Ann Arbor communications consultant, John Baldoni, is the author of several books on leadership including his most recent, Great Motivation Secret of Great Leaders. Using a variety of historical and contemporary individuals as examples to illustrate key aspects of motivation, Baldoni examines how leaders energize, encourage and exhort individuals and teams to achieve success. Baldoni spoke last year at one of the Library’s ‘Sunday Edition’ lecture programs on his previous book Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders. A video of that program will be broadcast on Ann Arbor’s Community Access Channel 17 on September 13 (3:30 pm), September 15(1:30 pm), September 16 (5:00 pm) and September 17 (1:30 pm). A videotape of his presentation is also available from the library.

I just read the most exciting book the other day. It is called Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. It is about a boy named Alex Rider, who finds out that his recently mysteriously deceased uncle was a spy for British Intelligence, MI6. He is quickly sucked in by MI6 to finish what his uncle started. To find out what happens when a 14-year-old boy suddenly has to uncover an evil plot having to do with lab top computers and biological warfare that could kill all of the children in England, you have to read the book, OR see the movie. That’s right, if you are an Alex Rider fan, the movie Stormbreaker is in production right now. Also catch Anthony Horowitz’s new series The Gatekeepers. The first book, Raven’s Gate, is in the library now.

Producers of the James Bond franchise recently informed actor Pierce Brosnan that his services were no longer required. It seems as though just about every working male actor on the planet has been mentioned as a possible replacement, including Ewan McGregor and Clive Owen, but no one seems to fit the role like Brosnan did. Who do you think should be the next actor to utter the words, "Bond, James Bond?"

Meanwhile, if you're a Bond fan, you'll want to check out The James Bond Story, a documentary about the history of the man and the films.

As you might glean from the title, Eulogy is a comedy of the darkest sort. A feuding family returns home and and attempts to reconnect after the death of the patriarch. Long-forgotten family secrets and quarrels are rehashed, but don't prepare the family for the shocking truth they are about to encounter. Fans of filmmaker Wes Anderson will love this spastically funny, low-budget comedy. The ensemble cast includes Hank Azaria, Zooey Deschanel, Famke Janssen, Kelly Preston, Ray Romano and Debra Winger.

The terrible disaster that struck the Gulf coast has been holding my attention for the last few days. Here are a few websites that might be of interest for people tired of watching endless hours of CNN, but eager for more information.

Craiglist Help for Katrina Survivors

Disaster Preparedness

Public Health Impact of Hurricanes

Federal Disaster Assitance

UPDATE: Housing Katrina Victims
Librarian's Index to the Internet Guide to Katrina Websites and Information

If you want a good chuckle to fight off the back-to-school blues, meet Mrs. Rosemary, the best teacher Donald Davis ever had. And while you are at it, tap along with the hilarious Down in the Backpack, by Bill Harley. These two amazing tellers remind us that some of our most outrageous stories come from school.

Ellington Was Not a Street is based on the poem Mood Indigo by Ntozake Shange. This winner of the 2005 Corretta Scott King Illustrator award takes me back to my home Harlem, New York. A beautifully illustrated tribute to great men like Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois who once walked the streets that now bear their names.

The New York Times calls it “riveting”, a “meticulous dissection of the Enron story.” Kurt Eichenwald weaves together the stories of Enron’s top executives in the years and months leading up to the startling collapse of “America’s best-managed company.”

Futurama was Matt Groening's other show, a fact that worked both for and against it. On one hand, Groening had honed his craft with The Simpsons, so the characters and storylines of Futurama seem fully-formed from the very first season. On the other hand, though, it was unavoidable that people would approach the show as a second Simpsons and ultimately be disappointed, since the two shows aren't (and weren't meant to be) identical.

Futurama is an extremely funny show, full of the same absurd humor as the Simpsons, but also laden with in-jokes for science fiction fans and fish-out-of-water moments as 20th century boy Philip J. Fry copes with life in the year 3000. Additionally, although it is a comedy, Futurama's writers weren't afraid to end an episode on a melancholy note - "Jurassic Bark" and "Time Keeps on Slipping" are particularly good examples of this. It's too bad that the show was canceled after only four seasons, but at least the DVDs are there to watch again and again.

The United States Library of Congress has selected The University of Michigan Law Library website on Supreme Court nominee John Glover Roberts, Jr for inclusion in their historic collection of Internet materials related to the Supreme Court. This site provides comprehensive information about and writings by John Glover Roberts, Jr., including Department of Justice and White House records, Majority Opinions (D.C. Circuit), Oral Arguments before the Supreme Court, Party Briefs, articles about Roberts from the New York Times, and articles by Roberts from various journals.