Fastest way to get yourself kicked out of the monastery! Daily Treats are sweet finds from our Treat Avenue Donation Center. Hungry for more collectibles?  Find us at Amazon and AbeBooks.

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal Is writing an intrinsically political act?  Earlier this month a line-up of some of California’s best writers spoke briefly upon accepting their prizes at the Commonweath Club’s annual book awards. Sherri Smith spoke about years-long struggle to interest a publisher in the story of a young black woman who passes for [...]

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By Marcia Schneider Among the most significant professional role models in my life have been women older than myself by one or more decades. Coming of age in a different era, these women had unimaginable challenges, especially women of color, yet swept past enormous hurdles and went on to great achievements. Names that come immediately [...]

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By Michelle Jeffers The World Cup is still going strong and yes, I am trying to arrange my schedule around the soccer matches. But my boys are back in town this weekend. There is nothing better than catching a summer game at the league’s most beautiful ballpark. Even the last row is coveted for its [...]

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal Oil keeps spilling in the Gulf as if gushing down our throats; why haven’t we done better as a society to protect the environment?  In The Rebirth of Environmentalism:  Grassroots Activism from the Spotted Owl to the Polar Bear, sociologist and activist Douglas Bevington lays part of the blame in a [...]

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Excellent choice of stock photography! Daily Treats are sweet finds from our Treat Avenue Donation Center. Hungry for more collectibles?  Find us at Amazon and AbeBooks.

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By Michelle Jeffers Could working at the Library get any better than this? Not only is summer reading in full swing with gaggles of eager readers, from kids to adults, streaming through our doors, but right outside the doors of the Main Library, we can catch World Cup soccer games on a big screen. Thanks [...]

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By Marcia Schneider One of the hottest fall titles in the book publishing business, scheduled for an October release, is Life by Keith Richards. According to advance publicity in The Daily Mail as well as buzz at last month’s Book Expo America, the singer, songwriter, guitarist and founding member of The Rolling Stones once had [...]

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By Mary Ellen Hannibal Remnants of a world not quite left behind are omni-present in Kathryn Ma’s short story collection, All That Work And Still No Boys, for which Ma won the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award. Many of her characters are first- and second-generation Chinese Americans making ginger forays into a new world they [...]

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By Michelle Jeffers Common wisdom is that sequels are never as good as the original. That’s why I’m sheepishly admitting I’ve never been more excited by the news (thanks to SFPL Children’s Collection Specialist Carla Kozak) that a sequel is out to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Originally published in 1904, the book [...]

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