Notes from a reluctant absentee

The Mystery discussion marks the second one in a row I've missed (another excellent selection, along with In the Garden of Beasts).  But it's vacation season, and one third of the reference desk staff is out right now.  

For my absentee contribution this month, I'll pass along some library news and mention a few new/forthcoming titles of interest.

First, a great film opportunity beginning this fall:  My friend Kate, in charge of programming for Round Rock Public Library, just received RRPL's coveted acceptance as a participant in Community Cinema 2012-2013.  I believe that Round Rock will be one of only four Texas locations (also Dallas, Austin, Houston) to host ten monthly screenings, September through June, of films from PBS’ award-winning Independent Lens series of documentaries.  Along with the chance to view these great films two weeks to two months before they’re broadcast nationally, you’d benefit from the post-screening insights of speakers and panelists. 

A film adaptation of Half the Sky (based on the book by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn- about human rights abuses directed toward women) opens the series in September; other titles include As Goes Janesville (Midwestern town after GM plant closure) and The Revolutionary Optimists (empowering the youth of Calcutta), along with others to be announced soon.  I’ve viewed a clip of Solar Mamas (women from Africa and South America—some illiterate--training to become solar power engineers for their villages); it was wonderfully inspiring. 

The content of the Independent Lens series is definitely geared toward an adult audience.  You don’t have to live in Round Rock or have a RRPL card to attend.  More info will be forthcoming at www.roundrocktexas.gov/library.  You can read more about Community Cinema here:   http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/getinvolved/cinema/

Some new and soon-to-be published titles that may interest the group:  Liza Klaussman's (she's Herman Melville's great-great granddaughter) Tigers in Red Weather (family secrets with an extra dose of suspense); Leila Meacham's Tumbleweeds (not literary fiction, but if you loved her Roses--as I did--you'll probably enjoy this one even more).  Ariel S. Winter's The Twenty Year Death (hardboiled detective fiction, which I don't normally read) features three intertwined stories in the style of three noted genre authors and was a wonderful find.  Francesa Segal (Love Story's Erich Segal was her father) was inspired by Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence as she envisioned The Innocents.  I was charmed and impressed by that one.  This month's theme seems to have been literary antecedents--and fine ones, at that!