News

11 11, 2019

Brad Ricca talks crime, comics & Cleveland

By admin|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 admin|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 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 ukuleles. Seriously, you can borrow a ukulele from the library.

11 7, 2019

Legal & financial planning advice for families affected by Alzheimer’s & dementia

By admin|2019-11-07T06:00:43-05:00November 7, 2019|

Christina M. Bushnell and Dawn E. McFadden of McFadden Bushnell LLC visited us recently to provide guidance for families that may be affected by Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia – which is all families, really.

They discussed legal and financial plans families should make that can help them if they are affected by dementia. We’ve filmed their talk, so we can share it with all of you. Learn about trusts, documents you may want drafted or updated, the differences between Medicaid and Medicare, and more.

Of course, estate law can differ from state to state, and every family circumstance is unique. When in doubt, you should consult a legal professional.

We hosted this program with support from the Alzheimer’s Association.

By the way, if you’re looking to draft a legal document, Mentor Public Library offers a database with different legal-form templates that you can view or even download for free. It’s called the Legal Forms Library, and it’s one of the dozens of databases that we offer access to for free.

There are thousands of form templates for all types of topics: divorce, bankruptcy, power of attorney, name changes, wills, estates and more. (So you know, you’ll need to click through to the Legal Forms Library from the Mentor Public Library site for these hyperlinks to work.) And you can view, download or edit all these templates for free. There are also completed samples that you can view as a PDF or Microsoft Word file. This can give you an idea what your finished form should look like.

For more information, you can visit the FAQ section of the Legal Forms website.

11 6, 2019

Author Jane Ann Turzillo talks true crime, ‘Wicked Women’ & westerns

By admin|2019-11-06T06:00:06-05:00November 6, 2019|

Jane Ann Turzillo visited our library in October as part of our Mentor Mystery Month.

After her program, we chatted with Turzillo about how she researches historic crimes, what motivates her “wicked women,” and her love of photography and westerns.

Turzillo has written several books about Ohio’s criminal past, including Wicked Women of Northeast Ohio, Murder and Mayhem on Ohio’s Rails, and Unsolved Murders & Disappearances in Northeast Ohio. You can borrow these and more of her books from our library.

By the way, you can see interviews with more of our Mystery month authors, including James Badal, D.M. Pulley, Vivien Chien, and Brad Ricca on our YouTube channel.

10 15, 2019

James Badal & Mark W. Stone on the Cleveland Torso Murders

By admin|2019-10-15T06:00:01-04:00October 15, 2019|

This month, we were fortunate to host two of the preeminent experts on the Cleveland Torso Murders. Those experts are:

James Badal, author of “In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland’s Torso Murders,” the definitive investigation into the identity of the never-apprehended murderer.
Mark Stone, Emmy-winning director of the documentary, “The Fourteenth Victim: Eliot Ness and the Torso Murders.”

They were kind enough to let us film their talk at our library, so we could share it with those who could not attend that evening. Watch and learn about this grisly crime spree, including who Badal and Stone think the Torso Slayer is.

Warning: This video includes several graphic crime-scene photos and may be upsetting to some people.

By the way, this talk was part of our Month of Mystery. Throughout October, some of the best mystery and true-crime authors will be speaking at the library, including:

Brad Ricca, author of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, the phenomenal true story of Grace Humiston, the first woman U.S. District Attorney, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17.
Jane Ann Turzillo, who will take us on a tour of the murderers, tricksters, train robbers, and more in Ohio’s wicked past at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

All of these author visits are open to all, free to attend, and require registration. Additionally, they’re all hosted at our Main Branch.

During our Mystery Month, you can also:

Explore the secrets of the Lizzie Borden murders, the sinking of the Titanic and more with professional magician Jim Kleefeld on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at our Main Branch.

We also have mystery programs for all ages and at all of our branches, so visit our event calendar to see which intrigue you.

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