Attention All Movie Fans!

Cinephiles: rejoice! Ebert Presents: At the Movies just got a new, very spirited reboot. Your excellent hosts are now Christy Lemire of the Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi.com. Each week, they review high-profile theatrical releases, under the radar indies, and their favorite new DVDs and Blu-Rays; and patriarch Roger Ebert drops by to lend his inimitable style to a select film.

Following in the proud footsteps of yin/yang, Hepburn/Tracy, and Jagger/Richards, Lemire and Vishnevetsky’s differences make a potent, delectable brew. While Lemire is an animated, highly knowledgeable movie fan, Vishnevetsky is an encyclopedic, unsparing connoisseur. The result is many zingy, thoughtful discussions and sharply humorous insights. Like this one, on which Vishnevetsky weighs in on the je ne sais quoi of Keanu Reeves (of whom I am a passionate defender, but that will have to wait for another post): “He has this air like he’s an amnesiac who doesn't really remember who he is, but he doesn’t want anybody else to know.”

The show is on WTTW on Friday nights at 8:30, and you can watch all of their reviews here.

-Megan

Recent Staff Picks

We admit it; we have our favorites. Find your next great read with these staff recommendations!

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier (Nonfiction)

Lanier is one of the pioneers of the Internet and a contributor to the creation of virtual reality. He passionately argues against online collectivism and the lasting implications it will have on our creativity. He attacks social networking sites, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, and Web 2.0 as a whole.

-Mike, Youth Services

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (Fiction)

Fingersmith is a Victorian novel of orphans, thieves, bizarre aristocrats, and spiraling betrayals. In short, it's the perfect complement to a cold day and a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

-Megan, Reference

Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky (Nonfiction)

This book, at first, seems as if it is just a simple idea elegantly executed: an atlas of fifty tiny islands in the middle nowhere. However, this book is much more than a pleasant novelty. Schalansky has taken the history of these islands and turned each one into a beautiful, disarming gem of a story.

-Eric, Reference

The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier (Nonfiction)

Nicolas Bouvier's account of his journey in an unreliable Fiat from Geneva, Switzerland, to Afghanistan expresses the joy of travel. Bouvier deserves a place with Patrick Leigh Fermor, V.S. Naipaul, and Jack Kerouac at the top of the travel writing genre.

-Mike, Youth Services

Freedarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac (Nonfiction)

Freedarko is a zany, brainy, basketball-obsessed collective; and their book is full of eclectic portraits of the NBA’s stars and villains, as well as odd and delightful stats and insights.

-Megan, Reference

The 150th Anniversary of the Civil War

150 years ago today, the shots that started the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Delving into the history of the people, places and events of the war is a great way to commemorate this important anniversary-- and the Acorn, of course, has plenty of books to help you out!

Take a look at some of them in SWAN, our online catalog. There's also plenty of great information on the web describing the best Civil War books. And remember, there are plenty of great novels about the war as well!

-Eric

Q&A with Pat Kucher, Head of Technical Services

Pat Kucher, the Head of Technical Services, will retire on August 1 after twenty-four years of service. Pat is responsible for processing and cataloging Acorn’s materials, as well as selecting movies, television shows, and paperback books. Here, she shares her Acorn experiences, and tells us about her favorite books, movies, and destinations.

Q: You’ve worked at Acorn for twenty-four years. What an accomplishment! How has your job changed during that time?

A: I started before we were computerized. The computer has certainly made the biggest impact on my job. Also, the types of media the Library offers have really changed. We used to have books on cassette, now we have digital books.

Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?

A: Opening the boxes of new books.

Q: You’re a voracious reader. Who are some of your favorite authors?

A: I love Michael Connelly for the terrific police and courtroom drama. I also love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich for laughs. Jodi Picoult is another hands-down favorite. She handles controversial subjects thoughtfully and without bias.

Q: You choose the Library’s feature films and television series. What are some of your favorites?

A: My favorite movies are Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and The English Patient. The last good movie I saw was Inception.

I really enjoy the some of our television series—especially Mad Men and The Tudors.

Q: I know you love traveling as well. What’s your favorite vacation spot (so far)?

A: Nassau in the Bahamas. I’m planning another visit there in June. Jamaica is great, too! Really, I’m happy anywhere there’s a Sandals Resort.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself or your time at Acorn?

A: I love to read and started coming to Acorn when it was just a small A-frame building. When I decided to get back into the workforce after my children were old enough, I thought it would be the perfect place to work…and it was. I plan to retire this summer, but I’ll never retire from reading!

Thank you for your many years of dedicated service, Pat! You will be greatly missed.

-Megan

The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books Edited by C. Max Magee and Jeff Martin

Magee and Martin have assembled a talented bunch of young, happening authors (including Joe Meno, Benjamin Kunkel, Victor Lavalle, Emily St. John Mandel, Deb Olin Unferth and Reif Larson), along with a few seasoned veterans (David Gates and Jonathan Lethem), to ponder the question of how the book will be affected, in the coming years, by changes in technology and society. The quality of the work here varies quite a bit, as you might expect from this type of anthology – some pieces are affecting and/or exhilarating, some are bland, and there a couple of pieces that are sub-McSweeney’s throw-aways. Overall, however, this collection is extremely interesting and offers a broad view of what some future literary stars think might happen in their future.

One of the more interesting aspects on this book is the confusion displayed as to what it is, exactly, that they are supposed to be writing about. The main divide seems to be between those who focus on the death of the physical book (even if the book lives on in some sort of digital capacity) and those who are focus the death of reading itself. But even within the latter camp, there are many divisions – are we talking about the eradication of all sustained reading? Or just of the “right” kind of reading (i.e. “literature”). Also, many of the authors here seem to conflate the death of the book with the death of the novel, which I suppose is somewhat understandable since most of these pieces are written by novelists.

Each author here seems to be writing about a different thing entirely, as they ponder the future of the book, and some of the individual pieces are filled with all manner of contradictions and ambiguities in themselves. But perhaps this muddle is appropriate when talking about an unknown future, and most likely it is exactly what the editors had in mind – since this confusion is contained right there in the book’s title and subtitle.

-Eric