Library News

March is Women's History Month and the Library have a list of ways for you to celebrate.

The Spring Equinox is time for Nowruz and the Library have a list of ways for you to celebrate that too.

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.

Another thing that has been brought to our attention by the Library is that National Library Week is April 6-12 and the San Francisco Giants are having a Library Night game on April 7. Tickets may be purchased via this link with $5 of each purchase to benefit the Palo Alto City Library.

-Frank McConnell

 
Terrain Changes at Cubberley Community Center

However, these barricades are temporary, and are really intended to provide a path while another path is closed so that plumbing can be completed for public restrooms for the people who use the play fields out back. More information is available at the City's web site.

Also temporary, but longer term, there is a plan to put a temporary fire station in the Main Room's adjacent parking lot, and we have been told that work in the parking lot is to begin on March 10. That temporary fire station is expected to be in place for 24 months. More information on the fire station replacement project is available at the City's web site.

-Frank McConnell

 
Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday

A(nother) reminder that Daylight Saving Time begins between our Saturday and Sunday sales. Set your clocks forward an hour Saturday night.

-Frank McConnell

 
FOPAL Sunday Sale New Hours in April

We plan to reduce sale hours on Sunday starting in April. The sale opening time will change to 1PM and closing will remain at 4PM.

-The Friends of the Palo Alto Library

 
Poetry

March is windy, March is wild,
Hurries like an eager child.
So hurry into Poetry;
Discover what there is to see.
Think you just don't give a spit, man?
Learn about the poet Whitman.
Or find a classic that may please
Like Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Then eagerly, just like a child,
You will find your mind beguiled.

https://fopalbooks.com/poetry.html

-Mandy MacCalla

 
Home & Crafts

Is there a wedding coming up in your family? You'll find Mother of the Bride and The Best Man's Handbook on our Home book shelves. For that rehearsal dinner and wedding reception try: Jane Austen's Good Manners and How to Be A Gentleman. In Fashion, new this month is Ethnic Dress: A Comprehensive Guide to the Folk Costume of the World by France Kennett. In home decorating we feature two important volumes: Billy Baldwin Decorates and Billy Baldwin Remembers. Are you getting ready for spring cleaning? Look for Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living and The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals. If you're rebuilding, we have Recreating the American Home: The Passive House Approach by Mary James. You'll also find various home styles, from beach houses to alpine interiors, as well as kitchen and bath concepts.

This March in Floral Arts look for: The Art of Floral Arranging: Learning from the Master Florists at Flower School New York. There's also the Wreath Recipe Book: Year-Round Wreaths, Swags, and other Decorations to Make with Seasonal Branches. This month "Erin Go Bragh" in the Crafts section; discover your Irish roots with Tracing Your Irish Family History by Anthony Adolph. If you're handy with paper try Advanced Origami: An Artist's Guide to Performances in Paper by Michael G. LaFosse. Get your craft on with Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women. For that artistic look you'll find several beautiful books on Metal Clay Jewelry. Fabric Arts offers sewing guides, as well new quilting, knitting, crocheting, and needlepoint resources.

Shelf photos can be found at https://fopalbooks.com/crafts.html.

-Virginia Perry

 
Antiques & Collections

We range the gamut of Antiques in March from The Au Hang Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles to the Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright ceramic dinnerware. There are two volumes of dollhouse collectibles: Hanne Büktas's Echoes of Remembered Rooms and Moritz Gottschalk's Dollhouses, Doll Rooms, Kitchens, Stores, and Furniture. Other miniatures include Toy Boats: 1870-1955, A Pictorial History by Jacques Milet and Robert Forbes. Find titles on coins and stamps, furniture and rugs, and other resources for your collecting reference.

Shelf photo can be found at https://fopalbooks.com/crafts.html.

-Virginia Perry

 
Children's Room

Holidays we feature this month: Purim (March 13-14), St. Patrick's Day (March 17), April Fool's Day (April 1, of course), and Passover (April 12-19). You'll find books for these holidays in several locations in our room.

The World Languages section received beaucoup de livres en français this month, including some very cool graphic novels for teens. If you are (or have) someone who speaks or is learning French, check them out. Also, look on the cart in front of the Asian Languages shelves for a large donation of books in Japanese, and on the Chinese shelves for many nice sets of books.

It's another Elephant and Piggie bonanza this month in Beginning Readers--Mo Willems books galore, many like new and priced to sell. And plenty of books for the earliest readers, along with easy biographies, science, and history books.

"Brand new" applies to many of the items in our Activity section. There you'll find several shrink-wrapped games and toys, including two Lego books complete with their mini-figures. If you're buying for a budding architect, look for two bins of wooden blocks in various sizes and shapes, and a Capsela set for the tinkerer. We have loads of puzzle books as well as books for gamers. And as always, a full and inviting selection of graphic novels.

Once again, School-age Fiction features several lovely illustrated classics: Treasury of Children's Literature, Treasury of Children's Poetry, The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, The Odyssey, and Lion of Oz. Look on the Award Winners shelves for Brian Selznick's beautifully illustrated books: The Marvels, Wonderstruck, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret. We also have Roald Dahl's collection of Vile Verses, sure to make anyone a poetry fan. If you're seeking gift-quality book sets, there's a complete set of Ramona: The First Five, by Beverly Cleary (in Award Winners). And in Early Chapter Books we have Magic Treehouse (the first 28) and a set of 10 Goosebumps, still in shrink wrap. Finally, look in the Teen section for a hardback collection of The Red Queen series, by Victoria Aveyard.

-Carolyn Davidson

 
Children's Vintage

The children's vintage section seems especially full this month. Some of the highlights include a robust collection of series books (including less well-known ones like Grace Harlowe, The Young Engineers, Dave Darrin (in dust jackets!) and Cherry Ames); a 5-volume Louisa May Alcott collection (Little Women, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom and An Old-Fashioned Girl); a 3-volume Robert L. Stevenson set (The New Arabian Nights, Familiar Studies/Merry Men and Master of Ballantrae) and an 8-volume Book of Life (stories from the Old Testament). Also offered is a very nice picture book (Cabbages and Kings) signed by the author, a 4-volume Disney compendium in a boxed set, and many vintage children's records (both 45s and LPs). A few odds and ends wrap up our part of the sale. Shelf pictures are available at fopalbooks.com.

The children's vintage section is located in a cozy nook in the left hand corner of the children's portable. Books are initially priced at 50% of the lowest comparable online price and then marked down by an additional 50% for another two months. What an affordable way to add to your collection! Even more children's vintage books can be found at our eBay store https://www.ebay.com/str/friendsofthepaloaltolibrary

-Lisa Heitman

 
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 -

• Jerusalem: The Illustrated History of the Holy City
• Israel by Noa Tishby
• Growing up Below Sea Level - A Kibbutz Childhood
• American Heritage Haggadah - The Passover Freedom Experience
• Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams
• A Bride for One Night - Talmud Tales

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

 
Sociology/Anthropology

In March, the Sociology/Anthropology section offers 414 books. Among them, there are such classics as The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, whom Angela Davis once called "This century's most compelling theorist of racism and colonialism." Another critical study of modern society is the book by C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. Although the Internet provides a few short videos, like this one, that offer a concise explanation of Mills's theory, the book is worth reading for the depth of Mills's observations and analysis. Finally, I want to highlight another book that examines a specific aspect of society: the consumption of wealth, titled The Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen. In 2022, the BBC recorded an insightful discussion about the book.

-Natalia Koulinka

 
Genealogy

Explore your family roots with our special selection of genealogy books. This section will be featured on the shelf to the right of our popular science section, right near the entrance. These books will be of particular interest those with family origins in colonial New England.

-Wy Ais

 
History

"Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it"

This month FoPAL received a large donation of books on mid-20th century Germany, including a very nice copy of the 50th anniversary edition of the classic Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. In lighter reading, there is a new selection of books on regional histories, including one about the Florida real estate boom of the early 1900s. There is also a small selection of old books, including an 1871 account of the Chicago fire: not in great shape, but it does promise to include "all the great fires of the world".

-Lin McAllister

 
SF/F & Comics

The Science Fiction and Fantasy shelves are packed with new arrivals from the flood of donations we've been getting. This month's installment of Ace Doubles is the D series (35 cent cover) from the 1950s and early '60s. Other standouts are deluxe editions of Dune and The Handmaid's Tale, and more Niel Hancock than I knew existed. In Comics, a bunch of new arrivals in Manga.

Shelf pictures at fopalbooks.com.

-Rich McAllister

 
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, which means that we are closed for donations from Sunday March 2 through Sunday March 9. Please hold your donations until Monday March 10.

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.