Fairfax County Public Library is trying something new this year — a county-wide, adult summer reading challenge.

In years past, various branches held individual challenges for adults, but after demand rose, the county designed a unified program, according to Mary Mulrenan, a spokesperson for FCPL.

“A small committee worked together to create a system-wide program that would provide a way for all library customers to participate,” she said.

So far, participants have turned in 1,534 logs to the library — significantly more than they originally anticipated, according to Mulrenan. “We are surveying customers and to date, 73 people have completed our survey. Out of this number, 92% have rated it excellent or very good and 95% will participate again next summer.”

Anyone interested in participating can pick up reading logs at any local FCPL branch or print them out on the website. The nearest location is the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (7584 Leesburg Pike).

To complete the challenge, participants must complete two reading logs, each consisting of a challenge to read or listen to four books and complete one other task, like trying out the library’s research database or following FCPL’s social media accounts.

Participants who return one log will be given goodies such as free snacks, discounts, fine forgiveness at the library or free entry to a Fairfax County recreation center.

Upon completion of a second log, participants will receive a drawstring bag and be entered into a drawing at the end of the summer for a canvas bag filled with a Barnes and Noble gift card, a journal and a portable beach blanket. Individual branches may offer additional prizes, according to the county library website.

Anyone interested in participating can still turn in reading logs until Aug. 31.

The library plans to offer more incentives next summer, due to this year’s high demand.

“It’s wonderful that we have exceeded that number and we still have time (one month) to gain more finishers. We also hope to encourage more businesses to sponsor coupons,” Mulrenan said.

Image via Fairfax County

“People nowadays don’t want to believe in this stuff,” Al Tyas, a retired local ghost hunter and published author, recently told Tysons Reporter. And by “stuff,” Tyas means ghosts.

Tyas recently published his second book “Project Rabbit Hole.” The book delves into how and why people have a fascination with ghosts “now more than ever before,” as Tyas put it — thanks in part to increasing pop culture references.

Originally from Rhode Island, Tyas said that he saw his first ghost when he was 7 while at an amusement park. He moved to Falls Church in 2007 and now lives in Alexandria.

After moving to the D.C. area, he joined a paranormal ghost group — “at first it was cute” — and then five years later, he branched off and made his own group, DC Metro Area Ghost Watchers.

In the height of his ghost hunting days, Tyas said he would conduct two investigations per week — everything from people claiming they were possessed to reports of strange noises or occurrences in people’s homes.

Eventually, Tyas handed off his group to another person after the experiences got “darker and darker” and he noticed his and fellow ghost hunters’ health start to decline.

What are ghosts? “Ghosts are demented, dysfunctional beings that died before their time and at the height of their lives,” he said, adding that the ghost might not even know that they are dead.

Most people think they have a ghost when they feel cold spots, hear a voice or notice that objects are missing, he said. Yet Tyas said that he approached investigations at first with skepticism, since some people claim to see ghosts for short-term fame and attention.

“Not everything people see or experience are ghosts,” he said.

This isn’t Tyas’ first time writing a book. He published “Last Call on the Potomac” — a book about D.C. area ghost stories — in 2006.

For his new book, Tyas drew on his personal experiences as a retired paranormal investigator, research and interviews for an in-depth look at the “supernatural family” — from ghosts to aliens. The paperback book costs $17 on Lulu.

Last year, Tyas headed down to New Orleans to do research on how people have interacted with supernatural beings throughout history. In his research, he noted that changes starting with the Fox sisters, who became mediums in the 1850s but later admitted to faking some parts of their seances.

“In past historical time periods, people avoided or took precautions. Now, we’re trying to make contact,” he said. “It’s getting dangerous.”

For people looking for ghosts, Tyas shared some words of warning.

“[Ghosts] always appear when you least expect them to,” Tyas said, adding that they tend to pick the weakest person to bother.

Ultimately, Tyas said that coexistence is the goal and that people should leave supernatural beings alone.

As for skeptics? “I say, ‘More power to them,'” Tyas said.

Photo via Lulu.com

As the Tysons-Pimmit Library continues its quarterly book sales, the library might get a new place to help store some of its books.

Fairfax County is looking to lease a property it owns to the Friends of Tysons-Pimmit Library, the non-profit that provides funding for the library.

“One of the primary methods for the Friends to raise this funding is to hold ongoing book sales at the library as well as much larger book marketplaces on a quarterly basis,” according to county documents.

The nonprofit plans to construct a 199-square-foot brick-faced building next to the library “to assist in their preparations for the book sales,” according to the county. The shed would store books and materials needed for the book sales.

The county’s Board of Supervisors OK’d today (Tuesday) to let residents know about a public hearing on the matter, which is set to be held on July 30 at 4 p.m.

Photo via Friends of the Tysons-Pimmit Library

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Wednesday (June 19)

• Kiki’s Delivery Service at Angelika Film Center — 7 p.m. at Angelika Film Center (2911 District Avenue) — As part of their Studio Ghibli summer festival, Angelika Film Center will be screening Kiki’s Delivery Service — the anime classic about a young witch striking out on her own — on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m. Tickets are $14.50.

 Thursday (June 20)

• The Boro Summer Kick Off — 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at The Boro — Boro Tysons is hosting a summer kick off event with food trucks, music, lawn games and “puppy therapy.”
• Summer Reading Party — 7-8 p.m. at Bards Alley (110 Church Street NW) — The Bards Alley bookstore in Vienna is hosting a summer book party with finger foods and lemonade available. Booksellers will be in attendance sharing their favorite summer reads.
• Vienna Stories Book Talk — 7:30 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) — Marie Kisner, a former public information officer for the Town of Vienna, collected newspaper stories about Vienna into a new book called “Vienna Stories 1950-2000.” Kisner is also planning a book signing at the Freeman Store on Saturday, June 22, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Friday (June 21)

• Echosmith at Tysons Corner Center — 3:30-9:30 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (1961 Chain Bridge Road) — HOT 99.5 and Tysons Corner Center are hosting a free concert with the band Echosmith. The show is scheduled to start for 6:30 p.m. but attendees are encouraged early to grab a seat.

Saturday (June 22)

• Daylily Walking Tour — 10:15-11:15 a.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court) — The Northern Virginia Daylily Society President Janice Kennedy will lead a walking tour through the gardens showing the daylily collection including a few award-winning varieties. The tour is free and those participating in the tour will have free admission.
• Georgia Peach Truck — 12 p.m. at Merrifield Garden Center (8132 Lee Highway) — The Georgia Peach Truck is planning to roll into Merrifield at noon on Saturday with beaches brought up from Georgia available to be purchased by the box. One 23-25 pound box is $45.

Sunday (June 23)

• Providence Democrats Unity and Summer Solstice Celebration — 4-7 p.m. at Nouvelle Apartments (7911 Westpark Drive) — Following a crowded Democratic primary that saw Dalia Palchik voted as the Democratic nominee for the vacant Providence District Board of Supervisors seat, Providence District Democrats are hosting a buffet and silent auction fundraiser with the nominees and the other candidates. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP early.

Photo via Meadowlark Botanical Gardens/Facebook

A new book recounts tales about the Town of Vienna from the 1950s to early 2000s.

Marie Kisner, a former public information officer for the Town of Vienna, collected and compiled newspaper stories about Vienna for her newly released book, “Vienna Stories 1950-2000.”

“It basically fell in my lap,” Kisner told Tysons Reporter. In the early 200os, the Town’s clerk office decided to give dozens of boxes of news article clippings to Kisner, who sorted through the clippings.

“I didn’t have to go back and try to find a lot of old timers and pick their brains and see if they could remember these things,” Kisner said.

Originally, Kisner said that she sorted the articles chronologically, but then decided to organize the book by recurring themes, like animals, beautification, businesses, civil rights and politics.

Many of the issues Kisner recounts Vienna residents tackling decades ago — traffic, Tysons Corner’s growing presence and development — are still relevant to locals today.

“People need to know they can’t sit back and hope — hope — that Vienna will stay Vienna,” Kisner said. “I think development has always been like issue #1.”

Kisner said that she not only wrote the book to preserve its history from the news articles, but also to remind current residents of the struggles the town has gone through to maintain its unique character.

“One of the reasons I wrote the book is so people who live in Vienna now who think, ‘Oh what a wonderful town we’ve got,’ they will realize it didn’t happen by accident,” Kisner said. “It took a lot of hard work by a lot of people to make and keep Vienna the way it is, and those same issues keep coming up.”

While Kisner does not cite throughout the book, “Acknowledgements” section includes a list of the news publications that the articles came from:

• “The Washington Post”
• “Washington Evening Star”
• “Washington Business Journal”
• “Fairfax Globe”
• “Fairfax Journal”
• “Northern Virginia Sun”
• “Sentinel”
• “Sound of Vienna”
• “Sun-Gazette”
• “Vienna Viewpoint”
• “Vienna Connection”
• “Vienna Times”
• “Vienna Advertiser”

“My thought was if I cited every single newspaper reference, the book would probably be twice as thick and it would break up the narrative too much,” she said.

Since the book is based on the articles, Kisner decided to refer to herself in the third person, saying “Right now I’m just part of the cast of characters in this book.”

Kisner, who now lives in Texas, is set to come back to Vienna for a book talk and signing next Thursday (June 20) at 7:30 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE).

She will also sign books during the Antiques and Collectibles Evaluation event at the Freeman Store (131 Church Street NE) next Saturday (June 22) from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Book lovers and history buffs can buy the book for $12.99 at the Freeman Store. All of the proceeds from the book will go to the town’s historical society.

Around 25 years ago, Sherri Routt started working at the Fair Oaks Barnes and Noble. Now, she’s helping the book store chain launch a new prototype store in the Mosaic District (2921 District Avenue).

Tomorrow (April 24), Routt’s 8,300-square-foot Barnes and Noble will open its doors to the public. The store is considerably smaller than the usual stores.

Frank Morabito, Vice President of stores for Barnes and Noble, attended a special preview event at the store and said the new slimmer size is part of a shift towards a more cafe feel for the chain rather than sprawling brick and mortar stores.

The store would feel familiar to anyone who has visited the chain’s larger locations. Though the store is smaller, a quick check on obscure fantasy and historical titles showed that the store is still considerably well stocked.

But there are other differences immediately apparent when stepping into the store. Lower bookshelves in the building offer clear views from one end of the store to the other in contrast to the more labyrinthian, library-feel of many book stores.

Routt said that staff will be roaming the store assisting visitors with product selection and allowing them to purchase books without needing to visit a cash wrap. The store will also feature a self-serve kiosk so customers can research books on their own.

But as a person who has worked in local Barnes and Nobles for years, Routt said she wanted to include a focus on local authors. Routt said she knew several from her days working in Fair Oaks, and used those connections to help put together a lineup of book signings for the grand opening.

The book store also has a children’s section with a selection for younger ages along with toys and a special activity table for children to play with LEGOs.

“This is the cleanest this playspace is ever going to be,” one parent noted as the tour group passed the LEGO table.

Routt said there are many children’s book authors in the area, so moving forward she’s hoping to organize more reading events with writers and children.

“We’re really trying to make our store feel very localized,” Routt said.

The store also features a Barnes and Noble Cafe. While many locations include Starbucks, Morabito said the Barnes and Noble Cafes are company owned and feature Starbucks coffee, but may have a slightly different selection of baked goods.

Morabito said the Mosaic District was the perfect location to open a prototype smaller store, the second in the D.C. region.

“This is the ideal model [for the Mosaic District],” Morabito said. “It’s an amazing shopping experience here and they needed a book store.”

Routt said the store opening had been an easy and streamlined process, though she’s aware there are a lot of eyes in the corporate hierarchy trained on this store opening.

“I’m super excited for the opening,” Routt said. “We’re being watched because this is a new model. So there’s a pressure there, but it’s the good kind — not a stress pressure.”

The lineup of authors signing for the grand opening include:

• April 24: Kristyn Kusek Lewis — 5 p.m.
• April 24: Ikechuku Chigewe — 5 p.m.
• April 25: Ellen Crosby — 5 p.m.
• April 26: Olivia Hinebaugh — 5 p.m.
• April 27: Kwame Alexander – 12 p.m.
• April 27: Eleanor Jones, Barb Goffman and Libby Kelin — 4 p.m.
• April 28: Barbara Carroll Roberts — 10 a.m.
• April 28: Tiffany Foo — 1 p.m.

The store will also host face painting and balloon twisting on Saturday (April 27) and Sunday (April 28).

School Board Advertises $3 Billion Budget — “The Fairfax County School Board has adopted the FY 2020 Advertised Budget of $3.0 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent, or $117.4 million, over the FY 2019 Approved Budget. The FY 2020 budget prioritizes employee compensation with a $55.2 million investment in teacher salary scales that includes a 1.0 percent market scale adjustment.” [Connection Newspapers]

Auditions for Vienna Theater — The Vienna Theatre Company is holding auditions tonight for its upcoming production of “Ripcord.” [Facebook]

Author Talk at Tysons Book Store — Bestselling fantasy novelist Larry Correia will be holding a book discussion and signing tonight at the Barnes & Noble store in Tysons. [Instagram]

Lee Highway Blocked — Updated at 9:05 a.m. — “Lee Highway is shut down in both directions at Kalmia Lee Court in Falls Church due to utility wires across the roadway. Please use an alternate route as you travel this morning.” [Twitter]

Longtime Local Firefighter Retires — “Today Master Technician George Hood from Station 13, Dunn Loring, B-Shift is serving the residents of Fairfax County one last time. He will be retiring after 34 years of dedicated service at the end of this shift.” [Facebook]

McLean Girl’s Struggle with Arthritis — “Last August, 2-year-old Reese Sheers began waking up, saying she was stuck and couldn’t move her arms. Then it started happening every two hours, and she couldn’t roll over or sit up in her crib. She would get better as the day went on, but the pain would become frequent enough that the family would seek medical help.” [Patch]

Author Signing Books in Tysons Tonight — Columnist Michael Tomasky will be signing copies of his new book “If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might Be Saved,” at the Tysons Barnes & Noble store tonight. [Instagram]

Discussion of the Gender Pay Gap — “The Women of Temple Rodef Shalom (2100 Westmoreland St., Falls Church) will be hosting a comprehensive forum titled, ‘Gender Pay Gap and You’ as a part of the fifth annual Women’s Empowerment Program on Sunday, Feb. 10.” [Falls Church News-Press]

As the days start getting colder, the Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library is inviting the public to come find a value-priced used book with which to curl up at home.

Starting on Friday, Nov. 30, the Friends of the Tysons-Pimmet Regional Library will be hosting its quarterly book sale. The sale will run through Sunday.

According to Janella Blanchard, President of the Friends of Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library, the book sale will fill one large room of the library and a smaller side room will be set aside exclusively for children’s books. In addition to books, the sale will have used CDs and DVDs for sale.

Throughout most of the weekend sale, non-fiction hardcovers are $3 and paperbacks are $2. Fiction hardcovers are $2 and paperbacks are $1. For mass-market, smaller paperback books they are five for $1.

Timing at the sale can be crucial because while Blanchard said enthusiasts often show up early in the weekend to browse the widest selection of books, on Sunday the sale offers a special discount: $10 for a bag full of books.

“We generally have enough that people come in on Sunday and find lots that they’re happy with,” said Blanchard. “I often hear people [on Sunday] say ‘wow, I’m surprised you still have this.'”

Blanchard said the books sold are all donated to the sale rather than books sold from the library stock. Sale proceeds go towards supporting the library programs since the library itself cannot fundraise. These include ESL programs, children’s programs, a scholarship fund and more.

“We do things for the library like buying materials and paying for programs the library sponsors,” said Blanchard. “We also do things with books that don’t sell, like we donate them to schools or to prisons or homeless shelters. We don’t just throw them away.”

If you’d rather add to the book sale, donations can be placed in the donation bin near the circulation desk during library hours.

Photo via Friends of the Tysons-Pimmit Library

(Updated at 8 a.m.) To the casual viewer, Pimmit Hills is a sleepy subdivision just southeast of Tysons quickly being overshadowed by its neighbor. But Pimmit Hills is a neighborhood with a surprising depth of history and one that played a central role in much of the region’s development.

In her new book, “Participation, Community and Public Policy in a Virginia Suburb“, Patricia Donahue, a policy fellow at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, follows the neighborhood across sixty years of history.

On Nov. 10, the book was awarded the Ross Netherton Prize, a $1000 prize awarded for a work covering local history.

Donahue said the book started almost ten years ago when she was researching public policy impacts on small neighborhoods.

“I looked for a community in Northern Virginia that I thought was typical of a middle-income community in the post-war era,” said Donahue. “I thought it would be a simple case study, but it just kept unfolding into one fascinating story after another. It really told the story of suburbia in one community.”

Pimmit Hills was built as a subdivision in the 1950s for veterans of World War II and the Korean War. Though today it is dwarfed by nearby development, when it was first built it was the largest subdivision in Fairfax County by far; four or five times larger than any of the others.

When it was first built, the neighborhood was surrounded by farms and fields, but today it’s completely surrounded by highways and development. Donahue compared it to real estate holdouts in major cities.

Donahue said it was fascinating to follow the same community, and often same families, through the turbulent latter half of the 20th century through today.

“So much happened there,” said Donahue. “They dealt with desegregation, [growing] infrastructure, the baby boom… they were part of Fairfax transforming from a rural community into an urban one.”

Donahue said she stumbled on various extreme viewpoints from people who were essentially neighbors. The topic of segregation was one that had bitterly divided the community.

“There were people who supported massive resistance to desegregation, with residents who were very comfortable using language we find tough,” said Donahue. “But at the same time, in the same community, there were three ministers who made a public statement six months after the Montgomery bus boycott saying they totally rejected segregation and they wouldn’t let their churches support it. In one community, it’s a whole range of views. People risking their careers and people who were like ‘there’s no way we’re going to let this happen.'”

Beyond just segregation, Donahue said there were some horrific crimes throughout the neighborhood’s history as well. During the 1960s, Pimmit Hills was a pseudo-headquarters for The Pagans, a notorious motorcycle gang. In 1970, members of The Pagans kidnapped rival gang members, tortured them in Arlington, then murdered them in the forest near Pimmit Hills.

Pimmit Hills also played a surprising role in regional and national history. Donahue said Charles Lewis, one of the early presidents of the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association, was a researcher on the first American exploration of Antarctica. Frances Lanahan, a journalist and daughter of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, once wrote a profile of the neighborhood.

But one of the most notable moments for Pimmit Hills was in the early 1950s when Fairfax County signed up to be one of the first large-scale tests for Jonas Salk’s new polio vaccine. After gossip columnist Walter Winchell alleged that the polio vaccine would end up killing children, Donahue said many other communities yielded to concerns and pulled out of the tests. But given the high mortality rate of polio in Fairfax, Donahue said the county was the only community to stay in the program.

“Imagine the courage of those families who agreed when no one else would to have their children immunized,” said Donahue. “Second graders in Pimmit Hills were among the first in the nation to get the vaccine.”

Whether the neighborhood can survive with new development pressures all around it remains in question. Donahue says she believes the neighborhood will continue to adapt and continue to survive.

“Like a lot of communities, they struggled with ‘hey, do we want development on our doorstep?'” said Donahue. “That’s still a struggle. Will they survive? I think they’re part of the change. If you drive through Pimmit Hills, every fourth or fifth house is a rebuild. They are changing it. I think they are not going to be bystanders in this change. They are going to be active agents in shaping that change.”

The book, which is intended for an academic audience, is currently listed at $89.98 on Amazon.