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The Friends of the LaGrange Memorial Library are sponsoring two major events in December.

The “MEGA” sale of books, CDs and DVDs will take place at the LaGrange Memorial Library from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m on Saturday. A wide range of materials will be offered at reasonable prices. All of the proceeds from this sale will directly benefit the library.

Author Bonnie Bartel Latino will be featured at the LaGrange Memorial Library from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday in the library’s Fackler Room.

Latino, an Alabama native, is a former freelance columnist for “Stars and Stripes” in Europe and was a military wife for 30 years. Prior to becoming an Air Force spouse, she attended Mississippi University for Women in Columbus where she double-majored in journalism and speech.

Latino’s “Your Gift to Me,” her debut novel which she co-authored with New Jersey author Bob Vale, recently won a 2012 Gold Medal Award from the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA).

According to Latino, “Your Gift to Me” shares the same subtle, but central, theme of the transformative powers of love and laughter to triumph over grief found in “Top Gun” and “Steel Magnolias.”

Although the genre is Military Super Romance, it crosses over into inspirational, fictional self-help, and Southern fiction. The novel has recently received two excellent reviews from The “Tampa Tribune” (http://bit.ly/PxvG9Z) and the “Midwest Book Review” (http://tinyurl.com/9a9fvj8). The novel has 101 reviews on Amazon — with a five star average.

Since 2004, Latino has been a correspondent reviewer for the “Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register” book page. Her stories and articles have also been published in “Military Times” newspapers and in numerous other publications in America and Europe.

Latino has previously won two other national writing awards from MWSA, including the 2011 William E. Mayer Award for Literary Excellence and the 2009 People’s Choice Award for flash fiction.

She lives in of Atmore, Alabama, with her husband, retired Air Force Col. Tom Latino.

A reception and book signing will follow the program.