Book Briefs

The Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, is in the midst of Mob Month. Events begin at 7 p.m. Free wristbands to reserve a seat are set to be available at 6 p.m. Three more discussions are scheduled: “Son of a Gun: How to Diss Your Hitman and Keep Friends — The Untold Story of Billy and Andrew” today ; “UBATZ” documentary screening with Salvatore “Ubatz” Polisi and Henry Hill Jan. 24; and “From Medellin to the Mob: Meet Ronin of the Underworld Kenny ‘Kenji’ Gallo” Jan. 31. For more information, visit lvccld.org.

Local author to sign ‘Vegas Rag Doll’

Wendy Mazaros plans to sign copies of her book, “Vegas Rag Doll,” at 1 p.m. Saturday at the 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd. Barnes & Noble. For more information, visit vegasragdoll.com.

Writers group to welcome Rick Lax

Rick Lax, author of “I Get Paid for This,” is scheduled to speak at a meeting of the Las Vegas Writers Group at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Tap House, 5589 W. Charleston Blvd. The meeting fee is $5. Visit meetup.com/Las-Vegas-Writers for details. For details, visit meetup.com/las-vegas-writers.

Teen Writing Club plans meeting

A Teen Writing Club plans to meet from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. today in the Green Valley Library, 2797 N. Green Valley Parkway. The club schedules meetings every other month. For more information, call
207-4260.

Library to host free workshop

Poet and writing teacher Barbara Miller plans to host a free writers workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Summerlin Library, 1771 Inner Circle Drive. For more information, contact Susan Williams at 507-3866.

Book Festival sends out call for art

The Vegas Valley Book Festival invites artists from Southern Nevada to submit qualifications to create a suite of three original art works as the official posters for the festival planned for Nov. 1-3. The artworks will celebrate the festival, the Vegas Valley Children’s Book Festival and the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival.

Members of the festival’s steering committee and employees (and their families) of the city of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and Nevada Humanities are not eligible. There is no entry fee. The selected artist will receive an honorarium of $1,500. The deadline to apply is Feb. 10. Request an application via email at info@vegasvalley
bookfestival.org. For more information visti vegasvalleybookfestival.org or call 229-5431.

Meet ‘Highland Destiny’ author

Readers are invited to meet Laura Hunsaker, author of the novel “Highland Destiny,” from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday in the lobby of the Paseo Verde Library, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway.

SUNRISE COFFEE CO. ON SUNSET ROAD
HOSTS OPEN MIC NIGHT WEDNESDAYS

Sunrise Coffee Co. welcomes poets and poetry fans to participate in its open mic night starting at 7 p.m. every Wednesday at 3130 E. Sunset Road.

SHARE POEMS AT HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Polish up a poem or two and try them out at Human Experience, a free spoken word event, from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays in The Beat coffee shop at 520 Fremont St. inside Emergency Arts. For more information, visit lasvegaspoets.org.

Romance authors plan signing event

Ni’Cola Mitchell and Imani True plan a joint signing for their romance books “The Appetizer When You’Re Not His Main Course” and “A Little Sumthin’ Sumthin’ ” at 1 p.m. Jan. 28 at the 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd. Barnes & Noble.

Henderson Writers Group
meets Mondays

The Henderson Writers Group meets from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m. Mondays. Meetings are at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at 4550 S. Maryland Parkway on the second and fourth Mondays and at Saxby’s Coffee Lounge, 72 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson, on the first, third and occasional fifth Mondays. Meetings are typically canceled on holidays. Visit henderson
writersgroup.com for more information.

Meetings are open to the public.

Las Vegas Writers Conference scheduled for April 19-21

The Las Vegas Writers Conference is scheduled for April 19-21 at Sam’s Town, 5111 Boulder Highway. Registration for the full conference is $450. One-day registration also is available.

Faculty scheduled to participate in the conference includes: authors Kirt Hickman, Eva Shaw, Randall Platt and Kathleen Shaputis; literary agents Mary Kole, Lauren Ruth, Rita Rosenkranz, Jeff Kleinman, Malaga Baldi and Angie Rasmussen; editors Chuck Sambuchino, Annette Rogers and Chris Roerden; and publishers Mark E. Cull, Bruce Bortz and Jo Wilkins. For more information, visit lasvegaswritersconference.com.

FREE STORYCORPS TOOLKIT
HELPS COLLECT MEMORIES

The national StoryCorps’ Memory Loss Initiative encourages people with memory loss to share their stories with loved ones and future generations. To make that task easier, a free step-by-step toolkit is available to download at storycorps.org/mli.

The Commemorate toolkit offers an individual reminiscence program that family members can initiate or memory loss care facilities can add to activities.

The initiative has collected more than 1,800 interviews with 180 partner organizations.

For more information, visit storycorps.org or call 646-723-7027.

ACCESS RECORDED BOOK PROGRAMS ONLINE

Too busy to get out to book programs? The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District has started posting videocasts and podcasts of many of its programs online. Selections available so far include: “An Afternoon with Tony Curtis,” John L. Smith’s presentation “Amelia’s Long Journey: The Challenge of Writing What You Know,” “Batman” movie producer Michael Uslan’s presentation at the 2009 Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival, Jami Carpenter’s “ABCs of Editing” workshop and Brian Rouff’s “Getting Published: A Long Strange Trip.” To access the programs, visit lvccld.org, select “Books, Movies & More” and then “Video and Podcasts.”

The Black Mountain Institute has offered recordings of its programming since 2006. To access recordings of a gamut of writers from E.L. Doctorow to Alissa Nutting, visit blackmountain
institute.org and select “multimedia.”

FREE READ TO ME PROGRAM
OFFERS STORIES ONLINE AND BY PHONE

Celebrity storytellers Oscar Goodman, Rita Rudner, Clint Holmes, Terry Fator, Carrot Top, The Scintas and others have donated their talents to the Clark County Education Association Community Foundation’s Read To Me program. Children can view more than 15 videos of celebrities reading books on the website at readtomelv.com. Stories also can be accessed by calling 240-2665.

Both databases are frequently updated with fresh stories. Parents and teachers can download lesson plans for each book on the website.

Ms. China plans poet interview

Ms. China plans to interview poet Keith Brantley from 2 to 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at the West Las Vegas Library, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Visit lvccld.org for details.

DOWNLOAD BOOKS and MORE
FROM YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY

Virtual Branch websites make it easy to browse, check out and download digital books and more to a home computer for free. All patrons need is a valid library card and an Internet-connected PC.

Virtual Branch download websites feature a digital catalog of downloadable audio books, e-books, music and video titles.

Each site is meant to look and feel like the library’s main site, and it has many easy-to-use features similar to an online store.

Digital book downloads are borrowed just like print materials. Once patrons select the title or author they want, they follow the steps to check out and then download the title to their home computer.

Patrons can transfer most titles to portable media players, such as MP3 players, PDAs, Kindles or smart phones.

Each title that is downloaded has a designated lending period. When the title expires, it is automatically returned to the Virtual Branch, so there are no late fees.

For more information, visit
search.overdrive.com.

ZINE LIBRARY OPEN IN EMERGENCY ARTS

Grab a cup of coffee and check out the independently crafted magazines at the Las Vegas Zine Library inside the Beat Cafe in Emergency Arts, 520 Fremont St.

The library is still small, more of a collection on display for reference and on-site reading than a checkout repository. Contributions of zines are appreciated. For more information, visit lvzinelibrary.blogspot.com.