Community Library Notes - September, 2025
Locally Grown
by Sarah Nathe
 
Three weeks ago the Russian dictator was welcomed to Alaska by a chummy U.S. president with a red carpet. Sixty years ago, when a crew of Soviet submariners ran aground on the Mendocino coast, the locals greeted them with shotguns and barely controlled hysteria. Anyone who wants to revisit those days, and needs a little comic relief, check out “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!” over the weekend. It is just one of many DVDs and books in the “Made in Mendo” collection of the Community Library. 
 
As many Mendonesians know, the town has been in a lot of movies, as have residents who had turns as extras. Its quaint architecture and ocean vistas have made it popular with film makers since “Frenchman’s Creek” was shot here in 1943. It has also proved fertile ground for writers, inspiring locals and visitors alike to immortalize it in prose and poetry. It’s difficult to pinpoint when the first notable Mendocino novel, history, or memoir was written, but it’s easy to enjoy the rich tapestry of life here on the coast captured in their pages.
 
Mendocino rarely starred as itself in the silver screen classics made here, appearing as Cornwall in “Frenchman’s Creek,” Cape Breton Island in “Johnny Belinda,” Salinas, California in “East of Eden” (1955), Martha’s Vineyard in “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming” (1965), Nantucket in “Summer of ‘42” (1970), Tillamook County, Oregon in “Overboard” (1987), a witchy Massachusetts town in “Practical Magic” (1998), and Cabot Cove, Maine in the TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” filmed here from 1984 to 1996. But it didn’t have to stretch much for its roles in “Same Time, Next Year” (1978), “Racing With the Moon” (1984), or “The Majestic” (2001), having been cast as a small town on the California coast.
 
As is the case with many movie stars, it has also appeared in some pretty bad films. In an early Julia Roberts vehicle, “Dying Young” (1991), she falls in love with a handsome leukemia victim taking a holiday on the coast. The scenery is breathtaking. One of the more recent movies made here, “Need for Speed” (2014), features “Breaking Bad” star Aaron Paul roaring up and down Highway 1 in a souped-up Mustang. But we won’t dwell on the low points of Mendocino’s brilliant career, and the library doesn’t have many of those films. It’s sure fun to watch the good ones, though, and scrutinize the scenes for familiar landmarks and faces.
 
Perhaps it’s the scenery, or the fresh air, or the presence of other scribes, but plenty of writers have flocked to Mendocino over the past few decades, some to live here and others to speak at the Writers’ Conference. They have written hundreds of books since the late 50s—some published by one of the Big 5 presses and others by backyard outfits, some about life on the coast yesterday and today, and others about faraway places and distant times. The library has a big assortment, too many to cite here, but visit the “Local Authors” room and peruse the many titles. One of the most popular volumes, “Mendocino & the Movies,” by local historian Bruce Levene, is the definitive history of every movie or TV show ever made here.
 
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of “The Russians Are Coming,” the Kelley House, the Mendocino Film Festival, and the Noyo Center are teaming up for festivities on Sunday, November 9th. There will be food and drink down in the harbor, where some of the movie was shot, and a lively viewing at Coast Cinemas. Mark your calendars!
 

Community Library Notes - June, 2025

Salt in the Air, Sand in Your Hair
by Sarah Nathe

And a book in your hands! Back when I was a parochial school kid, the good sisters there at St. Philip’s sent us home every summer with a list of age-appropriate books to occupy our minds during those lazy, hazy days. I suppose they were concerned we would devolve into feral creatures while not under their watchful eyes, but more compelling was their certainty that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. These days there are many more paths to perdition open to children, so the Mendocino Community Library recently laid in a new supply of books to get them, and their parents and grands, through the summer unscathed.

For kids between 7 and 10, we have a couple of classics. “Dragonbreath” #1, by Ursula Vernon, introduces us to Danny Dragonbreath, the sole mythical creature in a school for reptiles and amphibians. It’s hard for him because he can't breathe fire like other dragons (as the school bully loves to remind him). But his sea-serpent cousin takes Danny and his best iguana friend on a mind-boggling underwater tour. Using a hybrid of comic-book panels and text, Ursula Vernon introduces an irresistible set of characters. The books in this series are perfect for fans of the “Wimpy Kid” and “Bad Kitty” books.

In “Max Meow Book 1: Cat Crusader,” by John Gallagher, we meet a superhero with lots of catitude. Max is just a regular cat in Kittyopolis until he accidentally takes a bite of a radioactive space meatball at his best friend Mindy's secret lab. Then, before you can say MEOWZA, Max becomes the only feline who can save his city from the evil Agent M and Big Boss. This graphic novel is the first in a funny series that will keep young readers on the path of righteousness.

For the slighter younger set, ages 4-8, we have some inspirational, transformational, and motivational volumes. “Kamala Raised Her Hand,” by Raakhee Mirchandani, follows Vice President Kamala Harris from her childhood to her run for president. Ever since she was a child, she has been raising her hand, taking a stand. This beautifully illustrated book shows children that they can find their voices and the courage to stand up for what they believe in.

For pre-readers, we have some gorgeously illustrated picture books. From Regina Linke comes “Big Enough,” about a little boy who learns size is a matter of perspective. When the day comes for Ah-Fu to bring the huge family ox home from the woods, he worries that he’s not big enough to do the job. Will fear and self-doubt drive Ah-Fu home empty-handed? Or can he rely on his wits to become the Oxherd Boy his family needs. Exquisite art work carries this empowering story inspired by traditional Chinese philosophy.

Gilbert the Goblin’s beachside vacation gets invaded by mermaids and their games in “Mermaids are the Worst!” by Alex Willan. This latest installment in The Worst! picture book series finds Gilbert trying to soak up some sun and float in the ocean, but a bevy of mermaids shows up and their fin-flapping hijinks quickly threaten to ruin the seaside retreat. Can goblins and mermaids get along?

It's lonely being a monster, but having other mythical creatures as pen pals helps. When Bigfoot loses the Valentine's Day cards he so tenderly made for his friends around the world, a troop of scouts offers to help. But they will have to get creative to find every ogre in time! In “Bigfoot’s Big Heart” Sarah Glenn Marsh and illustrator Ishaa Lobo team up for a tale about the value of friends, both new and old.

“Little Bear,” the first in an award-winning series by Else Holmelund Minarik, primarily involves Little Bear, an anthropomorphic bear cub, his mother, and his best friends: Cat, Duck, and Hen. Their summers are filled with good, clean fun! This volume and four subsequent Little Bear books were illustrated by the incomparable Maurice Sendak.

The Mendocino Community Library is open all summer on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. Besides children’s books, there are fiction and nonfiction books for grownups, books on CD, movie and TV DVDs, magazines, and jigsaw puzzles for all ages. Visit the web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) to learn more about becoming a member or to find any item in the collection.

Community Library Notes - May 2025

The Fog of War
by Linda Garrett

The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, and the Mendocino Community Library is paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of that conflict’s termination with a display of fiction and nonfiction books, DVDs, and audio books to jog our historic memories. The war is rarely mentioned any longer in our public lives or in our schools, but it had a profound impact on our culture and our self-perception as a good and moral society.

Statistics challenge the inclination to forget: 2.7 million American service members did tours of duty in Vietnam from 1961-1973; 58,220 died; and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese civilians and soldiers had died by the final American pullout. Fifty years after the end of the war, unexploded ordnance and Agent Orange still ravage Vietnamese children, adults, and the environment. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans were also exposed to the toxic chemical agent.

I happened to be in Hanoi on April 30, 1975, having arrived fortuitously a week earlier as a representative of the Indochina Peace Campaign. The North Vietnamese offensive had been pushing through South Vietnam, meeting very little resistance, but the end of the war was uncertain until the final American helicopters took off from the embassy in Saigon at 10:00 am that morning. The scenes from that day are still sharp in my memory.

We rely on our creative communities—journalists, novelists, filmmakers—to tell our story as a nation, the good, bad, and ugly. Sometimes we agree with the narratives, and often we don’t. But every story adds to the complete picture.

My favorite film about the war is “Good Morning Vietnam,” the Robin Williams drama that presents the tragedy with humor and pathos, and is perhaps the only Hollywood movie that acknowledges its Vietnamese characters with humanity and respect. The 1974 Academy Award-winning documentary “Hearts and Minds” presents the tragic consequences of the war at home and in Vietnam. It is still a consequential film and is available on Amazon Prime. “The Fog of War,” the movie that won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar in 2003, is also available online. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, to probe the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War, and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. 

Three books I always recommend tell the story of the war from beginning to end: “The Quiet American” is a 1955 novel by British author Graham Greene that depicts the breakdown of French colonialism in Vietnam and early American involvement in the Vietnam War. It is uncannily prescient about all the troubles that would cause. “The Village of Ben Suc,” by journalist Jonathan Schell, reports on the 1967 relocation of a group of farmers and families so that their village, which the U.S. and Republic of Vietnam military experts thought was a hideout for Viet Cong, could be destroyed. This classic is a cautionary tale about the unintended and devastating consequences of military occupation.

Bao Ninh’s “The Sorrow of War” is a 1991 novel that grew out of Ninh's graduation project at the Nguyen Du Writing School in Hanoi. It tells the story of a soldier who is collecting the bones of the dead after the war and then begins to think about his past. He moves backwards and forwards in time, in and out of despair, through his private hell in the highlands of Central Vietnam. It is a compelling war novel.

Recent notable novels by Vietnamese-American and American writers include "The Sympathizer,” a Pulitzer Prize winner by Viet Thang Nguyen; “On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong; “Absolution” by Alice McDermott; and “The Women” by Kristin Hannah. “The Mountains Sing,” by Vietnamese novelist and poet Nguyen Phan Que Mai, is a multigenerational tale of the Trần family set against the backdrop of French occupation and the Viet Nam War.

These are available at the library now, and can also be ordered through Gallery Books. The library is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. We have fiction and nonfiction books, jigsaw puzzles, magazines, books on CD, and movie DVDs. On our web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) you can find any item in our collection.
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​After more than half a century of community support, the Mendocino Community Library now holds 13,000+ books, puzzles, audio books, and movies - including those filmed in Mendocino.
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