New DVDs for October

- Ann Leave a comment

October 6

life in ruinsMy life in Ruins – Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss

Georgia is a recently laid-off, though anything but laid-back, history professor turned travel guide to a motley crew of hilariously crass tourists. Georgia is fed up and ready to give up, until her new confidant Irv opens her eyes and heart to a simple fact: There’s no finer way for a woman to find her kefi (a.k.a. mojo) than to lose herself in the arms of the ‘Greek god’ who’s been hiding right under her nose.

year one

Year One – Jack Black

Zed and Oh, a couple of numbskull cavemen from the year one, set out on a journey into the ancient world when their laziness gets them banished from their primitive village.

October 13

american violetAmerican Violet – Charles Dutton, Alfre Woodward, Xzibit

A young woman is wrongly accused of selling drugs near a school and is offered a plea deal that would force her to admit to a crime she didn’t commit. Rather than ruin her life with a conviction, she decides to sue the DA in a case that changes her life as well as the laws of her state. Based on a true story.

proposalThe Proposal – Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds

High-powered book editor Maggie is everyone’s worst nightmare: ruthless, driven, and tactless. When she finds herself faced with deportation back to Canada, she coerces her much younger assistant into marrying her. However, when the government becomes suspicious, they embark upon a charade in order to make the marriage seem legitimate.

October 20

transformersTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, Shia Labeouf

When college-bound Sam Witwicky learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers, he must accept his destiny and join Optimus Prime and Bumblebee in their epic battle against the Decepticons, who have returned stronger than ever with a plan to destroy the world.

October 27

iceageIce Age 3 – Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Just when you thought they couldn’t get any cooler, your favorite prehistoric pals are back. This time around, Manny and the herd discover a lost world of ferociously funny dinosaurs, including a cranky T-Rex who has a score to settle with Sid. Meanwhile, Scrat goes nuts over the beautiful Scratte, but is she trying to win his heart or steal his acorn?

Banned Books That Became Classic Movies

- Ann Leave a comment

lord of the ringsLord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien written between 1937 – 1949) it contains the three books : Fellowship of the Ring; Two Towers and Return of the King.

Burned in Alamagordo, N. Mex. (2001) outside Christ Community Church along with other Tolkien novels as satanic. Between 2001 – 2003 Peter Jackson created three epic movies based on these books. The films were nominated for and won many awards including winning 17 Oscars.

grapesGrapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

Burned by the East St. Louis, III. Public Library (1939) and barred from the Buffalo, N.Y Public Library (1939) on the grounds that “vulgar words” were used. Banned in Kansas City, Mo. (1939); Kern County Calif, the scene of Steinbeck’s novel, (1939). “Grapes of Wrath has been challenged through the years for among many things including using the name of God and Jesus in a vain and profane manner along with inappropriate sexual references. The has only been one film of this book, filmed in 1940. It starred Henry Fonda and John Carradine. The movie received 7 Oscar nominations in 1940, winning for best director and best supporting actress Jane Darwell.

to kill a mockingbird dvdTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

This book has been challenged since 1977 for using profanity and being a filthy trashy novel. The most recent challenged was at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, N.C. (2004) because the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel uses the word “nigger.” The movie was filmed in 1960. It starred Gregory Peck. It was nominated for 8 Oscars winning 3 including best actor, Gregory Peck.

purpleThe Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)

Color Purple as been challenged since its publication mostly for “sexual and social explicitness” and its “troubling ideas about race relations, man’s relationship to God, African history and human sexuality.” The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. The movie was filmed in 1984 with Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. It was nominated for 8 Oscars.


My Favorite Banned Book — To Kill a Mockingbird

- Ann Leave a comment

to kill mockingbirdMy favorite banned book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  I loved this book; I loved the movie.  I can still picture (in black and white) Gregory Peck portaying the consummate Southern lawyer Atticus Finch, wiping his brow in the hot, segregated courtroom while his adoring daughter Scout, looks on from the balcony.

Set in a small Southern town in Alabama during the Depression, the book follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother Jem and their father, Atticus, who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.  Thus, the book covers many issues, but because it is told through the eyes of young Scout, it never comes off as judgmental or preachy.

I could never understand why someone would not want others to read this book.  It won the Pulitzer Prise, it’s been translated into more than forty languages and was voted the best novel of the twentieth century.  If somehow you got through school without reading this book, now is the time to do so.  Come to think of it, it may be about time for me to read it again — it’s that good!

My Favorite Banned Book – Catcher in the Rye

- Lynn Leave a comment

catcher-in-the-rye-coverCatcher in the Rye was a pivotal book  for me. It was one of the first books that I read that seemed to speak the Truth… about phoniness and superficiality and adult hypocrisy.

As a preteen, I didn’t probe into the actual copyright date; I thought it had just been written about my generation –  actually about ME specifically.

Up until that point, I’d mostly read series like Trixie Beldon and Nancy Drew, both admirable but neither of whom were very introspective.

I remember sprawling on my bed for an entire Sunday afternoon – not being able to put the book down, yet not wanting to let my new soulmate, Holden Caulfield, out of my life, either.

David Ulin says in the LA Times, “We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their language, but they possess us also, filling us with thoughts and observations, asking us to make them part of ourselves.”

My Favorite Banned Book – The Lovely Bones

- Ann 5 Comments

lovely bonesThe American Library Association (ALA) has designated September 26-October 3 as Banned Books Week in order to raise awareness of continuing threats against intellectual freedom. You may be surprised to find that even in this modern age of openess and equality, censorship remains a constant threat. Follow along with us this week as our librarians highlight their Favorite Banned Books.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is the heartbreaking story of a family struggling with the sudden and unexplained loss of their oldest daughter. Told from the perspective of the murdered daughter as she watches her family and friends from “the other side”, Susie narrates what happened to her (raped and murdered by the neighbor), agonizes as her parents and siblings mourn, and struggles to come to terms with what her own life on earth meant. There is a lot of sadness in this book, but there is also a great deal of celebration, joy and enduring love.

The Singing Revolution

- Ann Leave a comment

The Singing RevolutionEstonia is a tiny nation squeezed between the Baltic Sea and the former Soviet Union. For centuries they have been subject to occupation and used as a pawn by larger, more powerful nations. In 1920 they achieved independence and were thriving only to fall victim again to dictators – in 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a secret agreement that divided Europe between them. Shortly thereafter, Stalin invaded Estonia and brutally suppressed resistance.

This invasion was followed by more than 50 years of oppression, first by Stalin, then Hitler, then Stalin again. Thousands of Estonians were killed or shipped to Siberia to work in the labor camps. The Estonian language was outlawed, thousands of Russians were moved to Estonia (called “russification”) to further dilute the native population and any hint of free thinking was swiftly and severely punished.

However, the Estonians refused to give up their culture or their national identity. One way was through singing – this tiny nation has one of the largest collections of folk songs in the world and singing clubs are very popular. A national song festival – “Laulupidu” – has been held every five years since 1894. The Soviets allowed this festival to continue, but required the singing of Soviet communist songs, sung in Russian. On one occasion the Estonians outsmarted their oppressors and spontaneously began singing traditional folk songs in Estonian. The band was ordered to play louder to drown out the singing, but massed voices were too loud.

As Soviet Russia began to crumble, Estonia pushed for more freedoms and independence. Throughout their struggle, singing became a uniting force, bringing people together countless times. The Estonian revolution remained bloodless and, when the USSR finally collapsed, Estonia emerged as an intact nation, united by their suffering but also by their joyous singing.

The Singing Revolution will leave you with a lump in your throat and goosebumps on your skin. It’s hard to believe that singing can stop tanks, but the Estonians did it again and again. The beautiful, lovingly produced documentary will remind you again of both the price of freedom and why it’s so precious.

Pay It Forward

- Ann 1 Comment

pay it forwardRemember the movie, Pay It Forward (2000) with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt?  The one in which the teacher (Spacey) encourages his students to make the world a better place?  By the way, in case you don’t know — as I didn’t — the movie is actually based on a book with the same title by Catherine Ryan Hyde.  Anyway, in the book or the movie,  one of his students actually comes up with a plausible plan: to pay it forward.  In other words, if someone does you a kind deed, rather than paying it back, you pay it forward, to three new people.

Well, recently, my husband and I were recipients of a kind deed.  We were out shopping for replacement steps to our hot tub; after 16 years, its wooden stairs had finally disintegrated. We looked at building them ourselves (cost: $50 plus, not to mention time and effort).  Another store sold cedar steps for $100 — a bit pricey.  At our final stop, the salesperson was showing us floor samples in hard plastic.  Another customer spoke up and said, “I have three of those at home; if you want one, just follow me home and you can have one.”  At first, we weren’t certain he was serious and we didn’t want to appear cheap.  But even the sales guy offered, “Well, you can’t beat a deal like that!”  So, we followed him home, got the steps and offered to pay him.  His reply: “Just do something nice for someone else.”  Translation: pay it forward.

So, I’m still looking for ways to do just that.  Though I’m not quite ready to donate a kidney, I am hoping some random act of kindness will make itself blatantly obvious.  In the meantime, if you know of a need — please let me know.  I need to forward some payments.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

- Ann Leave a comment

south of broadI couldn’t wait to read South of Broad — Pat Conroy hasn’t written a novel in 14 years  — though he did write a memoir (My Losing Season) and a cookbook.   I was also curious about the Charleston, South Carolina connection.  In Charleston, south of Broad Street (S.O.B.) is teasingly differentiated from slightly north of Broad (SNOB) in reference to the upscale residents there.  None of the reviewers seemed to catch this obvious pun.  At any rate, I do have to agree with reviewer Chris Bohjalian, who stated, “Even though I felt stage-managed by Conroy’s heavy hand, I still turned the pages with relish.”  That’s how I felt, too.  The book definitely kept my interest but there were details that irritated me.  I questioned the likelihood of all those high school sweethearts actually marrying.  I was kept worrying about his brother’s suicide until the very end.  I found some of the dialogue forced.

Still — I’d rather have you form your own opinion, so here’s a short synopsis of the plot.  The book begins in the summer of 1969, just as the main character (Leopold Bloom King — yes, named after the character in Joyce’s Ulysses) is about to enter his senior year in high school.  After a miserable childhood, marked primarily by the unexpected suicide of his golden-boy brother, Leo becomes friends with an unlikely group which includes orphans, blacks, members of the socially elite and charismatic twins, Trevor and Sheba Poe.  Fast forward twenty years — Sheba is now a famous movie star and Trevor is wasting away with AIDS.  Sheba recruits this same group — still best friends — to find Trevor in San Francisco and bring him back home to Charleston.

In my opinion, this is not Conroy’s best work, but it’s one that many will still enjoy reading.

Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado

- Ann 1 Comment

ConfectionsFed up with a Hollywood lifestyle of “doing lunch”, massive traffic jams and insincere relationships, Gesine Bullock-Prado abandoned all the things that are supposed to make you happy – money, designer clothes, access to famous stars – and escaped to the Green Mountains of Vermont. There she found peace and happiness by following her true passion – baking.

In 2004 Gesine and her husband Ray opened Gesine Confectionary in Montpelier, Vermont largely on the popularity of her macaroons. Expecting to start small and build by word-of-mouth, they were overwhelmed by the long lines that snaked out the door on opening day – maybe it was the fact that Gesine’s sister, movie star Sandra Bullock, was helping at the register?

Star gazing might have brought people to the shop at first but the sweet, luscious treats bring them back again and again. Pies, sticky buns, croissants, scones and cakes of all description guarantee a slew of return customers. Customers become regulars, who become friends and consultants and the empty existence of their former Hollywood life becomes a distant memory. Not everything is perfect – there are setbacks and frustrations, bad employees and unreasonable demands – but mostly it is a dream come true.

Each chapter of Confections of a Closet Master Baker – written in a wry, straightforward voice – finishes with a delectable recipe. Gesine’s stories of her beloved family and memories of her hated Hollywood job ring clear and true. For anyone who longs to drop out of the rat race and follow their passion – or for anyone that loves to eat – this is a must read!

Two-month Time Capsule

- Bill Leave a comment

Here’s an opportunity to give yourself a little pre-Christmas bonus.  November is going to be a huge month for fiction.  The biggest names are going to hit the shelf with what I assume is what they intend to be everyone’s stocking stuffers.

Nothing says you can’t get your hold in right now on DPL’s copy.  Here’s a taste.  Hit the forthcoming fiction page for a full look at what’s to come as things start to chill out outside.

Clive Cussler — The Wrecker
John Grisham — Ford County
James Patterson — I, Alex Cross
Sue Grafton — U is for Undertow
Robert Jordan — Gathering Storm
Sandra Brown — Rainwater
Stephen King — Under the Dome
Dean Koontz — Breathless

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