JMRL blog

November 3-18 JMRL Food for Fines Food Drive Bring an item to the Front Desk of any JMRL location and receive $1 off overdue fines and late renewal fines for each donated item. Accounts in collections and billed items are ineligible for this offer. No fines? Your donations are still greatly appreciated! This will mark […]

Note: blog post written in partnership with Charlottesville Family Magazine Charlottesville and the surrounding Blue Ridge region have long been a haven for storytellers, from nationally known novelists to beloved children’s authors. JMRL’s community is rich with creative voices who bring to life stories that inspire, educate, and delight young readers. For example, Janasha “Jay” […]

CHARLOTTESVILLE, September 30, 2025—The Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale will be held at Albemarle Square Shopping Center (300 Albemarle Square) on Saturday, Oct. 4 through Sunday, Oct. 12, from 10 am – 7 pm each day.  A pre-sale will be held Friday, Oct. 3, from 5 – 7 pm, for members of the Friends […]

September 4 saw another lively meeting as Books on Tap discussed As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. Opinions were split, with some really enjoying the book while others struggled with it. Though even those who enjoyed it admitted that while it is shorter and easier than Faulkner’s other books, it is still hard to […]

The Central Library Brown Baggers enjoyed a lively discussion of “My Antonia” (published 1918) by Willa Cather on Thursday August 21st.  This is the second book by Cather we have discussed with the first being Cather’s final published work (1940), “Sapphira and the Slave Girl”  which we discussed back in May 2024.   Jim, the narrator […]

…After all, what can we ever gain in forever looking back and blaming ourselves if our lives have not turned out quite as we might have wished?” Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki Japan in 1954. At the age of 5, his family moved to Britain. His first two novels were set in Japan. But […]

On July 17th, Central Library Brown Baggers discussed Elizabeth Strout’s “Tell Me Everything” , a 2024 Oprah’s Book Club selection and the 5th title in Strout’s “Amgash” series.  (The books in this series all take place in a fictional small town in Maine, and the characters intersect through the different books.)  The books can be […]

JMRL is excited to announce a brand-new collaboration with 106.1 The Corner! Starting this fall, you can catch monthly live broadcasts of The Corner’s midday show, hosted by Samantha Federico and Fievel, broadcasting right from JMRL branches across the region. Each broadcast will run from 10 AM – 12 PM and will feature two exciting […]

Books on Tap met on July 3 to discuss Howards End  by E.M. Forster. Forster, one of the most successful Edwardian English authors, received an astonishing 22 nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Howards End was published in 1910, the fourth of five novels published during Forster’s lifetime.  Reactions to the book were mixed […]

Central Brown Baggers had an uplifting discussion of “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry”  by Gabrielle Zevin on June 12th.  A charming read about a widowed bookstore owner (AJ) whose life is turned around (saved?) thanks to his adoption of Maya, a precocious toddler.  It’s a book (primarily set in a bookstore located on an […]

Last Summer, Geoff Marsh visited three JMRL Library branches, drawing so much attention that Library staff invited him back for another series of performances as part of the Summer 2025 Performer and Featured Presenter lineup. This year, Geoff Marsh visited eight library branches over the course of four days, entertaining audiences of all ages with […]

On June 5, Books on Tap met at Random Row Brewing to discuss People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. Henry attended Hope College and completed a residency at the New York Center for Art & Media Studies at Bethel University. Her first several novels were written for young adults. But she decided she […]