Join experts from the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation for seven free, non-commercial financial workshops on Monday nights from February through May at the Royal Oak Public Library. These non-commercial presentations will not contain sales pitches for any particular products. The state is offering these programs free to Michigan citizens with the help of funding from the Investor Protection Trust in Washington, D.C.

The grand prizes for the Library’s Adult Summer Reading Program 2011 will be two of the newest Nooks from Barnes & Noble – the lightweight Simple Touch Reader with a 6-inch touchscreen. The devices will be raffled on Monday, August 29.

Adult Summer Reading 2011 will debut June 11, the same kick-off date for the Library’s youth and teen summer reading programs. Adults will be able to win prizes as they read or listen to novels or non-fiction titles. This year’s theme will focus on all journeys great and small, with an emphasis on stories that enable us to learn about new cultures and ourselves. Plenty of reading lists will be available in the Library and at ropl.org to help you find some great titles, but you can choose any titles you wish.

Two free programs are planned. On Wednesday, June 29, Nancy Yuktonis Solak will talk at 7:00 PM about her travel memoir A Footpath in Umbria: Learning, Loving and Laughing in Italy. Learn what the self-proclaimed reluctant traveler and her husband learned during their year abroad. The author will sell and sign copies of her book.

Popular novelist Michael Connelly will be making two area appearances in April as part of Metro Detroit's Everyone's Reading 2011, a one book/one community program. Royal Oak library cardholders will be able to enter a raffle to win a pair of tickets to attend one of the author talks.

Connelly, who penned the popular Harry Bosch detective series, will speak on Thursday, April 14 at 2:00 PM at the Community House, 380 South Bates Street, Birmingham. Eight pairs of tickets for that event will be raffled for Royal Oak library cardholders.

Connelly will also speak Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 PM at the Berman Theatre at the Jewish Community Center, 6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield. Fourteen pairs of tickets will be raffled for that session.

Raffle entries must be in the boxes in the Library by Monday, March 28 at 5:00 PM. One entry per cardholder, please. Enter one of the raffles for the event you plan to attend.

We are pleased to announce ROPL's new collection of Foreign Language books! The collection is gradually taking shape in the Adult Services department. It will include popular fiction, nonfiction, how-to books and biographies in the following languages.