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Celebrate Disability Pride Month: The Space You Left Behind and Stronger

16 Jul

The Space You Left Behind
by Ona Gritz
Some of our Hoboken residents may remember Ona Gritz, who, back in the early 2000’s, was the YA Librarian here at the Hoboken Public Library and helped me run the library’s first Writers Group. Now Gritz is writing full time; The Space You Left Behind was one of two Young Adult novels she had published in 2024 along with Take a Sad Song. In The Space You Left Behind, Cara a sixteen year old who has cerebral palsy works to overcome her self-consciousness about her disability. She and her crush bond over a mystery podcast and then decide to to look into Cara’s own mystery about who her biological father is. Though the novel is fiction, Gritz is able to use her own experience with having cerebral palsy to give authenticity to Cara’s depiction and her outlook of the world. You can also checkout Gritz’s short autobiographical work, On the Whole which details her experience as a new mother with a physical disability, which I had previously blogged about.

Stronger
We screened Stronger as our Monthly Library Movie for Adults back in April , which is Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Jeff Bauman who lost both his legs during the Boston Marathon bombing and was instrumental in helping get a description of the bomber so he could be found. At first Bauman struggles to adjust to his loss of limbs but with the support of his girlfriend, family, and friends, he learns to use prosthetics and works through his PTSD. The movie came out in 2017 and despite not having huge success on the big screen, I think it is one that should not be overlooked if you enjoy biographical films about real life perseverance. The film was directed by David Gordon Green and written by John Pollono, based on the memoir by Jeff Bauman and Bret Witter. Gyllenhaal, gives a stunning performance as the lead and Tatiana Maslany, Miranda Richardson, Carlos Sanz, and Clancy Brown also are excellent in the supporting cast. Having lived in Boston for two years, I felt they gave an authentic look at the resilient blue collar community that resides there.

For our July Movie Screening we will be showing Les Miserables in honor of Bastille Day (French Independence Day) at 10:30am on July 11.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Cozy Mystery Spinoffs: Beyond Paradise and Frankie Drake Mysteries

19 Jun

Beyond Paradise
One of the favorites of library staff and patrons when it comes to cozy mysteries has been Death in Paradise where a variety of fish out of water UK detectives take on the detective inspector position at an imaginary Caribbean Island, Saint Marie. A fan favorite was DI Humphrey Goodman who left the island to be with his fiancée, Martha. Now in the 2023 spinoff, Beyond Paradise, we find out what they have been up to as the couple leave London to start a new life on the Devon coast, where Martha grew up. Humphrey takes up the vacant position of Detective Inspector at Shipton Abbott police station while Martha opens up a café focused on serving local produce and products. Although less tropical, the town still parallels the other series with its charming seaside visuals, in this case filmed in several Cornish towns. The first season is a bingeworthy 6 episodes, clocking in at just over 5 hours. You don’t have to have watched Death in Paradise to enjoy Beyond Paradise, but if you enjoy the show and haven’t watched the original, it is definitely worth checking out. Both shows are available to stream from Kanopy.

Frankie Drake Mysteries
Another popular long running cozy mystery series is Murdoch Mysteries which is set around a 1895 police station in Canada. This series spun off the Frankie Drake Mysteries set in the 1920’s, though in this case older versions of the Murdoch Mystery characters like George Crabtree make guest appearances in the new show rather than having them be a central focus, which instead is on an all female detective agency. Lauren Lee Smith plays the lead character with Chantel Riley as Trudy Clarke, Frankie’s partner and bff. My two favorites though are Rebecca Liddiard as Mary Shaw a morality officer from the Toronto’s police department who often manages to sneak herself into murder cases and Sharron Matthews who plays Flo Chakowitz, a morgue attendant. The series ran for four years (41 episodes). It is a charming mix of mystery, humor and history.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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