Post by Chris G.
Well, it's red carpet season, and the Academy Awards, the most prestigious award show for film, is in its 90th year. Whether you're looking for this year's nominees or the Best Picture from 1929, you can find an abundance of Academy Award-winning films on the shelves of your library.
This post showcases Aurora Public Library's current DVD holdings of this year's nominees, as well as former Best Picture and Best Animated Feature winners. This year's nominees are organized alphabetically and include the number of awards for which they've been nominated. The Best Picture and Best Animated Feature winners are organized reverse chronologically by the year they won, so the most recent is first. The Academy didn't start giving out the Best Animated Feature award until 2001, so that is where that list ends. You can click on any of the film's titles to place a hold.
Many of this year's nominees are not on video yet, but the library has placed most of them on order, and they'll start circulating as soon as they're available. You can get in line for one of those by clicking through to the catalog record, selecting "Request It" and entering your account information.
And the Oscar goes to...
This Year's Nominees and Winners
"Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" - 1 nomination
"All the Money in the World" - 1 nomination
"Baby Driver" - 3 nominations
"Beauty and the Beast" - 2 nominations
"The Big Sick" - 1 nomination
"Blade Runner 2049" - 5 nominations
"The Boss Baby" - 1 nomination
"The Breadwinner" - 1 nomination
"Call Me By Your Name" - 4 nominations
"Coco" - 2 nominations
"Darkest Hour" - 6 nominations
"The Disaster Artist" - 1 nomination
"Dunkirk" - 8 nominations
"Ferdinand" - 1 nomination
"The Florida Project" - 1 nomination
"Get Out" - 4 nominations
"The Greatest Showman" - 1 nomination
"Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2" - 1 nomination
"I, Tonya" - 3 nominations
"Kong: Skull Island" - 1 nomination
"Lady Bird" - 5 nominations
"Logan" - 1 nomination
"Loving Vincent" - 1 nomination
"Marshall" - 1 nomination
"Molly's Game" - 1 nomination
"Phantom Thread" - 6 nominations
"The Post" - 2 nominations
"Roman J. Israel, Esq." - 1 nomination
"The Shape of Water" - 13 nominations and 2018 Best Picture
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" - 4 nominations
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" - 7 nominations
"Victoria & Abdul" - 2 nominations
"War for the Planet of the Apes" - 1 nomination
"Wonder" - 1 nomination
Best Picture Winners
"Moonlight" (2016)
"Spotlight" (2015)
"Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" (2014)
"12 Years a Slave" (2013)
"Argo" (2012)
"The Artist" (2011)
"The King's Speech" (2010)
"The Hurt Locker" (2009)
"Slumdog Millionaire" (2008)
"No Country for Old Men" (2007)
"The Departed" (2006)
"Crash" (2005)
"Million Dollar Baby" (2004)
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003)
"Gladiator" (2000)
"American Beauty" (1999)
"Shakespeare in Love" (1998)
"Titanic" (1997)
"The English Patient" (1996)
"Braveheart" (1995)
"Forrest Gump" (1994)
"Schindler's List" (1993)
"The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)
"Driving Miss Daisy" (1989)
"Rain Man" (1988)
"The Last Emperor" (1987)
"Out of Africa" (1985)
"Terms of Endearment" (1983)
"Gandhi" (1982)
"Chariots of Fire" (1981)
"Ordinary People" (1980)
"Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979)
"Annie Hall" (1977)
"Rocky" (1976)
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)
"The Godfather, Part II" (1974)
"The Sting" (1973)
"The Godfather" (1972)
"The French Connection" (1971)
"Patton" (1970)
"A Man for All Seasons" (1966)
"The Sound of Music" (1965)
"Tom Jones" (1963)
"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)
"West Side Story" (1961)
"Ben-Hur" (1959)
"Gigi" (1958)
"The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957)
"On the Waterfront" (1954)
"From Here to Eternity" (1953)
"An American in Paris" (1951)
"All About Eve" (1950)
"All the King's Men" (1949)
"Hamlet" (1948)
"Gentleman's Agreement" (1947)
"The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946)
"The Lost Weekend" (1945)
"Going My Way" (1944)
"Casablanca" (1943)
"Mrs. Miniver" (1942)
"How Green Was My Valley" (1941)
"Rebecca" (1940)
"Gone with the Wind" (1939)
"The Life of Emile Zola" (1937)
"The Great Ziegfeld" (1936)
"Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935)
"It Happened One Night" (1934)
"Cimarron" (1930-31)
"All Quiet on the Western Front" (1929-30)
"The Broadway Melody" (1928-29)
Best Animated Feature Film Winners
"Zootopia" (2016)
"Inside Out" (2015)
"Big Hero 6" (2014)
"Frozen" (2013)
"Brave" (2012)
"Rango" (2011)
"Toy Story 3" (2010)
"Up" (2009)
"WALL-E" (2008)
"Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005)
"The Incredibles" (2004)
"Finding Nemo" (2003)
"Spirited Away" (2002)
"Shrek" (2001)
With so many movies on this list, you ought to keep busy until next year's Oscars! This year's winners were announced on Sunday, March 4th and the selected titles will be available in the coming months as they are released.
Post by Assetou Xango
When I would play dress up as a kid, get into my mother’s closet while she was at work. Her dresses, shoes and jewelry were all fair game. This was, indeed, the basis of growth: emulating who you want to be. For me, the most imperative part of the dress up ritual, was the towel I wrapped around me head. I would pretend it was the long curl-less hair all the women in the movies. The ones, who were loved, irresistible, pursued: worthy.
As I write this, my mother is obsessing over all the material she can find about Black Panther: the largest selling box office movie with a fully black cast to date. We saw it yesterday as a family and today, she is oooohing and awwwhing and telling all the actors how good they look in their various interview outfits and magazine spreads. I am upstairs taking a bath and she is literally calling me on my cell phone to give me updates on the new things she has learned about the actors.
“You know, the bald head women with a spear; the main one?”
“Yeah, mama?”
“She’s from Uganda. And Nakia, she’s Kenyan.”
“Where is the sister from, mom?”
“I don’t know! I’ll call you when I do!”
She is a kid again. This is the same mother who rolled her eyes at my dashiki the day before (I HAD to dress up for the movie). This is the same mother who did not want me to get dreadlocks in college but she was afraid they’d look too “messy”. This is the mother who permed my hair throughout all of high school until she discovered the fatal chemicals in the product. This is the same mother, who reluctantly told me a few weeks ago, “I hate to say this, I REALLY hate to say this…but you look best with a bald head.” This is the same mother who watches young black girls explain how they style their hair on YouTube every weekend. This is the same mother who wears a wig to work everyday, covering her beautiful, thick, salt and pepper hair. When I ask her why she does it, her answer is a jumbled mess of angst and defeat. She tells me about ageism, about the rapport she has finally gained as a black woman and that she can’t let that be stripped away.
She is a proud woman who cannot show it. She was raised in the ghettos of Miami. This is the way she has learned to survive. Ways in which I will never have to be skilled because she overcame the things that might bound me. Beneath every scoff at my tribal-inspired makeup, behind every head shake, concealed in every eye roll, I can hear her begging me to be safe. “You are already black,” the voice whispers, “why do you have to make yourself more of a target?”
But something happened, as my family watched at those large as life, proud to be black, figures dance across the big screen. Something happened for my mother when Angela Bassett removed her headdress and revealed a head full of glorious, white, hair. Something happened for me seeing black men shamelessly love, seek and kneel to their black women. There is a feeling in my house right now of celebration. There is an inescapable liberatory air in these walls.
You may consider it just a movie. For us, it is a statement of purpose, a right to be do it visibly. It is the signal we have been waiting for. The one that says it’s safe to come out from underneath our various methods of survival and thrive. It did not start with this movie. We have been fighting for this moment a long time. It has been grassroots and homegrown. It has started in the kitchen, in the barbershop, at poetry venues. It started on Pinterest, on Facebook and Twitter. They say we are a people divided. That may be true, but all of our infighting and distrust is over shadowed by our ever rising call to freedom. My mother found it by hiding in plain sight (think Wakanda). This new generation is building off of that strength and making ourselves known. Making it known that our lives matter. Black Panther is more than just a film. It is less than game changer. This monumental moment is a benchmark, a checkpoint, a confirmation. We are on our path. We will not cease. We are here.
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Meet your Bloggers!
Welcome to Aurora Public Library’s Blog. A place where our library staff share their thoughts, insider knowledge and overall love of all things book and community.
At Aurora Public Library we strive to meet the needs of the citizens of Aurora with books, information and other resources in a positive and proactive manner. Our e-content and public programming are made possible through the generosity of our Friends of the Aurora Public Library.
A library is so much more than books. While we may still house those beloved volumes of Dostoyevsky and Orville, we also house and curate young minds via our STEAM programs, or via our weekly storytimes. We are a place to gather, to join community, to make new friends, to learn a new skill or trade, to finish high school, or learn a new language-and in this vain, our blog strives to continue this ideology. We hope that when you are in search of something new, something old or even something exciting for you or your family to enjoy, Aurora Public Library comes to mind. Our blog explores books you may want to read, authors you may want to know more about, and even fun crafts for your family to enjoy.
Feel free to comment on posts, re-blog and enjoy. To ensure a civil and focused discussion, comments will be held for a brief period before being published.
To find out more about our library staff who contribute to the blog, read below.
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Elizabeth B.
Elizabeth Bernhardt is a Library Assistant at the Iliff Square Branch of Aurora Public Library, conveniently located near the Friends of the Aurora Library bookstore to enable all of your reading cravings. She loves all aspects of library work, from dancing badly at Toddler Storytime to teaching computer lessons and making adorable lopsided crafts. When not at work, Elizabeth likes playing video games and board games, reading five books at once, and curling up under fuzzy blankets with giant mugs of tea.
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Justine C.
Justine graduated magna cum laude from Colorado College in 2015 and has been working at the Central Branch of Aurora Public Library for nearly two years. In her natural habitat she can be found reading, playing video games, writing, and binging TV shows or movies with her grandfather. She is also fond of the outdoors and possibly too fond of cats, especially her cat daughter, Sassy.
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Brittni E.
Brittni Ehrhart is the Programming and Outreach Librarian for Aurora Public Library. She enjoys cuddling with her cat Rue, going on extended roundtrips with her boyfriend Wes, hiking our beautiful state, photography, and drinking lattes.
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Brandon F.
Brandon is a Library Assistant with the Central Branch of Aurora Public Library. You will usually find him hiking in the beautiful Rockies or enjoying one of my many nerdy hobbies. My reading interests are horror, sci-fi and fantasy.
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Chris G.
You may recognize Chris as the director of a series of 2011 YouTube videos starring his cat Clancy, as founder of the Houston-based bookmobile The Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library, or, more recently, as that guy who works at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch of Aurora Public Library. His passions are literature, music, TV, food, beer, and making lists about literature, music, TV, food, and beer. He lives in Northwest Denver with his wife Kelly, the aforementioned Clancy, and another, less picturesque cat, Nora.
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Steven K.
Steven K. is a Library Assistant II at the Central Branch of the Aurora Public Library. He has earned degrees in political science, anthropology, and English literature and has the caffeine addiction to prove it. Someday he aspires to procrastinate writing fantasy novels, but for now he’ll stick to reading them.
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Laura R.
Laura is a Youth Services Library Assistant at the Central Branch of Aurora Public Library. You can usually find her reading, writing poems, riding bikes, or eating ice cream.
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Kristin S.
Kristin has worked at Aurora Public Library since 2013 and specializes in teen programs, adult programs and computer tutoring. Her hobbies include video games, digital painting, and designing Excel spreadsheets for fun.
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Zach S.
Zach is a Programming & Outreach Library Assistant for Aurora Public Library. His passions are mountains, skiing, pretending to be crafty or handy, exploring the world with his wife, long adventures with their fluffy dog, and adding cappuccinos or wine to all of those activities.
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Julie S.
Julie is a Library Assistant at the Tallyn's Reach Branch of Aurora Public Library who loves to spend her days dancing with toddlers and chasing teenagers with Nerf guns. She enjoys watching Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Star Trek with her family. Julie's favorite book is Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.
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Sara V.H.
Sara is a Programming & Outreach Library Assistant II for Aurora Public Library. An (almost) lifelong resident of Aurora, Sara is proud to call Aurora home and serve her fellow Aurorans at the library! She loves to travel and explore new places with her husband Joe (especially if a beach is involved). She is a lover of all things Disney, football and cats – especially her Russian Blue Charlie – and usually has an Elton John or Taylor Swift song stuck in her head. Sara loves to read all kinds of books, but Young Adult is one of her favorite genres.
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Tessy W.
Tessy is a Reference Library Assistant at the Central Branch of Aurora Public Library. Focusing on computer literacy and unearthing the right book for that last minute research paper, she also presents classes at the library ranging from crafty do-it-yourself to financial literacy presentations.
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Assetou Xango
Dominique Sample goes by her artistic name Assetou Xango. She was introduced to performance poetry at age 15 by several world renowned poets who visited her school and was “instantly obsessed.” Xango memorized their poems and began writing constantly, anxiously awaiting the day she was old enough that her mother allowed her to attend the various poetry venues.
A year later, Xango made her first competitive poetry team: a youth team called Minor Disturbance. They traveled to Los Angeles and competed internationally, achieving fourth place in the overall competition, and were featured on HBO. By the end of that season, she was 20 years old and had “aged out” of the youth program, so she joined their staff and taught poetry workshops to youth in summer camp programs to halfway houses, where she continues this work today with Minor Disturbance, Youth on Record, and Creative Strategies for Change, a local nonprofit organization that teaches a variety of art courses in K-12 schools. Here, she is its school program coordinator in charge of art classes in the Metro Area.
As a community leader, she continues her poetry work, forming and hosting three poetry venues throughout the nation, as well as community gatherings and forums. At the beginning of 2016, she was published in the Santa Fe University of Art and Design’s Annual "Glyph" poetry book. She was also a performer in a recent TED Mile High Women event held in the Buell Theatre for a sold-out crowd of 2,700 people.
Assetou Xango reports she is excited and eager to find a new way to spread the passion and joy of poetry, helping people realize they have 'a voice' and to find it. “I have seen poetry enhance so many lives and change so many minds. I have spent my life in Aurora and have a tremendous sense of pride. It would be a true honor to continue to serve this growing community as a Poet Laureate.”
Her tenure as Aurora’s Poet Laureate runs from February 2017 through January 2019. If interested in booking her for an Aurora event, click here to contact us.
We hope you enjoy!
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Post by Laura R.
Parents, librarians, and educators know it’s important for kids to see themselves and their lives reflected in the stories they read. In honor of Black History Month this February, I’ve gathered a list of eight of my favorite picture books featuring African-American protagonists.
"Leo Loves Baby Time" by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Ruth Hearson
This story is one of several excellent picture books by author-illustrator duo Anna McQuinn and Ruth Hearson, all featuring African-American main characters. Also check out Leo Can Swim and Lola Loves Stories. In Leo Loves Baby Time, Leo and his mom head to baby storytime at their local library where they sing songs, play with scarves, and have playtime. A great book for your baby or toddler, it has just the right amount of text and bright illustrations of babies for little ones to marvel at. I especially love this book because I lead Baby Storytime every week at my branch—it tells the story of storytime!
"Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship" by Irene Latham & Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls & Selina Alko
I adore this brand new picture book, a series of conversational poems told from the alternating voices of two children, one black, one white. Charles and Irene are paired together for a poetry project in their fifth grade class, and neither are thrilled by the match. As the poems progress, the two write about going to church and having dinner with family, but they also deal with racial differences and the difficulties of talking about them. Eventually, their experiences start to bring them together. Reading this deeply heartwarming book with your child is great way to spark important conversations about race.
"Chocolate Me!" by Taye Digg, illustrated by Shane W. Evans
Chocolate Me! is a celebration of blackness and a story of self-affirmation for young readers. This easy-to-follow picture book has repeating text and big, bright illustrations. We follow a little boy as he wishes he could be more like his white neighborhood friends, with different hair and a narrower nose. But after a sweet pep talk from his loving mother, all of that changes.
"Alfie" by Thyra Heder
In this adorable picture book about the relationship between a girl and her pet, we first hear the story from the perspective of seven-year-old Nia, then from the perspective of her turtle, Alfie. After Nia receives Alfie as a birthday gift, she introduces him to all her stuffed animals and decorates his terrarium. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to notice. Then one day, Alfie disappears. Will the pair be reunited? Read the story to find out; you’ll be sure to fall in love with both narrators!
"28 Days: Moments in Black History That Changed the World" by Charles R. Smith, Jr., illustrated by Shane W. Evans
A new and different take on black history, this non-fiction picture book dedicates a page each to twenty-eight important moments in African American culture. Many of the dates feature well-known figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., as well ones not so well-known, like Matthew Henson, arctic explorer. Descriptions of the events are written in verse and include a short paragraph of factual information for curious readers.
"My Good Morning" by Kim Crockett Corson & Jelena Brezovec
I enjoy My Good Morning because, like so many children who read picture books, our main character is mixed race. But that’s not the focus of the story. We follow a little girl as she gets ready for a day at kindergarten, brushing her teeth, getting dressed, and having breakfast—with a few mistakes along the way. Finally, it’s time to say goodbye to Dad, but she won’t cry! With fun rhyming text and expressive illustrations, parents and kids alike will relate to this character’s daily routine.
"Princess Truly in My Magical Sparkling Curls" by Kelly Greenawalt, illustrated by Amariah Rauscher
Just like Chocolate Me!, this story is one of self-affirmation, but with a female protagonist. The second and newest of the Princess Truly series, the story focuses on Truly’s beautiful “fluffy, puffy” hair. Simple rhyming text details Truly’s confidence in herself as she explores outer space and the deep sea. My Magical Sparkling Curls is a great read to show girls it’s okay to believe in themselves and to see themselves as beautiful.
"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Last Stop on Market Street received the Newbery Medal, a Caldecott Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Award Honor in 2016, and in my book, it totally deserves all of them. The pictures are perfect: vibrant and simple in Christian Robinson’s signature fashion. The story follows CJ as he makes his way from church to a mystery location with his nana. CJ grumbles about making the trek across town, but Nana has some wisdom to share about the beauty of their neighborhood. When the pair finally get where they’re going (I won’t say where) CJ’s glad they came, and you will be too!
These are only a few of the great picture books available today. Stop in to your Aurora Public Library for many more recommendations and happenings!
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Post by Elizabeth B.
Valentine's day is either a day you love or one you dread, but no matter your feelings, we always have our books. Whether you need a conversation starter for a first date or simply need to know which book is your true love, we have the quiz for you. Click on the link below to take the quiz and share your results in the comments!
Click here to take our quiz and find your book love!
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Post by Kristin S.
After what seemed like a long January, February is here and Punxsutawney Phil has declared six more weeks of winter, so we might as well settle in with a brand new book or DVD! Follow the links for each format to find any of these new releases or best sellers at your neighborhood Aurora Public Library.
Recent New York Times Bestsellers:
New Fiction
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The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
Borrow: [Print] [eAudiobook]
A recluse who drinks heavily and takes prescription drugs may have witnessed a crime across from her Harlem townhouse.
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The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks
Borrow: [Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
The connections linking a hedge fund manager, his ex-wife and his fiancée are explored from several points of view.
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
A 13-year-old boy comes of age in Mississippi while his black mother takes him and his toddler sister to pick up their white father, who is getting released from the state penitentiary.
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The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Borrow: [Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Four adolescents learn the dates of their deaths from a psychic and their lives go on different courses.
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Blood Fury by J. R. Ward
Borrow: [Print]
The third book in the Black Dagger Legacy series.
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Robicheaux by James Lee Burke
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
A bereaved detective confronts his past and works to clear his name when he becomes a suspect during an investigation into the murder of the man who killed his wife.
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Unbound by Stuart Woods
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
The 44th book in the Stone Barrington series.
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The Wanted by Robert Crais
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook]
A single mother hires Elvis Cole to investigate her teenage son who is on the run after a deadly crime spree.
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Operator Down by Brad Taylor
Borrow: [Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Pike Logan's team uncovers a plot to bring down a country in Africa when they track an American arms dealer.
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Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook]
A Seattle gallery owner and a private investigator, both of whom spent time in a cult during childhood, team up when an artist takes her own life.
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Twisted by Helen Hardt
Borrow: [Print]
The eighth book in the Steel Brothers Saga series.
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The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
A pregnant American college student and a French spy join together on a mission in London in 1947.
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The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
The lawyer Charlotte Quinn is challenged when violence returns to her hometown of Pikesville.
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New Nonfiction
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Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
Borrow: [Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
A journalist offers an inside account of the first year of the Trump White House.
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When by Daniel H. Pink
Borrow: [Print]
Research from several fields reveals the ideal time to make small decisions and big life changes.
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Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
A dozen essays based on short phrases that have defined some of the memoir writer's close relationships.
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Women & Power by Mary Beard
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
A look at the roots of misogyny and its manifestations today.
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Single State of Mind by Andi Dorfman
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
Real-life tales of dating and other mishaps by the former assistant district attorney from Georgia and star of "The Bachelorette."
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Thanks, Obama by David Litt
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
A comic memoir from a young presidential speechwriter who served in the Obama White House.
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Home Sweet Murder by James Patterson
Borrow: [Print]
A true-crime story involving a lawyer, his wife and a man claiming to be a Securities and Exchange Commission agent.
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Murder, Interrupted by James Patterson
Borrow: [Print]
The real-life story of the fight between two men after one botches the murder of the other's wife.
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DVD New Releases (Dec-Jan):
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Wonder
Borrow: [DVD]
A boy with a facial deformity, who enters a middle school after being homeschooled for his whole life, struggles to fit in and get accepted by his classmates.
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Blade of the Immortal
Borrow: [DVD]
Samurai Manji has taken a lot of lives, both innocent and guilty, and now lives life in feudal Japan as a criminal. After being cursed with immortality until he kills enough evil men, Manji meets a young girl who enlists him to be her body-guard. Swearing loyalty, protection and vengeance against the group of sword fighters who slaughtered her family, the unlikely duo set on a remarkable quest to make right against those who did them wrong.
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The Florida Project
Borrow: [DVD]
The Florida Project tells the story of a precocious six year-old and her ragtag group of friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
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Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
Borrow: [DVD]
Details the unconventional life of Dr. William Marston, the Harvard psychologist and inventor who helped invent the modern lie detector test and created Wonder Woman in 1941. Marston was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife Elizabeth, a psychologist and inventor in her own right, and Olive Byrne, a former student who became an academic.
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The Last Flag Flying
Borrow: [DVD]
A Vietnam veteran visits two of his fellow Marines to ask them with help in bringing the body of his son, a fallen soldier in Iraq, to Arlington. As they learn the truth about his death, they bond over the sore memories of their own troubled pasts.
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Only the Brave
Borrow: [DVD]
Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of local firefighters train together to become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the nation and are tested when an historic wildfire threatens their town.
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Geostorm
Borrow: [DVD]
Something's wrong with the satellites that control climate and prevent devastating natural disasters. It's a race to uncover the threat before a worldwide geostorm engulfs the planet.
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Jigsaw
Borrow: [DVD]
When several people die in ways that resemble those of the Jigsaw Killer, detectives struggle with the possibility that he has come back from the dead to continue his killing spree.
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The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Borrow: [DVD]
Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman star in this heart-stopping thriller about a surgeon whose family is terrorized by a depraved teenager determined to take revenge on the doctor for a fatal past mistake.
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Goodbye Christopher Robin
Borrow: [DVD]
Get a rare glimpse into the relationship between author A.A. Milne, creator of the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories, and his son, in this moving story about success and family.
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Suburbicon
Borrow: [DVD]
Suburbicon is the perfect place to raise a family, and in 1959, Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon) is doing just that. But the tranquil surface masks a disturbing reality, as Gardner must navigate the town's dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit and violence.
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Thank You for Your Service
Borrow: [DVD]
Soldiers returning from Iraq struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life while living with the memory of war that threatens to destroy them long after.
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My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea
Borrow: [DVD]
From cartoonist Dash Shaw comes an audacious, critically acclaimed comedy debut that blends disaster movies, teen dramas and blockbuster clichés into a dazzling tale about how high school shapes who we become, even in the most unusual of circumstance.
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Chasing the Dragon
Borrow: [DVD]
Donnie Yen stars as infamous real-life drug kingpin Crippled Ho, who came to Hong Kong an illegal immigrant in 1963 and ruthlessly carved an empire from the chaotic underworld of drug dealers and corrupt police that ruled the city under notorious detective Lee Rock (Andy Lau).
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Earth: One Amazing Day
Borrow: [DVD]
Narrated by Robert Redford Earth: One Amazing Day is an astonishing journey into the awesome power of the natural world.
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Blade Runner 2049
Borrow: [DVD]
When a young blade runner discovers a shocking secret, he sets out to find former blade runner, Rick Deckard, who disappeared thirty years ago.
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Happy Death Day
Borrow: [DVD]
A college student relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer's identity.
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The Snowman
Borrow: [DVD]
When an elite crime squad's lead detective investigates the disappearance of a victim on the first snow of winter, he fears an elusive serial killer may be active again. With the help of a brilliant recruit, the cop must connect decades-old cold cases to the brutal new one if he hopes to outwit this unthinkable evil before the next snowfall.
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I, Daniel Blake
Borrow: [DVD]
When a carpenter has a heart attack and goes on state welfare, he is joined by a single mother who is in a similar situation.
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Loving Vincent
Borrow: [DVD]
The life and controversial death of Vincent Van Gogh told by his paintings and by the characters that inhabit them. The intrigue unfolds through dramatic reconstructions of the events leading up to his death.
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All I See is You
Borrow: [DVD]
When a blind woman suddenly regains her eyesight, she and her husband discover disturbing details about each other.
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9/11
Borrow: [DVD]
When five people find themselves trapped in an elevator after a plane hits the World Trade Center, they work together to try to survive.
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Beyond Skyline
Borrow: [DVD]
When the population of Los Angeles is sucked off the face of the earth, Detective Mark Corley (Frank Grillo) storms his way onto an alien ship to rescue his estranged son. After the ship crashes in Southeast Asia, Mark must forge an alliance with a band of survivors to discover the key to saving his son and taking back the planet once and for all.
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My Little Pony: The Movie
Borrow: [DVD]
A dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane six embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship to save their home.
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We hope you enjoy our newest and most popular selections! Stop on in to your Aurora Public Library for more great recommendations or materials.
Sources: The New York Times, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, Goodreads, EarlyWord, Novelist
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Post by Tessy W.
A sudden throbbing at your temples. Shivering until your bones seemed to jolt and creak beneath your skin, even as your fever spikes. The sweating starts. Sweating first through clothes and then blankets. And within a day, sometimes even hours,1 death.
The English sweating sickness killed between 30 to 50 percent2 of all who contracted it at the turn of the 16th century. Appearing and retreating in five epidemics2, it sent the English upper class into hysterics as it struck not only the poor, but also ravaged the young, healthy, and more importantly, the rich.1
What caused the virulent ailment? Where did it go? The sweating sickness is an epidemiological mystery that leaves even modern experts guessing.
That's why my reading list is littered with medical non-fiction. From gripping tales of disease running rampart, to in-depth histories detailing medical breakthroughs, the world of medicine is as fascinating as it is terrifying.
Death rates from infectious diseases in the United States have plummeted from around 800 deaths per 100,000 people in 1900 to just 46 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014.3 Thus transforming the specter of violent and imminent death by disease into vague plans to schedule that annual physical, at least for patricular areas of the world like the United States.
However, the phantom of disease still has the power to inspire prickles of nervous fear, and in some cases, outright panic. During the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the four cases4 that were diagnosed in the United States sent the country into a frenzy, making it impossible to turn around without catching another Ebola news headline.
In fact, "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston was one of the first books of the genre I ever read. A classic New York Times bestseller,Preston plotted the emergence of the Ebola virus from the jungles of Central Africa and described the virus' hyperbolic lethality in gruesome detail. More is known about the terrifying virus since the book's publication date, but the air of terror around the then mysterious virus is near tangible in this fast-paced, scientific thriller and it is still well worth the read.
Furthermore, if you're the sort to grumble about your annual flu shot, you might want to give "The Great Influenza" by John Barry a glance. Barry narrates the vicious onset and devastation of the 1918 flu pandemic in plentiful detail. Not only does he track the ravaging virus, but Barry, in exploring the question of why the virus was so monstrous, scrutinizes the history around the Spanish flu. From the setting of World War I to the emerging adeptness of the American medical community, the book chronicles one of the deadliest pandemics in human history with amazing scope and detail. Blinking up from its pages, you might be a little less reluctant next October when your doctor asks you whether you would like a flu shot.
Presently, the average American doesn't have to worry about a sweeping epidemic of Ebola or the flu. Instead, our illnesses come quietly, creeping forward through our bones, blood and flesh with ruthless intent. The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease, but right on its heels, menacing on the edge of sight, is cancer.5
Dubbed "The Emperor of All Maladies" by Siddhartha Mukherjee in his book thus titled, cancer is disease at its worse. “Indeed, cancer’s emergence in the world is the product of a double negative: it becomes common only when all other killers themselves have been killed," according to Murkherjee.6 His sweeping epic of humanity's fight against cancer is an interweaving of narrative and lucid prose. Explaining the devastation of how our own bodies can turn against us and the successive ways we have attempted to battle against cancer, he illuminates an illness that up until modern times, we'd been afraid to even speak of.
With a dramatic cast of characters, the genre of medical nonfiction can narrate like your standard novel, with the heroes garbed in white lab coats or hazmat suits. Until recently, we'd appeared to be marching past the climax in our perpetual struggle between sickness and health into a neat, healthful resolution. But perhaps disease is a timeless villain after all.
According to the World Health Organization, "antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today".7 Illnesses previously controlled by antibiotics such as bacterial pneumonia and tuberculosis, are now contributing to an estimated 23,000 deaths per year in the United States8; a surging tide of lethality caused by the misuse of one of humanity's greatest epiphanies.
Antibiotics are overused and inapplicably applied. Instead of prescribing antibiotics for legitimate bacterial infections, they are prescribed for illnesses such the flu, which are caused by viruses not bacteria, or given as a health supplement to livestock instead of strictly to sick animals. This confluence of misuse has driven the evolution of bacterial strains that are resistant to most of the antibiotics we have, and the discovery of new antibiotics is a slow process due to poor investment and regulations.9
Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance is only one of many looming threats of the medical variety. If you're in the market for a doomsday directory, you might want to give "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett a thorough read. Published in 1994, it has since proven its predictive power; the Ebola outbreak a few years ago being one of its many dire portents that has since become reality. In addition to foreshadowing 21st century health crises, Garrett also takes the time to detail the emergence and history behind many of the modern world's more villainous diseases such as HIV/AIDS. A hefty book packed with a decade of research, each chapter is crafted to keep you up at night.
Ultimately, the genre of medical nonfiction recounts an enduring battle of wits against humanity's greatest nemeses - and who can resist a plot like that?
Interested in more medical nonfiction?
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug by Thomas Hager
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
References
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The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Sweating sickness. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/sweating-sickness. Published July 5, 2017. Accessed December 12, 2017.
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Heyman P, Simons L, Cochez C. Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses? Viruses. 2014;6(1):151-171. doi:10.3390/v6010151.
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Rettner, R. (2017). 100 Years of Infectious Disease Deaths in US: Study Shows What's Changed. [online] Live Science. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/56968-infectious-disease-deaths-united-states-100-years.html [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
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World Health Organization. (2017). Ebola virus disease. [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
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Cdc.gov. (2017). Leading Causes of Death. [online] Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
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Mukherjee, S. (2012). Emperor of all maladies. Thorndike Press.
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World Health Organization. (2017). Antibiotic resistance. [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/antibiotic-resistance/en/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2017].
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Antibiotic / Antimicrobial Resistance. About Antimicrobial Resistance. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/about.html. Published September 19, 2017. Accessed December 13, 2017.
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Ventola CL. The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis: Part 1: Causes and Threats. Pharmacy and Therapeutics. 2015;40(4):277-283.
Post by Steven K.
This month we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and for good reason. Dr. King was the greatest champion of the Civil Rights Movement and is one of the most influential Americans to have ever lived. He was an activist and a leader, a husband and a father, a role model and a martyr. Others have written extensively about his life and legacy, far more gracefully than any blog post could accomplish. (We have many of these works in our collection. Check out the call number 323.092 in the stacks, for starters.) So rather than gild the lily, I want to give you a glimpse into an often overlooked aspect of Dr. King’s identity, a secret hiding in plain sight.
Undeniably, Dr. King was a master of the sentence.
Master of the sentence. There’s a headline that won’t stop the presses. It’s not even surprising, considering his reputation as one of history’s great orators. But in an age where words are carelessly dashed off in 280-character Tweets and mangled in website comments sections, it’s worth taking the time to appreciate the skill of a true wordsmith.
I also want to make this clear: I’m not the prophet here. I’m more like the prophet’s third cousin’s baker’s apprentice who’s just heard the good news. The real prophet, the source of my secondhand revelation, is the legendary English professor Stanley Fish. But gospel is gospel, and as such needs to be shared.
In his delightful book How to Write a Sentence (2011), Fish devotes several pages of analysis to one of Dr. King’s great sentences from “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (1963). Rightfully so, Fish declares the sentence to be “a tremendous rhetorical achievement, a sentence for the ages” (p. 55).
Behold:
"Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “n-----,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
Now that’s powerful. It’s a behemoth of a sentence, weighing in at a whopping 314 words. It’s the kind of sentence that your high school English teacher warned you not to write, lest you dissolve into an incoherent mess or pull a muscle. And yet, Dr. King pulls it off flawlessly, leaving his audience captivated, dazed, ashamed, righteously indignant, awed.
So, how did he do it? What makes it a “sentence for the ages?”
Fundamentally, this sentence has a body and a soul and the source of its power rests in the harmony between the two.
Its body is its grammatical structure. Technically speaking, Dr. King’s sentence is an extended chain of incomplete dependent “when” clauses linked by semicolons, which is finally completed with a short independent clause. It’s a sentence of tremendous, unbalanced tension. For over 300 words the reader is left waiting for completion—an unnaturally long time to wait, given the typical sentence length we’re used to. In a sense, it’s almost like Dr. King is slowly pulling back the bowstring of a vast longbow, with each clause his words growing increasingly tauter in our minds; yet, just when our reading muscles are ready to snap, he gently slips his fingers from the string and we’re struck—not with a heavy iron bolt, obliterating us. But with a feather. A breath, merely 11 words long.
As compelling as its structure is on its own, Dr. King’s sentence is nothing but artifice without its soul. If its body is its structure, then its soul is its content, its message. Dr. King’s message was vital to the eventual success of the Civil Rights Movement and this sentence potently captures its spirit.
In terms of content, his “sentence for the ages” was a response to critics of his campaign of civil disobedience, critics who saw his tactics as excessive, rabble-rousing, and impatient. These critics who told him to wait—identified as his “fellow clergymen” in his letter’s salutation—are the specific target of Dr. King’s tour de force response. And as we’ve already seen, he lays waste to their objections.
Once again, Stanley Fish perhaps says it best, writing that Dr. King’s response to his fellow clergymen “is at once withheld and given” (54). In writing his lengthy sentence front-stacked with dependent clauses, Dr. King flips the standard argumentative structure on its head. Instead of making his claim first, he leads with his reasons. And those reasons are weighty, myriad, and beyond reproach.
Each reason—each “when” clause—is itself justification enough to take action rather than wait. Dr. King starts with how blacks have been assaulted and murdered by both lynch mobs and the justice system alike, “at will” and “at whim” and “with impunity,” without punishment. It’s the ultimate affront to human morality and he could have left it at that, case closed. But still he persists, piling up grievance upon grievance, pulling that bowstring tighter and tighter. The shackles of poverty, his images recalling the monstrous conditions on the slave ships endured by their ancestors; the daily psychological abuses heaped upon children as young as five and six, polluting their minds with “clouds of inferiority”; verbal abuse ranging from ugly dehumanizing racial slurs to simply being denied polite titles like “Mrs.” and “Sir,” which cuts all the same, even if not as deeply; and all of these transgressions culminating in the impending erasure of black personhood. “Nobodiness,” as he put it.
On top of it all, Dr. King cleverly manipulates narrative perspective in all the horrific imagery, daring his audience to see themselves in the shoes of black Americans: “when you,” “when your,” “when you...” He wants his readers to confront those atrocities as if they had happened to them, rather than something that happened to others. It’s a shocking exercise in empathy, a head-first dive into the frigid waters of discrimination. By the end of the dependent clause chain, when the truly empathetic reader feels as if the tension is unbearable; when even the coolest, calmest and most collected observer would howl in rage and demand swift justice, even violence; then Dr. King gives us the feather: “then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” Not, “then you will understand why we demand vengeance.” He ends not with a blow, but with an invitation for us to understand.
That pivot in tone—from brutal and pain-ridden to gentle, even humble—is a breathtaking display of linguistic skill. Some might even be tempted to characterize it as ironic, but of a constructive sort instead of a cynical one. We should expect the rage of Achilles, but instead receive the calm resolve of Christ, the patience of the Buddha, the wisdom of Socrates. It’s almost a sacred text unto itself. As such, that final clause is the perfect distillation of Dr. King’s nonviolent movement, as good a maxim for the Civil Rights Movement as any.
One massive sentence, its body and soul in perfect harmony, a monument crafted from words rather than stone. This month, let’s remember Martin Luther King Jr. for all that he accomplished and for all that he continues to inspire. Let us remember him as a liberator of people and a master of the sentence. There’s plenty more work of his for you to discover, so get to reading!
References
Stanley Fish. (2017, December 12). Retrieved December 15, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Fish
Fish, Stanley. (2011). How to Write a Sentence. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
King, M. L., Jr. (1963). Letter from a Birmingham jail. Retrieved December 15, 2017, from https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
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Post by Kristin S.
January New Releases and Bestsellers!
The cold has set in and our resolutions have begun! Those annual goals will undoubtedly include additions to your reading list which is where this post comes in to play. Check out the selections in fiction, non-fiction, DVDs and recommendations below!
Recent New York Times Bestsellers:
New Fiction
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The People vs Alex Cross by James Patterson
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Charged with gunning down followers of his nemesis Gary Soneji in cold blood, Alex Cross is wrongly portrayed as a trigger-happy corrupt cop while he struggles to prove to a skeptical jury and dwindling supporters that his actions were in self defense.
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The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook]
Former F.B.I. agent and wanted fugitive Jane Hawk tracks down a group that is brainwashing people into committing suicide.
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Year One by Nora Roberts
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook]
When a pandemic strikes and the world spins into chaos, several travelers head west to find a new life.
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Tom Clancy Power and Empire by Marc Cameron
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
President Jack Ryan seeks to identify the hidden forces escalating the tensions between China and the United States.
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Past Perfect by Danielle Stelle
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [Audiobook] [eBook]
A Manhattan family moves into a mansion in San Francisco and encounters the ghosts of its original inhabitants.
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Darker by E L James
Borrow: [eBook]
Christian Grey's tormented and difficult pursuit of Anastasia Steele is told from his perspective.
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New Nonfiction
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Let Trump Be Trump by Corey R Lewandowski
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
A former campaign manager for Donald Trump's successful 2016 presidential run offers an insider's look at the ups and downs on the campaign trail.
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Gold Dust Woman by Steven Davis
Borrow: [Print] [eBook]
An in-depth portrait of the classic-rock artist Stevie Nicks covers her role in the stardom of Fleetwood Mac, the affairs that inspired her greatest songs, her struggles with addiction, and her successful solo career.
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The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
Borrow: [Print] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.
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Natural Disaster by Ginger Zee
Borrow: [Print]
The ABC News meteorologist discusses her career, relationships and struggles with depression.
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DVD New Releases (Dec. - Jan.)
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Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Borrow: [DVD]
In this action-filled installment of the Kingsman series, two top-secret spy organizations - one from the UK and one in the US - join forces to defeat a ruthless common enemy.
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Home Again
Borrow: [DVD]
Recently separated from her husband, Alice (Reese Witherspoon) finds an unlikely new family and a budding new romance when three young filmmakers move into her guest house. A story of love, friendship, the families we create, Home Again is a modern romantic comedy with one very big life lesson: starting over is not for beginners!
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All Saints
Borrow: [DVD]
Based on the true story of salesman-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock, who with a group of Southeast Asian refugees risked everything to save their church and their lives.
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The Unknown Girl
Borrow: [DVD]
After a mysterious young woman dies on her doorstep, a guilt-ridden doctor embarks on an obsessive quest to learn the truth about what happened.
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Once Upon a Time at Christmas
Borrow: [DVD]
When a serial-killer couple dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus terrorizes a small town, a teen girl and a young cop must solve the pattern behind the seemingly random homicides.
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Despicable Me 3
Borrow: [DVD]
Gru, Lucy, their adorable daughters, and the Minions are back in the comedy blockbuster where one former super-villain will rediscover just how good it feels to be bad.
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American Assassin
Borrow: [DVD]
American Assassin follows CIA black ops recruit Mitch Rapp and Cold War veteran Stan Hurley as the pair is enlisted to stop a mysterious operative intent on starting a World War.
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Better Watch Out
Borrow: [DVD]
On a quiet suburban street, a babysitter must defend a twelve-year-old boy from intruders, only to discover it's far from a normal home invasion.
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The Osiris Child
Borrow: [DVD]
When a dangerous outbreak threatens to destroy everyone living on a newly colonized planet, Lt. Kane Sommerville goes against orders and leaves his station to rescue his young daughter before it's too late.
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The Women's Balcony
Borrow: [DVD]
An accident during a bar mitzvah celebration leads to a gender rift in a devout Orthodox community in Jerusalem, in this rousing, good-hearted tale about women speaking truth to patriarchal power.
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Crown Heights
Borrow: [DVD]
In 1980, a young man named Marvin Grant was gunned down in Flatbush Brooklyn. Clarence Lewis, a fifteen-year-old with a penchant for lying, told the police he saw what happened and was pressured to identify a suspect. This set into motion a series of events that led to the arrest of Colin Warner, an innocent teenager who lived in nearby Crown Heights.
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Dunkirk
Borrow: [DVD]
Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces facing a fierce battle in World War II.
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Stronger
Borrow: [DVD]
Based on real life events, tells the story of a 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing survivor.
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Mayhem
Borrow: [DVD]
Just after being fired, Derek's office is put into quarantine for a virus that causes people to act out their wildest impulses. As chaos erupts, he makes his way to the top-floor executives to settle the score once and for all.
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It
Borrow: [DVD]
When children in town begin to disappear, a group of young kids is faced with their biggest fears as they square off against evil clown, Pennywise. Based on the Stephen King novel.
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Brawl in Cell Block 99
Borrow: [DVD]
When Bradley (Vince Vaughn) is sent to prison, he is forced to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.
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Want to settle in for some cozy reading during the cold weather?
Check out these recommendations:
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Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
Series: Miss Marple, book #1
Total books in series: 12
Borrow: [Book]
The Murder at the Vicarage is Agatha Christie's first mystery to feature the beloved investigator Miss Marple—as a dead body in a clergyman's study proves to the indomitable sleuth that no place, holy or otherwise, is a sanctuary from homicide.
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Series: Hannah Swenson, book #1
Total books in series: 22
Borrow: [Audiobook] [eBook]
Take one amateur sleuth. Mix in some eccentric Minnesota locals. Add a generous dollop of crackling suspense, and you've got the recipe for this delicious new mystery series featuring Hannah Swensen, the red-haired, cookie-baking heroine whose gingersnaps are almost as tart as her mouth and whose penchant for solving crime is definitely stirring things up.
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The Quilter's Apprentice by Jennifer Chiaverini
Series: Elm Creek Quilts, book #1
Total books in series: 20
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [Audiobook]
Sarah, struggling to find a job and a sense of place in her new town, finds herself learning how to quilt from a cantankerous old woman who also teaches her about the deep love that can exist between friends.
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Still Life by Louise Penny
Series: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, book #1
Total books in series: 13
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal.
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Death of a Gossip by M. C. Beaton
Series: Hamish Macbeth, book #1
Total books in series: 33
Borrow: [eBook]
When society widow and gossip columnist Lady Jane Winters joined the fishing class, she wasted no time in ruffling the feathers-or was it the fins?-of those around her. Among the victims of her sharp tongue and unladylike manner was Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet not even Hamish thought someone would permanently silence Lady Jane's shrills-until her strangled body is fished out of the river.
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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Series: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, book #1
Total books in series: 18
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Mma "Precious" Ramotswe sets up a detective agency in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, making her the only female detective in the country. At first, cases are hard to come by. But eventually, troubled people come to Precious with a variety of concerns.
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Catering to Nobody by Diane Mott Davidson
Series: A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery, book #1
Total books in series: 17
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eAudiobook]
Goldy Bear, recently divorced, has made a home for herself and her young son in scenic Aspen Valley, Colorado. There, calls for Goldilock's Catering have been steady enough to pay the bills. But when a mourner is felled by rat poison during a funeral buffet Goldy is serving, the police quickly close her business. Now it's up to Goldy to find the rat who has tainted her food and her reputation.
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The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun
Series: The Cat Who, book #1
Total books in series: 29
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eBook]
Journalist Jim Qwilleran and his feline companion Koko begin their investigative career when Jim finds murder and mischief while covering the art beat for the Daily Fluxion.
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The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette by R. T. Raichev
Series: Country House Crime Mysteries, book #1
Total books in series: 9
Borrow: [Print]
At a house party on the day of the royal wedding in 1981, a little girl named Sonya Dufrette wanders off and is never seen again. Twenty years on, divorcee and librarian Antonia Darcy sets out to solve the mystery.
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At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon
Series: The Mitford Years, book #1
Total books in series: 14
Borrow: [Print] [Audiobook] [eBook]
It's easy to feel at home in Mitford. In these high, green hills, the air is pure, the village is charming, and the people are generally lovable. Yet, Father Tim, the bachelor rector, wants something more. Enter a dog the size of a sofa who moves in and won't go away. Add an attractive neighbor who begins wearing a path through the hedge. Now, stir in a lovable but unloved boy, a mystifying jewel theft, and a secret that's sixty years old. Suddenly, Father Tim gets more than he bargained for. And readers get a rich comedy about ordinary people and their ordinary lives.
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The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber
Series: Rose Harbor, book #1
Total books in series: 5
Borrow: [Normal Print] [Large Print] [Audiobook] [eBook] [eAudiobook]
Set in the Pacific Northwest, in the picturesque small town of Cedar Cove, these heartwarming gentle reads feature the cozy Rose Harbor Inn, its young, widowed proprietor, Jo Marie Rose, and a large cast of lovable secondary characters. The beautiful setting and the wise, understanding protagonist make second chances possible for all of her troubled guests.
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Happy New Year! Enjoy these books and movies to start 2018 off right!
Sources: The New York Times, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, Goodreads, EarlyWord, Novelist
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Post By: Leigh R.
Get Cozy With
Holiday Picture Books
I think we can all agree that the holidays can be hectic. Scratch that. The holidays are hectic. Shopping for presents, attending the kids’ various plays and concerts, holiday parties, shopping, preparing for family visits, dealing with those family visits, trying not to eat too many sugary goodies, and of course, more shopping to find that thing you didn’t know a certain someone wanted until the last minute. In this busy and beautiful season, don’t forget to carve out some special quiet time for you and your family. The library can help you with this! We have wonderful books for children to help celebrate the season. So grab a cozy spot in your house, your favorite blanket for cuddling and a yummy mug of hot chocolate as you enjoy these holiday picture book reads for kids.
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 Here Comes Santa Cat by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Claudia Rueda
Here comes the Christmas version of such a cute and funny series following the adventures of Cat as he helps out the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and in this story, Santa Claus! Cat doesn’t always get things right but that’s what makes him so charming. He also doesn’t say much but draws pictures that the reader must interpret to help tell the story.
Home Alone: The Classic Illustrated Storybook based on the story written by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus, illustrated by Kim Smith
You know and love the movie but have you read the picture book version? Readers will love the funny and brightly illustrated pages of this wonderful book that completely captures the wild and crazy adventure Kevin has as he tries to get rid of those two, pesky bad guys.
Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
This little llama, a favorite character of many, is stressed out from the holidays. Lots of shopping with Mama Llama, cookie baking and craft making are making it hard for him to be patient; that is, until Mama Llama reminds him that spending time with family is more important than presents.
My First Kwanzaaby Karen Katz
Bright and colorful, Katz’s books for the youngest ones are short and sweet but always offer a warm and delightful story, perfect for babies and toddlers. In this holiday board book, a little girl teaches readers about the special traditions of Kwanzaa.
.png "Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf cover") Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe, illustrated by Howard McWilliam
I know what you’re thinking. Shmelf…really? Trust me, this rhyming mash-up of Christmas and Hanukkah fun is a great introduction to Hanukkah traditions. It begins with an elf named Shmelf who is shocked when he learns that not all kids celebrate Christmas. He decides to visit some Jewish families and is fascinated when he learns about the story of Hanukkah and how some kids celebrate the holiday.
 Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick
A stranger arrives in the woods in the shape of a snowman, and all the animals in the forest are curious to discover more about this mysterious visitor. The artists use real photographs to showcase deer and other creatures in this beautiful, magical winter wonderland that will make you want to get out there and do some exploring with your family!
 The Christmas Boot by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
If there was an award for the illustrator who creates the “coziest” images, this recipient of the Caldecott Medal many times over, Jerry Pinkney, surely wins the prize! He beautifully captures Wheeler’s story about an older lady who lives alone in the wilderness and the magic boot she finds one day. When a mysterious visitor comes to reclaim his boot, the two “talked of everything and nothing, deep into the night”. He grants her wish before he leaves in this original, feel-good story.
 The Itsy Bitsy Dreidel by Jeffrey Burton and Chani Tornow, illustrated by Sanja Rešček
Sing the tune of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” as you share this board book with little ones. The cheerful pictures capture a Hanukkah night as a family of Dreidel characters read from the Torah, make latkes and light candles to celebrate the holiday.
 The Night Before Christmas: A Brick Story by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Amanda Brack.
Based on the classic poem, this newer version of the story is perfect for the little LEGO lover in your life! The illustrator does a great job constructing the scenes through LEGO bricks and characters. Kids will have fun pouring over the pages and noticing the tiny details and surprises that await them.
 The Twelve Prayers of Christmas by Candy Chand, illustrated by James Bernardin
Beautiful illustrations and a reimagining of that first Christmas night tell the story of the birth of Jesus. What’s different about this version is that it’s written in twelve separate prayers or poems, and tells the perspectives of the different people and animals who witnessed the event, from a Wise Man to a donkey.
 Turkey Claus by Wendy Silvano, illustrated by Lee Harper
Turkey makes his first appearance in the Thanksgiving story, Turkey Trouble, by the same author. In this sequel he is once again on a mission to save his turkey legs from becoming dinner for the farmer and his wife. Just like the first book, Turkey tries to disguise himself but this time he hopes to find Santa to make his Christmas wish come true. Will he make it in time to escape Christmas dinner? This book will incite laughs from little ones, and they will also be drawn to the fun illustrations.
 Way Too Many Latkes: A Hanukkah Tale in Chelm by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Aleksandar Zolotic
Set in the fictional village of Chelm, popular in Jewish folklore, this book tells a cumulative story of a woman who forgets how to make latkes for Hanukkah. When her husband asks the Rabbi for help, their problem only grows…literally. Beautiful illustrations with funny facial expressions add to this new Hanukkah tale.
Come into the library to check out any number of these books and prepare for a cozy holiday break!
Cover images used from Amazon.
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