Don’t let homework get you down this year. East Baton Rouge Parish Library has your One-Stop-Shop for homework help — the Literati database. Not only can one find information on any topic — he can also search other databases without having to leave Literati. Need info on Shakespeare? No problem. Search Shakespeare in Literati. Get lots of articles from great reference books. Need more information? Click on one of the literature or biography databases listed to the right of the Literati results and the search is automatically run in the new database. This method will also work with the library catalog (listed), so one can get articles and books without having to jump all over the place. Starting with Literati makes homework research quicker and easier than ever before.

Come to the Bluebonnet Regional Branch, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd., for two informative webinars on genealogy research. At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, the webinar “Sidestep Genealogy” will be offered. This webinar focuses on researching alternative individuals, records and places to sidestep inevitable research blocks. At 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, the webinar “Bring ’Em Back to Life” will focus on tips to create a biographical profile. For more information, call (225) 763-2283.

In honor of Bad Poetry Day (which is officially Saturday, Aug. 18), library staff will read poetry excerpts from Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein, Someone Used my Toothbrush and Other Bathroom Poems by Carol Shields, and Monster Goose by Judy Sierra at the Carver branch, 720 Terrace St., at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16. Using a magnetic easel, children ages 6-11 will compose “magnetic poetry” of their own. For more information or to register, call (225) 389-7460.

The Jones Creek Regional branch, 6222 Jones Creek Road, will host a panel discussion by local professionals on The Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder, 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14. For more information, call (225) 756-1180.

Book clubs:

•  Baker Monday Morning Book Club will meet at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 13, at Baker branch, 3501 Groom Road. Members will discuss Lemon Meringue Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke.
•  Bluebonnet Book Club will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Bluebonnet Regional branch, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd. Members will discuss Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.
•  Mystery Lovers Book Club will meet at noon Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Main Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd. Members will discuss mysteries set in Oxford/Cambridge, England.

Ascension Parish Library

Ascension Parish Library is hosting a six-week series of readings and discussions titled “The American West in Fact and Fiction” as their annual Readings in Literature and Culture (RELIC) series sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and funded by the library.

“The American West in Fact and Fiction” meets 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays starting Tuesday, Sept. 11, and concluding on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the library’s Main branch, 708 S. Irma Blvd. in Gonzales. Readers who are interested in committing to the program must register in advance, either in person or by calling the library at (225) 647-3955. Every reader receives a set of program books to check out, so onet must have a current library card or apply for one. Registration is limited and begins Monday, Aug. 13.

Dr. Charles Elliott, assistant director of Southeast Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University, leads discussions on four novels: The Brave Cowboy by Edward Abbey, Fools Crow by James Welch, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West by Patricia Nelson Limerick, and Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey. A review of the novels will place them in relationship to each other and suggest major themes that readers will consider in the program.

“The American West in Fact and Fiction” offers several perspectives on the region as a means of raising questions about the West’s symbolic significance in the American mind and about the problems of its history. The powerful image of the cowboy and the entire genre of the “Western,” the experience of the Native Americans, and the modern West as a society will be explored through literature and analyzed with historical materials.

W. Feliciana Parish Library

Friends Of The West Feliciana Parish Library will meet at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 13, at the library, 11865 Ferdinand St. in St. Francisville.

Boy’s Lego Club will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at the library, 11865 Ferdinand St. in St. Francisville.

Lafayette Public Library

Lafayette Genealogical Society will meet 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, at the South Regional branch, 6101 Johnston St. in Lafayette. Each meeting features a guest speaker. Anyone interested in genealogy may attendSciFi/Fantasy Book Club

Book club:

•  SciFi/Fantasy Book Club will meet 6:30-7:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, at South Regional branch, 6101 Johnston St. in Lafayette.

Members will discuss My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland.

Signings

Kiini Ibura Salaam, author of Ancient, Ancient, will sign copies of her book at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 13, at Octavia Books, 513 Octavia St. in New Orleans.

Kiini Ibura Salaam, author of Ancient, Ancient, will join Moira Crone, author of The Not Yet, in a joint signing 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, at Maple Street Book Shop at The Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude Ave. in New Orleans.

Daniel Wolff, author of Fight For Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back, will sign copies of his book 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, at Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St. in New Orleans.

Jennifer Barnes Maggio, author of Overwhelmed, will sign copies of her book at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17, at HPC Single Moms Kick-Off Party, Healing Place Church, 19202 Highland Road.

Melva Dye, author of All That Remains, will sign copies of her book 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at Barnes Noble Perkins Rowe, 7707 Bluebonnet Blvd #100.

Items for Book Events were provided by East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Ascension Parish Library, West Feliciana Parish Library and Lafayette Public Library.