Somerville Public Library Blog

If you are looking for a new movie to enjoy, the AV department has some new titles on the way. Make sure to stop by and check out these and many more new movies this fall!

Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

“Ireland, 1920. Damien and Teddy are brothers. But while the latter is already the leader of a guerrilla squad fighting for the independence of his motherland, Damien, a medical graduate of University College, would rather further his training at the London hospital where he has found a place. However, shortly before his departure, he happens to witness atrocities committed by the ferocious Black and Tans and finally decides to join the resistance group led by Teddy. The two brothers fight side by side until a truce is signed. But peace is short-lived and when one faction of the freedom-fighters accepts a treaty with the British that is regarded as unfair by the other faction, a civil war ensues, pitting Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien….” Written by Guy Bellinger (IMDB)

Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series (2007) 

“As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced. Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you’ll ever experience from the comforts of home.” Review from Amazon.com

Cassandra’s Dream (2007)

“Scottish Ewan McGregor and Irish Colin Farrell play two Cockney brothers who get in over their heads when a wealthy relative asks for a favor. Woody Allen’s sleek thriller Cassandra’s Dream begins in innocent times: Ian (McGregor) and Terry (Farrell) buy a sailboat and name it Cassandra’s Dream. But soon Terry falls afoul of gambling debts and Ian falls head over heels for a sultry actress who doesn’t take him seriously, leading them to ask their uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson) for money, which he’s happy to give them–if they’ll get rid of a man who’s going to testify against him. The first half of Cassandra’s Dream zips along with short, concise scenes and charismatic performances by the lead lads. Newcomer Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited) is alluring as the actress, while Sally Hawkins (Persuasion) brings warmth and sympathy to the underwritten role of Terry’s girlfriend Kate. The second half–as with many of Allen’s later films–seems to run out of steam, though there’s still much to admire about Allen’s clean, unfussy filmmaking. Regrettably, he seems to have lost the ability to sustain his imaginative spark. The weakness is in the writing; too many of the characters are barely sketched and clumsy lines of dialogue jar the ear in otherwise well-shaped scenes. But just when you’re ready to throw up your hands, there’s a moment of understated grace, in which Allen’s simple visuals capture something with crystalline clarity.” Review by Bret Fetzer on Amazon.com

21 (2008)

“Inspired by the true story of MIT students who mastered the art of card counting and took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings. Looking for a way to pay for tuition Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) finds himself quietly recruited by MIT’s most gifted students in a daring plot to break Vegas. With the help of a brilliant statistics professor (Kevin Spacey) and armed with fake IDs intelligence and a complicated system of counting cards Ben and his friends succeed in breaking the impenetrable casinos. Now his challenge is keeping the numbers straight and staying one step ahead of the casinos before it all spirals out of control.” Description from Amazon.com

I’m sure many of you are on the hold list for books such as Unaccustomed Earth, The Last Lecture, or What Happened. While you’re waiting, you might want to pass the time with some of the older books in our collections–many of which never have been and never will be the flavor of the month but are great reads nonetheless.

Joseph Mitchell was one of the great journalists of the mid-twentieth century, writing wonderfully detailed portraits of people and places in New York City–an exemplar of New Journalism before the terms was invented. Joe Gould’s Secret –the story of a homeless man compiling what he called “the history of our time”–is one of Mitchell’s finest works.

At Fort Bragg in the mid-nineties there was supposedly a large building filled with goats. The goats were supposedly part of an experiment to train soldiers to become psychic assassins–men who could stop a beating heart with telekenisis. In The Men Who Stare at Goats, writer Jon Ronson tries to track down the truth about those goats–and on the way learns more than he bargained for about C.I.A. experiments with LSD, meets a general who tried to walk through walls, and interviews a former Gitmo prisoner who spent his incarceration listening to Fleetwood Mac.

If you’re in the mood for fiction, give Theodore Roszak’s Flicker a try. Who could possibly resist a novel that shows the hidden connections between the Albigensian Heresy and the modern film industry with detours into German Expressionism and tantric sex?

Last Saturday’s talk on Somerville, Massachusetts: A Brief History was a success. Dee Morris gave a brief talk on the writing of the book. Her co-author (and former Somerville librarian) Dora St. Martin read a couple of passages–one on Franklin Roosevelt’s devoted secretary (and Somerville native) Missy LeHand and another on Somerville poet Sam Walter Foss. People came and went for the better part of two hours to buy copies and talk to the authors.

There were so many buyers the author ran out of copies–but don’t worry: the book will soon be on sale here and at Porter Square Books.

Ian Frazier is a funny guy. He’s so funny that when The Atlantic Monthly published selections from the best writing ever to appear in its pages, Frazier was one of only four authors represented in the category of humorous essays. The others were Mark Twain, James Thurber, and Kurt Vonnegut.

Frazier’s latest collection, Lamentations of the Father, exemplifies why he belongs in such illustrious company. The title essay is a list of directives from a father to his offspring couched in biblical language - you may be familiar with it as it’s been kicking around the Internet for years. (My favorite bit: “Likewise if you receive a portion of fish from which every bit of herbal seasoning has not been scraped off, and the herbal seasoning is loathsome to you, and steeped in vileness, again I say, refrain from screaming. Though the vileness overwhelm you, and cause you a faint unto death, make not that sound from within your throat, neither cover your face, nor press your fingers to your nose. For even now I have made the fish as it should be; behold, I eat of it myself, yet do not die.”)

As a librarian however, what cheers me most about Frazier’s latest book is the essay Downpaging, in which he praises public libraries, not for the usual reasons (freedom of information, repository of all human knowledge, yadda yadda) but because they save you money. Frazier begins by quoting a (possibly made up) article entitled Ten Sure Ways to Trim Your Budget: “Check books out of the library instead of buying them. New releases of hardcover novels cost $25 and more these days. If you buy just two a month, that’s $600 a year.” He then quotes a bunch of “average Americans” whose book buying habits are wreaking havoc with their families’ budgets: “My boys are like any American teenagers in that they eat, sleep, and breathe novels. And they don’t want the three-dollar used paperback version, either. It’s got to be new, mint, original dust jacket, the works. How do you tell a youngster he can’t have that just-released Modern Library edition of the complete Sinclair Lewis he’s been dreaming of?” Some people he quotes decry the waste inherent in our brand-new-hardcover-fiction-crazed society: “I’ve seen people on the freeway flip through a novel to the dénoument, read it, and throw the book out the window. Then they’ll swing by a bodega, buy a new novel or two or a dozen, and be on their way.”

But you, library user, can pat yourself on the back - your valid library card ensures that you need have no part in such dire scenarios.

Not to mention all that money in your pocket. Cha-ching!

We’ve decided to ask local authors what books they’ve been enjoying lately. First up is Pagan Kennedy, the award-winning author of Black Livingstone, The First Man-Made Man and The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories (coming out in September).

“These days I’m most interested in narrative nonfiction, so here’s a
pick from that genre:

The Scarlett Professor by Barry Werth.

In the 1950s, a professor at Smith College revolutionized the field of
literary criticism. Newton Arvin was poised to become one of the
great scholars in America — until the G-men came to his door and
arrested him for trading “smut” through the mail. Arvin was gay.
Exposed and humiliated, he went mad. For a tragic story it’s an oddly
fun, zippy read. Juiciest part: Arvin’s affair with a young writer
named Truman Capote.”