World Music collection expanded at Bealeton Branch

Fans of the Putumayo music CD's can now find a wide selection at the Bealeton Branch.
Over 50 CD's featuring both adult and children's music from around the world are now available for checkout.

Expand your musical acquaintance with folk and traditional music of Africa, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Sahara, Latin America, the South Pacific, plus regional styles of America such as Cajun, Blues, Zydeco, and dance tunes of Calypso, Salsa, and Flamenco.

To see more of what's available, do a keyword search in the library's catalog under Putumayo.

Modern Scholar Series Latest Titles

If you enjoy Smithsonian lectures similar to their Residents Associate program, or wish you had time to enjoy them, the Modern Scholar audio CD series allows you to listen and learn in the comfort of your home or vehicle.

The latest two entries feature
Yale University Professor Harold Bloom discussing Shakespeare's great tragedies-Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Romeo and Juliet

Dante and His Divine Comedy is discussed by Professor Timothy B. Shutt, currently of Kenyon College. Professor Shutt formerly was a DuPont Fellow at UVA, and a Mellon Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Virginia.


To date, the library has over 40 titles in this series, covering a broad range of topics from history, religion, politics, philosophy, science, and sociology. Other notable presenters include: Alexander McCall Smith on medical ethics, Deborah Tannen on communication, Joseph Ellis on the American revolution, and Peter Navarro on business and economics.
Each month the library receives two new titles in this audio series from Recorded Books.

For a complete list of the Modern Scholar titles at the Fauquier Library,
you can do a Series Title search for Modern Scholar in the catalog.
For more information from Recorded Books about this program, see Modern Scholar

Recently added audios

Some continuations of popular series and authors have been added the last two months in audio format:

Diana Gabaldon in Breath of Snow and Ashes brings her Outlander Series to the time of 1772 in North Carolina. The library has also added the whole series in CD format.

Frank McCourt continues his memoirs begun in Angela's Ashes with Teacher Man, covering 30 years as a New York City schoolteacher

Jan Karon's ninth book in the Mitford Series, Light from Heaven, will conclude the adventures of Father Tim in Mitford, although there are rumors that he will be heading off to
Holly Springs in the future.

LaHaye and Jenkins Left Behind Series continues the "prequel" trilogy with The Regime: Evil Advances.

Gregory Maguire continues the upside-down Oz tale of Wicked with Son of a Witch.

Understanding Grief

Among the many other commemorations in the month of November is National Hospice Month. As part of their effort to reach out to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one, the Hospice of the Rapidan has donated copies of the book Understanding Grief: Helping yourself heal to all three branches of the library. Written by Dr. Alan D. Wolfelt, this book explores common myths and misunderstandings about grieving and addresses critical occasions such as anniversaries and holidays. For information about grief support see their website
Hospice of the Rapidan

Other resources available at the library include:
155.937 Levine, Stephen
Unattended sorrow: recovering from loss and reviving the heart c. 2005

155.937 Kübler-Ross, Elizabeth On grief and grieving: finding the meaning of grief through the five stages of loss c2005.

How to Toon

Filmed at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in California, this new DVD uses imaginative exercises to develop skills in storytelling and drawing. Cartoonist Joe Was is the instructor on How to Toon: the art of visual storytelling. As a bonus, this hour-long DVD includes a live performance of "Once upon a Toon" and the story "Don on the Farm".

Oxford English Dictionary available at your house

Fauquier Library cardholders now have home access to some of the premier publications from Oxford University online.

The Oxford English Dictionary, (OED) considered by most to be the world’s leading authority on the English Language, provides easy access to over 20 volumes worth of words through one search box entry.

There are over 230,000 main entries, and over two million quotations, of which 20% are from the 20th century, and new words are regularly added.

For word-lovers and word game lovers, there are links to BBC Wordhunt appeal list, seeking people to help verify entries from the earliest usage of contemporary terms in books, magazines, movies, or other media.

Links to AskOxford.com have crossword sections, party games, Scrabble resources, including the rules, and other recreational use of words.

A second resource from Oxford University now available to Fauquier library cardholders is the Oxford Reference Online (ORO) Premium Collection. It has received numerous awards as one of the “Best References of the Year” by Library Journal, Booklist and Choice, as well as recognized in a Readers Choice Award for the best interface.

To explore these databases and others from the Fauquier County Public Library’s website, www.library.fauquiercounty.gov, click on Databases and Links from the left side of the page, under Electronic Resources. This will take you to the page with the links to the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Oxford Online premium as well as all the other databases available through the library. Once you click on the database link, simply enter your library barcode number and you can search these reference resources any time of the day or night, in convenience to your personal schedule.

Do you speak American?

In this three-part DVD documentary, journalist Robert MacNeil travels across the country, exploring regional varieties of American English, with assistance from Jeff Foxworthy and Kinky Friedman, and Molly Ivans among others.
Explore the impact of diverse influences such as Maine lobstermen, Appalachian "English", hip-hop, Cajun, Spanglish, "Board-speak" of surfers and skate-and-snow boarders, technology, the Internet and other sub-cultures on our dynamic language. Do you speak American?

Twilight at Little Round Top

Former Fauquier resident Mr. Glen W. Lafantasie recently published his historical account of the pivotal one-day struggle at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, in a book titled Twilight at Little Round Top.

For many years, Mr. Lafantasie was a familiar face at the Warrenton Branch library, requesting interlibrary loan titles for research on this book. Noted with pleasant surprise: the kind acknowledgement of the Fauquier library staff in the preface.
Look for this book in the collection soon.

Voice of the Poet

Traditionally, poetry is written to be spoken aloud, and heard with the inflections and emphases intended by the author.
The library now has a small but growing collection of rare archival recordings of well-known poets, recently released on CD, reading from their own works. The Voice of the Poet series includes acclaimed writers such as W. H. Auden, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, e.e. cummings, and T.S. Eliot. Each CD is an hour long, and includes a biographical and critical overview of the author, plus text of the poems, and photos.
To find these in the library's catalog, you can type in "Voice of the Poet" as a title, and see the complete list of authors included. The library will continue to add to this series as new CD's are released. To see what's currently available, please click Voice of the Poet Series