Berkeley Public Library: November Happenings
Special Documentary Presentation: "First Vote"
Stream it for Free & Meet the Filmmaker
First Vote

For a limited time (10/25/20-11/1/20) view the documentary First Vote,
then attend the Q&A with local filmmaker, Yi Chen.
 
“Must-watch for anyone who cares about the upcoming election.”
– Documentary Magazine

“Provocative.”
– The Moveable Fest

“Beguiling and refreshingly non-partisan political travelogue.”
– American Film Institute
 
Small Business Bootcamp

The Library and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce have teamed up to offer a 6-part series of FREE online classes.

Topics include:
  • Creating a successful business plan 
  • Marketing and online sales
  • Human resources for the small business
  • Networking best practices

 
Culinary Programs
Cooking Matters at Home
 
In November, join three interactive, once-per-week classes.
 
Learn tips on how to cook nutritious and affordable meals for your family, from the comfort of your own kitchen!
 
Ingredients will be provided for the series and space is limited.
 
Farm to Shelf

Celebrate Berkeley’s culinary heritage with the Library’s Farm to Shelf program series!

The series launches November 7th, with cookbook author, educator and Charlie Cart Project founder Carolyn Federman who will demonstrate making pesto with healthy ingredients. A Q&A will follow.
Positive Thinking for Beginners Series
Tuesdays in November
 
Learn how to improve the tenor of your internal dialogue and boost self confidence through easy-to-learn techniques in these interactive, virtual classes. 
 
 
Author Talk
Author Talk & Reading: Kevin Noble Maillard
Saturday November 21
10:30-11am

Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Pura Belpre Award winner and Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal.

“A wonderful and sweet book . . . Lovely stuff.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
Fry Bread has won numerous awards including being a 2020 ALA Notable Children's Book, a National Public Radio (NPR) Best Book of 2019 and a School Library Journal Best Picture Book of 2019.
 
5th & 6th Grade Virtual Book Club
3rd Tuesdays
4-5pm
 
Calling all 5th & 6th graders... join the club!
 
This is a fun, non-competitive virtual space to enjoy books with other kids.
New members are welcome at any meeting.
 
For our November meeting we will be reading Trace by Pat Cummings. 
 
There are many more virtual programs happening in November!
Browse the Library's online event calendar.
 
Programming is made possible by the generous support of the 
Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.
 
Teen Reading Recommendations 
*excerpted from the most recent "Teen Scene" monthly newsletter. 
 
Girls Save the World in This One 
by Ash Parsons
 
Looking forward to the panels, photo ops and celebrity appearances at the ZombieCon fan convention, June and her girl-power friends discover that real zombies have taken over the event, prompting a daring plan to save the world. By the award-winning author of Still Waters. 
Early Departures 
by Justin A. Reynolds 

When the estranged best friend he blames for a fatal accident drowns, Jamal is given an unexpected chance to reconnect with his best friend and find closure through a temporary reanimation technology that allows his friend to come back to life for a short duration. 
Watch Over Me 
by Nina Lacour 
 
A follow-up to the award-winning We Are Okay finds a newly graduated Mila emerging from foster care to accept a job on an isolated Northern California Coast farm where she confronts haunting memories and the traumas of her fellow residents.  
Smash It! 
by Francina Simone 

Challenging herself to overcome long-held insecurities at the beginning of her junior year, Liv lands an unexpected role in her high school’s hip-hopera production of Othello that helps launch her journey of self-empowerment.  
The Gilded Wolves 
by Roshani Chokshi
 
Welcome to: 1889 Paris, where the ancient, magical Order of Babel calls the shots, and disinherited Order member Severin is gathering a crew of talented misfits to pull off a heist that could change everything.
Read it for: high stakes, luxe settings, an inventive blend of magic and science, and richly drawn characters with intersecting identities. 
For fans of: Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows.
 
 
Monthly Reading Recommendations by Genre
Receive monthly newsletters filled with reading recommendations.
 
Choose from 20+ different interest areas.
 
 
Quick Links to Voting Information
  
Find answers to your voting questions including deadlines, voting by mail procedures and proposition information on our website. 

Have more questions?

Email us or call 510.981.6100.
Staff are available to answer your reference and Library account questions by phone six days a week: Mondays 12-8, Tuesdays 10-8, Wednesdays 10-6, Thursdays 10-6, Fridays 10-6, and Saturdays 10-6.
 
Official Alameda County ballot drop boxes are at three of our Libraries:
  • West
  • North
  • Claremont 
Come drop off your signed ballots at one of the drop boxes.
 
What's Your Library Story?
#MyLibraryStory: Masha
 
My family came to America in October of 1978. They had their vision of America - little Odessa, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square.
 
I had my America - Sesame Street.

Oh, how I wanted to live there. An integrated community of people and monsters - singing, learning, and dancing all the time. A world that validated living in garbage cans and crowded city landscapes.

I learned how to speak English on Sesame Street. My time there sparked a thirst for language, letters, and rules of grammar. I craved order in a neighborhood busy with pigeons and loudspeaker subway announcements,

Being immigrants - we had no books. Or, no books in English. Only my grandma could read English, and she only read romance novels.

I discovered the library as a place of information.
 
My grandpa would walk over with me to the end of Brighton Beach Avenue, under the shadowed train tracks.

I chose to read about the history of this country - genocide of indigenous people, slavery, institutionalized racism, Japanese internment camps. In Yeshiva, I studied religious persecution of Jews, and I was trying to make sense of humanity.
 
The library’s version of America contradicted both Sesame Street and what the television was saying, but how could so many books be wrong?

I must’ve read all the books they had; it was a small library and I am a fast reader. I was hungry for dissenting opinions.
 
35 years later, no longer in Brooklyn, I am still an active public library patron, still assembling my dissenting opinions.

If Sesame Street taught me to speak English, the public library taught me America.
 
#mylibrarystory #everysunday #berkeleypubliclibrary #ilovemylibrary  
 
Send your library story and photos to areeder@cityofberkeley.info
 
Let's stay connected virtually!
 
Your Library is on Facebook & Instagram.

We post often and you can always direct message us with questions.

Some of our most popular posts are #ThrowbackThursdays and #ReadingisInstrumental all-star musical storytime on Fridays. 
 
 
From the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library
 
The Friends' Channing Store
is open by appointment only. 
Learn more on the Friends website.
 
Last week was National Friends of the Library week; we are so grateful for our Friends!
 
 
Reminder: Covid-19 Information and Updates
Updates on Library Services during Covid-19:
 
We will continue to provide updates via this e-newsletter, on social media and in our FAQs on our website:
 
berkeleypubliclibrary.org/coronavirus.
 
For the latest Covid-19 news from the City of Berkeley please refer to:
 
www.cityofberkeley.info/coronavirus.
 
 
HOLIDAY CLOSURES:
 
Outdoor Pickup will be closed on Wednesday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day.

Outdoor Pickup will be closed on Thursday, November 26 & Friday, November 27 in observance of Thanksgiving. 
 
 
Berkeley Public Library
2090 Kittredge St.
Berkeley, California 94704
510.981.6100
www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/