As a kickoff to Linebaugh Library’s Winter Reading Program, award-winning Southern author Sharyn McCrumb will speak and sign books at Linebaugh Library from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29.

This event is free and open to the public.

Ms. McCrumb’s most recent novels are The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, part of her Appalachian “Ballad” series, and Faster Pastor, a comic racing novel co-authored by NASCAR driver Adam Edwards. Copies of these and McCrumb’s earlier books will be available for purchase. McCrumb’s appearance is sponsored by the Friends of Linebaugh Library.

McCrumb will also participate in a Friends of Linebaugh Library membership luncheon, 12-2 p.m. Jan. 29 at The Woman’s Club, 221 E. College St.

Friends members can attend for $10, which includes lunch. Non-members can pay $30 to attend, which includes the cost of becoming a Friends member and lunch. Advance reservations are required. Reservations may be made at Linebaugh Library.

Payment is required at the time the reservation is made; reservations are non-refundable.

McCrumb was named a “Virginia Woman of History” in 2008 for Achievement in Literature.

She is best known for her “Ballad” novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains, including the New York Times bestsellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket. In The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, the newest book in the series, a young woman in 1935 is on trial for the murder of her father, and a young journalist sets to find out the truth.

Among her other books is St. Dale, a sort of Canterbury Tales in a NASCAR setting, in which ordinary people on a pilgrimage in honor of racing legend Dale Earnhardt find a miracle. St. Dale won a 2006 Library of Virginia Award, as well as the AWA Book of the Year Award. Ms. McCrumb lives and writes near Roanoke, Va.

The eighth annual Resolve to Read Winter Reading Program runs Jan. 18 through Feb. 26. Designed for adults and teenagers, the Winter Reading Program rewards participants for the books they read.

Linebaugh Public Library is located at 105 W. Vine St. in Murfreesboro. For more information, call 615-893-4131 or visit www.linebaugh.org.