Coming this Fall: Dublin Reads Epitaph for a Peach

Calling all you gardeners, lovers of fresh food,  people who are interested in organic farming, and eating locally: we have made a selection for our next Dublin Reads and it is David Mas Masumoto’s Epitaph for a Peach.  From Mr. Masumoto’s website:

Epitaph for a Peach

“As pleasurable as a perfect peach, Epitaph for a Peach tells the passionate story of one farmer’s attempt to rescue one of the last truly sweet and juicy fruits from becoming obsolete in a world that increasingly values commerciality over quality. The story of Mas Masumoto’s Sun Crest peaches begins on the day he turns the bulldozers away from his orchards and vows to give himself four seasons to find a home for the fruits of his labor.

 

 

At once a deeply personal story, a sharp commentary about the state of American agriculture, a lighthearted rhapsody of nature, and an intimate glimpse into the Asian American experience, Epitaph for a Peach is about saving a peach, saving a farm, saving a family, saving a way of life–it is a story about finding “home.”"

Last year the Dublin Heritage Center co-sponsored Dublin Reads when we read Snow Mountain Passage.  We were not necessarily thinking  the Heritage Center would want to co-sponsor with us this year, since our selection is not historical.  However, this week I was having a conversation with Elizabeth Isles, the Director of the Center and I mentioned that we were doing Epitaph for a Peach.  Well, it turns out the Heritage Museum is going to have a new exhibit coming this Fall on farm life! 

Farm Life: a Century of Change for Farm Families and Their Neighbors is a traveling exhibit from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Mid-America Arts Alliance.  As we talked, Elizabeth and I realized this exhibit connects beautifully with Epitaph for a Peach!

For the library’s part we will offer again free drop-in book discussions, a showing of the film The Real Dirt on Farmer John , and we are currently searching for a speaker who can come and talk to us about our food….where it comes from, eating locally grown foods, what is community supported agriculture and related topics.  We hope also to offer a visit with the author.

The Dublin Friends of the Library will underwrite this special event by providing multiple copies of the book, sponsoring our programs and contributing to book discussion groups. 

Elizabeth is planning a fabulous array of programs at the Heritage Center to coincide with the exhibit.  More details on events will be forthcoming!

Dublin Reads will kick off at Day on the Glen, September 20 & 21st and continue until October 31st.

 

Alex Ramon, Magician, “Sold” out!

Thank you for your patience! Both of today’s shows were “sold” out.  We’ve only got space for 120 audience members for each show, so the way to get your free ticket is to arrive one half hour before the start of the show, and get in line to receive your ticket.   If the event starts at 1:30, we start giving out those tickets at 1:00 p.m.   If you want the second show at 3:00, staff will start handing out those tickets at 2:30.    We want everyone to have a good time, and everyone to have a fair shot at getting a ticket, so you and your child must actually be on site and in line to get that ticket.   

Today’s event was great fun so our hats off to Alex Ramon for a fabulous show! 

These folks enjoy a good book while waiting in line for their ticket to the 3:00 show today.

 

Timeless Reads: First Winner

Our first winner of the drawing for Timeless Reads is Carolyn Trent.  Congratulations Carolyn!  She wins a $15.00 Starbucks gift card. 

 

Summer @ the Dublin Library

The first day of summer arrived and I for one just love the idea of slower, warmer days, filled with thoughts of gardening, farmer’s market fruits and vegetables, sunshine, swimming, lazing around the patio with the family, watching the cat bliss out in a pot of catmint in the sun,  and just having more free time.  And if the economy and the price of gas are putting a dent in your vacation plans this year, the Library can offer at least some perks for a stay-at-home vacation.  The best perk of course, is that everything we offer is FREE.  The pick of our collection from dvds to summer beach reads is all available with your library card.  For all you readers out there we have reading programs for children, teens and adults. 

The kids are playing “Catch the Reading Bug” a bingo style board game.  For every 30 minutes a child clocks reading, he/she can get a spin of the dial, block out a character on their bingo board, and win prizes such as stickers, pizza coupons and the ultimate prize a free book!  Kids can earn bonus spins by doing some of the activitities on the kids summer reading blog at http://summereadingame.wordpress.com/

For teens the theme is Freak Encounters, Explore the Unexplained.  Teens can pick up a reading log at the Reference Desk, keep track of their reading and get a prize for each level they reach.  Read a total of 50 hours over the course of the summer and you also win a free book. 

Adults, we do not leave you out.  The adult program is Timeless Reads.  This is so easy and so fun.  Just read a book that you think has stood the test of time.  Enter the weekly drawing and win a $15.00 gift card.   We have a great display going in the library with some suggestions for timeless reads, but you can certainly offer your own.  When I think of timeless reads, what pops into my head are things like To Kill a Mockingbird, Prodigal Summer, Prince of Tides, Lord of the Rings,  Corelli’s Mandolin.  Share your timeless reads on the adult summer reading blog at http://summerreading4adults.wordpress.com/.  At the end of the summer we will put all the weekly winners in a hat and draw a grand prize winner for a gift card to a bookstore. 

Don’t forget to look to us for some special free programs.  This Wednesday is the start of Wild Wednesdays at the Dublin Library with programs for children scheduled for June 25, July 9, July 30 and August 6.  This Wednesday it’s Alex Ramon, the magician.  Alex is known as the “San Francisco Bay Area’s Best Stage Magician,” and is just returning from Mickey’s Magic Show tour with Disney Live. The first show is at 1:30 with a repeat performance at 3:00 p.m.  We start giving out free tickets one half hour before the program.  Looking ahead, on July 9th Python Ron will be here. Python Ron will bring bugs and spiders for a creepy crawling good time.

We will post more on events coming up in July very soon!

 

 

 

Exercise Your Kid Power!

Students going into sixth, seventh and eighth grades in September are needed as volunteers this summer at the Dublin Library. Volunteers help children play the summer reading game and assist with other library tasks.

One last training for Kid Power has been scheduled for Monday, June 23, at 1:00pm. The orientation takes about half an hour.

This is an opportunity to meet new friends, gain some valuable work experience, help your community and just plain have some fun.

 

 

Family Story Night!

Celebrate Children’s Book Week!

Family Story Night is the traditional way to celebrate Children’s Book Week at the Dublin Library. Come listen and participate as librarians and community members read stories, do fingerplays and sing songs for your family’s delight. We’ll gather in the Picture Book Area of the library, Wednesday, May 14th, 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Pajamas are always appropriate for this evening activity.

 

Celebrate National Library Weeks’ Golden Anniversary

Celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries, librarians and library workers during the 50th anniversary of National Library Week,  April 13th - 19th.  This year’s theme is Join the Circle of Knowledge @ your library.  Entertainer and author Julie Andrews (Edwards) is this year’s honorary chair.  Ms. Andrews is known for her movies Sound of Music and The Princess Diaries.   Some of her books include Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother and Child and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.   Her autobiography, Home:  A Memoir of My Early Years, was recently released and added to the Dublin Library’s collection.

 The Dublin Library has a display of children’s books about libraries and librarians next to the Information Desk.  You can also share some of the reasons why you love to use the Dublin Library by writing on the display table’s cover.

Please stop by and celebrate National Library Week at the Dublin Library!

 

 

 

Experience the California Gold Rush!

On Sunday we have another special Dublin Reads Chautauqua event: storyteller Charlie Chin will be here doing a solo performance as the famous Chinese herbal doctor Yee Fung Cheung. 

Like so many others, Yee Fung Cheung was lured to California by the discovery of gold. However, after arriving in the gold camps, he found out that his services as an herbal doctor were needed by the Chinese miners.  His original herb shop, Chew Kee Store still exists as a museum in Fiddletown.

Charlie Chin brings Yee Fung Cheung and the Chinese experience during the gold rush to life. Charlie is a musician, historian, author and storyteller who has been in the forefront of Asian American artistic expression since the 70’s.  In 1989, he was named a Community Folklore Scholar by the Smithsonian Insitution. 

Please join us for this fascinating recreation of California history on Sunday, March 2 at 2:00 p.m.  This program is funded by the Dublin Friends of the Library.

 

music in the library

Adam Miller, folksinger and storyteller, will be here today starting at 2 p.m.  Adam has a repertoire of over 2,000 traditional and contemporary folk songs. Inspired as a child by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, among others, Adam accompanies himself with acoustic guitar and autoharp.  He is, in fact, known as one of the premier autoharpists in the world.

Adam has recorded three CDs of American folksongs, The Orphan Train and Other Reminiscences, Wild Birds and Along Came a Giant – Traditional American Folk Songs for Young Folks. Dublin has a copy of Along Came a Giant so be sure and check it out.

Adam is focusing today on songs of the California Gold Rush and the westward movement. This program is part of a series of Chautauqua events to coincide with Dublin Reads Snow Mountain Passage. Come for a relaxing and fun hour of music and entertainment!  Funds for this program have been provided by the Dublin Friends of the Library.

 

Juana Briones

I have to confess that my understanding of California history is very limited.   It’s not something I ever got in school in a consistent way; nor was it a subject that I was ever drawn to explore on my own.  Ironically, though I did not care much for the subject of California history, I did care about local history. The names of places, the origins of things, the beginnings.  If I am standing on Donlon Road looking at Old St. Raymond’s Church, there is a part of me that wants to know…where did this come from, who built it what was their experience of this land before freeways, strip malls, tract housing and office complexes?  I stand here now, but who stood before and what did they experience?

On Sunday we will be exploring the life of a woman who came much before our time….Juana Briones de Miranda.  She was born in 1802 of a mixed race couple that included Spanish, Mexican, African and Indian ancestry.  Her life, so unusual for a woman, but also for a woman of mixed race, included owning her own land, obtaining a legal separation from her husband at a time when there was no divorce,  successfully raising 8 children and supporting them with her own vegetable farm and cattle ranch. 

According to the Presidio of San Francisco website, without any formal training she was a nurse and midwife, a curandera, healer who was a legend in her own time. She treated smallpox and scurvy, set broken bones, used herbal remedies for her healing. As the political fortunes of California moved from Spanish, to Mexican to U.S. governance, and many other Mexicans were losing their rancheros, she took her claim of land ownership all the way to the Supreme Court and won. “One of the few Mexican women of early California who owned a rancho in her own name (not as inherited property of a deceased spouse), Juana’s life story is a model of personal integrity, economic self-sufficiency, compassion for others and success as a landowner against great odds,” writes Stanford History Professor Albert Camarillo in a Palo Alto Weekly column.

So you would think with all this achievement that there would be a book about her.  But there really isn’t.  What we do have though, is a wonderful storyteller, Olga Loya, who has fashioned a unique one woman performance piece on her life. In a dramatic monologue and dialogue with the audience, in English and in Spanish, Olga tells us the story of Juana Briones by becoming Juana Briones.  She will perform at the Dublin Library on Sunday starting at 2:00 p.m.

This event is part of the series of Chautauqua learning experiences coinciding with Dublin Reads Snow Mountain Passage.  It’s appropriate for families with children in elementary through high school. More information can be found about Juana Briones at these websites:

Juana Briones Heritage Foundation, www.brioneshouse.org

Stanford University Research at the Presidio of San Francisco, Tennessee Hollow Watershed Archealogical Project, www.stanford.edu/group/presidio/juana.html

There is one book about Juana Briones, The Stories of Juana Briones:Alta California Pioneer, which most unfortunately we do not own in Alameda County, but it can be borrowed through Link+.