This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you join our journey. For September, our theme is addiction.
Continue reading “Walk a Mile in My Shoes: September”Tag: Beth Macy
Book Buzz: Unhinged Autobiographical Fiction, an In-Depth Look at the Opioid Crisis, and Leadership Lessons
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For November, we’re looking at a debut highly autobiographical novel about the Iraq War, heroin addiction, and bank robbery; a searing piece of investigative journalism about the opioid crisis in Appalachia; and a much-anticipated history on American presidents.
From Page to Screen: Freaks (1932) and Truevine (2016)
Call me crazy but family secrets, tell-all tales, and circus freaks do go together . . . at least in this movie and book combination!
Last year, one of our library patrons, Vernon, watched 1930s cult classic circus film Freaks and told me, while he was returning it, that it was one of the strangest movies he’d ever seen. He encouraged me to watch it. I imagine because he wanted someone else to confirm that, yes, it’s an odd movie.
So, I did watch Freaks, and about the same time, our library director Julie told me that she had just read a book (Truevine) that mentioned several of the circus performers featured in Freaks. I was not doing “From Page to Screen” features at the time, but I already was thinking about doing something like it and filed this away as a potential combination to write about it in the future. (Thanks to both Vernon and Julie for the suggestions!)
Usually I write about the book and then the movie, but I am reversing that order for this blog. My blog, my rules!
Continue reading “From Page to Screen: Freaks (1932) and Truevine (2016)”
Berryville Book Buzz 