DVD Review: Mother Ghost

Wouldn't it be nice to work out issues with your parents this holiday season, even those who have passed on? You wouldn't have all those bad feelings and you could really get into absolute joy. Don't shake your head, it's really possible. All you have to do is watch the movie Mother Ghost.

Keith's life is falling apart because he has not accepted the death of his mother and has major issues with both her and his living father. His wife has threatened divorce and things that were buried with his mother keep reappearing. In absolute desperation he phones in to a faltering radio psychiatrist, Dr. Norris, who has been told he will lose his job if his ratings don't vastly improve. With Dr. Norris giving Keith a caring heart by phone, he begins a type of therapy that just might work for anyone. Besides bringing tears to your eyes, the movie will make you ask yourself if you have any unfinished business with your own parents. Mother Ghost has a unique storyline and excellent acting by Mark Thompson and Kevin Pollak. It is a psychological comedy that will grip your heart and maybe improve your holiday season. -Henry (Downtown)

DVD Review: Everybody's Fine

Marketed in theaters as a holiday comedy, Everybody’s Fine is a DVD release with Robert DeNiro and Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale as his adult children. The story plays out as a sad drama centered on a recent widower, DeNiro, who now must try and reconnect to his far-flung grown children and learn about them as adults. The film is a tear jerker, and the audience feels sorry for the father and the kids whom he never knew while they were growing up. Everybody’s Fine is a typical drama if you know what to expect: great performances from DeNiro and especially from Rockwell. Everybody’s Fine is rated PG-13 for a brief violent scene, sexuality, drug references, and language. - Kathy (Downtown)

Chandler's Parade of Lights and Tumbleweed Tree Lighting

Kick off the holiday season with a Chandler Tradition. The 2010 Parade of Lights and Tumbleweed Tree Lighting ceremony will be held on Satuday, December 4 in the A.J. Chandler Park / San Marcos Resort area in Downtown Chandler.

Entertainment and kids' visits with Santa start at 4:30. The Parade of Lights begins at 7:00, with the tree lighting ceremony to follow at 8:00. Chandler's unique Tumbleweed Tree dates back to 1957, when Chandler residents began gathering tumbleweeds to fashion into a holiday tree.

Visit the City of Chandler website for more information about the event.

Book Review: Packing for Mars

Japan chooses theirs by making them fold paper cranes. America's first included multiple monkeys named Albert. Others have been subjected to miserable food, two weeks without a change of clothes, and bizzare toilet procedures. They're astronauts, and they've got an eye to go to Mars next. Mary Roach examines everything that goes into planning this trip, and any space voyage, in her book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. From the early days of the space program to the International Space Station (which has much better bathroom facilities), Roach details the challenges of making everything we take for granted on Earth work in an environment with no gravity, no up or down, no atmosphere and no resources except those the astronauts bring with them. Who knew it would be so hard to eat, to keep clean, to fight motion sickness, and to get along with other people while trapped in a metal box with no way out?

Roach turns her curious and irreverent eye on all aspects of space travel, creating a fascinating, sometimes gross, and always laugh-out-loud documentary peppered with tangents about all sorts of interesting things. Her trademark voice is also on display in other books that explore unexpected topics, including Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. - Michelle (Sunset)

Audiobook review: Sworn to Silence

Formerly Amish sheriff talks tough in Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo, read by Kathleen McInerney. (Also in regular and large print.)

Do you like mildly “chicklit” books starring former Amish people who wield the F-Bomb? Good news - this is a series now. Sheriff Kate Burkholder left the sect but still knows the players in this neck of Ohio and is determined to catch a killer of young women, both Amish and “English” (non-Amish).

Burkholder eventually hooks up with a state-level cop with his own demons. Oh - did I mention that she thinks the killer may be a man who assaulted her and whom her Amish family “dispatched” to the next world - maybe (she had never really been sure he was dead)? I didn’t mention it? Well, it’s true.

There is some hooking up (the mildly chicklit part) but nothing too icky. Two damaged souls bumping in the night.

We are not talking “Witness” here with dreamy sponge baths and barn raisings. More like "where shall we stash the stiff?" Kathleen McInerney does a fair job of reading without getting all girlish and inserting charming little pauses. I hate it when that happens.

Star Lawrence owns a recession site called Do the Hopey Copey (http://hopeycopey.blogspot.com/) and can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.

Books on the big screen

...or small screen. Here's the latest news about forthcoming book-to-movie and televion adapations.

Charlaine Harris’s Harper Connelly books are being considered by CBS for adaptation to a TV series, following the succes of HBO's True Blood, based on her Sookie Stackhouse novels. The 4th Harper Connelly novel, Grave Secret, came out last year.

Shooting on Life of Pi, based on Yan Martel's award-winning novel, will being in January. Director Ang Lee has chosen newcomer Suraj Sharma to play the lead role, in an audition that included over 3,000 other teenagers. (Also available in large type and audio.)

Filming on The Hobbit is scheduled to begin in February, following an agreement reached between director Peter Jackson and the New Zealand actors guild. The movie will be realeased in two parts. (Find the library's many editions of The Hobbit, including commentary and graphic novel adaptations, here. Hint: the original novel is listed as F TOLKIEN or YA TOLKIEN.)

The Help was the top movie story in People magazine. Based on Kathryn Stockett's debut novel, the film is directed by Tate Taylor and scheduled to come out in August 2011. (Find the book, large type, or audio.)

Chandler Library and Friends of the Library online

Are you a fan of Facebook? Thrilled about Twitter? You can find the Chandler Library and the Friends of the Library on Facebook and Twitter!

Visit the library's Facebook page to learn about events happening at the library, see what others are saying about the library, and more:
http://www.facebook.com/chandlerpubliclibrary

Follow the library on Twitter to get quick updates about library happenings:
http://twitter.com/ChandlerLibAZ

Are you a Friend of the library? "Friend" the Friends on Facebook, and see when the next Friends booksale is, find out what special programs the Friends are sponsoring, and learn about the Friends gift shop/cafe:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-Chandler-Public-Library/113175892072089

Get updates about what the Friends of the Library are doing, and other fun bookish stuff:
http://twitter.com/fotcpl