Everyone is invited to attend the History Book Club at Almaden Branch Library, which next meets at the library on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 6:30 PM.

For the May meeting, the Book Club is reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo:

The dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the 21st century's great, unequal cities. In this fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human. Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees fortune in the recyclable garbage of richer people. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a rural childhood, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to good times. But then, as the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. -- From the publisher description

If you are interested, this book is currently available through the Link+ request service or in audio format from San José Public Library.

In an effort to help serve our Chinese language community, Almaden Branch Library provides at least three programs that may be of interest:
 

• Computer Tutoring in Mandarin and English: 1st Thursday of each month @ 3:00 PM or 4:00 PM in the library's Tech Center
  In this program, you can get a 1-hour session of 1-on-1 tutoring with a computer expert — in Mandarin and/or English. Adults get help with Facebook, email, your own laptop or tablet, Microsoft Office programs, and many other hardware and software options. Pre-registration is required. Please contact Almaden Branch Library to register at 1-408-808-3040.
  
  
   
• Reading to Children in Mandarin and English: every Wednesday @ 4:00 PM in the Children's Library
  In this program Eugenia reads to children in Mandarin and English. Children can enjoy one-on-one interaction with her, and they can choose the stories they wish to hear. There is no need to sign up. Just drop in and enjoy the program when it is scheduled.
  
  
  
  
  
   
• ESL Conversation Club: every Thursday @ 1:00 PM in the library's Program Room
  In this program adult ESL learners are invited to join our free Conversation Club to practice their English language skills. There is no need to sign up. Just drop in and enjoy the program when it is scheduled. Note: Some English ability is required to attend this program.

You are cordially invited to visit with Brian Castner, author of The Long Walk: a Story of War and the Life That Follows, at Almaden Branch Library on Saturday, March 2, at 11:00 AM.

In this free author visit, Brian talks about his being in combat and the difficulties he experienced when he returned home. Q&A follows his talk.

"Brian Castner served three tours of duty in the Middle East, two of them as the commander of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit in Iraq. Days and nights he and his team-his brothers-would venture forth in heavily armed convoys from their Forward Operating Base to engage in the nerve-racking yet strangely exhilarating work of either disarming the deadly improvised explosive devices that had been discovered, or picking up the pieces when the alert came too late.

"When Castner returned home to his wife and family, he began a struggle with a no less insidious foe, an unshakable feeling of fear and confusion and survivor's guilt that he terms The Crazy. His thrilling, heartbreaking, stunningly honest book immerses the reader in two harrowing and simultaneous realities: the terror and excitement and camaraderie of combat, and the lonely battle against the enemy within — the haunting memories that will not fade, the survival instincts that will not switch off." — siliconvalleyreads.org

As Brian states: "I initially wrote The Long Walk for my children, four sons, now aged 14 to 3. I was not the father I could have been following my return from Iraq, and I needed to explain my experience — my post-war anxiety, my fears, my actions in combat that haunted me daily, my adrenaline-fueled need to run every day — to both myself and them. I needed to get down in writing, as best I could, what it feels like to come home from a war. I didn't expect a catharsis or cure, simply a record." — siliconvalleyreads.org

More information about Brian and The Long Walk can be found at siliconvalleyreads.org and at briancastner.com.

In addition, The Long Walk is being featured in the library's Online Book Club for January and February.

This event is part of Silicon Valley Reads 2013 and is co-sponsored by the Friends of Almaden Library.

Listen to an excerpt from The Long Walk:

Do you want to include native plants in your garden for beauty, habitat, and sustainability, but don’t know where to start?

Come to this free talk by Rebecca Schoenenberger in the Program Room at Almaden Branch Library on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 6:00 PM.

Rebecca's gardens have been featured on the Going Native Garden Tour.

Learn about easy-to-grow native plants — trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals — for the home garden.

In the meantime, check out some of the library's books on gardening with native plants:

• Growing California Native Plants
• California Native Gardening: a Month-by-Month Guide
• Designing California Native Gardens

This program is sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and made possible by the generous donation of Friends of the Almaden Library.

Please join us on Friday, February 8, at 11:15 AM in the Almaden Branch Library when children's author Brenda Ehrmantraut will read her beautiful picture book Night Catch.

Night Catch tells the story of how a soldier whose work takes him half way around the world finds a way of staying connected with his young son: they play catch using the North Star! It "is a timeless story that connects families while they are apart and offers comforting hope for their reunion."

Brenda will talk about how the book was important to her family when her own brother was deployed. Afterwards there will be a craft where children will be given the opportunity to create thier own night skies.

This program is part of Silicon Valley Reads. Check out our events calendar to see other Silicon Valley Reads programs that are happening at San José Public Library.

Almaden Branch Library will be offering a FREE SAT/ACT Combo Practice Test on Saturday, January 26, 2013, at 10:30 AM.

The practice test lets you become familiar with the SAT test and the ACT test, giving you more versatility (how’s that for an SAT or ACT word?) than other students.
 

The test lasts about 4 hours and will be proctored by Kaplan. Half of the test will cover the SAT, and the other half will cover the ACT.

The practice test will be followed by a review session at Almaden Library which parents and students may attend on Wednesday, February 6, at 6:30 PM.

Pre-Registration is required for this practice test.

You may register by calling 1-408-808-3040 or by visiting the Information Desk at Almaden Branch Library (open Wed 11-8, Thu 10-6, Fri 10-6, Sat 10-6).

If you know anyone who might like to take the practice test, please pass this message along.

And if you can't make this live practice test, you can prep for the tests by using these free online resources provided by San José Public Library (Library Card required):

• Learning Express
• Shmoop
• Tutor.com SkillsCenter Resource Library for College

Check them out and best wishes on your testing success.