Find
10 South Emerson, Mount Prospect, IL 60056 | 847/253-5675
Font:

Check It Out

Sigh No More

Much Ado About Nothing DVD cover Hero and Claudio are to be wed in a week. To pass the time, they conspire to make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love. Beatrice would “rather hear a dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves” her and Benedick, well, he’d prefer to go pale with “anger, with sickness, or with hunger” than with love. While the snarky sweethearts are hilariously occupied, other conspirators are up to much more nefarious activities in Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean adaptation, Much Ado About Nothing.

And remember, A Midsummer Knight’s Read, the Summer Reading Program, has officially started! If you watch, read or listen to anything by or inspired by William Shakespeare, you can get up to five bonus raffle tickets.

By MPPL on June 2, 2011 Categories: Literary, Movies and Television

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

The Weird Sisters book coverCathleen of Fiction/AV/Teen Services recommends The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown:

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” – Robert Frost

The Andreas sisters are named for three wildly different Shakespeare heroines, and the one thing they have in common is that their lives are messy.  Bianca has just been fired and is swimming in debt.  Cordelia gives up her semi-nomadic life when she discovers she’s pregnant.  Rosalind had already been living at home in order to care for their ailing parents, and the tension of her upcoming wedding isn’t helping.  In Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters, all three end up back under the same roof, and the curtain rises on a masterful blend of drama and lightness that would make the Bard proud.

By MPPL on May 2, 2011 Categories: All Staff Picks, Books, Literary, Picks by Cathleen

Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry

Portraits of a Few People I've Made Cry book coverUnconventional love is the focus of a new collection of wise and wonderful stories by Evanston author Christine Sneed.  Not to be confused with romance, these tales paint perspectives on what draws people together and what roles we take.  The characters are bold and interesting; the writing lovely and modern.  You’ll find energy, wit, reflection, and originality in a work that was named one of 2010’s best surprises by TimeOut Chicago.  Admire the sure-handed delicacy of Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry.

By MPPL on April 25, 2011 Categories: Books, Literary

John Huston's Take on Flannery O'Connor

Wise Blood DVD cover Hazel Motes may look like a preacher, but he isn’t the normal kind. Hazel sermonizes for a new church, the Church of Truth, and in Hazel’s truth – there’s no crucified Christ. Wise Blood, starring Brad Dourif, is based on the 1952 novel by Flannery O’Connor. Both the novel and the film are a compelling slice of Southern life where you’re never quite sure if you’re in for redemption or rejection, if the characters are capable of love or only anger. There are no answers here and every bend is an awkward turn. If you’re in the mood to knit your brows and ask some deep questions, try Wise Blood.

By MPPL on April 21, 2011 Categories: Books, Literary, Movies and Television

Pulitzer Time

The Best of It book coverHave you heard?  The 2011 Pulitzer Prizes, which honor excellence in journalism and the arts, have been announced!  Check out these winners:

Poetry – The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan

Nonfiction – The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Biography – Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

History – The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner

Fiction – A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

By MPPL on April 20, 2011 Categories: Awards, Books, Literary, Nonfiction

A Retreat into History

All Shall Be Well book cover Burt Hecker is much more comfortable in a time other than his own.  A sixty-three-year-old medieval re-enactor in upstate New York, he dresses in a tunic and sometimes enjoys a little too much homemade mead.  Hecker joins a group traveling to Germany to celebrate the 900th birthday of Saint Hildegard von Bingen, but his true purpose is to rescue his estranged son Tristan from the Bohemian city of Prague.  Sound odd?  Exactly!  All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka has outrageousness aplenty to satisfy a casual reader, but just as in life, tragedy and humor are often intertwined.

By MPPL on March 28, 2011 Categories: Books, Humor, Literary

A Predetermined Life

Never Let Me Go book coverFiguring out a purpose in life is a rite of passage.  What if you knew clearly why you were here, but you wanted more?  For Ruth, Tommy, and Kath, the future has been set since before they were given life.  They grew up together at the reclusive Hailsham boarding school, one of many sites that prepares individuals for a very specific function.  The question is whether anything can truly ready them for what they are meant to do.  Recently adapted into a feature film, Never Let Me Go is an acclaimed novel from Kazuo Ishiguro.  Reader Rosalyn Landor is deeply moving as an adult Kathy, who reveals her story with thoughtful reflection and powerful realization.  This is one story that won’t let you go.

By MPPL on March 21, 2011 Categories: Audiobooks, Literary

Critics' Choice

A Visit from the Goon Squad book coverWant to read a winner?  Try one of the newly announced 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award recipients.  Taking top prize for fiction is Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, a bold novel with overlapping stories about youth and life and what might be lost along the way.  The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson won Best Nonfiction for chronicling one of the great untold stories of American history.  Best Biography honors were bestowed on the intriguingly titled How to Live: Or, A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell.  Last, but by no means least, is Darin Strauss’s heartbreaking autobiography Half a Life about coming to terms with an long-ago accident that cost a girl’s life.

By MPPL on March 14, 2011 Categories: Awards, Books, Literary, Nonfiction

LISTS: Austen Admirers Who Get It Right

Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field book coverIt is a truth universally acknowledged that a reader who adores the works of Jane Austen must be in want of more.  How does a willing fan navigate the abundance of continuations and modernizations that crowd the shelves?

If you want to avoid the empty re-treads and find the Austen-inspired books that capture Jane’s spirit but also stand on their own, click here.

By MPPL on February 18, 2011 Categories: Books, Historical Fiction, Lists, Literary

Donna C.’s Pick: People of the Book

Donna C. staff picks photoIn every age, attempts have been made to create and destroy havens of religious and ethnic harmony. Geraldine Brooks’ exquisite novel, People of the Book, traces the mysterious and harrowing adventure of the Sarajevo Haggadah, as it weaves among such societies throughout history, bearing witness to brutal intolerance and laudable heroism.

By MPPL on January 25, 2011 Categories: All Staff Picks, Books, Literary, Picks by Donna C.