New Booklist on BookGuide: "Have Yourself a Merry Hard-Edged Christmas!"

“Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie?”

This has been a common pop-culture question in recent years, especially when the holidays roll around at the end of the year! Whether you believe this classic 1988 action film is a Christmas Movie or not, there’s no question that there have been a lot of action/adventure films set during the Christmas or year-end holiday season.

Becky W.C. compiled a list of those films for a display at the Lincoln City Libraries' Walt Branch Library in December 2023, and submitted her “video” list to be included in the resources of the libraries’ BookGuide readers advisory pages online.

Check out this new video "booklist" on BookGuide at the following link:

If You Like…Die Hard
a.k.a. “Have Yourself a Merry Hard-Edged Christmas!”

Book Review: The Troubleshooters series -- novellas by Suzanne Brockmann

The Troubleshooters series
by Suzanne Brockmann (see hotlinks for each individual story)

Four short stories and a novella from the Troubleshooters series By Suzanne Brockmann.

 

Only download the following Hoopla and Libby audio books if you are a fan of the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann. These five stories are novellas and shorts that are hilarious, scary, thoughtful, and poignant. They catch you up with some of our favorite characters, giving you more insight into the lives of Adam, Izzy, Gilman, Jules, Robin, and others beyond what we’ve read in the full-length novels. The narrators, Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank, are perfect as they portray our characters.

 

Book #12.1 “When Tony Met Adam” 2hrs/10min, story timeline Dec 2007-Feb 2008.

Main characters: Navy SEAL Tony Vlachic, actor Adam Wyndham.

This story starts at the end of book #12, “All Through the Night” (the night before Jules and Robin’s wedding), when Adam has been escorted out of Jules and Robin’s home after the stalker has been captured. If you remember, as he’s walking down the street to the corner, Tony is one of the SEALs guarding the house and recognizes Adam as his favorite actor, runs up to him and writes his phone number on Adam’s palm, then they go their separate ways. “When Tony Met Adam” picks up their story over the course of the next several months. By the end we understand Adam much better, he’s pulled his life together, and he becomes one of our likeable characters.

 

Book #18.1 “Free Fall” 1hr/29min, story timeline early Jan 2010.

Main characters: SEAL Team 16.

This take places after novel #18, “Do or Die,” with our favorite SEAL team doing a High Altitude training jump when Tony’s equipment fails. Izzy to the rescue with an innovative plan which will either work, injure one or both of them, or kill one or both.

 

Book #18.2 “Home Fire Inferno (Burn, Baby, Burn!)” 1hr/29min, story timeline Jan 2010, just a couple of weeks after 18.1 “Free Fall.”

Main characters: Navy SEAL Team 16 including new guy Hubert Bickles (HoBoMoFo), Eden Zanella, Jenn Gillman, Brianna Bickles, Brianna’s 5th grade teacher Carol Redmond, and Adam Wyndham.

SEAL Team 16 is at the airport Mission Ready for an overseas job – meaning they are set to leave at any moment for location unknown for reason unknown for mission-length unknown with no communication with anyone outside of the team. Then Jenn goes into labor a month early while stranded in the California desert, unable to contact anyone. Jenkins, recovering from a knee injury in the previous story, fills-in for HoBoMoFo for his daughter’s Career Day at school and sets his eye on the teacher.

 

Book #18.3 “Ready to Roll” 6hr/8min, story timeline four weeks after #18.2 (late Feb 2010).

Main Characters: SEALS Izzy, Gillman, Jenkins, and Tony, Eden and her brother Ben, with cameos by Kelly, Sam, Alyssa, and Robin, and we meet Lt. ‘Grunge’ Green (who gets his own story in novel #19 “Some Kind of Hero”).

 

Three stories going on with this one. Eden’s 16-year-old brother Ben is dealing with a homophobic classmate, but things may not be as they appear. Izzy is an instructor, along with Lt Grunge, at BUD/S SEALs training during Hell Week where we meet the most interesting crew – Boat Squad John. And Dan and Jenn’s new baby cries constantly, what in the world is wrong?

 

19.1 “Beginnings and Ends” 1hr/12m, story timeline June 2012. This takes place five years after Jules and Robin’s 2007 wedding in book #12 (and two years after the final novel, #19, “Some Kind of Hero”).

Main characters: FBI Agent Jules Cassidy, actor Robin Chadwick Cassidy.

Robin has been starring in an award-winning TV series but is ready to leave the show. What will the future bring? This story pretty well ends the series and it’s a perfect ending – unless Brockmann writes further in-between shorts.

 

( official Troubleshooters page on the official Suzanne Brockmann web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
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!

DVD Reviews: The Mummy Returns

The Mummy Returns
(DVD Mummy)

Rick and Evy are back for more adventures, this time with a son. Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones who return, as a group of worshippers brings Imhotep back to life. He is set on reviving his beloved – Anck Su Namun – and taking over an undead army belonging to the Scorpion King, a man who made a pact with Anubis and only awakens once every 5,000 years. For Imhotep to take over his army he must kill the Scorpion King. To do so will involve the bracelet of Anubis, which Rick and Evy have just managed to uncover. When Imhotep goes to steal the bracelet he sees that their son Alex is wearing it. They take him with the bracelet, leaving Rick and Evy reeling. Now they must save their son, retrieve the bracelet, and stop Imhotep before he raises the Scorpion King and all hell breaks loose, literally.

 

Loved this sequel almost as much as the original. It was great to have the original cast back together, and even adding some new faces to go with them. The humor is there, the action and romance as well, and being set in Egypt you get to see a lot of really neat places from history.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Mummy (Brendan Fraser version), The Scorpion King or Raiders of the Lost Ark)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Carrie R.
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!

The Rocketeer (on DVD)

The Rocketeer
[DVD Rocketeer] 

The Rocketeer is one of my all-time favorite films! It was released by Disney in 1991, and is a live-action adaptation of a popular series of comic books and graphic novels, created by writer/artist Dave Stevens in 1982. The comics pay homage to the style of serial adventure movies from the 1930s to the early 1950s, and the film captures the look and feel of that old-style of film-making while still putting a high-tech gloss on it. 1940s Test pilot Cliff Secord (William Campbell, in my favorite of all of his performances) comes into the possession of a backpack style flying rocket suit, being sought by Nazi agents. Together with the help of an eccentric engineer (Alan Arkin) and Cliff’s nightclub-singer girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), Cliff takes on a famous silver screen star (Timothy Dalton), who’s working with the Nazi’s to get back the missing rocketpack. The Rocketeer is filled with rollicking adventure, spectacular special effects and stunts, an endangered romance, singing and dancing, humor and clearly defined good guys and bad guys. And the soundtrack by James Horner is spectacular! I can’t recommend this one highly enough. The only disappointment is that The Rocketeer didn’t do well enough at the box office to generate one or more sequels, which were set up by the end of the movie.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Rocketeer Soundtrack, or any of the many The Rocketeer comic books and graphic novels available through our Hoopla downloadable service.] [The movie was also novelized in paperback by ace TV Tie-In writer Peter David, but that can be hard to track down.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Rocketeer Wikipedia page ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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 reviewers recommendations!

Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce

Ollie’s Odyssey
by William Joyce [j Joyce] 

Blend The Velveteen Rabbit, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a bit of Calvin and Hobbes, and a fair dose of Toy Story, and you’ll have some idea of what this new book from William Joyce is like. Ollie is a homemade plush toy, partly like a teddy bear and partly like a rabbit, who has many pretend “A-ventures” with his boy, Billy. But his status as Billy’s favorite draws the attention of the “Creeps,” the frankentoy-like minion creations of Zozo, an evil toy clown. The Creeps kidnap Ollie and take him to Zozo’s lair, but Ollie escapes even as Billy sets out alone in the middle of the night to search for him. By the end of the book both Billy and Ollie find themselves changed in significant ways. The story is enhanced by Joyce’s own gorgeous illustrations.

The publisher suggests that this book is for ages 7-11, which seems about right; parts of it are probably too dark for younger readers. But there’s plenty here to keep adults engaged as well, including pop-cultural allusions to Star Wars, King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, and even The Magnificent Seven.

[If you like this item, you might like these too – The other titles mentioned in the review.]

[ publisher’s official Ollie’s Odyssey web site ] | [ official William Joyce web site ]

Recommended by Peter J.
Virtual Services Department

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!

Guardians of the Galaxy (on DVD)

Guardians of the Galaxy
[DVD Guardians]

After tracking down and stealing a mysterious orb Peter Quill — also known as Starlord — finds himself in hot water, being chased by Gamora, who was sent by a villain named Ronan the Accuser to retrieve the orb. Little does Ronan know Gamora has her own plan to sell the orb to The Collector but her plan gets back-burned when she and Peter are arrested along with bounty hunters Rocket and Groot who attempted to capture Peter for money. In jail they meet Drax who hates Ronan because he killed his wife and daughter. The five of them break out of a prison together and decide to take the orb to The Collector and split the profit. This plan goes awry and the orb is stolen by Ronan's minions. When they realize how dangerous the orb really is the team vows to retrieve it and take it to Nova Prime where it will be safe. This is harder than it sounds because with the orb in his possession Ronan becomes even more powerful. I liked the characters, I thought the actors portrayed them very well, and the storyline was good but my favorite part was actually the soundtrack. -- recommended by Carrie K. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Carrie's Reviewer Profile and more of her reviews ]

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try other Marvel superhero movies like The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, and Thor.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Guardians of the Galaxy web site ]

Have you seen 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!

Storm Front by Richard Castle

Storm Front
by Richard Castle

If you follow the ABC TV show "Castle" then you're aware that in the first episode our fictitious author, Richard Castle, has killed off his hero of multiple books, Derrick Storm. But NOT REALLY! Turns out Storm was merely PRETENDING to be dead for four years to root out his enemies. Storm can out-Bond Bond, yet he's not cartoonish. Okay, bigger than life but you expect that sort of thing from a super spy. Someone is killing bankers with worldwide influence toward an unknown end. Along the way Storm picks up a partner, and after consulting with an economics professor, the explanation is amazing and yet understandable and believable. Exciting and just plain fun as we bounce around the world with Storm. We still don't know who is actually writing the Richard Castle books, as the TV show is still pretending that the actor, Nathan Fillion, is the author. -- recommended by Charlotte K. - Bennett Martin Public Library [ see Charlotte's Reviewer Profile ]

[Also available in book-on-cd format.]

[ official Storm Front page on the "official" Richard Castle web site ]

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!

The Adventures of TinTin on DVD

The Adventures of TinTin
[DVD Adventures]

The Adventures of TinTin is a marvelous animated movie produced by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson with a star-studded vocal cast including Daniel Craig as the evil Mr. Sakharine, Andy Serksis as Captain Haddock, and Jamie Bell as TinTin. The computer-generated animation in this film are far better than any I have seen, particularly in the fast-action chase scenes. As a fan of swashbuckling movies with great swordfighting, this was the best example of animated sword fights ever. My whole family enjoyed watching this. My youngest daughter would say that the real hero of this film is TinTin's wonder-dog, Snowy. I highly recommend this film. -- recommended by Kim J. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in the libraries' collection -- numerous books in the TinTin graphic novel series that inspired this movie.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Adventures of Tin-Tin web site ]

Have you seen 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 reviewers recommendations!

One for the Money (on DVD)

One For the Money
based on the book by Janet Evanovich [DVD One]

Katherine Heigl and Jason O'Mara star in this Janet Evanovich book turned movie. Heigl plays Stephanie Plum a recently fired and now broke woman who is forced to take a job at her cousin's bail bondsman business to stay afloat. Her first assignment as a bounty hunter is to find and bring in her ex (Jason O'Mara), a cop being charged with murder. But the deeper she researches the incident, the more she learns that maybe he's innocent. A pretty funny movie, not advertised as much so it wasn't as popular. The storyline goes along with the book, and the back and forth between Heigl and O'Mara is quite humorous. -- recommended by Carrie K. - Bennett Martin Public Library
 
[Also available in a variety of print, audio and downloadable formats.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official One For the Money web site ]

Have you seen 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.

The Three Musketeers (2011)

The Three Musketeers (2011)
[DVD Three]

Logan Lerman and Matthew MacFadyen star in this action/comedy. D'Artagnan, a young and reckless swordsman, teams up with the Three Musketeers to stop the Duke of Buckingham and Milady de Winter from seizing the throne and bringing war to Europe. A great storyline with a lot of comedic and action moments, plus you got to see Darcy with a sword and Orlando as a bad guy, where can you go wrong? [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, the original Three Musketeers novel by Alexandre Dumas, or any of the previous Three Musketeers movies.] -- recommended by Carrie K. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Three Musketeers (2011) web site ] 
Have you seen 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 web site. 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.

New Customer Review - Beyond the Deepwoods

Beyond the Deepwoods
by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell [j Stewart]

Beyond the Deepwoods is about 13 year old Twig who dosen't seem to fit in woodtroll village. His adoptive woodtroll parents decide he should leave the village and travel to his great uncle's, but, lost in thought, Twig does the one thing a woodtroll never does -- he strays from the path. What ensues is a great adventure. The book is filled with incredible illustrations by Chris Riddell that make the story even better. -- reviewed by Wyatt P. - customer of the Gere Branch Library

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

New Customer Reviews appear regularly in the pages of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all and/or submit your own, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually as we receive them.

Staff Recommendation - The Spymaster's Lady

The Spymaster's Lady
by Joanna Bourne

An adventure story, a spy story, a love story--sharp, warm, incisive, at times humorous. The heroine is intelligent, sensitive, and quite resourceful. Set in Napoleonic times in France and England. A minimum of violence and sex. -- recommended by Bob B. - Bennett Martin Public Library/Reference

[ official Joanna Bourne Blog ]

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.

Staff Recommendation - The Mark of Zorro

The Mark of Zorro
by Johnston McCulley

Published in 1919, The Mark of Zorro was originally titled "The Curse of Capistrano;" the title was changed the following year to match the title of Douglas Fairbanks' film version. While hardly great literature, the book is a quick and easy read, and it nonetheless has an appeal stemming in part from its humorous touches. It is interesting to note the differences between the story as originally written and the later adaptations of it. -- recommended by Peter J. - Bennett Martin Public Library/Virtual Services

[ History page on "The Curse of Capistrano" ] [ http://www.zorrolegend.com/ ]

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.

Staff Recommendation - Silverfin

Silverfin

by Charlie Higson

First in what is expected to be a 5-book series called Young Bond, looking at the life and adventures of future spy James Bond, when he was 13 and slightly older (2 are out in the U.S. and four in the U.K.). Teenaged Bond series have been done before, but with awful results. I was expecting more of the same, and thus was surprised to discover that this book was quite good. Instead of trying to modernize Bond as a contemporary teen, Higson sets his stories during the 1930s, and tries very hard to fit them into the continuity established in Fleming's adult Bond novels. The adventure in this first novel takes place as Bond is a first-year student at Britain's Eton boarding school (according to Fleming's story's, Bond will later be expelled), and continues as he visits relatives in the Scottish highlands over "the holidays". The characters are all sharply drawn, and the typical types of scenes common to adult Bond novels appear in modified form here -- the villain holding Bond at his mercy and explaining his whole scheme, exotic women (in this case a teenager), laughably bizarre character names, etc. This is an unexpectedly enjoyable series, aimed at teens, but as an adult I also liked it. My only complaint is that James acts and sounds like he's in his late teens instead of 13, but that's only a minor quibble. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library/Reference

[ official Young Bond web site ] [ Charlie Higson page on Wikipedia ]

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Ten new reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog over the course of the entire month.