• If possible, please hold large donations until after our Saturday and Sunday Sale Days.
• Books brought in a day or two before the sale may not make it onto the shelves that month. (If you wish to see them on display, plan accordingly)
• We're crowded. Please limit your Sale Day donations to a bag or two of books.
• No popular magazines, no National Geographic, no Gourmet, no Sunset.... FOPAL is phasing out accepting any periodicals.

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?

Members Early Sale Set for July 8th

The FOPAL Board of Directors has set a date for the bi-annual Members Early sale for Saturday, July 8th. If you're a member of the Friends of the Palo Alto Library, you'll be able to get into the Main Room early at the July 8th sale. As a sign of appreciation for the generosity of all our members, we have increased your benefits!

Enjoy a less crowded main book room and get first crack at our wonderful collection of materials. Life Members and Sponsors are allowed to shop the sale at 9-10am and can purchase up to 100 books. 10-11am all members at all levels can shop the sale and purchase 25 books at a time.

Tickets for early arrivers are handled differently at the Members Early sale. Tickets given out are for the 9am and 10am lines at the Main Room, since most people who come early are members of the Friends. Each Member will get just one ticket although members at and above the $30 levels may bring in their families, consisting of one or two adults and children. No tickets will be given out for the general public 11am line.

You may renew your membership, or join FOPAL, that day. Renew, or join now at www.fopal.org/join!

 
June Sale Notes

Despite a drop in donations in the latter part of May (which is normal for us), we did end up with more books than time to sort them this month. There was a wide range of subjects with a few highlights.... Look for a massive Sports & Transportation collection being offered for sale this month, with a terrific Father's Day Special on Classic Cars located next to the check-out line, near the DVDs. And...lots of other books in the respective section and Bargain Room. The Poetry Special is featured again this month with some generous mark downs. As a result of another large donation last month we are offering a Bollingen Books special filling one bay in the specials area. The Children's Room is also full to brim, look for a few special displays of pop-up & flap books as well as math class room manipulators, like algebra tiles and pattern blocks. For the June sale the Children's Room has it all! Also...the section managers for Ephemera report having a large number of items, in nearly new condition for the June sale!

 
Bollingen Series for sale in June

"Our June sale includes a significant number of volumes published by the Bollingen Foundation. While Bollingen is best known for its publication in English of Jung's writings, 20 volumes in all, and the Wilhelm translation of the I Ching, in fact the series, readily identified by its logo, ended up including about 250 volumes in all, with important works on art, poetry, Western & Eastern philosophy & religion by many important writers & thinkers of the post WWII period. It is these other publications we are featuring in our June sale. The Bollingen Foundation, named for Jung's country home in Switzerland, was established in 1945 and funded by Paul & Mary Mellon. The Mellon family also provided funds & a core collection to establish our National Gallery of Art.

"The Bollingen series was published by Pantheon Books until 1967, and thereafter by Princeton University Press. Many of the early publications have long been out of print. In my 15 years volunteering with FOPAL, most of the titles in the June sale have never shown up in donations before. This is a rare opportunity to see so many at one time, in one place, to be able to browse & purchase at affordable prices." -Gerry Masteller

 
Classic & Modern Lit

"20 volume set of Thomas Hardy's works. 1905, hard bound, reduced to $75.00. 17 volumes of a set of Balzac novels, small size - 6.5 x 4 in., leather, feels very good to hold. Published by Little Brown, Boston during 1890s and 1900s, each volume is one novel, sold separately for $2.00 each. World's 100 Best Short Stories, hardbound, 6 x 4 in., published by Funk & Wagnall Co. 1905. Each volume is about 150 pages, and is labelled as Love, Drama, Men, Women, etc., sold separately for $2.00 each.

"On the top shelves on the Modern Lit side are featured books by Dos Passos, hardbound, reduced to $1.00 each volume. Also groups of books by Faulkner, Graham Greene, Kafka, Barbara Pym, and Steinbeck are here. A first edition of Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham from 1915, was retrieved from the recycle, in very poor condition, it is offered as is, for $2.00. A new section, Judaica Fiction, is on the top shelf, just around the corner from the Judaica section. Authors featured are Aleichem, Asch, Singer, Wiesel, and Yehoshua." -Laverne Bornschlegel

 
June Nature Section

"Did you know that June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month? Kitten season is in full swing - The Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) has a website full of pictures that will melt your heart. For all cat lovers, ready to adopt or not, the Nature Section has a large display of cat books this month: The Cat Who Cried For Help, Dewey's Nine Lives, The Personality of the Cat, The Perfect Kitten, etc. We are also featuring a dozen books by prolific popular science author Stephen Jay Gould. The Nature section has over a thousand carefully selected books and all proceeds go to local libraries." -Karen D.

 
Psychology / Self Help June 2017

"As many of you know, Self Help has two bays of labeled sub-sections on specific subjects like: Happiness, Love, Emotions, Difficult emotions and Disorders, the Brain/Mind, Addiction, Relationship and Inspiration/Spiritual. We have a good selection on Autism this month if that interests you. Hot off the press (2017) is Becoming Whole by Kehr about healing emotional distress. Other recent books include: Designing Your Life, a popular book by Stanford professors; Presence, by Cuddy about bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges; Abundance Now by Nichols on achieving prosperity and Harvard Business Reviews book 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence. So stop on by and browse, and enjoy Great Books for a Great Price." -Marnie Shuey

 
Philosophy for June 2017

"New arrivals for June include Falling in Love with Wisdom, Plato to the Googleplex, The Illusion of Conscious Will, The Examined Life, Out of Step, Neither Brain nor Ghost, Thinking Through Technology, The Making of a Philosopher and the excellent Audi Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Don't forget the Bargain Room: there was not enough shelf space in the Main Room for all the books received and there are excellent books to be found there as well." -Nigel Jones

 
Science section

"The Science section is again packed with a lot of great books. This month we have an especially large selection of books on robotics, math, and several the McGraw-Hill "black" electronics texts. As always we have shelves full of popular science books around the corner next to Philosophy and throughout the section.

"Our usual marked shelves (roughly from the main aisle down towards the corner are): popular science, popular math, advanced math, college math, calculus, geometry/algebra, chemistry, biology/genetics, physics, electronics, hobby electronics, geology, geography, mechanical and civil engineering, aeronautics and the space program, cosmology, practical engineering and science, history of science and technology, biography, Einstein, astronomy, cosmology, and general science writing. Additionally, there will be three $1 carts filled with very nice science/technology textbooks. We always suggest that folks look for science books in the Bargain Room. Because we get so many wonderful donations in our section, we never have room for everything in the main book sale room." -Edwin El-Kareh

 
Movies/Entertainment

"The Movies/Entertainment section is in the north/west corner of the book room. It is always easy to find because the African Queen is hanging overhead.

"Again this month we have a nice collection of books. For example we also have a large number of books on Hollywood and the history of cinema and on television. In the section you will find (roughly from left to right in the section): modern culture, film writing, craft and movie business, TV, guides, large format, signed books, foreign film, film commentary and theory, Hollywood and film history, director's corner, choice biographies/memoirs, film tie-ins and scripts, and media and media studies." -Dick Grote

 
June Humor

"In June, we have 6 different versions of the New Yorker cartoons including The Complete New Yorker Cartoons with DVDs, as well as Outrageous Pogo, and Peanuts The Golden Celebration. Other titles include, Chuck Jones, Chuck Reducks; Bucher, 100 Days of Monsters, Esquire Interview's The Meaning of Life, Amy Sedaris's Simple Times, The Book of Humorous Anecdotes, and if you still have a VHS player, The Complete Fawlty Towers. The most unusual book of the month for sure is Don McNeill's Breakfast Club 1950 Yearbook. Make sure to check out the Bargain Room for Humor and look through the large collection of books and cartoons." -Nigel Jones

 
Art Section

"There were many, new arrivals of very special art books. Here are some of the highlights:

"Chartwell Books volume I and II Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, this set exquisitely chronicles both artists and includes color plates and artist sketches. Metropolitan Seminar Collection, which includes 12 portfolios of Realism, Expressionism, Abstract, Fresco, and Watercolor. The collection includes several, individual prints per volume. The set is a beautiful collection of various artists. Masterpiece Paintings from Museum of Fine Arts Boston includes 125 superb western paintings. Beasts Book One is a fantasy book of hidden beasts based upon cryptozoology characters. Leonardo: Codices and Machines is a summary of Leonardo Da Vinci inventions with related diagrams. Jackson Pollock is a chronicle of the artist's work and life, wonderful book. The Air Combat Paintings of Robert Taylor includes great paintings of World War II aircrafts in battle. Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist is a how to book for sketching action heroes with great detail." -Andrea Lozano

 
Sets for June 2017

"In June, we have received a variety old single volumes and sets and partial sets. We have an undated illustrated Rabelais two volume set for $10, a 1972 two volume box set, The Family Mark Twain, for $5, and the four volume 2003 set The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics for $20. We also have 15 volumes from the very fine publisher Lakeside Press for $2 each. Still available are The Works of Thomas Hardy, 12 volumes, no date, circa 1900?, $30; and The Complete Works of Captain John Smith, 3 volume box set, 1986, $25.

"We have quite a range of older individual volumes selected for their content and decorative qualities. More sets will be found in their subject areas such as History in aisle 11 and Fiction in aisle 15 with even more sets are in the Bargain Room. Don't forget, a set counts as only one book when you are buying within the 12 book limit." -Nigel Jones

 
Teen Reviews by Tristan Wang

Hoot by Carl Hiassen

Moving is all too mundane for Roy Eberhardt. A new arrival in a Florida suburb, he is quick to make the acquaintance of a menacing middle-school bully -- as well as two oddball friends. But a riveting experience unfolds as Roy joins an effort to sabotage the construction of a local Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House, which, if allowed to proceed, will exact an unseen yet terrible cost on some natural residents.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

All his life Charlie's been a wallflower, sitting back and observing as life unfolds around him. Despite his constantly struggling with relationships, however, Charlie manages to befriend senior outcasts Patrick and his stepsister Sam, who support his individuality. Yet soon Charlie finds himself struggling with emotional setbacks and repressed memories from his troubled past. Will he retreat to the confines of reclusion once more, or will he take charge of his own life?

Robota by Orson Scott Card and Doug Chiang

On the planet of Orpheus, a Victorian human civilization is visited by the Olm, who gifted them with the technology to create robots of labor, sparking a golden age. But after centuries of mismanagement, the Orpheans have reverted to a pre-industrial existence, at the mercy of both warlike androids and dangerous chimerical beasts that now roam the planet. At the end of the age, a human named Caps awakes with no memory of his own past, but holds a vision of the world as it once was.