• Starting on the Friday before our sale, please hold donations until after our Saturday and Sunday sale days.
• Books brought in before the sale may not make it onto the shelves that month. (If you wish to see them on display, plan accordingly)
• No popular magazines, no National Geographic, no Gourmet, no Sunset.... FOPAL is phasing out accepting any periodicals.

June Sale Notes

Despite our normal drop in donations in the latter part of May we did end up with more books than time to sort them this month. For June there is a wide range of subjects with a few highlights... Month two of a massive Historical Fiction collection special of Military Adventure novels is offered for sale again in June. Mostly Military Adventure novels, all in excellent condition and the perfect gift for Father's Day. Also, in this specials area look for a large offering of military mysteries, these might be more to Dad's taste. More for Father's Day includes a nice selection of books for or about Fathers and Fatherhood in our Children's Room with a small display for Dad in the Main Room too. With a large number of Classic and Modern Fiction books coming in this past month, the shelves will be brimming with twice the amount of titles available for June. This bounty of books are priced starting with $1 and up for paperbacks and $2 and up for a hardback. Ephemera abounds! Look for an exciting assortment of Ephemera in FOPAL's Unique Paper Ephemera Sale in Cubberley Room A7. In case you were wondering, Ephemera are the plural form of the Greek word ephemeron which means something that lasts only a very short time. When applied to collectibles, ephemera refer to the minor transient documents of everyday life that were intended to be used and generally expected to be discarded. For more info on what type of items are for sale check out our Facebook event page.

 
FOPAL Members Get the First Pick at Members' Early Sale

A super big FUN FESTIVE FOPAL Members' Early Sale is scheduled for Saturday, July 13th. Twice a year, FOPAL holds a Members' Early Sale, at which members of the Friends of the Palo Alto Library are admitted early to the Main Room sale. Members enjoy a less crowded Main Room and get the first crack at FOPAL's wonderful collection of materials!

Saturday, July 13th - At our Members' Early Sale, Life and Sponsor Members (each with up to one spouse or guest) may enter at 9AM and can purchase up to 100 books per membership from 9 AM to 10 AM. Other Members (and up to one spouse or guest, and minor children) enter at 10AM and are able to purchase 25 books (per adult) at a time. General admission for all including non-Members begins at 11AM. The usual limit on purchasing 12 books at a time lasts until there is no longer a line waiting to enter. Remember, you may renew your membership, or join FOPAL, on the sale day. Renew, or join now at www.fopal.org/join!

 
Children's Room- Trial Run- drop off kids' book donations during the sale

Gently used children's book donations will be accepted in our Children's Room this sale weekend. This is a trial run for FOPAL to see if our children's book room sale customers are interested in dropping off a handful of books before they shop for more. Please one (1) grocery size bag of kids' books per donor. We have limited storage for these under our cashier's table, receipts available upon request.

 
Classic and Modern Fiction

"Classics and Modern Literature have been merged into a single new category called Classic and Modern Fiction. All the books are now in alphabetical order, with Jane Austen near Margaret Atwood and Virginia Woolf next to Tom Wolfe. We have several specials this month: shelves of pristine hard-back romances and 'gentle fiction' as well as a shelf of older historical romances and a large selection of 'Miss Read' novels. There are also two displays of books published by Readers International, a well-regarded publisher of international authors 'representing the national conscience of their countries.'" -The Classic and Modern Fiction Team

 
Historical Fiction

"In Historical Fiction we have adventure and sea stories from the following authors: Kent, Cornwell, Fraser, Forester, and others." -Marian Urman

 
Unusual Paper Ephemera Sale

"There will be maps, diaries, photo and scrap albums, Theosophy tracts, counterculture memorabilia, technical and cultural magazines, Sierra Club Bulletins, vintage indentures, and an extraordinary assortment of unusual materials dating from the 1860s to the present day. In Cubberley Room A7, near the grassy Amphitheatre." -Nigel Jones

 
Philosophy

"New arrivals for June includes works by Schopenhauer, Coleridge and for the first time works by Alain Locke, David Suzuki, and Gilles Deleuze. Titles include What is Enlightenment?, Moral Differences, Great Virtues and The Emotional Plague.

"We also have eight reference books such as the Oxford Companion to Philosophy and the handy pocketbook Philosophy for Militants." -Nigel Jones

 
Humor

"Featured this month, and its first appearance, we have the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Cartoons, The Grapes of Ralph [as in Steadman], Second City with two CDs, and Saturday Night Live. Other titles include Walking to Hollywood and Mother Goose on the Loose. We have so many PG Wodehouse that we have 15 in good condition in our Main Room for sale and another 15 in slightly worn condition in our Bargain Room. As ever in the Bargain Room there is an excellent selection of cartoon books." -Nigel Jones

 
Gardening

"It's not too late to plant those veggies in plot or pot, and there's a bumper crop of books on edible gardening waiting to inform and inspire you! Winning first place for catchiest title and most intriguing notion is Lasagna Gardening: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! We've actually got two versions of this book, one especially aimed at small plots and containers. Second place goes to Edible Front Yard: The Mow-less, Grow-More Plan. On the shelf this month are also several versions of John Jeavons' best-selling classic book on biointensive gardening, How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible..., plus guides to Straw Bale Gardens and home-scale permaculture, Gaia's Garden. And for those of you who just want to replace your lawn with low-maintenance, drought-tolerant plantings, there's Reimagining the California Lawn and a mint copy of East Bay MUD's indispensable Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates." -Ann Justice

 
Sets and Antiquarian Books

"In June, we have received a large collection of wonderful old books so we have added a red cart next to the Sets bookcases with more than 50 additional titles to complement our large collection of pre-1900 books. Whether it’s the pleasure of owning a vintage book and reading it or appreciating the art of the book in terms of its cover design and illustrations they are a wonderful addition to your library.

"In terms of Sets we have the 10-volume set Four Minute Essays, Dr. Frank Crane, 1919, for $25; the four-volume set Life of Napoleon Bonaparte 1909, $25; the 12-volume set, The Works of Tobias Smollett, #642 of 1,000, 1902, $70; the three-volume set Gliblas’s Le Sage, 1936, $6; and the eight-volume set Great American Lawyers, 1907, #751 of a set of 1,000, now for $20.

"Don't forget, a set only counts as one book when you are buying within the 12-book limit.

"This month we also have a Bargain Room Special, the 20-volume Stanford Press publication, Wheat Studies." -Nigel Jones

 
Children's Room

"Just inside our door is our holiday display for June and July: books for and about fathers (Father's Day is June 16), and Fourth of July books. Our DVD shelves are full. The Religion section is always well stocked, but in addition this month there's a large selection of materials for teaching Christian Sunday school. On the Activities shelves you’ll find toys and games, many brand new and very giftable.

"School-age Fiction has lots of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries; Erin Hunter's Warriors series; a beautiful hard-cover giftable set of Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories; Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger; and Big Nate books by Lincoln Pierce. In the Fantasy and Sci-Fi section are Veronica Roth's Divergent series in a gift set, and Michael Scott's series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. The Teen section offers many John Green and Suzanne Collins books, always popular." -Carolyn Davidson

 
Teen Recommendations by Jeff Wang

Book Two of the Three-Body Trilogy: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

After the discovery that the trisolarans had placed sophons--subatomic artificial intelligence that can monitor all activities and stop advancements in technology--onto Earth, it seemed inevitable that humanity would be defeated by the alien fleet heading towards Earth. However, although all plans and actions taken by humans can be seen by the invaders, there is one thing they cannot perceive: what is going on in the human mind. Taking advantage of this fact, the United Nations places their future of humanity into four "wallfacers", who would be given all the resources needed to carry out their plans to save humanity. However, Luo Ji, one of the wallfacers, does not want to be a part of this program...

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

After escaping the bombings in London during the Second World War, the four Pevensie children are relocated into the mysterious house of an old professor. When Lucy Pevensie, the youngest of the four siblings, took a look inside an large wardrobe, she finds not only clothes inside, but also the entrance to a snow-covered world called Narnia, cursed by a spell from an evil witch to remain in eternal winter. Excited by this discovery, she goes back into the world she came from to inform her siblings, but they don’t seem to believe her...

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Although Meursault may appear to be an ordinary man in 1940s French Algeria at first glance, with a stable career and a hard-working attitude, he is anything but ordinary. When his mother died, he did not shed any tears of sadness at her funeral, and even shown signs of disrespect by smoking and drinking coffee during her vigil. However, this was not due to any sort of malice or ill-intent: he just simply did not care for anything in the world. When Meursault is approached by Raymond, an acquaintance of his, to help in taking vengeance against Raymond's ex-girlfriend, a series of events occurs that leads to murder...exposing Meursault's true nature for the world to see...and judge.

 
Movies/Entertainment

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

"We always have many movie biographies, but we are really loaded this month. Among these are Sarah Bernhardt bio and a signed bio of Bert Williams. We also have several Audrey Hepburn books.

"There are a large number of books on screen writing and other aspects of the movie craft. The film history and Hollywood shelf is also full with titles we don't often see.

"Come by and check us out." -Dick Grote

 
High Value Books and Collectibles

"FOPAL sells its highest value books online but we now have selected high value books at our monthly sales to give our patrons an opportunity to buy them, as well as unusual collectibles.

"This month's books include, the August Wilson 10-volume box set, Century Cycle, $30; Henry Miller's trilogy, The Black Spring, $70; the 20th anniversary edition of Patricia Nell Warren's classic, Front Runner, inscribed, $30; and Taschen's encyclopedic The Wood Book, $12.

"Our two birds of a feather selections are, The Beats, and the West: Cowboys and Cattle. In the Beat world, we have a spoken word CD of Jack Kerouac reading his poetry over Steve Allen's jazz piano, Rhino 1995, $15; and volume 1 of Ferlinghetti's well-worn 1955 copy of Pictures, $5. On the West we have three classics, Jesse James's Early United States Barbed Wire Patents, 1966, $20, The Bobbed Wire Bible II, 1971, $10, the comprehensive study, Talks on Manure, 1900 $30, and a glossy look at cowboy hats, $5.

"In collectibles, we have a very fine statuette of Guan Yin, the Chinese representation of the bodhisattva of compassion, $50, and finally, our oddity collectible is a 12-inch 45 rpm EP vinyl record of the Black Crowes Remedy in a unique vinyl shaped metal box, for $12." -Nigel Jones

 
Music

"Visit the Music section for books on a wide variety of musical topics in the genres of classical, rock, jazz, opera, American music, and dance.

"New this month - DownBeat - The Great Jazz Interviews: A 75th Anniversary Anthology; Help! The Beatles; Rap Attack 2; Creative Quest; Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock; The Beauty of the Burst: Gibson Sunburst Les Pauls from '58 to '60; The Heroin Diaries: Ten Year Anniversary Edition: A year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star.

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

 
Judaica

"Browse the Judaica section for books on the Jewish religion, Kabbalah, Jewish history, the Holocaust, memoirs, Israel, Jewish Women, the Jewish American Experience and other related subjects.

"New this month - State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda; The Tropical Diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba; Total Immersion: A Mikvah Anthology; Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality: A Reader; Rachel Calof's Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains; Sanctifying the Name of God.

"Most fiction with Jewish themes will be found in Classic and Modern Fiction, or Current Fiction. Books entirely in Hebrew are shelved in the European Languages section." -Charlotte Epstein

 
Religion

"June brings some old goodies:

Armitage, Preachings, 1880
Christian Science Journal, 1893 & 1899
Women of the Bible, 1856
Biblical Museum, 2 volumes, 1871
Menzies, Saints in Italy, 1924
Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, 1850
Ullathorne, Groundwork of the Christian Virtues
Milman, History of Latin Christianity, 3 volumes, 1896
Swedenborg Concordance, 6 volumes, 1888" -Nancy Cohen