Philomena

I like to watch as many Academy Award Nominated films that I can every year, and I was just able to view Philomena, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2013.  Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star in this wonderful story about Philomena Lee, an Irish mother who conceived a child out of wedlock and unwillingly gave him up for adoption.  Almost fifty years after his birth, Philomena meets Martin

Sixsmith, a former BBC reporter looking for his next big break, With a few clues in hand, they set off on a journey to find Philomena's long lost son---a journey that takes them from the Abbey in Ireland where Philomena lived and had the baby, then to America and back again.  Based on the 2009 book by Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, the movie is a wonderful story about an unlikely friendship full of humor and warmth.  The movie is rated PG-13 and contains special features such as "A Conversation with Judi Dench," "The Real Philomena Lee," a "Q & A with Steve Coogan," and "Feature Commentary with Steve Coogan and Screenwriter Jeff Pope."  The library has The Lost Child of Philomena Lee in both book and audio format.

A Taste of Terror in November

Little Star is by John Ajvide Lindqvist who wrote“Let the Right One In.” This was made into the movie “Let Me In” and is about a little girl vampire. His new work is on a different subject. A man finds a baby in the woods, left for dead. He brings the baby home, and he and his wife raise the girl in their basement. When a shocking and catastrophic incident occurs, the couple’s son, Jerry, whisks the girl away to Stockholm to start a new life. There, he enters her in a nation-wide singing competition. Another young girl who’s never fit in sees the performance on TV, and a spark is struck that will ignite the most terrifying duo In modern fiction.    

You loved him when you were a kid, now the guy that gave you Goosebumps is writing for adults. His first adult novel is Red Rain by R.L. Stine and it taps into some grown-up fears. Lea Sutter finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Caroline, the wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts a path of destruction through the island and Lea barely escapes with her life. In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers two orphaned boys—twins. Filled with a desire to do something to help, to make something good of all she witnessed, Lea impulsively decides to adopt them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful; Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark, a child psychologist, and their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t so pleased. But even they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders, with the police narrowing in.