Book Briefs

Pre-festival events for this year's Vegas Valley Book Festival begin Saturday with a children's bookmaking celebration in the downtown Cultural Corridor. Events are free with regular museum admission. Children can craft Harry Potter-inspired laboratory notebooks at 11 a.m. and take in Tony Daniel's Harry Potter Magic Show at 12:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 384-3466.

Young author/artists can learn about bookmaking and binding from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lied Discovery Children's Museum, 833 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 382-5437. Artist-in-residence Bobbie Ann Howell and museum staff members will direct participants as they create books capturing a visit to "Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home."

Work with staff members to create a personalized book of thanks filled with letters in honor of members of the military from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park, 500 E. Washington Ave., 486-3511.

Readers 5 to 12 are invited to meet with local children's book authors Doug DuCharme, Sid Goodman, Denise Ashurst and Jackie Yoxen from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Library, 833 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 507-3514. There is no charge for library admission.

For more information about the Vegas Valley Book Festival, set for Nov. 3-6, and other pre-festival events, visit vegasvalleybookfestival.org.

Detective's book launch set for Friday

A public launch of Chris Baughman's book, "Off the Street," is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Downtown Cocktail Room, 111 Las Vegas Blvd. South. The book, an in-depth look at Baughman's experiences as a detective for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Pandering Investigation Team, is set to be released Thursday . For more information, visit chrisbaughman.com.

Inspire Your Muse at workshop

The Nevada Society Of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators plans to host a one-day boot camp titled "Autumn Fire: Inspiring Your Muse" from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at the Las Vegas Day School, 3275 Red Rock St. Advance registration received by Sept. 7 is $90 for society members and $115 for others. Registration at the door is $100 for members and $125 for others. For more information, visit nevadascbwi.org, email ellenhopkins
@charter.net or call 290-3190.

Parenting author to sign books

Ron Mackey is scheduled to sign copies of his book "Parenting: The Bottom Line" at 1 p.m. Sunday at the 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd. Barnes & Noble.

Senior Memoir workshops start soon

Life Stories Nevada, a University of Nevada Cooperative Extension program designed to help seniors 50 or older record their memoirs, is sponsoring free four-week memoir workshops in Henderson.

The Heritage Park Senior Facility at 300 S. Racetrack Road plans to host a workshop from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Thursdays through Sept. 22. The facility can be reached at
267-2950.

Sun City MacDonald Ranch plans to host a workshop from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Fridays Oct. 7-28 in its clubhouse at 2020 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway. The facility can be reached at 270-7000.

To register, call either location or the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension at 940-5423.

For more information about the program, visit lifestoriesnevada.org.

Learn about UFO myths and conspiracies at event

John Alexander and George Knapp plan to discuss UFO history and Alexander's book "UFO: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities" from 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road.

Lecture series schedule released

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, University Forum Lecture Series event schedule is online at liberalarts.unlv.edu/calendar.html. Highlights of the free series include "Emerald Isle Escapade: A Literary Jaunt of Ireland," scheduled for
7:30 p.m. Oct. 26, and "Dylan Thomas at Age Nineteen: A One-Man Play," scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15. Most of the lectures are hosted by the Barrick Museum on the 4505 S. Maryland Parkway campus.

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.

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.

Share poems at Human Experience

Polish up a poem or two and try them out live 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 or to view the events online as they happen, visit lasvegaspoets.org.

Access recorded Book programs online through library district

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.

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 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.

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, on the first, third and occasional fifth Mondays.

Visit hendersonwritersgroup.com for more details.

Meetings are open to the public.

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.

Book lovers can sign up now for updates on events leading up to the Vegas Valley Book Festival at vegas
valleybookfestival.org.

Prefestival highlights include Uncensored Voices: Celebrating Literary Freedom, a reading featuring authors and community leaders reading banned literary works scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Clark County Library, and Readings in the Pumpkin Patch, a children's book event set from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 8 at Gilcrease Orchard.

The full festival is scheduled to kick off with a keynote presentation by "World War Z" author Max Brooks at 7 p.m. Nov. 3, at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, and conclude with a reading by "A Thousand Acres" author Jane Smiley at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 5, at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St.

The festival is expected to bring in more than 100 authors for panel discussions, readings, exhibitions and more. Most events are free. Highlights include the Children's Book Festival, the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival and "Feasting on Words: The Literature and Food Fair" featuring Rick Moonen and other chefs and cookbook authors.

Panels are set to focus on fiction about Las Vegas and the history of women in the casino workforce. Free writing workshops will cover topics such as poetry, memoir, science fiction/fantasy and travel writing.

For updates, visit the website or call 229-5431.

BOOK CLUB focuses
on BUSINESS GENRE

Henderson Libraries is hosting a business book club.

Its next book is slated to be "Business from the Heart" by local architect and author Craig Galati from 6 to 7:15 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Green Valley Library, 2797 N. Green Valley Parkway.

Galati is expected to attend and answer questions.

For more information, visit mypubliclibrary.com.

ALIANTE LIBRARY BOOK CLUB MEETING SCHEDULED FOR Today

The Aliante Library Book Club is scheduled to meet today to discuss author Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief."

For more information, visit cityofnorthlasvegas.com or call
839-2980.

Friends of North Las Vegas
Library District to meet

The Friends of the North Las Vegas Library District is planning a meeting at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 17 at the Aliante Library, 2400 W. Deer Springs Way. Those interested in becoming a member or wanting to share your ideas are welcome. For more information, contact the North Las Vegas Library District at 633-1070.