Vol 8 # 3  December 15, 2023



From Sabah Abdulla, Branch Manager

Scheduled Programs

 

Fall Stay & Play, every Tuesday for one hour

at 10:15 am

We will provide a selection of toys and games for play. The program is especially for ages 18 months to 3 years, but all children are welcome. It will take place outdoors, weather permitting. In unfavorable weather, it will be Indoors, on a smaller scale.

 

Drop in for Hellos and Cookies

with the Friends of PAL,

Tuesday December 19th, 6:30 – 7:30 pm

Drop in and meet members of the Friends of the Piedmont Ave. Library and our wonderful staff. Enjoy homemade cookies and treats while chatting with other community members. Learn what is happening in our “small but mighty” library and how you can be a part of it.

 

Embroidery Workshop, Saturday January 6th, 11 am – 1 pm

Join us for an exciting beginner-level embroidery workshop with Asé Arts. Open to the seasoned embroiders as well. Come spend the early afternoon with us skill sharing as we explore the world of embroidery. Materials are provided. Space is limited, so make sure to arrive early to secure your spot! 



Knitting & Crochet with Susan Segal, Monday January 8th, 11 am – 1 pm

Join us every second and fourth Monday of the month for a delightful early afternoon of yarn, needles, and good company at our Adult Knitting & Crochet Circle! Settle into a warm and inviting space where creativity and conversation intertwine. If you need assistance with anything or have questions, Susan is here to help. Join us and make the most of your knitting/crochet experience with us!

What to Bring:

  • Your current knitting or crochet project
  • Your preferred yarn and needles/hooks
  • A smile and a willingness to connect with fellow crafters

Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting, everyone is welcome!

While we'd love to accommodate everyone, keep in mind that space availability will be on a first-come, first-served basis.


After school crafts available everyday

Teen Pop-Up Crafts, Tuesday January 23rd, 4:30 - 5:30 pm

Every 4th Tuesday with our Teen Librarian Mikal.

Come, hang out and get creative. Teens ages 13 to 18; snacks provided.

Good Books Make Good Gifts

 

Our wonderful library staff, Kieleya and Jordan, helped curate a list of books for holiday gifts. Here are some of their recommendations.

 

Preschool

Lola at the Library - Anna Mcquinn

Interrupting Chicken - David Ezra Stein

No David - Shannon David

 

Kindergarten

Got your Nose - Alan Katz

As Night Falls - Donna Jo Napoli

7 ate 9 - Tara Lazar

 

Kid’s Chapter Books

Invisible - Christina Diaz (Graphic Novel)

Tumble - Celia C Perez

Ramona The Pest - Beverly Cleary


Teen Books

Deep in Providence - Riss M. Neilson

A Secret Princess - Margaret Stohl

Hollow Fires - Samira Ahmed


Adult Books

Daughter of the Moon Goddess - Sue Lynn Tan

Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver


Plus check out the community created Holiday Book List at the OPL website.


Santa & Elf by Omathi, PAES Kindergarten

Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library

Save the Date - January 23 - A step toward our permanent home


Oakland's library department has scheduled Tuesday, January 23rd for the first community meeting regarding the Piedmont Avenue Library feasibility study, which will evaluate options for use of the empty CDC building at 86 Echo Ave. as a proposed branch library.


Library staff and consultants plan to hold an in person meeting 5:30 pm - 7 pm followed by a duplicate online meeting 7:30 pm - 9 pm for those who can't attend in person or have a time conflict with the earlier 5:30 session.


Mark your calendars and watch for a detailed announcement from the Friends in late December or early January.

Fundraising for PAL



Don’t struggle with wrapping paper, out of tape, ribbon doesn’t match! Use a Friends of The Library Bookbag. It’s sturdy and it communicates a message about our library. Sales of the Bookbag support our library. You can buy the bags at the library for only $10.

 

The Friends raise funds to support our library’s ongoing programs, to advocate for the Piedmont Avenue Branch Library and the Oakland Public Library, and to reach out to our community with projects to raise awareness for securing a permanent location. You can donate on our website https://www.friendsofpal.org/donate/ or send a check payable to The Friends of Piedmont Avenue Library, mailed to 80 Echo Avenue, Oakland CA 94611-5207. The Friends is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our tax ID is 84-4203055. All contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Interesting Gifts at Bargain Prices

 

Just in time for the holidays, all puzzles and games will be 30% off at the Bookmark Bookstore throughout the month of December. There is an impressive collection of puzzles and games this year, ranging from easy to expert, and a whole range of fun themes that are sure to delight even the most discerning recipient on your shopping list!

 

The Bookmark Bookstore raises money for the Friends of the Oakland Public Library

FOPAL. It is open Wednesday - Friday from 11 am - 4 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 am - 5:30 pm. It will be closed on Sunday, December 24 (Christmas Eve) this year.

The Avid Reader by Louis Segal


I’ve been an avid reader since I could read. In high school I used to cut school to read in the Berkeley Public Library.  I’m writing this column to share some of the books I love. I hope, perhaps, you might grow to love a few of them. 


Anthony Marra’s Mercury Pictures Presents [2022]

 

I first became acquainted with Anthony Marra reading his book The Tsar of Techno and Love. It was an impressive piece of writing, a collection of cleverly interlinked short stories, by turns, mordant, thoughtful, compassionate, and historically rooted. This November I read his Mercury Pictures. The previous two months I reviewed two important but heart-rending books. I appreciated them but I plunged into Mercury Pictures with the hope I’d read something lighter, humorous, and infused with a compelling narrative.

 

Marra’s book has all this. Its central axis is Hollywood in the 30s and the 40s, Hollywood and its bizarre culture. It’s very funny, lots of shtick, great dialog, satiric. At times it reads like a movie treatment. How many writers, serious writers, have been lured into Hollywood in search of fame and wealth? F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Dalton Trumbo, Earnest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Nathaniel West, B. Traven, Bertolt Brecht, Clancy Sigal, Norman Mailer, Bud Schulberg, Joan Didion, Alice Walker, and Michael Chabon. In general that encounter was not fruitful; at times, it was disastrous and soul-sucking. Only B. Traven avoided that fate by having John Huston come down to Mexico to film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Luis Buñuel resisted Hollywood’s gravitational pull.

 

A quarter way through Marra’s sprawling novel I began to think of the siren call of Hollywood. It was evident in Michael Chabon’s Telegraph Avenue and David Mitchell. Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas was brilliant, his Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was good but by The Bone Clocks arrived it was clear that Mitchell was aiming towards Hollywood or at least a lucrative interactive video game. Many writers have surrendered their solitary craft in search of wealth and celebrity. I feared Marra was going down the same road.

 

But I was wrong. Despite the shtick - which does get thick - there are things far deeper at play in Marra’s novel. First there is marvelous prose. There are finely honed epigrams. Snappy dialog. There are intertwined plot lines along surprising axes. This is a story of emigres from Europe and Asia and America, fleeing Fascism and Communism, patriarchy and the strait-jacket of religion, who land in Los Angeles, become caught up in the Great American Dream Machine and the rise of fascism and the coming of the World War Two and the Red Scare. There are emotional textures of shame and guilt and love and hate and unexpected tenderness. Like many of the best novels there’s both squalor and redemption, levity and gravitas, comedy and tragedy. We meet people in Marra’s books redolent with authenticity. Folks who shock, surprise, and delight us.

 

This very well may be a great book. I can’t tell by a first reading. There are passages that rival John Steinbeck’s last chapter in Grapes of Wrath. Great compassion is tempered by anger and hunger. All is possible, if improbable, in Marra’s world. A world before film, a place where you, the reader, can picture the characters and landscape in your own mind. Qué Viva reading!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibbqhTdNAUo

 

By Louis Segal. Louis was born in Oakland, raised his family in Oakland, dropped out of school in 1968, worked many jobs over the decades, dropped back into school in the 80s, got a Ph.D. in history, taught as an adjunct professor from 1993 to 2015. Retired but not withdrawn. 


What's Happening at the Library

Tuesdays, Stay & Play, 10:15 am


12/19 The Friends are serving cookies & punch at the library, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm


1/6 Embroidery Workshop, 11 am – 1 pm


1/8 & 1/22 Knitting & Crochet, 11 am – 1 pm


1/23 Teen Pop Up Crafts, 4:30 - 5:30 pm


1/23 Community Meeting re library feasibility study - details to follow

Our library is open 6 days a week

Sunday Closed

Monday: 10 am – 5:30 pm

Tuesday: 10 am – 8 pm

Wednesday: 10 am – 8 pm

 Thursday: 10 am – 5:30 pm

Friday: 12 pm – 5:30 pm

Saturday: 10 am – 5:30 pm


The Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our tax ID is 84-4203055.
All contributions are tax deductible.

A direct and compelling headline