According to Variety, Jarhead, Hollywood's take on the United States' initial offensive against the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein doesn't come close to David O. Russell's Three Kings. The book, however, written by Anthony Swofford in 2003, is "a witty, profane, down-in-the-sand account of the war" and "a worthy addition to the battlefield memoir genre." (Publisher's Weekly).

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour on Sunday October 29, 2005. It is time to fall back and take shelter with a good book.

At #1 is Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan: the many fans of the Wheel of Time series were just waiting to snap up Book 11 in the series.

At #4 is Consent to Kill by Vince Flynn: another entry in the field of spies, terrorists and international conspiracies.

At #5 is A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve: her fans will rejoice in this bittersweet tale of seven former schoolmates.

It’s coming up fast! How time flies! Yes, Thursday, November 3 is National Men Make Dinner Day. If you’ve missed it in the past, here’s an opportunity for “non-cooking men only” to give their wives or partners a break, a chance to “whip up a culinary delight with no help from family members.” Be sure to follow the 'official' rules.

If the recipes on the web site don’t excite you, the library’s the place for cookbooks for every taste and level of sophistication. Real novices can try books listed in our catalog under Quick and Easy Cookery. And remember, if you’re really ambitious, most of the great chefs (e.g.,Jacques Pepin, Emeril, James Beard, Paul Prudhomme, Pierre Franey, Craig Claiborne, etc.) are men. Try it, you might like it, and have 365 days to bask in the afterglow.

Once again, it's that time of the year when people actually want to be frightened out their minds. As far as scary movies are concerned, none are better than the suspenseful thrillers by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Known as the "Master of suspense," Hitchcock understood better than anyone how to creation tension within a story and keep the viewer completely enthralled for the duration of a film. The library has a very good collection of Hitchcock films on DVD, including personal favorites Vertigo, Rebecca, Notorious, and Strangers on a Train.

Here are just a few of the high points in the history of cinematic horror...

1920: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: This German expressionist classic would go on to influence horror, science fiction, and film noir.

1922: Nosferatu: Actor Max Schrek, who took his role perhaps a little too seriously, is the creepiest vampire in film history. (Schrek's performance is memorably rendered by Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire.)

1925: Phantom of the Opera: Lon Chaney becomes the first major horror film star.

Stella, Blanche, Stanley. All Tennessee Williams' character names that we know so well. Add to list the Gentleman Caller of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, nameless but also memorable. Menagerie tells the story of the southern Wingfield family: Amanda, abandoned by her husband, son Tom, a factory worker who longs to be a poet and daughter Laura, who is painfully shy. The Purple Rose Theatre Company is staging this familiar and complex American classic through December 17.

Join Oprah and her book club tomorrow when they discuss James Frey’s explosive raunchy memoir, A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey.
Frey, now in his 30s, began his downward slide into the hellhole of multiple addictions when he was 10 and stayed there until friends and family put his bloodied filthy body on a plane to Minnesota where he cleaned up at the renowed Hazelden Clinic.
Frey’s quirky disregard for conventional writing details (punctuation, capitalization, paragraph breaks) and his blisteringly honest self-examination of his messy scramble to sobriety, has earned him comparisons to Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. His rejection of the time-tested 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous has caused deep concern among those institutions and professionals trained to help addicts.
Frey’s unapologetic tale of survival offers plenty of provocative talking points.

If you enjoyed the film Secretary, adapted from a story by Mary Gaitskill of the same title, you will find much to like in her latest novel – Veronica, which has been short-listed for the National Book Award.

New York Times book review describes Veronica as ‘...a rumination on the relationship between beauty and cruelty”. Megan O’Rourke said it best – “Gaitskill's brand of brainy lyricism, of acid shot through with grace, is unlike anyone else's. And it constitutes some of the most incisive fiction writing around.”. Watch the NBA announcement on November 16th. I am betting on this one.

L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi. The Coronation of Poppea is an opera of beauty, greed, seduction-yes, a woman must use all her resources when usurping a throne! Poppea relates the historical account of a beautiful courtesan who schemes to become empress of Rome during Nero's reign. Sung in Italian with projected English translations. University Symphony Orchestra conducted by Timothy Cheek. November 10-13 at the Power Center. League Ticket Office.

For those of you who are tired of the films Hollywood is cranking out these days, you might want to look back to the films of the 70s for something refreshing. A good place to start would be watching A Decade Under the Influence, a recent documentary about these ground-breaking films and the people who created them. Even for those of you who already know your film history, it should be fun to watch interviews with legends like Scorsese, Coppola, Hopper, and Bogdanovich. Also coming soon to the library is the documentary based on Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: how the sex-drugs-and-rock 'n' roll generation saved Hollywood. So, what's your favorite film from the 70s?