The Song is You

The Song is You
by Arthur Phillips
Sycamore Public Library call number: FIC PHI
I am notoriously soft-hearted in the face of musical stories (see, e.g. Love is a Mix Tape and Time After Time). Pre-release buzz had guaranteed that I would read The Song is You. It was called the love story of a singer and her greatest fan, revealed in part through their correspondence--although they never meet. Truly unrequited romance! That is practically revolutionary in modern fiction.

From The New Yorker: "Phillips's best writing achieves an elaborate, gratifying precision, combining a naturally flamboyant style with neat, observational wit. This quality is sharpest in some of the character portraits and delectable set pieces that animate this novel, his fourth, but the central plot is sometimes strained. A middle-aged advertising director, whose marriage has broken up following the death of his two-year-old son, plays an invisible and unlikely muse to a young Irish singer on the brink of stardom. As the two engage in an indirect seduction--they never meet--the narrative veers close to the 'adolescent fantasy' that its protagonist fears. But this curious bond provides an armature for Phillips's beautiful evocation of music's consoling power to blur the borders between art, artist, and consumer."

The characters in this novel are, without exception, profoundly psychologically damaged. It is painfully ironic, then, that the science of psychology is derided or written off several times throughout the book. Sincerity and earnestness between characters is at a premium, too; subterfuge, convenient half-truths, and misdirection are presented as everyday behaviors. In short, this is not a love story so much as an exposition of extraordinary, selfish behavior - albeit written in beautiful language. Phillips does have a way with words. I wish that he had used them to write about even one ultimately worthy character.

REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Fiction

Grade: C

A Cook's Tour

A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
by Anthony Bourdain
Sycamore Public Library call number: 641.013 BOU
Anthony Bourdain travelled around the world in search of the perfect meal. What he found instead were many, many wonderful meals (and some terrible dishes), and lots of fantastic people with whom to share them. France, Portugal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia, Morocco, Scotland...each destination yielded fun, funky food, "good television" (the Food Network made a series out of the enterprise - it wasn't just for fun), and some insight into Bourdain's character. He clearly must be quite a chef to have achieved his level of 'civilian' fame, without ever yelling "Bam!" or screaming at his underlings on national television (see the 'Fire over England' chapter, in which Bourdain acts as apologist for Gordon Ramsay [from FOX's Hell's Kitchen]. One wonders if Bourdain could write it the same way now.). His unapologetic fawning over Thomas Keller (French Laundry) stops short of embarrassing, landing firmly in a place that every fan knows: awe and adoration. Keller is his idol, and the 'West Coast' chapter is simply sweet and funny.

Robin Davidson, writing for Amazon.co.uk, said: "You are unlikely to lay your hands on a more hectically, strenuously entertaining book for some time. Our hero eats and swashbuckles round the globe with perfect-pitch attitude and liberal use of judiciously placed profanities. Bourdain can write. His timing is great. He is very funny and is under no illusions whatsoever about himself or anyone else. But most of all, he is a chef who got himself out of his kitchen and found, all over the world, people who understand that eating well is the foundation of harmonious living."

Whether you love cooking, love food, or just love reading about the travels of really passionate people, A Cook's Tour is a great ride. Highly recommended.

REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Nonfiction

Grade: A

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Sycamore Public Library call number: DVD NIC
Ahhh, another teeny romantic comedy, but unlike the John Hughes-ian films of my youth, this is one for the 21st century. It centers around the recently dumped Nick (endlessly-endearing Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings), the daughter of a music industry big shot. The two are followed through one evening in New York City, as they try to find their mutual favorite band, the elusive Where's Fluffy? The wit is quick and dry, a la Juno, and although it's a pretty standard format as far as teen romances go ("They're totally gonna get together! Or maybe they're not. But wait, they are!"), it's forgivable, given the quality of the dialogue and character interaction.

I particularly enjoyed the indie music-centric nature of it, since I myself was once a music-obsessed teen, and still consider myself a recovering indie kid. It reminded me of all the $5 concerts I used to go to, where you could actually talk to the band afterwards and get a hug from the drummer. I appreciated the spotlight that it put on independent music, and got a kick out of the indie kid-ness of the characters, particularly with lines like "I think I was the first person outside the band to hear that song." Good grief, did I sound like that?

A.O. Scott, writing for the New York Times, says that Nick and Norah are "like so many kids these days, most comfortable with diffidence, understatement and a deadpan style of address that collapses the distinction between irony and sincerity," but that the film "surveys the varieties of teenage experience with tolerant sympathy, which is for the most part how the characters — gay and straight, reckless and cautious, drunk and sober — regard one another."

REVIEWED BY: Sara
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Fiction/Entertainment

Grade: A

The Evidence Against Her

The Evidence Against Her
by Robb Forman Dew
Sycamore Public Library call number: FIC DEW
The Evidence Against Her is surprisingly similar to Art Corriveau's wonderful short novel Housewrights, in setting and mood. The books differ, though, in the degree of detail that is offered; Robb Forman Dew's is floral and profuse, while Corriveau is spare and leaves much to the imagination. Both tell the story of romantic triangles amidst varying degrees of domestic turmoil in small town America, and each is a very different slice of life than we lead right now.

A review in Publishers Weekly says: "Under the surface of these events Dew records minute changes in the emotional atmosphere, epiphanic moments that interrupt quotidian routines and small events, such as an argument over a riding habit, that signal domestic crises with lasting repercussions. A marvel of lyrical understatement, the narrative flows like a river smooth, with surprising depths, some turbulence and the inexorability of time's passing."

Anyone who likes historical fiction with a dramatic undercurrent will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Fiction

Grade: A

New to Sycamore Public Library: DVDs

The following DVDs were added to the collection at Sycamore Public Library, located on the second floor near the stairs. This list will be posted with each major addition to the collection.

Airplane
Australia
Basketball Diaries
Bedtime Stories
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Big Night
Blue Man Group: The Complex Rock Tour Live
Bolt
Breakfast Club
Breaking Away
Bride Wars
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cadillac Records
Celtic Thunder
Changeling
Choke
Citizen Kane
Clockwork Orange
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Day the Earth Stood Still
Dead Calm
Defiance
Desperado
Doc Hollywood
Doubt
Ethan Frome
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Fireproof
Flash of Genius
Frost/Nixon
Ghost
Grease
Great Escape
Grumpy Old Men
Hamlet
Hello, Dolly!
He's Just Not That Into You
Hitman
Hot Shots!; Hot Shots!, Part Deux
Hotel for Dogs
In the Good Old Summertime
Jet Lag
Just Visiting
King Baby [Jim Gaffigan]
Last Chance Harvey
The Last Picture Show
Look Back in Anger
Lost Boys
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Marley & Me
Medicine Man
Michael Collins
Milk
Mischief
Much Ado about Nothing
Natural
Natural Born Killers
New in town
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Notorious
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Paper Moon
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Pleasantville
Pretty in Pink
Punch-Drunk Love
Quantum of Solace
Quarantine
Rachel Getting Married
Rails & Ties
Rat Race
The Reader
Religulous
Revolutionary Road
Riverdance: Live from New York City
Rob Roy
Role Models
Romeo + Juliet
Sam Kinison: Unleashed
Seven Pounds
Sixteen Candles
Slumdog Millionaire
Snatch
Soul Men
Spellbound
The Spirit
Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away
Stomp Live
Strictly Ballroom
Taken
Tale of Despereaux
True Blood: Season 1
Twilight
The Uninvited
Valkyrie
What Just Happened
The Wrestler
Yes Man

Lily Dale: Believing

Lily Dale: Believing
by Wendy Corsi Staub
Sycamore Public Library call number: Y FIC STA
I picked up this book because I used to live about 20 miles from Lily Dale, N.Y. We drove past it on Sunday drives but never went there because The Lily Dale Assembly is a closed spiritualist community with a gate fee (now $10 per person). You have to pay to get in whether you are going to visit a medium or to swim at the beach on Cassadaga Lake. I can't find it in the KDL What's Next Books-in-Series database, but I think that the Lily Dale series goes in alphabetical order by title: Awakening, Believing, Connecting. Middle book Believing caught me up right away and I never knew what I'd missed. Calla's Mother died recently in a fall, her father continues to live in California and Calla has started her senior year at Cassadaga High School, living with her grandmother Odelia...a medium. Calla's already had a date with handsome Blue, son of a commercially successful medium. She also likes Jacy, a shy, sensitive Native American boy, but it's kind of a problem that her next door neighbor and friend Evangeline likes him, too.
Calla is a bit psychic herself, and has already solved a much-publicized murder mystery. Spiritualist classes and a community full of medium mentors are ready to teach her how to control her gift and stay out of danger. Suspenseful, spiritual, and realistic enough for teens who are asking for high school reality fiction. Yes, I liked it, and I will probably pay the gate fee next time I visit western New York State.

Kim Carter, writing for Voya, says that "this novel will appeal to readers looking for fast-paced pleasure reading, with multiple plot threads that incorporate suspense, romance, the supernatural, and friendships."

I've never read this author's books before, but I liked the book enough that I will try another. I would recommend the other two in the series, Awakening and Connecting.

REVIEWED BY: Mary A.
AGE GROUP: Young Adult
CLASS: Fiction

Rating: B

Amanda's Wedding

Amanda's Wedding
by Jenny Colgan
Sycamore Public Library call number: FIC COL
Melanie is a city girl, working a job that she doesn't really like, spending a lot of money without realizing it, hanging out with fabulous friends while yearning for something more. Sound familiar? Yup, it's been done, but Jenny Colgan takes a well-worn formula and makes of it what she can. The city is London (rather than New York). The job is fleshed out (rather than barely mentioned), and Melanie actually attends to it occasionally. The money and spending seem to correspond to the job that she has, rather than being wild and totally irresponsible. The friends - primarily actress Fran, occasional-boyfriend Alex, snobby Amanda (from the title), college chum Fraser & his brother Angus - are an appealing bunch, if a bit hard to imagine together. It all comes together and blows apart over Amanda's engagement to Fraser, and that's where the reader discovers whether there is substance to Melanie after all.

According to Publishers Weekly, "In any romantic comedy, it's a given that the lead heroine will get a man; the question here is which man? With several possibilities, readers may be surprised at the outcome; some may be disappointed. The writing is clever enough, and Mel and Fran's antics are entertaining, even if their self-involvement tips over into cruelty at times. But for those who expect more substance, even in a comedy, the only momentous theme available--that it's preferable, if at all possible, to marry for love rather than convenience--is hardly weighty."

Count me in the ranks of the 'disappointed'; I found the resolution to Melanie's romantic situation to be more a tidy completion to the book than a realistic progression of the characters. Still, it didn't gag me. I can recommend it as a light afternoon's read.

REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Fiction

Grade: B-