May 1999
COMING UP
OPEN HOUSE
and BOOK SALE
June 5, 1999
The Library’s semi-annual Open House and Book Sale will be held on
June 5, 1999 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mark this date on your calendars now. There will
be hundreds of used books for sale at unbeatable prices (in English and in French). The
summer book sale is especially interesting since many of the Montpellier’s American
students donate good books rather than shipping them home. There will also be a very nice
24-volume encyclopedia for young people (in French).
As usual, the American Women’s Group will be
on hand serving coffee, tea and their yummy goodies.
Remember, if you have books you wish to donate
for the sale, please bring them to the library before the end of May so they can be sorted
and priced.
We look forward to seeing you on the fifth! Why not bring a friend or
two with you and introduce them to our library?
AMERICAN FOLK SONGS
with Harold Ambellan
June 24, 1999
Admission: free
The American Library is pleased to
present an evening with Harold Ambellan. Mr. Ambellan is an American sculptor who has been
living in France since 1956. He was born in 1912 in Buffalo, New York, and was a young man
during the Great Depression of the 1930s. He was fortunate to meet and befriend the likes
of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Ledbelly and Alan Lomax and spent much of his free time
singing, playing and collecting songs with these artists, thus contributing to the
consecration of Folk Music as a great American musical genre.
Harold Ambellan will be at the Library on Thursday, June 24th
at 7:30 P.M. The Friends of the American Library will host this performance. Don’t
miss this rare treat!
LIBRARY NEWS
BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!
The Library acquires hundreds of new books every
year. Our collection grows at such a rate that it seems we are announcing the addition of
new bookshelves in every newsletter. Well this one is no exception. While we haven’t
added new shelves this month (Françoise and Kevin are still looking for suitable wall
space…), we have done some re-organizing in order to use our existing shelves more
efficiently.
One of the first things you’ll notice upon entering the Library is
one entire stack that is now devoted to the magnificent Library of America collection. Our
Science Fiction collection has moved further down the hall.
Patrons are pleased to note that our collection includes most of the
titles appearing on the major best seller lists.
We’d like to recommend the following:
 | John Grisham – The Testament |
| Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible |
| Wally Lamb – I Know This Much Is True |
| Peter Jennings & Todd Brewster – The Century |
| Arthur Golden – Memoirs of a Geisha |
| Patricia Cornwell – Southern Cross |
| Faye Kellerman – Moon Music |
C.A.P.E.S. – Agrégation 2000
We have received the reading list for the
1999-2000 C.A.P.E.S. – Agrégation. Students will be pleased to note that we already
have a lot of material and that we have already ordered more critical works on:
| Shakespeare - Richard III |
| Raymond Carver - Short Cuts |
| Dickens - Great Expectations |
| Ted Hughes - Poems |
The Library also has many works concerning the civilization options on
the program.
COMPUTERS, COMPUTERS!
As we promised in our last newsletter, we have
installed a fourth computer for patron use.
This machine is not connected to the Internet and
is reserved for local word-processing and printing. We have also purchased a second laser
printer that is connected to this machine.
The addition of this new computer has reduced the
waiting time for library members who wish to consult and send e-mail or search for
material on the Internet.
Our Internet connection has proved to be an
extremely valuable research tool. If you are interested in learning more about the
Internet or about computing in general, please stop by the Library and ask any of the
staff members for assistance or information.
THEME OF THE MONTH
The next time you visit the Library, take a
minute to look at our "Theme of the month" display. This month's theme is
"comics".
You will find books by popular cartoon and comic
strip artists such as Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), Gary Larson (The Far Side), and
Charles Schulz (Peanuts). We even have French favorites "Asterix" and
"Tintin" in English! We invite you to take a break on the lighter side of life!
