New and Featured DVDs for 12/30/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new DVDs and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

The Other Guys

Takers

The Box 

2009, directed by Richard Kelly. Based on a short story by the brilliant writer, Richard Matheson, who was responsible for a lot of great, classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, and in fact Matheson’s original story that this movie is based on, “Button, Button” was previously adapted into an episode of the newer version of The Twilight Zone in the 80s.  The film stars Cameron Diaz, Frank Langhella, and James Marsden, and looks a little silly, but also fun. I really enjoyed Richard Kelly’s first film, Donnie Darko, but didn’t care much for his follow up film, Southland tales, so I’m really curious how this will turn out. Check out the trailer below:

The Kids Are All Right

Hopscotch

The Conspirator

Absolutely Fabulous: Complete Series 1

Videodrome

The King’s Speech

2010, directed by Tom Hooper. This movie was the big winner at last year’s Oscars, taking home the Best Picture prize, as well as Best Director for Hooper, Best Screenplay for David Seidler, and Best Actor for Colin Firth, who plays King George VI.

Broadcast News

1987, directed by James L. Brooks. Starring Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, and William Hurt. This is one of the best and smartest romantic comedies that I’ve ever seen and I really wish that they still made movies like this.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Joe Versus The Volcano

In The Mood For Love

2000, directed by Wong Kar-wai and starring the ever glamorous Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. I’ve got to warn you: This is one of my favorite movies of all time and I will hype it endlessly. Set in Hong Kong in 1962, it’s the story of a man and a woman who become neighbors and friends and not long after realize that they’re spouses are having an affair together. They develop a longing and an affection for each other but refuse to give in to the same temptation that their married partners succumbed to. The plot sounds horribly sad, but it’s also beautiful, and much credit is owed to cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s visuals. You could literally take any frame from this film and hang it on your wall as art.

NON-FICTION:

Guns, Germs, And Steel

March On! The Day My Brother Martin Changed The World And More Stories About African American History

Grizzly Man

Soundtrack For A Revolution

The September Issue

Ken Burn’s Prohibition

This 2011 television documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick has been highly anticipated amongst several of our library patrons so I hope that everyone gets a chance to look at it. It apparently draws very heavily from a book by Daniel Okrent called Last Call: The Rise And Fall Of Prohibition, which we also have. Check out the trailer below:

Life After People

Doomsday 2012: The End Of Days

America: The Story Of Us

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Please note that DVDs could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books:

12/27/11.

12/23/11.

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.

The end of the world as we know it.

This year only has a few more days left in it and then 2012 will take over. We’ve been hearing about the Mayan long calendar and many other potential doomsday scenarios or prescriptions for global change (such as Terence McKenna’s Timewave Zero) and it seems like our pop culture mindset has been very interested in ideas like the “apocalypse” for the past few years. The nice thing is that pretty much all of these prophesies of doom which will most likely not come to pass aren’t even scheduled to come to pass til December of 2012 (either on the 22nd or 23rd, so Armageddon survival tools will be the big Christmas gift item a year from now, I predict) so there’s plenty of life on Earth left to enjoy.

And the nice thing about the apocalypse is that it makes for fascinating history and for some really great fiction. If you’re interested in brushing up on the coming year’s end times scenarios, we have The Complete Idiot’s Guide To 2012 by Synthia Andrew and Colin Andrews at the library, as well as 2012: The Return Of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck.

And on DVD we have both non-fiction items, such as Doomsday 2012: The End Of Days and After Armageddon, both from the History Channel, and fiction such as Roland Emmerich’s 2012, starring John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, and Woody Harrelson.

Talk about some light reading/viewing for holidays, right?

Don’t let the doom and gloom get you down. And if we don’t see you before then, we hope you have a very Happy New Year’s and we’ll see you in 2012

New and Featured Books for 12/27/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt

I don’t know too much about this book other than what the cover tells me, that it’s the new book by the author whose debut novel was The Last Samurai, which eventually went on to be adapted into a film starring Tom Cruise. That, and the book’s gotten quite a bit of buzz this year. Is the buzz warranted? You’ll have to let us know. You can find the new novel reviewed at The New York Observer and at The Millions. You can also check out Helen DeWitt’s blog, as well as read an interview with her here, and purchase her second novel, Your Name Here, as a .pdf file on her website.

Before I Got To Sleep by S. J. Watson

American Sea Writing: A Literary Anthology, edited by Peter Neill

Wonderstruck: A Novel In Words And Pictures by Brian Selznick

The new novel by Selznick, author of The Invention Of Hugo Cabret, which is currently in theaters in a film adaptation directed by Martin Scorsese. This new book, an illustrated novel, is apparently a possible contender for both the Newbery and Caldecott awards, and has been highly requested by a few of our patrons of late. We’re glad to finally have it available, as you can clearly see in the look of excitement of my co-worker Judy’s face up above.

Novels And Stories, 1920 – 1922 by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Best American Comics 2011, edited by Alison Bechdel

Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

NON-FICTION:

Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction To Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds

Worst Cases: Terror And Catastrophe In The Popular Imagination by Lee Clarke

Revolution: The Year I Fell In Love And Went To Join The War by Deb Olin Unferth

The first memoir by one of literature’s rising stars. The book is described as “brave and soulful” and well worth a look.

The Engines Of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University In The Twenty-First Century by Holden Thorp & Buck Goldstein.

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen

Warren Buffett Invests Like A Girl – And Why You Should, Too by Louann Lofton

Shock Of Gray: The Aging Of The World’s Population And How It Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, And Nation Against Nation by Ted C. Fishman

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into In College by Harlan Cohen

Love And Capital: Karl And Jenny Marx And The Birth Of A Revolution by Mary Gabriel

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books:

12/23/11.

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.

More reading material.

Some reading material from around the internet:

John Titor, the man who told the internet that he had come from the future.

An archivist explains how to access veteran’s records.

The food we eat might control our genes.

The secret of Madame Tussaud’s success.

The strategies of a preschool teacher.

The 20 best video games of 2011.

Prince Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth, is in the hospital with heart problems.

Where celebrities fall in the Uncanny Valley.

On Wikipedia, cultural patrimony, and historiography.

FX is developing a 1980s spy drama.

Kermit The Frog is a terrible boyfriend.

HBO canceling Bored To Death, Hung, and How To Make It In America, and is renewing Enlightened.

When it comes to the new Mission: Impossible movie, how tall is everyone?

Roger Ebert’s top films of 2011.

Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO show finally has a name: The Newsroom.

The 8 minute trailer for David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Steve Jobs to be awarded a posthumous Grammy.

The golden age of divorced women on TV.

from here.

The new datacenters and their architects.

NASA builds six-foot crossbow to harpoon comets.

The retreat of the Arctic sea releases deadly greenhouse gas.

Girl thought to be swept away by tsunami is found alive 7 years later.

Putting scientists on Mars in permanent colonies.

Urban legends about urban development.

Look at these amazing pictures from space.

The most common place on Earth for meteorites to crash? Antarctica.

National security expert warns of Asian space race.

The case for enhancing people.

by Tom Gauld, from here.

Watch a nice little video clip about the Dalkey Archive Press.

What literature owes the Bible.

Classic novels reinvented with genderswitching.

A review of Stephen King’s 11/22/63.

The secret history of secondhand books.

Jane Austen and Emily Dickinson were both born in the month of December.

How much do books cost these days?

Ridiculous origins for 7 everyday words.

James Ellroy hates everything.

from here.

The physics of how cats drink.

The number of homeless children is currently the highest ever in American history.

The year in political cartoons.

Make sense of the Middle Ages.

Ten plotlines you’ll find over and over again in science fiction.

A very nice looking fake house.

Are you the only one?

New and Featured Books for 12/23/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

Black Hills by Dan Simmons

Pym by Mat Johnson

I don’t know much about this novel other than it’s a satirical fantasy inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s sole novel, The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket, but I’m still excited to read it. Not just because of the critical raves it’s been collecting (though that does help), but because I’m a huge fan of a graphic novel we have by author Mat Johnson entitled Incognegro, a thriller set in the 1930s about a fair skinned African American reporter who would go undercover to investigate lynchings. It was an incredible story, so I’m definitely interested in anything else by the same writer.

Brasyl by Ian McDonald

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

Listed as one of Time‘s top fiction books of the year, and highly recommended just about everywhere else you look, it would appear that this was released just in time to cash in on our obsession with Swedish crime stories like Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, or the American version of The Killing on AMC, or even the Wallander stories, which were done as a series of TV movies starring Kenneth Branagh in the UK. One patron who returned this the other day said that it was pretty good, but incredibly dark, but I’m curious what you’ll think.

Nouvelle Soul by Barbara Summers

Monument To Murder: A Capital Crimes Novel by Margaret Truman

NON-FICTION:

Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between The Two World Wars by Anastasia C. Curwood

How To Build A Business And Sell It For Millions by Jack Garson

Holy Ignorance: When Religion And Culture Part Ways by Olivier Roy

Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China by David Wise

Black Pioneers: Images Of The Black Experience On The North American Frontier by John W. Ravage

Quantum Physics For Dummies by Steve Holzner

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

A fascinating read and one of the most highly anticipated books of the year even before Jobs’ unfortunate demise a few months ago.

Unhitched: Love, Marriage, And Family Values From West Hollywood To Western China by Judith Stacey

Poison Widows: A True Story Of Witchcraft, Arsenic, And Murder by George Cooper

Search And Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google, Inc. by Scott Cleland

An interesting book and one that might work as a nice companion read to the Jobs biography? Also, it has a dinosaur on the cover so that’s worth the check out alone. Obviously.

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books:

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.

Three nights before Christmas.

It’s not too late to pick up some books or DVDs to keep you warm over the Holiday break. There’s plenty of normal titles and materials from you to choose from, plus that of the more seasonal variety…

…like Murder For Christmas, which you see above, which is a very cool anthology featuring several classic writers of the mystery and crime genre, such Dame Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, and Dorothy L. Sayers. And don’t forget that we have plenty of books for the kids and younger readers dealing with the holidays.

And just a reminder: Don’t forget that our hours are going to be slightly different between now and the end of the year. These are our hours for the next two weeks:

Monday, 12/19 thru Thursday, 12/22: 10 AM to 5 PM

Friday, 12/23 thru Monday, 12/26: CLOSED

Tuesday, 12/27 thru Thursday, 12/29: 10 AM to 5 PM

Friday, 12/30: 12 Pm noon to 5 PM

Saturday, 12/31 thru Monday, January 2, 2012: CLOSED

And we will reopen on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 at 10 AM and resume our normal hours of operation.

Happy Holidays!

Buttons.

A few weeks ago the boss went TDY to a conference and I just wanted to share with you some of the hilarious swag that she brought us back:

A little known author by the name of James Patterson…

from here.

I went to the movies the other day and one of the many (sigh) commercials that they played before the main feature was a new one featuring author James Patterson hyping the new Kindles. It was kind of funny to me, partly because I don’t really care for the works of Patterson (though our patrons sure do), but then I figured, Hey, it makes sense. The Kindle is probably a major contributor to his massive sales figures, right?

Just out of curiosity, readers and James Patterson fans, What do you think about the new Alex Cross: Tyler Perry?

I know we don’t have any pictures or a trailer yet, just Perry’s previous work, but it’s certainly an interesting choice, right? I like Morgan Freeman in just about anything, so to me he is Alex Cross, even though the role’s a bit of a cipher to me, especially having not read the books, but I preferred the idea of Idris Elba getting the role, who was originally cast in the Rob Cohen-directed version of I, Alex Cross, which is coming out next year sometime. Elba had to drop out of role due to scheduling concerns and Perry was cast. Nice to see Perry showing that he can do more than just the Madea role, and it seems like Patterson has given the actor’s performance his approval. Should be interesting, right?

Anyway, the day after I saw that James Patterson commercial at the movies I went to work and went to empty the library’s book drop as usual…

…only to discover five returned James Patterson books. Patterson checks out quite a bit at our library, but it was funny to see so many of his books return at once. I guess I just had enough free time to ponder whether they were returned by a happy reader or an unhappy one. Either way, if you’re a James Patterson fan, we’ve got a few more of his books on our shelves for you to come check out.

New and Featured Books for 12/19/11:

Come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Mrs. Jeffries And The Mistletoe Mix-Up by Emily Brightwell

While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell

A Discovery Of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Unwritten, vol. 1: Tommy Taylor And The Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

The Evolution Of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale

Tricked, written and illustrated by Alex Robinson

NON-FICTION:

In The Womb by Peter Tallack

Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life Of Walter Payton by Jeff Pearlman

America The Vulnerable: Inside The New Threat Matrix Of Digital Espionage, Crime, And Warfare by Joel Brenner

And So It Goes – Kurt Vonnegut: A Life by Charles J. Shields

The New Supply Chain Agenda by Reuben E. Slone

Lost In Shangri-La: A True Story Of Survival, Adventure, And The Most Incredible Rescue Mission Of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

A fascinating true story based on the crash of a US military plane called The Gremlin Special. The term “Shangri-La” is the name of a fictional utopia and comes from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. This book has been listed as amongst the best non-fiction of 2011 by both Salon magazine and The New York Times. We have the American hardcover edition of the book, the cover of which you can see above, but I think I much prefer the British edition’s cover:

Margaret Mitchell, Reporter, edited by Patrick Allen

Clark Howard’s Living Large In Lean Times: 250+ Ways To Buy Smarter, Spend Smarter, and Save Money by Clark Howard

Colossus: Hoover Dam And The Making Of The American Century by Michael Hiltzik

Black Power In Dixie: A Political History Of African Americans In Atlanta by Alton Hornsby Jr.

Dreaming Of Dixie: How The South Was Created In American Popular Culture by Karen L. Cox

You can watch an interview with the author here, via BookTV.

How I Got This Way by Regis Philbin

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

* * *

Previous New/Featured books:

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.

Reading material.

Here’s some reading material from around the internet…

The world’s first mug shots.

6 ridiculous history myths (that you probably think are true).

15 bizarre green inventions.

Did they really discover the Higgs Boson?

Also: 3 things the Higgs Boson can teach you about physics.

TIME magazine’s person of the year: The protestor.

The 100 most popular baby names of 2011.

Are art and architecture converging?

The New York Times on text messaging.

Should copyright be allowed to override free speech rights?

Some complaints about the Kindle Fire.

from here.

Penguin halts e-book sales to libraries.

Speaking of which, check out this blog which reviews one Penguin book a week.

Gift ideas for the book lover who’s read everything.

Anew short story by the author of 1Q84, Haruki Murakami: “Town Of Cats.”

Stereotyping you by your favorite books of 2011.

The most beautiful literary mystery in Edinburgh.

The overlooked sci-fi of 2011.

Some of the year’s best reading for both Adults and Young Adults.

The best e-book and audiobooks of 2011?

A brief guide to fictional languages in literature.

by Daniel Clowes, from here.

Recent passings:

Christopher Hitchens, author and journalist.

George Whitman, owner of Shakespeare & Co.

Steve Jobs, inventor and businessman and pioneer.

Joe Simon, cook book legend and co-creator of Captain America.

Jerry Robinson, comic book legend and creator of Batman villain The Joker.

Joseph M. Chamberlain, pioneer of planetarium shows.

Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader.

Anne McCaffrey, science fiction author.

Betty Ford, former First Lady.

Joe Frazier, boxer and heavyweight champion.

John Barry, conductor and film composer.

Andy Rooney, journalist and commentator.

Peter Falk, actor and TV’s Columbo!

Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker.

Rest in peace all.

from here.

The Guardian reviews the David Fincher version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The best TV shows of the year and some of the best TV episodes of 2011.

Roger Ebert gives Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 3 1/2 stars. I’ve seen the movie myself and would agree, it’s definitely worth a viewing. It’s a very fun movie, but if you’re going to see it in the theater then do yourself a favor and see it right: in IMAX. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

First look at some official images from the new version of The Great Gatsby.

The top 15 “unseen” characters on TV.

The teaser for the upcoming second season of Game Of Thrones. Winter is coming!

The Spielberg Face.

Good news for Agatha Christie fans: The final Hercule Poirot movies starring David Suchet have finally been commissioned.

Speaking of Agatha Christie and mysteries: Did she have Alzheimer’s?

The 26 best movies of 2011?

Watch 1978’s infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in its entirety.

A nice tribute to the movies of this year:

When looking at some of the links listed here, please don’t forget that: We have several of the Hercule Poirot movies on DVD, including the ones starring David Suchet, as well as Murder On The Orient Express which stars Albert Finney and Death On The Nile which stars Peter Ustinov. Also, we have books on knitting and selecting baby names and we have books talking about awesome people. We have Mission: Impossible movies on DVD and we have graphic novels and comic books featuring Batman and his nemesis, the Joker. And of course we have The Dark Knight on DVD, featuring Heath Ledger’s iconic reinvention of the role. We can offer you e-books and audiobooks, we have Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, and we have several of the James Bond movies on DVD, for which John Barry arranged and composed the memorable theme for.

by Mathieu Belanger, one of the pictures of the year, from here.

More amazing pictures from this year.

Beautiful pictures of Saturn.

4,000 pages of Isaac Newton’s personal notebooks are now available to view online.

An x-ray of a two-headed snake.

Clint Eastwood’s family will star in a reality show.

The 25 most beautiful college libraries in the world.

How knitting behind bars transformed Maryland convicts.

Awesome people hanging out together.

Don’t forget that NORAD will help you track Santa!

New and Featured Books: Lisbeth Salander.

The American film version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander/Millennium novels, is due to be released this Tuesday, December 20, and it’s easily one of the most anticipated movies of this year, let alone this holiday season. The film, directed by David Fincher, and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, has a lot of hype and good buzz surrounding it, as well as a lot to live up as far as expectations.

The novels by Larsson have been among our most requested items this past year (and the year before), but I wanted to remind you as well that we also have the novels in audio format and that we also have the two original Swedish film adaptations of the books, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. To me, the first of the Swedish movies is okay, but just okay, and the second one, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is somewhat less than “just okay,” but for a lot of us, they’ve been decent holdovers while we waited for the new film version of the story.

Normally I wouldn’t hype the remake of a film, but I will happily make an exception here just because I didn’t think the original Swedish movie was a good adaptation at all, let alone a particularly great movie. I’d actually say that just the trailer that you see above for Fincher’s film was more successful on both counts than the original movie version. But maybe I’m biased in that I really like David Fincher’s work, as well as Daniel Craig, wwhom I didn’t use to like, but who won me over with his portrayal of James Bond and some of the other films he’s done in the past few years.

And Rooney Mara (who was in Fincher’s The Social Network as well as the remake of Nightmare On Elm Street) looks extremely promising in the very unique role of hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander.

Interesting side note: The stars of the original Swedish movies, Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace, both have movies out this week as well. Rapace is in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (and will appear in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien pseudo-prequel Prometheus) and Nyqvist is the villain in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Larsson’s novels are hardly high art but if you haven’t read them yet, now is a good time to start for a good mystery/thrill ride.

And if you get a chance to see it, let us know what you think of the new movie.

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.