Library News

The Library want you to know that it's been 10 years since the new Mitchell Park Library opened and they're celebrating on November 16.

And! The Library will be closed on Monday November 14 for Veterans Day, and again on Thursday November 28 and Friday November 29 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

You could find out about these sorts of things in a slightly more timely manner by subscribing to the Library's mailing list. Like us, they send one or two messages per month, more usually one.

You can find out about other things they want you to know from the Palo Alto City Library Blogs page. Or you can subscribe to them with an RSS reader.

-Frank McConnell

 
What's special for November '24?

Music continues to offer amazing books in every subsection, history, composition...our Music loving donors were generous again this November bringing in books, CDs and vinyl too. Speaking of vinyl, look for FOPAL's select Music vinyl sale box in the Main Room next to the CDs. From the Classic Fiction section, you'll find a bounty of seasonal reads that are priced to sell! At these low prices, you could buy several. From FOPAL back stock, look for a substantial donation in Modern Fiction. This section is well-stocked and now includes Romance books which can be found in light-reads.

Fopal volunteer Rita V. has been working hard to bring out all the seasonal Fall/Winter Holidays books and DVDs we've been collecting these many months. You'll find a large selection in the Main Room as well as the Bargain Room. If you are looking for great ideas on how to liven up your holidays, look no further. You are sure to find something you'll be excited to read, listen to or share with loved ones during this upcoming holiday season. Look for the festive display as you enter the Main Room on the right. Look for full shelves in the New Age section as a result of the nice donations that came through this past month. Shout out to new section manager Annie L. as she's refreshed this section and it is full of terrific New Age books for November. Nice job Annie L.!

-Janette Herceg

 
One great location: the Cubberley Community Center! Numerous great events Saturday, November 9th!

• MrSoftee and Oaxacan Kitchen Mobile will be parked on-site!
• Imagination Lab School is hosting its annual Fall Market featuring artisans and makers from across the Bay, from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. by the Cubberley Community Center Amphitheatre.
• FOPAL, Friends of the Palo Alto Library, is holding our large book sale from 9.30 a.m. - 4 p.m. in rooms H2, H3 / Bargain Room, and portable buildings including the Main Sale Room, and Children's Room.
• Make X, a Community Makerspace, will offer button- and t-shirt-making from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. in room V2. ACME Learning Center, a high-quality afterschool program for children in grades K-6 will host a table with face painting, popcorn machine, and cotton candy. DanceMagic will participate with free dance performances!
• Free play with Bucket Golf - a portable par 3 golf game that combines the excitement of golf with the ease of backyard games for all levels. It's tee time!
• Check out the CASP/CCC Nov 9th events webpage

-Janette Herceg

 
FOPAL Members Get the First Pick at Members' Early Sale

A super big FUN FESTIVE FOPAL Members' Early Sale is scheduled for Saturday, December 14th. 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, December 14th - At our Members' Early Sale, Life and Sponsor Members (and 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 enter at 10AM and are able to purchase 25 books 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.

-Janette Herceg

 
FOPAL Closings for November

In observance of Veterans Day FOPAL will close for donations Monday November 11th and for Thanksgiving FOPAL will be closed for donations November 28th and 29th.

-Janette Herceg

 
Classic and Modern Fiction

We have received a nice selection of titles published by the New York Review of Books (about 25 in all). You'll find them on the top shelf of the Classic Fiction section. And the special on the New York Times' list of the 100 Best Books of the 21^st Century continues, with new titles from recent donations added every month.

-Melinda

 
Poetry

November days and a bright wood fire;
A hearth and a home and the Heart's Desire.
And if your heart's inclined that way,
Then try some St. Vincent Millay
Of which we have a goodly run,
As well as Davies and Dickinson.
And please the eye with vintage covers
And other pleasures for art lovers.

https://fopalbooks.com/poetry.html

-Mandy MacCalla

 
Puzzles

Moving fully into the holiday season, all the winter and holiday puzzles that have been acquired this year are now filling half our puzzle section. These puzzles are festively marked off and all are priced $2-6. Some are new and would make great gifts. Get in the spirit and purchase a few!

-Vicky Evans

 
The West

This month we have a large selection of Images of America books on Tacoma, Washington and its environs. All are priced at $2.00 each. As usual the West covers the U.S. from the Mississippi to Hawaii. There are several sections. On the top shelves are large oversize books divided into Palo Alto/Stanford, San Francisco, California, and the West groups. On the intermediate shelves there are groups on Palo Alto/Monterey, San Francisco, California, the West. The West group has books on ranching, mining, cowboys, outlaws and women in the West. Finally, on the bottom shelves are more oversize Palo Alto history books and other books on the West.

-Ed Walker

 
Health

The Health section is bursting this month with good reads. The Lost City of the Monkey God unfolds like an adventure story: an expedition into the wilds of Honduras to search for ancient artifacts, and what the members experienced afterwards. The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty is available...along with two other books on the opioid crisis: Dreamland, and American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts.

If you scan the Health books, it's noticeable that almost every health consideration in this election season is represented, and you can read more about those subjects. There are cookbooks for almost any requirement: Low cholesterol, Keto, Paleo, Raw Food diet, and Where Our Food Comes From. In the same vein, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Commentary by Alice Waters is available. As usual, there are plenty of volumes on exercise (from Pilates to Tai Chi), sleep, pain, addictions, and some pamphlets on how to help Parkinson's disease. Find the Red Health Cart for more.

-Suzanne Cholko

 
Children's Room

With the November and December holidays just around the corner, we are ready to help with your gift list. You'll find many books for Thanksgiving, and also the first batch of books for Hanukkah and Christmas. We have several holiday-themed games including a new Exit the Game Advent Calendar: Mystery of the Ice Cave. Many of the books are like new, and very reasonably priced. Shop early at the November sale for the best selection.

Our Activity section is filled with many, many items that would make great holiday gifts! These include a Construct-A-Fort set, a Super Mario chess game whose playing pieces are characters from the video game, a set of Imaginarium wooden blocks, a brand new National Geographic science magic kit, a light-up dance mat, two Revell model plane kits, and a very large dinosaur! As usual, our game and puzzle shelves are packed. The former include a Harry Potter game and the latter, several Ravensburger puzzles! Our graphic novels shelves are overflowing and feature a large number of books by Nathan Hale, as well as lots of Dog Man.

On the Non-fiction shelves you'll find lots of lovely art books, and don't miss the 2025 calendars, beautifully illustrated, for just 50 cents each.

School-age Fiction has gifts, too. On the Classics shelves are a 70th Anniversary Edition of A. A. Milne's The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh; a beautifully illustrated The Cunning Little Vixen, by Maurice Sendak; and boxed gift sets of Anne of Green Gables, The Wizard of Oz, and the Narnia series. We have lots of early chapter books including excellent boxed sets of Junie B Jones, Amelia Bedelia, and Flat Stanley. In the Fantasy section are several gift-quality Harry Potter themed specialty books: The Character Vault (multiple copies) and A Journey Through the History of Magic. There are also loads of books by popular author Rick Riordan. And as always, we offer shelves full of inexpensive, high-quality books by award-winning authors.

In the Asian Languages section, you'll find picture books in good condition in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. We recently received donations of books in other languages, including Tagalog and Thai. Our shelves are packed with good deals.

Finally, check out the gorgeous giftable picture books on the shelves at the end of the cashier's table. Caldecott and Newbery winners, classics, story collections, and recently published books, each one sure to please a child on your list.

-Carolyn Davidson

 
November Book Review

The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

When an ancient witch makes a simple, innocent mistake; a curious, wonderful thing awakens. Meet Xan, the Witch of the woods, taker of children, menace of the townspeople. She prowls the woods bordering the town, taking sacrificed children to places unknown in exchange for leaving the town alone. However, this legend is far from true. Yes, Xan is a witch, but she has quietly lived her life far from the affairs of the townspeople. Nonetheless, when she hears the cry of an infant alone in a secluded glen, she takes the child to a new, safer home across the forest. For years she has made this trip, feeding the babes starlight as sustenance. Except, when she accidentally feeds baby Luna moonlight instead of starlight on her trip to safe havens far from the terrified town, Luna manifests magic. Xan, alongside Glerk and Fyrian the Perfectly Tiny Dragon, takes responsibility for the young child and raises her as her own.

With warm and nostalgic tones, this book will teach children the importance of family, and how love doesn't need to be contained to one small family; as it is infinite. Alongside important lessons on family, it also teaches children how emotions aren't meant to be locked and shoved away. Enjoy this novel with a warm cup of tea, and some napkins; let the magic wrap around your heart. (Recommended for ages 12 - 14.)

-Emma Chen

 
Judaica

Browse the Judaica section for books on the Jewish religion and culture including editions of the Torah and other basic texts, Kabbalah, Jewish history, the Holocaust, memoirs, Israel, Jewish Women, the Jewish American Experience and other related subjects.

Special interest this month:

• Israelis and Palestinians - From the Cycle of Violence to the Conversation of Mankind 2024
• The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert
• Not in God's Name by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
• Women of the Book - Jewish Artists Jewish Themes
• This I Believe - Documents of American Jewish Life
• One Foot in America - The Jewish Emigrants of the Red Star Line

Most fiction with Jewish themes will be found in Modern Literature/Classics or Current Fiction. Books entirely in Hebrew are shelved in the European Languages section.

Shelf photos at https://fopalbooks.com/judaica.html

-Charlotte Epstein, Judaica Section Manager

 
Recorded Music

Our monthly Tent Pop Up LP Music Sale will not be held in November but there are several high value LPs for sale in the Main Room by the CD bins. Additionally there is a selection of $1 records in the Bargain Room.

-George Chaltas

This weekend we will have one curated box of records in the main room with the CDs. Check fopalbooks.com for a partial list. VPI cleaned and play graded.

-Henry Yu

https://fopalbooks.com/records.html

-Edwin El-Kareh

 
SF/Comics

This month there's a shelf of SF digest magazines from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Mostly Fantasy and Science Fiction but some Galaxy, Analog, and even a few Astounding Science Fiction. More recently-published books than usual, including Ann Leckie's 2024 Hugo runner-up Translation State, T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone, and Paolo Bacigalupi's Navola. The Terry Pratchett shelf is replenished after selling out last month.

In Comics, a new batch of manga and the graphic version of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens stand out.

Shelf pictures at fopalbooks.com.

-Rich

 
History

A lot of American History this month, also a collection of historical atlases of various regions. Check out the regional history shelf as well.

-Lin McAllister

 
Sociology/Anthropology

For the upcoming sale, the Sociology/Anthropology section offers 384 books. What is special about this sale is that more than 70 percent of these books are from the latest donations. In particular, a sub-section on theory and methods features many books on various aspects of anthropological research, social policy, and demography in addition to books on Marxism and other sociological theories. As usual, sub-sections such as "Race" and "U.S.: Self-Reflection" offer a wide variety of books from past years and recently published.

-Natalia Koulinka

 
Donations

We accept donations on Monday through Saturday from 3-5 pm in the Main Room. But we close to donations in the week before the sale so that we can prepare the Main Room for the sale, and also this month for Veterans Day. Which means that we are closed for donations from Sunday November 3 through Monday November 11. Please hold your donations until Tuesday November 12.

We will also be closed Thursday November 28 and Friday November 29 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Please read our donation guidelines before you bring materials to us.

 
Suggestions?

We're always eager to hear your suggestions for ways to improve our book sale. Please email us at suggestions@friendspaloaltolib.org.