Catherine Cole Celli Children's Room

Many thanks to the Seton Hill students who used the children's library as their canvas to display their talents.

Friday Reads: The Godfather

We'll be doing Friday Reads periodically throughout the summer. On this last Friday of the Spring 2022 semester, Adam has selected a nice, feel-good novel to kick off beach-read season -- The Godfather by Mario Puzo. 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the movie The Godfather, a hugely popular and influential film that is also arguably the best American film ever made. Given the film's vaunted place in our cultural imagination, it's easy to forget what a cultural phenomenon the source novel by Mario Puzo was after its publication in 1969. The novel sold millions of copies, and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for well over a year. Reading the novel now, decades after its original publication, it's easy to see why it was so popular. Puzo's novel is a salacious, violent story, and a peek behind the curtain of the Mafia, a subject that has long fascinated Americans.

The novel tells the story of the Corleones, a Mafia family in New York, in the decade after the end of World War II. Patriarch Vito Corleone is feared and respected by many, but after a botched assassination attempt leaves him hospitalized, his sons Sonny and Michael, with the help of consigliere Tom Hagen, must try and keep the family in power amid a mob war. It's a story about the corrupting influence of power, and like many classic works of twentieth century American fiction, the American Dream looms large in the background.

It's a book I've been meaning to read for years and years, but I kept putting it off. I guess the opportunity to read it now, during the movie's 50th anniversary, was an offer I just couldn't refuse.

Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books

 

The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books is quickly approaching! This inaugural event promises to be a vibrant celebration of reading and literary culture in Southwestern PA.

The Details:

Saturday, May 14, 2022

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

East Liberty

Learn about the full slate of programs for kids, teens, and adults and register for specific events at pittsburghbookfestival.org

Friday Reads: A Tale of Two Cities

 Happy Friday! This week, Kelly finally gets around to reading a classic: Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. 

A few paragraphs past the famous opening line ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."), I looked up from this book and told my husband "I forgot how much I hate Dickens." 

It helped a lot that A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens' more plot-driven novels. All of the peril and gore helped to distract me from everything about his writing style that never clicked for me.

Eventually I also began to care about the characters; despite myself, I felt protective of that Victorian golden-haired angel of the house, Lucie Manette. Then I began hoping for a grim death for anyone who threatened the well-being of good old Mr. Lorry. I wished futilely that there were such a thing as 18th-century AA for Sidney Carton. My growing acquaintance with Madame Defarge became a growing horror. 

I knew the ending before I began the book, but spoilers didn't stop me from turning the pages. A grim end feels as inevitable as the next drop of La Guillotine's blade, but in the literal shadow of death, hope and goodness still peek defiantly. A Tale of Two Cities shows us both the best and worst of human nature and reminds us that, while we can't always choose our fate, we can choose how we will meet it. 

March DVD Spotlight: Selections from the National Film Registry

The National Film Preservation Board was established in 1988 to "ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's film heritage" (NFPB website).  One of the program's most important roles includes advising the Library of Congress in its annual selection of 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry.  With hundreds of films dating back to 1891 in the Registry, it's no surprise that Reeves Memorial Library's extensive DVD collection includes well over 100 of these landmark works of American cinema.  From silent classics like The Gold Rush (1925) and The General (1926), to modern masterpieces like Fargo (1996) and The Dark Knight (2008), our March DVD display includes only a portion of Registry titles in our collection, but there's something for everyone.

Featured titles include:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Stanley Kubrick's monumental science fiction epic is a challenging, beautiful work of cinematic art that still inspires awe 50 years after its release.

The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen brothers' goofy cult classic, a noir-tinged comic caper about a lazy, Southern California stoner who gets sucked into a kidnapping plot after being mistaken for a millionaire with the same name, has inspired hordes of devotees over the past two decades.

Citizen Kane (1941)
Still possibly the best film ever made, Orson Welles's groundbreaking and hugely influential portrait of a newspaper tycoon's rise and fall is a dazzlingly complex American masterpiece.

The Godfather (1972)
Far more than just a simple gangster film, Francis Ford Coppola's great mafia epic is both a sweeping family saga and an incisive examination of the corrupting influence of power.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

This unsettling film noir from pioneering female director Ida Lupino follows two Americans on a fishing trip in Mexico, where they pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopathic serial killer.

A League of Their Own (1992)

Batter up!  Penny Marshall directs this winning sports comedy about the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Malcolm X (1992)
Spike Lee's stylish, sprawling biopic about the influential civil rights leader gives the great Denzel Washington the lead role of a lifetime.

Shadows (1959)
Maverick filmmaker John Cassavetes's exploration of interracial romance and sibling relationships is a landmark work of American independent film.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)
This glorious ode to Hollywood moviemaking, set during the transition from silent to sound film, remains the high-water mark of the American musical.

Stop by the library today and check one out!

Friday Reads: Seductive Poison

Happy Friday! This week, Dr. Stanley is reading a book about one of the most infamous events in modern history, the Jonestown tragedy. Read on for his thoughts about Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple by Deborah Layton.

This is an interesting take on Jim Jones and the People’s Temple in Guyana. What type of hold does Jones have on his followers that could result in the suicides of 913 people? In this first-hand telling of her experiences with the People’s Temple, Deborah Layton explores how she became involved with the group and eventually escaped. She attempts to dissect Jones’ psyche to expose his deepening mental illness that led him to believe and act the way he did until his supposed paranoia completely took over. She also shares some stories of various members to help us understand how he could have such devout believers. One person’s story does not cover all aspects of what happened in Jonestown but I feel it certainly give an overall view of the dangers of falling under the spell of a person who promises a better life to those who feel marginalized and are looking for something better.

Friday Reads: The Kiss Quotient

We have another romance review for you this week, but no, the librarian reading it is not Kelly! Adam tells us about reading The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.

Over the past few years, I've tried to make a deliberate effort to read more broadly, moving outside of my comfort zone and choosing fiction and non-fiction that I wouldn't normally read. For non-fiction, I've started a Dewey Decimal reading challenge, where I'll read one book from each of the 100 divisions of the Dewey Decimal Classification System, including topics related to philosophy, religion, language, and the natural sciences that I wouldn't usually read about. For my fiction reading, I've decided to try some genres that are new to me. First up, and just in time for Valentine's Day: contemporary romance. When I was younger, I think I was always dismissive of popular romance novels, and while my attitude has certainly changed over the years, I've still never taken the time to read in the genre, until now. I decided to go with a recent romance novel from our Fiction collection here at Reeves, Helen Hoang's The Kiss Quotient.

The novel is about thirty-year-old Stella Lane, an econometrician who loves her job creating algorithms for online retailers. Stella is on the autism spectrum, and her difficulties with touching and understanding other people have made her unsuccessful in the dating department. Deciding that she needs more practice, she hires male escort Michael Phan to help her overcome her inexperience and her issues with physical intimacy. Finding himself genuinely attracted to the gorgeous, smart, and intriguing Stella, Michael accepts her offer, but maybe their partnership will turn into something more.

I'm not far into the book, but I'm really enjoying it so far. The author has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, so I think she brings a genuine and possibly more unique perspective to the genre. Plus, it's pretty steamy, which is atypical for the novels I usually read. I feel like I've been reading a lot of end-of-the-world fiction since the pandemic began, and the last novel I read dealt with murder, police corruption, drug addiction, and family dysfunction, so The Kiss Quotient is a welcome change of pace.