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HPL Staff: 2016 Favorites

30 Dec

Another year has come to an end. Some staffers at the Hoboken Public Library share something they loved in 2016. Make sure to visit our blog to find out what we’re reading / watching / listening to in the next year.

Cheers to a wonderful 2017!

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Heidi Schwab, Emerging Technology Librarian and Program Coordinator

This holiday season I have really enjoyed the comedy program based on the Blair Tindell memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs & Classical Music. This Amazon original series takes place in the world of classical music and the audience gets to experience what it is like to be part of a first-class orchestra. The music transforms you but the characters are totally down to Earth. Season 3 takes place in Venice, where we peek inside beautiful villas and amazing concert halls.  It stars Lola Kirke as a young, hungry oboist and Gael Garcia Bernal as the brilliant, exotic new maestro. Many episodes have guest appearances from real world classical music stars like Joshua Bell! 

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Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

I’ve been reading Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series since the beginning with Kitty and the Midnight Hour about a radio DJ that is a werewolf.  You may remember I mentioned it in a blog post about Halloween worthy urban fantasy awhile back. It was therefore with mixed emotions that I read the last title in the series, Kitty Saves the World.  Though I will miss Kitty’s adventures, this was an enjoyable, suspense-filled story and a fitting end to Kitty’s adventures.  Many favorite and beloved characters from previous novels return.  This is a novel that definitely pays off for fans who have stuck by Kitty as she has gone through her many adventures and finally get to find out what the vampire’s mysterious long game was all about. Marguerite Gavin, who performs the audiobook for this and others in the series, does an excellent job and her voice matched the one I’d always imagined in my mind (you can borrow if from Hoopla).  My grandmother will always read the ending of books first since if she doesn’t think the work has a good ending she won’t bother wasting time on it.  Having seen how the Kitty series ends, I can promise that the journey through the books in the series is worth your time.  Check them out from the beginning from BCCLS libraries in print or from Hoopla as audiobooks.

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Kim Iacucci, Young Adult Librarian

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Written as a letter to his teenage son, Coates discusses his experiences and thoughts about living as an African-American male in modern America. Reading is often talked about as a way to walk in another’s shoes and to discover different perspectives on the world. This book did exactly that for me.

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Kerry Weinstein, Reference Librarian

Yes, Justin Bieber’s album Purpose (on Hoopla and CD) was released in late 2015 but try and tell me you didn’t hear Mr. Bieber on pop radio every single day in 2016! 🙂 I guiltily purchased this album on vinyl because “Sorry” is such a catchy tune. When I confessed this purchase to a vinyl-loving friend and fellow lady over 30, she admitted she bought it too. At that moment I felt less alone in the world. #LadiesOver30forBieber

Back to “Sorry”, my favorite track. My eldest niece made her bat mitzvah this past summer, and I made it my mission to learn the choreography to the song and bust the moves on the dance floor at the party. With the help of a hip-hop dance class in Jersey City and repeat viewings of the YouTube video I (mostly) succeeded. It was one of the highlights of my year. The party DJs, my family, and other guests were super impressed with me. However, my niece did not share those sentiments and said I was “weird.” But it’s difficult to win over a 13 year old who is in general mortified by your very existence. One day, when she gets older, she will appreciate that her aunt can recreate pop dance choreo.

 

 

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When Fanfiction Becomes Canon: Twilight; Life and Death: A Reimagining of the Classic Novel, My Little Pony Equestria Girls, Adventure Time’s Fionna and Cake, and Supernatural

30 Sep

Fanfiction where fans of books and TV shows expand on the characters and the universe to create their own spins has become a huge part of Sci-fi and Fantasy fandoms especially with the ease of sharing content on the internet.  Many of the reviews of the recent Harry Potter play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which depicts many of the characters from the main series as adults along with their own children, have claimed that the play reads a bit like fan fiction, which had me thinking about times when fan fiction ideas and creations have made the jump to becoming canonized as part of the actual series.

Twilight; Life and Death: A Reimagining of the Classic Novel, by Stephenie Meyer

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In honor of the 10th Anniversary of Twilight last year, Stephenie Meyer released a double book with her Young Adult novel starring the vampire Edward and human Bella on one side and bound on the opposite the story told with the gender roles reversed so that it is the story of a human male who falls in love with a female vampire.  She was inspired by fan fiction about the characters. Meyer had also released online a portion of Twilight rewritten from Edward’s perspective.  Infamously also the very adult Fifty Shades series began as Twilight fanfiction; E.L. James also published Grey, with her first book told from Christian Grey’s perspective in 2015.  Borrow all of the Twilight series and Life and Death from BCCLS libraries.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls

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As a little girl I loved My Little Ponies–both the TV movies and the pastel colored toys.  The ponies have since went through several different incarnations.   The most recent series centers on Twilight Sparkles and her five new BFFs, who learns about friendship when Twilight takes up residence in Ponyville.  I wasn’t sure about the new series based on my beloved childhood memories, but the fact that Twilight Sparkles loves books and resided, in the beginning of the series, in a library inside a tree won me over.  The surprising thing about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was it wasn’t just little girls this time becoming fans of the show, but also young men who enjoyed the clever animation.  There wasn’t just fan fiction springing up but remixes of the music in the episodes, a vast variety of art, and more.  My Little Pony Fan Conventions popped up across the country.  At the Cons fans often dressed up as human versions of their favorite ponies which were also depicted in some of the fan art.  This inspired Hasbro to create movies based on an alternative universe where the ponies all have human counter parts.  You can borrow the Equestria Girl movies Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games from Hoopla.  BCCLS libraries also have the first in the series Equestria Girls and many of the cartoon series and movies that have appeared through the years.

Adventure Time’s Fionna and Cake

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Although I am totally behind in my viewing of it Adventure Time about the last human boy, Finn, and his magical transforming dog, Jake, living in post-apocalyptic land with a candy kingdom, flying unicorn, and a crazy ice king is another cartoon with a lot of adult fans.  Quirky characters and an intriguing story line make it fun for the whole family.  The creator Pendleton Ward was inspired by Dungeon and Dragons (something I loved playing with my Dad and sister as a kid).  My husband and I enjoy watching Adventure Time with our son, who is still a bit too young for D&D.  Like Twilight its fan fiction moment that became canon comes from gender swapping the characters.  Natasha Allegri who worked on the show created some sketches of Finn as Fionna and Jake as a female cat Cake.  Not only were fans charmed, but so was Ward and Fionna and Cake have appeared in several of the episodes of the show.  Fun fact: Neil Patrick Harris performs the voice of Prince Gumball (in place of Princess Bubblegum) in some of the gender swap episodes.  You can borrow seasons One through Five of Adventure Time from BCCLS Libraries.

Supernatural

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Some fantasy series start out strong and then burn out fast, but Supernatural has lasted for over ten seasons and survived the jump from the WB to the CW network.  The show follows the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, on their endless road trip fighting demons and saving the world time after time.  Having been on so long there are few myths and legends the series hasn’t at some point focused on.  The series has acknowledged fan fiction in several stories.  Season 10’s fifth episode is even titled “Fan Fiction”; the episode focuses on a teacher’s disappearance at an all girl’s school, where they are performing a musical based on the Carver Edlund’s comic book series which is the story of the brother’s adventures.  In earlier episodes, in a metafiction twist, Edlund was revealed as a sort of prophet, who  has visions about the brother’s journey.  These episodes allow the show to lovingly poke fun at some of what has become standard in both the series’s fan fiction as well as the series itself.

Have more examples of when Fan Fiction became Canon?  Let us know in the comments!

-Written by Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

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