DVD Review: On the Town

On the Town
(DVD On)

 

This 1949 film, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, is an absolute classic of the American movie musical genre. It is based off of the 1944 Broadway show of the same name, which itself is based of a Jerome Robbins ballet, entitled “Fancy Free”, which was also first performed in 1944. The Broadway show featured music by Leonard Bernstein, with book and lyrics by Broadway legends Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The studio heads who bought the film rights to On the Town ended up bringing in composer Roger Edens to create an almost completely new soundtrack for the feature film, keeping only 4 of the 20+ Bernstein tracks and adding six new ones.

 

Kelly and Sintra, with Jules Munshin, play three sailors on leave for 24 hours in New York City from their naval vessel, starting at 6:00 AM. They want to experience everything the city has to offer before they must return to their ship by 6:00 AM the next day. For some, Sinatra’s Chip, this means all the cultural attractions, but for the rest it means girls and nightclubs. Kelly’s Gabey becomes obsessesd with finding the beautiful girl on subway posters as the current “Miss Turnstiles” (“Ivy Smith” played by Vera Ellen), while Chip is pursued by an amorous female cab driver (“Hildy”, played by Betty Garrett’s in the film’s funniest role), and Ozzie (Munshin) hooks up with a rich gal studying at the history museum (“Claire Huddesen” played by Ann Miller). The film follows their crazy antics around town, and the colorful supporting characters they keep encountering, including Hildy’s roommate Lucy Shmeeler (played by Alice Pearce, the only cast member to carry over from the Broadway production).

 

The music is marvelous, particularly “New York, New York”, and the dancing, especially Ann Miller’s tap number, is thrilling.

 

Overall, superb performances, superb location footage throughout New York City, and an unforgettable motion picture experience for anyone who appreciates classic film musicals.

 

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any other classic movie musical from the late 1940s to the late 1960s.] [Script and printed music to this are available in The New York Musicals of Comden & Green.]

 

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? 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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert

Sheet Pan Suppers
by Molly Gilbert (641.7 Gil)

 

I pick up somewhere in the neighborhood of, oh I would say, 50 cookbooks a year. I browse through the majority of them and put them back on the shelf. A few make it out of the library and into my kitchen, and even fewer impress me. Sheet Pan Suppers: 120 Recipes for Simple, Surprising, Hands-off Meals Straight from the Oven by Molly Gilbert impressed me! The book is full of beautifully photographed meals and easy to follow recipes.

 

So far, I have made 7 of the recipes in the book. Every recipe was absolutely delicious and surprisingly easy to make. The kettle kale chips and the baked turkey meatballs with slow roasted tomatoes were healthy and straightforward options. I paired the coconut shrimp with spicy orange dipping sauce with king crab legs from Hy-vee for a fancy Friday night dinner. It was a crowd pleaser. Rack of Lamb with Herby Breadcrumbs and Buttered Carrots was my absolute favorite! I swapped Dijon for Horseradish mustard and it was fantastic.

 

For lunch options I tried the Italian Meat and Cheese Stromboli. I enjoy the fact that Gilbert provides multiple breading options. I used phyllo instead of pizza dough, as it was mentioned in another of her recipes. The Portabella Cap Pizzas with Garlic knots which have become a new weekly tradition in my house. For dessert, I tried the Big Dutch Baby with Meyer Lemon Sugar. I recommend pearl sugar and a long nap afterwards!

 

If you are looking for a no-fuss cookbook with delicious recipes that impressed a rather picky palate, I highly recommend Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert. I give this cookbook a 10 out of 10 as it is excellent, one of my new favorites. I will read this again, and again, and again. I am planning on buying it and adding to my collection for many future uses and family meal memories!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try One Pan & Done: Hassle-Free Meals From the Oven to Your Table, also by author Molly Gilbert.]

 

[ official Dunk & Crumble (Molly Gilbert) web site ]

 

Recommended by Monica K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? 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 reviewer’s recommendations!

 

New BooksTalk Booklist: Tracy's Online Books Talk - 2020

The Bethany and Gere Branch BooksTalk series returned in a modified format for the Fall/Winter sessions of 2020 -- they are now held as Library BooksTalks on Zoom, using the Zoom online meeting software.

The first of these online booktalks was presented by Tracy T., from the Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries on September 4th.

You can see a list of the items Tracy discussed at:

Tracy's Online Books Talk - 2020

DVD Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home
(DVD Spider-Man)

 

Spiderman: Far from Home stars Tom Holland as the teen-age Peter Parker in this fast-paced action film which is just the latest in a series of films featuring the Marvel superhero Spiderman. With an all-star cast including Marisa Tomei as Aunt May and Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, the story takes our reluctant hero all the way to Europe to fight new evil forces alongside a new superhero named Mysterio. Things are not what they seem in this fight against the elements. Tom Holland offers a humorous performance of the teen-age Peter Parker learning the ropes of a superhero while still trying to maintain a somewhat-normal existence as a nerdy science wiz.

 

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of the previous Spider-Man movies, starring Tobey McGuire, Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland.]

 

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Spider-Man: Far From Home web site ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? 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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix (Hendrix)

Having read both Horrorstor and Paperbacks From Hell, also by Grady Hendrix, I was intrigued by The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires when I saw it on the new books display at the downtown library, and decided to give it a try — figured it couldn’t go wrong with a Southern-flavored vampire story.

 

This is an interesting amalgamation of “southern fiction”, horror story and historical fiction (events in this book are set from the late 1980s to the late 1990s). The central character is Patricia Campbell, a slightly nervous and unfulfilled wife in a tradition southern marriage, with a somewhat inattentive husband and two kids who are moving into the “troublesome” years. Looking for some variety in her life, Patricia joins a book club — first with a bunch of stuffy women reading overly pretentious novels, then with a group of friends, who all want to read True Crime non-fiction volumes.

 

When an elderly neighbor lady goes insane and attacks Patricia one night, it’s the first step down a dark and confusing path. The demented woman’s nephew moves to town and, despite his charming attempts to fit into local society, Patricia suspects him when a number of children disappear. Events rapidly escalate, and Patricia must convince her fellow book club members that James Harris is not only suspicious — he’s actually an inhuman monster — a vampire.

 

This book is far less about the “horror” elements, though they are certainly present. It is, rather, a marvelous little look at the relationships between a bunch of Southern belles in a book club, and their awkward and uncomfortable relationships with their husbands and children. There’s a lot of humor, mixed liberally with some stark terror. The last 50 pages are particularly…disturbing. Yet, I enjoyed it, and recommend it to horror fans who like a bit of humor, or to “southern fiction” fans who don’t mind a bit of horror.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Horrorstor or Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction, both also by Grady Hendrix.]

[ official Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires web site ] | [ official Grady Hendrix web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? 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 reviewer’s recommendations!

 

Book Review: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

The Gift of Rain
by Tan Twan Eng (Tan)

 

Phillip Hutton was sixteen in 1939, when his father and siblings left him home alone in their affluent home on the Malayan island of Penang. Since his Chinese mother had died when he was young, he always felt different from his English father and siblings, and he welcomed the feeling of belonging when he became friends with his Japanese diplomat neighbor, HayatoEndo-san, a master and sensei of aikido. The novel begins when 72-year-old Phillip is visited by a woman from Endo-san’s past who inquires about him, thus most of the novel is a brutal flashback from during World War II. Phillip tried to do the right thing while tangled within conflicting loyalties to his family, his country, his ancestry, and his friend. I lived inside the book for the two weeks it took me to read it, utterly gripped within the beautiful writing and terrified by the horrors of war it described. This book is epic and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. The author’s other book, The Garden of Evening Mists, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Tan Twan Eng is a Malaysian novelist known for being the first Malaysian recipient of the Man Asian Literary Prize, the first Malaysian novelist to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and the first Malaysian author to win the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

 

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Garden of Evening Mists, also by Tan Twan Eng.]

 

[ Wikipedia page for The Gift of Rain ] | [ official Tan Twan Eng web site ]

 

Recommended by Jodi R.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

 

Have you read or listened to this one? 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 reviewer’s recommendations!