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By Beth, September 8, 2010

American Salvage: Stories
By Bonnie Jo Campbell

This is a moving collection of stories about people who are tired and overwhelmed by the circumstances of their lives and their labor-intensive relationships, but who keep trying. There are some really great last sentences that hit you like a punch.

Girl Trouble: Stories
By Holly Goddard Jones

Born and raised in western Kentucky, Jones writes insightful stories about coming of age as a working-class girl in the South.

Do Not Deny Me: Stories
By Jean Thompson

A favorite of David Sedaris, Jean Thompson excels at portraying self-deluding characters who tell you much more about themselves than they mean to.

-Beth

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By Beth, September 1, 2010

The Mysterious Howling
By Maryrose Wood

A Whole Nother Story
By Dr. Cuthbert Soup

When You Reach Me
By Rebecca Stead

Sometimes you just want to feel like a kid again.  If you like gloomy mansions, governesses, orphans, and sly humor, try The Mysterious Howling.  If hilarious wordplay, Lemony Snicket, and The Mysterious Benedict Society are more your style, try the madcap romp A Whole Nother Story.  And if you want a nostalgic 1970’s-era time travel story, try Newbery-winner When You Reach Me.

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By Beth, August 25, 2010

  Big Fan

Just in time for football season, check out this character study of obsessive New York Giants fan Paul Aufiero (comedian Patton Oswalt, in a remarkable performance).  After some overzealous stalking of his favorite player leads to an assault, he has to decide where his loyalties lie.  Some of the best moments are the nightly calls he makes to his local sports radio show, as well as his rivalry with another frequent caller, Eagles fan Philadelphia Phil.  Highly recommended even for non-sports fans (it was a Sundance favorite last year, and was directed by the screenwriter of The Wrestler).

-Beth

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By Beth, August 18, 2010

Need some new recipes in your repertoire?  Check out these four cookbooks for some quick, easy, and delectable ideas. 

Cooking Light: Fresh Food Fast

The Frugal Foodie Cookbook

Southern Living Complete Quick and Easy Cookbook

Nigella Express: Good Food, Fast  

-Beth

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By Kyle, May 7, 2010

Pressed for time? Check out these three stellar collections of Southern short stories:

Reasons for and advantages of breathing

Mrs. Darcy and the blue-eyed stranger : new and selected stories

New stories from the South : the year’s best, 2009

- Beth

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By Kyle, April 23, 2010

Get Crafty

Check out books on Hipster Crafts

Crafty hipsters have to start somewhere. What better place than the library to learn how to make your own wares. Find books on sewing, knitting, decorating, and more on our book list.

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By Kyle, January 1, 2010

Sugar

This heartfelt film by the writers of Half Nelson realistically follows the life of a minor league baseball player from the Dominican Republic. With a stunning lead performance and an unexpected resolution, this is not your average sports movie.

Bright Star

The butterfly scene alone makes this lovely film about the doomed love of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne worth your time.

Moon

A Science Fiction movie for people who don’t like Science Fiction movies, this is more art house than action film.

- Beth

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By Kyle, September 22, 2009

Junebug

See Amy Adams in the best role of her career in this underrated Southern indie film.

-Beth

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By Jenny, August 25, 2009

The Angel’s Game
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

3 stars

A stylish, suspenseful read. Ruiz Zafon’s cinematic writing style evokes a gothic, Modernist Barcelona that both intrigues and frightens.

- Jessica

It All Started with a Dog
by Leigh Somerville McMillan

4 stars

- Cheryl

The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters

This phenomenal haunted house story called to mind the best work of Daphne DuMaurier, Shirley Jackson, and Patrick McGrath.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heavenn
by Susan Jane Gilman

Ignore the ridiculous book cover and title and check out this gripping description of a trip to China gone horribly, horribly wrong.

- Beth

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By Jenny, July 30, 2009

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
By Lumet, Sidney
Hoffman, Philip Seymour
Hawke, Ethan

This movie has flawless acting by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, and brings a Shakespearean sense of tragedy to a thoroughly modern setting.

Be Kind Rewind
By Gondry, Michael

This movie has a charming silliness that is disarming and affecting.

Transsiberian
By Anderson, Brad
Don’t miss this overlooked mystery-on-a-train movie starring Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, and Woody Harrelson.

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The Orphanage
By Bayona, Juan Antonio
This immensely creepy ghost story was directed by a protégée of Guillermo del Toro and has some of the same visual appeal as Pan’s Labyrinth.

The Order of Myths

Don’t miss this excellent but disturbing documentary with an unexpected twist at the end.

- Beth

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By Jenny,

The Hudsucker Proxy

4.5 Stars

Don’t forget this early Coen Brothers film, featuring Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Air Guitar Nation

4 Stars

A documentary about the first U.S. Air Guitar Championships.  Get ready to rock.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

5 Stars

This totally absorbing documentary follows two men as they battle for the Donkey Kong world record.  Yes, it sounds ridiculous, but I promise—you will be on the edge of your seat.  This was my favorite movie of 2007.

Zodiac
By Fincher, David

In the 1960s and ’70s, a cryptic killer clad in an executioner’s hood stalked the streets of San Francisco and left clues about his crimes in the newspaper.

The Dinner Game
By Veber, Francis

4 Stars

- Beth

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By Jenny, July 22, 2009

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories
By Tower, Wells

This collection of stories from a Chapel Hill, NC native is my pick for the most impressive debut of 2009. Fans of Raymond Carver, Jean Thompson, and George Singleton, take note.

- Beth

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
By Wilson, Sloan

This quintessential look at 1950’s conformity could be described as a more hopeful Revolutionary Road.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
By Pollan, Michael

The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the 21st century.

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By Jenny,

Alosha
By Pike, Christopher

4 stars, John

The Awakening
By Carroll, Michael

4 stars, John

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The Tiny One
By Minot, Eliza

4 stars, Beth

How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time
By Jesella, Kara and Meltzer, Marisa

4 stars, Beth

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By Jenny, July 21, 2009

A Fraction of the Whole
By Toltz, Steve

This Booker Prize nominee is hilarious, extremely well-written, and wise; misanthropic but hopeful.

The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order
By Wickersham, Joan

This memoir by a daughter trying to come to terms with her father’s suicide is this season’s The Year of Magical Thinking.

Swallow the Ocean: A Memoir
By Flynn, Laura

Set in 1970s San Francisco, “Swallow the Ocean” is a searing, beautifully written memoir of a childhood under siege and three young girls determined to survive despite their mothers mental instability. In luminous prose, this memoir paints an intimate portrait of what might have been a catastrophic childhood.

Cassandra at the Wedding
By Baker, Dorothy and Eisenberg, Deborah

Cassandra Edwards is a graduate student at Berkeley: brilliant, nerve-wracked, gay, and miserable. Returning to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras for the wedding of her identical twin to a nice doctor from Connecticut, she is hell-bent on sabotaging the wedding.

Work Shirts for Madmen
By Singleton, George

Art and alcoholism collide.

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Throw Like a Girl
By Thompson, Jean

From the celebrated author of “Who Do You Love” comes this collection of 12 new stories that take dead aim at the secrets of womanhood, describing the change from youth to experience in taut, moving prose.

- Beth