I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts On Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron has a good sense of humor. This book is light and enjoyable and will make you smile and maybe even laugh. Included in a list of “What I Wish I’d Known”: “Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five, you can order more than one dessert and you never know.” I agree. Ephron is currently blogging for the Huffington Post. - Reviewed by Nancy

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Rachel Carson was a writer, scientist and the mother of modern ecology. This excellent documentary chronicles her investigation into the effects of chemicals upon our ecosystem. When she wrote the book, Silent Spring, in 1962, she was both hailed and hated. Because of her research and documentation of the hazards of chemicals, the U.S. Government began Congressional Hearings regarding their use and regulation.

Her insights into the interdependence of nature are still valid and meaningful for us today. After watching this dvd, I am re-reading Silent Spring (632.9 Carson) as well as her biography ( Biography Carson). - Reviewed by Deb

State of Play by David Yates

This 2008 release had a great cast with a plot that got more and more twisted with each episode. I love movies like that! They grab you and suck you in and you just have to watch it to see what’s going to happen next. It’s a combination murder-mystery, big-business political intrigue, with enough suspense and drama to keep you constantly revising your expectations of what will happen next. Timely, too, in that the subject matter basically deals with corporate greed and the effects it has on everyday people. The end of every episode was better than the last, with the final three leaving me with a dropped jaw, making for really fun viewing.

I had been wanting to see more of James MacAvoy after watching his wonderful performance in Atonement. He was good in this series, too, and the rest of the cast were convincing in their parts as well. It had moments of comedic relief which also helped. Just when the tension got almost unbearable, the writer inserted some great, anxiety busting gut reactions to the horrible intrigue going on around the characters: nervous giggling, uncontrollable laughter at the absurd audacity of the two-timing politicians and CEO’s involved. When it really counted, though, the human tragedy of the story was not at all overlooked. The ending left me really thoughtful, wondering about human nature. Good movie viewing, definitely some violence, more than I care for, but I’d give it 3 ½ stars! – Reviewed by TCPL Staff

Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins

Addressing the realities, insecurities, fears and joys of modern life, Emily Perkins takes us into the world of Tom and his wife, Ann. Perkins invites us into an intimate connection with this young couple trying to hold their complex lives together. Set in England, the story opens after Ann has died and Tom is seeking to make sense of her death and of her life. Sensitively and honestly, Perkins uses Tom’s voice to carry us back into their lives before her death and into the sense of fragility that haunts them. The descriptions of their love, the excitement of their pregnancy and of the challenges, both seen and unseen, they face drew me deeply and quickly into the story. Knowing that Ann has died, I followed along wondering if her death was caused by the hooded man who she’s seen following her, a health problem or some other incident. While this suspense is one focus of the book, it by no means overshadows the story. The writing moves along quickly but not without the well-written details and descriptions of subtleties that made me feel as if I knew Ann and Tom as friends. This is a great book for readers who enjoy a bit of suspense without ending up being kept awake by nightmares! It also offers an insightful tale of what it’s truly like to live in these times. - Reviewed by Cassandra

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher, is a solid fantasy novel which has one extra thing going for it - it’s not like other fantasy novels. While I'm a fantasy fan, people who like the genre do have to admit one thing - much of it (by no means all, but much of it) - is written as a Tolkien rip-off. The same medieval societies, the same "fear but respect" magic, the same elves, dwarves, orcs, and other such things. Furies of Calderon is different.

There is no question this is a pure fantasy novel, unlike Butcher's other, more popular series The Dresden Files which takes place in the modern day. This is a world where magic is real. So real, in fact, that everyone has a little of it. Every human has at least a little bit of "fury-craft", the ability to manipulate elemental creatures called Furies. Furies come in six types - earth, air, fire, water, metal, and wood - and humans usually have at least a little ability in 1 or 2 of those types, which allows them to shape items made of those things, or manipulate emotions that are like those things (firecrafting calls up anger, for example), or even have simulacrums of living creatures made of those things - we meet a dog made of stone, for example. Most humans just have enough to make life a little easier - to light lamps, or keep the rain off, or make the field a little easier to plow... but some, mostly nobility, are incredibly powerful and can do things that well qualify as "magic". Everyone in the entire world... except Tavi.

Tavi is 15, and by 15 most students have at least a bit of skill (it seems to start no later than puberty, sometimes earlier) in furycrafting. Tavi can't do it at all. He is seen - at best - as fundamentally disabled - while the crueler folks among his village think he's a freak of nature. Tavi is smart, sensible, and caring, but seems destined to live an abnormal life, and probably alone. He's being raised by his aunt and uncle in a small valley and outside a small village. It’s utterly unimportant, and far removed from the political intrigues of the Roman-like cities and civilization of the Aleran Empire. Or it would be, except that his valley is the border in to the lands of the Marat, a nomadic, almost-human people who have gone to war with Alera before, and seem poised to do so again.

Tavi, his friends (including one newly arrived), and his family must do more than just survive the coming storm of clashes between those loyal to the empire and those who oppose it, and of the marauding Marat - if possible, they have to avert it. If you want to read a fantasy novel with a fully-constructed and realized setting but are a bit bored of the same old thing, you should read Furies of Calderon, the first book in a 6 book cycle called Codex Alera, 4 of which are already published - the 5th will be out in November. - Reviewed by John