Yes, you can check out movies and TV shows at the library!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

DVDs account for about twenty percent of the materials checked out at the Litchfield Library.  For some people in our community, library DVDs are the only way they watch television.  Other people still are surprised to learn that the library offers DVDs for check out, because they thought we only had books. 

Litchfield Library has about 2700 unique video titles; we don’t have more than one copy of any of them in the local collection.  Pioneerland Library System has almost 50,000 DVDs available to order, although obviously there are many of the same movies and TV shows in different libraries. 

We get new DVDs every month in Litchfield; let me tell you about a few of the newest.

Netflix rebooted the familiar TV show Lost in Space last year.  You may remember the original from the late 1960s, which in turn was based on the 1812 book The Swiss Family Robinson.  There was also a movie in the 1990s, which was apparently awful.  This new version is geared to young teens and older, and it has gotten decent reviews for having great effects and sets, plus some more character development than the original.  If you love the 1965 series for the campiness, you won’t find that here, but it’s still some relatively family-friendly sci fi. 

 The Mustang is a drama based on a real animal therapy program for prison inmates in Nevada.  In fact, three of the actors in the film came from the program.  The movie stars Bruce Dern and Matthias Schoenaerts in a story about a violent convict who gets the chance to participate in training wild mustangs.  One reviewer said it’s an unusual mix of a gritty prison movie blended with an inspiring horse movie, but in general critics love it. 

Did you know there’s a new movie called Virginia Minnesota?  I hadn’t heard anything about it until just recently when it was released on DVD.  This indie film won the award for best Minnesota-made narrative feature at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, and it has been recognized at other small film festivals around the country.  It’s a comedy-drama about two young women who go on a 24-hour journey together after becoming estranged in childhood.  It might be interesting just to see the Iron Range scenery where it was filmed.

The new documentary Maria by Callas tells the story of opera singer Maria Callas’ life in her own words.  The Greek-American soprano was an international star in the middle of the twentieth century, an extraordinarily talented performer for the ages and a notorious diva.  This sympathetic portrait tries to tell her story as she would have, through interviews and other footage, letters she wrote, unpublished memoirs, home movies, and personal photos, almost none of which has been made public before.  While recognizing that it isn’t a balanced portrayal, reviewers praised this movie as an absorbing new look at a famous person.

Another new documentary is a big hit in our library system right now.  Apollo 11 is put together from archival footage that the public hasn’t seen before, and the director managed to make it crisp and beautiful.  One movie critic after another says that the movie makes audiences awestruck about the moon landing all over again. 

Some of the other new DVDs you can find at the Litchfield library include Captain Marvel, Five Feet Apart, Hotel Mumbai, PBS’s The Mueller Investigation, and My Dinner with Hervé.  If we don’t have a movie or television show, new or old, that you’re looking for, ask library staff for help and we will do our best to borrow it from other libraries in Minnesota.

And We Never Wanted to Leave....

by Beth Cronk, head librarian

Part of the journey is the end.  Two major science fiction/fantasy series are coming to an end for viewers within a month of each other.  Avengers: Endgame just hit movie theaters, wrapping up Marvel’s Avengers series of movies (but not all of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) after eleven years. The television series Game of Thrones comes to an end on May 19 with its eighth season.

Readers are still looking forward to the last two books in the Song of Ice and Fire series that Game of Thrones is based on.  Provided George R.R. Martin gets over his writer’s block, there’s still more of that world coming.  And Marvel comic books and graphic novels may never end.

If you feel a sense of loss with these series endings, you’re not alone.  A quick internet search turns up “Empty feeling after finishing a book/series” on the Goodreads website, “Why it’s healthy to cry over TV shows” in Time magazine, and “The 5 stages of grief for the TV show you just finished binge-watching” in Huffpost (some are tongue-in-cheek).  There’s even a name that some people use for this uncomfortable feeling: “post-series depression.” 

Some avid readers I know go through this quite often, whether they read mysteries, historical fiction, or anything that comes in a series – or sometimes just after a long, immersive novel.

The Time article says that we form parasocial, or one-directional, relationships with fictional characters, whether on the page or screen.  Professor Jennifer Barnes is quoted in the February 23, 2017, article as saying, “The interesting thing is that our brains aren’t really built to distinguish between whether a relationship is real or fictional… So these friendships can convey a lot of real-world benefits.”  She also says it’s completely normal to feel upset when a character we’ve come to know dies or when a series comes to an end. 

It may help to turn your attention to another activity for a while (exercise, go out with friends, be creative and make something), to discuss the books or movies or TV show with other fans, or to pick up a new book or DVD. 

While we don’t have an Avengers or Game of Thrones support group here at the library (hmm, there’s a fun thought…), we do have many science fiction and fantasy books and DVDs here to help you find something new.

Mark Lawrence’s trilogy Book of the Ancestor has just come to a conclusion with Holy Sister.  This epic fantasy series tells the story of a young girl, trained by an arcane order of nuns, who grows into a fierce warrior.  One reviewer after another has praised the world building Lawrence did in this series.  The first two books are Red Sister and Grey Sister.  We have all three at the library.

Myke Cole is two novels into his Sacred Throne trilogy. Our library has both: The Armored Saint and The Queen of Crows.  The third will be published this fall.  Another epic fantasy series, this one features Heloise, a young girl who opposes the tyrannical Order after witnessing their slaughter of innocent people.  Although this sounds like a familiar formula, reviews say the author goes in inventive directions.

The Litchfield Library also has these new sci fi/fantasy novels:

• a new novel in the Planetfall series by Emma Newman, Atlas Alone; 
• a new Invisible Library novel by Genevieve Cogman, The Mortal Word; 
• the first novel in the Chronicles of Ghadid series by K.A. Doore, The Perfect Assassin; and 
• the second novel of the Ascendant series by K. Arsenault Rivera, The Phoenix Empress.

In addition, our library always has superhero, fantasy, and science fiction movies.  Some of the newest are Aquaman, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Kid Who Would Be King, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Mary Poppins Returns.

As Mary Poppins would say, “With every job when it’s complete, there is a sense of bittersweet.”  If the magic of a story has worked on you, be glad that it had the power to capture your heart and your imagination.

DVDs for the Dog Days of Summer

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

I hope you’ve been out enjoying this lovely summer weather.  It’s bound to get hot again, though, and sometimes it’s nice to lie around indoors and watch a movie or a TV series.  The Litchfield library has a number of new DVDs for you to check out in the dog days of August.

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert was aired on NBC on Easter Sunday, and now it’s on DVD.  It has been nominated for thirteen Emmy awards.  This was a live, concert-like version of the musical, with an enthusiastic audience that helped add to the show’s theme of celebrity.  Brandon Victor Dixon gave an exceptional performance as Judas, showing his stage prowess in both acting and singing. Sara Bareilles was also outstanding as Mary Magdalene.  John Legend’s acting disappointed some viewers, but the pop singer certainly sang it well.  If you like musicals but can’t stand to watch the dated 1973 movie version (I've tried - I just can't), I’d encourage you to try watching this one.  My daughters and I greatly enjoyed it, and now I listen to the soundtrack regularly.

The Magicians is a fantasy television show based on the book series by Lev Grossman.  It airs on Syfy.  Our library just added the third season, but you can start at the beginning since we have all three.  The concept is as if Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books were a college, with all of the rowdy behavior that can go along with that.  Quentin is an ordinary grad student who is a lifelong fan of a series of books that bear a strong resemblance to the Chronicles of Narnia, and when he is accepted to the secret, magical Brakebills University, he discovers how real (and dangerous) those books are.  Despite the echoes of Narnia and Harry Potter, this is definitely a show for adults who don’t mind an edgy story.

Ready Player One is the movie adaptation of the sci fi novel by Ernest Cline.  In the near future, the world is a bleak place, so people spend much of their time in the virtual world called the OASIS.  When the creator of OASIS dies, he leaves behind clues to a puzzle, and the person who solves it will inherit his fortune and control of the OASIS.  Poverty-stricken orphan Wade attempts to beat the corporate forces also trying for the prize, while he connects with others in the virtual world.  When I watched this movie, I was afraid at the beginning that it was only going to be about playing video games, which I don’t do.  But the plot is broader and more entertaining than that, although the movie is as fast-paced and visually-busy as a video game. 

Chappaquiddick is a new movie about an infamous event in the life of Ted Kennedy: the drowning of political strategist Mary Jo Kopechne that happened when Kennedy drove off a bridge in 1969.  Based on accounts documented in the investigation of Kopechne’s death, the movie examines not only the events but the people involved.  Critics mostly liked it as a character study and a look at how powerful people influence public opinion.

Other new DVDs  you can check out at the Litchfield library include Final Portrait, a Geoffrey Rush movie about a portrait artist in the ‘60s, Civilizations, a PBS documentary series about the history of art, Wes Anderson’s  stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs about a group of quarantined dogs, and the popular religious film, Paul, Apostle of Christ.  

Celebrating books with The Great American Read

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Have you heard about the new PBS show The Great American Read?  This is an eight-part television series about Americans’ favorite books.  The premiere was broadcast recently, and the final episode will air in October, when they will announce which book won first place in the voting. 

Host Meredith Vieira will introduce the 100 featured books, plus she will interview authors, celebrities, and regular people about how particular books have influenced them and our culture.  PBS is hosting a virtual book club on Facebook to discuss a couple of the books per week, and there will be some live public events, including some in select libraries across the country.  The public library in the little town of Cook, up in northern Minnesota, was the only library to receive the grant in our state. 

The list of America’s favorite 100 books was compiled by PBS and a polling service through a public survey asking people to name their most-loved novel.  Each author is represented only once, and book series are listed as one entry to increase variety in the list.  So, for example, the Harry Potter series is listed, rather than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Books could be from anywhere in the world as long as they were published in English; only fiction was included.  The books span a wide range of time from the 1600s to 2016, as well as a wide range of genres and styles. 

Voting for favorite books has already opened online through the PBS website, and voting by phone will be available in the fall.  You can vote once per day.  It sounds a bit like American Idol for novels.

Our library’s adult book club has read some of the books on the list.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is an elegantly-written young adult novel narrated by Death.  An orphan named Liesel in Germany during World War II is taken in by the gentle Hans and his prickly wife Rosa, as is a young Jewish man named Max who needs a place to hide. Liesel becomes fast friends with Max as well as with Rudy, a scrappy, poor neighbor boy.  The friendships and the words in this book are beautiful, and it is a favorite of mine.

We have also read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a quiet epistolary novel about generations of ministers in a small town in Iowa.  Members found it thought-provoking.  The Giver by Lois Lowry was another young adult novel we’ve read that most of the readers enjoyed; it’s an intriguing look at a supposedly utopian society.  We have also read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Martian by Andy Weir, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  I would say they are all worth reading.

The idea behind the series is to get people reading and talking about books.  This is a goal the library shares.  Look on the display on top of the DVD shelf to easily pick up some of the 100 books from the Great American Read. 

Big, beguiling, epic movies popular at the library

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

DVDs are extremely popular at the library.  In September, 861 DVDs were checked out at the Litchfield library, which amounts to roughly twenty percent of the items checked out that month.  We carry a mixture of popular movies, art films, classics, documentaries, television series, and children’s DVDs.  Every month there are new additions.

The Beguiled is a new drama based on the novel by Thomas Cullinan.  A 1971 movie by the same name, starring Clint Eastwood, was also based on this novel.  The 2017 version was directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, and Kirsten Dunst.  A wounded Union soldier is taken in by the headmistress of an all-girls school in Virginia, where he romances each of the women with unexpected consequences.  Reviewers say it’s quite different from the Clint Eastwood version, with a restrained approach to the tension.  Coppola won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival for this film.

Also starring Nicole Kidman, the HBO miniseries Big Little Lies won eight Emmy awards last month including Outstanding Limited Series.  The miniseries is based on the bestselling novel by Australian author Liane Moriarty.  Three mothers of first graders with seemingly perfect lives all have secrets, and when someone dies at a school event, was it an accident or murder?  This darkly comic drama also stars Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Alexander Skarsgård.

The Big Sick was an unexpected hit this year.  Pakistani-American comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon turned the true story of their romance into the script for this romantic comedy, and Nanjiani stars.  Kumail and Emily fall in love but he won’t commit because his very traditional family wouldn’t approve.  Then Emily falls seriously ill and is put into a medically-induced coma, and Kumail has to deal with Emily’s parents, played by Ray Romano and Holly Hunter, whom he has never met.  Audiences loved this for being a fresh take on a rom-com, both funny and heartwarming. 

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is an animated film based on the tremendously popular book series by Dav Pilkey.  Two prank-loving best friends hypnotize their angry principal and make him believe he’s Captain Underpants, an enthusiastic and dimwitted superhero they’ve created.  The twelve-book series began in 1997 and concluded in 2015, and kids have continued to be enthusiastic about reading the silly, potty-humor-filled stories.  Kevin Hart stars as George, one of the young friends.  Reviewers say parents will be as entertained by this one as the kids are.

The indie film Certain Women tells three stories of women in rural Montana, played by Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart.  One is a lawyer who deals with sexism and a hostage situation.  The second is a wife and mother planning her dream home without the support of her family.  And the third is a new teacher of evening classes for adults who befriends a ranch hand.  This is a very quiet, subtle movie about ordinary lives.

Other recent additions include the Disney Channel movies Descendants and Descendants 2, the drama A Ghost Story, the Sam Elliott comedy The Hero, and the Oprah/HBO movie The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  If you’re interested in some of these, stop in to check the new-DVD section of the library, or place a hold through the library’s online catalog.  

The end of an era

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Downton Abbey fans, can you believe the series is almost over?  The high-class BBC soap opera is just about to begin its sixth and final season.  Every year when a new season begins, I  see people discover it for the first time and come to the library to check out the previous seasons.  Our library has seasons one through five on DVD and will be getting season six when it’s released later in the month. 

For those who would like some more background on the show, we have the DVD The Manners of Downton Abbey, a PBS documentary on the customs of the British aristocracy in the early twentieth century.  We also have two books:  The World of Downton Abbey and The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, which give details about the characters as well as the time and place.  These books came out after the first and second seasons, and they have gorgeous photos. 

For the true stories that inspired the show, read Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle and Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ and ‘Downton Abbey’.  Lady Almina was written by the Countess of Carnarvon, the current lady of the house where Downton Abbey is filmed.  Lady Almina was an inspiration for the character Cora in the TV series, the daughter of an industrialist whose dowry saved the ancestral home and who opened the house to wounded soldiers during World War I. 

Below Stairs is a memoir written by Margaret Powell, who worked as a kitchen maid in a great house in 1920s England.  Downton creator Julian Fellowes credits the book, published in 1968, for introducing him to the world of the servants who worked hard from dawn to well after dark to maintain the perfect world of the upper class.  Powell also wrote Servants’ Hall: A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance.  This sequel tells the story of an under-parlormaid who eloped with the aristocratic family’s only son.

Many novels also cover this territory of titled, wealthy people in England in the Edwardian era.  The Love & Inheritance trilogy by Fay Weldon fits that mold.  The first book is Habits of the House, followed by Long Live the King and The New Countess.  Weldon wrote the pilot for the original Upstairs, Downstairs television series.  The series begins with the story of a family who must arrange a marriage for their son to a wealthy American socialite in order to save their estate.  There’s an orphaned niece, King Edward’s coronation, heirs to be produced and properly raised, the threat of a scandalous book by a family member, and all sorts of witty, frivolous goings-on. 

For a classic novel about Lady Cora’s situation in life, we have Edith Wharton’s The Buccaneers. This was Wharton’s last novel, left unfinished at the time of her death and completed according to her plans by another author.  The novel tells the story of several new-money American girls who go to England in search of titled husbands, who need the girls’ money to support family estates.  Litchfield Library also has the BBC miniseries.

A few other good choices for staying in the Downton spirit: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks; The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin; and The Last Summer by Judith Klinghorn.

All good things must end, and it seems better to me that Downton end now on a good note than descend into more and more preposterous storylines.  Enjoy the ending, my fellow fans!

Haunt your library this Halloween

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

It’s Halloween time, and spooky and scary is the order of the day.  Here are some ideas from Litchfield’s new materials that fit the season:

The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths is a Ruth Galloway mystery.  Ruth is a forensic archaeologist called in when a World War II plane with a body in the pilot’s seat is discovered by a construction crew in Norfolk, England.  Ruth ends up trapped in a crumbling English manor on a dark and stormy night. 

In a Dark, Dark Wood is a psychological thriller that is very popular right now.  This first novel by Ruth Ware is also set in the English countryside.  A reclusive author accepts an invitation to spend a weekend at a long-lost friend’s strange home, then wakes up two days later not remembering anything except that someone is dead.  This fast-paced story is being compared to Gone Girl and Girl on the Train.

For something gentler, pick up The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer, a Paws and Claws cozy mystery by Krista Davis.  The crew for a reality show about ghost hunters has arrived for the Halloween festivities in Wagtail, Virginia, described as “the top pet-friendly getaway in the United States.”  Holly Miller and her pets discover a young woman drowned in a supposedly-haunted bathhouse, and Holly works to solve the crime before someone else is killed. 

For a true story about a ghost (whether the ghost is real or not), check out American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus.  Nordhaus is the author of the 2011 bestseller The Beekeeper’s Lament.  For her new book, she researched the life and supposed afterlife of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab, a Jewish immigrant who died in 1896.  Sightings of a dark-eyed woman in a long black gown were first reported in the 1970s in the Santa Fe hotel that used to be her home.  Nordhaus tells of her ancestor’s frontier history and examines how a true story becomes a ghost story. 

For another nonfiction book that seems to fit the season, place a hold on The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff.  Schiff won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for the book Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) and had a number one best-seller with her book Cleopatra: A Life in 2010.  The buzz about this book is tremendous, with many people saying it’s the best book on the Salem witch trials that has ever been written.  We've got a waiting list on this one and it won't be published until October 27^th, so put your name on the list if you’d like to read it soon. 

If you’d like to brush up on the Addams Family before the Litchfield high school’s production of the musical, we have some of their creepy and kooky DVDs and a music CD.  The Addams Family, Volume One is a three-DVD set of the original television episodes from 1964-65.  We also have the 1991 movie The Addams Family, starring Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia, and the cast album for The Addams Family: A New Musical, in case you’d like to hear the songs the local students will be performing in their show.  Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth starred in the original Broadway cast.

On the afternoon of Halloween, which falls on a Saturday this year, our library is hosting a Halloween murder mystery costume party for teens, ages 12-18.  Called “Get Away (with murder?) @ your library,” this is a Teen Read Week event.  The 2-hour party starts at 1:30 on the 31^st.  The murder mystery will involve a live Clue-style game (not a board game) with prizes to win along the way.  Costumes are optional, and refreshments will be served.  Happy Halloween!

The new golden age of television

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Many people say we’re in a new golden age of television.  While this era is characterized by darker adult themes instead of the chipper, family-friendly offerings of the original golden age of the ‘50s, the quality of the writing, acting, and production values are very high.  This new burst of creativity is partly due to the wide variety of ways television shows are distributed.  Beyond broadcast and cable, there’s Netflix, Amazon, other streaming services, web-based series, and DVDs.  Television shows can now appeal to just a segment of the population and still be successful, because there are so many outlets. 

Because people can often watch at a time they choose, people tend to treat TV series like novels now.  If you’re dying of suspense because of how an episode ends, you can keep going, if you’re watching on DVD or a streaming service.  We call it “binge-watching,” but is it really different than not being able to put a book down, chapter after chapter? 

Our library offers many television shows on DVD, something that is especially valued by our rural residents who can’t get cable, high-speed internet, or sometimes even a strong broadcast television signal.  Besides, subscribing to every available television service would be awfully expensive.

One TV miniseries available at our library is HBO’s Olive Kitteridge, which is based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name.  The book is really a collection of related short stories about a small town in Maine, tied together by retired teacher Olive.  My book club at the library read this within the last couple of years and found plenty to talk about in this quietly profound book.

In the miniseries, Olive is played by Frances McDormand.  She just won the Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie.  Her co-stars Richard Jenkins and Bill Murray also won Emmys for lead actor and supporting actor, respectively, and the show won the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries, as well as the awards for directing and writing. 

The Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series went to HBO’s Game of Thrones. This fantasy series is based on George R.R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire.  Peter Dinklage won the supporting actor Emmy for playing Tyrion Lannister, and the show won the awards for writing and directing, among many others.  Unfortunately, the season that just won the awards won’t be available on DVD until March!  The library does have seasons one through four.

The release date for season four of Veep on DVD has not even been announced yet. Our library does have seasons one through three.  The fourth season just won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, yet another win for HBO.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus won the lead actress Emmy for playing President Selina Meyer, Tony Hale won the supporting actor Emmy, and the show won the award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series.

Uzo Aduba won her second Emmy for playing Crazy Eyes on Orange is the New Black, a Netflix original series based on Piper Kerman’s memoir of the same name.  This time the series competed in the dramatic series category instead of comedy due to a change in Emmy rules.  The library has seasons one and two, but season three is not yet available on DVD.

The library also has the Emmy-winning TV movie Bessie and nonfiction series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, as well as the documentary Citizenfour, which won an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. 

As the sun starts going down a little earlier, bring home an interesting series or movie and enjoy the character development and complicated storylines that characterize the best of today’s television.  

New extended checkout times on DVDs, audiobooks

by Beth Cronk

Do you check out movies and audiobooks at the library?  Now you can keep them longer!  Pioneerland Library System has lengthened checkout times on these materials.

Videos are now due back one week after they are checked out instead of five days.  This will allow people who only come to town once a week, or those who come to storyhour at the library once a week, to make use of our movies.  It also makes sense now that we offer many seasons of television shows on DVD; most people need a little more time to watch those. 

You may still have six DVDs checked out on a library card at one time.  To check out more, you’ll need to return some.  Fines for late movies are $1 per day with no grace period, up to a maximum late fee of $3 per movie. 

Audiobooks are now due back 4 weeks after they’re checked out, the same as print books.  Most people don’t get through a book any faster by listening to it than by picking it up and reading it, so I think many of our audiobook users will like this change.  People who are going on road trips often use our audiobooks, and many times they need longer than our previous 2-week checkout period.  We thought about how people use this format and the library system made this change to better serve your needs.

So what will you check out with these new longer checkout times?  Here are a few ideas from among our new audiovisual offerings:

The Book of Negroes is a new miniseries from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It tells the story of a woman kidnapped from Africa and sold into slavery in South Carolina.  She escapes during the American Revolution and makes her way to New York and other places in pursuit of freedom.  Reviews say it’s difficult but extremely compelling to watch.  The series is based on the book “Someone Knows My Name” by Lawrence Hill, also published under the title “The Book of Negroes.”

Grantchester is the new BBC miniseries that was broadcast on PBS after Downton Abbey this year.  This gentle mystery series features young vicar Sidney Chambers and an overworked inspector solving crimes in an English village.  It features a diverse group of characters and the high quality writing and cinematography we’ve come to expect from British television.  This series is based on the mystery book series by James Runcie. 

On the audiobook front, we have T.D. Jakes’ Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive.  The author focuses on discovering one’s natural aptitudes and applying lessons learned from past experiences. Jakes is the senior pastor of the nondenominational megachurch The Potter’s House in Dallas, and a producer of the movie “Heaven is for Real.”

We also have the audio version of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  This post-apocalyptic novel was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award.  Rather than focusing only on crisis like most novels of this genre, this one follows a troupe of actors and musicians who travel between communities after a pandemic, living by the Star Trek quote, “Because survival is insufficient.” 

Libraries are full of stories.  You can find them on the pages of books, but you can also find them on CDs and DVDs.   Come in and explore all of our different kinds of materials and bring home a story you’ll enjoy.

New video arrivals for summer

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Now that summer is starting, will you have more or less time for watching movies?  That probably depends on whether you do a lot of outside activities in the summer and whether the school year takes up your time.  If summer means more leisure time for you, stop in to the library to check out some of our new movies and television shows.

The third season of Call the Midwife is a new arrival expected any day now.  This popular BBC series is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth.  She was a young midwife in the 1950s in a London convent which helped poor pregnant women.  We have seasons one and two in now.

I wondered why the movie About Time was so popular.  I found out that it’s from the creator of Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.  Love Actually has a particularly enthusiastic following.  If you’ve enjoyed these other British romantic comedies, you are likely to enjoy About Time.  In this one, the main character can travel through time.  Reviewers say that it has its faults, but that it is sweet, with themes of family, love, and loss.

American Hustle was nominated for ten Oscars but didn’t manage to win one.  It did win Golden Globes for best comedy or musical and best performances by Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence.  The movie is about the Abscam sting by the FBI in the late 1970s.  Critics loved it for its humor and characters.

A family movie, at least for older kids, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the second installment of the movies based on Tolkien’s book.  We have the first, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as well.  The movie is full of constant action, sometimes preposterous but still entertaining.    Usually movie adaptations leave out so much from a book, but the Hobbit movies add extra material, since three movies are based on one short book.  My kids love these movies.  I would rather they’d been made into one great movie instead of three.

The classic TV comedy Gilligan’s Island is constantly getting checked out by young and old at our library.  I realized that we only have seasons one and two, so I recently ordered the third and final season.  Did you know that Gilligan’s Island only ran for three seasons?

 Little House on the Prairie is being re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray for the 40^th anniversary of the television show.  We have season one already, and season two is on its way.  I expect that we’ll continue to add seasons as they’re released on DVD.  I loved this show as a kid, but I would say the books are far better.  Isn’t that usually the way it goes?

Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of the Disney adaptation of P.L. Travers’ novel Mary Poppins.  Travers, played by Emma Thompson, resisted having Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks, turn her beloved creation into a cheerful family film.  The movie swings between fun and very serious moments, as flashbacks show Travers’ difficult childhood.  You may be inspired to watch Mary Poppins afterward.

Other new arrivals at our library include August: Osage County, The Broken Circle Breakdown, and Enough Said.  Even if you find the newest DVDs checked out when you stop in, you can put a hold on them to get them another day, and we have a large selection of other movies and TV shows to choose from.  

What are you doing New Year's, New Year's Eve?

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Now that the holidays are here, I’ll bet there are some of you who have time off in the next week or two.  Would you like some movie and TV series ideas for these cold days and nights? 

With the Golden Globe nominations announced, we have some ready-made suggestions about what’s supposed to be good, at least according to the Hollywood Foreign Press.  Following are DVDs we have at the Litchfield Library:

The Croods is nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature.   This family movie from DreamWorks tells the story of a prehistoric family whose cave is destroyed, causing them to go out and discover the larger world.  Major characters are voiced by Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds. 

Behind the Candelabra is nominated for best TV movie or miniseries.  Matt Damon and Michael Douglas are both nominated for best actor, and Rob Lowe is nominated for best supporting actor.  The movie is based on the memoir of Liberace’s much younger partner, recounting his secret relationship with the flamboyant but closeted entertainer in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. 

Phil Spector has two nominations in the TV movie or miniseries category: Helen Mirren for best actress and Al Pacino for best actor.  This TV movie is inspired by the client-attorney relationship between music producer Spector and his defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, who represented him in his trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson.  The movie’s writer and director, playwright David Mamet, says that it is a work of fiction, not an attempt to tell a true story. 

The Good Wife is a CBS series that is nominated for best dramatic television series, best actress Julianna Margulies, and best supporting actor Josh Charles.  The fourth season is the one currently nominated.  Julianna Margulies won the Golden Globe for best actress in the first season of the show and has been nominated every year since.  Margulies and Charles have also won Emmys for their work on the show.  Our library has all four seasons, which centers on the wife of a disgraced state attorney who returns to work as a litigator to provide for her family.

For something a little lighter, you could try Parks and Recreation, nominated for best musical or comedy television series and best actress Amy Poehler.  This NBC series is a mockumentary about the workings of local government in Pawnee, Indiana.  We have seasons one through four.

Kerry Washington is nominated for best actress in a dramatic TV series, Scandal.  She plays a former White House communications director who starts a crisis management firm to help people with damage control after a scandal.  She and her staff have some secrets of their own.  The library has the first season.

Our library has some of the other Golden Globe television nominees, which I’ve featured in previous columns: Downton Abbey, House of Cards, The Big Bang Theory, Girls, and Veep.  We will be getting the animated movie Despicable Me 2 once it’s been for sale in stores for a month; Universal makes libraries wait in hopes that you will get impatient and just buy it. 

The library staff wishes you happy viewing and happy holidays!

Note: We will be closed all day on Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year's Day.  We will be closing at 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

Catch up on the TV shows everyone is talking about!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

The Emmy nominations and the start of the traditional television season are happening in the next couple of weeks.  To catch up on the shows you’ve heard about but didn’t watch from the beginning, or that you can’t get at home because you don’t have cable or satellite television, check out our library’s collection.

Downton Abbey is once again up for many Emmy awards.  This year it’s nominated for outstanding drama series, lead actor Hugh Bonneville, lead actress Michelle Dockery, supporting actor Jim Carter, supporting actress Maggie Smith, directing, writing, and other smaller awards.  We have all three seasons at the Litchfield Library, so you can start at the beginning and find out what all the fuss is about.  We even have a few books related to the series: The Chronicles of Downton Abbey, The World of Downton Abbey, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, and Below Stairs.

Our library also has the first two seasons of Game of Thrones.  This series is nominated for outstanding drama series, writing, supporting actor Peter Dinklage, supporting actress Emilia Clarke, and many technical awards. If you get into the TV series and want to read the books, you can check out all of the books in print or on CD at our library.  The series is called A Song of Ice and Fire.

“House of Cards” made history this year by being the first online television series to be nominated for major Emmy Awards.  The Netflix series is nominated for outstanding drama series, lead actor Kevin Spacey, lead actress Robin Wright, and directing.  Our library has this first season on the shelf of new DVDs.

The HBO series Girls is nominated this year for outstanding comedy series, directing, lead actress Lena Dunham, and supporting actor Adam Driver.  We have just season one of this series.  It has the tagline “Living the Dream.  One mistake at a time.”

Big Bang Theory is nominated for outstanding comedy series, as well as lead actor Jim Parsons and supporting actress Mayim Bialik.  We have the first five seasons on DVD, and the sixth season is on order.  Many people enjoy this show about a group of geeky friends.

Veep is an HBO series that is nominated for outstanding comedy series, lead actress Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, supporting actor Tony Hale, and supporting actress Anna Chlumsky.  We have the first season available with our new DVDs.  Louis-Dreyfuss plays the vice president of the United States.

Political Animals is a miniseries nominated for outstanding miniseries or movie, lead actress Sigourney Weaver and supporting actress Ellen Burstyn.  This 6-episode set, about a former first lady who becomes Secretary of State, is available with our new DVDs.

The Bible: The Epic Miniseries is also nominated for outstanding miniseries or movie.  We have this 4-disc set at our library.  The 440-minute series covers Genesis through Revelation.

The TV shows that are recognized for excellence run the gamut from lighthearted humor to Machiavellian politics, from religious to racy.  Take a good look at the cases, at the summaries in our catalog, or at resources like imdb.com to help you decide if a particular television show will appeal to you.