The Play Ground can barely catch its breath because of the exciting news that “America’s Beautiful Voice,” premier soprano Renee Fleming is coming to Hill Auditorium on October 13. Renée Fleming will be performing in Richard Strauss’s Daphne with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Men of the WDR Radio Chorus Cologne. This will be a concert opera — operas performed in a concert setting with limited theatrical stage effects. In addition, Music Specialist Richard LeSueur will discuss the plot and the background of the Strauss' late masterpiece Daphne on Sunday, October 9 at 3pm Downtown at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Fantasy and romance enter the list this week.

At #5 is High Druid of Shannara: Straken by Terry Brooks. In the final volume of this trilogy the hero Pen Ohmsford is on a quest for save his aunt from exile.

At #6 is Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell. For fans wishing there were new episodes of "Sex and the City", the show's creator treats us to this story of three women trying to juggle their personal and professional lives.

Are you a fan of the hot new show on TLC (aka "The Learning Channel") Miami Ink? The November, 2005 issue of International Tattoo has a great "behind the scenes" article about this new tattoo-shop reality show. With lots of great photos and anecdotes learn more about Ami, Chris Garver and Yoji, the shop apprentice. International Tattoo Art is always loaded with close up photos of great tattoos, edgy articles and more. AADL also owns the tattoo magazine Skin and Ink - be sure to check 'em out on the 2nd floor of the DOWNTOWN location....

Whether or not you're a fan, Bob Dylan, the brilliant songwriter/musician who pioneered multiple schools of songwriting and almost single-handedly redefined what it meant to be a singer, musician and performer in the 1960s, is certainly a worthy subject for a documentary...even if it is over 3 hours long. Martin Scorsese's long-awaited film about the erstwhile Robert Zimmerman airs this week on PBS, but if you miss it, don't get tangled up in blue: The Library will be getting the DVD in October. In the meantime, check out D. A. Pennebaker's fascinating 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, or the energetic first volume of Dylan's autobiography which covers much of the same period as the Scorsese documentary.

So what's your favorite Dylan song?

The University of Michigan Press has just released Grit, Noise and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll, by David A. Carson. This 320-page book examines music made in Detroit after World War II, focusing on the "Detroit Rock" sound of the mid 1960s through the early 1970s. Carson devotes plenty of text to the influence of nearby Ann Arbor, including local favorites Bob Seger and Iggy Pop, as well as Commander Cody, John Sinclair, Ted Nugent and Grand Funk Railroad.

Billy’s dad wants him to be a boxer. Billy’s brother wants him to be a boxer. Even Billy wants to be a boxer, sort of.

Everything changes when Billy secretly starts learning ballet instead of boxing. Billy Elliot is an unsentimental celebration of family, dance, and community set during the 1984 coal miners’ strike in northern England. Be aware that despite the young protagonist, this movie is rated R. Fans of The Full Monty, Ma Vie en Rose, or Strictly Ballroom might enjoy this sweet, exuberant, and riotously funny film. And of course there’s plenty more out there about lads, leaping, and labour conflicts.

Thomas Lynch, the American Book Award winning author of The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade has recently published a new work reflecting on his Irish-American ancestry and many visits to his ancestral home during the past three decades. Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans is a loving mixture of reminiscence, family history, travel writing, cultural and social commentary, and meditation on the complexities of ethnic heritage. A funeral director in Milford, Michigan, Lynch is also an acclaimed poet. He is scheduled to speak about and read from his new book at the Library’s 'Sunday Edition' program on Sunday, October 8 at 2:00 p.m. at the Downtown Library.

Perhaps you've heard all about the recent scandal involving the model, Kate Moss and her apparent use of cocaine? The UK paper the Mirror recently printed photos of Kate prepping and snorting snow while in the recording studio of her confessed junkie boyfriend, Pete Doherty. Since this became public she's lost contracts with the Swedish company H&M and Burberry. Of course all of the shock and awe being expressed about this situation is laughable. The world of modeling has long been known to be filled with rampant drug use - which everyone is willing to overlook as long as it doesn't impact their bottom line. From the tragic story of Gia Carnagi - made famous by the biopic Gia starring Angelina Jolie - to the self-professed first Supermodel Janice Dickinson - (now an entertaining train-wreck to watch on VH1's Surreal Life 5) - the modeling world is loaded with drug drama. So while the fashion world pretends this is a shocker the rest of us can just shrug and get on with our day.

It's fun to get more out of a book than you expect. Yes, Good Brother, Bad Brother offers fascinating information about Edwin, who is fondly remembered as the finest classical actor of his day and John Wilkes, reviled because he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. But the unanticipated bonus is the wealth of information about 19th century American theater. Giblin's theatrical interests in combination with his penchant for thorough research results in a fascinating read about the drama both brothers faced on stage and in real life.

Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal died September 20 in Vienna, Austria. In a tireless and decades-long campaign to bring justice to the 6 million Jews (including 89 members of his own family) who died during the Holocaust, Simon Wiesenthal is credited with bringing more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals to trial. For more about Wiesenthal, check out the 1996 biography Simon Wiesenthal: A Life in Search of Justice (left).

Read the obituary in the New York Times.