Archives

My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Summary: Two young girls, 10-year-old Satsuki and her 4-year-old sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuki and Mei discover that their rented home may be haunted and magical creatures inhabit the nearby forest. Adventures and rescues abound while …

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Summary: A young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste and is turned into an old woman who is unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother’s hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl …

Porco Rosso (1992) Summary: Slouching towards middle age, Porco Rosso makes his living by flying about in his red bi-plane and fighting sky bandits who prey on cruise ships sailing the Adriatic. When he’s not engaging in dog fights, this pilot lives on a deserted island retreat. Porco was once a strapping young man, but …

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Summary: This film tells the story of Nausicaä, Princess of the Kingdom of The Valley of the Wind from a time after a climatic war. This period, known as the Seven Days of Fire, has destroyed modern human civilization. The survivors have regressed to a variation of …

Yearbook | Seth Rogan Summary: This memoir is not a ‘tell-all’, but perhaps a tell-much. Seth Rogan began professional joke writing as a kid and his stand-up experience is exactly the way we remember him sounding and speaking from film. His relaxed and casual style isn’t too far from the truth. He does make one …

The Final Girl Support Group | Grady Hendrix Summary: There’s a trope commonly used in horror movies, specifically those fitting the slasher genre, called the ‘final girl’. This is an unassuming main character that eventually triumphs over her attacker, most likely causing their death. What if the final girl character became so common, they collected …

I thought I was pulling together a selection of works not at all alike each other… but no, I really do like my adventure stories with moral or ethical consequences. Read The Count of Monte Cristo aloud – the language is musical. Island of the Blue Dolphins might need note taking or drawings of the …

The Stranger in the Lifeboat | Mitch Albom Summary: A story of beliefs and actions of 10 ten in a lifeboat trying to survive. A stranger is pulled from the sea claiming to be God. After praying for a miracle do they accept this stranger to be their savior. It is narrated by one passenger …

Michael Collins | Neil Jordan – Director Summary: Ireland, 1916. His dreams inspired hope. His words inspired passion. His courage forged a nation’s destiny. A Biographical film depicting the life of Michael Collins, head of the early version of the IRA. Recommendation: I recently visited the GPO in Dublin where portions of this movie was filmed.  …

The Elephant to Hollywood | Michael Caine Summary: There’s a generous helping of curses throughout this work so be wary around the kids/public. – Caine shares the spectacular story of his life, from his humble upbringing in London’s poverty-stricken Elephant and Castle to his military service and lively adventures to legendary meetings with fellow stars …

I am the Messenger | MarKus Zusak Summary: Meet Ed Kennedy – underage cabdriver, pathetic card player, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops …

A Princess of Mars | Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary: In the spring of 1866, John Carter, a former Confederate captain prospecting for gold in the Arizona hills, slips into a cave and is overcome by mysterious vapors. He awakes to find himself naked, alone, and forty-eight million miles from Earth a castaway on the dying …

A Man Called Ove | Fredrik Backman Summary: Ove is a recently widowed grumpy old man who doesn’t feel the need to keep on living. This is his story of why he feels this way and the road he takes and the people and animals he lets into his world that he so desperately wants …

Cyrano |2021 Summary: This is a romantic historical musical version of the same classic story made completely attainable by Steve Martin’s modern take with Roxanne (1987). Whether or not the music is part of what you enjoy about this version, that’s up to you. I don’t want to talk it down just because I found …

The Disasters | M. K. England Summary: Like many science fiction stories, this one has the main character facing an explosive crisis from which only his perspective tells the ‘truth’. Nax and his crew of survivors must get a message to those authorities who are not teaming up to sabotage the station themselves (for fun …

Etiquette & Espionage | Gail Carriger Summary: Sophronia is 14, a member of the gentry, and “a cracking bother” as she displays all the hallmarks of an under-stimulated overeager puppy. She wants to know how things work, is willing to take systems apart to study them, and can’t help but eavesdrop on interesting conversations. What’s …

Still Life | Sarah Winman Summary: Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings …

Ava (2020) Summary: I tend to like well-done spy and espionage movies, but can get bored with the heavy politics and gratingly slow pace. Ava doesn’t have those issues. Chastain completely RULES as the assassin looking for a way out. What will her purpose in life be once she steps away from the job? Can …

The Help (2011) Summary: Skeeter just graduated college and is hoping to find a worthy job as a journalist or writer. Given a chance with a weekly column on housekeeping tips, she notes she’d have to take lessons from ‘the help’ to learn what to write. This takes her into the world of 1950/1960s southern …

The links below the groupings direct you to various blog posts featuring the listed titles. Happy Reading! -Jenna Dauer, Smithton Public Library District Library Director Tween (5th grade and up) interests:  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin – 2009 Inspired picture books: Thumpy Feet, by Betsy Lewin – 2013 This is Not …