Closed for Veterans Day, 11/11/24

All Ventura County Library branches will be closed November 11th in observance of Veterans Day.

Todas las sucursales de la Biblioteca del Condado de Ventura estarán cerradas el 11 de noviembre en celebración del día de los veteranos.

Adults

Group of diverse adults in a circle.

Upcoming Events

This event is in the "Adults" group.

Art Salon for Adults

10:00am - 12:00pm
Adults
Library Branch: Oak View Library
Room: OKV-Community Room
Age Group: Adults
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Event Details:

Art Salon for Adults meets the 2nd Saturday of the month. Join us for a self-directed, relaxed exploration of visual mixed-media arts and crafts.

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Adults" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Family Coloring

10:00am - 5:00pm
Children, Adults, Family
Library Branch: Avenue Library
Age Group: Children, Adults, Family
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Event Details:

Coloring sheets and crayons are provided for children and their families.

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Teens" group.
This event is in the "Adults" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Stay & Play

10:00am - 5:00pm
Children, Teens, Adults, Family
Library Branch: Avenue Library
Age Group: Children, Teens, Adults, Family
Program Type: Games & Play
Event Details:

All are welcome to "stay and play" at the Avenue Library.  Board games, card games, puzzles and more are available during open hours.

Featured Resources

Reading Clubs & Kits

Person holding book and reading glasses

Hill Road Book Club

The Hill Road Library Book Club meets on a monthly basis. 

Contact linda.cherry@ventura.org for more information. 

Oak View Reading Society logo

Oak View Reading Society

Check out the Oak View Library Reading Society page for information and a title list of previous years' selections.  

Book Club Kits - group of diverse people in a circle

Book Club Kits

Interested in borrowing a book set for your own book club? Book club kits check out for six weeks. A list of book club kits is available in the library catalog.   

Adult Fiction and Nonfiction

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Feeding Littles Lunches

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 75+ simple and delicious ideas for packed school lunches and snacks for kids of all ages, from the New York Times bestselling authors of Feeding Littles and Beyond.

In a lunch packing rut? Megan McNamee and Judy Delaware, the founders of Feeding Littles, are here to help with the ultimate lunch box resource. Feeding Littles Lunches is complete with 75+ lunches that are quick to assemble, safe and easy for kids of all ages to eat, and balanced in nutrients for growth, learning and play. Each lunch idea is easily modified for nine of the most common allergens and includes tips for picky eaters, plus vegetarian swaps and “I Can’t Even” tips to make lunch packing even easier. Feeding Littles Lunches is not a recipe book because, let’s face it, most parents don’t want to spend hours packing lunches. Rather, it’s an inspo book with a full-page photo for every lunch, meant to be used with your child as a visual reminder for delicious and easy new ideas that you can assemble from simple ingredients.
 
Feeding Littles Lunches also includes a lunch packing formula to help you plan your own lunches, grocery lists, tips for dealing with cafeteria and school settings, picky eating, food safety, and more! With creative and approachable lunches like Chicken Salad with Mini Brioche Toasts, Sun Butter Banana Roll-Up “Sushi-Style,” Build-Your-Own Naan Pizza, Leftover Burger Mini Sliders, Pesto Turkey Wrap Rounds, and more, you’ll bring joy back to lunchtime.

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Housing the Nation

Scholars, advocates, and architects assess America’s affordable housing crisis and suggest various strategies to rectify it, including numerous images of important, recently built houses and complexes.

On any given night, more than 650,000 people in the United States—many with families and full-time jobs—experience homelessness. The shortfall in affordable housing is estimated to be 5 million units or more. Devastating effects of these conditions include an increase in multigenerational poverty, a decrease in economic mobility, and—since the housing crisis has a disproportionate impact on communities of color—a heightening of racial injustice.

Just as there was no single cause of the crisis, there is no single cure. Assembled here are essays by economists, scholars, architects, planners, and community organizers to address diverse aspects of the subject. The book discusses the history and extent of the US housing crisis; permanent affordable housing and affordable housing as a component of market-rate residential buildings; the development of community associations that can build and manage local units; links between housing production and climate change; and the pervasive and long-term consequences of racial discrimination in the housing market. Recent buildings by Studio Gang, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, and others illustrate affordable housing at its best, offering a glimpse of possible solutions.

Included are essays by Dean Baker, Richard Florida, Robert Kuttner, Michael Gecan, Rosanne Haggerty, J. Phillip Thompson, Margery Perlmutter, David Dante Troutt, Justin Steil, Christopher Hawthorne, David Burney, Jon McMillan, Viren Brahmbhatt, Richard Plunz, Kenneth Frampton, Mark Ginsberg, Fernando Pagés Ruiz, Jessica Holmes, Rusty Smith, Andrés Duany, Alan Organschi, Andrew Ruff, and Elizabeth Gray.

This book is Flexibound.

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The Aztec Myths

From their remote origins as migrating tribes to their rise as builders of empire, the Aztecs were among the most dynamic and feared peoples of ancient Mexico, with a belief system that was one of the most complex and vital in the ancient world. Historian Camilla Townsend returns to the original tales, told at the fireside by generations of Indigenous Nahuatl speakers. Along the way, she deals with human sacrifice, the raising of great temples, and the troubling legacy of the Spanish conquest.

Few cultures are generally understood to have been so controlled by their religion as the Aztecs, and few religions are envisioned as being as violent and celebratory of death as theirs. In this introduction to the Aztec myths, Townsend draws from sixteenth-century historical annals and songs written down by Nahuatl-speaking peoples, now known as the Aztecs, in their own language to counter this narrative, inherited from the conquering Spaniards. In doing so, she reveals a rich tapestry of mythic tradition that defies modern expectations.

Townsend retells stories ranging from the creation of the world, revealing the Aztec cosmological vision of nature and the divine, to legends of the Aztecs' own past that show how they understood the foundation of their state and the course of their wars. She considers the impact of colonial contact on the myths and demonstrates that Indigenous engagement with the new cultural customs introduced by the Europeans never entirely uprooted old ways of thinking.

Image for "The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos"

The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos

A sweet and spicy multicultural romantic comedy that that blends the rich tapestry of Filipino courtship rituals with the modern complexities of love, family, and cultural expectations, written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz.

Evan Saatchi can't keep his eyes off his new co-worker, Dalisay Ramos.

Newly arrived from Manila to lead their travel app's Asia division, nothing matters more to Dalisay than tradition and family. When Evan asks her out, she soundly rejects him for his cheek.

Evan learns from his Filipino friends that Dalisay expects more from potential suitors. If he wants a chance with her, he's going to have to go through the Five Stages: the courtship ritual that lovers in the Philippines have performed for generations.

At first, Evan is skeptical--what, exactly, does "servitude" entail? And he has to sing?! But when Dalisay bets Evan that he doesn't have the nerve to make it through the stages, the game is on.

As Evan attempts to prove to Dalisay that he can win her heart--and the bet--Dalisay is driven to distraction by Evan's sexy labors, and soon their "courtship" turns into a sizzling secret.

But when modern love and family expectations collide, Dalisay and Evan must find a way to carry a rich history into a shared future.

Featuring a memorable cast of characters navigating the intersection of cultural traditions, workplace dynamics, and the magic of true love, this heart-warming Asian American romance is perfect for fans of Kevin Kwan books, Red String Theory, and other voicey Asian American authors. Melissa de la Cruz thoughtfully explores the push and pull of contemporary desires and deep-rooted familial expectations, all set against the backdrop of a will-they-won't-they workplace romance that will leave readers swooning.

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The Book of Elsewhere

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “action-packed [and] profoundly stylish” (Los Angeles Times) epic from Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books

“[The Book of Elsewhere is] a pulpy, adrenaline-fueled thriller, but it’s also a moody, experimental novel about mortality, the slippery nature of time, and what it means to be human.”—The New York Times

“An exceptionally innovative collaboration from two remarkable minds.”—William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.

There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” 

And he wants to be able to die.
 
In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
 
In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.