Book Review: The Lost Art of Dying by L.S. Dugdale

The Lost Art of Dying
by L.S. Dugdale (155.937 Dug)

This book caught my eye as I was browsing the new non-fiction shelves. As someone who lost her father in the past year, I was impressed with the description inside the front cover: “Our culture has overly medicalized death, making it institutional and sterile, prolonged by unnecessary resuscitations and other intrusive interventions…our reliance on modern medicine often extends suffering and strips us of our dignity.” The author tells us that our lives do not need to end this way. As a medical doctor with years of experience helping patients with end-of-life issues, the author presents a history of the practice of ars moriendi, the art of dying, and offers a plan for living well and dying well through preparation for death. Looking at death through the eyes of faith, the reader sees how death is treated by various cultures and what it means in our communities today.

[ publisher’s official Lost Art of Dying web site ]

 

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

 

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Book Review: I'm Your Huckleberry by Val Kilmer

I’m Your Huckleberry
by Val Kilmer (Biography Kilmer)

I have only seen a portion of all the films in which Val Kilmer appears but even that has been a treat. So is this autobiography. From Top Gun to Willow to Batman to The Saint to Jim Morrison in The Doors, he has given a wide range of movie performances. From a very early age, Kilmer knew he was a bit out of the ordinary and he has, happily for himself and his ouevre, remained so. This memoir, using his quote as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” for the title, is both revealing and inspiring. His passions and predicaments are fully revealed, as well as a deep spiritual nature. His writing skill is on a level with, dare I say, Larry McMurtry and other authors who have a lyrical and compelling way with words as well as massive vocabularies. His adventures in love alone are nearly incredible, and added to that are the sometimes amazing and sometimes disappointing variety of parts he has played. His recent battle with cancer, which has deprived him of his wonderful speaking voice, has only spurred him on to continue enjoying his life with family and friends and to enriching the cultural landscape of American film and theatre. Did you know — he performed a one-man depiction of Mark Twain in venues around the U.S title “Citizen Twain”?

[ publisher’s official I’m Your Huckleberry web page ] | [ official Val Kilmer web site ]

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

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Book Review: The Rural Diaries by Hilarie Burton Morgan

The Rural Diaries
by Hilarie Burton Morgan (Biography Morgan)

The Rural Diaries, by Hilarie Burton Morgan is as dreamy as a nonfiction book can get; like a soft-filter picture with a little quote underneath. The Rural Diaries reads like a fairy tale for adults – where the prince is dressed in leather and the castle is a farmhouse.

 

The author shares her journey from single actress (One Tree Hill) to Madame of Mischief Farm. Hilarie and her husband, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Supernatural), set out to make a beautiful life together. As singletons, they had attained their dreams of becoming successful actors. As a couple, they had a new dream: One that was far from the glitz and glam of Hollywood. They dreamt of an idyllic life with babies, a garden, and bison frolicking across a 100-acre farm.

 

This book gently stirred my emotions. I smiled as they explored a quaint village, got teary-eyed when they welcomed their first child, and laughed out loud when she suggested that she bewitched Jeffrey by lacing his coffee with cinnamon. There are moments where she is frustrated with the little things but overcomes the big things. She is both authentic and whimsical.

 

I really love that the book is sprinkled with practical advice. She gives a lot of sage tips to the novice willing to brave the unknown. She covers gardening, old-fashioned recipes, and animal husbandry. The book is very encouraging to those of us (ahem) who wish to one day make our way out of the city and into the country, all without sugar-coating the struggle. One of my favorite chapters that embodies this, is “The Fun of Failure.”

All in all, this is a beautiful and uplifting read. It may be a diary, but it is also a love letter to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mischief Farm, and her babies. I give this book a 9 because it is really good — I would definitely recommend it — and I have nothing but good things to say!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Honey Farm Dreaming by Anna Featherstone, or Country Grit by Scottie Brown Jones.]

[ publisher’s official Rural Diaries web site ] | [ official Hilarie Burton Morgan Instagram feed ]

 

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

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking From the Heartland by Shauna Sever

Midwest Made: Big, Bold Baking From the Heartland
by Shauna Sever (641.505 Sev)

Just in time for the holidays comes this delightful cookbook that is sure to be a crowd-pleaser with its traditional recipes for feasts with a Midwest flair! The author spent quite a bit of time researching recipes in the heart of America: everything from Bundt cakes to Brownies have roots that can be traced to the Great Midwest. As a collector of cookbooks and as a fifth-generation Nebraskan, I can appreciate the work that went into finding these time-tested recipes from the ethnic groups that settled this area of the country. Some of my favorite recipes are here, such as Dutch Letters from the Jaarsma Bakery in Pella, Iowa and Danish Kringle from Racine, Wisconsin. For Nebraskans we have Runzas, but with a new twist on the recipe. There are recipes for breads, pies, cakes, cookies and more. Midwest Made is a visual feast for the eyes and is fun to read as well. I highly recommend this book. Happy baking!

[ official Shauna Sever web site ]

 

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

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber

South of the Buttonwood Tree
by Heather Webber (Webber)

 

Published July 21, 2020. Sarah Grace Landreneau Fulton and Blue Bishop are the protagonists, each being a strong woman whose personal goals don’t seem possible because of expectations placed on them. The author combines a magical realism reminiscent of Joanne Harris’s Chocolat with the Southern charm you’d find in a Fannie Flagg novel. The winds in Buttonwood, Alabama have always guided Blue to find things. Houses speak to Sarah Grace. When the winds direct Blue to a newborn baby left by the Buttonwood Tree, Sarah Grace is called to buy Blue’s family’s abandoned house, both women have to unearth their own secrets and solve one of the town’s mysteries.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! and Standing in the Rainbow, by Fannie Flagg, or Chocolat by Joanne Harris.]

[ official South of the Buttonwood Tree page on the official Heather Webber web site ]

 

Recommended by Jodi R.
Anderson and Bethany 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 reviewer’s recommendations! 

DVD Review: Love Finds You in Valentine

Love Finds You in Valentine
[DVD Love]

Based on the romance novel Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska, this 2016 film is one of a series of three that were produced for cable television. City dweller Kennedy Blaine has inherited her grandfather’s ranch and decides to visit one more time before putting it on the market. As she encounters and gets to know the handsome young foreman, Derek, and his mother, the general caretaker of the property, she grows to appreciate what she has been gifted and starts to reconsider her options. And she starts to fall for Derek and he for her. However, there’s someone else who’s itching to acquire the property and doesn’t hesitate to try scaring and intimidating Kennedy into selling it. Michaela McManus does a very nice job as Kennedy, and Diogo Morgado turns in a sincere and compelling performance as Derek. Portuguese actor Morgado is best known to American audiences for his portrayal of Jesus in the History Channel’s hit miniseries The Bible, produced by actress Roma Downey. Lindsay Wagner and Ed Asner appear in supporting roles in Love Finds You in Valentine. Although the scenery is nice, it is not the Valentine, Nebraska area, alas.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Love Finds You… series of books, by a variety of different authors; Love Finds You in Sugarcreek and Love Finds You in Charm on DVD; Son of God on DVD or from Hoopla; The Bible: The Epic Miniseries on DVD.]

[Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Love Finds You in Valentine page on the UPtv web site (the network that produced this film) ]

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

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DVD Review: Us

Us
[DVD Us]

Us is a spooky and surreal movie about the consequences of meeting your doppelgänger. At the start of the movie, we see a young girl wander off from her parents while at a fair. She gets lost in a house of mirrors but is later found. That incident changes her in many ways that are not understandable to her parents. They try therapy, dance lessons, and other strategies to get her to express herself more fully. Shortly after this brief introduction and span of her childhood, we meet her as a grown woman taking her family on vacation to the same spot of her childhood troubles. Even though I hate most horror movies, this one worked for me because of its psychological drama and exploration of social issues.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Parasite, the Academy Award winner directed by Bong Joon Ho, Get Out, the previous film from Jordan Peele, or Sorry to Bother You, directed by Boots Riley.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Us movie web site ]

Recommended by Naomi S.
Eiseley 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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Ghost Ups Her Game by Carolyn Hart (narrated by Ann Marie Lee)

Ghost Ups Her Game
by Carolyn Hart (Compact Disc Hart)

After a three-year absence (due to change of publisher), heavenly sleuth Bailey Ruth Raeburn is back in an all-new amateur detective mystery from Carolyn Hart. Bailey Ruth is a departed spirit, regularly sent from Heaven’s “Department of Good Intentions” to aide and protect individuals in her old hometown of Adelaide, OK who may be in danger of being accused of crimes. Hart likes to throw little twists into the exploits of her dearly departed sleuth, and the twist this time is that Chief Sam Cobb believes the evidence against the person Bailey Ruth is trying to protect, is overwhelming enough to not assist his ghostly investigator — in other words, Baily Ruth is on her own to prove a college professor is innocent of the violent death of a less-than-scrupulous college fund-raiser.

 

As always, this is a fun, relatively light-weight mystery, with interesting/sympathetic new characters, and some old favorites back again. If you’re not interested in a bit of paranormal mixed in with your mystery-solving, you’ll want to avoid this one. But if you don’t mind a perky red-headed “ghost” from Oklahoma on the case, this is enjoyable. Also “as always,” I enjoyed Ghost Ups Her Game as a book-on-CD, where narrator Ann Marie Lee is absolutely perfect for this series!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the previous eight entries in the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series.] [ official Carolyn Hart web site ]

 

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

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Ghosted in L.A. (Volume 1) by Sina Grace and Siobhan Keenan

Ghosted in L.A.
by Sina Grace (writer), Siobhan Keenan (art), Cathy Le (colorist), DC Hopkins (lettering) (YA PB (Graphic Novel) Grace)

This graphic novel compiles the first four issues of an ongoing comic-book series by Sina Grace (writer) and Siobhan Keenan (artist). The storyline centers on Daphne Walters, a young woman who follows her long-time boyfriend from the Midwest to Los Angeles to attend college. Only, when she gets to L.A., he dumps her, she has an antagonistic relationship with her new college roommate, and after a disastrous first date with a guy who seemed to be interested in her, she finds herself trespassing on the grounds of an unoccupied mansion (with a large swimming pool). It is there that she encounters a group of ghosts, who occupy the mansion. She convinces them to allow her to stay in the mansion and serve as their hands and feet, and meanwhile they serve to give her sounding boards to try to figure out who and what she is going to become, as she’s a bit lost in life.

 

The characters are all fascinating, the artwork is terrific, and the pacing is marvelous. The plot was a little light in this first compilation, but I attribute that to needing to set everything up and in motion, and I anticipate future volumes to have a bit more “story” to them. Overall this is a charming and engaging light fantasy series, and I look forward to reading more of them as they’re released.

[ publisher’s official Ghosted in L.A. web site ] | [ official Sina Grace web site ] [ official Siobhan Keenan web site ]

 

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

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Little Book of Lost Words by Joe Gillard

The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Smollygosters, and Other Surprising Terms Worth Resurrecting
by Joe Gillard (428.1 Gil)

This is a delightful little book for anyone who enjoys language and archaic words that are little known in today’s society. Each term is coupled with a lovely painting by the Old Masters as well as an example of usage of the word being described. Witty and concise, this book is a quick read.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Transitive Vampire, by Karen Gordon.]

[ official Joe Gillard web site ]

 

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

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Over the River and Through the Wood: A Holiday Adventure by Linda Ashman and Kim Smith

Over the River and Through the Wood: A Holiday Adventure
by Linda Ashman (writer) and Kim Smith (illustrator) (jp Ashman)

 A contemporary retelling of the beloved classic. The front double-page shows the family photos of the siblings, then their families receiving their note card from the grandparents inviting them for the holidays. There’s the white couple w/children; a biracial couple with a child; a biracial, gay couple w/adopted children; and an older couple w/adopted, foreign-born twins.

 

Cute, short rhyming paragraphs tell the story of each family as they travel to the grandparents’ home. The family in the van runs out of gas but are rescued by a fellow driving a large, horse-drawn sleigh. Another family arrives by train, however, all the rental cars are gone – but look! The guy with the sleigh is going by. Each family meets with trouble while completing the journey and in the end every family is in the sleigh riding together to the grandparents’ house who welcome everyone with open arms.

 

There’s room for everyone at the table.

 

Bright, two-page illustrations with lots of details add to the story.

[ official Over the River and Through the Wood page on the official Linda Ashman web site ] [ official Kim Smith web site ]

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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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 reviewer’s recommendations!