MPL Hours of Service:
Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sidewalk Holds Pickup:
Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 am to Noon (door near library driveway)
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Halloween at the Library
Preschool Storytime: Thursday morning, MPL hosted a Costume Storytime on Colton Hall lawn, complete with trick-or-treats. Every Thursday at 10:15 am, preschoolers and parents are invited to join Ms. Lisa for stories, songs and fun on the Colton Hall lawn (outside, across from the library). However, on November 4, the Library will start holding Preschool Storytime indoors, in the picture book area of MPL, due to our weather getting colder. Storytime will continue Thursdays at 10:15 am, and don't forget a mask for everyone over two years old.
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DĂa de los Muertos
Honoring the ancestors on an ofrenda (altar) occurs during the two-day Mexican holiday, November 1 and 2, where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. It has origins in Aztec rituals to the dead, and Pagan celebrations of feasting, and of the Catholic All Souls Day when candles are lit to guide souls back to their "home." If you've seen the recent movie Coco, you'll get a glimpse that the holiday isn't especially sad but can be celebratory. Ofrendas often have golden marigolds, photos of family, food, mementos to the dead, and sugar skulls (calaveras). A symbol that became well-known at the turn of the century was La Catrina, a female skeleton dressed in colorful dresses and makeup.
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'Sasha Noodle' Author Talk
Monterey Public Library Friends & Foundation sponsors a new author series, beginning with Wanda Straw's Sasha Noodle String Theory, a memoir of her years living in Carmel, a darkly funny time in her life. This in-person book discussion and signing takes place on the Library's upstairs Terrace at 2:30 pm on Saturday, November 6. Other local authors are planned to join this series in the coming months, including Sharon Randall and Wendy Good.
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Friends of the Library Week & Book Sale
The volunteers of Monterey Public Library Friends and Foundation are the advocacy group of the library. Around the country, Library Friends groups support many roles, such as publicity and fundraising for services and programs. We are so grateful for our MPL Friends group. Share the gratitude and join the Friends if you'd like to get more involved. This Saturday, October 30, from 10:00 am-1:00 pm, we offer a Used Book Sale on the Library's back patio. No tricks, only treats of many genres of books, DVDs and music.
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Sweet Thursday: Hooptedoodles
Our online literary and local history discussions celebrating Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck are wrapping up. Check the MPL website for all the details! Working with several local partners, we present the final programs of "Sweet Thursday Hooptedoodles."
Pipe Dream: Sweet Thursday's Musical. Broadway actor Anthony Newfield provides a glimpse into the 1955 Broadway production of Pipe Dream, based on John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday. Thursday, November 4 at 4:00 pm.
Steinbeck Sweet Thursday Trivia: Wednesday, November 10 at 4:00 pm. Finish up the celebration of Steinbeck's sequel to Cannery Row with a Zoom Trivia game focused on Sweet Thursday and Cannery Row Days programs. Pre-register on the MPL website calendar, and prepare to dazzle with your Steinbeck trivia prowess.
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Lego Dreambuilders
Starting next Wednesday, November 3, the Library is hosting a Legos day from 3:30-4:30 pm on our back patio. If it rains, or the weather turns bad, we will move our Lego day inside to the children's area. We provide the Lego blocks, you bring your creative dream-building ideas. A castle? A treehouse? A farm for horses? Stop by to play and build!
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Book Flight Book Club
Book Flight's book club selection for November 9 is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. "The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities." Join us in-person on the upstairs Terrace at 4:00 pm as we discuss this emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Call us at (831) 646-3933 or refdesk@monterey.org for more details.
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Celebrate the Season of Giving
Thank you to everyone who has made a gift to the MPL Friends & Foundation's fall appeal, part of the Monterey Learns! campaign. We are also delighted to announce that The Resilience Project, the F&F's Big Idea for 2021, has been accepted for inclusion in this year's Monterey County Gives!
This year's MC Gives! campaign goes live on Thursday, November 11, at which time you'll be able to make a gift here. Stay tuned for more information about The Resilience Project. If you have any questions about the Friends & Foundation or supporting the MPL with a charitable gift, please email info@investinmpl.org or call Mary Jane Perna at (831) 646-5632.
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Monterey Public Library Staff Picks!
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We're all busy, but we love to read, right? Take a look at what some Monterey Public Library staff are reading recently... (Reviews taken from MPL database Novelist):
Anxious People by Frederik Backman: Eight people become unlikely friends during a hostage situation created by an inept bank robber. In a town in Sweden, a desperate parent turns to bank robbery to help pay the rent. Unfortunately, the target turns out to be a cashless bank, which means that no robbery can take place. Comedy, drama, mystery, and social study, this novel is undefinable except for the sheer pleasure it delivers.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley: Lives unravel amid the revelry on an eerie and remote island as family and friends assemble for a glam wedding in an updated Murder on the Orient Express. Each of the principal characters has a reason to want one of their number dead. The narcissistic bride, the unstable bridesmaid, the odd wedding planner and her husband, the groom and his former schoolmates, with “something dark and cruel hiding behind the schoolboy manners,” are revealed to be a pack of sadistic bullies.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner: In the late 18th century, Nella owns an apothecary specializing in remedies for women, with a brisk side business in poisons. In the present day, Caroline’s romantic anniversary trip to London becomes a solo sojourn because of her husband’s infidelity. Determined to make the best of the situation, Caroline joins a mudlarking expedition and finds a mysterious bottle in the river. Her investigation into the bottle’s provenance unravels the long-hidden mystery of Nella’s apothecary.
I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom: Actor and Emmy winner Bloom combines irreverent humor with childhood journal entries in this entertaining essay collection. The co-creator of TV show "My Crazy Ex Girlfriend" traces her search to feel “normal ” back to middle school, when she was “pretty insufferable” and also the victim of bullies. Bloom’s humor, however, survived, and can be appreciated in amusing notes to her therapist, her journal entries (such as a list of all the “bad words” she knew at age 12), and a reprint of a high school newspaper editorial she wrote titled “Inside Jokes Can Leave Many Outside.”
Rumple Buttercup by Matthew Gray Gubler: A self-conscious sewer-dwelling monster learns that everyone is just as weird as he is. Rumple Buttercup has "5 crooked teeth / 3 strands of hair / Green skin / And his left foot was slightly bigger than his right.… // He was weird." He's convinced that his appearance will scare people, so he lives in a sewer, listening to the conversations of passers-by and wishing he could participate. Then one day he joins the community during the Annual Pajama Jam Cotton Candy Pancake Parade, because he believes no one will notice him under his banana-peel disguise.
--Joslyn, Library Assistant
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Mindfulness Meditation: Every Wednesday, 12:15-12:45 pm. More info and register here.
Monterey County Childhood Lead Poisoning Awareness: Oct. 25-29. Learn more about this community hazard.
Chopped At Home: Sign up to make a dish of mystery ingredients provided by Monterey Public Library! Our final two weekends are November 5 and November 19.
Youth Book Club: Students in 4th-6th grades are invited to register for a free copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, to read and discuss on Wednesday, November 17 at 3:30 pm.
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Monterey Public Library | (831) 646-3933 | www.monterey.org/library
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