Library News

The Library want you to know that you can use your Palo Alto Library card to get at Consumer Reports.

They also want you to know they have a bunch of activities and events in the week before Halloween. They have a webby events calendar.

If you search that events calendar for "Halloween" you will find most of the events. If you search again for "Pumpkin" you will find another.

And! The Library will be closed on Monday October 14 for Indigenous Peoples' Day.

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

 
November 9th: FOPAL Book sale & Cubberley Community Center Fall Festival

One great location: the Cubberley Community Center! Many great events! November 9th, FOPAL and The Imagination Lab School, Cubberley Artist Studio Program (CASP), and several other Cubberley Community Center renters come together to offer bibliophiles, art connoisseurs, dance enthusiasts, and food truck fans an opportunity to shop/buy/eat and enjoy! Come check out FOPAL's November book sale...and attend the Cubberley Community Center's Fall Festival! Look for more details in FOPAL's November Sale newsletter and on FOPAL's Facebook page. Please "like" and "follow" us when you visit.

-Janette Herceg

 
October Sale Notes

Donation volume has been steady, and we want to send out a big THANK YOU to all who have donated material for our sales as well as a big THANK YOU to FOPAL's Donation Pick-up team! Many sections have a backlog and as a result, we expect to have strong sales all through the winter months. For October, you'll find more books from the Stanford Medical Anesthesia department donation making Medicine a special once again. The books are in excellent condition and priced to sell. Art has a larger than usual selection of books, and exhibition catalogues...from a substantial donation from the Palo Alto Art Center. Look for Halloween a-plenty curated by a couple of section managers in the Main Room and Children's Rooms this month as well. The Children's Room and Children's Bargain Room have been blessed with an abundance of books, toys, games and more! The popular Pop-up Music sale is focusing on a High-Value collection and can be found next to the Bargain Room (in front of H1) starting at 10am. More LPs & CDs means more listening pleasure!

-Janette Herceg

 
Music Pop Up

This coming Saturday there will be a smaller but carefully curated Music Pop Up Sale held in the breezeway near the Bargain Room (H2) instead of under the tents next to the Main Room where our sale is usually held. There will be a special selection of high quality vinyl offered so plan on coming early to add to your collection!

-George Chaltas

 
Children's Room

Double, double toil and trouble: October means witches, pumpkins, black cats, skeletons, and an entire table full of books for Halloween. We have many like-new board books, paperback and hard-cover picture books, activity books, and school-age fiction, all about the holiday and all at bargain prices.

The Activities section has board and card games for all ages, plus an air hockey game and a cornhole setup. Our Science and Mathematics sections are full; the latter includes books of preparation for the Math Olympiad. You'll also find two bins of joke books, two bins of kids' cookbooks, plus loads of titles from American Girl. As usual, our Graphic Novels shelves are overflowing, with many series including Bone and Dogman.

On the Beginning Readers shelves you'll find a remarkable selection of books for early readers, some packaged as sets. We're also long on Fancy Nancy, Fly Guy, and other favorite series.

Look in Parenting for helpful books for parents of newborns to teens, including kids with special needs.

Non-fiction is featuring a 2-drawer kit on Air and Water from Full Option Science System (FOSS)--a real find for $20! And we have lots of Lego books, including a never-before-offered Lego pop-up book.

If you've seen or plan to see the just-released animated feature The Wild Robot, you may not know that this 4-star-rated movie is based on a book and series written by popular author Peter Brown. We have 3 copies of the book, on the shelf as you enter the School-age Fiction section.

Teachers, we can help you stock your classroom library cost-effectively with books from a multitude of award-winning authors.

Featured this month in Classics is a beautifully illustrated edition of The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh (originally $50), for only $10.

In Fantasy, we have an excellent selection of Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire series, great books to read aloud to children. Also in Fantasy are several boxed sets of The Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Finally, we have several gift-quality beautifully illustrated oversized books in the Harry Potter series. It's never too early to snag a wonderful book to give during the holidays.

The Asian Languages section continues to be packed with quality Chinese books, both traditional and simplified, for all ages. Be sure to check out the other languages as well--a full cart of Japanese and Korean books, in addition to Thai and other South Asian languages in the lower corner.

-Carolyn Davidson

 
Children's Vintage

This month in Children's Vintage we are spotlighting two prolific children's authors: Thornton Burgess and Jerry West.

Thornton Burgess was a lifelong conservationist and author. He wrote more than 170 books and 15,000 articles for his daily column. He used his observations of nature as the basis for his children's stories and published Old Mother West Wind as his first book in 1910. The characters in that series (Peter Rabbit, Old Mister Toad, Grandfather Frog and others) soon had books of their own. It's our good fortune this month to have almost 20 volumes of Thornton Burgess stories on our shelves.

Jerry West, author of The Happy Hollisters, was one of the authors writing for the Stratemeyer Syndicate in the 1950s and '60s. Unlike other Stratemeyer series (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys etc), however, all of the Happy Hollister books were written by one man, Andrew Svenson. He often drew on his own family experiences for his plot lines and his young characters happily solved mysteries around their hometown of Shoreham and around the world. We have almost half of the 33 Hollister books for sale this month, all in dust jackets!

For younger readers, we have a robust collection of step-up-to-reading nonfiction books. If reading about adventure is what gets your little one reading, then check out Men Who Sailed the Seas or The Adventures of Lewis and Clark for starters.

And of course we can't forget that October is a spooky month and have brought out all our Halloween stories for the little ones.

You can see all this (and some surprises) at www.fopalbooks.com/kids

-Lisa Heitman

 
October Book Review

Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Deep Blue is a beautifully woven novel featuring mermaids and the dangers of the open sea. Written by award winning author Jennifer Donnelly, the story follows princess Serafina, of the underwater realm of Miromara, who is living the perfect life. She's good at casting magic, has a doting family, and is betrothed to a handsome merman. But like all good stories, everything goes wrong. On the day of her crowning, a terrorist attack leaves her mother and father brutally slain and the kingdom in chaos. Sera must flee in order to survive and to find safe haven. In her flight from the forces that hunt her, she finds new allies and the courage to avenge her family and the will to retake her throne.

In the first book of the series, Donnelly crafts a wonderfully creative world, with hidden turns and twists you wouldn't expect. This novel encourages readers to think deeply about the values and morals of every character, and builds new and exciting concepts. Deep Blue will be a lovely addition to your bookshelf. Recommended for ages 11 to 14.

Dragonology

Featuring gorgeously illustrated depictions and storied descriptions of these dragons, this picture book will guide even the most wild child to sit down and read. Alongside the hidden surprise at the end, this book will make a beautiful gift for younger family members and friends. Recommended for ages 6 through 9.

-Emma Chen

 
Religion

The scripture section is overflowing - more than a dozen of the Anchor Bible series and many of the Communicator's Commentary. If you like small volumes try the Cambridge Bible commentary or the elegant little green volumes from J.M Dent. And there is a large family Bible from 1861. Away from scripture a 1948 edition of Tillich's Shaking of the Foundations. Niebuhr's Justice and Mercy or Plante's Contemplative Practices in Action.

-Nancy Mahoney Cohen

 
Poetry

"Before it's time to go to bed,
Let's have a feast," October said.
Let's feast on poetry that's classic:
Verse that references the Sapphic.
Or concentrate on just one poet:
Emily Dickinson, wouldn't you know it?
And finally, at banquet's end,
Black poets and an urban trend.

https://fopalbooks.com/poetry.html

-Mandy MacCalla

 
Humor

An excellent book on cartoon humor and humorists making its first appearance is Screwball: Who made the Funnies Funny? Part history, part encyclopedia, this is the ideal book for anyone interested in the world of Screwball. As well, we have a book by one of the giants of humor, Edward Gorey, a collection of his work Amphigorey Also. Although we often get the New Yorker Complete cartoons with 8DVDs this month we have a sealed copy in perfect condition.

"A comic says funny things, a cartoonist says things funny"

Shelf photos at https://fopalbooks.com/humor/

-Nigel Jones

 
Philosophy

Got Plato? Well due a very high quality donation of Plato plus some Aristotle and earlier philosophers we certainly do. Included is the two volume box set, Dialogues of Plato, The Complete Plato, and four volumes of the 1989 edition of Platonis Opera in Greek. With Aristotle we have a Complete Works of Aristotle and an Introduction to Aristotle. With both philosophers we have books on many of their best known works. Also included, and relevant to the topic, are two books by American philosopher Gail Fine. Most books are face out to make browsing easier. As with our previous special sales at special sales prices after this sale these books will move to our high value online store.

Shelf photos at https://fopalbooks.com/philosophy/

-Nigel Jones

 
Health

The Health section has lots of new volumes to enjoy this month. First of all, A Poison Like No Other; How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies. Follow up with The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.

Another interesting choice: The Mold in Dr. Flory's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle or The Healthy Lunchbox, published by The American Diabetes Asociation, with recipes and advice on avoiding junk food in our home-packed lunches. Complete your reading adventure by diving into Winter Swimming, or Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin. Enjoy.

-Suzanne Cholko

 
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 -

• The Restless Hungarian: Modernism, Madness, and The American Dream
• The Holy Temple of Jerusalem - illustrated 9x12 format
• A Train Near Magdeburg-The Holocaust, the survivors, and the American soldiers who saved them
• Einstein and the Rabbi: Searching for the Soul
• If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
• By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream

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

 
Curious Books

Are you longing to sit in front of a blazing fireplace, reading a good book? I thought not. But now is a good time to stock up on books to have handy when inclement weather keeps you indoors. The carefully curated miscellany of Curious Books has something to offer every reader. Come on by during the sale.

-Donya W.

 
Puzzles and Games

Welcome to Fall! In puzzles we are celebrating the change of seasons with a curated selection of Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving puzzles, each at the special sale price of $4 or less.

In games, we are also having a sale. All the strategy games that have not sold in the last few months have been marked down at least $5, sometimes more. In addition we have several new D and D items--books, role-playing games, and even a character set from years ago.

-Vicky Evans

 
Sci-Fi and Comics

We have some offbeat things in Science Fiction and Fantasy this month. Look for a bunch of the SFBC editions of the Don Wollheim "Annual World's Best SF" anthologies from the 1970s and 1980s. Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness, signed; a dozen Asimov books in Panther paperbacks from the UK, very nice in better paper than the fragile US paperbacks of the same vintage; a one-volume Lord of the Rings in a handsome stamped gray flexible binding I've not seen before; and one of the SFBC Burroughs Mars omnibuses with a Frank Frazetta cover. There's another oddball book in Comics, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book, in a signed advance reader's copy. Also in Comics find another load of VG/NF bagged comic magazines, this time mostly Marvel Avengers-related from the 1990s and 2000s, including a lot of 4- and 8- issue limited series which were a thing at the time. Shelf pictures at fopalbooks.com.

-Rich

 
History

It's not too early to think about holiday gifts! History has several items of interest: the Sangamon edition of Sandburg's biography of Lincoln (all six volumes), a couple of nice copies of The 1619 Project, and several biographies of influential (or at least interesting) people. For lighter reading, there's an entire shelf on the odder corners of history - including a guide to countries that no longer exist!

-Lin 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, and also this month for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Which means that we are closed for donations from Sunday October 6 through Monday October 14. Please hold your donations until Tuesday October 15.

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.