Book Club Help for You

Here’s the scoop. You’ve moved. Remembering what fun you had in your former book club, you investigate your local neighborhood network group. Maybe you can start your own club.

The library has a particularly useful help site in Lit Lovers, a “well-read online community.” This site will help you start your own book club – they have tips about all aspects, from selecting and discussing your selection as well as questions for both fiction and non-fiction titles. In addition there are games and icebreakers.

You’ve launched your group. Now it’s time to choose your monthly title. How else can the library specifically help? Particularly useful are the library’s book kits, which contain 10 copies of one title, a discussion guide, and can be checked out for six weeks to one person. In addition, the kits can be reserved.Planning in advance is easy. By doing a key word search, using the term “book group kit,” you will get an extensive selection of over 100 hundred titles. Be sure and sort the list for adult titles, however.

The library also has Novelist Plus, a book selection site that will give capsule summaries by category as well as guides, and author read-alikes. (Navigation: Library home page > Resources > A-Z > N > Novelist +)

There’s even more on our website. Do explore our guide particularly the tab about book discussion groups.

Happy reading!

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National Homemade Bread Day is November 17

Bread (Photo credit: CeresB)

My daughter loaned me her bread machine a few months ago to use while she is on an extended trip with her husband.  She has made some wonderful loaves of bread, and I thought I’d take advantage of her loan to try my hand at it.  Well, so far no bread.  However, the cooler season, has got me imagining the smell of fresh bread baking, so I thought I’d give it a try.  I’m not much of a baker or cook, but this is something I think I’ll try.

So, good little library assistant that I am, first I turned to our trusty library catalog. Using the term “bread recipes” I got a list of 88 books, 44 e-books and even 3 DVDS.  If that’s not enough for you, then check some of these websites out, Bread machine recipes, http://www.bread-machine-recipes.com/, The Fresh Loaf, http://www.thefreshloaf.com/, a website which says it is for amateur artisan and fresh bread enthusiasts which looks  quite interesting.  You might also try Betty Crocker’s website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/courses/bread-recipes, which has recipes for handmade as well as machine made bread.  I could go on and on, there is a plethora of great bread websites out there.  Do you have a favorite?  If so, let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

Make National Homemade Bread Day a special day this year!  So fire up your oven or bread machine, and start practicing. Maybe, even get your family involved and spend some quality time together.  Start getting those supplies, so you will be all ready to bake and impress everyone with your beautiful loaves, and muffins and more!

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Al Capone Series by Gennifer Choldenko—Check it out!

Did you know that on October 17, 1931, Al Capone was found to be guilty on five counts of tax evasion/non-filing of tax returns, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison? Maybe not, but Capone served part of his sentence at Alcatraz (he was admitted there in August of 1934.)

Writer Gennifer Choldenko has penned a series of kids’ books for older readers set during that time period, and on Alcatraz Island. The first is Al Capone Does my Shirts (2004), followed by Al Capone Shines my Shoes (2009) and the most recent is Al Capone Does my Homework (2013). Al Capone Does my Shirts follows the move of the Flanagan family from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island, with Moose Flanagan, his autistic sister Natalie, and Mom and Dad. Dad has gotten a job at Alcatraz, and sister Natalie is set to attend a special school in San Francisco. The other two books are the further adventures of the Flanagan family.

Does Al Capone actually make an appearance in these books? Find out when you read the series!

(And, incidentally, Al Capone didn’t end up serving the entire 11 years—he was released in 1939, serving just over 7 1/2 years of his sentence.)

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What is Synchronicity?

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently unrelated, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. It was first described by Carl Jung in the 1920s. Read more on Wikipedia

Books on synchronicity @ library

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Diary of A Wimpy Kid #8 – Hard Luck

Hard Luck – the 8th Diary of A Wimpy Kid will finally be out on November 5, 2013. Do you reserve your copy yet? The waiting list is growing; you better act quickly.

Click here to put down your name on the waiting list. We have ordered 40 copies of this newest addition. So don’t let the big list discourage you. 🙂

For other titles in the Diary of A Wimpy Kid series, please check here.

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The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville

Looking for an entertaining show during your stay on the Central Coast? Look no further than the Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville!  And just in time for the Halloween season, we have Steve Lovett’s Drac in the Saddle Again!  Performances run through November 17.

The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville (est. 1975) is located at 1863 Front Street, in Oceano, California. Tickets can be ordered at (805) 489-2499.

For more information: http://americanmelodrama.com/

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A Kinder Divorce Workshop Coming October 22

A Kinder Divorce is an educational workshop for people facing divorce or
separation. Kimberly Parker-Wesley, JD, and Sara Bisikirski, LCSW, co-mediators at California Family Mediation Services, are committed to alternative dispute resolution in their desire to minimize the trauma divorce and other conflicts  can inflict upon families. Come and hear the attorney-therapist mediation team discuss information families need to make informed choices, including:

– the pros and cons of different divorce processes
– options for making adjustments to court orders
– legal, financial & emotional issues surrounding divorce
– community resources available to assist in the divorce process.

The workshop starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 22, in Fukaya Room A.  The Fremont Main Library at 2400 Stevenson Boulevard is wheelchair accessible. The Library will provide an ASL interpreter with at least seven working days’ notice. Please call 510-745-1401 or TTY 888-663-0660 for more information.

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Chamber Music Recital at Fremont Main Library October 5

Come, enjoy chamber music this Saturday and meet faculty members of the Anna Poklewski Academy of Music, including

Loren Tayerle

Loren Tayerle (horn, viola and conductor), Natachia Li (cello) and Jennifer Ridout (flute). Mr. Tayerle is director of Orchestral Studies at De Anza College where he conducts the De Anza Chamber Orchestra and teaches music history. Arrangements of works by Corelli, Mozart, Bach and Tchaikovsky will showcase violins, violas, cellos, a harpsichord and bass.

 The Anna Poklewski Academy of Music (39660 Mission Blvd. in Fremont) is an alternative music school that inspires and inculcates a love of music in every student. The Academy uses a systematic approach combining technical training, artistry and musicianship, while fostering an understanding

Natachia Li

of music as a language in communicating emotions and experiences. A chamber music class for student musicians is being offered for the first time at the school.

The concert starts at 3 p.m. this Saturday in the Fukaya Room.

Jenny Ridout

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Celebrate Peanuts!

On this date in 1950, the comic strip Peanuts first appeared.  Though the characters did not look the same at that time, it grew to become one of the most famous and recognizable comic strips in history, with 17,897 strips printed.

In honor of Peanuts, Charlie Brown, Woodstock, and, of course, Snoopy, we invite you to come check out our many comic books and DVD specials of the whole Peanuts gang.  Also, using our Discover & Go program (http://discover.aclibrary.org/) you can get free admission for a child age 4-18 to the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa with only your library card.

After all, you’re a good man, Charlie Brown.

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