Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

So, I’ve gone over to the dark side. I’ve checked out The Tudors, the steamy Showtime series with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII and wives draped all over the promos in extremely unlikely lowcut gowns. And I’m going to be fast-forwarding past Henry and the wives to look for the bits with Thomas Cromwell. [...]

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Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice, Book 1), by Joseph Delaney

Finally, we finish out the Circulation Services Division week with an exciting and eerie bit of junior fiction from Melissa Simpson. Just the thing for a cold winter’s night. One of our library users raved about “The Last Apprentice” series by Joseph Delaney. She was checking it out in audiobook and said the reader, Christopher [...]

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Nightwatching, by Peter Greenaway

Today, Mandy Malone gives us her thoughts on the film Nightwatching by Peter Greenaway. When I learned that the library was adding Nightwatching to its DVD collection, I was excited about the possibility of reviewing it for BFGB. I’ve long admired the films of British director Peter Greenaway, and when I heard that his latest [...]

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Oklahoma, by Trevor Nunn

Today, John Livecchi takes a look at a revival of the classic Broadway show, Oklahoma. One advantage in working for WRL is gaining exposure to materials I may never have considered borrowing. Almost every day something turns up in the return bin that I haven’t read, heard, or seen, and I either check it out [...]

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Three Nonfiction Titles by David McCullough

Today, Alan Bernstein looks at three excellent pieces of nonfiction writing by historian David McCullough. In recent years, the popular historian David McCullough has garnered both praise and popularity for his biographies of  Harry Truman and John Adams and for his study of the first year of the American Revolution, 1776.  However,  he first obtained [...]

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

This week we are pleased to welcome back staff from the WRL Circulation Services Division to BFGB. Today’s review comes from Mandy Malone, who opens the week with an exciting and thought-provoking thriller. Upon finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I set the book aside, shook my head, and muttered my frustration with Stieg [...]

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Clue

Clue could possibly be my favorite movie of all time. It’s at least in the top 10. Excluding the original Star Wars trilogy, it is certainly the movie I’ve seen the most times, and it was one of my first VHS tapes (back when they cost an arm and a leg). A news reporter happened [...]

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The Falcon’s Malteser, by Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz may be best known in the book world for his Alex Rider adventures. I, however, first became aware of him through his Diamond Brothers Mystery series. Set in London, the books are narrated by Nick Diamond, kid brother to “detective” Tim Diamond. I put detective in quotes because he is rarely able to [...]

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Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

There is something a bit meta about blogging about a DVD about blogging, but I’m doing it anyway. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was originally released as a series of three 15 minute webisodes created by Joss Whedon (of Buffy-fame) during the writers’ strike. It has now been released as a DVD and is definitely worth [...]

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Meridian by Amber Kizer

Strange things happen to Meridian Sozu. Her biggest problem does not come from boys, homework, or an unhappy family life. Her biggest problem is the fact that animals tend to drop dead around her. She believes she is causing their deaths, but in truth they just seem to find her when it is their time. [...]

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Phineas and Ferb

“There’s 104 days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it. Like maybe…” So begins the theme song of the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb are brothers with a perpetual summer of [...]

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Columbine, by Dave Cullen

Within hours of the massacre last week at Fort Hood, reporters were asking Dave Cullen if the rampage was “like Columbine.” Cullen cautions that we can’t know yet—that we must wait for the facts. “If we guess now, the myths will be with us forever.” Cullen knows how hard myths die. He was a reporter [...]

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Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

Here’s a tale with a bracing lack of ambiguity. It is a shameful story, an incredible story that I wish were a work of fiction. Abdulrahman Zeitoun exemplified the “American dream.” A Syrian-American citizen who had settled in New Orleans in 1994, he ran his own successful painting and contracting company, and was known to [...]

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Friends of Old Time Music: The Folk Arrival 1961-1965

If you think you’re allergic to folk music, here’s the cure. This three-disc anthology of live recordings contains some of the most powerful, soulful music ever made with or without benefit of amplifiers. It’s not folk music in the “folkie” singer-songwriter genre—the performers are mostly Southerners born in the late 19th or early 20th century [...]

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Roseanna, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

A team of Swedish police detectives are trying to solve a murder. It takes months. They start with no clues. They wait for a break in the case. They stare out the window at the rain. They play endless games of chess. They walk the streets of Stockholm after dark, looking up at people in [...]

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Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

How do you investigate a murder in a society where the very idea of murder is unthinkable? This is the existential challenge confronting Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a Soviet state security (MGB) officer in the latter years of Stalin’s dictatorship. When he finds evidence that a colleague’s young son has been murdered, he covers it up.  [...]

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Eat This, Not That, by David Zinczenko

David Zinczenko is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health magazine. I first noticed his “Eat This, Not That” column in the Yahoo.com Health section. One of the major shortcomings of any diet, according to Zinczenko, is that people do not have much control over how their food is prepared when they eat out at a restaurant.  [...]

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Classical 2009

One of my favorite CDs, Classical 2009 features a variety of pieces performed by some of the biggest names in the classical and classical crossover performing world. If you are a new listener to classical music– or if you are like me and you enjoy discovering new music– you are sure to find something you [...]

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