Members of the French Institute Alliance Française have access to its magnificent John & Francine Haskell Library. With your adult membership fee of $95 (less for seniors, academics, and children), you can check out music, learning tools, movies, and lots and lots of books.

Books in French, books about French, books about France, books about other French-speaking parts of the world. You can read a French novel. Or learn to cook chicken in 10 different French ways. Or whatever! 

The library sponsors numerous events as complements to its resources. There is Scrabble, for example—in French, which means lots and lots of e’s—as well as various French book groups (Cercles de lecture).

In case you want to own rather than borrow materials, the library has a book-sale cart where books, most of them donated by members, cost just $1 each. (You do not need to be a member to buy them.) Another French-book-procurement option: they sell some books in new condition at the library checkout desk for $10 apiece. Usually these are contemporary novels that were the subject of previous book clubs.