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Our shelves are blooming with fresh new reads.

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

Spring is definitely here and just like our gardens, our shelves are blooming with fresh new reads!

During the French occupation of Mexico, the Luna sisters are sent to London for their safety, but the swirling skirts of the ballrooms mask the swirling storm of politics and danger that surround Ana María in the swoony romance "Ana María and The Fox" by Liana de la Rosa.

When new music by the late, great composer Frederick Delaney is found in his papers, researchers Hendricks and Eboni discover most of Delaney’s work was stolen from a jazz musician, a secret some will go to great lengths to ensure stays buried in "Symphony of Secrets" by Brendan Slocumb.

Calling all cooks and history buffs—by recreating recipes from ancient Rome to Ming China and medieval Europe—YouTube personality Max Miller explores the history and culture through the lens of food in "Tasting History: Explore the Past in 4,000 Years of Recipes (a cookbook)."

While a sightseeing trip to a nebula won’t happen this summer, astronomer Philip Plait imagines a future world where it could and gives us a science-filled travel guide to the cosmos in "Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe."

For middle grade readers, Jordan and his friends from Riverdale Academy Day School are back and navigating complicated friendships and next steps as well as a foreign country in "School Trip" by Jerry Craft. Don’t miss seeing Jerry Craft in person at Central Library on April 27 at 6 p.m.

Teen readers will be fascinated by the story of a Viking warrior mummy found in 1878, and how over a century later scientists discovered the presumed male warrior was actually female. In "Bones of Birka: Unraveling the Mystery of a Female Viking Warrior," C.M. Surrisi explores research bias and Viking history.

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Exhibition: “Power in the Public” at Shirlington Library

On National Public Television Day (Apr. 7), the public is invited to an opening reception and community celebration of the newly opened exhibition, "Power in the Public: The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Campbell," at Shirlington Library.  The exhibition is presented in partnership with WETA.  

Join us on Fri., Apr. 7, 1-3 p.m., for a reception with light refreshments and crafts for children. A community scavenger hunt will be announced along with the “unveiling” of the desk of Elizabeth Campbell. All are welcome! 

Power in the Public: The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Campbell
Opening reception and "unveiling" of the Elizabeth Campbell desk.
Fri., Apr. 7, 1-3 p.m.
Shirlington Library 

RSVP
Photo of Elizabeth Campbell sitting at her desk. Photo credit: Chad Evans Wyatt.
Photo of Elizabeth Campbell sitting at her desk. Photo credit: Chad Evans Wyatt.

The exhibition includes materials from WETA and the Center for Local History (CLH) which collects, preserves and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. The CLH collection includes documents, photos and publications pertaining to Campbell’s work and life.

Learn about the legacy and life of Elizabeth Campbell: a trailblazer who fought for public education; a woman entrepreneur who was recruited by publisher Willard Kiplinger to head the Greater Washington Educational Television Association (GWETA) and activist who, together with her husband, joined in the struggle to desegregate Virginia’s public schools. 

About National Public Television Day: 
National Public Television Day (Apr. 7) commemorates the day in 1927 when the AT&T company first transmitted a successful long-distance public broadcast of television. 

About WETA:
Founded in 1961, WETA is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital and serves the community with educational initiatives and high-quality programming on television, radio and digital platforms. 

Exhibition: “Arlington Volunteers” at Central Library

In April, join us for the opening reception, a wet plate photography demonstration and a shadowgram sunprinting workshop at Central Library with acclaimed photographer Mac Cosgrove-Davies.

Cosgrove-Davies employed the historic wet plate collodion (or tintype) photography technique to create unique portraits featuring scores of Arlington volunteers. Representing over 30 local organizations and causes, this exhibition spotlights the experiences of dedicated community volunteers.

The exhibition will be on display during open hours at Central Library, April 1 - May 31.

This exhibition is supported in part by Arlington County through Arlington Cultural Affairs, a division of Arlington Economic Development, and the Arlington Commission for the Arts.

About the Exhibition

Photography and volunteering have been two longstanding interests of photographer Mac Cosgrove-Davies, and it was from the intersection of the two that the "Arlington Volunteers" project emerged.

Conceived as a way to honor Arlington’s many volunteers and volunteer organizations, and to introduce others to volunteer opportunities, Cosgrove-Davies sought to depict participants in their chosen volunteer activity and environment.

From April to December 2022, Cosgrove-Davies conducted over 30 photo shoots across the County.

The resulting more than 135 photo plates, of which 35 are on display at Central Library, are the culmination of the desire and passion of people to help others and to improve our local community — a manifest to Arlington’s outstanding volunteer spirit.

The Process

Although commonly known as tintypes, the images in this exhibition were made on sheet aluminum using the wet plate collodion photographic process.

All photos were taken outdoors since this process responds to blue and ultraviolet light. Anything that moved during the multi-second exposures is blurred or invisible.

The process starts with coating the plate with the collodion mixture. Once coated, the plates must be sensitized exposed and processed before they dry which is why the process is called wet plate. This requires a portable darktent which the photographer brings to each photo shoot.

About the Artist

For more than half a century, Mac Cosgrove-Davies has used photography to express his view of the world.

Cosgrove-Davies began this photographic conversation producing black and white photographs in a darkroom at age 12. In college, an independent study in historic photographic processes revealed their creative potential.

Cosgrove-Davies has been using gum bichromate, cyanotype, oil and carbon printing to produce striking, unique images for more than 40 years.

His 2021 foray into the wet plate collodion process at the Maine Media Workshops became the starting point for the Arlington Volunteers project.

Cosgrove-Davies currently teaches a variety of hand-made photo processes at Photoworks, Glen Echo Park.

He has exhibited nationally and is represented in public collections, including the Library of Congress, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art and others.

New March Releases

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

The vultures are literally circling the house in T. Kingfisher’s new Southern Gothic infused horror novel, "A House With Good Bones." If you ever wondered how Princess Mia Thermopolis Renaldi led Genovia, as well as her family and friends, through the early days of the COVID pandemic, be sure to check out "The Quarantine Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot.

Maggie Bullock knits fashion, business, and cultural history together in "The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J. Crew." When a local midwife supplies arsenic to the wives of abusive husbands, she creates a murder ring with possibly over a hundred victims in "The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring" by Patti McCracken.

At the peak of Malaysia’s COVID lockdowns, Hamra enters the jungle and sets off on an epic quest to restore a weretiger’s humanity in the middle grade title "Hamra and the Jungle of Memories" by Hanna Alkaf.

Alisha Rai’s teen debut, "While You Were Dreaming" nods to the movie "While You Were Sleeping" when Sonia Patil saves the life of her crush while in full costume at a local Comic Con.

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More Book Lists To Explore

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this recent fiction list by Irish authors.

Recent Irish Fiction

March is Women's History Month.

Explore Women in Hollywood and Televison

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New February Releases

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

The fourth (and final) installment of Peter McLean’s War for the Rose Crown series, "Priest of Crowns," sees Tomas Piety trying to come to grips with the man he has become and the things he’s done in this page-turning dark fantasy. On a lighter front, professional dancer Gina and Alaskan outdoor man Stone must deal with their growing attraction to each other while competing on a reality dance show competition in Alexis Daria’s award-winning "Take the Lead."

Lamya H’s uplifting memoir, "Hijab Butch Blues," explores her faith, immigration, Islamophobia and building a community of queer Muslims while envisioning a better world. Explore how the appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1910 led to a hysteria of misleading headlines, bad science, and wild speculations in "Comet Madness" by Richard J Goodrich.

Middle grade readers will love "Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind" by Misa Sugiura, a Japanese folklore and Shinto inspired epic fantasy quest.

Teen readers will be creeped out by the gothic haunted-house horror of "She is a Haunting" by Trang Thanh Tran.

Place Your Holds Now!

More Book Lists To Explore

Check out these recent releases from African-American authors that have gotten rave reviews!

Best Recent Black Fiction

You’re in for a thrilling night with these romantic suspense reads.

Love In Danger

Amina Luqman-Dawson Wins Two Prestigious National Awards

First Woman to Win Both the John Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Book Award

On January 30, the American Library Association (ALA) awarded Arlington-based author Amina Luqman-Dawson the John Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award for her novel “Freewater.”

The Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children.” The Coretta Scott King Book Award recognizes an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.

ALA announced the top books, digital media, videos, and audiobooks for children and young adults—including the Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery, and Printz awards—at ALA’s 2023 LibLearnX conference in New Orleans.

“We are beyond happy for Amina Luqman-Dawson and her extraordinary achievement,” said Library Director Diane Kresh. “Freewater" is an important story and deserves to be read by every middle school student.”

Set in the Great Dismal Swamp, “Freewater” is a middle-grade novel about a secret community of formerly enslaved people. “Freewater” is published by JIMMY Patterson/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Luqman-Dawson is the first woman to win both the John Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Several female authors have received the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award in the same year including Renee Watson for “Piecing Me Together” (2018), Jacqueline Woodson for “Brown Girl Dreaming” (2015), Rita Williams-Garcia for “P.S. Be Eleven” (2014) and “One Crazy Summer” (2011). The Honor books are those that were not the first place of the year but deserve honorable mention.

Angela Johnson won the Coretta Scott King Award and the Printz for “The First Part Last” (2004).

“On the eve of Black History Month, congratulations to our talented Arlington author. Thank you for sharing your voice,” said Kresh.

Arlington Public Library Director Diane Kresh with local author Amina Luqman-Dawson.

Local author Amina Luqman-Dawson and Library Director Diane Kresh during a Juneteenth program hosted by Arlington Public Library on June 22, 2022.  

Digital Subscription of “The Economist” Discontinued

Effective February 1, the online format of the newspaper “The Economist” will no longer be available digitally through Arlington Public Library’s OverDrive digital magazines. All editions, including back issues, of “The Economist” will be removed from OverDrive. The last issue available for patrons to borrow will be January 28, 2023. 

The removal is a result of newly required lending model changes by “The Economist” that are not compatible with how magazines are available in OverDrive/Libby. 

The print edition of “The Economist” is currently available at Aurora Hills, Central, Shirlington and Westover Libraries. Starting this spring, print subscriptions will be available at Columbia Pike, Cherrydale and Glencarlyn Libraries. 

“The Economist” is available in text-only format through the free “Business Insights Essentials.” The Gale database encompasses all articles from 1988 to the present and includes the current issue. 

The Library offers similar publications and newspapers, such as “Bloomberg Businessweek” and “Forbes,” through its free Flipster, PressReader and OverDrive services.

New January Releases

Get Your Hands On These New And Upcoming Titles

Fiction readers will be drawn to the story of Geeta — a woman who didn’t kill her husband, but everyone thinks she did, so other women in troubled marriages start turning to her for help in "The Bandit Queens" by Parini Shroff. An all-Black town in Alabama is divided over calls for integration in 1957 in Jamila Minnicks’ award-winning debut, "Moonrise Over New Jessup."

Nonfiction readers will be captivated by the story of Ana Montes, one of the most dangerous American spies, who recently finished her prison sentence. Jim Popkin details her story in "Code Name Blue Wren." Explore the Chinese diaspora and the role of food by following Cheuk Kwan’s journey to interview workers at Chinese restaurants from Canada to Kenya in "Have You Eaten Yet?"

Younger readers will be excited to learn about animation pioneer Lottie Reiniger in the picture book biography, "Cut!" by C.E. Winters and illustrated by Matt Schu.

For teen readers, Crystal Simone Smith’s "Dark Testament" uses visually arresting blackout poetry to explore resistance against erasure in her poems about Black lives lost to violence.

Place Your Holds Now!

More Book Lists To Explore

Looking for something to pick up while waiting for your hold on "Spare" or after you’ve finished reading it? Check out these books!

Read-Alikes for "Spare"

Two Laser Cutters, Twice the Power

The Glowforge laser cutters can etch and cut multiple materials easily, including acrylic, leather, paper, rubber and wood.

For 2023, The Shop now offers twice the availability for our Glowforge laser cutters.

Our makerspace is equipped with the Glowforge "Basic" and "Plus" laser cutters which provide the same size cutting area and “superhero powers” so you can easily design and create your own masterpieces.

With the additional equipment, The Shop can accommodate more shop time and reservation availability to artisans and makers.

Both laser cutters can be used to make personalized gifts, enhance your next art project, boost your crafty merchandise store and experiment with laser engraving and cutting.

To use the Glowforge laser cutters, you must take the certification class. Once you are certified, reserve up to two hours per day at The Shop.

Don’t delay your next project! Reserve today, get to know other makers, exchange artist ideas and make things.

Reserve Now






















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