A Look Back at the Stories Behind Classic Hollywood Tabloid News

An interesting new addition to our Large Type collection is 'Scandals of Classic Hollywood : Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema' by Anne Helen Petersen.

The book has fourteen chapters, each devoted to a different celebrity or scandal. Stars of the silent screen such as Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow (The 'It' Girl), early talking film stars and stars like Marlon Brando that started in black and white films and survived the transition to color.

Not just a collection of clippings from gossip columns, the stories include what was happening in politics, history and Hollywood, informing about the time and place as well as the events - some not so scandalous by today's standards, but shocking and, in some cases, career ending in their day.

Two Beautiful & Atmospheric Movies on DVD

I've had some time off recently and I've been able to watch some of our newest movies--two of which stand out more than the others. Calvary from Fox Searchlight Pictures and The Calling from Sony Entertainment Networks. Both of these haunting films have the element of mystery to them, but they are very much character driven stories.

Calvary begins with Father James--played by Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter Series)--listening to confession of the congregants of his small Irish town. Father James is a widower and former alcoholic who joined the priesthood after the death of his beloved wife. A man enters the confessional and tells Father James that in a week's time, he is going to kill the priest. The mysterious man gives the Father one week to get his affairs in order and tells him that the reason he is to die is because the would-be murderer was sexually abused by a priest when he was a boy. The murderer goes on to say that no one cares if a bad priest is killed, so he has chosen Father James precisely because he is a good man and priest. Even with this threat over his head, the priest must take care of his congregation as well as his emotionally fragile daughter who has come from London for a visit. Father James deduces who this man is, but the audience doesn't get to know until the next-to-last scene of the movie. Will the murderer go through with his plan? Will Father James flee or will he stay to take care of his flock? Some of the scenes and characters in this movie are hard to watch, but if you can stand a bit of cursing, some grit and gore (not too much), then you may just enjoy this darkly comedic tale of religion and faith and what it means to face your own Calvary.

The Calling stars Susan Sarandon as Hazel Micallef. She is a detective in a small Canadian town who has a drug and alcohol problem stemming from an accident that left her with severe back pain. The same accident took the life of her unborn baby, so, understandably, she is not the most religious or faithful person. When she goes to check on an elderly citizen, she finds the woman murdered in an unusual fashion. Soon, another murder takes place; this one looks like suicide, but there are a few similarities. Micallef's long suffering partner--played by Gil Bellows--and a rookie cop (Topher Grace), who has transferred from the city, are finding victims of a serial killer who is crossing Canada and whose modus operandi includes elements of a Christian mystical prayer that is supposed to raise the dead. The audience learns who the killer is about halfway through, but the reasons for the killings remains a mystery. This movie is beautifully rendered. The bleak landscape of the Canadian winter is an apropos backdrop for this atmospheric mystery/thriller.

If you are a fan of atmospheric mysteries, then you may enjoy both of these movies as much as I did.

New Books on World Wars I and II

Recent additions to our Adult Nonfiction collection cover stories behind the scenes of two different World Wars.

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The conflict that would eventually be come to known as World War I was entering its tenth month when the luxury ocean liner Lusitania departed from New York on the way to Liverpool, England.  On board were nearly 2,000 people, including crew and 1,265 passengers.  The passenger list included an unusually large number of children (95) and infants (39) due to a number of English families wanting to return to their homes as quickly as possible with England's possible entry into the conflict looming.  The fastest ship that was still civilian, the speed and size of the Lusitania made the passengers feel they would be safe.

In Dead Wake : The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, author Erik Larson opens a window up back to the past, putting people and names in the place of the numbers in the history books as well as showing how spectacularly Germany's intent to end the war only served to draw both England and the United States into it - with a vengeance

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While many people have heard the story of how King Edward VIII gave up the throne and became the Duke of Windsor in order to marry a twice-divorced American woman named Wallis Simpson, fewer have heard the story about the relationship between Edward and Hitler.

17 Carnations, by Andrew Morton, takes a look at a part of history that has largely been either ignored or covered up - Hitler's hopes to conquer England and restore Edward to the English throne as a puppet ruler under his direction.

Following Edward from his days as the prince who was the handsome darling of the British Empire to the aftermath following the end of World War II, it is an intriguing look into the life of a man who was born into a position that seemed to put him constantly at odds with himself and his family.

Could You Live in a Tiny House?

Recently, I have read a lot of material about the "Tiny House Movement." Basically, people either build or buy tiny houses--usually movable on a trailer of some kind--to reduce their bills as well as their footprint on the planet. Most are quite small, less than 700 square feet and people can get mighty creative with their tiny spaces! There is usually a loft with a ladder or perhaps some stairs with storage underneath, a tiny kitchen, and most, but not all, have a bathroom with a composting toilet. I've even seen a tiny house with a hot tub attached! These little cabins can be heated and cooled cheaply and families find themselves in very close quarters; which makes for lots of family time!
I have often wondered why someone would want to move into such a small space and give up the creature comforts that a larger home can afford. The truth is that those reasons vary as much as the people who build tiny houses. While reducing costs and impact on the planet seem to be common reasons, a sense of adventure and being able to take your home all over the country with you seem to be pretty popular reasons, too. Another reason is a sense of accomplishment. How many of us in today's world can say that we built our own home with our own hands?

In The Big Tiny: a Build-It-Myself Memoir, author Dee Williams tells the story of how she went from a money-pit of a house with a mortgage to building her own tiny house that she can park in her friends back yard. Dee's life changed in a moment when she had a near death experience at a local grocery store. She was only forty-two at the time and the doctors diagnosed her with a heart condition. Her major health scare made her take stock of her life and how she wanted to live it. She was reminded that life is short and time is precious, and she wanted to spend hers with the people and things she truly loved.
Even though she had painstakingly restored a sprawling house in the Pacific Northwest, Dee realized that the mortgage payments, constant repairs, top notch appliances, and extra rooms could not compare with the financial freedom and the ultimate luxury of time that you get when you downsize. She decided to build her own house from the ground up. Building this eighty-four-square-foot house own her own was just the beginning of her new life. Dee can now list everything she owns on a single sheet of paper, her monthly upkeep is about eight dollars, and it only takes her ten minutes to clean the entire house. She now has the time to spend with her friends and family, she has the freedom to take off on an adventure at a moment's notice, or she can simply drink a beer and watch the sunset on her tiny front porch.

This book is more memoir and less how-to when it comes to tiny house-building. The library only has the Large Print version of this book and there are only a very few black-and-white photographs, but they give you a good idea of how small Dee Williams lives. If, however, you enjoy books about how life-changing moments send people down new paths, then this is certainly a book you would enjoy.
If you would like to find out about building your own tiny house, there are several blogs that do a good job: thesmallhousecatalog.com, www.tinyhousedesign.com, and tinyhouseblog.com. The library also has small house plans as well as books on building houses, plumbing, wiring, and other DIY projects that may inspire you to build your own tiny house.