Each year at the winter holidays, Mechanics' Institute throws a holiday bash of spectacular proportions, including food, beverages, music, and more! It's a chance for members to gather together and get to know one another while they nibble and imbibe. If you haven't yet registered, you may do so on our website, or by calling the reference desk between 10am and 3pm at 415-393-0102.
As is customa...
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BOOKS
FICTION
Dror Burstein Muck
Marina & Sergey Dyachenko Vita nostra
Patrick Lohier Radiant night
Historical Fiction
Carrie Callaghan A light of her own
Kevin McC...
BOOKS
FICTION
Melanie Hobson Summer cannibals
Marci Vogel Death & other holidays
Tamsen Wolff Juno's swans
Yu Hua The April 3rd incident: stories
Historical Fiction...
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Have you heard? #GivingTuesday is a new way for the community to come together to kick off the giving season and support those organizations we know and love, like the Mechanics’ Institute.
#GivingTuesday recognizes that there is so much more we can do together. When we pool our resources and acknowledge outwardly the transformation we’ve experienced inwardly as a result of the people and places who are making a difference in our lives, great things c...
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On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Mechanics’ Institute and with much gratitude for his excellent service, I announce the departure of Ralph Lewin as Executive Director effective January 14, 2019. During his four years at MI, Ralph has enhanced the relevance, visibility, and community engagement of the Institute, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as a “beacon of what a cultural institution can be for all citizens.” With a recent grant from the Nationa...
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BOOKS
FICTION
Oyinkan Braithwaite My sister, the serial killer
Alice Hatcher The wonder that was ours
Karl Ove Knausgaard My struggle. Book six
Jason Reynolds All American boys
Histo...
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The past is behind us, the future is ahead. Let us all strive to make the future better and brighter than the past ever was - Gerrit A. Beneker 1918
Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I between the Allies and Germany. Like most organizations, the Mechanics’ Institute felt duty bound to aid in the war effort. Writing in his annual report of March 17, 1918, MI president Livingston Jenks o...
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BOOKS
FICTION
Eugenia Kim The kinship of secrets
Kim Sagwa Mina
Paulo Coelho Hippie
Leif Enger Virgil Wander
Meredith Russo If I was your...
Want to learn about jazz when it was “cool”? Cool is a term coined by music journalists to describe a jazz genre after bebop with slower tempos, softer phrasing, contrapuntal improvisation from melody instruments, and an incorporation of classical instruments like French horn and vibraphone. Cool has a California connection. Some well-publicized musicians of the period resided in California, and the term “West Coast jazz” now refers to a subgenre of cool that includes work from Dave Brub...
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Brave the elements from the comfort of the couch with selections from our latest DVD and Blu-ray display “Human vs. Nature.” Below are staff recommendations from the 2nd Floor display.
Myles recommends:
Based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Wild chronicles Strayed’s ambitious hike after a bou...
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