Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Gone Girl: the definitive review

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
THE DAY OF THE BOOK GROUP MEETING

When I think of my book group, I always think about how many people will come to the meeting, how many will have read the book, did they like the book, should I have questions ready to ask about the book? The book group starts in 45 minutes. Where to start? I finally read the mega-bestselling thriller/mystery Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) and I did not go into the reading with an open mind. People either love this book or hate it. The opinions I heard from patrons at the library and from friends and family and the reviews I read had already made me dread reading it. I don't like to read bestsellers; they sell themselves; I like to read literary orphans. I don't like dark books with twisted characters; I like sunny distractions, the book equivalent of a situation comedy on television.

FLEUR THE FROG
AUGUST 26, 2013
JOURNAL ENTRY

Tra and la! I am a happy frog blogger reading the nifty bestseller for the library book group. I am so happy I finally got my book from the holds list so I can see what all the excitement is about this huge bestseller. I put the book in my perfect little froggy book bag and went home to make a cup of green tea and sat down with great anticipation to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Even though she's not a frog, I hear she's a really good writer. My parents are the famous authors of the 'Fantastic Fleur the Frog' series about the perfect little frog who always does the right thing. They based the books on me because I'm perfect and always cheerful and also I like to make up puzzles just like Fantastic Fleur does.
1. Do I pretend to like this book even if I don't?
2. Do I just read reviews and get back to my fun books that I want to read.
3. Do I read the book, take notes, write a review and ask questions from a list at the book group meeting?
Answer: I think you know that Fantastic Fleur will do #3, don't you? Don't you? You don't? Oh, I might have to punish you, dear reader.

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
THE EVENING OF THE BOOK GROUP DISCUSSION OF GONE GIRL

The clock on my computer says 6:56 PM so I have to finish my review before the group meets. I have read the book. I'm not sure I liked the book. The book was compulsively readable, but nasty. Oh, I feel so dirty. It drew me in, and I ate it up, but I hated the characters and the plot was so contrived and unbelievable at the end, but I kept reading anyway. I felt like putting it down and reading something fun like Alexander McCall Smith, something light and sunny and uncomplicated, not dark and twisted like Amy and Nick Dunne's story. But that would be cheating. On the book, turning my back on the book group. So I read it. I couldn't help myself. I loved this book, but I hate it too, I just don't know how to tell the truth about this book.

FLEUR THE FROG
AUGUST 29, 2013
JOURNAL ENTRY

I'm so fantastic. I finished the book in less than three days! Here's a quiz I made up about the book:
1. Do you hate Amy or Nick more?
2. Did you guess what the plot twist was?
3. Did you want to kill Amy more than Nick does?
4. Did you want to make as much money as that lawyer of Nicks?
Answer: all of the above!!! Duh.

MARIAN THE LIBRARIAN
ONE MONTH GONE SINCE I CHECKED OUT THIS BOOK

You can "Google" the title and find reviews and, as the vernacular saying goes, unless you've been living under a rock, you know that this book is the story of a marriage, a failed marriage, between two really twisted people. On their fifth wedding anniversary Amy, the wife, disappears and soon after, Nick the husband is suspected of her murder. The book is told from the point of view of Nick alternating with Amy's journal entries chronicling the story of their marriage up until the day of her disappearance. The second part of the book, and here's the spoiler, is told from Amy in the present tense and continues with Nick's narration too.
Quiz:
1.Did you see the spoiler there?
2. Did you see it coming? I did.
3.Do you feel cheated, manipulated as a reader or
4. Do you just not care anymore.
Oh, wait, I'm Marian, not Fleur. Fleur's the character who makes up quizzes. I think our characters are merging. Help I hate that frog, I love that frog, I am a frog.

Posted by Fleur: Fleur's other contributions to the blog
Posted by Marian the Librarian: Ms. Librarian's previous posts

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Growing old: The Best Exotic Quartet, er Marigold Hotel-like Movies and TV Shows

I've been borrowing lots of DVD's from the library for the last few weeks, probably because the TV shows I watch are between seasons so there's not too much to watch if you like scripted comedy/dramas like me. I noticed a trend lately in my borrowing habits. The trend could be called:

If you liked 'The Best, Exotic Marigold Hotel' (2012), try these DVD's:

'Quartet' (2013), like 'Best Exotic MH', features lots of famous, older British actors. In 'Quartet' they play retired showbiz types and opera singers who are now in a home for retired musicians and the setting is a country house-turned-nursing-home set in the English countryside. The hotel in 'Best Exotic etc' was a dilapidated hotel in India run by an idealistic, but somewhat impractical, young Indian man played by Dev Patel, the star of 'Slumdog Millionaire.' You might also like 'Slumdog' if you haven't already caught that Academy Award-winning 2008 hit, although it has nothing to do with the aging British actor in bittersweet film theme that I'm enumerating here. In any case, 'Quartet" and 'Marigold' are often mentioned in the same breath because they are so similar in theme and casting as well as being released within a year of each other. The other title often confused with 'Quartet' is 'A Late Quartet' (2013) also about aging musicians. Patrons often come to the Reference Desk and ask for the 'Quartet' movie or the 'Marigold' movie so we know the three movies get confused very easily.
Continuing the theme, 'Waiting for God' is an early 1990's UK series about two feisty old people in a retirement home who question the authority of the youngish bean-counters who run the home for profit. Each episode is less than an hour and I'm enjoying the first season now.
'New Tricks' is a current BBC TV series about an unsolved crimes unit made up of old, retired police detectives who are curmudgeonly and eccentric, but always get their man.

By searching our catalog for the subject heading 'Retirees -- Drama', I see in the catalog that we have a British TV series called 'One Foot in the Grave' and a movie 'Is Anyone There?' both involving retirement or retirement homes. I have not yet taken either of those out, but I am really sensing this is a big trend in movies at least in the U.K.

Related subject headings to use in our catalog are...

Older people.

Eccentrics and eccentricities.

Retirement communities.

Television comedies -- Great Britain.

Video recordings for the hearing impaired.

DVDs.

England.

Retirees -- Drama.
Musicians -- Drama.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Longmire, the TV series, the books, the dream

Craig Johnson's 'A Serpent's Tooth, a Walt Longmire Mystery' is the 9th in the popular series about Wyoming Sheriff Longmire. The A&E TV series 'Longmire' is based on these books, so fans of the TV series will want to read the books too. I recommend starting with the first in the book series, 'The Cold Dish', not only because it sets up the contemporary western setting and the characters, but also because the earlier books are a little stronger than this one. In 'Serpent's Tooth', Walt and his deputy, the beautiful Victoria Moretti, and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, go on the search for the family of a 15 year old Mormon 'lost boy' who has wandered into Absaroka County. The plot meanders and ambles through a wide swath of the wild western landscape of Wyoming and nearby states, encounters a bevy of independent, ornery and downright evil characters, uncovers CIA and other fairly incredible plots and features quite a lot of heavy fire from a well-armed group of good guys and bad guys. I love the TV series and enjoy the books, but had to give this outing only 3 stars out of 5 on my Goodreads list. Still, for fans, the series of books is highly recommended.

Advertisement for the A&E TV Series

Related Links:
Live the western dream by checking out A&E's Longmire website where you can watch full episodes, enter contests, and get the scoop and gossip about the stars of the series. http://www.aetv.com/longmire/

Visit author Craig Johnson's website http://www.craigallenjohnson.com/

Read the LA Times interview with the author to discuss 'A Serpent's Tooth.'

'How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!'

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Simplicity versus Technology

Last week was a disaster of technology, involving all machines more complicated than a toaster. One day the computer in the Children’s Department refused to renew books; the next day it refused to print receipts; and, the third day it started asking for a password for basic functions. The newly installed server found even more creative and disruptive ways to misbehave. We were feeling technologically unlucky or, to be more accurate, cursed.

While waiting for the next electronic mishap, I started humming the old Shaker hymn 'Simple Gifts'

‘Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free.

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be.

And when we find ourselves in the place just right

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

(1948 Joseph Brackett)

Simple in the song describes an absolute dedication to Shaker beliefs and does not imply simplistic, but the song itself is calming. The Shakers embraced progress and modern technology and their communities were examples of incredible efficiency. Visiting the Shaker villages in SabbathdayLake, Maine and Canterbury, New Hampshire is well worth the effort.

A Simple Murder(2012) by Eleanor Kuhns takes place in such a setting. William Rees, an itinerant weaver, returns home after the Revolutionary War to learn that his son has run away from the family farm and is living in a Shaker community. Rees also moves to the community in an attempt to reconnect with his son and, using skills developed during the war, to solve a murder. Kuhns’ description of the structure and rhythm of daily life in a religious community is fascinating, but does not overwhelm her development of the villagers themselves. William Rees also appears in Death of a Dyer (2013). Finally settled back on his farm in Maine, Rees investigates the murder of a childhood friend. At the same time, he is still negotiating his relationship with son and exploring his feelings for a woman who left the Shaker community to live as his housekeeper.

Technology can simplify life - but when technology goes bad, simplicity is replaced by a state of frustration and complexity that tries people's patience. Start humming...

-S. Bakos

Library seen from the path in the woods

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