We are a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library located in Highland Park. Keep yourself updated on our doings here...
The movie featured in today’s poster is The Mark of Zorro. This was a 1920 movie and in the poster Don Diego Vega/Señor Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks) is shown leaning on a large barrel, upon which there is a portrait of Fairbanks. The text on the poster says “Douglas Fairbanks in 'The Mark of Zorro'; Directed by Fred Niblo from the "All Story Weekly" novel "The Curse of Capistrano" by Johnston McCulley.”
Find the full poster here: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/movie/id/6/rec/1
The Arroyo Book Club will be reading An Immense World by Ed Yong for our September discussion. To quote from the catalog
description:
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension -- the world as it is truly perceived by other animals…
Stop by the branch for a copy of the book.
We will come together to discuss the book on Saturday, September 26 at 3 p.m. It will be a hybrid meeting so you have the option of attending in person or via Zoom. If you’d like to join us via Zoom send an email to ayosco@lapl.org so we can get the link to you.
This month our question was who was Charlotte de Berry. She was a pirate. To quote our source:
“De Berry’s legendary exploits include killing a British navy captain, taking charge of his ship, and converting the crew to piracy.” However, to further quote our source: “Charlotte de Berry may have actually lived, or she may be a totally fictional character created by Edward Lloyd in History of the Pirates, published in 1836. Lloyd’s history is the first written source to mention de Berry and did not appear until two hundred years after her birth; it appears odd that so much time would pass with no reference to her. Furthermore, the book contains many anachronisms and appears to have drawn stories from other fictions. Lloyd’s book is the source for information about de Berry in later books.”
Real or not we
found out about her from Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives. This ebook can be found on the library’s
Research page search for it by
title and access it with your library card.
From the responses received the library will select 100 contributions to form a collective portrait of the Los Angeles Public Library in 2026. The selected submissions will be placed inside the new centennial time capsule, which will be reinstalled in the cornerstone of Central Library and set to be opened in 2126.
The deadline for submission is September 5th. Please stop by the branch to pick up the special stationary, compose your entry, and then return it for consideration.
This travel poster is advertising Bermuda. In it a couple takes a nighttime bicycle ride
along a shore in Bermuda. The poster is undated and the poster’s artist is
Adolph Treidler. Find the full poster here: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/travel/id/152/rec/1
Escape the heat with a cool film!
Sunday, August 16 at 2 p.m.
We will be enjoying Fantastic Mr. Fox. An animated version of the Roald Dahl book directed by Wes Anderson.
Everyone is welcome!
Madeline (aka Max) Maxwell is a historian with a cool new job that lets her witness history first hand instead of researching it second hand --- her employer has time travel. After surviving a harrowing training regime she begins her work only to discover that there is a secret cabal of time travelers seeking to profit from history. She and her comrades in arms at St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research must do some serious plotting to come out on top and preserve their organization.
If time traveling hijinks sound good to you then you’ll want to pick up Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. Be warned, this is the start of a series.
This is a 1789 fashion plate from an unknown magazine. It shows a woman in floor length blue dress with a yellow bodice, wearing a large bonnet with floating red ribbons. She also wears a long yellow shawl with red diamond patterns on the end.
Find image here: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/fashion/id/8/rec/1
Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.
However, the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger's friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot . . .
Not only beloved by generations of readers, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was one of Agatha Christie's own favorite works—a brilliant whodunit that firmly established the author's reputation as the Queen of Mystery.