tuesday november 17
I listened to a feature on NPR the other day about Earl Cooley, one of the National Forest Service’s first “smokejumpers” back in 1940. Cooley and his fellow smokejumpers jumped by parachute out of airplanes to fight raging wildfires. He died on November 9th in Missoula, Montana, at the age of 98.
I learned that on August 5, 1949, Earl Cooley was the spotter on the airplane hovering over a wildfire in Mann Gulch, Montana. Cooley picked the spot for the crew to land, but tragically, a “blowup”—a deadly explosion caused by a rare combination of flame and wind little understood at the time—trapped and killed 12 firefighters. The fire overran them as they climbed up the gulch trying to escape it.
Several years ago, I read Norman Maclean’s classic book about the Mann Gulch Fire called Young Men and Fire (1992). Maclean grew up in Missoula, Montana, working as a logger and for the Forest Service before becoming a college professor and a writer. He first saw the Mann Gulch fire still burning weeks later, and he was haunted by it for the rest of his life. Published posthumously after Maclean's death in 1990, Young Men and Fire is his absorbing, detailed account of the fire and what happened on that fateful day. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed A River Runs Through It, and Other Stories, upon which the movie is based.
monday september 28
If a book could be analogized into a pretzel this is it. Dennis Lehane surpasses
Mystic River with
Shutter Island. In the beginning, the story is all about a missing person from an island institution for the criminally insane. Marshals, Chuck and Teddy are sent out to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, Ashecliffe escapee who drowned all three of her children.
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friday july 31
It seems my goal of finishing a book by week’s end pales in comparison to the substantial ambition of author Julie Powell. The book is
Julie and Julia 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. The goal implicated in this title is astronomical yet entirely doable. Sometimes we need the astronomical to make us feel alive, or make us hungry at the very least.
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friday july 10
I laughed until I cried. Denis Cooverman, delivers a valedictory speech of a lifetime that includes outing a closeted homosexual, exposing clandestine teacher's affairs and exposing the truth about rumors. He airs his own dirty laundry when he makes the simple declaration, " I Love You, Beth Cooper." And then the novel rockets off into oblivion via VW Cabriolet convertible.
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friday may 29
I can trace my adult interest in spelling bees to my less-than-stellar performance at my sixth grade spelling bee circa 1983. I can’t remember how many rounds I lasted (probably 1) or what word I misspelled (probably something not too difficult), but the perfectionist in me remembers I should have studied harder. For 13-year-old Kavya Shivashanker, however, the word “Laodicean” earned her the title of 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.
For the rest of us, there’s always next year, so let the library give you a head start with these great books, recordings, and DVDs!
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friday september 05
Stories of magic and romantic adventures have grabbed me ever since I read about Dorothy in the Oz books. J.K. Rowling has done a lot to bring magic to the forefront with her Harry Potter books. I have some new recommendations:
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is a modern-day series, and it's spot-on as far as how kids would deal with the magical realm. Happily, the movie adaptation is very good.
The Magic Thief (2008) by Sarah Prineas is a new book, heralding itself as first in a series, and so is Marie Rutkoski's brand new The Cabinet of Wonders: The Kronos Chronicles: Book I.
I would also highly recommend the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. The first book, Magyk, sets the scene and draws us into a very believable magical world with a slightly late-renaissance flavor.
What a wonderful escape on a rainy weekend! Again I tell you: Children's books...not just for kids!
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friday june 20
'Homeschooling' takes on a whole new perspective. Canadian novelist and film critic David Gilmour recently published a book about his son's high school years and the creative way in which they dealt with the issues at hand. Gilmour's book, The Film Club, has received a good amount of press, and rightly so. Gilmour's son Jesse hated high school and his grades were heading for an all-time low. After much deliberation he and his father made a deal: Jesse could quit school as long as he agreed to watch three movies a week and discuss them with his Dad. Good idea/bad idea? A courageous idea, without a doubt.
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friday february 15
The writers' strike is finally over, so the 80th Annual Academy Awards are still set to air on Sunday, February 24th at 8:00 p.m. on ABC. In honor of all things Hollywood, I decided to write about Toby Young’s gossipy memoir, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People.
Young is a British journalist obsessed with American celebrity. He leaves London to accept a job as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, but after years of inappropriate office pranks, drinking too much, desperately trying to crash Oscar parties, and offending celebrities like Nathan Lane and Mel Gibson, he is fired. As the New York Times wrote, “Young has an instinct for annoying the rich and famous that crosses over into the self-destructive.”
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thursday february 14
It was kind of nice to read two books in a row that I could get through in a single sitting. The first is Julia Cameron's 2005 book of cartoons, How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy). The suggestions are funny but sobering, since I've independently discovered them all on my own. Hang out with time-consuming people. Think about your novel instead of writing it. Write emails (or blogs) instead of your novel. Tell yourself your job makes it too hard to write. Tell yourself you've missed the boat and are too old anyway.
Sort of related is Charles Webb's Home School, a sequel to his 1963 The Graduate. It's 11 years later, and Richard Nixon is president. Benjamin and Elaine are happily married, living outside New York City. Benjamin works as a library shelver (yay!), but mostly, they devote their lives to homeschooling their 2 sons. Note that homeschooling once seemed stranger than it does now. They haven't seen Elaine's mother in 7 years. That, of course, is just about to change.
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friday december 28
With a great story, big stars, a legendary director, and a very capable screenwriter, Charlie Wilson's War has opened in theaters accompanied by rave reviews and Golden Globe nominations. Containing elements of espionage, wealth, glamour, and political intrigue, this film is based on a true story of the days when Texans took the law into their own hands, not in the 1880's, but actually, the 1980's. Directed by Mike Nichols, Aaron Sorkin (who created NBC's West Wing) adapted the screenplay from a 2003 book by George Crile, a former producer at CBS news who came into notoriety following the Vietnam War when he took on the US Department of Defense in the form of Gen. William Westmoreland.
George Crile died in 2006, but the real Charlie Wilson is still around, residing in Lufkin, Texas, where he is commonly known as "Good Time Charlie". Tom Hanks and his production company, Playtone, have created a film of substance that entertains and provides some backstory to the current issues in the Middle East. The Library offers Crile's book in regular print, large print, and Downloadable Audiobook formats.
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wednesday december 26
I recently noticed on the library's book discussion group calendar that the Miami Township Branch Library book club will be discussing Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer on Tuesday, January 8th at 10:00 a.m.
I read the book this past summer and was blown away. I found myself wanting to talk about it with anyone who would listen--much to the annoyance of my husband and coworkers, I’m sure. But Krakauer’s book is that good. He grabs your attention and doesn’t let go.
Under the Banner of Heaven tells the true story of Mormon fundamentalists Dan and Ron Lafferty, who murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen in 1984 but claimed they were acting on direct orders from God.
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thursday november 08
A suburban teen skater is haunted by the gruesome death of a security guard in Blake Nelson's tense little novel, Paranoid Park. Marketed to teen readers, the book has just as much appeal for adults, and has recently been made into a film by director Gus Van Sant. The film debuted at Cannes film festival in 2007, and is scheduled for limited release in the United States in March 2008.
The story takes place in a downtown skate park in Portland. The narrator hesitates to get involved with a street kid who tries to befriend him, and when a dare goes wrong, the narrator's life changes forever. You can't help but be drawn in by the guilt-ridden complexity of this teen's situation. Recommended for skaters and non-skaters alike.
thursday october 18
I’ve read a couple of Jane Austen's novels and have seen many of them adapted on film, but author Laurie Viera Rigler is a self-proclaimed Jane Austen addict. She has read and reread all six of Austen’s books and is a member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She has also just written her first novel, a charming romantic tale called Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.
After Courtney Stone finds her boyfriend Frank having an affair with their wedding cake designer, she nurses her rejection with a copy of Pride and Prejudice and a bottle of Absolut. She wakes up to find herself in the body of Jane Mansfield, a 19th-century English woman.
Courtney is not prepared for the chamber pots, corsets, and endless embroidery that are a normal part of Jane’s life. But living in Jane’s body does have its perks: servants wait on her hand and foot, there’s plenty of delicious food to eat and balls to attend, and the dashing Mr. Edgeworth makes her weak in the knees. But can he be trusted? And how will she ever return to her life in 21st-century Los Angeles?
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wednesday october 03
I don’t like football. I understand the rules, but not the fascination with the game. As strange as it may seem, I enjoy watching the television show Friday Night Lights, starring Kyle Chandler and the Dillon Panthers, the high school football team of small town Dillon, Texas. Season two kicks off this Friday, October 5th.
The television series (and the 2004 movie) is based on the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger. Originally published in 1990 (around the time yours truly was graduating from high school), Bissinger follows the 1988 Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas into the locker room and onto the field, from preseason to playoffs.
The Panthers keep the hopes and dreams of this oil town alive, so Odessa takes its championship team seriously. The Permian High School stadium seats 19,000 and has artificial turf. Women carry black leather purses that look like footballs. One man has attended every game since the school opened in 1959 (except when he had heart bypass surgery). And angry fans, upset over a loss, place “For Sale” signs in the coach’s front yard.
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thursday august 23
Last week, New Line Cinema released two breath-taking trailers for the film adaptation of The Golden Compass, the first book in British author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Pullman creates a reality both like and unlike that which we know. Here, Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (an animal familiar embodiment of their soul) and it takes place in a time similar to our late 19th century.
The overarching plot focuses on Oxford scholars in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe. The trilogy features all the hallmarks of a great, epic myth. 11 year old Lyra Belacqua, an orphan brought up ignorant of her true identity, leaves her home in Jordan College at Oxford University for the frozen wastelands of the north on a quest to save kidnapped children, among them her friend Roger, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, from the evil “Gobblers,” who are using them as part of a sinister experiment.
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wednesday july 18
Thirty-something high school Latin teacher April Epner has never had any desire to find the woman who gave her up for adoption. Her adoptive parents were perfectly loving, if rather restrained, and she is contented with her single state and quiet career.
But into her tidy life bursts Bernice Graverman, a flamboyantly self-dramatizing woman who wears “toad sized clip-on earrings” and “wet-look white eyeshadow.” Bernice, who is a local talk show host, confessed to her TV audience that she once gave up a child for adoption, and the ratings were so good (“You didn’t happen to see the show, did you?”) that tracking down April was the inevitable next step.
That’s how Elinor Lipman’s 1990 debut novel Then She Found Me begins. The rest of it is just as wryly funny and perfectly pitched.
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thursday july 12
In all the Harry Potter brouhaha, don't overlook a movie coming out this summer by a fantastic writer, Neil Gaiman. The movie is Stardust, based on the wonderful book of the same name. This is a grown-up fairy tale, with richly spare writing and fantastic imagery.
The story follows Tristran Thorn's quest for a fallen star, which turns out to not quite be what he expected. But then, as we continually find out, things are never quite what you expect in the land of Faerie. As Tristran seeks to fulfill his quest to bring the fallen star to his beloved, he quite naturally finds out whom he really is and what it is that he really wants.
This is again the story of the Hero's Quest, just like Star Wars and Luke Skywalker, The Odyssey and Odysseus, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dorothy, and so many others, even Harry Potter and all of his adventures.
Stardust is also available as a digital audio book, read by the author.
Neil Gaiman might be familiar to some as a graphic novel author, most notably perhaps being the Sandman series.
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thursday april 26
You're not imagining things if you've been seeing Imperial Stormtroopers at the library.
In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, we're launching GalaxyCon, an out-of-this-world celebration of all things science fiction.
It hasn't even started yet, and already it's a blast. I've had some great conversations with fans of all ages and families who plan to join us for the stellar events we have planned.
Science fiction is such a part of our culture, in fiction, film, and TV. Were you one of the wide-eyed kids who watched Flash Gordon serials on Saturday mornings, or did you stand in line for Spiderman and its sequels? Did you get your kicks from superhero comics or have your consciousness raised by the sociological sf of Sheri S. Tepper or Margaret Atwood? Are you hooked on Heroes or daffy for Dr. Who?
Even if you're not a techie, a Trekker, or a towel-carrying hitchhiker through the galaxy, how can you resist? (Resistance is futile, you know!)
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friday april 13
The whole world is a little dimmer now. Kurt Vonnegut passed away at the age of 84.
Indianapolis, his birth city, is celebrating 2007 as The Year of Vonnegut. The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library has lots of events planned, too, and the One Book One City selection, announced just day before yesterday, is Slaughterhouse Five. Now this will all sadly be In Memoriam.
Slaughterhouse Five was written a long time after his experiences in WWII as a prisoner of war in Germany. He was actually there in the bombing of Dresden, and he survived it with other POWs in an old slaughterhouse cellar, which is why I feel this event is so poignant in the book.
I miss him already. Chances are, he doesn't miss us much, being up there talking to Newton and Shakespeare and all those folks he was looking forward to meeting.
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tuesday april 10
L. Frank Baum's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a lovely memory of my childhood. Outside the bedrooms in the upstairs hallway of my grandparents' house the walls were lined with old glass-fronted bookcases, filled with my mom's books from her childhood. All 14 Oz books were there, and I spent many happy hours reading them.
Robert Sabuda adapted the first book to his magical pop-up format, staying true to the original illustrations and story.
The cast of characters from Oz would happily surprise any Harry Potter fan: Tick-Tock the Royal Army of Oz, flying monkeys, witches and sorceresses, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, and of course Dorothy herself who would give Harry a run for his money in resourcefulness and courage. The stories were written early in the 20th century but maintain a fantastic sense of adventure that is still enjoyable.
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tuesday march 27
No “Irish History Month” would be complete without a tribute to the Easter Rising, the 1916 rebellion against Great Britain that failed, but sparked the astonishing victory of the War of Independence (1919-1921). William Butler Yeats, a contemporary, was the first writer to make great literature of the story. His poem “Easter, 1916” commemorates the 16 rebel leaders whose executions roused the country to revolution:
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Among recent literary accounts are two superb novels by award-winning writers: Jamie O'Neill’s At Swim, Two Boys (2001) and Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry (1999), which follows the story through the revolution and the subsequent civil war. The approaches of these native Dubliners couldn’t be less similar.
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friday march 16
I'm a huge Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series fan. Those two series are really what sparked my interest in vampire fiction. Some of the best books in vampire fiction is Tanya Huff's Toronto-based "Blood Books" series featuring PI Vicky Nelson and her friend/lover Henry Fitzroy (who just happens to be the 450 year old son of Henry the VIII). Vicky also gets the assist from her ex-boyfriend Mike Celluci in her chasing down cases. She's a fabulously flawed heroine who really deserves your time!
The "Blood Books" were originally published in the early '90s as single titles, but have recently been reissued in three omibus editions. Each edition contains two of the stories.
saturday march 10
“One hundred nations descend upon us. The armies of all Asia. Funneled into this narrow corridor, their numbers count for nothing. They shatter with each advance.”
300, the film based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae (“hot gates”), opened this week here and across the country. Typically for Miller, whose talents and concepts are equally extreme, the movie has drawn praise for its power, but also diatribes against its historical and (perceived) political content, as well as Miller’s trademark violence.
The book is certainly a fine example of Miller’s potent, “artful” storytelling, and the story itself can’t be told often enough. Stationing themselves in a narrow mountain pass, 300 Spartans faced certain death to hold the gigantic army of the Persian Empire at bay, enabling the Greek city-states to marshal their forces and eventually rebuff the invaders.
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wednesday march 07
When you wonder how in the world Peter O’Toole missed winning an Academy Award for Lawrence of Arabia and then discover he lost to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous gaps in Oscar honors seem less shocking. But – Rocky beating Taxi Driver? Best Picture and Best Director? Actually, Martin Scorsese wasn’t even nominated for directing Taxi Driver.
Oscar history is so full of surprises that it was painful to watch the aged O’Toole sitting among mere mortals at this year’s ceremony, hoping to end a record series of losses: seven fruitless nominations at the start of the evening, eight by the end. Fortunately, he had received an honorary award in 2002.
I saw the nearly four-hour Lawrence of Arabia four times during its initial run in 1963, when I was 13. Before I try to explain myself, some cover from Roger Ebert: “I've noticed that when people remember Lawrence of Arabia, they don't talk about the details of the plot. They get a certain look in their eye, as if they are remembering the whole experience, and have never quite been able to put it into words.”
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friday february 23
The Horror Writers Association has announced that Thomas Harris will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bram Stoker Awards Banquet at the end of March during the annual HWA Conference that will be held in conjunction with the 2007 World Horror Convention in Toronto.
Harris hasn't written a lot of books, but his fiction is very finely crafted and creepy. He is, of course, recognized for his perfectly written saga of Hannibal Lecter, the compelling psychopath from Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal.
The latest and final installment, Hannibal Rising, is actually the first installment, starting with Hannibal as a young boy in Eastern Europe during World War II. It offers the reasons for Hannibal becoming the way he is.
Harris wrote the screenplay for the movie at the same time as the novel. Hannibal Rising is available in audio as well as print, and as a digital audio book for download from the Ohio eBook Project.
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wednesday february 21
Who can forget Jack Palance doing push-ups on stage after winning Best Supporting Actor for City Slickers? Or Adrien Brody enthusiastically kissing Halle Berry after his Best Actor win for The Pianist? If you don't want to miss all the excitement (plus an opportunity to make fun of the bizarre outfits some of the stars wear), tune into ABC this Sunday at 8 p.m. to see Ellen DeGeneres host the 79th Annual Oscar Awards. In past years, many of the Best Picture winners were adapted from popular works of fiction or non-fiction. Here's a small sampling (the date in parenthesis is the year the movie won the award for Best Picture):
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tuesday february 13
Hockey is by far my favorite sport. I love the slap shot, the body check, the zamboni, and the fights. I sit and cheer and wish for skates as those "little boys" fight it out to get the tiny puck in the elusive net. And when they do, boy oh boy!
In 1980 something wonderful happened. Our young, green little boys duked it out with the big, seasoned Russian hockey team in the Olympics, and they won!
Wayne Coffey's 2005 book The Boys of Winter tells their story, which is even more fascinating than you think. The coaching was unconventional, and by using tactics that were unpredictable and new the Boys outsmarted the Men. They simply played better hockey, newer hockey, and their devotion and grit paid off in a gold medal.
Something wonderful happened in 1998 too: The US Women won Olympic Gold in hockey! Read about it in Crashing the Net by Mary Turco.
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tuesday february 06
The Sundance Film Festival closed in Park City, Utah, on January 28, releasing onto the market a great many fine independent movies, to judge by the number that won at least one award. The festival, produced by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, screens 125 dramatic and documentary feature films and more than 70 short films each year.
The Grand Jury Prize winners were the documentary Manda Balla (“Send a Bullet”), the first feature film directed by Jason Kohn, and the drama Padre Nuestro (“Our Father”), a Spanish-language film by first-time writer/director – and Fort Wright, Ky. native – Christopher Zalla.
Padre Nuestro follows the struggles of a Mexican boy to reach New York City and find the father he has never met, bearing as sole proof of his identity a locket and letter from his deceased mother. Manda Balla is a portrait of contemporary Brazil, focusing on its diversity, socioeconomic extremes, and a growing culture of violence and corruption.
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thursday january 25
Oscar-nominated films now in theaters began as books. The satirical tone of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children gets a bit lost in the film, but the disturbing performance by Jackie Earle Haley has caught everyone’s attention. A desperate Judi Dench knows Cate Blanchett’s secrets in Zoe Heller’s What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal. Will Smith and son bring Chris Gardner’s astounding and inspiring memoir The Pursuit of Happyness to a wider audience.
tuesday january 16
Roddy Doyle has a new book out, Paula Spencer. It’s the sequel to The Woman Who Walked into Doors, his 1996 character study of a working-class Dublin woman beset by alcoholism and abuse. Paula is now sober and managing an ordinary, workaday life, though she's walking on eggshells with her children, who can't quite afford to trust her yet.
It's a lovely book, an intimate character study with a richly original voice. It's getting the same critical acclaim as its predecessor did.
But I have to confess a preference for Doyle's more comic works. My favorite Doyle characters of all are the Rabbitte family, who were introduced in his debut and showed up in two more novels, now collectively known as the Barrytown Trilogy.
I pulled The Commitments off the shelf to review in 1989, a skinny, paperback U.S. edition of a first novel by an unknown Irish writer. I was giggling from the first page, where three loutish, untalented Dublin youths decide that their fledgling rock band needs some help and recruit their more musically knowledgeable friend, Jimmy Rabbitte, to manage it.
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monday january 08
Ever wished you had a good comeback when the moment required it? For inspiration, check out It's a Bitter Little World: The Smartest, Toughest, Nastiest Quotes from Film Noir, published by Cincinnati's own Writer's Digest Books. They just don't write 'em like this anymore. It takes guts and brains to pull off lines like "You going legitimate is like a vulture turning vegetarian."
Stupid Movie Lines: the 776 dumbest things ever uttered on the silver screen makes you wish you could have written something that bad - that takes talent too, you know.
For more movie mayhem, try The Official Movie Plot Generator: 27,000 Hiliarious Movie Plot Combinations. Flip the tabs, mix and match characters and situations to develop a winning premise for a movie. For those who love movies, great stories, and Mad Libs.
thursday december 21
The wonderful documentary Ballets Russes is now at the Library, after a too-brief stint on the big screen here last summer. The film recounts the glories and “ballet battles” of the two troupes of dancers, originally all Russian émigrés, who toured the world for decades during the mid-twentieth century. These companies brought ballet to regions where it had never been seen before, particularly in the Americas and Australia.
A 2000 reunion of former Ballet Russe members in New Orleans gave Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine an opportunity to capture their accounts of this pioneering period in ballet history. The film combines these candid, affectionate, moving, and often humorous interviews with precious glimpses of legendary works and performers.
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monday december 18
(1) Those who would marry Leonard Cohen in a heartbeat and those (2) like my daughter, who says, "Everybody in the sixth grade hates Leonard Cohen," and when she's really mad, "Leonard Cohen doesn't love you."
The gateway song to Leonard Cohen is usually "Suzanne." Albums I'd recommend are Tower of Song (1995); The Future (1992); The Essential Leonard Cohen (2002). Cohen's least popular album (aside perhaps from his most recent one) is Death of a Ladies Man," which was produced by Phil Spector and definitely has that Wall of Sound thing going on. I like it a lot. Also, for cool cover versions, I'm Your Fan, a tribute album (Version #1) is a lot of fun.
There are biographies of Leonard Cohen, none completely up to date. The most recent is Leonard Cohen, by David Sheppard, published in 2000. While satisfying as far as Cohen's early days are concerned, Sheppard's record stops before Cohen's departure from Mount Baldy, near Los Angeles, where he was a Buddhist monk for five years.
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tuesday december 12
I recently posted a Turning the Page entry about the Charles Dickens book A Christmas Carol. It was published in 1843, 163 years ago.
Looking at these dates gave me pause. My great-grandfather George Peet, who was my mother's father's father, was born in 1844, the year after A Christmas Carol was published.
This same great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, lost his leg at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, spent time in the dreaded Libby Prison, and came home to tell about it. Thank goodness, since consequently here I am. He was a member of the 5th Ohio Volunteers, based out of Camp Dennison, Ohio, which is just a little bit east of Cincinnati.
It's fascinating to me how literature can span time and unify us like it does. And it also shows yet again how there really is nothing new under the sun.
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wednesday november 29
One of my favorite parts of my job is talking to people about what they’re reading. Watching people light up when they tell me about something really, really good, and listening to their voices become urgent when they tell me “you’ve just got to try this”—I find that absolutely irresistible.
And of course, if it’s something I’ve read, we get to do that “isn’t he an amazing writer” and “wasn’t it wonderful when” and even “ooh, if you liked that, you have to read.”
I love writing for this blog, because of course I get to do the “you’ve just got to.” (You can probably tell from some of my much-too-long entries how enthused I can get.)
But it’s not one-way. It just occurred to me that everything I have out on my card right now and everything I currently have on hold was recommended to me personally by a library user or another librarian.
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tuesday november 28
Charles Dickens wrote a masterpiece when he came up with A Christmas Carol. I am partial to stories with ghosts in them, and this is one of the best. We have not only the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come scaring the socks off Scrooge, but old Marley long deceased showing up as well. And how about the homeless suffering poor that wail their dirge outside Scrooge's window? Creepy, but he deserved it.
I will never forget that Scrooge was in denial as long as possible. He blamed the manifestations on "an underdone potato" or "an undigested bit of beef"!
There have been lots of film adaptations of the story with terrific portrayals of Scrooge, including George C Scott, Patrick Stewart, musical Albert Finney, and even Bill Murray in the modern "Scrooged". My favorite has to be "Scrooge" (1951) with Alastair Sim capturing the old miser perfectly!
It's just amazing to me how a story created in 1843 can be so timely today. Merry Christmas, 163 years later!
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tuesday november 07
Looking forward to the holiday movie season? Can't decide which movies to see? Then check out Yahoo's Holiday Movie Guide. If you still can't make up your mind, pick up copies of some of the following books. The movies based on them are all set to hit theaters soon. Scheduled release dates are in parentheses.
- A Good Year by Peter Mayle--Russell Crowe inherits a French vineyard and falls in love with a beautiful local woman (11/10)
- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser--A fast food company executive played by Greg Kinnear investigates when tainted meat turns up in his company's restaurants (11/17)
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming--Daniel Craig plays the first blonde James Bond (11/17)
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tuesday october 31
We tend to think of scary books at Halloween, and I'll take this chance to promote some of my favorite creepy audio books and reading for any dark night.
The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection is read by Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. Poe's work distills all that is eerie, and these two masters of voice bring the recordings to chilling life.
The Shining by Stephen King is a perennial favorite, good at the movies but terrific as the original book.
Peter Straub's Lost Boy Lost Girl is as creepy as it gets, an excellent read along with its sequel In The Night Room.
And don't forget the Classics: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Dracula by Bram Stoker and the wonderful silent film Nosferatu; and even War of the Worlds by HG Wells, which was a written work long before it was performed as a radio play or movie.
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saturday october 21
I'm a little cuckoo for this show. If Larry David met me, he'd be put off by my enthusiasm. But no show has made me laugh this hard since Seinfeld, so what am I supposed to do? Since I don't have HBO, I've had to catch the episodes on DVD, and after watching all five seasons, I've got nowhere to turn except network TV, and that's just not a place I want to be. You can imagine my delight when I discovered Curb Your Enthusiasm, the Book was coming out.
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monday september 18
Brian De Palma's new feature film, The Black Dahlia, is based on James Ellroy’s 1988 novel of the same title. The book is a lurid treatment, in the noir tradition, of a notorious unsolved Los Angeles murder. In January of 1947, a woman walking her young daughter to school discovered the body of woman, hacked in half, lying in a vacant lot.
In Ellroy’s story, ex-boxer and cop Bucky Bleichert becomes so involved in the investigation of the murder of Elizabeth Short -- aka the Black Dahlia -- that he loses his career and the woman he loves, compromises his principles time and again, and sees his life go down the proverbial tube.
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wednesday august 23
Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Brokeback Mountain, will visit Cincinnati on October 28, 2006, as she delivers this year’s Mercantile Library Niehoff Lecture. If ticket prices are too steep for you, check out these interviews with Proulx regarding the adaptation of her 1998 short story into the feature film that had everyone talking.
Audio interview with KCRW of Santa Monica, California
Interview with book blogger John Detrixhe
Annie Proulx's colorful and scathing account of the 2006 Academy Awards published by the U.K.'s Guardian.
tuesday august 22
Abarat (2002) is one of the most engaging books I have ever had the pleasure to experience. It is one of Clive Barker's young adult fantasies that takes the heroine, Candy Quackenbush, to a strange and unexpected world that somehow stands up to logic, in spite of being constructed completely out of Barker's imagination.
The books are filled with Barker's paintings, which were apparently his basis for the books. He says he was inspired by the movies The Wizard of Oz and Fantasia, CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, and by Cirque du Soleil. (information from the Abarat web site)
The sequel, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004), is every bit as wonderful as the first book. The best news is: This will be a quartet of books. We have two more to look forward to reading!!
Immerse yourself in the world of Abarat. You will never go anywhere like it again.
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monday august 07
It is finally here! I always wait in great anticipation for the new Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child books. This one, The Book of the Dead (2006) landed on my desk last week. It takes all my will power not to devour it in one sitting.
Set in the slightly fictionalized Natural History Museum in New York City, it is another intricate suspense thriller from Preston and Child. This one involves an ancient cursed Egyptian tomb that was installed in the museum basement in 1872, yet has been bricked up, sealed for seventy years for mysterious reasons, and all but forgotten by the museum. Strange things start to happen when the tomb is re-opened.
The cast of characters is varied, flawed, and believable. The grand old museum building, with its attics, sub-basements, laboratories, and storerooms is the real star of the story. Its shadowy presence sets a tense mood, the perfect setting for the creepy and suspenseful story.
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friday july 28
Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning role in Capote sparked renewed interest in Capote's In Cold Blood. With help from research assistant and friend Harper Lee, Capote composed this true crime classic which made the Modern Library's list of 100 Best Nonfiction Works published after 1900. In it, he details the 1959 murders of the Clutter family by ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
All the attention brought to Capote's work has made me think about other classic murder cases, and the books written about them. The library has many, including:
saturday july 15
Okay, I need to pay more attention. I just discovered that the library now owns Fortunes of War on DVD.
So?
So! I saw this on a thirteen-inch black and white TV in 1988, and I’ve wanted to see it again ever since. I've been watching Masterpiece Theatre since the days of The Six Wives of Henry VIII (yes, I am very, very old), and of all of the wonderful adaptations I’ve ever seen, it's right up there with A Town Like Alice and (insert your own favorite here). For almost twenty years it wasn’t available for love or money. And now here it is, right here, finally published, and on the shelves at the library.
The question is, if you haven't already, should you watch first or read first?
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friday july 14
Happy Bastille Day, I guess.
Louis the Sixteenth was the King of France in 1789.
He was worse than Louis the Fifteenth.
He was worse than Louis the Fourteenth.
He was worse than Louis the Thirteenth.
He was the worst since Louis the First.
-- Alan Sherman
If You've seen La Nuit de Varennes, one of my three favorite movies (the other two being Nashville and Best in Show), or if you have an interest in the French Revolution, you're going to want to read Les Nuits de Paris; or, the Nocturnal Spectator, in which Nicolas Edme Restif de la Bretonne recounts--and probably sometimes invents--the events of his hundreds of nights spent meandering the streets of Paris betwen 1789 and 1793, and his general disapproval of the greed and crime in Paris during the days leading up to and following the Revolution.
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wednesday july 12
Wordplay is playing right now in the local art houses and is a great look at the obsession of puzzlers, a kind term for crossword puzzle addicts. Many of us can't start the day without a cup of coffee and a puzzle and yet inexplicably can't find the words to explain why we do them.
Wordplay focuses on the intense competion of the national crossword championship and the top competitors are interviewed about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat (sorry, couldn't resist that one). Famous puzzlers such as Bill Clinton offer insights into the puzzler psyche and comic Jon Stewart has a good time ranting over his favorite pastime.
Everyone interviewed carries on about the difficulties posed by The New York Times crosswords but those are for rank amateurs compared to the challenges of The London Times puzzles. Some consider our local daily paper's offerings beneath contempt and others quite happily fill in the grids. Whatever the skill level of the puzzler, there exists a common fascination with the process of matching clues and words and making it all come out right.
The library catalog offers both fiction and nonfiction books about crosswords. Websites abound with downloads and you can hear New York Times editor and puzzle guru Will Shortz on NPR but nothing quite beats that moment when you fold back the newspaper with pen (yes, pen) in hand and attack that first empty square. Let's see, a nine letter word for obsession....
Can't get enough of Elizabeth Bennett and her Mr. Darcy? Lost count of how many times you've seen the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice? Or is Colin Firth the definitive Mr. D? Austen fans always pick Darcy as their favorite hero (or at least those I know) and can now rejoice in An Assembly Such as This: A novel of Fitzilliam Darcy, Gentleman.
Author Pamela Aidan (a librarian I am proud to note) begins a delightful trilogy about the courtship of Elizabeth from Darcy's point of view. Find out why he was so uncomfortable the night he met Elizabeth, thereby precipitating her negative feelings. Learn how he befriended the naive Mr. Bingley and his hateful sisters. And, of course, get the skinny on Wickham.
Regency England has been well worked over by romance novelists and only a few have been as effective in capturing the manners and ways of its society as Aidan. From the opening scenes at the Meryton assembly you are swept into the spirit of Austen's provincial intrigues and romances. Mr. Darcy's snobbery sets him up for Elizabeth's stinging retort and so the plot begins.
You don't need to read Pride and Prejudice to follow the story (but you really should or it won't be as delicious) and most readers who pick this up will probably be devoted Austen fans. Aidan follows the course of true love after this first novel with Duty and Desire and These Three Remain (unhappily the library doesn't have them yet) but each installment may be enjoyed independently though you will want to devour them all. But in a most genteel way.
I was in the eighth grade in 1968 when I first read Frank Herbert's novel Dune (1965). I told everyone I knew that it was the best book I had ever read, and probably the best book ever written; I am not ashamed to admit that I uttered those words again as recently as last week.
This fabulous Science Fiction story won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. It is an ecological cautionary story about dependence on energy and political control, about ecological change and disaster, about people's need for leadership and the temptations of corruption, and mostly about one remarkable man: Paul Atreides, whose fate it is to become Maud'Dib, the leader of millions.
Dino de Laurentis made a truly terrible movie based on the book; the SciFi Channel made a better mini-series adaptation in 2001.
Fremen...Bene Gesserit...House Harkonnen...sand worms...Spacing Guild...planets Arrakis, Geidi Prime, and Caladan. Come join us in the universe of Dune.
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monday july 03
Most people remember Al Gore only as a politician, but he has always had a great interest in environmental issues. His new book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, was published to coincide with the release of the companion documentary and deals with the current and future environmental crisis of global warming. The book and film were inspired by multimedia presentations that Mr. Gore developed and presents worldwide. He uses charts, pictures and anecdotes to eloquently argue that we have little time to come up with solutions to the issue of global warming or the consequences could be disastrous. The book is an excellant introduction to the issue of global warming for those of us who are unsure of the problems involved. Read the book, see the film, visit the website.
Check these titles out if you are interested in the issue of global warming
For another title on the environment by Al Gore read Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit
wednesday june 21
A while back I was facing a dilemma: should I go and see the new Superman movie or should I go see the film adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada? Yeah...my life is so full of hard choices, and I never said it was a huge dilemma. Thankfully The X-Men had a big opening weekend and DC hates Marvel and wants to get the better of them, so Superman Returns got moved up to a June 28th opening so they could get a shot at a four day weekend box-office. Now I can see both in the same week...score!
I know, what does this have to do with books? Well...I was reading the online edition of USA TODAY and stumbled across an article about chick lit that mentioned the best and the worst of the genre. Some of my favorites, besides Lauren Weisberger, that are being converted to film or have been converted to film are:
- Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Disney is currently working on bringing Becky Bloomwood and her wacky adventures to the big screen.
- Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella. Kate Hudson is attached to this adaptation.
- In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine starred in the 2005 movie.
Tonight at nine p.m. the first part of the documentary film A Lion in the House will air on CET. It follows five families from cancer diagnosis though treatment, with footage covering six years. The film was shot at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center with many local families. This is a great project, and I am so happy that we at the library are one of CET's outreach partners in presenting this valuable and thought-provoking work to our community.
The film is part of the PBS series Independent Lens and was created by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar. The companion book, also called A Lion in the House, includes thoughts from the parents, siblings, medical team and filmmakers in their own words. These moving stories touch on the choices and realities of cancer in each family. The book is also interesting for getting a perspective on how the film was made. Filmmakers' notes on each family, and a longer section at the back of the book emphasize the struggle not to be intrusive while filming and to portray the families with honesty and sensitivity.
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thursday june 15
If you're not a fan of reruns or reality shows, watching television in the summer can be a real drag. Which is why I always eagerly look forward to the American Film Institute's annual movie list. This year's theme, 100 Years...100 Cheers, counted down the top 100 most inspiring films of all time, as selected by a jury of 1,500 film critics and historians. Commentary by such luminaries as Steven Spielberg, James Earl Jones, Sally Field and Ben Kingsley livened the three-hour CBS broadcast last night. If you didn't see it, you might want to check out the Institute's website for the complete list.
As the list was revealed, I realized how many of the films were based on classic works of fiction and non-fiction, some more contemporary, some long-forgotten. Here are a few you might want to check out: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace, A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, 2001 by Arthur Clarke, All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella (the movie's title was changed to Field of Dreams).
monday june 12
How about something cold and shivery on a hot summer day?
One of my favorites is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959). This scary little novel was the inspiration for two movies, 1963's excellent The Haunting, and 1999's slightly cheesy remake, also called The Haunting.
Another classic is A Stir of Echoes (Richard Matheson, 1958), a deliciously creepy ghost story with a psychological angle. It was made into a movie in 1999, but it is more of a "jump" feature and doesn't have that scariness-lurking-beneath-our-normal-lives feeling of the book.
Jodi Picoult's Second Glance (2003) is a wonderful ghost story with a very natural voice that brings the reader right into the incredible experiences of the characters. No movie, which might be all for the better.
Annie Wilder wrote a fascinating memoir of living with ghosts, House of Spirits and Whispers: The True Story of a Haunted House (2005). It's a quick chilly read for a hot summer day -- and you will never look at your cat the same way again...
friday june 09
"I like to fiddle with the idea of basic categories of reality, such as space and time, breaking down." (
Philip K. Dick)
As librarians we enjoy categorizing things, and in squirrelly realms such as the work of Philip K. Dick, this endeavor quickly becomes problematic. Do we place him in Science Fiction? Magic Realism? Postmodernism? Speculative Fiction? Was he a hack philosopher/theologian, a “poor man’s Pynchon” as a Village Voice reviewer once suggested, or a “homegrown Borges” as Ursula K. Le Guin opined?
I proclaim PKD to be all of the above and then some. The man and his work have been described as visionary, paranoid, brilliant, and mystical, among many other terms. If you enjoy slippery metaphysical slopes and shifting realities with their attendant philosophical quandaries, I heartily recommend Philip K. Dick’s work. Despite the thematic weightiness, however, he is eminently readable, and his addictive page-turners often feature “common man” characters (even androids) possessing warmth and humor uncharacteristic of the genres he straddles.
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friday june 02
What can withstand the X-Men? Not even The Da Vinci Code, to judge by opening weekend stats for X-Men: The Last Stand. The third film based on the Marvel Comics series had the highest-grossing debut of the year so far, and the fourth-highest opening weekend ever (the top weekend spot belonging to another Marvel enterprise, Spider-Man).
Moviegoers and critics alike are raving about the film’s great blend of action, drama, and, well, a pretty darn weighty treatment of intolerance, and whether to combat it through violence or peaceful dialogue.
Fans of the comics will expect all this from an X-Men tale. The battling mutants have thrilled and moved readers since 1963, when superwriter Stan “The Man” Lee and superartist Jack “The King” Kirby created the highly diverse charter characters.
If X-Men: The Last Stand leaves you wanting more, the Library has the first two films, X-Men and X2: X-Men United, plus many bound editions of the comics. You can even start with the very first issues, collected in Marvel Masterworks Presents The X-Men: Reprinting the X-Men, Nos. 1-10.
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The Bell Witch: An American Haunting (1997, Brent Monohan) is a retelling of a terrifying ordeal endured by an early 1800's Tennessee family. What makes this story so frightening is the power of the human mind, and what people can do when pushed to the absolute limit of their tolerance.
And by the way...don't bother with the movie version of this book, unless you are looking for a murky, jerky costume picture where you can see 1818 school kids playing soccer and a photo of an 1820 wedding couple. It is an inaccurate sadly skewed misrepresentation of a fascinating story.
Terrific book for fans of The Unexplained. Disappointing movie for fans of the book.
Most of us are familiar with the X-Men, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman. But do we know where they and their lesser-known counterparts came from?
Here are a few books and a DVD to help aid in our discovery of the history of these fabulous heroes:
And for the record...Superman is from Krypton via Cleveland, OH.
