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On Saturday, October 6 the Bookstock Festival will be held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. This event encourages reading for all ages and gives local and aspiring authors a platform to showcase their work. Event coordinators plan to make this year's Bookstock the most festive it has ever been! There will be children's activities, music, food, and more.

About 50 authors will be showcased this year and only one session will be held (10:30 am-4:00 pm) to allot attendees ample time to meet authors and participate in the various activities held all over the library.

Thanks to the support of the Friends of the Library and the Memphis Library Foundation for assistance in booking more well-known authors and provide services for those in attendance while Junior League is providing volunteers.

Save the date – October 6th Bookstock, where book lovers rock!

Bookstock Activities:

10:00am - 12:30pm

Teen Writing Workshop (Humanities Dept. 2nd Floor)

10:30am - 11:30am

All About Memphis (Memphis Room 4th Floor)

Want to know who is who in Memphis? Come meet our fiction and nonfiction writers whose books feature truth or tales about Memphis.

11:00am - 12:00pm

Award-winning author Alice Faye Duncan will read and lead an activity for children, in the Children's Department

Storytime Room, and will sign her newest book, The Delta Blues: A Coloring Book.

12:00pm - 1:00pm

Author Barry Wolverton will read from his book Neversink in Children's Department Storytime Room. Stay for the Q & A with this first time author whose book is receiving critical acclaim.

11:15am - 12:00pm

Need a motivational boost? Be inspired and invigorated as author Candace Spicer shares a message on how to be professionally and personally fulfilled. (Conference Room A)

12:00pm - 12:40pm

What's Love Got to Do with It? Panel discussion by Romance authors. (Conference Room A)

11:30am - 12:00am

Local cookbook authors Paul and Angela Knipple will make corn salsa and discuss the origin of other recipes from their book World in a Skillet. (L-56)

11:30am - 2:30pm

Memphis Food Trucks-Memphis Munchies and Stickem (Library parking lot)

12:00pm - 12:30pm

Sushi making demonstration with Marisa Baggett, author of Sushi Secrets. (L-56)

11:30am - 12:30pm

Live Music by Stereo Joe (Front of Library)

1:30pm - 2:30pm

12:45pm-1:00pm

Congressman Steve Cohen will speak on the importance of literacy and love of reading.

1:00pm - 1:30pm

Keynote speaker Kristen Iversen (Conference Rooms A - C)

Ms. Iversen will discuss A Passion for Story: From Book Idea to Finished Manuscript and her book Full Body Burden: Growing Up In The Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats.

1:30pm - 2:00pm

Book signing

1:00 - 2:00pm

Art for Life's Sake (Children's Department Storytime Room) Dr. Hattie Isen will bring her young music scholars for a poetry and spoken word performance.

2:00pm- 3:00pm

Magic Mr. Nick (Children's Department Storytime Room) Magic Mr. Nick, author of Magic Tricks You Too Can Do, will astonish all with his magic , and speak to children about reading, writing, and publishing

2:00pm - 2:30pm

Cooking Demo by B.J. Chester Tamayo from Alcenia's (L-56)

2:30pm - 3:15pm

Come Experience the Ultimate Makeover! Learn practical tips on how to enhance your outer beauty with Megan Mottley. (Conference Room A)

3:15pm - 4:00pm

Join Charlie Lambert for some Oscar film trivia from his book Capturing The Reel World. (Conference Room A)

1:00pm-2:00pm

Get a behind-the-scenes look at national teen magazine, Justine

2:00pm -4:00pm

Make Your Own Teen Zine (Humanities Dept. 2nd Floor)

3:00pm - 4:00pm

Performance artist Patty Carreras (Children's Department Storytime Room) Nationally renowned performer Patty Carreras is sure to delight with her presentation of Anansi Stories. Be prepared for participatory fun as she brings the trickster to life!

Ongoing:

10:00am - 4:30pm

Author's Scavenger Hunt. Complete the questions, get authors signature and enter drawing great prizes! Purchase and have your book signed by authors.

10:00am - 2:00pm

Create a Book- Children's Department (write/ draw/ bind a book to keep!)

10:00 - 4:00pm

Make a rubbing from the public art sculpture at the library entrance

10:00am - 3:30pm

Mural Making (Children's Courtyard)

10:30am - 12:30pm

Balloon Artist (Children's Courtyard)

12:30pm - 2:30pm

Face Painting - (Children's Courtyard)

Memphis, TN - Baptist Women’s Hospital will present a series of Health and Wellness talks to be held at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library starting in August. The four-part series will cover popular topics including nutrition, medicine, breast cancer and diabetes. Top experts from Baptist Memorial HealthCare Corporation’s staff will lead the interactive presentations that are free and open to the public.

The series is part of BMHCC’s support of the Library’s Health Information Center. The consumer health library contains more than 15,000 books, periodical, video tapes and DVDs for research and circulation by library customers. It is the most comprehensive consumer health library in the Mid-South and has been recognized both regionally and nationally.

Topics and dates for the series are

Tuesday, August 14, 6:30 pm

Queen Cox – Navigating the Grocery Store and Dispelling Myths on Food Labels

Healthy snacks will be provided at this kick-off event for the series

Tuesday, September 11, 6:00 pm

John Bridges - Drug Information: Of Course It’s True; I Got it Off the Internet!

Tuesday, October 16, 6:00 pm

Beth Turner – Breast Cancer Risks, Facts and Treatment

Program includes giveaways and the chance to sign up for a mobile mammography visit

Tuesday, November 13, 6:00 pm

Charlotte Cavin – Diagnosed with Diabetes: What now? Symptoms, Facts and Lifestyle Changes

Free blood pressure checks will be provided as a part of this program.

"We are pleased to partner with Baptist Women’s Hospital to offer these free events to the public,” said Keenon McCloy, Director of Libraries. “This series will allow library customers to hear the latest information on disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment in a fun and informal setting."

With temperatures soaring into the high nineties and the heat index feeling as though the temperature is higher, people are looking for ways to stay cool. At Cherokee Branch Library, customers learned how to make a favorite treat with plastic bags, rock salt, vanilla extract, and some ice cubes.

Ms. Queen Edwards with the Cooperative Extension Program taught participants how to make ice cream with a choice of vanilla or chocolate. In making the ice cream, she demonstrated how the process really can take about five minutes. The children, teens, and adults who participated were posed with questions such as “where does vanilla come from?”

So, how do you make this ice cream? Not sure whether to give away the secret, but it involves two separate plastic zip lock bags, some sugar, some half and half, some vanilla extract, some rock salt, and some ice cubes. Exact measurements weren’t exactly used because Ms. Edwards was all too familiar with the making of the ice cream and free handedly used her ingredients. She did tell all of the willing ice cream making participants that the sugar can be substituted for honey or an artificial sweetener.

Once the ingredients were combined, they were not placed in a freezer to await the mixture to solidify. No – the eager ice cream eaters shook the mixture on top of ice cubes inside of a plastic bag wrapped in newspaper for about five minutes and voila – ice cream was made! It was suggested that while making the ice cream music can be played to which ice cream chefs could do a little jig to help the time pass.

As spoons were passed out, the smiles appeared as the children (and adults) prepared to eat their treat.

The beauty of making what Ms. Edwards introduced as “Ice Cream in a Bag” is the ease of clean up. Once the ice cream is gone, just discard the newspaper and put your ingredients away.

Adult Career and Information Fair is an event for ages 18+. Central Library Meeting Rooms A-C and Gallery, Tuesday, July 17, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Hero2Hired kiosk will be on hand to assist returning military.

This event may be recorded or photographed for use by the Memphis Public Library & Information Center for media, social media, broadcast, and/or print purposes.

For more information, call (901)415-2700.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division has announced a Weather-Related Reconnection Program for Residential Customers. For full details visit MLGW's web page.

See Also...

For more ways to take precautions against extreme heat visit the Extreme Heat Emergency page prepared by LINC.

MLGW, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Memphis Public Library & Information Center are hosting Get EnergySmart @ Your Library workshops.

For more ways to beat the heat in Memphis visit the City of Memphis Beat the Heat web page.