Monthly Archives: November 2019

11 25, 2019

Jeffrey Stroup is your tour guide through ‘Abandoned Cleveland’

By |2019-11-25T06:00:00-05:00November 25, 2019|

Photographer and urban explorer Jeffrey Stroup has spent the last 15 years capturing pictures of Cleveland’s abandoned factories, mansions, malls, churches, and more. He’s collected his best images in his new book, Abandoned Cleveland.

Stroup visited us earlier this month to share his photos and anecdotes from more than a decade of combing the forgotten parts of our region.

Afterward, we interviewed him and he offered advice for aspiring urban explorers and the single scariest thing that ever happened to him while investigating an abandoned building.

By the way, you can visit our YouTube channel for dozens of more interviews with authors, including bestsellers like Christina Baker Cline, Paula McLain, Karin Slaughter, and Bernie Kosar.

11 23, 2019

Major Battles of the Civil War: The Battle of Franklin

By |2019-11-23T06:00:00-05:00November 23, 2019|

The Battle of Franklin pitted two flawed generals against each other: Union General John Schofield was too pompous; Confederate General John B. Hood, too stubborn.

But when they met on the battlefield, it was Hood’s flaws that came to the fore. Scott Longert, a former park ranger from James A. Garfield National Historic Site, explains how  and why Hood and his “head of wood” ordered a charge more fatal than Pickett’s. He also tells how the Battle of Franklin spelled the end of the Army of Tennessee.

Our Civil War series continues at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at our Main Branch. We’ll discuss what Christmas was like in a Civil War camp. As always, the talk is free and open to all.

By the way, if you’re interested in Civil War history, several talks in our Civil War series can be viewed online in their entirety, including:

11 16, 2019

Freegal Christmas

By |2019-11-16T06:00:55-05:00November 16, 2019|

Download Christmas music (from Dolly Parton to Run DMC) for free with Freegal and your Mentor Public Library card.

Download Christmas music (from Dolly Parton to Run DMC) for free with Freegal and your Mentor Public Library card.

Halloween is over. Break out the Christmas music (unless you’re one of those purists who prefers to wait until after Thanksgiving. In that case, bookmark this page and we’ll see you again in four weeks.)

If you haven’t heard of Freegal, it’s one of our digital services. It lets you stream or even download DRM-free mp3s of your favorite songs. Moreover, once you download a song, you can keep the mp3 forever. Put it on your phone, your computer, your iPod–wherever you want. It’s yours.

If you have a Mentor Public Library card, you can download five songs for free every week, and there’s no limit to how many songs you can stream.

Here are 30 of our favorite Christmas and holiday albums that you can start streaming now:

1. John Legend, A Legendary Christmas

Enjoy a Christmas house party with Legend as your amiable host. Stevie Wonder and Esperanza Spalding make for excellent guests.

2. Pentatonix, Christmas Is Here!

By now, you know the routine. If you loved A Pentatonix Christmas and That’s Christmas to Methen you’ll love the newest holiday offering from everyone’s favorite a capella quintet.

3. William Shatner, Shatner Claus

Merry Kirk-mas! Our third favorite Star Trek captain* guides your through standards like “Winter Wonderland” and “Run Rudolph Run.”

4. Mariah Carey, Merry Christmas

Mandatory holiday listening, if only for “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

5. Jessie James Decker, On This Holiday

The country chanteuse gives a little twang to “Santa Baby,” “Christmas in Cabo,” and “The Christmas Song.”

6. The Piano Guys, A Family Christmas

The Piano Guys have a knack for creating music that’s catchy and innovative while still recognizable as classical.

7. Wham!, Last Christmas

Andrew Ridgely. You were just trying to remember the other guy’s name. It’s Andrew Ridgely.

8. Sarah McLachlan, The Classic Christmas Album

McLachlan already has the voice of an angel, so it feels natural to hear her sing “Silent Night,” “What Child Is This?” and other seasonal standards.

9. Superstar Christmas

The rare compilation that’s not exaggerating when it claims to contain superstars. Mariah Carey, Frank Sinatra, Cyndi Lauper, Placido Domingo, Michael Bolton, Gloria Estefan and Barbra Streisand are all on this eclectic guest list.

10. Polka Christmas

What’s a Cleveland Christmas party without a little polka?

11. Christmas Rap

With all due respect to Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis” is the most important hip-hop holiday song ever.

12. She & Him, Christmas Party

Because it’s not Christmas until Zooey Deschanel sings “A Marshmallow World.”

13. Earth, Wind & Fire, The Classic Christmas Album

Yes, they remake “September” into “December.”

14. John Denver, The Classic Christmas Album

Yes, it’s John Denver, so there’s some schmaltz, but he also sings, “Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk this Christmas.”)

15. Kelly Clarkson, Wrapped in Red

With all due respect to Shatner, Clarkson has the voice to make a new cover of Run, Run Rudolph worthwhile.

16Harry Belafonte, Christmas

Belafonte could sing about muddy slush and it would still sound great with his voice.

17. Dolly Parton, Home for Christmas

As a general rule, we love Dolly. This is doubly true during the holidays.

18. Pete Kennedy, Top Christmas Favorites

This album’s for all the people who loved Israel Kamakawiwo`ole’s version of Over the Rainbow. And, no, these standards aren’t performed by IZ, but they have that same combination of earnestness and sweetness.

19. Kirk Franklin, Christmas

If you need some gospel music this time of year, Kirk Franklin and the Family have you covered. Standards like Go Tell It on the Mountainand O Come All Ye Faithful sound sweeter than ever.

20. Harry Connick Jr., When my Heart Finds Christmas

Connick has a lot of Christmas albums in his discography. This one’s our favorite but they are all available on Freegal. Personal favorite: I Pray on Christmas.

21. NSYNC, Home for Christmas

If you bought the CD or even *gasp* the cassette when you were in middle school, here’s a chance to update your medium for free.

22. New Kids on the Block, Merry Merry Christmas

In case your taste in boy bands is a little older…

23. Glee Cast, Blue Christmas

If you don’t like Glee…

24. Elvis, The Classic Christmas Album

Freegal has the Elvis version of Blue Christmastoo.

25. Loretta Lynn, White Christmas Blue

Only Lynn could pull off a tune called “To Heck with Ole Santa Claus.”

26. The Manhattan Transfer, The Christmas Album

Any of the kids who enjoyed the Pentatonix album atop this list owe it to themselves to check out The Manhattan Transfer, who were (in many ways) the progenitor of Pentatonix’s style.

27. Johnny Cash, Classic Christmas

We love Johnny Cash, because he still scowls on the cover of his Christmas album.

28. Miranda Cosgrove, Christmas Wrapping

Not to be confused with Christmas Rap.

29. I’ll Be Home for Christmas

A short fun compilation with Meghan Trainor, Sara Bareilles, Fiona Apple, Fifth Harmony and A Great Big World giving their spin to holiday classics.

30. Wilson Phillips, Christmas in Harmony

We were going to put Wilson Phillips on this list no matter what. They just happened to also have a Christmas album.

Other Freegal playlists:

*after Picard and Sisko.

11 11, 2019

Brad Ricca talks crime, comics & Cleveland

By |2019-11-11T06:00:30-05:00November 11, 2019|

Author Brad Ricca visited us earlier this October as part of our Mentor Mystery Month. He shared with us to the incredible story of Mrs. Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation’s greatest crime fighters.

Humiston was the subject of Ricca’s book, “Mrs. Sherlock Holmes : the true story of New York’s City’s greatest female detective and the 1917 missing girl case that captivated a nation.”

After his talk, we interviewed Ricca and he:

  • discussed his conflicted relationship with the true-crime genre
  • offered his theory for why so much comics talent comes from Cleveland
  • told us his favorite X-Man characters
  • and shared how comics legend Harvey Pekar changed his life.

Visit our YouTube channel for more author interviews.

 

11 9, 2019

Light therapy lamps available to borrow from Mentor Public Library

By |2019-11-09T06:00:29-05:00November 9, 2019|

You can now borrow light-therapy lamps from Mentor Public Library.

You can now borrow light-therapy lamps from Mentor Public Library.

You can now borrow light therapy lamps from us to brighten your day.

Light therapy lamps have been used to help people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD,) which is exacerbated by a decrease in sunlight during fall and winter months. Symptoms can include depression, lack of energy and difficulty concentrating.

The lamps have a brightness control and timer to regulate the amount of light – up to 10,000 lux of white light – one receives during use. They are available to borrow at our Main Branch and can be reserved on our website.

Each lamp is available to check out for 14 days but cannot be renewed. The lamps must be picked up and returned at our Main Branch and cannot be put in the book drops. Patrons will be fined $5 for each day the lamp is kept beyond its due date.

Other items you can borrow from our Library of Things include mobile wifi hotspots, traffic cones, and ukulelesSeriously, you can borrow a ukulele from the library.

Title

Go to Top