Valuable Thoughts On Libraries From California State Librarian Greg Lucas

(These thoughts are from a recent speech given by Greg Lucas at the Pomona Library Library Foundation Gala)

California has 1,130 local libraries that are as diverse and unique as Californians and the communities they call home. Part of the State Library’s job is to remind Californians how libraries change lives and help reduce the number of adult Californians who cannot read a story to their kids, take a written test or, more troubling, understand the label on a bottle of meds. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Educations says there are thirty-two million functionally illiterate Americans, around four million of them in California. The most cost effective way to spend a taxpayer dollar is to use it to teach someone to become a stronger reader. There is no other government expenditure that can ever pay as huge a dividend in human potential. Nothing even comes close.

Four Seasons Book Group

 The first meeting of our Seasons Book Group met at the Diamond Bar Library Windmill Room at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 18 was a very enjoyable morning. We are excited to start this quarterly book group as we had planned it before COVID hit and it has been on hold all this time.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles gave us much to discuss. The author gave us the story of one man trapped in a hotel for life and also a history of Russia through the Twentieth Century. The morning was relaxing and stimulating at the same time with old and new friends.

Our Fall Four Seasons Book Group meeting will be on October 1, 11 am at the Diamond Bar Library Windmill Room and we will be discussing Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen, the annual selection for Read Together Diamond Bar.

Gently Used Purse Sale

Perhaps you could go through your closets and see if you have any “gently used” purses that you would like to see going to a new home. There are receptacles in the Diamond Bar

Library waiting to receive them. They will be offered for sale at the Gently Used Purse Sale on Saturday, October 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Diamond Bar Library Windmill Room. Of course, all the proceeds from the sale go directly to the Diamond Bar Library for materials, programs, DVDs, etc. This is always a fun day checking out the purses, purchasing them and knowing that it all goes to help our community library. 

Friends of the Library Bookstore News

July 2022

by Elaine Mickle, Bookstore Manager

Located in the Diamond Bar Library

Thank you for supporting the Friends of the Library Bookstore

Each book and item sold in the bookstore supports the Diamond Bar Library to enlarge our reading and media collections. Improving literacy in our community one book at a time.

The bookstore volunteers say thank you to all who have donated gently used books for others to enjoy. Donations assist us in keeping our inventory refreshed for the community to enjoy.

Year to date summary of books sold Jan 2022 through June 18, 2022

Total books sold: 4,580

Total money raised for our Diamond Bar Library programs to date: $7,976

YTD Most popular items sold: Children's books

Our July summer reading book sale is all Romance and Fiction Novels Authors last name starting A through M.

Hardbacks and Trade books $1.00 / Paperbacks 2 for a $1.00

Community outreach:

Thank you to Raphael Plunkett who purchased over three hundred children’s books for a book give away at Leimart Park.

Congratulations to bookstore patron Laura Pan who won our free Opportunity Drawing basket this month. It is a beautiful Fourth of July themed basket created by MaryKay Nichols. Special thanks to all our bookstore patrons.

“A true friend is like a good book; the inside is better than the cover”

Anonymous

Bookstore hours are:

Monday        11 am - 5 pm

Tuesday         11 am – 5 pm

Wednesday   11 am – 5 pm

Thursday       11 am to 5 pm

Friday            11 am - 5 pm

Saturday         11 am – 5 pm

How A Book Changed My Life

This essay contest is offered annually in conjunction with Read Together Diamond and is offered for students ages 13 to 18. It should be approximately 1,000 words and there will be prizes for the top three essays. The deadline for submissions is November 1 and the students will be notified by November 10. Look for more information on the essay contest applications in the coming months. 

Read together diamond bar coming soon!

Read Together Diamond Bar is held each year in the Fall to celebrate reading and community. We are inviting everyone in the community to read the same book and then offer activities for every age.

The Bad Seed by Jory John and Pete Oswald is suggested for children to read. There is a bad seed. A baaaaaaaad seed. How bad? Do you really want to know? Can a bad seed change his baaaaaaaad? Read this book with your children and find out. 

The adult and teen selection, Wild Bird, is from the award-winning author of The Running Dream and Flipped comes a remarkable portrait of a girl who has hit rock bottom but begins a climb back to herself at a wilderness survival camp.

3:47 a.m. That’s when they come for Wren Clemmens. She’s hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who’ve gone so far off the rails, their parents don’t know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.

The Wren who arrives in the Utah desert is angry and bitter, and blaming everyone but herself. But angry can’t put up a tent. And bitter won’t start a fire. Wren’s going to have to admit she needs help if she’s going to survive.

"I read Wild Bird in one long mesmerized gulp. Wren will break your heart—and then mend it." —Nancy Werlin, National Book Award finalist for The Rules of Survival

"Van Draanen’s Wren is real and relatable, and readers will root for her." —VOYA, starred review

Source: Publisher 

The author, Wendelin Van Draanen was born on January 6, 1965, in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of chemists who emigrated from Holland. She worked as a math teacher and then as a computer science teacher before becoming an author. Wendelin Van Draanen began her writing career with a screenplay and soon switched to adult novels and then children's books. She is best known for her Sammy Keyes series of novels, which she started writing in 1997, featuring a teenage detective named Samantha Keyes. Her popular Sammy Keyes series had been nominated four times for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children's Mystery and won with "Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief". Her Shredderman series also yielded a Christopher Medal for Secret Identity. She has also authored several novels such as: How I Survived Being a Girl and Flipped.

From The Book Nook

“We lose ourselves in books.we sometimes find ourselves there too.” 

Do you have books that you are reading that you would like to share? We would love to hear from you for our upcoming e-newsletters. You can reply to this email with your selections.

¯ From California State Librarian Greg Lucas

Currently Reading: SHADOWFIRE by Tanith Lee

Recently Read: WORLD WAR I AT HOME: READINGS ON AMERICAN LIFE, 1914-1920 by David Trask

Waiting to Read: A Walk on the Beach by Joan Anderson 

¯ Diamond Bar City Councilmember Nancy Lyons

Currently Reading:  Code Girls by Liza Mundy The untold story of the American Women code breakers of World War II 

¯ From Pui-Ching Ho, Community Library Manager

Lost and found
by Bruce Hale
While on a field trip to the farmers' market, Clark becomes separated from his classmates and must use his rhyming skills to help him remember his teacher's instructions. Ages: 4-7

¯ From Janet Ramirez-Manchan, Teen Librarian
The Counselors by Jessica Goodman

Summer camp has never been more thrilling! Goldie Easton is excited to be a camp counselor at an exclusive summer camp and spend time with her two best friends, but when the body of a local boy is discovered on the grounds she must confront long-buried secrets and somehow find the killer. This is perfect reading, either on the beach or in the woods.

¯ From Kathleen Newe:  I just started Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, a best seller in Japan. So far it looks like a winner. Nex up: Two Night in Lisbon by Chris Pavone. They both seem like great summer reading on the beach—which is where I am heading soon.

¯ From Reading Between the Lines Book Group:  A lively discussion was had for When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. We are looking forward to our July 25 meeting to discuss The Maid by Nita Prose. This is a mystery set in the very swank upscale Grand Regency Hotel. On August 29 we will discuss Never Forsaken by Cindy Scott. The author will join us that evening recounting her mother’s true story of being a young woman in the Philippines as World War II begins.

¯ Do not forget to check out all the great programs available through the Los Angeles County Library and at the Diamond Bar Library. Summer Reading Programs for children, teens and adults.

to our library friends for their donations for the support of the 2022 Library Programs.

https://dblibraryfriends.org/donate/