Terry Gladin, our Program Chairperson, would like to know what kind of speakers and subjects you would be interested in.  We would like to increase the attendance at our programs, and feel that your input and publicity of these programs would be very helpful.  You may even have a specific speaker or author in mind.  Please drop a note to Terry at the library, e-mail her at programs@sancarlosfriendsofthelibrary.org.

All of our speakers will present their talk on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 7 pm, in the Community Room of the San Carlos Library. Extended articles about each speaker and their talk appear on this page below the schedule of dates.

Our current Speaker selections for your enjoyment, entertainment and education are as follows:

March 24: Henry Shenkman,is a local ecologist.   His book is GOLDILOCKS ECOLOGY. He will be discussing our own San Carlos neighborhood’s ecology.  This is a MUST for all Mission Trails Park hikers and lovers.

April 28: Linda Yo, will speak on ASIAN SLIM SECRETS, How to Lose Weight Without Dieting. This is an obvious MUST for all of you who want to look better in your summer swimsuit.

May 26:  Cathy Worthington, award winning author of MOSTOVSKY STATION and WATCH OVER THY CHILD, will tell us about the “Journey to Moskovsky Station”…..how she came upon the idea for her novel about an American 11-year old girl who finds herself living among the Russian homeless in Moskowsky Train Station.  A MUST read and lecture for those interested in the plight of homeless children everywhere.

September: Charles Elster author of the new book, THE ACCIDENTS OF STYLE, Good Advice on How Not to Write Badly, available in July, 2010    A MUST for all writers and lovers of well written books.

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     As San Carlos residents, we live surrounded by one of the largest city owned parks in the United States, Mission Trails Regional Park, located only eight miles northeast of downtown San Diego. According to its website, www.mtrp.org,  ”It encompasses nealy 5,800 acres of both natural and developed recreaction acres.  Its rugged hills, valleys and open areas represent a San Diego prior to the landing of Cabrillo in San Diego Bay in 1542.”  With this in mind, the San Carlos Friends of the Library are proud to present to you, Henry Shenkman, our speaker for March.  He will tell us about “Our Neighborhood’s Ecology.”

  From Left to right:  Back row: Bill Howell, Henry Shenkman, Don Albright; Front row:  Bradford White, Jeanne Shenkman, Judy Alvarez.

Henry and this group of naturalists and geologists created the website:  www.naturebytesvideo.com.  Naturebytesvideo is Henry’s creation as producer for Naturesway Productions.

“This website is a growing collection of over 300 free short movies or videos, about the natural world.  They were primarily filmed in San Diego and the Souther California region.”  Each is about 2 to 5 minutes in length.  They are organized by geographic habitat zone starting at the coast and moving inland to the desert.  Also covered in the videos are how flora and fauna have adapted to their new urban habitat.  “Habitats and ecology, niche theory (goldilocks theory) are” also covered in separate videos. Henry Shenkman is also the author of the book, Goldilocks Ecology.

     On March 24, at 7 pm in the Community Room of the San Carlos Library, the SCFOL is happy to introduce you to Henry Shenkman.  He will excite you about the wonderful natural world that surrounds us in San Carlos, and discuss the 12 things that we should use in evaluating our area, and the habitat niches for specific organisms that live here.  This is a MUST lecture for all of us who regularly or infrequently walk, jog, ride and enjoy this beautiful natural habitat……OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

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    On Wednesday, April 28th at 7 pm, the San Carlos Friends of the Library is happy to present to you Linda Yo, author of Asian Slim Secrets.  Her topic for the evening is one that should interest all Americans:  “How to Lose Weight Without Dieting”.  Yes, summer is just around the corner, but there is still time to adjust our eating habits and fit into last year’s bathing suit.

     Linda has also created a video on the same subject, which is available at the San Carlos Library.  She is a local resident and certified weight management consultant, who discovered that she had gained 25 pounds shortly after arriving in the USA.  After unsuccessfully trying every diet on the market, she returned to her Asian eating habits and lost the weight.  She investigated this phenomenon and discovered that it wasn’t just how many calories we ate, but what we ate and when we ate it that made the difference.

     From Linda you will learn the secret to not gaining weight from Holiday and party meals; which foods make you full with the fewest calories; why eating salad won’t make you slim; how to enjoy meat while avoiding the fat grams; and how to increase your metabolic rate.

     Linda teaches weight management at the Learning Annex, TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly, an international non-profit organization), and lectures to various organizations.  Visit her website: www.Asianslimsecrets.com.

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Cathy Worthington, author of 3 novels, will tell us about her, “Journey to Moskovsky Station, the author’s creative process” in the Community Room of the San Carlos Branch Library, on Wednesday, May 26th, at 7:00 p.m..

A San Diegan, Cathy surprised herself and those around her when, while attending Bishop’s school, she won their creative writing club’s contest.   This experience led her to a degree in English Literature from UC Berkeley.  However, it wasn’t until she retired from a career in computer programming, that she was able to return to her love of writing.

     In 2005, Cathy’s first novel, Watch Over Thy Child, won 1st place at the San Diego Book Awards.  She repeated this accolade in 2008, with her third novel, Moskowsky Station, which also won the Editor’s Choice Award at the SDSU Writer’s Conference in 2009.

In 2006, Cathy happened upon an Academy Award nominated documentary made by Hanna Polak and Andrzej Celinski, entitled Children of Leningradsky.  It depicts the plight of homeless Russian children who live at the busy Leningrasky train station in Moscow.  Although Cathy’s novel is a work of fiction, this film provided the inspiration and some of the details that made Moskovsky Station, come alive.  That inspiration will be the subject of her talk.

Please join us in meeting Cathy at her May 26th lecture.  Hear how she researched and developed the idea for her 3rd novel.  She will also give us a quick preview of her 4th novel, a work in progress, for now entitled Road to Ensendada.  This talk is a MUST for aspiring writers and for those who want  the “story behind the story”.

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