Blog Post
TV Spotlight: The Fall
by manz
Another great police drama on BBC and Netflix, The Fall stars Gillian Anderson (Scully!) as cool DSI Stella Gibson, who is called in to help investigate a murder in Belfast. The murder is linked to possible political corruption, and she ends up sticking around to track down the killer of an inevitable string of serial murders of women. It was creepily entertaining to watch her investigation take place as the killer walked around a free man plotting his next kill after tucking his kids into bed at night.
Two seasons of The Fall have aired, and while the creator hasn’t formally announced a third season, they’re pretty confident it’s going to happen. And I hope so, because season two ended with such a cliff hanger. Check out The Fall if you’re into cop shows or well produced British television.
Blog Post
Birdman
by manz
Critically acclaimed and nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, Birdman stars Michael Keaton as Riggan, a washed up actor best known for playing the superhero Birdman a decade ago. He struggles in relationships with his ex-wife and daughter and is caught up in trying to revive his career by writing, directing and staring in a broadway production, which is a huge undertaking for him. Add the fact that Riggan is haunted by the voice of Birdman who taunts him for being washed up and no good, and it’s a huge weight upon Riggan’s shoulders, and he does not handle it well.
The film is very dark, but has its funny moments. Keaton’s performance is phenomenal and worth the viewing - he's at his best here. What I found most intriguing is the fact that the film is shot almost entirely as one continuous take. It sounds like it would be tedious, but it works really well in this film, and it allows us to get closer to Riggan and his fading stability.
Birdman received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and acting nominations for Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone. It was also nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, where Keaton won Best Actor.
Blog Post
TV Shows! One Case, All Discs.
by manz
Many of the television shows that are popping up the in catalog may be series or seasons you’ve seen or heard of before, but the good news is that the complete season of the series is in one case and there’s an extended check out period! So there’s no juggling your holds list making sure you get disc 2 before disc 3 of that show you’re dying to see what happens next on. Some are Blu-ray, some are DVD.
This is a great opportunity to binge on some shows you may have missed out on, not had time to watch yet, or just need to see again. Shows like Seinfeld, Six Feet Under, Doctor Who, Northern Exposure, The Good Wife, Battlestar Gallactica, Friday Night Lights, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, and many more. So many shows! Check out the list for more shows featuring complete season sets. Something in the collection is sure to help you get through February.
Blog Post
Blind Date with a Book at your library!
by eapearce
Looking for a good book to read?
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, why not go on a blind date with a book?! Over the next three weeks, you’ll see displays at all the AADL locations (usually near the NEW teen and adult books) featuring unknown books wrapped in butcher paper, with a short hint description written on each one.
You won’t know the ‘identity’ of your date until you get home: it could be fiction or non-fiction, funny, informative, a mystery… but all of these books were recommended by one or more AADL staff members who personally enjoyed them. We hope we’ll introduce you to a book you’ll love!
Happy Valentine’s Day, and enjoy your “date!”
(And, if a book is too much “commitment” for you, we have blind date movies too!)
We also have “surprise” books and movies for kids, located where you find NEW kids books!
Stop by your nearest AADL location and check out these fun displays!
Blog Post
Best Documentaries of 2014
by amy
Blockbusters and TV get all the attention, but tucked away on our DVD shelves in the non-fiction section, where truth can be inspiring, scary, and a whole lot stranger than fiction, are some really wonderful documentaries from last year. Below are just three, but here's a longer list of the notable and award-winning non-fiction films we bought in 2014.
In The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden Darwin meets Hitchcock in this true-crime tale of paradise found and lost when filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Godfine revisit a strange 1930s murder mystery that begins when a Berlin doctor and his mistress start a new life on the uninhabited Floreana Island in the Galapagos.
Life According to Sam is the heart-rending but stirring story of Sam Berns, a 16-year-old born with the rare and fatal rapid-aging disease progeria, who is nevertheless determined to play in his school's band.
Freedom Summer traces the passion and anguish of ten weeks in the summer of 1964 known as Freedom Summer, when 700 student volunteers joined local organizers and African Americans to face violence and death in Mississippi.
Blog Post
Foxcatcher
by manz
In this true story, Olympic wrestling champion brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz, join Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 Olympic games. Foxcatcher tells the story of du Pont’s madness and how it inevitably negatively impacts the brothers, their success and their lives. Foxcatcher is based on the novel written by Mark Schultz about his brother and their time with du Pont.
In a change of pace, funnyman Steve Carell offers an amazing dramatic performance as the mentally ill du Pont, and it’s quite intense to watch, but fascinating and cerebral at the same time.
Foxcatcher was nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Picture. And is also nominated for five Oscars, including a Best Actor nomination for Carell, Best Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo and Best Director for Bennett Miller.
Blog Post
Skeleton Twins
by manz
The indie comedy-drama Skeleton Twins made its way through film festivals across the country last year with much acclaim. The film stars SNL alums Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig with phenomenal performances as fraternal twins Maggie and Milo.
They are both in their 30s, live in different states, and haven’t talked to each other in ten years. Unbeknownst to each other, they both plan to end their lives on the same day, and they each end up foiling the others plan, which forces a reunion. They spend the film getting reacquainted and trying to sort out their messed up lives. The movie is darkly funny, and the characters are so deeply flawed and loveable.
Blog Post
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
by manz
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
The film that almost wasn’t has now finished. After the legal battle the prevented The Hobbit trilogy from being made closer to when the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed, fans wondered if Peter Jackson’s adaptation would ever set foot in theaters. This many years later, so completes the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
The third and final film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, completes the (essential) story that was told in Tokien’s lone novel The Hobbit.
It’s the story of a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins who heads off on an epic quest to help the dwarves reclaim Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug. Along the way is high adventure and many encounters with other creatures, namely the band of dwarves that he travels with. It is on this journey that Bilbo meets the creature Gollum, and where he first lays hands on “the one ring” that changes his life, and that of Middle Earth, for all time. This third film picks up right where the second film left off, after the introduction of Smaug. So make sure you watch The Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug first.
As a super fan of LOTR and The Hobbit, I loved seeing both trilogies, and am sad that this is the last(?!) time it’ll be on the big screen as we now know it. With the credits rolling in the last film, with Billy Boyd singing a last goodbye, well it may have caused me to well up.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #508
by muffy
January brings a number of terrific debut novels. The one I am most excited to share is Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm (MFA, Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan). Follow her on Facebook, and plan to attend her signing @ Literati, 7pm on January 27.
She calls herself Julie now, from California. For the past 2 years, Grace restores bric-a-brac, repairs antiques and jewelry in a Paris chop shop, and lives alone in a shabby room. Regularly, she checks the Garland (TN) newspaper online for news of a case involving robbery of The Wynne House, a local heritage estate and museum, and the two young men caught for the crime, a heist that Grace meticulously engineered. Now, Grace's past and carefully constructed lies are about to catch up with her half way around the world, as the two men are being paroled.
In a series of flashbacks, from small-town USA to the Manhattan art scene, and the backstreets of Europe, we follow the "unbecoming-of-age" of a young woman with a special gift for restoration and for reinventing herself with equal deftness.
"Mesmerizing, nail-biting, atmospheric, and sensual... Unbecoming is an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel that turns on suspense and slippery identity."
"Scherm mixes a character study with a caper novel full of double-crosses, lies, and betrayals... She is at her best when describing precious objects: a Dutch master's still life, a James Mont cigar box with hidden compartment, an ornate centerpiece with fanciful fruit and figurines, and silver spoons ignored by their owners but appreciated by the professional hired to evaluate them."
Readers looking for an elegantly well-played cat-and-mouse game should delight in Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1954); The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, and the 1999 remake); and White Collar, the just concluded (sadly) tv series.
Fans of Gillian Flynn who appreciate "(a) bleak tone, deeply flawed protagonist, and dysfunctional relationships" wouldn't want to miss this one. And let's not forget Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels as read-alikes.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #507 -“In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?” ~ Gautama Buddha
by muffy
Before I Go * by Colleen Oakley, given the premise, could have been a sentimental tearjerker but instead, yes, it is heart-wrenching of course, but surprisingly upbeat and life-affirming.
27 year old grad. student Daisy Richmond beat cancer once but on her third "Cancerversary", the cancer is back - Stage IV, aggressive and inoperable. She knows she won't be around for husband Jack's graduation from vet school - something they have worked, sacrificed and delayed their life-plans (kids and vacations) for. What terrifies Daisy most is not dying, but leaving brilliant, domestically-challenged, absent-minded Jack on his own. So instead of planning some "make-a-wish" grown-up getaway for her last days, she is going to find Jack a wife with the time she has left.
With the help of her best friend Kayleigh, Daisy systematically scouts out dog parks (must love dogs) coffee shops and online dating sites looking for the perfect match for Jack. But when it looks like she is way too successful in her quest, Daisy has a change of heart.
Debut novelist Oakley "expertly tugs at the heartstrings with well-rounded characters and a liberal dose of gallows humor."
For readers who enjoyed Hello Goodbye by Emily Chenoweth (a FFF); P.S. I love you by Cecelia Ahern that has been adapted into film; Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber; and Promises to Keep by Jane Green - novels that deal with difficult issues of illnesses and grief, holding on and letting go of the ones we love.
* = starred review