Check out this new booklist on BookGuide at the following link:
Check out the list of titles Donna shared at the following link:
Check out the list of titles Meredith shared at the following link:
While recently working on the comedic play “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, I was inspired to watch two classic Bob Hope comedy dramas, which served as inspiration for that wacky mystery/farce play.
My Favorite Brunette (1947) featured Hope as mild-mannered children’s photographer Ronnie Jackson, who envies the private eye who operates out of the office next door to his. When that P.I. is absent, Ronnie ends up taking one of his cases, after misrepresenting himself, and soon finds himself up to his armpits in thugs, femmes fatales, and gun-toting goons. Because the film opens with Ronnie being led to the executioner’s chamber on Death Row and relating his adventures in flashback, we now that things didn’t go his way. That’s what you get for pretending to be something you’re not!
The Cat and the Canary (1939) is a more direct thematic predecessor of “The Music Comedy Murders of 1940”, with Hope as Wally Campbell, one of several people named in the will of an eccentric man who died 10 years earlier. The will requires that all the people named in it must journey to the swampy estate in the Bayou, where the man used to live. The primary heiress, Joyce Norman (played by frequent Hope co-star Paulette Goddard) must live for a week in the estate, without being driven insane, in order to fully inherit.
This triggers a madcap series of wacky events, involving hidden doorways and passageways, creepy spooks, other jealous relatives, a woman who may or may not be a witch, and maybe even paranormal hijinks.
Both films are classic comedian Bob Hope at his wimpy, sarcastic, snarky, break-the-fourth-wall best. Anyone who’s ever seen and enjoyed Hope and his friend Bing Crosby in their series of “The Road to…” movies will definitely enjoy both of these films. The libraries own My Favorite Brunette on DVD. The Cat and the Canary is available to borrow on DVD through our InterLibrary Loan service, but it is also available to watch for free on YouTube (with commercial interruptions). Both movies are short — under 90 minutes each!
(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the stage play The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.)
( Internet Movie Database entry for My Favorite Brunette ) | ( Internet Movie Database entry for The Cat and the Canary )
See the booklist page for the Lincoln Community Playhouse: The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 here on BookGuide, for additional similar items!
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!
Check out Leeane's selections in this new booktalk booklist in the archives on BookGuide at the following link:
Check out Jodi's selections in this new booktalk booklist on BookGuide at the following link:
Happy Valentines Day 2023!
Check out all of the booklists on the Lincoln City Libraries' BookGuide readers advisory pages in the Romance category, to find some romantic reads! You can also see our Romance resource page, listing links to numerous romance fiction websites found on the internet.
Romance Booklists on BookGuide
Romance Fiction Resources Page on BookGuide
graphic: https://negativespace.co/love-heart-scrabble-rose/
Tracy T. and Nathan H., both of the Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries, presented a joint booktalk session to the Bethany BookTalks group on December 2, 2022. Each provided their own separate booklist. Tracy's included a variety of reads in several categories, and Nathan's focused on mysteries/thrillers.
You can check out their lists on the Lincoln City Libraries' BookGuide reader resources pages at these links:
A Sci-Fi Fan Dabbles in Mysteries and Thrillers
Updated Booklist!
Jen J., from the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown, was the presenter for the South Branch BookTalks on September 8, and the Bethany Branch BookTalks on September 9. She shared a variety of mystery novels, both classic and contemporary.
You can check out her list of Whodunnits at the following booktalk booklist on the Lincoln City Libraries' BookGuide reader resources pages at this link:
South and Gere Branch staff member Marcy G., who also serves as the organizer/host of the weekly South Branch BookTalks, has stepped in to provide two recent entries in that series of booktalks.
Check out both of Marcy's latest lists, in these booktalk booklists on the Lincoln City Libraries' BookGuide reader resources pages at the following link:
Since late 2021, various staff members at the downtown Bennett Martin Public Library have been featured on an ongoing book display next to the checkout desk -- Meet Your Staff. Every other week, a different staff member is featured, and the display will include some of that staff member's favorite books, DVDs, CDs and audiobooks in the library collection. For regular visitors to the downtown library, this is a means of getting to know the interests of some of the staff members they see on a regular basis.
From the beginning of this display, we've been maintaining a growing booklist, showing all the books and other materials that have been featured on this display, at the following link. This booklist continues to grow as additional new staff are given a two-week period to shine. Check out the nearly-20 staff who've already been featured, and check back to see new additions in future weeks.
Are you aware of the Once Upon a Crime book group, which started at the Gere Branch Library in the Fall of 2021, and continues there on a monthly basis?
This group is all about True Crime books, DVDs and podcasts. Each month has a specific "theme". This group is designed to be partially "presentation" style, and partially "participation" style. A team of three Gere staff members are the hosts, and every month each of them will provide a detailed description of one or more books on the monthly focus theme, plus give out a prepared handout with even more recommended reads. Before the end of the meeting, attendees are all given an opportunity to make recommendations of additional True Crime books, audiobooks, and podcasts to the assembled group members.
Check out the complete lists of prepared handouts from past Once Upon a Crime (OUaC) meetings in 2021 and early 2022, in these bookstalk booklists on the Lincoln City Libraries' BookGuide reader resources pages at the following links:
You can see a list of the items Pat discussed at:
ALA Notable Books - published in 2021
Interested in being added to an e-mail list for notifications about future In-Person or Online Book Talks? Visit our E-mail Groups Sign-Up page to sign up!
Are you interested in the real-life histories of the many women who were unsung heroes of the World War II era? Would you like to learn more about women like Noor Inayat Khan, Hannie Schaft, Mildred Harnack, Ola Mildred Rexroat, Elizebeth Smith, Dita Kraus, Nancy Love, Odette Sansom, Aline Griffith, Irene Sendler, Vera Atkins, and more?
If so, then you'll want to check out the recent HerStory: Women Heroes of WWII booklist addition to the libraries BookGuide readers advisory resources. Inspired by a new list on the A Mighty Girl website, we expanded on their titles, to offer up as many as 75 recommended reading suggestions for those who are fascinated by this historical topic!
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