The Play Ground is in the mood for a black comedy. Check out Redbud Productions new feature: HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. It is playing at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti October 6-9 and 13-16. This award winning play is set in the mid 1960s and concerns a zoo keeper/songwriter, his star-struck girlfriend and other assorted characters who cross their paths during a few history making days in New York City.

Take your family to pick apples and I bet you'll find yourself looking for recipes. An Apple Pie Harvest will get you started. This fun book also inicudes background information on this ubiquitous fruit. If you don't quite remember what you picked, the color photographs toward the beginning may remind you. Don't fear, the recipes in the book go beyond pies and applesauce. However, do be warned a relatively high proportion of the recipes seem to involve meats like duck, veal, lamb and I even spied a rabbit recipe. Vegetarians beware!

August Wilson, award winning playwright, died Sunday, October 2, 2005, of liver cancer.

Mr. Wilson, a high school dropout who then devoted himself to education by inhaling knowledge at his local Pittsburgh public library, originally intended on being a poet. But his drive to celebrate the African American experience exploded onto paper in the form of a cycle of ten plays that forever shaped how this country sees the real Black America. The first entry in his cycle, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, was produced on Broadway in 1984. Fences, another in the cycle, won a Pulitzer in 1987, as did The Piano Lesson, in 1990. The last play in this historic body of work, Radio Golf, opened at the Yale Repertory Theater in the spring of 2005, and is the only one in the cycle that has not yet appeared on Broadway.

"A Breath of Snow and Ashes isn't great literature. It's way, way too long; full of breathless prose, cornball archaic language, and Gaelic phrases; easy to make fun of or relegate to the status of guilty pleasure."

So why am I telling you about it? Read this review from Kathy Weissman.

And don't worry about jumping into the series at the end - heel her advise and get hold of a copy of the The Outlandish Companion. Before long, you will be handselling Diana Gabaldon and this historical fantasy series to all your friends.

The British are coming! Check out these new titles for the latest British Invasion on these shores.

At #4 is Thud! by Terry Pratchett: the anniversary of the disastrous battle of Koom Valley draws nigh in this latest stirring adventure in the Discorld series.

At #7 is On Beauty by Zadie Smith: this splendid postmodern retelling of Howard's End, set in a New England college town, was recently shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Meet Ronit Matalon, a bestselling writer in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is the author of the novels Bliss and The One Facing Us, and is an influential Israeli journalist. She will read from her work and answer audience questions on Thursday, Oct. 6, 7:00 pm. Ms. Matalon's appearance is in partnership with the UM Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies.

Check out a poetry slam at the Neutral Zone this year or read Listen Up!:Spoken Word Poetry. Even rockers are getting in on the act. Henry Rollins from Black Flag and The Rollins Band has become a popular spoken word performer who will present his sarcastic socio-political work at the Michigan Theater on October 26th at 7:30 pm.

Siblings Martha and Rufus Wainwright and their parents Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle all contributed to the McGarrigle Hour, a folk album that guest-stars Emmylou Harris. While the other McGarrigle and Wainwrights tend towards the traditional and folk side of things, Rufus Wainwright is known for his ”baroque pop” songs rich with harmonies and intimate lyrics. He’ll be appearing at the Michigan Theater on October 9th.

49 years ago today the earth stood still when this alien command was spoken in theaters across the country on the opening day of the Cold War, sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by recently deceased director Robert Wise. But America was also mesmerized by the new sound of the theremin, which earned its place in the pantheon of good (and bad, see: Ed Wood) movie soundtracks, reaching its quivering peak in 1966 with the Beach Boys' unrivaled "Good Vibrations". For more on this unusual instrument, the Library owns the compelling documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.

M. Scott Peck, author of the bestselling The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth (1978), died September 25, 2005.

A Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Dr. Peck launched his literary career after ten years as a practicing psychiatrist. His very first sentence in The Road Less Traveled, “Life is difficult,” is at the heart of his belief that once people accept that fact, they can experience a life of deep rewards and valuable lessons.

Dr. Peck, who was 69, was the author of more than 15 books, including A Bed by the Window: A Novel of Mystery and Redemption (1990), Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey toward Spiritual Growth (1993), and The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety (1997)