In honor of National Library Week — April 13-19 — some libraries in our lower Hudson Valley will be excusing library fines for overdue materials. Just bring them back and all will be forgotten at most libraries. This doesn’t go for damaged or lost materials, though. Not every library is doing this, but many are — and it is a good way to get the library materials back where they belong, no questions asked.

I know it is happening at Mount Kisco’s library, whose staff sent along a release saying “Please return your overdue itmes and we’ll delete those fines.”

Also, libraries are encouraging book purchases and have something to gain with each cash register jingle.

For those shopping at Barnes & Noble during National Library Week
customers can present a voucher when making a purchase at participating Barnes & Noble stores and 10% of your purchase will go to area libraries. This was touted on Web sites of Brewster Public Library and Patterson Public Library — to participate all you have to do is go to the library’s Web site and download a voucher before you shop.

And there are other Library Week celebrations. In Chappaqua, residents who come in may pick up a free coupon for ice cream compliments of the nearby Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store.

Yummy!

Just in time for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to New York, here are some suggestions of what to read to get yourself in the know and to be prepared. These recommendations come from our esteemed religion reporter Gary Stern, who is getting ready for the papal visit and our coverage of the event. He is the author of “Can God Intervene? How Religion Explains Natural Disasters” (Greenwood Publishing, 2007) and has covered religion for a decade.

Here’s what Stern offers:

“Jesus of Nazareth,” by Pope Benedict XVI (Doubleday, 2007). The pope gets down to the basics. Some of it will be a bit academic for newcomers to theological prose, but much of it is a clear and direct examination of who Jesus was—from a leading Catholic theologian of the age.

“The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World” by David Gibson (HarperOne, 2006). A precise and well-written introduction to Benedict’s life and thought, as well as his early days as pope. It’s a great place to start for those who have been curious about that Ratzinger fellow.

“101 Questions & Answers on Popes and the Papacy” by Christopher M. Bellitto (Paulist Press, 2008): This brand new book is a smart yet understandable guide to the history, meaning and influence of the papacy. It will answer many of the questions that pope watchers have been asking themselves for years. (And Gary talked about this book on his own blog, Blogging Religiously just yesterday.)

“A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America” by Peter Steinfels (Simon & Schuster, hardcover 2003, paperback 2004). Written in the aftermath of the sex-abuse crisis, this book remains a timely and fresh look (things change very slowly in the Catholic world) at the myriad challenges facing the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Happy reading — and thanks Gary!

A complete set of all seven Harry Potter books — signed by the author, no less — will be available to a lucky auction winner this summer. This news topped the front page on a great Pottery Website called WizardNews.

The goal of the auction is to raise money for the National Literary Trust in Britain. Also — and this is hard to grasp — it is meant to “enhance the appreciation of J.K. Rowling’s novels as works of literature in her home country,” according to a release today.

Accio UK announced today that J.K. Rowling has indeed passed along a copy of each of seven adult edition Harry Potter books and has autographed them as well. The first six books will be auctioned off at a July 2008 Accio conference for academics and adult Potter fans in Oxford, England. The winner of the seventh book will be chosen by a raffle ticket. The proceeds will go to the British National Literacy Trust.

(Photo from Scholastic.com/Photo Credit JP Masclet)

The Nyack Library is co-sponsoring an African American Author Symposium and Book Fair this week featuring book discussions, readings and a book fair.

Here is what is going on:

FRIDAY:

•4 p.m.—Best-selling Tamara Hayle mystery series author Valerie Wilson Wesley will read in the Nyack Library’s Children’s Room. She will be reading from her children’s book series Willimena Rules! The library is at 59 South Broadway.

•6:30 to 9 p.m. —Shamika Mitchell, a professor at Rockland Community College, will host a discussion with Wesley about her latest best-seller “Of Blood & Sorrow” at the First Reformed Church of Nyack, 18 South Broadway (corner of Burd St. and Broadway), There will be free soul food samples from Topps Southern Cuisine in Spring Valley.

SATURDAY

•10 a.m to 5 p.m.—Book Fair at the Nyack Library, co-sponsored with Barnes & Noble of Nanuet.

•3 – 5 p.m.—Panel discussion, Divas and Gentlemen: Success and the Hip-Hop Generation with Janine A. Morris, “Diva Diaries, She’s No Angel”; Sil Lai Abrams, “No More Drama”; and Mickey Hess, “Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music and Culture.”

All events are free and open to everyone!

In today’s edition, reporter Emily Kratzer has written about author Debby Applegate who won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.” In the book she talks about Beecher’s farm in Peekskill.

Applegate spent 20 years researching and writing this book and Kratzer tells us a lot about the project and Applegate.

Check it out.

It’s springtime and for me that means school-run book fairs. There are lots around and they offer neat ways to buy some books and help a local school — you see the parents run these fairs and get a percentage from the sales to use towards some school project.

In Brewster where this week there is a book fair at C.V. Starr Intermediate School, I hear the big seller was a bit unexpected. It was “Swindle,” by Gordon Korman — about a boy who inherits a box of stuff from grandfather and inside is a $1 million baseball card. Someone cons him out this valuable card and the story focuses on how main character Griffin Bing works to get that card back. Both boys and girls have been buying up this book in such numbers that those in charge of the Brewster book fair kept running out and had to place emergency orders with Scholastic Book Fairs to replenish the supply.

For those who loved the book, catch a video interview with the author at Scholastic Books’ Web site where he talks about his own time in seventh grade.

Another big seller at the book fair has been “Dairy of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney. The print books are based on the online versions. Book one, “Dairy” was a bestseller followed this February by “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules.” The third book, subtitled “The Last Straw,” is expected this year.

Happy reading and happy weekend.

Mary Reath governor of the Anglican Centre in Rome, and editor of “Public Lives, Private Prayers,” will be speaking this Wednesday in Garrison about unity between Anglican and Roman Catholics.

Her talk is at 7:30 p.m at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center of Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. She will have copies of her recently published book, “Rome and Canterbury: The Elusive Search for Unity” available for purchase at Graymoor’s gift shop and will sign them for those who wish. The book is published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The talk is free and open to the public.

Graymoor is on Route 9 in Garrison. The Center has provided retreat and conference programs for over 35 years and is a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, a Roman Catholic group.

Ex-publisher Carll Tucker has written a book, “The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Finding America, Finding Myself” chronicling his cross country travels in 2002-03 to the gravesites of past presidents and some vice presidents. He has described some of the monuments as aging ones while saying others are inspiring.

Reporter Robert Marchant wrote about the 340-page book and Tucker today in The Journal News so check out his story and find out why Tucker embarked on this journey.

The book was published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers based in New Rochelle.

Tucker will be signing and reading from his book from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow in Mount Kisco at the Borders Book Store, 162 E. Main St.