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!
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.
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
How to Solve Our Human Problems by Belle and Sebastian
Diamond Diana: The Legacy Collection by Diana Ross
See You Around by I’m With Her
Camila by Camila Cabello
By the Way, I Forgive You by Brandi Carlile
Black Panther The Album: Music From and Inspired By
Fifty Shades Freed : The Final Chapter
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)
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
Check out this list of recommended titles from one of our librarians!
Films
The Bourne Identity (2002) Found with two bullets in his back, Jason Bourne discovers that he has the skills of a very dangerous man and no memory of his violent past. Racing to unlock his secret identity, he discovers that he’s an elite government agent that his government no longer trusts.
Clue (1985) Who killed Mr. Boddy? Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with the gun? Miss Scarlet in the billiard room with the rope? Or was it Wadsworth the butler?
Dial M for Murder (1954) A man devises a plan to murder his wife for her money.
Flypaper (2011) A nervous bank customer has a crush on beautiful teller. They and the other staff and customers become hostages when two very different groups of crooks hit the bank simultaneously. When people begin mysteriously dying one by one, everyone involved begins to wonder if there’s someone else in the bank up to no good.
Locker 13 (2014) An anthology feature film comprised of five vignettes. Each story is connected by a mysterious locker 13.
The Maltese Falcon (1941) Detective Sam Spade goes in search of a priceless statuette after the death of his partner.
Memento (2000) An intricate crime story about a man who has lost his short term memory due to a rare brain disorder. Now he is out to catch his wife’s murderer, whose identity he cannot ever know for sure. The more he tries to figure out what is true and real, the more he sinks deeper into a multi-layered abyss of uncertainty and surprises.
Murder by Decree (2003) Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson conduct a gruesome and dangerous search through London’s squalid east end for the legendary Jack the Ripper. They soon discover that he is no ordinary murderer, but one with influential and determined friends.
Non-Stop (2014) During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, 
U.S. Air Marshal Bill Marks receives a series of cryptic text messages threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred into an off-shore account. With lives of hundreds of passengers hanging in the balance, Marks must use every nuance of his training to uncover the killer traveling on the aircraft.
Out of the Furnace (2014) When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn’t follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice.
Reach Me (2014) A motivational book written by a mysterious man quickly gains popularity, inspiring a group of people that includes a journalist, his editor, a former inmate, a hip-hop mogul, an actor and an undercover cop to re-evaluate their choices and decisions by confronting their fears in hopes of creating more positive lives.
Restless (2015) Haunted by the death of her brother at the hands of fascist thugs, Russian émigré Eva is recruited to be a British secret agent by a shadowy figure. After proving her merit in the field, she is sent on the most dangerous mission of her life. She must use any means necessary to manipulate the American press and draw the States into World War II.
Sherlock Holmes (2009) After finally catching serial killer and occult ‘sorcerer’ Lord Blackwood, legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson can close yet another successful case. After his execution, Blackwood mysteriously returns from the grave and resumes his killing spree, Holmes must take up the hunt once again.
A Time to Kill (1996) A murder trial brings a small Mississippi town’s racial tension to the flashpoint. Amid a frenzy of activist marches, Klan terror, media clamor and brutal riots, an unseasoned but idealistic young attorney mounts a stirring courtroom battle for justice.
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) A psychopathic artist paints his wives as angels of death before poisoning them.
The Usual Suspects (1995) Police investigating an exploded boat on a San Pedro pier discover the only survivors are a severely burned Hungarian terrorist and Roger Kint, a crippled con-man. Reluctantly, Kint explains what happened. His story begins six weeks earlier with five criminals being dragged in by police desperate for suspects in a truck highjacking, and ends with the possible identification of a criminal mastermind.
Vertigo (1958) Scottie Ferguson, a recently retired San Francisco police detective, is hired to shadow a rich shipbuilder’s tragically suicidal wife. After he saves her from drowning in the San Francisco Bay, Scottie’s interest in the beautiful but icy blonde shifts from business to romance. But when tragedy strikes again, Scottie must overcome the vertigo that haunts his dreams in order to unravel the secrets of the past and find the key to his future.
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2015) Private investigator Matthew Scudder is hired by a drug kingpin to find out who kidnapped and murdered his wife.
Television Series
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1990 -) With the his razor-sharp mind and the aid of the affabel Captain Hastings, Poirot unravels the thorniest cases without mussing a hair of his famously sculpted mustache.
Grantchester (2014) It’s 1953 and Sidney Chambers is vicar of Grantchester, a village just outside Cambridge, England. Sidney’s is a quiet life. He tends to his flock, keeps up with his jazz collection, and does his best to contain his passion for beautiful heiress Amanda Kendall. But when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances, Sidney quickly finds that people confide things in a parish priest that they would never tell police.
Murder on the Home Front (2014) During the London Blitz of 1940, people live life in the moment–and criminals use the blackout and devastation to hide their darkest activities. As the Luftwaffe drop their bombs, people below are literally getting away with murder.
Murdoch Mysteries (2009 -) In the 1890’s, Detective William Murdoch adopts modern techniques like ‘finger marks’ and forensics to track Toronto’s most sinister killers. Though derided by his skeptical boss, Murdoch finds friends and allies in a lovely pathologist and an eager-to-learn constable.
Sherlock (2010) Offers a contemporary take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tales.
A Touch of Frost (1992 -) Detective Inspector Jack Frost is a policeman with a knack for trouble. In the dreary town of Denton, he approaches each case with his characteristic wit and sense of moral justice.
March is here and it’s time for St. Patrick’s Day! Whether you claim Irish heritage, or just enjoy shamrocks and leprechauns, celebrate the Irish in you with a couple of these titles.
FILMS
Once
When a brokenhearted street musician clicks with a beautiful and feisty keyboardist, the unlikely couple have nothing –and everything –to lose. Over the course of one electric week, the duo writes, performs and records an incredible cycle of songs that are as spontaneous and soulful as their unbelievable romance.
Angela’s Ashes
The 1999 drama based on Frank McCourt’s memoir of the same name chronicles the author’s childhood following his family’s forced emigration from America back to Ireland. It tells the touching tale of McCourt’s struggle to earn enough money to return to “the land of opportunity.”
Far and Away
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman play Irish immigrants trying to cash in on the American dream. The duo eventually participate in the Land Run of 1893, when over 100,000 people flooded to present-day Oklahoma to claim land during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet.
The Quiet Man
The 1952 American classic follows a retired American boxer, played by John Wayne, who moves to Ireland in the 1920s to reclaim his family’s farm. He embraces the land after falling in love with an Irishwoman (Maureen O’Hara). The romantic drama earned John Ford a best director Oscar.
The Commitments
The 1991 classic Irish dramedy adapted from Roddy Doyle’s novel of the same name follows working class Dubliners who form an American-style soul band. Despite its relatively unknown cast, Alan Parker’s film was met with critical acclaim and box office success. It also put actor Colm Meaney on the map.
BOOKS
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín’s superb seventh novel introduces the formidable, memorable and deeply moving Nora Webster. Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she fears she may be drawn back into it.
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
The Gault family leads a life of privilege in early 1920s Ireland, but the threat of violence leads the parents of nine-year-old Lucy to decide to leave for England, her mother’s home.
1916 by Morgan LLywelyn
Irish novelist and historian Llywelyn provides a fascinating account of the doomed 1916 Easter Rebellion. As fictional characters plot and fight alongside actual historical figures, the reader is swept up in both the glory and the tragedy of the doomed battle for Irish independence.
A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy
A Few of the Girls is a glorious collection of the very best of Binchy’s short story writing, stories that were written over the decades–some published in magazines, others for friends as gifts, many for charity benefits.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
A debut novel already praised as “unbearably poignant and beautifully told” (Eimear McBride) this captivating story follows — over the course of four seasons — a misfit man who adopts a misfit dog
An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
An Irish Country Doctor is a charming and engrossing tale that will captivate readers from the very first page–and leave them yearning to visit the Irish countryside of days gone by.
The Immortal Irishman : The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero by Timothy Egan
The Irish-American story, with all its twists and triumphs, is told through the improbable life of one man. A dashing young orator during the Great Famine of the 1840s, in which a million of his Irish countrymen died, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony. He escaped and six months later was heralded in the streets of New York — the revolutionary hero, back from the dead, at the dawn of the great Irish immigration to America.
Get in the mood for Mardi Gras with these books and DVDs!
American Horror Story: Coven (DVD)
The exceptional young witches at Miss Robichaux’s Academy are under assault by forces of ignorance and hate. Caught in the turmoil is new arrival, Zoe, who harbors a terrifying secret of her own. Fiona, a Supreme Witch with unimaginable powers, is determined to protect the Coven, but her obsessive quest for immortality will lead her to cross paths with a formidable voodoo queen and a murderous slave owner cursed with eternal life.
Fat Tuesday By Brown, Sandra (Print Book)
It’s Mardi Gras week in the French Quarter, a perfect time for narcotics cop Burke Basile to avenge the acquittal of his partner’s murderer by kidnapping the defense attorney’s sheltered wife. So begins Sandra Brown’s riveting story of corruption in the Big Easy. As the crisis reaches a fevered pitch, the line between saint and sinner blurs. Who will find redemption as the clock ticks toward midnight on Fat Tuesday?
Keepsake crimes By Childs, Laura (eBook)
New Orleans scrapbooking shop owner Carmela Bertrand delights her customers with the sophisticated looks she achieves with their scrapbooks. But among her client’s keepsakes she finds a tip of her own-about a murder
Paper crafts for Mardi Gras By McGee, Randel (Print Book)
Dress up as a jester or a king or queen and lead a Mardi Gras parade! Follow storyteller Randel McGee as he explores the history and symbols of Mardi Gras in PAPER CRAFTS FOR MARDI GRAS. Create a Columbina mask, paper bead throw necklace, a gold doubloon necklace, a rhythm maker, and more!
Treme, the Complete First Season (DVD)
Amid the ruins of New Orleans, ordinary people–musicians, chefs, residents–find themselves clinging to a unique culture and wondering if the city that gave birth to that culture still has a future.
5 flights up
American sniper
Blaze
Cut Bank
The last metro
Druid peak
Ex machina
Focus
Get hard
Goonies
Jupiter ascending
Jurassic Park ultimate trilogy
Kill me three times
King of hearts
Last knights
Longest ride
Maggie
Mr. Turner
Paul Blart, mall cop 2
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Seeds of yesterday
Shoot the piano player
Stand up guys
The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie
While we’re young
Woman in gold
Yesterday, today and tomorrow
Bitten
House of cards. The complete third season
Incredible journey of Mary Bryant
Mystery science theater 3000 XXXIII.
The office. Season four
Witches of East End. Season 2.
History of Christian theology
Masters of photography: learn photography from 12 National Geographi masters.
Maya to Aztec: ancient Mesoamerica revealed.
Moms Mabley