DVD Review: The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman
[DVD Greatest]

I was probably one of the few people who did not see this fabulous film when it was in the theaters, but I finally watched the DVD this weekend and was sorry that I didn’t see the movie in the theater when I had the chance! The Greatest Showman tells the story of American showman and politician Phynius Taylor Barnum, better known as P.T. Barnum, creator of Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. Although the movie is loosely based on Barnum’s true life story, there is enough of the truth to make this an interesting look at the life of someone who became a self-made man and politician from a very humble background. Some of the more interesting facts that were shown was Barnum’s trip to England to meet Queen Victoria with some members of his troupe, in particular, General Tom Thumb. While in Europe, he meets the Swedish singer Jenny Lind and decides to take her show on the road in America (which made both of them very wealthy in real life, but she gave her money to favorite charities). What makes this film stand out is the superb music and dancing, especially those songs performed by Hugh Jackman. I highly recommend this film.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try P.T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, by A.H. Saxon.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Greatest Showman Facebook page ]

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public 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: Library on Wheels by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile
by Sharlee Mullins Glenn [j Biography Titcomb]

I’ve heard various stories over the years of what the very first Bookmobile in the United States was, but had never seen any of those stories codified into book form until seeing this lovely little gem of a juvenile biography recently.

This marvelous book is both a biography of Mary Lemist Titcomb, and a chronicle of the history of her development of a mobile library. This volume is not told in purely traditional book form, but instead is a collection of artifacts — ticket stubs, program itineraries, newspaper articles, personal diaries, and much more. Some are reproductions of actual documents and some are stylistic recreations. They all combine to make an absolutely fascinating read.

Though this book is classified as a juvenile biography, I found it a compelling read as an adult, and recommend this for anyone interested in library history, bookmobile history, and the lives of significant women in American history.

[ publisher’s official Library on Wheels web site ] | [ official Sharlee Glenn web site ] 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read 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!

Book Review: The First King of Shannara by Terry Brooks

The First King of Shannara
by Terry Brooks

This novel is the prequel to ‘The Sword of Shannara’ trilogy, which really ought to be read before this one; however, doing so does make you aware from the onset that the main quest here is not quite doomed, but certainly not as successful as the characters hope it to be. Brona, a rouge Druid, also known as the Warlock Lord, is at large and taking over all the land with his massive army of trolls, demons and Skull Bearers. The Druids, Bremen, Mareth, Tay, and Risca go on their own separate quests with the common goal to wage war and discover a way to overtake evil before the world is totally destroyed. One of these quests is to forge sword to serve as a talisman to overcome the great magic of Brona as no physical means could defeat him. After seeing the sword, later named the Sword of Shannara, in the book of the same name it was really fun to see it’s origin and creation in this story. It was also really enjoyable to see characters who only existed in lore in the later stories living their adventures in this book. What I like about this book, and others in the series, is discovering who is related to who, as quite often it’s the same families drawn together again and again throughout the Shannara tales even though they can be set hundreds of years apart. I highly recommend the series to fantasy readers, just be a bit thoughtful to which order you read them in – Brooks’ website has a reading order guide , but I’m sure there are other fan made ones out there.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, or The Wishsong of Shannara, all also by Terry Brooks.]

[ Wikipedia page for The First King of Shannara ] | [ official Terry Brooks web site ] 

Recommended by Kristen A.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read 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!

New Booktalk Booklist: No Foolin' - Just Good Recommendations From Becky and Scott

Married library co-workers Becky (Walt Branch) and Scott (Bennett Martin Public Library) presented another tandem booktalk to both the Bethany and Gere BooksTalk groups in April.

Check out their combined list of recommended reading at the following link: 

No Foolin': Just Good Recommendations From Becky and Scott