Penny, a graphic novel by Karl Stephens, is the whimsical story of the inner life of a humble tortoiseshell cat. Like many cats, she started life as a stray and was taken in (or kidnapped as she sees it) by two humans. Now that she has secure food and shelter, she spends her days contemplating various philosophical questions such as "Is time elastic?" and "What is the point...
[read more]
Some members were surprised to find my name in the SFGate article ‘Friendly’ seal bites San Francisco man, sends him to the hospital, wondering why I swim in the Bay and not in a pool. As a librarian, I would like to answer that question with an assemblage of works explaining why some swim in open water.
...
[read more]
When you hear the name "Martin Scorsese" does the phrase "screwball comedy" spring to mind? Maybe it should. In 1985, years after establishing himself as one of the great film directors of our time with movies such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Scorsese directed an absurdist comedy worthy of the old Ealing comedies of the 1950s. Unlike the screwball comedies of old, however,...
[read more]
PRINT BOOKS
FICTION
Parini Shroff The bandit queensl Fic Shroff
Annie Ernaux Do what they say or else Fic Ernaux
Hal Hartley Our lady of the highway Fic Hartley
Josh Riedel Please report your bug here...
Do you think that the present state of political discourse in the United States has hit an all-time low? Do you think the population has grown irrevocably divided? We hear words like "unprecedented," and "in all of our history," and other hyperbole nearly every time a political commentator opens their mouth. Along with blaming the mess on social media and technology. Well, read H.L. Mencken on U.S. politics of the 1...
[read more]
PRINT BOOKS
NON-FICTION
Arts, Architecture & Crafts
Hebru Brantley Hebru Brantley. 709.2 B735
Thomas E. Crow The artist in the counterculture : Bruce Conner to Mike Kelley and other tales from the edge 701 C953
Aaron Huey Mitakuye oyasin...
E-AUDIOBOOKS
Joseph Conrad Almayer's folly
Charles Dickens Bleak house
Joseph Conrad Chance : A tale in two parts
Virginia Woolf Four short stories by Virginia Woolf
Walter Scott...
EBOOKS
Fiction
Virginia Woolf Kew gardens
William Gibson Cyberpunk
Franz Werfel The forty days of Musa Dagh
Anne Brontë The tenant of Wildfell Hall
Benjamin Disraeli...
Improve your chess calculations : the Ramesh Chess course 794.1 Im78
In practice you can "run through" problems on a chess board to see how a given move will work out. During games, however, it is against the rules to do this. The process of figuring out the results of a given move or series of moves chess players call "calculation." This book pro...
[read more]
In the bookstacks of the Mechanics Institute Library, hidden in an almost literal sense, we have many books that, once you find them, can hold you in fascination, to the point of losing track of time. Among these hidden gems we have an annual publication, World Press Photo, that compiles the most compelling and relevant photographs from photojournalists for the yea...
[read more]
