There are movies I love to watch every December that are not necessarily holiday movies, but have such a rich holiday feel to them that I’m almost immediately transported into the holiday spirit upon watching them . The first one is the 1994 version of Little Women starring Wynona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale, to name a few. Based on the Louisa May Alcott novel of the same name, it is the fifth feature film adaptation of the Alcott classic. The film focuses on the March sisters – lovely Meg (Trini Alvarado), passionate Jo (Winona Ryder), gentle Beth (Claire Danes), and romantic Amy (Kirsten Dunst) - growing up in Concord, Massachusetts during and after the American Civil War. With their father away fighting in the war, the girls struggle with life’s difficulties under the guidance of their strong-willed mother, affectionately called Marmee (Susan Sarandon).
I love every part of this movie from the choice of actors, the beautiful setting and the Academy Award nominated musical score.

If you have read all of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2012, you could certainly find something on 100 Notable Books of 2012.

Here is the NPR Complete List of Best Books of 2012 which includes Graphic Novels That Flew Under The Radar, Nancy Pearl's Picks For The Omnivorous Reader.

As the days get shorter and there is just too much to do, try Jane Ciabattari's picks of Short Stories To Savor On A Winter Weekend. For a bit of seasonal reading, there is A Wintry Mix: Alan Cheuse Selects The Season's Best.

The thoughtful and expert picks in Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2012, and the Library Journal 2012 Best of Genre Fiction are always right on. Bear in mind also, The Guardian(UK) Best Books of the Year for some adventurous reading.

On the road this holiday season? Track down one of these Top 10 Crime Fiction Audiobooks, or the The Washington Post Best Audio Books of 2012.

For the ebook readers on your list, here are the current hot titles. They are always available and no gift wrapping necessary.

FOR THE YOUNG READERS IN YOUR LIFE :

Worth another look is NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels.

American Library Association's 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults and Top 10 List, the complete list of 2012 Notable Children's Books

The New York Times 100 Notable Children's books covers titles for young adults to picture books.

And who could blame them if they want TOYS? Check out Parenting magazine's Best New Toys 2012 and the Best Wii games for kids.

Parks and Recreation has been one of the funniest shows on television the past few years. Currently in its fifth season, it’s a show well suited to its time slot on Thursday nights along side (the now dwindling) The Office and 30 Rock. It’s also a show that seems to fall under the radar with some crowds. Once you get used to it, this show is a serious laugh-out-louder, where every other sentence seems like comedic gold.

The show stars former SNL funny girl Amy Poehler as the positive, high-energy, do-gooder Leslie Knope, who works at the Parks and Recreation department in fictional Pawnnee, Illinois. Filmed mockumentary style, the show focuses on Knope and her colleagues as they work daily on a variety of city government issues. The cast is full of quirky and oddly matched personalities, played by the likes of Aziz Ansari, Rob Lowe, Rashida Jones, and Adam Scott, which make an amazing comedy team. To be honest, Ron Swanson is one of the best characters ever written for television. If you haven’t already done so, give it a whirl!

Moonrise Kingdom, written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, is director Wes Anderson’s seventh film. Set on an island off the coast of New England in 1965, the film centers around twelve-year-old Sam Shakusky, an orphan who is attending scout camp for the summer. The previous year Sam met fellow twelve-year-old Suzy Bishop and she is heavily in his thoughts this summer. Both outsiders, they exchange letters as they begin to fall in love and eventually make a pact to meet. With Sam armed with camping gear and Suzy armed with a suitcase of stolen library books, the two meet and set off to run away together. Meanwhile, Suzy’s family and Sam’s scout troop are on the hunt to track them down. After many comedic adventures among all involved, a mammoth storm, and many twists and turns, the youths are found, and whimsical drama ensues.

For those familiar with Anderson’s film style, Moonrise Kingdom fits the bill for image, mood, and soundtrack. Other typical Anderson-isms include quirky characters, witty dialog, and a wonderfully charming story. This one piqued my interest because the main protagonists are children, while Anderson’s films usually feature dysfunctional adults. It is a rare treat to see him create the world of these sophisticated children. The film gets bonus points for starring Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, and Frances McDormand.

From the animation studio that brought you Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run is a new high-seas adventure for the whole family!

Based on a book by Gideon Defoe, The Pirates!: Band of Misfits is the story of Pirate Captain and his crew, and their unsuccessful attempts at winning the coveted Pirate of the Year Award. Loot is what they need, and they haven't had the best of luck at getting it, but that all changes when they mistakenly pillage the research ship of Charles Darwin. He doesn't have any loot, either, but he has something better: a plan!

Check it out on DVDor Blu-Ray!

The only total solar eclipse of 2012 will begin around 3:35pm EST today, November 13, and it will last all of two whole minutes, so try not to blink. Unfortunately, it will only be visible live from certain areas of Queensland, Australia and some empty parts of the Pacific Ocean. The good news is that you can watch the solar eclipse live online via streaming sites, including Cairns Eclipse 2012 on USTREAM, which will begin streaming around 2:00 pm.

More resources on eclipses are available here from the AADL, and don't miss one of the newest additions to our collection, the Orion Starblast 4.5 Astro Reflector Dobsonian Telescope, which checks out for two weeks at a time.

Bernstein

Consider the great man of music Leonard Bernstein. I had a vague sense of him: writing the score of West Side Story, conducting the New York Philharmonic, being the ambassador of music at concerts around the world. But after I watched this documentary, Leonard Bernstein, Reaching for the Note: The Definitive Look at the Man and His Music I wished I had paid more attention to his presence when he was alive and found I could appreciate the astounding career and character of this talented, larger-than-life conductor and passionate musician.

Maybe you remember Leonard Bernstein conducting Young People’s Concerts in Carnegie Hall, which were broadcast on television in the late 50s and early 60s. If you do, you can walk down memory lane and experience these treats again. If you missed out, its never too late for you, or your kids, to hear this greatest of conductors explain and demonstrate the special musical features of symphonies, concertos, humor in music and great composers, such as his favorite, Gustav Mahler.

We also own concert collections of Bernstein’s around the world tours and historic tv broadcasts which include, besides performances, lectures and master classes presented by Bernstein, who always perceived part of his mission as a musician to inspire passion for music in the wide world and the next generation.

For a really ecstatic experience watch Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, featuring a very young Placido Domingo and a resounding bass singer I had never seen before, Martti Talvela. Bernstein's conducting is a performance in itself, which some people find too distracting, but I find complements the grandeur of the Ninth and helps me to "see" it.

Everyone's favorite suave secret agent, James Bond, is headed back to the big screen with the upcoming release of Skyfall. The new flick stars Daniel Craig in his third outing as Bond, alongside a killer cast including Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem as the newest Bond villain, and Ben Whishaw in his debut as the gadget-master Q. The flick, which continues to dig into Bond's origins as seen previously in 2006's Casino Royale, has been receiving early critical acclaim as one of Agent 007's best. Opening in theaters everywhere November 9, Skyfall happens to come out exactly 50 years after the original Bond movie, Dr. No, which starred Sean Connery in 1962.

But before Skyfall arrives in theaters, AADL's collection offers plenty of ways to celebrate Mr. Bond's big birthday--and another even bigger 007 milestone. WhilJames Bond: Daniel Craig as James Bond.e Bond may be 50 in movie years, he's existed on the printed page for almost 60. Casino Royale, the original Bond story by Ian Fleming, was published in 1953 and is available via the AADL catalog. Fleming went on to write 14 James Bond books. His final one, Octopussy and The Living Daylights, was published in 1966, two years after his death. Fleming's series has been followed by numerous additional Bond books by authors including Jeffery Deaver, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, and Charlie Higson (who wrote the Young Bond series for teens).

And for those looking to get caught up on the movies, AADL has Bond flicks from the original Dr. No to 2008's Quantum of Solace. For true devotees, try the original 1967 film adaptation of Casino Royale, a wacky spoof of spy films with an all-star cast including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, George Raft, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

The 1990 Oscar-nominated film, Berkeley in the Sixties (not rated) recaptures the exhilaration and turmoil of the student protests that shaped a generation and changed the course of America.

The film interweaves the memories of fifteen former student leaders - who grapple with the meaning of their actions - with thousands of historical clips and hundreds of interviews. Ronald Reagan,

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Huey Newton, Allen Ginsberg, and the music of Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, and the Grateful Dead bring that tumultuous decade back to life.

This film directed by Mark Kitchell, received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Documentary in 1990.

A post-film discussion will include a panel of current student activists responding to the film. Cosponsored by the University of Michigan Community Scholars Program.

Thursday, October 25, 6-8:30 PM @ the Downtown AADL. Grade 9 - Adult.

The library is always adding new “old” movies to the collection. In case you missed them, be sure to check out:

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)
Los Angeles, 2019: Rick Deckard of the LAPD's Blade Runner unit prowls the steel & microchip jungle of the 21st century. His job is to track down and eliminate assumed humanoids known as 'replicants.' Replicants were declared illegal after a bloody mutiny on an Off-World Colony, and are to be terminated upon detection. He wants to get out of the force, but is drawn back in when six "skin jobs," the slang for replicants, hijack a ship back to Earth. The city that Deckard must search for his prey is a huge, sprawling, bleak vision of the future. Fun fact: the production designer for Blade Runner also designed the set for the doomed filming of Super Mario Brothers, which starred a shell-shocked Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Based on Ira Levin's bestselling novel, Mia Farrow plays a young mother-to-be who grows increasingly suspicious that her over-friendly elderly neighbors and self-involved actor husband are hatching a satanic plot against her and her baby.