LibraryPoint Blog

Keep up-to-date with the latest news about the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
09/04/2013 - 6:50am
Faces by John Cassavetes

For someone who loves independent movies, it sure took me a heck of a long time to watch anything directed by John Cassavetes.

Maybe that is because I had heard how emotionally intense his films were, tapping into a vein of real life and forgoing any sense of escapism that most movies offer. Despite that hesitation, I am deeply satisfied that I took the time to watch four great films by this stalwart of early independent film, who took many menial acting jobs so he could make something great.

Shadows, Cassevetes' first film, is a defiant statement against mainstream culture, both in terms of cinema and society. It follows three African American siblings living in New York City, two of whom are trying to pass as white. The film was shot without a script, and its black and white, 16-millimeter film stock lacks the gloss of Hollywood pictures of the same year (North by Northwest or Ben-Hur for example). With its jazz score by Charles Mingus and its focus on urban youth in 1950's, Shadows is a must see for any fans of Beat writers or early independent film.

09/03/2013 - 10:20am

Taro Yashima is the assumed name of children’s author and illustrator Jun Atsushi Iwamatsu. Born in the Japanese countryside to a local doctor and his wife, as a young man he found the rise in militarism prior to his country’s invasion of China and attack on America to be very much against his personal beliefs. He and his wife Tomoe, also an artist, joined peaceful protest groups called “culture clubs” that used their art to make anti-authoritarian statements about Japan’s government and the harsh conditions people lived under to support the military as it readied for war.

08/30/2013 - 2:03am
Breaking Night by Liz Murray
This readalike is in response to a patron's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids.  You can browse the book matches here.
 
Breaking Night by Liz Murray: "The memoir of a young woman who at age 15 was living on the streets but survived to make it to Harvard. Murray's story was featured in the Lifetime Original Movie 'Homeless to Harvard.'" 
 
If you enjoyed this title and are looking for similar nonfiction titles, here are some books you may enjoy:
 
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The author chronicles his impoverished childhood and early experiences in the Catholic church, and describes his father's alcoholism and talent for storytelling, as well as the challenges and tragedies his mother faced, balancing painful memories with humor. (catalog description)
 
 
 
 
Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison
For more than a decade, Kathy Harrison has sheltered a shifting cast of troubled youngsters-the offspring of prostitutes and addicts; the sons and daughters of abusers; and teenage parents who can't handle parenthood. What would motivate someone to give herself over to constant, largely uncompensated chaos? How does she manage her extraordinary blended family? Why would anyone voluntarily take on her job? (catalog description)
 
 
 
08/29/2013 - 2:03am

Vicky Bliss. The name sounds like a Vegas showgirl, and she has the body to match, but Miss, no, Dr. Bliss, has a lot more going on than the ability to make most every man’s jaw drop when she enters a room. Vicky is brilliant, brave, and extremely self-assured. She’s also a woman on a mission to unravel a centuries-old mystery to find the final resting place of a jewel-adorned sculpture lost during Europe’s religious wars.

08/28/2013 - 8:31am
The Fredericksburg Welsh Festival Poetry Contest, the Library, and Your Ancestor

Yes, there is a connection between the upcoming Fredericksburg Welsh Poetry Contest, the library, and your personal ancestors. Although it seems a tad far-fetched, it really is easy to see how the library can connect you to anything and anyone. Here’s how this connection works: since the library is a community center and encourages local groups to keep us informed as to their upcoming public events, we discovered that the Welsh Society of Fredericksburg is sponsoring a poetry contest as part of their upcoming annual festival this September 21. The deadline for entries is September 1.

08/26/2013 - 2:02am

Fourteen-year-old Elenor did not wish to be married, particularly not to Lord Thomas. He had been away at the Crusades for years, and what Elenor remembered of him did nothing to endear him to her. What was more, there was so much of the world to see, and marriage would end her chances for adventure, or so she believes at the beginning of Frances Temple's The Ramsay Scallop.

08/22/2013 - 8:35am
The Tales of Olga da Polga by Michael Bond

The Tales of Olga da Polga, by Michael Bond—creator of the Paddington Bear books, features a feisty, queenly, and imaginative guinea pig who leaves the dull life of an English pet shop to go live with her own “Sawdust People” in “a house with legs” in their garden. For another guinea pig, it would be just a sensible, comfortable life change, but Olga is not just another guinea pig.

08/20/2013 - 11:17am
Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories

The dying days of summer—hot and bright or fog-drenched and rainy—are a suitable time to escape to another century and into the Old World where vampires lurk in musty tombs and sometimes in the candlelight of high society.  Michael Sims' collection, Dracula’s Guest, does include Stoker’s title story, but it is also a gathering of kindred pieces that lay out tales both plain and highly-embroidered of the pernicious beings known as vampires.  These old school blood-drinkers do not sparkle handsomely in daylight and are decidedly and viciously carnivorous.

08/19/2013 - 9:41am
Deadly Pink by Vivian Vande Velde

Grace Pizzelli lacks pizzazz—or sparkle or brilliance or whatever you want to call it—unlike her brainy, beautiful, popular sister Emily. Grace was dozing off peacefully one day in trigonometry class when an unexpected summons to the principal’s office interrupted her nap. Mom was there, looking frantic and very un-put-together and, frankly, very unMomlike. Emily is missing. No, not her body. They know right where that is, but her mind is stuck somewhere in a video game. On purpose, no less, which is very unlike the totally perfect college student and computer genius everybody knows. In Deadly Pink, by Vivian Vande Velde, the Rasmussen gaming company has a huge problem. Players can only stay in total immersion games for so long before their bodies can’t take it anymore. If Emily doesn’t come out soon, she’s in big trouble, not to mention Rasmussen having a giant publicity meltdown over their dead programmer. Not dead as in messed-up-in-the-game-start-over dead, but really dead.

08/15/2013 - 2:03am
Going Through the Gate by Janet S. Anderson

Sixth-grade graduation is not just about the punch and cookies in Janet Anderson’s Going Through the Gate. In an incredibly small town with a one-room schoolhouse, only a handful of students graduate every June. They know their lives will change completely—but not for the reasons you’d think. Sure, they’ll be taking the bus to the big city middle school and join a grade with hundreds of kids in it instead of just five.  There’s more to it than that though. The graduation itself can be dangerous.
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