The Dark Crystal on DVD

The Dark Crystal

by Jim Henson and Frank Oz [DVD j Dark]

In 1982, Jim Henson and Frank Oz, fresh off the success of the comedic The Muppet Show (1976-1981) wanted to push the boundaries of storytelling with their puppetry, and the result was The Dark Crystal. Oz had also recently performed as Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, and the various fantastic creatures of The Dark Crystal bear far more resemblance to Yoda’s almost lifelike qualities than the obvious felt-and-strings appearance of Kermit and Miss Piggy. The Dark Crystal features a classic “epic quest” saga, in an exotic fantasy setting. Jen and Kira, a pair of young gelflings, find themselves in the middle of an epic battle between the forces of good (the aged Mystics) and evil (the hideous Skeksis), as the Dark Crystal, a source of Balance and Truth in their land, has shattered and they must seek to heal it or their world will suffer ruin. The look and feel of this film is tremendous, as are the designs of all the fabulous creatures that populate it. This film should appeal to both kids and adults (who may remember seeing the film when they, themselves, were kids). The music by Trevor Jones is one of my favorite film soundtracks. This DVD also features a marvelous “Making Of” documentary, which is well worth watching. If you’ve never experienced The Dark Crystal before, don’t pass it up now!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Labyrinth, starring David Bowie and featuring the same type of puppetry and fantasy setting. Or, the classic The Muppet Show, to admire the work of Henson and Oz and company in a more recognizable format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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How I Fell In Love With a Librarian and Lived to Tell About It by Rhett Ellis

How I Fell in Love with a Librarian and Lived to Tell About It
by Rhett Ellis

Robert Smith is the 37-year-old unmarried pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in fictional Clegmore, Alabama. He’s an avid library user for his sermons, especially the nonfiction section, so he’s eager to meet the new librarian, Myra Findley. Miss Findley is 24 years old and a recent library school graduate who’s eager to update the library. Robert is immediately smitten.

But there’s something a little, um, shall we say, off, about Miss Findley. As Robert and Myra sort out her issues and their relationship, someone is leaking info about Myra to City Council member Langston Long who is threatening to blackmail our new librarian so he can cut library funding.
A short read at 101 pages, this book is ideal for those who like light Christian fiction, uncomplicated mysteries, and happy endings.

[ Amazon.com’s Rhett Ellis author page ]

Recommended by Charlotte K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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But Enough About Me by Burt Reynolds on Compact Disc

But Enough About Me
by Burt Reynolds [Compact Disc Biography Reynolds] 

While I’ve never been what you would call a “huge” Burt Reynolds fan, I’ve definitely seen my share of his movies–being a child of the 70’s. I can remember watching “Smokey & the Bandit”, along with just about every other living human I knew…there was something free, uninhibited about Burt’s laugh during that movie–I always remembered it and felt like he must really know how to have fun! Years later, when he was in “Boogie Nights”, I was impressed that he had such a serious side (despite the often funny, hokey parts of the film). He proved himself to me as a solid actor.
So when I saw that Burt had written a memoir, I knew I had to read it at some point. I saw the opportunity to check out the audiobook (read by Burt himself) and I seized it! It must first be pointed out that Burt Reynolds is now 80 years old, and you can hear it in his voice. But I loved this book all the more because it was read by him!

I am constantly amazed and impressed by the vast amount of people Burt has worked with and made friends with over the years. Of course, I knew about Dinah Shore, Angee Dickinson, Sally Field, Loni Anderson, and Jon Voigt, etc. But there are so many other famous people that he knows or knew, well. Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Ossie Davis, Dom DeLouise and many more. After describing his childhood and his relationship with his parents, Reynolds spends the rest of the book going over his many friendships, as they evolved and as he evolved as an actor. He mentions movies he’s grateful he was a part of, as well as films he passed on or was passed over for. He dishes on a few celebrities that he does not respect or just never got along with (think Joan Crawford, Raquel Welch, Marlon Brando). I suppose the whole book reads like a “Who’s Who” of Hollywood, but because many of the people mentioned are from a time when I was growing up, it appeals greatly to me.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try If You Ask Me (and Of Course You Won’t), by Betty White, and Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher]

[ publisher’s official But Enough About Me web site ] | [ Wikipedia page for Burt Reynolds ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Damned Busters by Matthew Hughes

Damned Busters
by Matthew Hughes

When Cheney Arnstruther refuses to sell his soul to the Devil, the cosmic order collapses. To set things right again, he teams up with both Heaven and Hell to fight crime as The Actionary! But he’s not the only one in town with incredible powers. A great read for theologists and super-hero fans alike.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Hell to Pay and Costume Not Included, also by Matthew Hughes] 

[ official Matthew Hughes web site ]

Recommended by Russell T.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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GLOW on DVD

GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

by Brett Whitcomb [DVD 796.812 Glo]

This is a documentary that tracks down the former Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. During the 1980s GLOW was a television show that featured lady wrestlers. This documentary tells the story of how the show started and where the stars are now. Interviews of the wrestlers today reveal how after applying to be on a TV show, they discovered at the casting that it was a wrestling entertainment show they had applied to. It also arranges a reunion meet up for the group. It was interesting that none of them actually were wrestlers, nor intended to be, but became so anyway. It’s a fun documentary and it’s not just for wrestling fans, if you are interested in television history, you should try this.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official website for this documentary ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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Unbound by Jim C. Hines

Unbound
by Jim C. Hines

This is the third of Hines’ “Magic Ex Libris” quartet of novels — the fourth one is already out as well but I’m a little behind on my fantasy reading! As a result of the events of the second book, Michigan librarian/magic-user Isaac Vainio has had his physical connections to magic use stripped away from him, and he has been been ejected from the organization of magic users he belonged to. Simultaneously, a young protege he was supposed to protect has been taken by dark forces, and the two squabbling groups of “good guys” are finding themselves being defeated on multiple fronts by the ancient evil magician. Isaac’s quest in this novel is to try to find and rescue his missing protege, recover his stolen magical abilities, and stop the spread of evil in the world — all with limited resources and almost no allies to speak of. On top of that, but in this contemporary fantasy series, set in our modern world, the existence of real magic and the people who make use of it has now been revealed to the general public, making things even more complicated.
Though a lot happens in the course of this book, it still felt a little like a “bridge” volume in the series — an entry that carries the reader from the major events of volume two and connects with the connecting final volume. If you’re following Isaac’s journey, you won’t want to miss this, but Unbound is definitely not a place to jump into this series. None-the-less, I look forward to the final volume, Revisionary, which is high on my to-be-read pile right now!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Libriomancer, Codex Born, and the concluding volume Revisionary, all by Jim C. Hines]

[ official “Magic ex Libris” page on the official Jim C. Hines web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Fool Me Once
by Harlan Coben

Maya was a Blackhawk pilot in the Middle East but is now retired from the military giving piloting lessons to the public. During her deployment, her sister had been killed, and her husband was murdered just two weeks ago. Even worse, she was a witness to his death.

Still reeling from her losses, she’s ultra-protective of her toddler daughter and places a nanny cam in the house — and witnesses her dead husband cuddling the girl. Stunned, Maya now attempts to unravel what the heck is going on.

This is standard Coben. His excellent writing pulls you into the story as we learn about all of the characters. But I gotta say, I didn’t like the female protagonist nor the ending. Don’t let this distract you from the excellent read and tangled mystery. I had several theories going as to what was going on, and he still managed to surprise me.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Three Graves Full, by Jamie Mason] 

[ official Fool Me Once page on the official Harlan Coben web site ]

Recommended by Charlotte K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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The Star Trek Concordance by Bjo Trimble

The Star Trek Concordance
by Bjo Trimble [791.457 StaYt]

For any true die-hard Star Trek fan (i.e. “trekkie” or “trekker”), Bjo Trimble’s Star Trek Concordance is an essential part of your fannish library. First published as a fan edition, available only through fannish networks, Trimble was able to find a professional publisher, Ballantine, who put this book out in 1976 as an oversized trade paperback, complete with a unique design element – a spinning disc on the front cover with cut-out windows, which allowed you to spin to an episode title, or a stardate, or a writer or director, and see the corresponding entries within the book. The book itself gave detailed plot descriptions for every “original series” Star Trek episode (as well as the animated Star Trek series), complete with primary credits (writer, director, main guest cast). There were detailed alphabetical indexes to all things Trek — you could look up the entries for Andorians, or Tellarites, or the planets and characters featured in the 79 original episodes, and see how they connected with the rest of the original series canon.

This was all in the pre-internet days, before the existence of such wonderful sites as Memory Alpha, which serves the same purposes now. In 1995, Trimble put out an all-new edition of the book, still focused exclusively on the “original series”, but now updated to include the first 7 Star Trek feature films featuring the original cast, as well as some (but not all) episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 that featured original series characters appearing in “new generation” stories. Both the 1976 and 1995 Concordances include quite a lot of fan art — something you don’t see in many of the other professionally published Trek non-fiction books. Having grown up using these two books as my ultimate resource for Classic Trek questions, I still love sitting down and browsing both volumes — I do use Memory Alpha, so I don’t ignore the online resources available to modern Trek fans, but I still use “do you have a copy of Bjo Trimble’s Star Trek Concordance” as my acid test on how devoted a Trek fan truly is!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try On the Good Ship Enterprise, Bjo Trimble’s personal memoir about her history with Star Trek, including her legendary write-in campaigns that saved the series from cancellation — twice!]

[ History of the Star Trek Concordance at Fanlore.org ] | [ Memory Alpha page for Bjo Trimble (with links to more info) ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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The Music of Star Trek (a Hoopla streaming file)

The Music of Star Trek
performed by The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra [on the Hoopla online service]

This album consists of the end titles to most of the Star Trek films and the television show themes performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. I thought it was a very well done performance. The original series is my favorite so I am most familiar with those tunes, but it was really nice to hear the Next Generation theme again because my dad and sister used to watch that series when we were younger. So it was overall enjoyable and I recommend it to Star Trek fans of any series or film (although the two newer movies are not included). It could also be enjoyed if you like orchestra music and want something non-classical. If you want to try this one you can check it out on Hoopla, which is a digital streaming service our library subscribes to. There is not much in the way of set up you simply go to www.hoopladigital.com (or follow a link from our online catalog) to create an account, and then stream the music through your browser. It’s nice that you don’t have to wait for these either. On OverDrive you do have to wait sometimes if an item is out to someone else, but not on Hoopla.

[If you like this item, you might like these too – You may also like the soundtracks to the two newer Trek films, also available on Hoopla. If you want an actual CD you could try Frontiers: Classic Science Fiction Themes. It has music from seven different sci-fi movies and TV shows including Star Trek, Logan’s Run, Total Recall and Alien, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.]

 

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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Web of the Romulans by M.S. Murdock

Web of the Romulans
by M.S. Murdock [Heritage Murdock, or Hoopla]

The Enterprise has a few problems before it in this story. The ship’s computer has fallen in love with Kirk and is not allowing other people to access information. There is also a Romulan vessel to deal with, which has its own problem, a virus. This is actually pretty short; it felt like a TV episode rather than a movie, so saying more about the story would spoil it. This was one of the first Star Trek novels I’ve read and while I did enjoy the story, I would say I liked the story lines in the Newspaper Comics better. However, this audio production was a bit beyond other audio books I’ve listened to because it has added in sound effects and has multiple readers. It reminded me of the audio version of The Hobbit, which was recorded as a BBC radio show. Most of the text is read by George Takei (Sulu) but Spock’s logs are read by Leonard Nimoy and I really enjoyed hearing the original crew’s voices with story. Another point of interest is that the author is Nebraskan (born in Omaha), so there is a paper copy in the Heritage Room. You may want to try this out if you’d like listening to a radio show type of production of a space drama. You can check it out on Hoopla, which is a digital streaming service our library subscribes to. There is not much in the way of set up you simply go to www.hoopladigital.com (or follow a link from our online catalog) to create an account, and then stream the audiobook through your browser; they don’t download to your device/computer.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Star Trek The Newspaper Comics, Volumes 1 and 2, by Thomas Warkentin.]

[ Web of the Romulans page on the Memory Alpha Star Trek site ] | [ M.S. Murdock page on Memory Alpha Star Trek site ]

See more books like this on our Star Trek: The Reading List booklist on BookGuide!

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed [Biography Strayed]

When this book first came out, I sort of wanted to read it, but I wasn’t terribly motivated. Then I saw the movie (Reese Witherspoon plays Cheryl Strayed). I loved it, but I love Ms. Witherspoon! Well, after watching the movie, which I’d heard Strayed had been very involved with (thus, it must follow the book pretty closely), I decided to read the book itself and see what might have been left out.
This is a well-written book, first of all! It reads like a novel, in my opinion, but you know that it’s a true story. I really felt like I was out hiking with Cheryl, and I felt like I could see back into her childhood when she described certain incidents. This story is rich with beautiful descriptions of the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as lovely interactions (for the most part) with strangers met along the way.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try On the Road, by Jack Kerouac]

[ official Wild page on the official Cheryl Strayed web site ]

Recommended by Tracy T.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time by G.B. Trudeau

The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time
by G.B. Trudeau [741.5 Tru]

I have been a fan of G.B. Trudeau’s work on Doonesbury since the early 1970s. Peopled with a vast and varied cast of characters, Trudeau took a comedic poke at all of society’s conventions, usually with a liberal slant. Fron the zoned-out Zonker, to the Hunter S. Thompson parody Duke, to the titular Mike Doonesbury, the characters all have multiple layers to explore. This particular collection gathers the entire storyline of ex-football player B.D. — he who always wore his football helmet in the strip, even after college — as he goes to serve in the military in Iraq. When his humvee is blown up by an RPG while on patrol, B.D. ends up losing his leg, beginning a long journey of recovery, both physical and emotional. B.D. eventually gets a titanium prosthetic leg — this series of comic strips, spread out over a year’s time, tells of every step of his recovery process…sometimes in humorous tones, but often with very serious entries. For a comic strip that usually is satirical, Trudeau is able to treat a very sensitive topic with humor and honesty. Great work! It turns out that The Long Road Home is merely the first of four books in a set that Trudeau put out that tied into soldiers’ experiences in war and their reintegration into society. The War Within continues to follow B.D., as he deals with PTSD and the emotional stresses of being a survivor. Signature Wound: Rocking TBI features B.D. serving as a mentor to one of his former soldiers, who suffered a traumatic brain injury (and lost an eye), and who faces unique challenges fitting back into society. The fourth volume is Mel’s Story, which tells the story of a female military chopper mechanic, who is the victim of rape by a fellow soldier but who works through the healing process enough to re-enlist for another tour of duty in the mideast. These latter three volumes are not owned by the libraries but would be available through our InterLibrary Loan service.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe, by Tom Batiuk — a sensitive and heartbreaking treatment of a family’s experiences with terminal cancer in the Funky Winkerbean comic strip; and Remembering Farley, by Lynn Johnson, the story from puppyhood to passing of the beloved dog in the For Better or Worse comic strip.] 

[ official Doonsbury web site from author Garry “G.B.” Trudeau ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!