Fido or Fluffy? Choosing the Pet that’s Right for You

In the last year, my household has gone down from 4 pets (2 senior cats and 2 guinea pigs) to 2 pets (the guineas).  After owning the cats for almost 20 years, it’s quite weird not having them around anymore.  Do we get another cat?  Or do we venture into the realm of dog ownership (something I’m not as excited about as my husband and son are).  It doesn’t help that recently I’ve been reading articles about how over-run rescue shelters are with kittens and puppies this spring, with the warm weather increasing the breeding cycle of animals. And who can forget about the influx of unwanted bunnies now that Easter is over?

 If , like me, you’re considering opening your home to a new pet, it’s a great idea to do some research before you take the plunge.  Not every animal is a good fit for every household.  If you’re interested in a dog, a title like the World Atlas of Dog Breeds will provide you with information to make a better informed decision.  The Original Dog Bible contains information about how to decide if a dog is a good pet for you and how to choose a breed that’s a good match.  If you have dog allergies, don’t despair!  Sneeze-free Dog Breeds identifies those breeds that are better for those with allergies.

If you’re not a dog person, there are plenty of books on other pets.  If you’re considering a cat, then you might want to check out  The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Cats, Cat Breeds and Cat Care.  Different breeds of cats have varying dispositions, and require different levels of care.  An Animal Planet DVD called Cats 101 also provides great information on cat behavior, breeds, etc.  And The Sneeze-free Cat Owner discusses breeds that might work out if you have allergies to these furry creatures.

There are also many smaller animals that might be a  great match for you.  We’re guinea pig owners, and just love these little guys.  In fact, when a friend recently told me that the Humane Society had 2 guinea pigs there, I had to visit the site daily to see if they had been adopted.  I even phoned to ask if they would be euthanized if no-one adopted them (apparently they don’t euthanize small animals).  Mike and Ike are no longer on the site, so hopefully they’ve found a great home.  The Barron’s book entitled Guinea Pigs will provide you with lots of good information about how to care for these pets.  And if you do decide to purchase guinea pigs (purchase 2 as one gets lonely!), then you can train them with the help of this book.  Yes, you can apparently use clickr training on guinea pigs.  (And no, I haven’t tried that yet with my own piggies).

Other small animals that might be a great match for you are hamsters and gerbils.  If you don’t want your hamster to die within 1 week like mine did when I was a kid, then you’d best do some reading first!  Hamsters: Everything about Selection, Care, Nutrition and Behavior would be a great place to start.  Hamsters for Dummies is another good title for prospective hamster owners.  If you’re interested in getting a gerbil, the book Gerbils: The Complete Book of Gerbil Care would be a good read.  I had a gerbil when I was a child, but it kept escaping from its cage.  My solution?  Give it to my sister so that when it escaped in the middle of the night I could wake her up and tell her to go look for her gerbil.

Rabbits also make interesting pets.  There are many breeds of rabbit, including lop-eared varieties, rex breeds, dwarfs and many others.  The Mini Encyclopedia of Rabbit Breeds and Care provides excellent information to help you decide if you’d make a good rabbit owner.  If you’re in the market for something a bit more exotic, how about a hedgehog?  Hedgehogs: Everything about Purchase, Care and Nutrition will let you know what’s involved in caring for this unique pet.  There are also books on caring for ferrets, turtles, snakes and reptiles.

If you do some research before you welcome a pet into your home, then you’ll likely end up with a pet that will be a great fit for your household.  And when you do adopt a new pet, feel free to check out these titles to help you choose a name.  Just promise me that you won’t use the name Zummo!

Theresa

Shhhhh….. silence is GOLDEN.

Amidst all the  glitter and glam of the modern film industry, the Academy awards show on Sunday night took a look back at movie history by lauding two films that offer homages to the origins of film.  Hugo won five awards and includes as a character the director Gaston Méliès, whose films (such as the silent film A Trip to the Moon) are considered to be precursors to modern science fiction.   The Artist also pays tribute to the silent film era and won five awards, including best picture.  Is it a coincidence that almost half the awards at this year’s Academys went to movies that honour our film-making history?  Perhaps.  But at the same time, the recognition that these films received has made me want to explore the history of film, and, in particular, the silent film era.    

Silent Movies by Peter Kobel provides an excellent history of silent film with over 400 images of photographs, lobby cards, posters and other memorabilia.  This book includes a preface by Martin Scorcese (how fitting!) and has been described as a coffee table book for the film lover. A Short History of the Movies is a comprehensive history of film (at a not-so-short 516 pages!) that includes discussion of silent film and the roots of cinema.   Silent film icons (such as Buster Keaton) and influential films (such as Nosferatu) are highlighted.  Both these titles will  make you a film expert in no time at all!

Apparently, the rental of silent films has increased since Sunday night’s Academy Awards show, and many of these titles can be borrowed from the library.  The Rudolph Valentino Collection contains 5 films starring this Italian silent film star.  If you’re interested in horror films then you might want to try The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, about a young man who reflects on a nightmarish experience him and his fiance have after attending a fair and meeting the strange Dr. Caligari and the even stranger Cesare.  The General starring Buster Keaton is another highly regarded silent film, this one a comedy set during the Civil War. The library has many other silent films to suit any taste.

Also, don’t forget that The Artist isn’t the only contemporary silent film!  Winnipeg’s own Guy Maddin has received international acclaim and his catalogue includes several silent movies.  Dracula is a silent representation of the Bram Stoker tale as done by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.  Cowards Bend the Knee is the twisted tale of a hockey player named Guy who betrays his pregnant girlfriend with the new love he meets in a salon (who is out to avenge the murder of her father).  How could you resist watching a movie with that plot?  Brand Upon the Brain is the gothic tale of a young boy living on an island with his overbearing mother and ‘weird scientist’ father, and this movie contains elements of dream and fantasy.  Screenings of this movie have included live narration, and the narrators have included such disparate individuals as Crispin Glover, Isabella Rossellini and Guy Maddin himself.  

The fact that movies that honour cinema’s history could take top awards at a contemporary awards show demonstrates that sometimes it’s worth stepping back and taking a look at the history of film.  Even if you’re not sure that you’d enjoy a silent film- take a chance on one.  Remember- silence can be golden!

Theresa

To tweet, or not to tweet…..

I got a Twitter account several years ago and found that I rarely used it – perhaps because I found it difficult to condense what I wanted to say into 140 characters. And it also seemed to me that not only did you need to condense what you wanted to say into 140 characters, but you then had to try and be witty at the same time. So, my account languished. I also predicted that Twitter really wouldn’t catch on- so why start using something that probably didn’t have lasting power anyways?

Well, my aptitude at making predictions about technology obviously isn’t very accurate, since Twitter has grown in popularity and is obviously going to be around for a very long time. In December the library launched a Twitter feed @wpglibrary (we’d love it if you followed us!) and I seem to have become a Twitter convert. Twitter is much more than celebrity tweets by people like Ashton Kutcher (who, incidentally, has more people following him than there are on a small continent) although I do have to confess to following a celebrity or two. No matter where your interests lie, you can find lots of individuals or organizations to follow. As a librarian who is interested in film, music and technology, I’ve found lots of interesting people to follow who keep me up-to-date on the things I like. Interested in hockey? You can follow your favorite team (the Jets) or your favorite player (connect with Evander Kane).  Interested in cooking? You could follow Jamie Oliver, the Food Network or Bon Appetit magazine. There are Twitter feeds for job hunters, and Twitter feeds for vampire hunters. No matter what you’re interested in, there’s something for you.

What if you’re interested in the idea of tweeting, but perplexed by some of the Twitter jargon such as hashtags? If you need more information about Twitter and how it works, the library can help you out. Twitter for Dummies will teach you everything you need to know to get started with Twitter, as will Twitter: Tips, Tricks and Tweets. And it’s never too late to learn how to tweet- Facebook and Twitter for Seniors for Dummies will have you tweeting in no time.

If you own a business, you might want to consider using Twitter for promotional purposes.  Twitter allows you to market your product to your followers but also allows you to tap into what tweeters are saying about your business.  Positive comments can be retweeted for extra publicity while negative tweets can be addressed by responding directly to the person.  Often, someone will tweet about a business and the company will respond to the person fairly quickly via Twitter.  If you want to use Twitter for business promotion, the library has several books that would be useful to consult. Get Rich with Twitter: Harness the Power of the Twitterverse and Reach More Customes Than Ever Before might help entrepreneurs attract a larger customer base.  Twitter Marketing for Dummies provides good basic information on how to successfully market and promote your product or organization using Twitter.  

There are also books that deal with altruistic uses of Twitter.  Social Media for Social Good is a guide for non-profits on how to make use of Twitter.  Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time is a well-reviewed book which outlines ways in which Twitter can be used to  further causes and campaigns, and clearly get a message out.  Recently, I’ve read several news stories about a homeless woman in the United States who started a Twitter account at her local library, and began tweeting as a way to deal with her mental illness and to chronicle what it’s like to be homeless.  This woman has now received assistance from people she met through Twitter and she’s no longer living on the streets.

Some days, though, I’m just in need of a good laugh and Twitter often provides me with that.  The day that Wikipedia was down in protest of SOPA, the hashtag #factswithoutWikipedia was born.  Some of the gems I found were: “Bacon is good for you” (wish that one was really true!), “97% of the earth’s surface is covered by Beefaroni” and, lastly, my colleague’s favorite, “Pasta lovers can now plant a spaghetti tree in order to reduce their carbonara footprint.”

Theresa

Once Upon a Time is Not What it Seems

I love fairy tales and particularly enjoy revisions of traditional fairy tales, which is one reason that I’ve become slightly hooked on Once Upon a Time, a new TV show shot in Vancouver that debuted this fall.  The show goes from fairy tale land to modern Storybrooke, with the premise being that the evil witch has cursed Snow White and exiled her and other fairy tale characters to Storybrooke, where they have no recollection of their fairy tale lives at all.  The only one who can break the curse is Snow White’s daughter Emma, who is found by the son she gave up for adoption (Henry) who is now living with the evil witch (mayor of Storybrooke).  Henry is the only one who knows the truth about the residents of Storybrooke–but will anyone believe him? 

This show made me think about books I’ve read which offer interesting retellings of fairy tales.  Anne Sexton’s Transformations contains poetic renditions of fairy tales.  The poems begin with commentary on modern life–Red Riding Hood opens with examples of deceivers and Sexton counts herself among those who deceive.  “And I.  I too.  Quite collected at cocktail parties, meanwhile in my head I’m undergoing open-heart surgery”.  In describing Red Riding Hood’s cape, she says “it was her Linus blanket, besides it was red, as red as the Swiss flag, yes it was red, as red as chicken blood”.  Anne Sexton provides the reader with feminist, dark retellings of these tales and they aren’t the sanitized, safe versions we tell our children.  Sexton takes the tales to places dark and untamed.    

The book My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales contains stories by a plethora of writers, including John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman.  The tales of Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, and Snow White are just a few of the stories that are breathed new life in the capable hands of these renowned authors.  Less well-known tales from lands such as Japan and Mexico are also revisited.  Again, these aren’t our children’s tales–but were fairy tales ever meant to be?

One of my favorite twists on the fairy tale theme has to be Robert Munsch’s Paper Bag Princess.  I first discovered this book when I was a teenager, and I just loved  it! First, I was overjoyed that though this book had a feminist message the author was male, and I just loved the strong female character.  For those of you who don’t know this story, prince Ronald is taken by a dragon right before he is supposed to marry princess Elizabeth.  Elizabeth cleverly rescues Ronald from the dragon, but after her ordeal isn’t looking sufficiently princess-like for Ronald’s taste.  Ronald tells her, “You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess.”  If Elizabeth can stand up to a dragon, she can certainly stand up to the annoying prince Ronald.  In fact, her response is hilarious–but you’ll have to read the book to find out what she says.  And, yes, this IS a tale that you can read with your kids.  

Theresa

‘Tis the Season to be Crafty

Yes, I know!! There isn’t even snow on the ground and here I am writing about Christmas.  However, even before Halloween was over the stores had rows and rows devoted to Christmas–Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, Christmas wrap and Christmas shirts emblazoned with tacky glittery Christmas trees. Though I love Christmas, the commercialism of it does get a bit tiresome with people angsting over buying the perfect gift and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of preparations with no time to relax. Since there’s still plenty of time until Christmas, why not make this the year you try your hand at making gifts for family and friends, or ornaments and decorations for your home? Whether you’ve done lots of crafts before or you’re a newbie, there are items to make that fit every level of talent. Trust me, I’m not the craftiest person alive and if I can actually make stuff, so can you!    

If you haven’t crafted before, start out simple.  Make wrapping paper out of brown shipping paper.  Use cookie cutters as templates to paint on shapes, rubber stamp designs onto the paper or use a potato as a stamp.  Buy glass canning jars, fill them with candy, homemade cookies or nuts n’ bolts and put a swath of fabric around the lid fastened with pretty ribbon. Make little stuffed stocking ornaments out of fabric or felt and use them as bows on presents.  Bows always get thrown away–at least your ornament will be reused year after year.  Sachets are easy to make. Purchase some satin material, cut it into squares and stuff with fresh or dried herbs such as lavender. These proved to be very popular gifts; I even sold them at a craft sale and was shocked people actually paid money for something I had made! Another cute idea is to make candy skewers. Get some soft Christmas candies such as jujubes, thread them onto a wooden skewer, then wrap them in cellophane and tie with fancy ribbon. (Okay, I stole that idea from my sister who made Halloween candy skewers for my son this year.)

Crafting is much more fun if you do it with friends. Last year, a friend of mine suggested that we have crafting afternoons with her daughter and my son, and those afternoons formed lasting memories. We checked out an assortment of crafting books from the library and had lots of fun making a variety of crafts.   Fa La La La Felt had some really nice ideas for felt stuffies, ornaments and coasters. We made felt penguins with the kids and they had lots of fun. Even my 7 year old son didn’t get bored! What Shall We Do Today? taught us how to make snow globes out of glass canning jars and the kids had fun making those for teachers and relatives. This book also made a great Christmas present for my niece, as it contains crafts for every season.  This year, I’m going to try my hand at crafts from A Very Beaded Christmas.  This book contains beaded ornaments, candle decorations and other fairly simple beaded projects.

For teacher gifts, one afternoon we made cookie mixes in a jar. You layer all the ingredients and then put pretty ribbon and fabric around the top of the jar. However, remember to taste test a recipe before you use it for jars. One recipe I used wasn’t very good but I only discovered this after I had made quite a few jars. Check out the recipes in these  “gifts in a jar” cookbooks or on this Internet site.  

Remember that making home-made gifts isn’t just about saving money. Handmade gifts are the ones that most people will cherish for years to come. My favorite gift of all time? A crocheted blanket that my friend made me when I got married. My son’s favorite present last year? A handmade Advent calendar that my friend and her daughter made him. She used a big sheet and then sewed different sized pockets all over the sheet with numbers on each pocket. Each pocket was then filled with treats and the sheet was hung from a dowel. It hung over our fireplace and was much nicer than any store-bought Advent calendar. This year that Advent calendar will get used again, and I want to make one for my niece in the hope that she’ll like it as much as my son liked his. 

Theresa

Read Around the World: First Stop- India

Okay, so I’m not travelling to India.  The only trip I’m going on this summer is to Minnesota, which doesn’t quite compare!  However, in honour of that well-known Winnipeg multicultural extravaganza known as Folklorama, let’s ‘visit’ India!  Why not celebrate a country you love, or learn about a country you know little about by seeing what materials the library has to offer.  Let’s start our trip to India and join me as we discover great food, movies, novels and music.  

What would a visit to a new country be without the food? India is known for exotic spices, curries and delectable desserts.  Want to be able to cook your own scrumptious Indian feast?  (Just be sure to invite me over for dinner!).  The library has a great selection of materials on international cooking, and you won’t be disappointed with what the library has to offer on Indian cooking.  Check out How to Cook Indian: More than 500 Classic Recipes for the Modern Kitchen  by Chef Kapoor to learn how to cook traditional Indian dishes such as butter chicken, palak paneer and samosas.  The Big Book of Curries: 365 Mouthwatering Recipes from Around the World contains curry recipes for every taste.  If you’re concerned with healthy eating, Bal Arneson’s Quick and Healthy Indian is the book for you.  And if you want to come home at the end of the day to a mouthwatering meal (like dal or gobi aloo) made with little fuss, check out Anupy Singla’s The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes. 

Some of my favorite foreign movies are Indian movies and the following titles won’t disappoint.  The Apu trilogy is a coming of age story about a Bengali boy named Apu and includes Song of the Road, The Unvanquished and The World of Apu.  These films continually make it onto ‘best film’ lists and have influenced many directors worldwide.  Monsoon Wedding is another great Indian movie, directed by Mira Nair, about a family getting ready for the arranged marriage of the daughter.   This movie has drama, dancing, laughter, tears and is one I have watched over and over.  Slumdog Millionaire was made by a British director but was shot in India with Indian cast and crew and is an abolute must-see movie that won several Academy awards including best picture.  Based on the novel Q & A, this is the tale of a young Mumbai boy who is accused of cheating when he knows all the answers on an Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  It’s a thoroughly engaging movie and well worth seeing! 

Some of my favorite Indian movies are bollywood films, which is the term used to describe the Hindi film industry in Mumbai.  The word bollywood merges Bombay (Mumbai’s former name) with Hollywood.  Bride and Prejudice is a fun bollywood remake of Jane Austen’s Pride and Predjudice in which a mother wants to marry off her 4 daughters.    Deepa Mehta is an Indian born Canadian director who has directed many films, including Bollywood Hollywood which is about a Hindi man living in Ontario whose Caucasian girlfriend dies in a freak accident, urging his mother to ask him to find a Hindi wife.  

If you find you really enjoy bollywood movies then you might be interested in learning how to dance bollywood style by checking out the DVD Bollywood Dancing: For Beginners and Advanced.   For bollywood music, check out the sound recordings Bollywood: An Anthology of Songs from Popular Indian Cinema and the Rough Guide to Bollywood.  If you’re more into traditional Indian music, then Traditional Songs and Dances of India or Ravi Shankar’s Spirit of India would be well worth checking out.   

There are many great Indian authors as well.  Vikram Seth’s novels have won him numerous awards and recognition.  An Equal Music is the story of the love affair between a violinist and a pianist, a love affair that resumes even when one of them is married with a child.  Rohinston Mistry’s A Fine Balance is set in Mumbai during a period of unrest and explores the bond between characters of different backgrounds.  This book won the Giller prize and was also an Oprah book pick.  The God of Small Things is the debut novel by Arundhati Roy and took 4 years to write.  It deals with the devastating experiences of fraternal twins and won the Booker prize. 

If you ever decide to travel to India, the library has many great travel books to choose from to help make your trip a success!  There’s a 2011 Eyewitness travel book on India, a Frommer’s India  travel book and Fodor’s Essential India, among others. 

 If you want to learn more about India or ‘travel’ to another country, remember to explore all the materials the library has to offer.  And remember that library staff are always happy to help you in your search!

Theresa

Read a book, get a tattoo

I’ve considered the idea of getting a tattoo for a long time now, but there are two things holding me back from actually booking an appointment at a tattoo parlor. One is that I’m kind of scared of needles, and the other is that I worry that a tattoo I might like now isn’t one I will still like when I’m much older.  You might have loved the punk band The Misfits in your early twenties – but how does that tattoo look on your arm when you’re in your fifties and your musical tastes have changed?  What tattoo could I get that I wouldn’t regret years later?

The book Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide has made me ponder the idea of getting a literary tattoo. This book is an anthology of literary tattoos and the stories behind the choices of quotations and/or images.  Katharine Barthelme discusses her Born Dancin’ tattoo which she had done as a tribute to her father (Donald Barthelme) and his short story of the same name, which is reprinted in the book.  Another tattoo is of the phrase “Leap before you look” paired with a portrait of the author of it, W. H. Auden.  An interesting project called Skin is also described.  Imagine a short story published solely as thousands of individual words tattooed on volunteers, with the title word ‘skin’ tattooed on the author, Shelley Jackson. Pretty neat idea!

Reading this book certainly made me consider which literary quotations I would consider getting as tattoos.  Throughout my life there have been certain quotations that I have carried with me.  A favorite book of mine when I was a teenager was The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, which I read numerous times. When I was going through teen angst  (such as a breakup with a boyfriend) I would read it, wallow in self-pity for a while, have a good cry and move on. In fact, when I think about my favourite line from that book “It is such a secret place, the land of tears” it evokes the feelings I had reading that book and I remember how I could get through any crisis I was facing.  In the book, the Little Prince cries because he’s upset thinking about the possibility of his flower being eaten by a sheep – and that line paired with a picture of the flower would make a pretty cool tattoo.

Another line from literature that I love is E.M. Forster‘s “only connect” which is the epigraph to Howard’s End. This book is set in the early 1900s and deals with class differences, and many critics have written about this phrase and what it means. I remember endless discussions about it when I took a class in Modern British Literature. To me, it’s a reminder of how everything and everyone is interconnected, and also reminds me that we need to open ourselves to new ideas, people, and experiences to connect with the world in meaningful ways.  This quotation just makes me feel quite philosophical, and I think would be worthy of becoming a tattoo.

One last quotation that I find empowering, and that perhaps every teenage girl should take to heart (or get a tattoo of!) is Francesca Lia Block‘s “in every girl is a goddess” from her book of short stories, Girl Goddess #9. These stories all deal with female characters who discover their uniqueness and strength. This line has stuck with me for many years, and I have toyed with the idea of getting it as a tattoo. Now if I could only get rid of my fear of needles, I’d be all set to make that appointment!

What are your favorite lines or images from literature? Would you want them permanently inscribed on you?

Theresa

From Blog to Book

Want to get a book deal with a publisher? Start a blog. In the last few years many popular blog authors have been approached by publishers to write books. Start with a great idea, develop your blog space with blogging software such as WordPress or Blogspot and you too could be on your way to a book deal! Here’s a look at some popular books that began as blogs.

Cake Wrecks, the blog, led to Cake Wrecks, the book, and the premise is simple but funny – cakes gone horribly wrong. (In fact, a cake fiasco earned my husband the nickname Speeb when a hard-of-hearing employee wrote Speeb on his birthday cake instead of Steve). The blog Awkward Family Photos led to (you guessed it!) Awkward Family Photos the book. Some of the photos will remind you of photo shoots you were forced to endure as a child and others are just plain wrong. Sh*t My Dad sayings became the book of the same name, and in my opinion is much funnier than the TV show. Words of wisdom uttered by Halpern’s dad include such gems as ”Pick your furniture like you pick a wife: It should make you feel comfortable and look nice, but not so nice that if someone walks past it they want to steal it.”

The Julie/ Julia Project was a blog in which the author decided to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year, blogging about her experience all the way.  Not only did she get a book deal as a result of her blog – the book was also made into a movie starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Living Oprah chronicles Robyn Okrant’s one year experience of living her life exactly as prescribed by Oprah Winfrey. She watches her show every day, reads her magazine, and takes the advice given to heart. Of course, a book deal ensues. The blog 1,000 Awesome Things was so popular that the author, Neil Pasricha, is now onto his second book.

With free blogging software making it so easy for anyone to produce blogs it’s no surprise that publishers are keeping their eyes open for the best blogs out there.  And hey, if you think of a good theme for a blog – pass it along. I’m all out of ideas – but think it’s time I got myself one of these book deals!

-Theresa

Which film would you nail to your heart?

What do you do when your fifteen-year-old son wants to drop out of school? Well, if you’re David Gilmour (Canadian author and film critic) you tell him that he can drop out of school on the condition that he watches three movies a week with his dad. For three years, they do just that- together they watch everything from Showgirls to Kurosawa’s Ran. The memoir The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son recounts this time in their lives and is a poignant account of the relationship between a father and son, both struggling in different ways. A fascinating read – and by the end you’re sure to end up with a list of movies worth watching.

If you love movies that are unusual and quirky 101 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die will provide you with some interesting movie choices. This book contains reviews of movies like Phantom of the Paradise and Rocky Horror Picture Show but there are some surprises in here as well, from old classics to foreign films. Never heard of The Room directed by and starring Tommy Wiseau? This cult movie has achieved cult status with midnight showings throughout North America and it too earns its place in 101 Cult Movies. If cult movies aren’t really your thing, Schneider has done other books in the ‘101 movies’ series; horror movies, action films, war movies, science fiction and gangster films.

People are often passionate when discussing their favourite films and this passion is what makes The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark such an interesting read. Guy Maddin discovers the movie L’age d’or when he’s watching the French network on CBC hoping to come across a bit of nudity, but discovers much more. John Waters is haunted by the Wizard of Oz and says that the line, “Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness” inspired his life. Of his pick, Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire fame says, “If I had to nail one film on my heart, this would be the one.” (Hint: Boyle’s pick is a war movie.) As you’re reading this book it’s impossible not to ask yourself which film has inspired you. Which film would you nail to your heart?

Theresa

We Got the Beat: Women in Rock

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of memoirs/ autobiographies and am particularly enjoying reading biographies about rock musicians. The last few autobiographies that I read and thoroughly enjoyed are about female rock singers. Whether you like to rock with the best of them or just like reading about those who do, the following titles are sure to fit the bill.

Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by Cherie Currie and Toni O’Neill is gritty, hard to put down and at times disturbing. Cherie Currie was the lead singer for the Runaways - the band in which Joan Jett also got her start. Cherie was spotted at a club by the Runaway’s manager when she was fifteen and was asked to come to an audition. Problems with drugs and alcohol, sexual molestation, a sleazy manager and a terrifying ordeal with a possible serial killer make this book difficult to put down as the reader hopes for some sort of redemption for Currie. The movie The Runaways (starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart) examines the relationship between Currie and Jett – but even the movie leaves out some of the most disturbing accounts in the book. Both the movie and the book are highly recommended, however.

If you’re a child of the 80’s you’ll enjoy Belinda Carlisle’s Lips Unsealed: A Memoir. Belinda Carlisle began her music career with a short stint drumming in punk band The Germs and then formed the Go-Go’s, one of the most famous all girl bands that wrote their own material. Carlisle recounts her struggles with relationships, discourse within the band and addiction (drugs, alcohol and food) honestly and pulls no punches. This book also describes life past the Go-Go’s, delving into Carlisle’s career as a solo artist and her marriage to Morgan Mason, a politican and film producer. Throughout the book one is conscious of Carlisle’s vulnerability and low self- esteem, even in the face of great success.

If you want a change of pace from the tales of rock stars’ descent into drug and alcohol abuse, Pat Benatar’s Between a Heart and a Rock Place is a riveting and refreshing read. Born to hard working parents of Polish descent she had a good relationship with her family, even though they struggled financially. A music teacher was instrumental in having Benatar classically trained as a singer and was a great influence on Benatar throughout her adolescence. As Benatar recounts how she formed her band and found success, she discusses the difficulty of being a woman in a male dominated industry and the sexism that came along with that. Executives at her music label wanted her to dress in revealing clothes and also wanted her to hide her long-term relationship with bandmate Neil Giraldo, as they wanted the fans to see her as a sex object. Throughout it all, Benatar kept her integrity and found balance between a career and family, making for a surprisingly interesting story.

-Theresa