10 Great Reasons to Read Fiction in February 2019
There are tons of great books coming out this month. I hope you have room on your holds list!
New Nonfiction
Check out new nonfiction titles at OPL.
New year, new books. Take a look at some of the new nonfiction available at OPL. Happy reading!
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon. This one is not to be missed. A review.
The word is out about Heavy. Currently there are 41 Holds on the library’s 15 copies, and we have ordered more. Glowing reviews in the New York Times, LA Times, Entertainment Weekly and on NPR have spread the word. This one is not to be missed.
Heavy is about a young black man growing up mostly in Jackson, Mississippi, shaped by his brilliant yet punitive mother’s powerful presence like a blacksmith shapes a sword. What is it like to be the steel, beaten and heated and tested? Kiese Laymon shapes the readers’ experience with utmost skill, letting us feel both his brilliance
10 Great Reasons to Read Fiction in January 2019
What will be your first read of the new year? We have ten ideas for you.
New Beginnings
Setting intentions for the new year? OPL can help.
A new year is fast approaching. For many of us, this is often a time for setting intentions and making changes in our lives. Maybe you want to make more home cooked meals or get rid of clutter. Have you been wanting to visit local museums and attractions around the Bay Area? Or maybe you want life to feel a bit less complicated. OPL can help!
Cooking
These are cookbooks with fairly simple recipes for people with busy lives.
Our Favorite Books of 2018
OPL staff look back on their favorite books of 2018.
I asked my colleagues to share their some of their favorite books from the last twelve months and here they are! We'd love to hear from you too--please share your favorite books of 2018 in the comments.
North of the Border
When you think of good things from Canada, what do you think of? Maple syrup? Hockey? Tim Hortons doughnuts? Justin Trudeau?
Do you ever think about Canadian authors? It’s time you did. Here’s a very incomplete sample for you.
Let’s start with Margaret Atwood: novelist, poet, short story writer. Ever since her 1969 debut novel, The Edible Woman, Atwood has been ravishing readers with her prose. Besides her many works of speculative and dystopian fiction, she has published short fiction, non-fiction, fiction for children and teens, two dozen volumes of poetry, and a graphic novel, Angel Catbird. Her 1996 novel, Alias Grace (made into a 2017 Netflix mini-series) won the
5 Great Reasons to Read Fiction in December 2018
A few of this December's best fiction offerings.
Go figure, this month is turning out to be a slightly slow month for fiction. But if you’re like me, you're still catching up on all of your 2018 reads anyway. Here’s a shorter list of new books so you can join me in a last-ditch effort to catch up with our holds lists. Happy reading!
Feeling Crafty?
Make your own gifts!
Are you interested in making your own gifts for the holidays? Oakland Public Library can help! We have a broad assortment of craft and baking books for you. From soap making to jewelry making, paper crafts and gifts you can eat there's something for everyone -- even the cats! And if you don't celebrate any particular holiday you'll find plenty of projects to keep you busy during the winter months.
Skin Care and Candlemaking
The Great War
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row."
Sunday, November 11, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the War to End All War. The armistice that ended the fighting was signed at 11 a.m., Paris time, “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” The Great War decimated a generation in England and on the continent. More than 100,000 Americans also died of injuries or illness after we joined the conflict in April of 1917.
Readers know that the Great War’s trauma produced a legacy of great books. Many fall in the category of well-known classics; others will be less familiar to American readers. We’ll look at a handful of them here.
One of the great histories of World War I is Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 The Guns of August. She begins her story with the funeral of Edward VII in 1910 and covers the full sweep of the war.
Two memoirs of the war are worth your