Virginia University athletic administrator and WVU alumnus, unearths the fascinating and humorous stories that make up this revered, colorful, and cherished football game-and more importantly, the great passion and pride these schools exhibit every time they take the field.

John Antonik, a New Martinsville native, is Director of New Media for Intercollegiate Athletics, West Virginia University and author of West Virginia University Football Vault: The History of the Mountaineers and Roll Out the Carpet: 101 Seasons of West Virginia University Basketball.
A representative from WVU Press will accompany Mr. Antonik and will have copies of the book available for purchase and signing at $19.99 per copy. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

Wheeling Film Society Screening and Conversation!

The Wheeling Film Society is a partnership among Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Cinema, Wheeling Jesuit University’s Fine and Performing Arts Department & Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library. See a classic film for free on a Friday on the big screen at Towngate, then join in a discussion of the film the following Tuesday at the library!

SEE "Play It Again Sam," at Towngate Cinema, Friday November 30, 7 pm.

THEN join the Conversation with WJU film professor John Whitehead on Tuesday December 4 at noon at LWB at the OCPL.

Woody Allen originally wrote his relationship-comedy fantasia on Humphrey Bogart’s persona in Casablanca and other films as a stage play, adapted here for the cinema exactly three decades after the Bogart-Bergman classic as the first of many screen-pairings of Allen and Diane Keaton.  Allen’s character, pushed around by his ex-wife and hapless in a series of blind dates, becomes so obsessed with trying to “be like Bogart” that he conjures a Bogie avatar by his side to advise him on his romantic moves and missteps.  Allen’s legendary love of cinema was first introduced on screen in this early film, which pointed the way to Annie Hall and Manhattan later in the 70s.

All programs – screenings and conversations – are FREE. Attend as many as your schedule allows. All are welcome, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Parental Guidance is recommended for all programs.

Nov. 27: Immaculate Reflections of Jim O'Brien

Pittsburgh author Jim O’Brien will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday, November 27 at noon to discuss his new book, Immaculate Reflections. Subjects covered include the “Immaculate Reception” on the 40^th anniversary of the pivotal event in the Steelers’ history, Steeler greats like Troy Polamalu and Franco Harris, the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, and the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski.  Steelers’ founder Art Rooney Sr. called O’Brien “a real Pittsburgh guy,” and the late Myron Cope called him “Pittsburgh’s premier sports historian.” Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

Nov 20: The Music of Angela Easterling

Angela Easterling, an Americana-Roots Singer-Songwriter based in Greenville, SC, will perform at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday, November 20 at noon. Her program, "A Songwriter's Journey Through American Music,” was presented as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit, "New Harmonies: CelebratingAmerican Root’s Music.” It includes original songs interspersed with selections of classic folk, roots, country and rock tunes. Easterling will discuss the craft of songwriting and tell the stories behind her songs and how they came to be, weaving in some of the history of roots music and the artists who have influenced her writing. Roger McGuinn, founder of the Byrds, called Angela "a bright shining star on the horizon!" For more info, visit www.angelaeasterling.com. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

The Unknown Soldiers

Dr. Art Barbeau, emeritus professor of history at West Liberty College/University, will be at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Tuesday November 13 at noon to discuss his book, TheUnknown Soldiers: African American Troops in WWI in honor of Veteran’s Day. During WWI, thousands of African Americans labored, fought, and died to make the world safe for a democracy that refused them equal citizenship at home. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and free beverages are served. Please call 304-232-0244 for more information.

Book Description from Amazon.com: During World War I 370,000 African Americans labored, fought, and died to make the world safe for a democracy that refused them equal citizenship at home. The irony was made more bitter as black troops struggled with the racist policies of the American military itself. The overwhelming majority were assigned to labor companies; those selected for combat were under-trained, poorly equipped, ad commanded by white officers who insisted on black inferiority. Still, African Americans performed admirably under fire: the 369th Infantry regiment was in continuous combat loner than any other American unit, and was the first Allied regiment to cross the Rhine in the offensive against Germany.The Unknown Soldiers, the only full-scale examination of the subject, chronicles the rigid segregation; the limited opportunities for advancement; the inadequate training, food, medical attention, housing, and clothing; the verbal harassment and physical abuse, including lynchings; the ingratitude, unemployment, and unprecedented racial violence that greeted their return. The Unknown Soldiers is an unforgettable, searing study of those wartime experiences that forced African Americans to realize that equality and justice could never be earned in Jim Crow America, but only wrested from its strangling grip.