September 2005 RETURN TO HOME PAGE FEEDBACK

This month's book list, chosen by Noe Valley librarian Carol Small and Voice bookworm Karol Barske, features a Booker Prize winner, a history of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and a children's story whose canine hero transforms himself into Superdog. To find out which books are available at our branch, go to www.sfpl.org, call 355-5707, or visit the Noe Valley­Sally Brunn Library at 451 Jersey Street near Castro Street. Besides books, the library offers magazines, newspapers, DVDs, music CDs, Internet access, and the archives and index to the Noe Valley Voice. Branch hours are Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 1 to 9 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays, 1 to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Adult Fiction

- In If You Are Afraid of Heights, Raj Kamal Jha tells three tales of the changing landscape of urban India. The style often moves between fantasy and reality.

- An 11-year-old Catholic school student develops a Messiah complex when he plays the lead role in a passion play gone awry in The Beginning of Calamity by Tom House.

- A Krakow woman who narrowly survived World War II hides a horrible secret in Anja the Liar by Thomas Moran.

- Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize­winning novel, The Line of Beauty, is set in the world of London politics during the boom years of the 1980s.

Adult Nonfiction

- John Leland analyzes Hip: The History, from Walt Whitman to the Beats to contemporary hip-hop style and music.

- The San Francisco Mime Troupe Reader, edited by Susan Vaneta Mason, tells the stories behind the group's major and minor productions over the past 40 years.

- Maureen Dowd's Bushworld examines the "Oedipal loop-de-loop" between American presidents number 41 and 43, and the Orwellian logic used by their dynasty.

- In How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization, Cathy Crimmins points out how an "immigrant" group has influenced mainstream American society's aesthetics.

Children's Fiction

- Whenever you have a free moment, you can share a story with listeners of all ages from Margaret Read MacDonald's Three-Minute Tales: Stories from Around the World to Tell or Read When Time Is Short.

- Beatrice hates being taken to the library by her brother Henry, and she's extremely bored waiting for him--until the right book catches her interest at the story hour in Beatrice Doesn't Want To, written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. Ages 3 to 5.

- When free-spirit Albert comes into his life, over-organized Wallace's own life changes in unexpected, enjoyable ways in Wallace's Lists by Barbara Botter, with illustrations by Olof Landström. Ages 3 to 6.

- After being teased and taunted by the neighborhood bully Cleevis, Dex transforms himself into a brawny (but still kindhearted) hero in Superdog: The Heart of a Hero, written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner. Ages 4 to 6.

- A farm boy named Jack and a fisherman from Shetland are two of the people whose lives are affected by beings they can barely see in The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Sacred Beings by Lise Lunge-Larsen, illustrated by Beth Krommes. Ages 6 to 9.

- Writer Mary Lyn Ray and illustrator Peter Sylvada created Welcome, Brown Bird, about two boys connected across continents through their concern for a songbird with a threatened habitat. Ages 7 and up.

Children's Nonfiction

- "Bright flits, brisk zips, a green-gray blur, wings, zings, and whirr" appear in Kristine O'Connell George's Hummingbird Nest: A Journal of Poems, illustrated by Barry Moser. Ages 6 and up.

- In The Salem Witch Trials: An Unsolved Mystery from History, by Jane Yolen with art by Roger Roth, readers can be detectives analyzing clues in the text. Ages 9 and up.

LIBRARY EVENTS

Library Renovation Meeting

- The community is invited to view the finalized plans for the renovation of the Noe Valley Library, including the color scheme and furniture choices; also, interim services for when the branch closes will be explained on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 7 p.m.

Preschool Merriment

- "Fun, Friendly Music and Movement with Catherine" is a program for infants and kids up to 4 years old, on Thursday, Sept. 8, at 10 and 11 a.m.

Preschool Story Time and Films

- Children ages 2 to 5 are invited to attend a preschool story time at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays, Sept. 6 and 27. Films, including Monty, Pete's a Pizza, and Where the Wild Things Are will be screened at 10 and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13.