Voices are unique, especially in the world of audiobooks.  For years I worked in the Movies and Music area of the library and paid very little attention to the world of books beyond those in my own areas of interest.  One day I began hearing about a series of books that was taking not only the country but the world by storm; books about a young lad named Harry Potter.  I decided to check them out.  Not having much time to read at the time I decided to listen to the first book in the car on my way to work.  The Harry Potter series was read in the United States audio editions by Jim Dale.  His manner of reading entranced me and brought me into the world of Harry Potter.  I could have listened to him read the phone book and been happy.  I know this is a trite overused comparison, but it is accurate.  So imagine my joy when I watched the first episode of the series Pushing Daisies and heard his wonderful and unique voice starting out “At this very moment in the town of Couer d’Couers young Ned was nine years, twenty-seven weeks, six Days and three minutes old.”  I was hooked just by this voice alone, then as the story progressed I was hooked by the whole show

Pushing Daisies started life as rejected script idea for an episode of the show Dead Like Me, in which the character of “George” Lass finds that she cannot collect any souls because someone was resurrecting the dead by touching them. Read more about Pushing Daisies

Harley Sullivan: What kind of business you figure your brother left you?
John O'Hanlan: Well, the letter don't say - but that's just like a lawyer. They don't tell you no more than it takes to confuse you. But it's a... something called the Cheyenne Social Club.

After receiving a letter informing him of the death of his brother John O’Hanlan (James Stewart) leaves his position as a hired hand on a cattle drive to take over the Cheyenne Social Club the business his brother left him in his will.  It might seem obvious to us by the name of the business and the movie just exactly what the nature of the business is, but this is a story about a more innocent time and John O’Hanlan is a more innocent man.  He is joined on his trek across the country and into Cheyenne by his good friend Harley (Henry Fonda).  The film which was directed by Gene Kelly moves fluidly through the story from one situation to another.  Low Key” may be the best way to describe this film about a man of high morals, and a kind heart who suddenly finds himself the owner of the most famous brothel in Wyoming.  Read more about Cheyenne Social Club

Mortimer Brewster’s aunts Abby and Martha are two of the kindest, most loving women you could ever hope to meet.  They are always willing to help others and always seemed to have a kind word for everyone.  They raised Mortimer and his brothers Jonathan and Teddy from a young age.  Mortimer has developed into a well-rounded young man who works for the city’s paper reviewing the theatre.  Brother Teddy, while harmless, suffers from the delusion that he is President Theodore Roosevelt. Brother Jonathan, well, the less said about him the better.  He was the type of child who enjoyed pulling the wings off of flies and the legs off of spiders.     The “fun” begins when Mortimer is excitedly preparing to share the good news of his coming engagement to the girl next door rather unexpectedly finds a dead body in the window box seat of his Aunts’ home.  Later that same night his brother Jonathan returns home after a long absence; who after numerous face changing surgeries looks a great deal like the actor Boris Karloff. With him comes an alcoholic plastic surgeon and another dead body.  Meanwhile, Teddy seems to be digging body sized locks for the Panama Canal in the basement.  Read more about Arsenic and Old Lace

Not too long ago I was reminded of one of my favorite romantic movies, The American President.  The film stars Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd and Annette Bening as Sydney Ellen Wade, a lobbyist for an ecological group.  President Shepherd is something unusual in the U.S. Presidency, though not in movies, a single father.  Shepherd is nearing the end of his first term, up for re-election and wondering if the real reason he was elected was due to a sympathy vote after his wife died of cancer during his campaign.  Now, after a little over three years of widowhood, he spots Sydney at a meeting taking place at the White House and decides he would like to ask her out.  The problem, obviously, is that he is the President of the United States.  His life is a fish bowl and there is a dignity that goes with the office that makes it difficult to have close friends.  His oldest and best friend now refuses to call him anything other than “Mr. President” even during their private games of pool.  So just how does a President ask a woman out on a date?  What happens when that date is successful and they find themselves strongly attracted to each other? Read more about American President

It is likely that if I mentioned the name of Mike Nesmith most of us would think of the 1960’s band The Monkees.  Some of us might think to recall him for his work with the First National Band, or some of his solo musical works.  You might even remember him as one of the pioneers of the modern music video.  It might come as a surprise to you that he was the executive producer of a film that the magazine Entertainment Weekly named #7 on its list of the “Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time.”  The film is Repo Man starring Emilio Estevez as Otto, a street punk having a bad day, who is tricked by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) into becoming a repo man and brings him into the strange and dangerous world surrounding the repossession of automobiles. Read more about Repo Man (1984)