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:

San Jose Public Library has a large Chinese collections that you can check out from King Library as well as at many branches.

The popular authors and fiction titles for Chinese readers as of January 2013 are as follows. 

聖荷西公共圖書館有許多的中文圖書，在總館（KingLibrary）或許多分館都可以借閱。截至2013年1月為止，排名前十位的作家與小說名單如下。

排名前10位暢銷作家

1  Yishu  亦舒   

2  Jin, Yong  金庸            

3  Mo, Yan  莫言             

4  Ji, Hong  季葒              

5  Yun, Zhongyue 云中岳            

6  Mei, Bei'er  梅貝兒    

7  Dong, Ni 董妮              

8  Ni, Kuang 倪匡             

9  Lou, Caining 樓采凝   

10 Gu, Ling 古靈              

排名前10名的小說

1  航海王   Hang hai wang : Oda, Eiichiro                                                          

2  開國功賊 酒徒著Kai guo gong zei :  Jiutu                                                                                       

3  天龍八部 Tian long ba bu : Jin, Yong 

4 步步驚心 Bu bu jing xin : Tong, Hua                       

5  獵命師傳奇 Lie ming shi chuan qi : Jiubadao

6  神鵰俠侶  Shen diao xia lèu : Jin, Yong

7  隋亂   Sui luan : Jiutu

8  康熙大帝 Kangxi da di : Eryuehe

9  倚天屠龍記 Yi tian tu long ji : Jin, Yong

10 藏地密碼  Zang di mi ma : He, Ma

Come view a screening of the animated film, Persepolis, on February 15, 2013 at 10:00 AM in King Library Room 255/257, 2nd floor.

Persis Karim, SJSU Professor of English and Comparative Literature, will lead a discussion after the viewing.

Persepolis is a  coming of age story and the story of pre and post revolutionary Iran told as a graphic novel through the eyes of 'Marji, a young Iranian woman and her family.  After the Shah is defeated in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Marji experiences the new Iran as a repressive tyranny.  Sent to study abroad Marji finds herself struggling to adjust to a different culture. On returning to Iran, Marji discovers both she and her homeland have changed and she and her loving family must decide where she truly belongs.

Some questions to think about as you read the book and view  the film:

• How do stories shape and give meaning to our experience?
• What do you think Satrapi is saying about religion’s effect on the individual and society?

Feel  free to participate in the discussion by leaving your comments below.

This showing of Persepolis is part of a series of programs, Bridging Cultures:  Muslim Journeys, a joint project of the San Jose Public Library and the San Jose State University Library.

The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association. Support was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

In Acts of Faith, Eboo Patel writes about the struggle of reconciling his personal identities as an American born Ismaili Muslim of Indian Gujarati descent and how he was influenced by people of diverse religious backgrounds. Patel founded the Interfaith Youth Corps, an international organization to bring young people of different religions to dialogue and work together on service projects.  

As you read Acts of Faith, here are some questions to think about:

• What role did Islam and his upbringing played in shaping Eboo Patel's  spiritual activism?
• Why does Patel find interfaith activity to be a powerful tool in addressing the spiritual concerns of young people today?

Muslim Journeys Bookshelf is part of a series of programs, Bridging Cultures:  Muslim Journeys, a joint project of the San Jose Public Library and the San Jose State University Library made possible through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Library Association and George Mason University.