Movies, readings at libraries

Public libraries are, as we can all agree, community treasures.

Long past the day where libraries offered only an array of books (and maybe the occasional bookmobile), today’s institutions are repositories not just of books but also audiobooks, magazines, DVDs and CDs, computers, events such as literary readings and children’s story times – just to mention the most obvious.

In Spokane County alone, Spokane Public Library offers six branches (plus the downtown Northwest Room), while the Spokane County Library District boasts 10 of its own.

For information about county libraries, call (509) 893-8200 or go online at www.scld.lib.wa.us. For Spokane Public, call (509) 444-5300 or see www.spokanelibrary.org.

Following are some library events that will occur during the coming weeks and months:

•Paul Newman will be the flavor of spring at Spokane Public’s downtown branch, 906 W. Main Ave. The movie star, who died Sept. 26, will be featured in a free movie series that begins Wednesday with the 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke.”

Following that will be April 8, “The Sting” (1973); May 13, “The Color of Money” (1986); and June 10, “Road to Perdition” (2002). All begin at 5:30 p.m.

•Spokane Public will host two April 18 events related to Get Lit!, Eastern Washington University’s annual literary festival.

Authors Glenda Burgess (“The Geography of Love”) and Sherry Jones (“The Jewel of Medina”) will read from their books at 10:30 a.m. at the South Hill branch, 3324 S. Perry St. Poets Samuel Green (Washington’s poet laureate) and Oliver de la Paz will read at 3 p.m. at the downtown branch.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Get Lit! online

If you haven’t been reading this column, you might not know that this year’s Get Lit! will be held April 10 through 19 in Spokane and on EWU’s Cheney campus.

And you probably don’t know that the festival has a new Web site to explore. If you go online at http://outreach.ewu.edu/ getlit/index.php, you can see a range of items, from a full calendar of events to ticket-price information.

Other Get Lit! information is available on the festival blog, which is available online at www.getlitprograms.blogspot. com.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

Book talk

•Auntie’s Morning Book Group (“This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Obsession,” by Daniel J. Levitin), 11 a.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.

•Auntie’s Evening Book Group (“The Camel Bookmobile: A Novel,” by Masha Hamilton), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Tin Pencil Writers Group, 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Tinman Gallery, 811 W. Garland Ave. Call Mallory at (509) 325-1500 to request group protocol.

•North Spokane Book Club (“Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World, One Child at a Time,” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin), 7 p.m. Wednesday, North Spokane branch, Spokane County Library District, 44 E. Hawthorne Road. Call (509) 893-8350.

•Literary Freedom Book Group (“Song of the Lark,” by Willa Cather), 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

The reader board

•Kathy J. Ward (“God’s Genes and Healing”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Samuel Ligon (“Drift and Swerve”) reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Steve James Samsel (“The Adventures of Jonny Law”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Julie Neraas (“Apprenticed to Hope: A Sourcebook for Difficult Times”), reading, 4 p.m. Saturday, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 127 E. 12th Ave. Call (509) 838-4277.