They’re Not What They Seem…

April 6, 2016March 24, 2016 / Kaitlin / Leave a comment

Can you figure out what these women have in common?

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce “I did this because I wanted to become a knight.”

Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost “I did this because I needed to protect myself.”

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted “I did this because I wanted an education.”

A Soldier’s Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss “I did this because I wanted to escape from my previous life and fight for a cause.”

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare “I did this because I needed a way to live.”

Disney’s Mulan “I did this because I needed to protect my family.”

Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer. “I did this because I wanted to sail around the world.”

Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent “I did this because I wanted to learn about how men live.”

Rowan Hood: Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest by Nancy Springer “I did this because I was searching for my father.”

Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori “I did this because I was in debt.”

Did you guess? Women disguised as men. They were disguised so they could fight for themselves or their families, protect themselves when they were all alone in a man’s world, and earn an education, which they would have been denied otherwise. Each and every one of these is absolutely fascinating. Do yourself a favor and work your way through this list!

Do you have any favorite books/movies/plays with this subject that did not make this list?

Here Comes The Bride

February 1, 2016December 23, 2015 / Linda / Leave a comment

roses

When you think of February, you think Valentine’s Day. So it’s no surprise that February is National Weddings Month. More couples get engaged this month than any other and while it’s not a popular month for actual weddings, it is the month when all the planning starts.

Some fun facts:

Average engagement lasts 16 months.
Average engagement ring costs $4,411.
Average age of couple – Bride, 27 Groom, 29
Most popular months to marry are (in order) June, August, September, October, May.
Average number of guests at a wedding – 175.
Average cost of wedding – $26,000.

If you’re planning a wedding – (or are hoping to get engaged this month!) – the Cheshire Library has a wonderful section of books to help you plan.

A sampling:

Stylish Weddings: 50 simple ideas to make from top designers

Style me pretty wedding: inspiration & ideas for an unforgettable celebration

Do it for less! Weddings: how to create your dream wedding without breaking the bank

The Knot guide to destination weddings

The Knot complete guide to weddings in the real world

The Knot book of wedding flowers

Simple stunning weddings

Handcrafted weddings: over 100 projects & ideas for personalizing your wedding

Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers

The Best Wedding Reception Ever!

For additional books, click here.

And if you just want to snuggle on the couch with your favorite beverage and just read about weddings, here are a few fiction titles for you to enjoy.

Four Weddings and a Fireman – Jennifer Bernard – Firefighter Derek “Vader” Brown is determined to get to the bottom of Cherie Harper’s ambivalence toward him, while Cherie fights to keep a nightmare from the past from interfering with her passion for Derek.

Beautiful Day – Elin Hilderbrand – Gathering on Nantucket for a wedding planned to the letter by the bride’s late mother, the Carmichaels and the Grahams hide their scandal-ridden, crumbling lives from the blissfully unaware happy couple.

The Christmas Wedding – James Patterson – Relates the story of Gaby Summerhill, a widow planning a holiday wedding to a groom whose identity remains a surprise to her four children.

Vision in White – Nora Roberts – Wedding photographer Mackensie “Mac” Elliot falls into the arms of safe, stable English teacher Carter Maguire as relief from the onslaught of bridezillas, but soon begins to wonder if what began as a casual fling could blossom into her own happy ending.

A Wedding in December – Anita Shreve – Gathering to attend a wedding in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, seven former classmates find the reunion marked by the death of a spouse, a traumatic past event, a shocking secret, and health issues.

A Common Life: the wedding story – Jan Karon – The creator of the Mitford stories goes back through time to relate the wedding of Father Tim Kavanagh to Cynthia Coppersmith.

Late for the Wedding – Amanda Quick – Regency sleuths Lavinia Lake and Tobias March stumble into the middle of a deadly mystery as they become caught up in the search for a killer who targets wealthy older men on the brink of marrying beautiful, much younger women.

The Wedding Quilt – Jennifer Chiaverini – Meditating on the weddings she has attended in Elm Creek Manor throughout the years on the morning of her daughter’s wedding day, Sarah McClure evaluates the symbolic features on a wedding quilt designed to display the signatures of beloved guests.

Or how about enjoying a wedding movie? Check out these titles:

My Big Fat Greek Wedding – A young Greek-American woman, changes her life for the better and falls in love with a non-Greek man; now that she has found happiness, she must learn to come terms with her heritage while attempting to get her family to accept her new love.

Rachel Getting Married – A young woman who has been in and out of rehab for years returns home for her sister’s wedding.

Made of Honor – Tom and Hannah have been best friends since college, but when Hannah returns from a trip engaged to another man, Tom realizes he is in love with her and will do everything he can to win her heart.

The Hangover – Doug and his groomsmen head to Vegas for his bachelor party, but when they wake up the next morning with the worst hangovers they have ever had, they realize Doug is missing and no one can recall the events of the past twelve hours.

The Wedding Planner – When a wedding planner falls in love with one of her biggest clients, she must decide whether to plan his wedding, or steal his heart.

Rumor Has It – Upon returning home for her sister’s wedding, Sarah Huttinger discovers that her family may have been the inspiration for the novel behind the classic movie “The Graduate”.

Monsoon Wedding – Love, lust and hope envelop an upper middle-class Indian family and their world-wide guests as they celebrate for four days the arranged marriage of their daughter to an East Indian man from Texas.

The Wedding Date – Unable to deal with having been dumped by the best man at her sister’s future wedding, a young woman hires an escort to act as her boyfriend at the event.

About Schmidt – Warren Schmidt copes with the boredom of retirement, the devastating loss of his wife, and his daughter’s new fiancee.

Happy planning! Happy reading! Happy watching!

Books Coming to the Big Screen in the 2016

January 11, 2016December 11, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / 2 Comments

Books adaptations have been big hits in the movie theaters over the last few years, so is it any wonder that the number of books heading to the big screen seem to be on the rise? There are a number of great books making their way to the big screen again this year, some of which I am very excited to see. Here are some of the books-to-movies I am most excited about for 2016. I have included the current scheduled release date for each film, which is subject to change.

You might want to put the books on hold now if you want to beat the rush to read them (or watch previous versions of favorites) before watching the new releases in the theater! I have linked each title to the available versions that our library currently owns.

Children
Alice Through the Looking Glass (May 27, 2016)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (November 18, 2016)
The Jungle Book (April 15, 2016)
The BFG (July 1, 2016)
The Little Prince (March 18, 2016)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (October 7, 2016)
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (February 16, 2016)

Young Adult
Allegiant (March 18, 2016)
The 5th Wave (January 15, 2016)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (December 25, 2016)
Delirium (September 30, 2016)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (October 14, 2016)
Let It Snow by John Green (December 9, 2016)

Adult
The Finest Hours (January 29, 2016)
The Girl on the Train (October 7, 2016)
The Shack (August 12, 2016)
Tarzan (July 1, 2016)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (February 5, 2016)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (October 21, 2016)
The Lost City of Z by David Grann (No Date Given 2016)

I (Finally) Read “It”

December 14, 2015December 9, 2015 / Susan O. / 1 Comment

I am not a fan of horror. I would not shut the shower door for ten years because Kolchak: The Night Stalker scared the daylights out of me. My father’s description of the movie Killdozer made me terrified of construction equipment – as if I wasn’t already, from a preschool nightmare involving dump trucks. I watched the original 1931 Dracula and got a bloody nose in sympathy. I won’t sleep in a room with a vacuum cleaner thanks to Zenna Henderson. I like sleeping at night, and I don’t need any more anxiety in my life. I have kids for that.

It was my mother who got me reading Stephen King. I was about twelve, sick in bed, and Night Shift, his book of short stories, came out. Wouldn’t you know it, the light from the bathroom at night struck every knob on the dresser at just the right angle so each one looked like an eye staring at me, just like the cover story. I only dared read half of them, and never enjoyed going to the dry cleaners again. But I read The Shining (I will NOT go into a hotel bathroom without a light on), read The Stand (his best, I think), Cujo, The Dead Zone (more my style), Firestarter (I needed a book for the train back from Canada) and Christine (Like I didn’t suspect that already). One thing you can say about King without ever reading his books: he doesn’t write short volumes.

But by Christine, I was Kinged out. The books were were getting to be too similar, and I moved on. That was how I missed reading It, the book everyone seems afraid of. I avoided it for the longest time, but it popped up in a series of references this year, and I decided the time had come to tackle it. I’d re-read The Stand, and The Shining, but nothing new of King’s in 30 years.

“It” tells the story of an evil presence that takes over the town of Derry, Maine, until a ragtag band of seven misfit children decide to take it on. Although the entity takes the shape of what scares a person most (werewolves, mummies, giant birds, etc), it often lures children to their deaths by taking the shape of a clown, Pennywise. I’ve never been afraid of clowns, though I understand the psychology behind it (like Daleks, you can’t read a clown’s frozen face, and it makes some people uneasy). I’m still not afraid of clowns; but I’m now nervous about balloons. Calling the evil “It” is a brilliant stroke of semantics – think of all the times you use the pronoun It: It was calling me. I tripped over It. It snuck up on me. I’m scared of it. You can’t help it; you can’t escape it. You talk about it all the time. Because you know it’s there. “It” can be anything, and you know it to be true.

But for everything anyone told me about the book, I think this is his worst that I’ve read. He’s written 55 novels, 200 short stories, comic books, films, has awards oozing out his ears – he knows what he’s doing. I don’t mind the back and forth nature of the story, bouncing between 1958 and 1985. The characters and style are classic King, but it is soooo long (1100+ pages), it really, really could have had sections of character description cut. It drags in places. It’s not the length: Game of Thrones is 1200 pages, but I read it with more gusto. King’s name-dropping of characters from his other works grated on me. One is cool, but not several. Don’t stick Dick Hallorann in your book, a man with a strong sense of Shining (or, if you’re a Simpsons fan, Shinnin’), and have a catastrophe or a presence about that he doesn’t get ESP on. You laid Hallorann out in detail in The Shining; you let him drift in It. Sometimes the action is too cartoonish: having a victim’s head pop out of a box on a spring and go boing ruins my tension. I understand it might be appropriate to scare a child, but I’m not a child. Dolores Claiborne smashing my ankles with a sledgehammer makes me lie awake in a sweat all night. Cartoon boings don’t. I won’t tell the ending, but after fighting tooth and nail to wade through 1100 pages, I wanted more of a bang for my effort. The original Stand was 800 pages or so, and that ended with a nuclear explosion.

Yeah, yeah, I shouldn’t criticize King because he’s one of the most successful novelists of our time, and I don’t disagree with his talent. But perhaps he set his own bar too high. No one – not even Shakespeare – hits the nail of perfection every time. From the man who brought you Stand By Me, The Green Mile, Under the Dome, and so many, many wonderful tales, I just don’t think it’s his best.

What do you think is King’s best work – book or film?

Children’s DVDs that Entertain and Educate

November 27, 2015October 13, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Kids seem to love anything they can watch on a screen. We often feel guilty if we let them watch too much, but there are more and more fantastic selections of movies, television shows, and documentaries aimed at children that are also highly entertaining. Public Broadcast Television has led the way, but National Geographic and many other publishers have continued the effort to make entertainment that also teaches. Here are some of the great television series that have been a hit with my two children, while also catching my attention (in a good way).

Wild Kratts
Creature teachers Chris and Martin Kratt will take families along on extraordinary animal-powered adventures. The show transforms the Kratt Brothers into animated versions of themselves, allowing the real-life zoologists to visit wild animals in their little-seen habitats and showcase key science concepts.

Classic episodes of The Electric Company.
Hilarious, educational and groovy, the 1970s educational television show and cultural phenomenon The Electric Company ran zany comedy and music acts designed to teach kids reading and arithmetic. A re-imagining of this show, with an all new cast and crew, airs regularly on PBS and can be steamed from various outlets, but is not currently on DVD.

SciGirls
A weekly television series and educational outreach program for elementary and middle-school children based on proven best practices for science, technology, engineering and math education for girls.

Peg + Cat
Follows the adventures of a young girl named Peg and her sidekick Cat as they use math skills to solve a variety of problems.

Disney’s Animal World
Stunning live-action wildlife clips of animals in their natural habitats are combined with footage from Disney’s animated classics to introduce youngsters to the world of animals.