What we’re about
The City of Menlo Park's libraries offer a variety of programs, including art events, author talks, info sessions, craft sessions, music events, and more. To make the most of our programming efforts and this meetup page, we’d love for you to get involved. If you come to a program, say hi and let us know you saw it on meetup. If you have an idea for something you’d like to see at the library, send us a message. The library is a great space for community meetups and we’d love to play a role in making those connections!
See more events at our calendar, and check our hours and holiday closures.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Book Discussion: Absolution, by Alice McDermottLink visible for attendees
Join our Fiction Book Group online to discuss Absolution, by Alice McDermott.
American women—American wives—have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully.
In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam.
Menlo Park’s Fiction Book Group meets virtually on the second Tuesday of each month.
Tuesday, September 09, 2025 | 06:30 PM - 07:45 PM
Zoom webinarMore free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X - Teen Media WednesdaysBelle Haven Library, Belle Haven Community Campus, Menlo Park, CA
Teens: we are now watching movies AND playing video games at the library! Join us for Teen Media Wednesdays, where we will either be watching a film or playing video games in the Teen Zone.
All films are rated PG-13 or lower and all video games are rated E10 or lower. Drop in and find out what the movie or game of the week is, and use the suggestion box in the Teen Zone to request future movies and games. Snacks are provided.
https://menlopark.gov/Government/Departments/Library-and-Community-Services/Events/Events-for-adults/202501-05-teen-media-wednesdays
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
More free events with Menlo Park Library:
https://menlopark.gov/programsMenlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter - CA History: How Small Towns Transformed California into an American PlaceMenlo Park Library, Menlo Park, CA
California is celebrating 175 years of statehood! Our guest will share how small towns transformed this place from “Feathered Kingdoms” to “Cities of Homes.”
Historian Kyle Livie, Ph.D. will explain the role of small towns and rural places in making California an American place. Over the past 175 years, people in California’s small towns—through campaigns, festivals, pageants, and parades—have built cultures that shaped our economy and ordered the world around them in complex ways, ways that continue to impact our ideas about the Golden State and its people today.
Learn more about this memory making and its lasting impact on our sense of place and understanding of California’s rich history.
About Kyle Lyvie:
Dr. Kyle Livie is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Lytton Center for History and the Public Good at Ohlone College.
Kyle’s research explores community development and cultural formation in California’s metropolitan spaces in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries resulting from transnational migration, with special interest paid to how migrant groups in small towns and rural places shaped shared identity, collective memory, and economic production.
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 | 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St., Menlo Park, CA, 94025More free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X - Global Language Storytime: JapaneseMenlo Park Library, Menlo Park, CA
Join us for a special storytime full of fun and Japanese culture—conducted all in Japanese!
For children ages 2-5, with their grown-ups: whether you understand the language or not, you’re sure to enjoy this fun all-in-Japanese program from Poponta Children's Cultural Society, featuring picture books, finger plays, puppets, kamishibai panel theater, and more.
Menlo Park’s Global Language Storytime series features a different language each month, exposing children and families to a wealth of languages and cultures during fun, interactive activities for audiences of all language backgrounds.
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
Friday, September 12, 2025 | 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St., Menlo Park, CA, 94025More free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X
