February is Black History Month, and we have lots of selections for you about the rich and proud, albeit oppressive and hurtful, heritage of our African-American friends and neighbors. If you haven’t read anything about black history, we have a treasury of non-fiction and fiction writings, from Frederic Douglass, slave and abolitionist, and Phillis Wheatley, slave and poet, to latter day fiction by various authors.
“Anything by Toni Morrison is good,” said Flo Bellamy, director of our community center. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, was a favorite selection by many white and black women in Mountain City, and is still a NY Times bestseller. It is a riot of a read, and one that will leave you furious, anxious, relieved and laughing out loud. I currently am reading the non-fiction book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. Doctors took Lacks’ cells without her permission to fund a multi-million-dollar research industry. Twenty years later after the fact, her family finds out.
A favorite black fiction writer of mine is Walter Moseley, who wrote the Easy Rawlin’s detective series. Men and women alike will enjoy all of these selections, and if you’ve never read anything about black history or from an African American perspective, step outside your comfort zone and try some of these books that are much loved by black and white folk everywhere
New things are happening at the library everyday, and workers have been busy installing computers, checking wires, and making sure all works well before we start our computer classes by the end of this month. We don’t have the exact date and times yet, but most classes will likely be held during early evening hours.
“We’ll have classes on the internet, Microsoft Word and Excel, resume writing and anything that will help anyone with employment,” said Linda Icenhour, library director. By the way, look for a photo and bio on Linda in a later column.
Dottie Harmon will continue storytelling hour Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. through February, then Judy McGuire will begin in March, same day, same time.
February 28 at 1:30 p.m., Dottie Harmon will give a geography class for home schoolers.
If you’d like to attend one of our board meetings, we’d like to have you come and observe. Our next board meeting is March 14, 3:30 p.m., in the Kathleen Mount meeting room. We hope to see you there!
Belinda Kiener bkiener23@gmail.com
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