If you cannot attend the book sale, please drop by the Friends Bookstore located inside the Mitchell Park Library, Downtown Library, and Rinconada Library, and open during library hours. They are restocked regularly with a unique selection of books for all ages and interests.

 
Suggestions?

What's Special for October 2015?

To say our donation volume has been steady would be an understatement. Here's a big THANK YOU to all who have donated material for our sales! We still have quite a backlog and expect to have strong sales all through the winter months.... Speaking of which, you'll find Fall Holidays books, music, and more in the bookcases just outside the office (opposite Travel). We will restock this area with new material through December. Military History has a strong selection of offering and a special on the Civil War; look for these books in an entire specials bay next to the Philosophy section. Vintage Treasures return to the Main Room look for these great "old books" near Audiobooks and Humor. After a couple of slow months, the New Age section has a lot of new material.... For October the Bargain Room has its shelves all filled up. Look for a special selection of "Eastern Religion" books, a new section of music CDs and all new LPs! A huge donation of paperback fiction came in late in the month; a bit will make to the shelves this month but look for the bulk in the Bargain Room in November. Remember to check the Tent Sale for great books from almost every section priced at $1.00 and, there will be lots more next month too.... These are just a few highlights; all of the shelves are full!

 
Members Annual Meeting for 2015

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Time: 11:00 AM
Place: Mitchell Park Branch, Midtown Room
Agenda: Election of 2016 Board members and officers; annual financial summary from the Treasurer; other business from the members.

"Please join us at our annual meeting on October 14 at the Mitchell Park library branch. The feature presentation will be a talk by Jenny Jordan, the Library's Youth Services Manager, on the library programs that FOPAL has funded, including the Library's Summer Reading Program. Jenny's talk will be followed by a discussion of how FOPAL and the Palo Alto Library work together to decide on FOPAL grants to the Library. The floor will then be open to you, the embers, to give us your thoughts on what you think FOPAL is doing well, and how its operations might be improved. We look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting." -Peter Dehlinger, President

 
Preview Our Shelves

Check out some of the thousands of books that will be on sale this weekend using our shelf preview photos.

 
History

"History is once again brimming with wonderful books this month in all categories. Our Asia section is especially good with so many interesting books about Japan we could only put part of them out this month. We also have our usual extensive collection of books about China as well as an excellent selection of books on India. Historical Fiction also has more novels than usual set in Japan. If you enjoyed the recent PBS series Poldark we have almost all the books in the series." -Suzanne Little, History & Historical Fiction

 
Health Section

"Two very recent best-sellers deserve attention. The Golden Holocaust: The Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition is a highly recommended, "powerful indictment of the world's deadliest industry." Pulitzer Prize winning Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital, is "an elaborately researched chronicle of life, death, and the choices in between at a New Orleans hospital immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Both books are in brand-new condition at a fraction of their cover and Amazon-used prices."

On Monday of this week, Governor Brown signed the End of Life Option Act into law. Despite some peoples' and groups' concerns, Californians overwhelmingly supported the rights of all persons facing painful, terminal illnesses to choose how and when to end their lives. On our shelves is a large collection discussing the pros and cons of this measure. Our chronic disease section features new arrivals on Parkinson's Disease and thyroid disorders. Also, come and see a series of beautiful (and encyclopedic) books on many aspects of old and contemporary Chinese Medicine; very expensive books at very low FOPAL prices." -Verne Rice

 
Judaica

"Browse the Judaica section for books on the Jewish religion, literature, Jewish history, the Holocaust, Israel and other related subjects.

New this month - A Bride for One Night; Hebrewspeak: An Insider's Guide to the Way Jews Think; The Jewish Image in American Film; The Blessing of Broken Heart; Carnal Israel: Reading Sex in Talmudic Culture; What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany; Maus I and Maus II; The Last Jews In Berlin; God's Gold: The Quest for the Lost Temple Treasure of Jerusalem" -Charlotte Epstein

 
Philosophy for October 2015

"New arrivals in Philosophy are to be found both on the top shelves of the right hand bookcase and within the subject area of specific philosophers. We have a rich assortment of new arrivals in October including Retreat from Commitment by Bartley (signed), Connected Knowledge by Cromer, The Columbia History of Western Philosophy, and books on Leibniz, Ricoeur, and Spinoza, including With Reason, his biography by Gullen-Whur. Additional titles include: Strategies of Argument, Living Philosophers, and the three volume set Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, and Jowett's box set, Plato.

We are continuing our section of Philosophy as it relates to perception, mind and consciousness and these are to be found on the fourth shelf of the right hand bookcase. Two interesting and unusual books are an illustrated copy of Erasmus's In Praise of Folly and Bachelard's Poetics of Space. Don't forget the Bargain Room where even more Philosophy books are to be found." -Nigel Jones

 
Psychology / Self-help

"We have some great, currently popular books, especially in the spiritual subsection, including: Buddha's Brain, Rick Hansen: Mindfulness for Beginners (+CD), John Kabit-Zinn and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook (+CD), Stahl. Or consider Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, Giulio Tonon. To help get you on the path to higher creativity, we have six copies of the popular classic, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron, only $2 each (it is $6 with shipping on Amazon)! Gather together some friends to meet regularly and play with your creativity together. Take some time for yourself and browse the whole section- there's lots more there." -With Joy, Marnie

 
Humor October 2015

"In October Humor shrinks down to one bookcase but increases the number of new and recent arrivals. New arrivals from the brilliant New Yorker include The 75th Anniversary Cartoon Collection, The Book of Dogs, and The Book of Wine. Others in large format are, from the Monty Python crew both Autobiography, All the Worlds, volumes 1 and 2, and The Meaning of Life, also Spy: The Funny Years, Life magazine's Laughs Last and a hardback collection of the number one British satirical magazine, Private Eye.

Not to be missed: Mad Magazine, About the 60s, What If? (A collection of scientific questions and humorous answers), and from Ireland's greatest humorist (so said James Joyce), Flann O'Brian, The Third Policeman.

Make sure to check out the Bargain Room which has the largest selection of humor so far this year and look through the large collections of cartoons." -Nigel Jones

 
Music for October

"As usual we offer books on a wide variety of musical topics such as classical, rock, jazz, world music, and dance. New this month: Chopin's Funeral; Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyonce; The Grammar of Rock; The Gospel of Hip Hop; The Triumph of Vulgarity; Doo-Wop: The Forgotten Third of Rock 'N Roll; Heavy Metal Islam; Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper; A Long Strange Trip; Balanchine Technique

Also come and browse our wide selection of sheet music neatly sorted by instruments including violin, piano, trumpet and guitar." -Charlotte Epstein

 
Young Adult Fiction

This new section can be found in the Main Room's fiction corner and contains literature traditionally written for ages ranging from sixteen years to the early twenties. The subject matter and story lines of Young Adult literature are typically consistent with the age and experience of the main character, but Young Adult literature spans the spectrum of fiction genres. Young Adult stories that focus on the specific challenges of youth are sometimes referred to as problem novels or coming-of-age novels. Look for a selection of books from all of the above.

 
Teen reviews by Tristan Wang

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

"It is the cusp of the Great War, and all the European nations are arming up. The Germans have their Clankers -- steam-powered war machines fashioned from steel and brass. On the other side, the English Darwinists employ Beasties -- vicious, genetically fabricated animals-of-prey.

Amidst the chaos and destruction are our two main characters. Aleksander, the Austrian Prince of Hohenberg, is on the run from his own people. With his throne snatched from him, he flees for his life aboard a mechanical walking tank. Deryn Sharp, a Scottish commoner and aeronaut, is a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. Fondling the urge to fight for her cause, she must protect her secret -- at all costs.

Our unlikely duo is thrown together aboard the Leviathan -- a Darwinist airship and the most formidable war-beast in the skies of Europe. Their worlds far apart, they are ardent enemies with nothing in common -- yet somehow share a tethered fate."

The City of Ember by Jean DuPrau

Following a devastating apocalyptic war, the Builders dedicated themselves to the preservation of the human race. Their solution was the construction of Ember: an underground settlement illuminated solely and entirely by artificial light. Having written instructions for returning to the surface, the Builders sealed the papers in a safe-box, to be revealed and implemented after exactly 200 years, when Ember's power generator will expire. But the instructions were lost, buried, and forgotten.

Years later, 12-year-old Lina Mayfleet has just been assigned the job of messenger at her graduation ceremony. Shortly after, Lina discovers a mysterious box hidden in her closet. Driven by curious determination, Lina and her friend Doon decide to investigate its jumbled contents.... But time is running out for the people of Ember. The generator is dwindling, the food supplies are waning -- and the life-preserving lights have begun to flicker.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

"Jerry Renault, high school freshman, has yet to recover from his mother's recent death. Confused and depressed, he finds himself at Trinity High School, a brutal environment overrun with bullying and intimidation. Upon arrival, Jerry is already labeled as vulnerable and targeted by the Vigils, a secret society of vicious, power-scheming pranksters.

Shortly after, Jerry is threatened by the Vigils into accepting his first "assignment": he must refuse to sell chocolates for the first ten days of the school's annual fund-raiser. Jerry succumbs to the request at first, but under the overwhelming pressure, his timidity transforms into utter contempt. In a defiant rage, Jerry continues to refuse the chocolates after the ten days, challenging both the influence of the Vigils and Brother Leon, the imperious headmaster.

As the outrageous act progresses into an all-out war, only one question remains: who will prevail?"