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HPL Staff Gives Thanks

25 Nov

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I asked my colleagues at the Hoboken Public Library what books or TV shows or digital media they were thankful to find this year. Following are their favorites, which are available at the library or through interlibrary loan.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

-Kerry Weinstein, Reference Librarian

 

graduates-in-wonderland

Photo by Shannon Campbell

Shannon Campbell, Children’s Librarian
After 19 years of education, with an astronomical amount of papers, projects, and presentations, I finally graduated this year in May. I spent the entire summer knowing that in the upcoming fall, I had no professor or class to report to, no looming deadline hanging over my head for a paper or project. It felt freeing, and absolutely scary. I didn’t have the next step all laid out like I had for the previous 19 years. I looked to everyone and everything for advice and comfort, and found it in the book Graduates in Wonderland: True Dispatches from Down the Rabbit Hole, by Jessica Pan and Rachel Kapelke-Dale. The story is constructed through a series of emails the girls send to each other the years following graduation. They talk about their successes, failures, fears, goals, dreams, people and places they have fallen in love with, and people and places they fell out of love with. It very much expressed the mindset I was in at the time. The cherry on top of the cake was my friends and I had sent the book to each other with notes in the margins reflecting our feelings on any of the topics as we read through it. It was very much like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but book-club style! Not only did I have the authors to look to for comfort, but I also had my friends through their words. That particular copy had been to NYC, Shanghai, California, and of course, Hoboken. To sum up what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving: my supportive friends, my education, and the authors of this book that perfectly express the scary (and amazing) journey of entering into adulthood.
life-on-mars
Carolyn Hartwick, Account Clerk
I am grateful for a June 24 Staff Picks – British Edition post by Clay Waters.  One of his recommendations was for the British television series Life on Mars starring the delightful John Simm.  At the time I was a bit lost with no Sherlock, Doctor Who, or Walking Dead to catch up on so I binge-watched the 16 episodes in early July and then hummed David Bowie tunes to myself for the rest of the summer.  It was a great show, delivered quickly though BCCLS interlibrary loan, and something I am glad didn’t pass me by thanks to the Hoboken Library Staff Picks blog!
wolfpack
Heidi Schwab, Emerging Technology Librarian and Program Coordinator
What I took away from the award-winning documentary The Wolfpack is that even though the brothers, their mother and sister were living in a very bad situation, there is such a sweetness and kindness to them. It is amazing how they protected their mother and were sympathetic to their mentally-ill father who kept them locked up.  After growing up basically prisoners they retained their innocence and positive look at the world. This is a perfect Thanksgiving movie because we learn that even people who grow up in terrible circumstances can grow up to be positive and relatively happy in a way.
code-name-verity
Kim Iacucci, Young Adult Librarian

This year I am thankful that I read Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I read and enjoy a lot of books every year but there are very few that live up to the phrase “page turner.” This book is so surprising that the minute I finished I wanted to start over from the beginning to see how the pieces fit together. It’s not an easy read. There’s war, torture and loss. But also friendship, love and hope. Highly recommended.

 

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Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

I’m thankful that we will be offering some great new services next month to our patrons: JobNow and HelpNow from Brainfuse.  Help Now provides students with online homework help from qualified tutors between 2 PM and 11 PM.  There are also always available video tutorials and practice tests for exams like the GED and SAT.  There is assistance for adults with skill building and who may need help with essays, business letters, or other writing.  JobNow provides assistance for job seekers with their resumes, interview coaching and more.  Check them out starting in December!

 

 

enchanted-april

Rosary Van Ingen, Adult Circulation Services Department Head

My pick for the #gratitude post is The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. This novel, set in post-WWI Europe, celebrates love, friendship and family. This book never fails to remind me of the beauty and power of friendship.

 

 

night-gardener

Sharlene Edwards, Senior Children’s Librarian

I am so happy to have recently picked up The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier. When it was published last year, I put it on my mental to-read list and continued on my adult fiction kick.  My to-read list is predictably long and unrealistic, and I would have most certainly forgotten about Auxier’s juvenile fantasy novel if I hadn’t spied HPL’s Young Adult Librarian hurriedly reading the last ten pages before starting her work day.  I brought it with me on my train ride home that night, and, by the end of page one, I knew I was going to fall completely in love with Auxier’s creepy Victorian tale about two young orphans who find themselves desperate for food and shelter at the door of an infamously strange house in the woods. Quickly the children learn that there are sinister forces at work in their new residence. The occupants, an unhappy family who is burdened by a mysterious illness, are under the dark thrall of a wishing tree. After finding myself in a bit of a reading slump, Auxier’s beautifully written novel reminded me of the power of artful storytelling.

MSCR blog 11.15

Kerry Weinstein, Reference Librarian

This year I am thankful to have founded, with Rosary, the Mile Square City Readers book club. We have a wonderful, opinionated group that brings fresh perspectives and interesting insights to the books we read. I have tried to start a few book clubs in the past that didn’t last too long, and I’m excited to have this great club to talk books with once a month.

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Pack Up Your Native Soil: Traveling the World with Vampires

28 Oct

In Dracula, a vampire must bring boxes of his or her native soil from where they were born to be buried in to protect them from the sun during the day.  He would certainly be lugging it around a lot, if he went all of the places the vampire myth has traveled.  Here are a few films to checkout this Halloween to see how vampires have translated across the world.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

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I had been hearing a lot of buzz online about A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night from fans of horror as being one of the most original and interesting vampire movies in years.  Technically this is an American film, however, it is set in a spooky Iranian ghost town called Bad City and the film is in Farsi with English subtitles.  A sweet love story emerges between a young Iranian man, who is overwhelmed by taking care of his drug addicted father, and a mysterious young woman who glides about town in something that resembles at times a chador and other’s Dracula’s cape.  The black and white film is visually stunning.  A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is available from several BCCLS libraries and online from Hoopla.  I’m interested to check out other things by writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour in the future.

Let the Right One In

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Let the Right One In is a Swedish vampire film that centers around two children who form a strong bond over their outsider status: Oskar, a boy who is bullied at school, and Eli, who needs to drink blood to survive.  Vampire children are always extra creepy.  In Anne Rice’s and Stephenie Meyer’s vampire mythologies the creation of vampire children is forbidden.  In Poppy Z. Brite’s world of born vampires they literally absorb the life from their mothers.  Yet there is something vulnerable and touching about Eli. This is another film for those looking for something a bit more unusual than the typical Dracula retread.  An English version of the film was released in 2010 with the title Let Me In and moved the setting of the film from Sweden to New Mexico.  The book by John Ajvide Lindqvist that the films are based on is available from the Hoboken Public Library (the first English translation was published under the title Let Me In, subsequent editions are titled Let the Right One In).  Both film versions, Let Me In and Let the Right One In, are available from the Hoboken Public Library and Hoopla.

Vampire Party

vampire-party
Vampire Party is a funny light French film for those looking for a bit of slap stick absurd comedy with their horror.  It is available online from Hoopla.  Three best friends Sam, Alice, and Prune think they are incredibly lucky when they manage to get invites to Medici Night a legendary party at a remote castle, but it turns out that they haven’t just been added to the guest list, they are on the menu for an elite group of vampires.  The French title for the film is Les Dents de la Nuit, which translates to teeth of the night, which alludes not only to vampires, but also to one of the silly running gags of the film that a VIP at the event is a dentist.  If you thought films like Bridesmaids and The Hangover would have been better with vampires than you should find Vampire Party a bloody good treat.

Vampire Hunter D

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Vampire Hunter D was one of the first animes (Japanese animation) I encountered.  As someone that was used to animation that was either only aimed at children or comedic like The Simpsons for adult audiences, I was surprised and intrigued by the complex and dramatic story line.  The 1985 film was based on a series of Manga (Japanese graphic novels). D is a half vampire/half human who fights vampires in a post-apocalyptic future.  Some unique details include D’s cybernetic horse and a symbiotic hand whose wise cracks add some levity to the story.  Although I’ve seen a great deal of anime since then, this remains one of my favorite with its cool blend of gothic horror with science fiction.  A second film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was released in 2000.  Check the films and manga out from BCCLS libraries.

-Written by Aimee Harris, Head of Reference

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