Correction

Newsletter correction for our sale this weekend: There will be no outdoor comic book sale!

As Kermit Schafer said, "Pardon My Blooper!" For Kermit Schafer vinyl, always go to the Bargain Room!

But...What comics remain from our summer sale (many 1000's are left!) will be available with the Magazines in the Bargain Room at the September and October sales. If you want comics at the Sunday bag sale, be in line when we open!

-The Boogie Woogie Frugal Boy From Company B

 
Library News

The Library is celebrating Latine & Hispanic Heritage Month beginning September 15. More info on the Library's web site.

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

 
Dollar Sale

Outside of our Main Room (next to the Music Pop-Up) we will be having a dollar sale. Items include, but are not limited to:

Collectibles
Tools
Random items
CDs
78s

10 am to 2 pm: Everything $1.00! 2 pm to 3 pm: $5 bag sale!!!

-Cheapskate Nate

 
Puzzles and Games

It's fall and Halloween is soon coming so how about doing some puzzles themed around those? Over the year these autumn themed are set apart for this month. Come and see, then buy! Also, in general, our shelves are overflowing so prices have been marked down to move these puzzles of all sizes. Half the shelves are now priced at $3 and $4.

In games, with the holidays around the corner, there are several fun group and party-type games for different ages and interests. And finally, you can own Trump (The Game) for $5 as well as a (magnetic) dart board at the same price. Such a deal, probably the greatest ever!

-Vicky Evans

 
Sociology/Anthropology

With 665 books offered by the Sociology/Anthropology section for the upcoming book sale, there are plenty of opportunities to discover something unexpected. Among the books is Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, a landmark study of nationalism. First published in 1983, the book introduced a highly influential way of thinking about nations: Anderson argued that a nation is an "imagined community," because most of its members will never meet one another, yet they imagine themselves as part of the same community. Another interesting book is Frank J. Sulloway's Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives. Sulloway, a historian of science, developed a controversial theory that birth order and family relationships can influence personality and intellectual development. His research led him to examine the lives of famous scientists and other historical figures, including Charles Darwin, to explore whether later-born children were more likely to challenge established ideas. Both books show how a single intriguing question can lead to a much broader investigation of society, history, and human behavior. They are just two examples of the many unusual and thought-provoking books you may find among the 665 titles at the sale.

 
Poetry

September is a glowing time;
A month of happy hours;
This month at FOPAL you will find
A Fall bouquet of flowers.
On the top shelf you'll detect
Blooms from those you'd not expect.
Strew a handful of confetti
For the poet Ferlinghetti.
The poets will provide the seed
To grow the bud for you to read.

https://fopalbooks.com/poetry.html

-Mandy MacCalla

 
Children's Room

In September we wish happy birthday to Winnie the Pooh (100!) and Babysitters Club (40!). You'll find both well represented on our shelves. It's also the month of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot--look in our Religion section for books for those holidays.

It's Harry Potter Month at FoPAL! HBO will show all the Harry Potter movies in preparation for a new Harry Potter series coming to television in December. In the School-age Fiction section, all Harry Potter hardbacks are specially priced at $3, and we also have a clever Potter pop-up book. For fans of the Wimpy Kid, we have a number of books in the series including a giftable box set. For Warriors fans (the books, not the basketball team), we have lots of books from the various series including The Ultimate Guide. Are you watching the new "Little House on the Prairie" series on Netflix? Learn more about the stories in our wonderful selection of Little House books. Have you seen the movie "The Odyssey"? We have a beautifully illustrated edition of the book. For sci-fi fans there's a gift set of George R. R. Martin's works, including Game of Thrones. We continue to receive many wonderful donations of school-age fiction, so once again, if you spend $10 on regularly priced books, you can choose a free book from our special display.

Are your children reading more now that they're back in school? Our Beginning Readers shelves offer a huge collection of inexpensive sets of books for early readers, at 50 cents or $1 per set. We also have many books in popular series for early readers at levels 1 through 4, and quite an assortment of Elephant and Piggie books as well.

Look in the Parenting corner for books on parenting teens and kids with special issues. You'll also find journals and photo albums for new parents and grandparents.

Our Giftable Picture Books section is very full this month, with many award winners on the top shelves of the bookcase. There are lots of bargains in the giftables boxes, priced from $2.50 to $4. Hint: It's not too early to find lovely books for holiday presents.

Some things old and some things new, our Activity section has something for you! This month we feature "vintage" toys including a TOMY freight train set, castle building blocks, and a Nintendo console with games. And perfect for gift-giving, you can also buy "brand-new" shrink-wrapped board games and crafts kits. Our craft offerings include stencils, origami, paper airplanes, paints, Ed Emberley drawing books, and some charming stationery sets. The math table is packed with books and flashcards; the science section includes a rock collection and several building kits. Plus, we're offering bags of Playmobil and Lego. As usual, our games shelves are packed, and our graphic novels section has overflowed. Finally, Halloween is just around the corner, so shop early to score a special costume--a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shell that unzips to reveal a choice of masks!

Look in the picture books section for some special items: a lovely set of 12 Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter; many Golden Books titles including a story about Dolly Parton and one about Taylor Swift; collections of books by Leo Lionni and Eric Carle; 20 books of Winnie the Pooh, called "Lessons from the Hundred Acre Wood," in a lovely gift bag; and a collection of 12 Ladybird classic stories and tales.

-Carolyn Davidson

 
Children's Vintage

Our featured illustrator this month is Richard Scarry, whose vibrant, high-energy layouts capture the organized chaos of everyday life. His anthropomorphic characters drive cars, operate heavy machinery, and build things, all while demonstrating what people do all day in the real world. We have so many of his books on display you are sure to find one you haven't seen before!

Other special items this month include Obama's Of Thee I Sing (sadly, not signed), a vintage copy of The Wizard of Oz (in a delicate condition but still collectible), and a 1965 like-new 10-volume set of Collier's Junior Classics. Also of note are 6 volumes in the Dear America series, stories of young children throughout history and written in diary form. Never too young to get into epistolary writing, I say.

As a final note, the games and toys section continues to explode. Board games, video games, Fisher-Price, toys from the 50s and 60s... This looks like it's becoming a permanent thing!

See all this and more at https://fopalbooks.com

And for more children's vintage books, check us out on eBay at https://www.ebay.com/str/friendsofthepaloaltolibrary

-Lisa Heitman

 
Computers

Surprises await: there are some unusual contributions in several topic sections, even in the often-overlooked Games topic. Also there are a few hardware items, odd but possibly useful devices from a hardware-hoarding donor. Reminder: as usual, books at the right end of a topic section are usually the most recent donations.

-David Cortesi

 
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 this month -

• The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization
• Angles in Orange - Uplifting Stories of Courage, Faith and Miracles from the United Hatzalah Heroes of October 7th
• Tropical diaspora : the Jewish experience in Cuba
• Three Women in Dark Times: Edith Stein, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil
• The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World's Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books
• Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted
• Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
• Aphrodite and the rabbis : how the Jews adapted Roman culture to create Judaism as we know it
• The Talmud -- A Biography: Banned, censored and burned. The book they couldn't suppress
• Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Community

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

 
Cameras

This month's selection is packed with essential accessories, from lens filters to flash units. Always wanted a Nikon D80 (or two, or three)? You're in luck! We have several bodies and lenses ready to find a new home. There are also a couple vintage Polaroid cameras, come check them out!

-CAMelot

 
SF&F and Comics

In Science Fiction and Fantasy, we have a donation of paperbacks from the '60s to the '90s. These are in beautiful shape with no creased spines, no markings beyond a previous owner's rubber-stamped name. Also look for a special display of books by John Scalzi, with some uncommon limited editions.

In Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga, the comic magazine boxes are jammed, nearly all only a dollar; alongside find a big set of Cerebus collections and more volumes of the collected Peanuts.

Shelf pictures at fopalbooks.com.

-Rich

 
History

This month the History section is featuring books about Mahatma Gandhi. We received a sizeable collections of older volumes, many of which were printed in India and not widely available in the US. In US History, featured books include ones on 1960s radicalism, and "This Vast Southern Empire", about how the Southern States drove US foreign policy before the Civil War. If you're literary inclined (or are looking for a gift for someone who is) the Great Britain section has books on the worlds of Jane Austen and Shakespeare. And it's not too early to start thinking about holiday gifts!

-Lin McAllister

 
Bargain Room

The Bargain Room is fully loaded, so loaded that we have a dollar sale outside the Main Room on Saturday! Overflowing sections: Children's, CDs, Vinyl, Comic Books (and Magazines), Computers, Sci-Fi, Self Help, Poetry, Travel, Foreign Languages, Games, Music, History, Politics, Science, etc.

-The Boogie Woogie Frugal Boy From Company B

 
YesOnJ Outreach

The YesOnJ Palo Alto campaign for Measure J will have a table or two near our sales locations. Stop by to learn more about Measure J, pick up a FOPAL/YesOnJ bookmark or a lawn sign! The measure will be on the November 3rd ballot and is a crucial step for the future of Cubberley. FOPAL is a supporter.

-Henry Yu, FOPAL President

 
Donations

We accept donations on Monday through Friday from 3-5 pm in the Main Room, and on Saturday with extended hours from 1-5 pm. 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 September 6 through Sunday September 13. Please hold your donations until Monday September 14.

Please read our donation guidelines before you bring materials to us. Also look at that page if you need to bring us a donation larger than six boxes or outside our usual donation times, it has information on scheduling appointments and requesting a pickup.

In addition to books, vinyl, DVDs, CDs, toys, etc. We now accept the following types of donations:

• Cameras
• Tools
• Watches
• Clocks
• Typewriters

See our full list of accepted donations at fopal.org/donate.

 
Suggestions?

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