Memorial Day, previously known as Decoration Day, is widely thought to have begun after the Civil War as a means of remembering fallen soldiers. Over the years, the holiday has evolved, and is now widely considered the beginning of summer vacation. However, the holiday’s true meaning remains the remembrance and honoring of those who have died in the United States Armed Forces. In honor of those who have lost their lives protecting their country, here are a collection of films that offer tribute to these soldiers, and give an important glimpse into our past.
DVDs
Hidden Gems: Spectacular Documentaries in the Library Collection
The non-fiction film collection at the Sewickley Public Library is easy to miss, mostly because the DVD’s are shelved in the reference area with the rest of the library’s non-fiction, separate from the location for television and movies. Next time you visit us at the library, take a peek at our non-fiction DVD’s and see if there’s anything that catches your eye. If you’d like some suggestions, here are some exemplary documentaries available in the Sewickley Public Library collection.
From Screen to Page: Six Great Books Based on Movies
In a time where almost every new movie seems to be based on a book or some other form of source material, a particular refrain has grown common among readers everywhere: “the book was better.” But there are still rare scenarios in which a movie is turned into a book after its release, often as an adaptation of the screenplay.
These adaptations are not always good, and are often ignored by literature fans due to their Hollywood connections. However, some novelizations have managed to rise above this stereotype, with some even becoming equally as famous as the films that spawned them. Here are six books based on movies that are actually worth the read.
Staff Picks: Best of 2018
As 2018 comes to a close, we wanted to look back on the great books and films that were released this year. Many big news sources like GQ, The Washington Post, and Publisher’s Weekly have announced their picks for the best of 2018, but how do these lists measure up to the favorites of our staff? Here are some of the Sewickley Library staff’s favorite books and movies from 2018!
2019 Golden Globes: Award-Nominated Media at the Library
With awards season just around the corner, the first batch of award nominations are beginning to trickle in. The nominees for the 76th Golden Globe Awards were recently announced, which acknowledge the arts of both film and television. While many of the nominated works aren’t available yet to purchase, here is a list of the nominated movies and television series owned by the Sewickley Public Library!
If you’d like the full list of nominees, click here!
Feast of the Rings: Eat Your Way Through the Entire Trilogy
This past weekend, my friends and I sat down to accomplish what we considered to be one of the nerdiest things we had ever done: marathon the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions, of course) while eating all the foods from the series along with the characters. We can’t claim credit for the idea, as we were inspired by this Twitter thread. Here’s some ideas on how to hold your own food-filled Lord of the Rings marathon!
Upcoming Movie Adaptations of Books
Check out these awesome titles that are about to become movies in the coming year!! Let us know which ones you’ve enjoyed the most, and whether you prefer the book to the movie.
Movies to Watch With Mom This Mother’s Day
Doesn’t matter what your mom is like, we have movies for all of the moms! Check out these movies from the Sewickley collection. They are sure to make both you AND your mom happy this May! Read more
Coming to the Big Screen 2018
Read a good book last year? Wondering if Hollywood has decided to bring your favorite book to the big screen. Check out this list and you’ll see which of the big hits of last year are about to make it to your nearest theater in 2018!
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation , the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
(February 23)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Madeleine L”Engle”s ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic, soon to be a major motion picture.
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
(March 9)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The bestselling cult classic–soon to be a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut–part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner , and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.
(March 30)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Cate Blanchett
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.
Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.
(May 11)
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Crazy Rich Asians is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
(August 17)
Coming to the Big Screen
Watch out for these great titles about to become movies!
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Samantha Kingston has it all: looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last.
The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. Living the last day of her life seven times during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.
Release Date: March 3
The Shack by William P. Young
Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.
Release Date: March 3
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these “guests,” and human names for the animals, it’s no wonder that the zoo’s code name became “The House Under a Crazy Star.” Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story―sharing Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism.
Release Date: March 31
The Lost City of Z by David Zann
In 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.
Release Date: April 21
The Circle by Dave Eggers
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.
Release Date: April 28
It by Stephen King
Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.
Release Date: September 8
For more titles, see here: 19 Books to Read Before They Hit Theaters in 2017