New in DVD

Beautiful Creatures

Drama PG-13

When newcomer Lena arrives in the small town of Gatlin, she quickly captures the attention of Ethan, who only wants to escape what he views as a boring and dead-end town. He quickly gets more than he bargained for. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history, and their town.

The Last Stand

Action R

After leaving his LAPD narcotics post, Sheriff Ray Owens moved and settled into a life fighting what little crime takes place in sleepy border town Sommerton Junction. That peaceful existence is shattered when Gabriel Cortez, one of the most notorious drug kingpins, makes an escape from the FBI. Cortez begins racing toward the U.S.-Mexico border, straight through Sommerton Junction. Also available in Blu-Ray DVD.

A Haunted House

Comedy R

When young couple Malcolm and Kisha move into their dream place, they soon discover they’re not alone. But it’s not the home that’s possessed, it’s Kisha. Now, Malcolm will go to hilarious extremes, including hiring a priest, a psychic, and a team of modern-day Ghostbusters, to get his place and his life back to normal.

Parker

Action R

Parker is a thief who has an unusual code. He doesn’t steal from the poor or hurt innocent people. He is asked to join four other guys, one of whom is related to a known mobster. They pull off the job flawlessly and Parker wants to part ways with them. When he refuses to join them for another job, they try to kill him. They dispose of his body, but someone finds him…still alive. After recovering, he sets out to get back at the ones who tried to kill him, another one of his codes.

Promised Land

Drama R

Corporate salesman Steve Butler has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner to offer much-needed relief to the economically hard-hit residents in exchange for drilling rights to their properties. As they grapple with a surprising array of both open hearts and closed doors, the outsiders soon discover the strength of an American small town at a crossroads.

Stand Up Guys

Comedy R

Val is released from prison after serving twenty-eight years for refusing to give up one of his close criminal associates. He’s reunited with his two best friends Doc and Hirsch. But one of the friends is keeping a dangerous secret. He’s been put in an impossible quandary by a former mob boss, and his time to find an acceptable alternative is running out. As the sun rises on the guys’ legendary reunion, their position becomes more and more desperate.

-posted by Ralph, Media Services

Inspiring Messages from Two Extraordinary Women

I recently had the pleasure of listening to two memorable works, Maya Angelou’s newest autobiography Mom & Me & Mom and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir My Beloved World.

Maya Angelou narrates the audio CD of Mom & Me & Mom.  Her once booming voice is a little frail now but it nonetheless resonates with the listener. In Mom & Me & Mom, the 7th volume of her autobiographical series, Angelou describes her complex relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter Johnson.  When her parent’s marriage began to fall apart, Angelou along with her brother Bailey were sent to live with their paternal Grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.  Angelou lived with her Grandmother from the age of 3 to age 13.  When she is finally reunited with her mother, Angelou refuses to call her “Mom” instead referring to her as “lady”.  Angelou explores the path, often painful, that Mother and Daughter must take to reach forgiveness.  Angelou and her Mother grew extremely close after their reconciliation and Angelou credits the love and support of her Mother as one of the factors in her achieving great success; “My Mother’s gifts of courage to me were both large and small.  The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.”

 The audio CD of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir My Beloved World is narrated by actress Rita Moreno. In My Beloved World, Sotomayor tells of her life growing up with an alcoholic Father and distant Mother in an impoverished Bronx neighborhood.  Like Maya Angelou, Sotomayor spends time with her paternal Grandmother, as her parent’s marriage fails. Sotomayor’s determination and self reliance help her deal with the early death of her father and her diagnosis of diabetes.  She excels in school and receives a full scholarship to Princeton University and graduates summa cum laude.  She then goes on to graduate from Yale Law School.  Throughout her memoir, Sotomayor celebrates her ethnicity and cultural heritage.  She is not afraid to tackle tough intimate subjects and address her failings.

 Maya Angelou and Justice Sotomayor show how hard work, faith and dedication can triumph over circumstance and greatness can be achieved.  They cherish memories of their beloved Mothers and Grandmothers and credit these women (however unconventional they were) as key factors in their success. Both books would make excellent choices for book clubs.

- posted by Lisa J., Readers’ Services

New in DVD

Back to 1942

Foreign NR

A deadly drought in 1942 takes its toll on central China’s Henan province during the war against Japan.

Cloud Atlas

Science Fiction R

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present, and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. The story is a time-shifting weave of six interlinking narratives with diverse settings, from the savagery of a Pacific Island in the 1850s to a dystopian Korea of the near future.  Also available in Blu-Ray DVD.

-posted by Ralph, Media Services

New to Book Club in a Bag

Syosset Public Library owns sets of book that are exclusively for local book clubs to check out for their discussions. Discussion questions are included in the set, along with biographical and critical material.  Readers’ Services has added the following titles to our Book Club in a Bag collection:

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

“A baseball star at a small college near Lake Michigan launches a routine throw that goes disastrously off course and inadvertently changes the lives of five people, including the college president, a gay teammate, and the president’s daughter.”  (From the publisher)

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale I, My Father Bleeds History and Maus:  A Survivor’s Tale II,  And Here My Troubles Begin Graphic biographies written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman.

Maus I:  “The author-illustrator traces his father’s imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a series of disarming and unusual cartoons arranged to tell the story as a novel.” (From the publisher)

Maus II:   “A narrative sequel to Maus captures the experience of the Holocaust as it chronicles the continuing story of Vladek, who survives Auschwitz, is reunited with his beloved Anja, and sires young Art.” (From the publisher)

Next to Love by Ellen Feldman

“Follows the stories of three young couples whose lives are irrevocably changed in the years following World War II, a period during which they struggle with difficult losses and witness profound transformations in American culture.” (From the publisher)

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman

“Traces the author’s upbringing in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, describing the strict rules that governed her life, arranged marriage at the age of seventeen, and the birth of her son, which led to her plan to leave and forge her own path in life.” (From the publisher)

Please contact Readers’ Services, 921-7161, ext 241 or 239

to reserve a book for your Book Club.

The revised Book Club in a Bag Pamphlet is available

at the Readers’ Services desk.

- posted by Evelyn, Readers’ Services

New in DVD

Hyde Park on Hudson

R Drama

As Great Britain faces an imminent war with Germany, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, invited the King and Queen of England for a weekend at their home in upstate New York. But during the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to America, international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal trip an unforgettable one.

Jack Reacher

PG-13 Action

Ex-military investigator Jack Reacher leaps off the pages of Lee Child’s bestselling novel and onto the big screen in this explosive thriller. When an unspeakable crime is committed, all evidence points to the suspect in custody who offers up a single note in defense: ‘Get Jack Reacher!’ The law has its limits, but Reacher does not when his fight for the truth pits him against an unexpected enemy with a skill for violence and a secret to keep. Also available on Blu-Ray DVD.

Safe Haven

PG-13 Drama

Based on the novel from Nicholas Sparks, a young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina, where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.

-posted by Ralph, Media Services

New in DVD

The Guilt Trip

Comedy PG-13

The plan for a quick stop at Mom’s takes a turn when an impulse compels Andy to invite his mother, Joyce, on a three-thousand mile cross-country journey. But the further they go, the closer they get, and Andy realizes that they have more in common than he ever imagined.

Silver Linings Playbook

Drama R

Based on the bestselling book by Matthew Quick, the riotous and poignant story of how a man who has lost everything, his house, his job, his wife, reconnects with himself and creates his own silver linings from the bonds he forms with his family and friends. Also available on Blu-Ray DVD.

Broken City

Drama R

Seven years after being forced to resign as a New York city police officer, private detective Billy Taggart takes on his toughest case yet when he’s hired to follow the mayor’s wife. By the time the mayor reveals his true intentions, Taggart’s already in too deep, with his freedom and possibly his life, on the line. Taggart will risk it all in a desperate bid to expose the truth and seek redemption in a city where second chances don’t come cheap.

 

-posted by Ralph, Media Services

New in DVD

Gangster Squad

Action R

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, guns, and if he has his way, every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop, except for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders who come together to try and tear Cohen’s world apart.

The Impossible

Drama PG-13

Based on a true story of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time. But the true-life terror is tempered by the unexpected displays of compassion, courage, and simple kindness that Maria and her family encounter during the darkest hours of their lives.

Les Miserables

Musical PG-13

In early 19th century France, the paroled prisoner Jean Valjean seeks redemption, regains his social standing, and rises to the rank of mayor. He encounters a beautiful but desperately ill woman named Fantine and cares for her daughter, Cosette, after her death. All the while he is obsessively pursued by the policeman Javert, who vows to make him pay for the crimes of his past.

This Is 40

Comedy R

A look at the lives of Pete and Debbie a few years after the events of Knocked Up, the 2007 comedy. After years of marriage, Pete and Debbie are approaching a milestone meltdown. As they try to balance romance, careers, parents and children in their own hilarious ways, they must also figure out how to enjoy the rest of their lives. This Is 40 is a candid and heartwarming comedy about the challenges and rewards of marriage and parenthood in the modern age. Also available in Blu-Ray DVD.

-posted by Ralph, Media Services

New in DVD

Django Unchained

R Action

Django, a former slave turned hired gun, heads back to the plantation to free his wife, Broomhilda, from the tyrannical plantation owner Calvin Candie, with the help of a German bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz. Also available on Blu-Ray DVD.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake

PG-13 Foreign

Based on a Chinese legend of a man who falls in love with a thousand-year-old white snake transformed into a woman. The sorcerer discovers the white snake’s true identity and battles to save the man’s soul.

- posted by Ralph, Media Services