Bingeworthy TV: Jessica Jones

There are a lot of television shows based on comic books these days, and it often feels overwhelming to try to keep up with them all (even before you consider the movies and comics...). I'm happy to say that you can watch and enjoy Jessica Jones without watching any other Netflix or Marvel TV series. You certainly shouldn't feel any pressure to read Brian Michael Bendis's comics that introduced the character, as the entire story has been altered, updated, and, in my opinion, improved.

This is not a series for young viewers. Bendis's original comic was part of an effort to break out of the restrictions imposed by the Comics Code Authority, and the TV series includes sex, violence, sexual violence, drug use, swearing, and alcohol abuse. When I read the comics, they often felt sexist and dated in a way that left me uncomfortable. In comparison, the TV series is an exploration of abuse, recovery, and revenge that feels very real.

Jessica Jones stars Krysten Ritter as the title character. Jessica gained superpowers in a tragic childhood accident, and as a young adult she was inspired to use those powers to help others. Unfortunately, this brought her to the attention of a manipulative, superpowered villain who abused and broke her.

Jessica copes with her trauma in unhealthy ways, primarily by drinking too much and isolating herself. Instead of a flashy career as a superhero, she uses her skills as a Private Eye, though she can't resist helping those in need. When a case suddenly provides a clue that might allow her to bring down the villain who hurt her, Jessica suddenly has a new and dangerous focus.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Announcing a New Shelving System at Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Carnegie-Stout Public Library is closed today, Sunday, April 1, but you should expect big changes when we open on Monday at 9:00 a.m. We're always exploring new ways to better serve our community and we're excited to announce a new shelving system designed to better facilitate browsing and discovery.

"Often readers will be looking for a book and they can't remember the title or the author, but they do know the cover is blue. Our new shelving system is going to help those readers and it will allow library staff to re-shelve returned materials twice as quickly," librarian April Foole stated.

The new shelving system, designed by leading library design consultant Roy G. Biv, has also been applauded for its visual appeal and has rapidly grown in popularity with readers across the globe.

"While the aesthetics are a nice benefit, we made the choice for practical reasons. Common wisdom might say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but you can learn a lot from a book's cover!" Foole continued. "Mysteries tend to be darker, humorous books tend to be brightly colored, Romances are often pink. This new system is just sensible."

Bingeworthy TV: The Office

The Office, based upon the BBC series of the same name, brings us the antics of a paper company called Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  While the show initially featured Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer and B. J. Novak as the main cast, towards the end of its run there were numerous changes to the ensemble. I have to thank The Office for introducing me to the delightful Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?) who, along with B. J. Novak, was also a writer and producer for the show.

The Scranton branch, for some reason, is the subject of a documentary about office workers.  Through nine seasons we get to see the everyday lives of these workers.  What goes on in this office is absurd, and you often wonder how any of these people still have jobs.  The employees take their cue from the top. Michael Scott is perhaps the world's worst boss (but he thinks he is the world's best boss).  He is socially awkward, has terrible people skills and no filter, and is really not very intelligent. Just about everything he says and does is offensive; people tell him he is being offensive, but he is just completely clueless. Dunder Mifflin is Michael Scott's life and he thinks of most of the employees as his friends and family.  He does stupid, inappropriate, ridiculous things, but he does it out of love for his job and the people who work there.

Much of the series also focuses on the rivalry between the sales people, usually Dwight and Jim. One day Comedy Central was running a marathon and I happened to see one of my favorite episodes: Dwight is using one of those exercise ball chairs and being...well...Dwight.  Jim, his desk mate, gets seriously annoyed and punctures the exercise ball with his scissors.  Every time I see that episode, I laugh-out-loud.

To simulate the look of an actual documentary, the show is filmed in a single-camera set-up without a studio audience or laugh track. The documentary crew films confessional style interviews with most of the office workers and this allows us to see what they really think and feel about what happens in their place of work. Additionally, the characters often look directly at the camera, especially during the antics of Michael or Dwight. 

The day-to-day life of a paper salesman should be pretty uneventful unless of course you happen to work in an office full of Michael Scotts, Dwight Schrutes, Jim Halperts and Pam Beasleys.  Though The Office is at times politically incorrect (purposely so, I think) and many of the characters can be annoying, it is still one of my go-to binge-watching shows.  

~Amy, Adult Services

Staff Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

My first review for this blog, back in 2015, was of Celeste Ng’s debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, which impressed me with its architecture and language but left me wishing for more sympathetic characters. In that review, I wrote: “Upon [a] tragic foundation, Celeste Ng builds an intricate structure of aftermath and backstory, deftly weaving characters and events . . .  into a tight and increasingly oppressive and dysfunctional framework."

Which is exactly what she does in her new novel, Little Fires Everywhere, although it’s all backstory this time. The novel opens with an expensive house burning to the ground. We then move into the past to see what led to the fire and, since it’s arson, whodunit. Ng is even more skillful this second time around. I found several characters more likable too if not fundamentally deeper. Ng’s work has a heavy cultural component so in the process of discovering who burned down the house, we grapple with thought-provoking subjects like social class, race, and adoption.

Little Fires Everywhere is set in the affluent Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, where a very comfortable and locally rooted family, the Richardsons, with several teenaged kids, rents out a small cottage to an artist and her 15-year-old daughter. The relatively free-spirited renters represent the very opposite of conventional, rooted, and rich; they live a Bohemian lifestyle and what they own fits into their old VW Rabbit. The relationships and interactions between the Richardsons and their unusual tenants make up the bulk of the story.

The plot is far from simple and includes compelling subplots too, featuring a custody battle and a deep, dark family secret, which makes this novel a real feat of engineering -- and a riveting read. It’s set in the 1990s and Ng, who was a teen through those years, nails the details of that decade, right down to the AltaVista search engine and the appalling Jerry Springer, that harbinger of so much cheesy reality TV to come.

I think it’s fair to say Ng is as much an architect as a writer. With her first two novels, I envision just as much time going into the planning as into the execution. Her plot strategy runs the risk of becoming formulaic, but for now it still seems a marvel.

 - Ann, Adult Services

Bingeworthy TV: Call the Midwife

Recently I've needed a gentle, upbeat escape in the evenings, so I started watching Call the Midwife. This historical drama about a team of young nurse midwives and Angelican nuns in the late 1950s takes its inspiration from the memoirs of Jennifer Worth. Worth served as a nurse midwife in an impoverished neighborhood in London's East End where she encountered both great hardships and a supportive community.

The characters do face enormous challenges. Pregnancy and childbirth still pose a medical danger to this day, but sixty years ago there were even more unknowns and fewer medical interventions possible. One of the most frequent tasks undertaken by the midwives in this program is to visit the homes of expectant mothers and ensure that the environment is suitable for giving birth. It's only in later seasons that hospital births become an option.

A good part of the optimism and good cheer of Call the Midwife comes from the fact that the characters are taking an active part in improving the health care for their patients. There are frequent reminders of just how much more grim things were a generation ago (even without taking the Blitz into consideration). New tools, new techniques, better hygiene, cutting edge medicines, and a talented and dedicated staff all work together to create a better chance for happy endings in each episode.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Bingeworthy TV: Farscape

When I was in high school and college I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation all the time. I think that was when I realized how much I love shows about space. When I discovered the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy) I was thrilled. Sci-Fi introduced me to Farscape. If you can get past the annoying opening theme song*, Farscape is a wild ride of SciFi goodness.

Modern day astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) accidentally flies into a wormhole and ends up in the far reaches of space on a living ship called Moya. On the same day, Moya picks up another stranger by the name of Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black). Moya was being used as a prison transport under the control of the Peacekeepers. The prisoners on Moya take over the ship and as a result are on the run from the Peacekeepers. Farscape is interesting because the alien makeup and prosthetics are a product of The Jim Henson Company. In fact Farscape was produced by The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment. Two of the main characters, Rygel and Pilot, are puppets created by Henson's Creature Shop.

Farscape is odd, even in space opera terms. Some of the episodes seem to make no sense, but watching the crew grow closer and change due to their relationships with one another is entertaining.  Ben Browder and Claudia Black have amazing chemistry, so much so that when the two actors showed up on later episodes of Stargate: SG-1** I was crazy excited. The series was planned for five seasons, and was cancelled after four. Fortunately a three-hour TV movie, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, was made to wrap up the story.

*There is some debate as to the annoying opening theme song. Some feel that the opening song is great, it is the closing credits song that is annoying.  You be the judge :)  

**Speaking of Stargate: SG-1, that series had a 200th-episode parody of all kinds of science fiction space shows, and one scene had other actors playing versions of John Crichton and Aeryn Sun.  Additionally, when Claudia Black's character on SG-1 first walks into Stargate Command she sees Ben Browder's character and says, "I know we haven't met. That I'm sure I would remember." Browder's character responds, "Nice outfit."  Yes, I'm a SciFi-show nerd.

~ Amy, Adult Services