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.

Upcoming Events

This event is in the "Elementary" group.

Lego Play

1:30pm - 4:30pm
Elementary
Library Branch: Ojai Library
Age Group: Elementary
Program Type: Games & Play
Event Details:

Calling all master builders! Join us for a world of imagination and creativity at our drop-in Lego Play. 

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Teens" group.
This event is in the "Middle School" group.
This event is in the "High School" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

LEGO PLAY

2:00pm - 4:00pm
Children, Elementary, Teens, Middle School, High School, Family
Library Branch: E.P. Foster Library
Age Group: Children, Elementary, Teens, Middle School, High School, Family
Program Type: Games & Play, Science & Technology
Event Details:

Join us for for a world of creativity and fun. Build a tower or craft fantastical creatures, each session is a chance to explore new worlds and express your creativity brick by brick. 

This event is in the "Preschool" group.
This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Teens" group.
This event is in the "Middle School" group.
This event is in the "High School" group.

Doodle Time

2:00pm - 5:00pm
Preschool, Elementary, Teens, Middle School, High School
Library Branch: Ojai Library
Age Group: Preschool, Elementary, Teens, Middle School, High School
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Event Details:

Explore different doodling techniques with friends.

This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Middle School" group.
This event is in the "High School" group.

LEGO Play

4:00pm - 5:00pm
Elementary, Middle School, High School
Library Branch: Albert H. Soliz Library
Room: ELR-Library Branch
Age Group: Elementary, Middle School, High School
Event Details:

The club is For grades K-12. Club is at capacity, please register at the library to be placed on the waitlist.

This event is in the "Everyone" group.
Offsite Event
Library Branch: Mobile Library
Room: MOB- Main Vehicle
Age Group: Everyone
Event Details:

Learn about the Ventura County Mobile Library and all the wonderful services we have to offer.

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.

Reading Recommendations

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.

Image for "The Book of Elsewhere"

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.

Image for "The Man in Black"

The Man in Black

From the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries, an eclectic, thrilling collection of short stories, featuring many characters that readers have come to know and love.

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.

There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.

In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.

Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in "Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act."

In "Justice Jones and the Etherphone," a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London.

A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI.

To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in "Flint's Fireside Tale."

And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.

The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths's talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart.

Image for "Pearly Everlasting"

Pearly Everlasting

Set during the Great Depression, an immersive and enchantingly atmospheric novel about a girl and a bear raised as sister and brother in a remote logging camp, and the lengths to which they'll go to protect each other.

New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly. Growing up, Pearly and Bruno share a special bond and become inseparable. While life in the camp can be perilous--loggers are regularly injured or even killed--the Everlasting family form a close-knit community with the woodsmen, who accept and embrace the tame young bear.

But all that changes when a new supervisor arrives, a ruthless profiteer who pushes the workers to their breaking point and abuses Bruno. When the man is found dead in a ditch, the blame falls on the bear; soon after, Bruno is kidnapped and sold to an animal trader. Determined to rescue the only brother she has ever known, Pearly, now a teenager, sets off alone on a hazardous journey through the forest--her first trip to "the Outside"--to find him. In the harrowing quest to bring him home through miles of ice and snow, eluding malevolent spirits and the cruelty of strange villagers, she will discover new worlds and a strength she never knew she possessed.

Steeped in rural folklore and superstition, and set against the backdrop of an enchanting woodland, Pearly Everlasting is a story about the triumph of good over evil, the beauty of the natural world, and the bonds that cannot be broken.