Come From Away (downloadable music)

Come From Away
music by David Hein and Irene Sankoff [Hoopla Digital] 

This is the soundtrack to the current hit Broadway show of the same title. Come From Away tells the story of what happened in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland in British Columbia, as a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. When the U.S. airspace was shut down following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the hundreds of planes still in the air and en route to U.S. destinations, had to find someplace “else” to land, many of them low on fuel. One of those places was a small international airfield in Gander, on the isle of Newfoundland, about 550 miles NE of Maine. The book The Day the World Came to Town chronicles the events that transpired after 38 international flights were forced to land at Gander’s airfield, and the small community suddenly had to shelter and feed 7000 unexpected visitors, all in an atmosphere of fright and confusion.

Come From Away tells the same story, only with catchy, unforgettable music. A relatively small cast of characters stands in for the locals and the 6,000+ guests, and the music moves quickly from the pounding, driving introductory number “Welcome to the Rock” to a mixture of fast-paced and more introspective numbers. Obviously, in the case of a soundtrack, the listener doesn’t get to read or hear the non-musical plot points and dialog between the characters, but the flow of the songs still tells this story fairly well. We get the points of view of pragmatic Newfoundlanders, New Yorkers concerned with family at the Trade Center site, pilots from Texas, Muslim passengers feeling ostracized because of the circumstances. There’s even a romance brewing between a couple of the characters who would never have met each other if it weren’t for the tragic circumstances.

While there are certainly big rollicking numbers featuring the entire company, there are some truly stand-out pieces in this album: I Am Here, Prayer, Screech In, The Dover Fault, and my personal favorite, Me and the Sky. The full-company scene where the visitors (the “Come From Awayers”) all become honorary Newfoundlanders is funny and moving. I also appreciated that the musical features a coda in which the Come From Awayers returned to Gander on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to thank all the locals. The vocalists are all excellent, and listening to this Broadway soundtrack really makes me long to see the full show. Hopefully a touring company will bring it to Lincoln or Omaha soon!
In this month where we commemorate the 16th anniversary of 9/11, if you’re looking to read or listen to something related to that topic, I recommend giving Come From Away a try. Currently, it is only available through the libraries’ Hoopla Digital Downloads service, but I’m hoping we’ll also buy it on CD eventually!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Day the World Came to Town, by Jim DeFede.] [ official Come From Away Broadway web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Parenthood (the series on DVD)

Parenthood
[DVD Parenthood] 

One of our favorite TV series was Parenthood, produced by Ron Howard and others. We always enjoyed the family situations, including drama, laughter and more. Every actor did a wonderful job portraying a character, who we grew very fond of, so we were quite disappointed when this show ended, after six seasons. We would truly miss seeing these people.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Gilmore Girls, Signed Sealed Delivered, Blue Bloods or 7th Heaven] [ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ Parenthood at Epguides.com ]

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Recommended by Kathy H.
Walt Branch library

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The Art Book by Dorling Kindersley Publishing

The Art Book
by Dorling Kindersley Publishing [709 Art] 

I’m a huge fan of the series of Big Ideas Simply Explained books, put out by the publisher Dorling Kindersley. I own the three volumes dedicated to the very specific topics of Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek. But I also enjoy the volumes in that series which cover much broader topics, such as Psychology, History, Science and Economics. As the series title indicates, the Big Ideas Simply Explained series takes broad topics — in this case the world and history of Art — and breaks them down into easily understand essays, articles and bullet points, so that pretty much anyone can understand the topic. In the case of Art, the subject is broken down into the following sections: Prehistoric and Ancient Art, The Medieval World, Renaissance and Mannerism, Baroque to Neoclassicism, Romanticism to Symbolism, and The Modern Age. Within each section, there are sub-chapters focusing on specific schools or styles of art, with breakout articles or focus pieces of significant artists. Throw in extensive timelines and “infographics” showing how so many things are interrelated and you’ve got a fascinating art history book, which can easily be read cover to cover, or which can be sampled based on what you’re in the mood for.

Dorling Kindersley as a publisher is best know for the extensive graphics in their books — illustrations, charts, etc., but most especially full-color photographs or art reproductions. For this history of art, that Dorling Kindersley style is used to full effect.

Highly recommended! Although if you’re looking for in-depth analysis of specific artists or artistic styles (impressionism, dadaism, expressionism, etc.), you’ll find plenty of other books in the library collection that go into greater depth on such topics. But if you’re looking for a nice broad overview, with beautiful illustrations, this will work just fine!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of the other Big Ideas Simply Explained books, for other topics. Or, for more on general art history, check out the 709 number range in the non-fiction.] [ official The Art Book web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Himalaya (on DVD)

Himalaya
by Michael Palin [DVD 915.496 Pal] 

Michael Palin of Monty Python has traveled around the world before but his journey this time is a bit slower paced as he’s traveling around and up the Himalayan Mountains. While I enjoy his longer journeys around the Pacific Rim, Pole to Pole and Around the World in 80 Days, this one is just as good. It’s not the sort of travel show that shows you where to stay and what to see when you go there yourself. As usual his voice over is a mix of informational and personal narrative which is interesting and entertaining. Palin has a way of making the viewers feel like they’re there with him on his travels, which are never the tourist routes. He really gets into the cultures he visits, often by living with the locals. I never get tired of watching these shows over and over, so I recommend this, and his others, highly to anyone who enjoys documentaries, travel, the Himalayas, and or Michael Palin.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Palin’s other travel documentaries: Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, New Europe, or Brazil. There are also books that accompany most, if not all, of these trips. [Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Michael Palin’s Himalaya web site ]

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

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The Right Side by Spencer Quinn

The Right Side
by Spencer Quinn

I was looking forward to this new novel in a brand-new series by Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet & Bernie mysteries, mainly because Quinn writes some of the best narrative voices out there. But, if I was expecting the somewhat light-hearted, whimsical tone of those Chet & Bernie mysteries, I was in for an incredible surprise. But it’s a good surprise! LeAnne Hogan is the central character (and voice) of this new novel. She is a wounded warrior — a soldier recovering from injuries received in Afghanistan, where she lost her right eye and the right side of her face became badly scarred. In addition to having difficulties adjusting to her new physical reality, she is also suffering from PTSD, with some memory loss and her personality disrupted — most of her inhibitions wiped out. Forming an intense bond with her female roommate at the stateside hospital where she is recovering, LeAnne reacts badly when that roommate dies unexpectedly — she leaves the facility and heads out on her own, without meds and without completing her psychological recovery.

After some wandering, ultimately, she ends up in the hometown of her deceased friend, where she discovers that her late friend’s elementary-school-aged daughter has disappeared. Facing suicidal impulses of her own, and needing a cause to focus on, LeAnne fixates on finding the missing girl, despite hostility from the locals. Supporting her is another female loner — a mysterious but tough black dog that for some reason has adopted LeAnne, despite LeAnne’s protestations.

LeAnne’s journey, as she deals with current tensions and relives the incidents that lead to her injuries, is fascinating to follow, and although she has a sometimes abrasive personality, you can easily see why she may rub people the wrong way. Her reluctant relationship with the mysterious dog that bonds with her is also a typical “Spencer Quinn” device — seemingly all of his novels explore the human/dog relationship.

Don’t go into this expecting light and fluffy, but if you’re willing to tackle a little darkness and some rough characters, I highly recommend this. One of my favorite reads of 2017!

[ official The Right Side page on the official Spencer Quinn web site (pseudonym of Peter Abrahams) ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Life (on DVD)

Life
[DVD Life] 

This space thriller stars Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal. A group of scientists on the International Space Station send a probe to Mars and it comes back with a sample including a single celled organism that they decide to try to bring to life. After performing some experiments on it it does in fact come to life and seems friendly, however something goes wrong with the chamber it’s held in and it stops moving. To bring it back to life one of the scientists decides to shock it and it doesn’t take too kindly to it. Suddenly its mission is to kill all aboard so the movie follows their hope for survival while trying to keep the station from entering earth’s atmosphere and bringing the creature into our world. This movie was terrifying and disgusting. It has a very slow start so you have to stick with it, but once the creature starts killing people and gets bigger and bigger after each kill the scenes get more intense.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Alien, Interstellar, Contact, The Martian, Arrival or The Thing] [ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Life (Movie) web site ]

Recommended by Carrie K.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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News of the World by Paulette Jiles

News of the World
by Paulette Jiles

72-year-old Captain Jefferson Kidd, out of Georgia and living in Texas, veteran of three wars, a former printer by trade, a widower with grown children who live a long distance away, and nowadays a professional “news reader”, finds himself in an unusual and potentially dangerous situation. He has been implored by a trusted acquaintance to take over the delivery of a white girl, recently “rescued” by the Army from a Kiowa band, to her only known German relatives. 10-year-old Johanna is at turns wild and wary, not understanding why she has been separated from what she considers her family since being taken captive four years earlier. As their unlikely journey from north to south Texas plays out through bad weather, bad people, and bad fortune, the two disparate souls bond through necessity and acceptance, ultimately creating a crisis for the “Kepdun” and “Chohenna” at the intended conclusion. An excellent, evocative yet also plain-spoken, novel, I kept picturing it as a wonderful Western movie or series such as Lonesome Dove or The Cowboys. The fact that it uses historical bases for the characters and situations makes it even more fascinating.

[ official News of the World web site ] | [ official Paulette Jiles web site ]

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

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Disney's Greatest: Vol. 1-3 (downloadable music)

Disney’s Greatest: Vol. 1-3
by various [Hoopla Downloadable Music]

There is something about Disney music that just puts one in a good mood. These albums have a nice mix of tunes from movies old and new, and with about 20 songs per album, it keeps you going for a while. Most all of them were familiar to me, but there were a few I didn’t know and my one complaint is that only the song title is listed, not the movie title as well. It’s easy enough to look it up but I thought it’d be nice to have it somewhere on the playlist. I don’t feel like I really need to say how good the music is since so many people grew up with it, so I’ll just say it was really fun to listen to. Recommended for anyone.

You can check these out on Hoopladigital.com or via the Hoopla app, with streaming or download. If you want more, there are a ton of other Disney albums on Hoopla to check out.

[ Disney’s Greatest at the official Disney Wiki ]

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!