Author: Brett Bara
Reviewer: Jennifer
I started sewing a few years ago by taking 6 months of classes at a local sewing store. There, I learned the basics on how to operate a sewing machine, how to read a pattern, and ended up creating a few pairs of PJ pants, a couple of ill-fitting shirts and one tote bag that I use often. I quit my sewing machine for a while, mostly because I am just not a fan of deciphering patterns to only have a questionable article of clothing to show for it in the end. Not so long ago, I got back into sewing when I got this fantastic book via ILL! As the title denotes, all you really need to be able to do is sew in a straight line (much harder than it sounds!) to create any of the over 20 featured projects. Personally, I’ve made the “Easy Breezy Blouse” which turned out to be not that easy, but is definitely breezy, the “World’s Easiest Zippered Throw Pillow” which actually lives up to its moniker, the “Make It Your Way Ottoman Cover,” which superbly covers an iron burn on my ottoman, and the “On-the-Go Jewelry Keeper,” which is begging me to take it on a trip. This book is available through SWAN.
Author: Stephen Chbosky
We expect the love we think we deserve. In the 2012 film “The Perks of Being a Wallflower“, two friends take Sam under their wing after spending his young life on the sidelines of life until his friends show him how to participate in life.
We can’t choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there. Its a fun film to watch with a group of friends and you might see a bit of Sam in yourself.
I’m really impressed with Coursera, which offers free online classes through some of the world’s best universities. Each course is structured differently, but most are five to eight weeks long and consist of weekly video lectures, written assignments, quizzes, and forums for engaging with your professor and classmates. Coursera has a preponderance of technology and computer science offerings, but there are dozens of art, philosophy, finance, and nutrition classes as well. So, are massive open online courses (MOOCs) the future of education? That remains to be seen, but they provide an exciting service for people who are eager for information and instruction without a hefty tuition payment.
Author: Kent Haruf
In a tiny Colorado town, a man known to his friends as “Dad” is about to die from lung cancer. He only has months left, and almost everyone is trying to prepare themselves for his eventual death. But as Dad muses back on his life, we get a glimpse of other townspeople reflecting on their own lives and making the narrative all the more powerful. From a misunderstood preacher to a young girl who is frightened by death, we get a solid impression of what is fundamental to these people, the regrets they have, and what they are doing to survive their current journey of life. I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but this novel is pretty intense & beautiful at the same time. A word to the wise: I cried a lot, so if you’re a crier buy an extra box of tissues. It’s available on our New Book Shelf or through our online catalog.
Author: Agnès Varda
This movie chronicles of the life of Cléo (Corinne Marchand), a seemingly superficial young singer, as she awaits her cancer diagnosis in real-time. Directed by Agnès Varda, it documents one woman’s sudden struggle with mortality, but it’s also a celebration of life’s ephemeral joys– the Citroen DS, butterflies, encounters with eccentrics, and the charm of polka-dotted A-line dresses to name but a few.
Author: Foxygen
I like Foxygen’s new album because it has a retro sound without being annoying or feeling like a total rip-off. The lyrics are playful and the soft delivery goes really well with the piano. The song “San Francisco”, with its call and response chorus, is the best kind of earworm. Acorn’s copy should be available soon. For now, you can place a hold through SWAN.
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Reviewer: Becky
I seen the movie Safe Haven last week, however it is a bit different than the book for obvious reasons. Safe Haven is about a young woman named Katie who mysteriously appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport. Katie steals a deceased neighbor’s identity and decides to run away and start a new life. Katie tries avoiding personal relationships, because she is running from an abusive relationship with her detective husband. She lives in constant fear that he will find her. She finds a small cottage to live in and becomes friends with her neighbor Jo. While Katie is still nervous & terrified, she begins to let down her guard and starts a relationship with Jo’s widowed husband Alex. He is the father of two small children, which really become attached to Katie very quickly. Katie struggles with her past and secrets as she begins to fall in love and leave behind her former life. She realizes she has to risk everything to find her Safe Haven, Love.
Author: Ashok Rajamani
This surprisingly humorous memoir chronicles Rajamani’s physical and mental recovery from a massive brain bleed at the age of twenty-five due to a malformation that was buried inside of him since birth. The book touches upon several subjects, among them his motley group therapy sessions, poignant family relationships, his not-so-glamorous career in PR before the incident, and what life was like growing up Indian American in a small, cookie cutter town in the Midwest. Though the sequence of events is at times erratic, with unfinished narratives begging to be resolved, the hurried pace, self-deprecating asides, and hilarious dialogues made this a book I quite literally did not put down from the moment I started reading. It is available through SWAN.
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
I started reading this book about a year ago when I started to embrace a vegetarian diet, and have read the rest in bits and pieces since then. This book dives into the belly of what vegetarianism is all about – the philosophy behind why some people embrace it. Foer carefully weaves facts about the meat industry with personal experiences that he’s had to bring together a beautiful exposition of vegetarianism – and then lets the reader come to his or her own conclusions. It’s a great book for anyone who wants to just know more about the subject and what really goes on in the meat/poultry/fish industries. The book is available on shelf at Acorn!
Author: Malik Bendjelloul
The Oscars are on Sunday, and Searching for Sugar Man is up for the Documentary Feature award. Two fans want to find out what happened to an enigmatic singer whose message of peace and love inspired South Africa during its darkest days of apartheid. Their hunt ends in Detroit, where the troubadour has carried on as a serene, soft-spoken construction worker. Though it could have dug a little deeper, Searching for Sugar Man is a rather sweet celebration of the power of music and the magic of life’s surprises. It’s available from Acorn, and can be requested from SWAN.
Author: Marius A. Markevicius
The 1992 USA Men’s Basketball Team was known as the Dream Team because the lineup included Jordan, Bird, Magic, and Barkley. The Other Dream Team is the Lithuanian Men’s Basketball Team that included Sabonis, Kutinaitis, Chomičius , and Marčiulionis. The Lithuanians were formerly on the Soviet team that won the Gold at the 1988 Olympics. 1992 was there first National Olympics as a sovereign nation. The country did not have enough money to send the team to Barcelona so the Grateful Dead funded the team – and provided them awesome tie-dyed warm-ups. The documentary is an inspiring story of a post-Communist country told through the world of basketball. Acorn’s copy is located on the New DVD shelf.
Author: Mike Royko
I just finished Slats Grobnik and Some Other Friends by Mike Royko and I loved it. Royko wrote columns for the short-lived Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times until Rupert Murdoch bought it, and finally for the Chicago Tribune. He was always the straight-shooting voice of the working class — calling out politicians and voters alike. The fictional Slats Grobnik is Royko’s neighborhood Huck Finn and, through him, he lampoons city life. This collection of columns is laugh-out-loud funny. For a more serious read, we also have Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago. If Royko were alive, I might consider reading the Tribune.
