The Heist!

Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg have hit a home run with their latest book, The Heist.  Starring FBI Special Agent Kate O'Hare, whose job is chasing down the world's most wanted criminals.  She is tenacious and ambitious and has been obsessed with apprehending international criminal, Nicolas Fox, for a large portion of her career.  Nicolas is a natural con man--handsome, dangerously charming and notorious for running successful and elaborate schemes on very high-profile people.  Kate finally captures Nicolas and then is confronted with an edict from her boss--she must let Nicolas go in exchange for him working with the FBI to capture a corrupt investment banker hiding on a private island in Indonesia and recovering the millions he has stolen.  To accomplish this task, Nicolas asks to hire his own team of ragtag criminals including Agent O'Hare.  They stage an elaborate heist to capture the banker, that is hilarious to watch.  If you enjoy reading Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, you will also enjoy this madcap adventure.  I hope that this is the first of many collaborations between Evanovich and Goldberg.  Visit Janet Evanovich's website at www.evanovich.com and Lee Goldberg's at www.leegoldberg.com for more information on the authors.

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place...

If you love stories about resilient people succeeding in tough situations, make sure you check out 127 Hours, a new movie that has just been released to DVD. It is based on the story, Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston, and tells the story of a harrowing hiking adventure. Aron is an adventure junkie, who enjoys hiking in Blue John Canyon in Utah. An avid mountain climber, 127 Hours is the true story of his remarkable mountain climbing adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon. He spends five days trying to free himself while examining his life, friends and family and surviving the elements and a lack of water. I admired Ralston's courage and tenacity and his amazingly upbeat attitude that remained throughout the five days. The movie is visually beautiful and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of this wonderful natural world contrasted with the gritty struggle of Ralston to break free from the boulder. The movie stays true to the book that it is based on, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and I think it's worth it to read the book as well as watch the movie in order to get the story in Ralston's own words. A truly great performance by James Franco (it will keep you riveted to your seat) and an incredible courageous story of survival about a man who deserves to be a hero.

How to Catch a Falling Star

(The following is another guest blog entry from library patron Ashley N. Please e-mail Jennifer at jensmith@warren.lib.ms.us if you'd like to become a guest blogger too!)

It’s a bird, no..it’s a plane; no…it’s a Star! Read Stardust by Neil Gaiman and join Tristan Thorn as he searches for his Star; a star he promised to his love, Victoria Forester. Tristan's city of Wall has everything a simple country boy could ever want, except adventure! There is a guard posted at the only opening in the wall that separates the city from the forest to the east. Tristan has served as tje guard several times; however, he has often wondered about the world beyond the wall. One night, while confessing his love for Victoria, a star falls from the sky beyond the wall. Victoria agrees to marry Tristan on the condition that he retrieves the star. Tristan figures out how to pass the guard and discovers the magical town of Faerie right before his eyes--though he has never seen the likes of this magical place, Tristan is determined to find his love’s fallen Star. What Tristan does not realize is that his father, Dunstan Thorn, had started a similar journey seventeen years prior to retrieve a gift for his love, Daisy Hempstock. When Tristan finds the Star, he quickly realizes that she will not easily become someone’s gift. Yvaine, the star, tells him how she was knocked out of the sky by something and how she is going to find herself a magic black traveling candle to get her back to her home in the sky. Tristan uses this quest to coax Yvaine into coming with him, with the promise that he will give her his remaining candle if she helps him win over Victoria, and she agrees. What the pair don't know is that there are several people searching for Yvaine, to use her for their own dark purposes. Three witches collectively known as the Lilim, are after her to regain their youth by eating her heart; the living sons of Lord of Stormhold are searching for her because they all want to be the next Lord, and since the current Lord is on his death bed, they try to kill each other while searching for Yvaine. This novel is full of suspense, mystery, and magic, and the characters are very colorful and well written. Stardust won the Alex Award in 2000, given by the American Library Association. In 2007, Stardust was made into a movie; starring: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Robert De Niro, Michelle Phillips, and narrated by Ian McKellan. This novel was Neil Gaiman’s first solo prose novel.

Get Obsessed or have an Everest Adventure!

The library recently added two wonderful dramas to its DVD collection: Obsessed and Everest. Obsessed stars Beyonce' Knowles, Ali Larter and Idris Elba. When successful financial advisor Derek Charles (Idris Elba) moves into a new neighborhood with his loving wife Sharon (Beyonce' Knowles) and their young son Kyle, Derek believes he has the perfect life. Then, a new temporary employee, Lisa (Ali Larter) joins the firm and sets her sights on Derek. After several misunderstood encounters, Lisa's behavior begins to spiral out of control and it is up to Derek and Sharon to take charge of the situation and Lisa's outrageous behavior.

Everest is the chilling motion picture adventure based on a group of climbers' 1982 trip to Mt. Everest. When an unexpected solo mountain climb ends in catastrophe for John Laughlin (played by Jason Priestley), his fellow climber friends decide to follow his dream and conquer the world's tallest peak. The film examines their daily struggles to reach the summit, including the drama of accidents and rescues, the tragedies of death, and the challenges of dealing with the elements. The scenery in the film is beautiful and the events are harrowing. Both of these films are action packed thrillers that will leave you breathless.