JMRL blog

On Thursday, August 20th, the Central Library Brown Baggers met to discuss Charlottesville: An American Story by Deborah Baker.  Published in 2025, “Charlottesville” provides local history and background as well as numerous details on the planning and players involved during the August 11th and 12th, 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.  Baker covers many […]

On August 6, Books on Tap met to discuss What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. Born in England, McEwan is a celebrated British author. What We Can Know, published in 2025, is a dystopian novel set in 2119. The story follows Thomas Metcalfe, a professor of the history and literature of the 20th and […]

Summer is winding down at JMRL even though it’s still hot outside! Although the Summer Reading Challenge is over, there’s still time to collect your prize books from any JMRL branch before August 31.  Over 7,100 participants read almost 7 million minutes over the course of the 10 week challenge! More than 9,500 prizes have been […]

On July 2, a dedicated group braved the scorching heat to discuss The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali at Books on Tap. Kamali is an Iranian-American who was born in Turkey and has lived in Iran and Germany. Originally published in 2024, The Lion Women of Tehran is her third book. The book […]

A smaller group of Brown Baggers turned up to discuss “Ficciones” by Argentinian writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. “Ficciones”, originally published in Spanish in 1956, is a collection of 17 short stories that proved to be a challenging read for our group. Just one of our group managed to get through all 17 stories […]

Central Library’s Brown Baggers book group read and discussed The Wind Knows My Name (2023) by Isabel Allende on June 18th.  Allende is a Chilean-American, prolific author who writes in Spanish and her works tend to be historical fiction with a bit of magical realism. “The Wind Knows My Name” tells the story of a […]

Books on Tap discussed Starling House by Alix E. Harrow on Thursday, June 4th at Random Row.  The author grew up in Kentucky, and currently lives in Central Virginia.  Starling House was a Reese’s Book Club selection and was shortlisted for several literary awards. Set in a poor, mining region in Kentucky, Starling House tells […]

If you don’t already know, JMRL has a staff-run podcast, formerly known as On the Same Page. The podcast has been rebranded as “Checked Out” and features an incredible new logo. If you’re a fan of the podcast make sure to keep an eye out for future changes coming up in the next year. Checked […]

Central Library Brown Baggers had a lively discussion of Ira Levin’s “The Boys from Brazil” on Thursday, May 21st.  Published in 1976, this thriller operates under the chilling premise that Dr. Josef Mengele, the concentration camp Nazi Dr now living in Brazil,(spoiler warning) has used Hitler’s DNA to clone 94 baby boys in Brazil. The […]

(Check out the fine free Media!) What does “fine-free” actually mean? For JMRL, going “fine-free” means no longer charging overdue fines. Items that are over a month overdue will still be charged a replacement cost to the library card until they have been returned. JMRL will still charge for items that were checked out and […]