Hot This Week: September 30

As we prepare to head into October, the zombie film World War Z takes the top DVD spot. Six new titles grace the CD chart, including all of the top five. It's the same story on the fiction list, with six new titles, led by the latest romantic drama from Nicholas Sparks. There are also three new titles on the non-fiction list, coming in at #s 7-9.

DVD

1. World War Z
2. Now You See Me
3. Star Trek Into Darkness
4. Oblivion
5. Pain & Gain
6. Epic
7. Olympus Has Fallen
8. Tyler Perry's
9. The Place Beyond the Pines
10. Empire State

 CD

1. Jack Johnson, From Here to Now to You
2. Justin Moore, Off the Beaten Path
3. Chris Young, A.M.
4. MMG Presents: Self Made Vol. 3
5. Avicii, True
6. Luke Bryan, Crash My Party
7. 2 Chainz, B.O.A.T.S. II #METIME
8. Keith Urban, Fuse
9. The Weeknd, Kiss Land
10. Billy Currington, We Are Tonight

Fiction

1. The Longest Ride, Nicholas Sparks
2. The Quest, Nelson DeMille
3. Thankless in Death, J.D. Robb
4. W Is for Wasted, Sue Grafton
5. Never Go Back, Lee Child
6. Bleeding Edge, Thomas Pynchon
7. The Final Cut, Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison
8. Deadly Heat, Richard Castle
9. The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith
10. Inferno, Dan Brown

Non-Fiction

1. Si-Cology 1, Si Robertson and Mark Schlabach
2. Still Foolin' 'Em, Billy Crystal
3. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell
4. Zealot, Reza Aslan
5. Happy, Happy, Happy, Phil Robertson and Mark Schlabach
6. The Liberty Amendments, Mark R. Levin
7. Grain Brain, David Perlmutter and Kristin Loberg
8. The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley
9. The System, Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian
10. Wilson, A. Scott Berg

Glee Takes on the Beatles

Written by Kyle Slagley

This week marked an important week for all the Gleeks out there, as the new album Glee Sings the Beatles hit shelves on Tuesday. It takes quite a bit of gall to take arguably the most sacred band in rock n’ roll history and pop-ify their work, but that’s exactly what the kids at William McKinley High School did. Judging by how well the album is selling, fans aren’t exactly complaining either.

After listening to the entire album, the Glee renditions I enjoyed most were “Drive My Car,” “Here Comes the Sun” which features Demi Lovato, and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Strangely enough, Glee has covered Beatles songs in the past, and my favorite of their covers, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” – sung by Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt, and which originally appears on Volume 4 – was not included on this album.

Glee is far from the first group to cover the Fab Four, nor will they be the last. Though many of your patrons will be far too young to remember, or even know of the performance, you cannot mention Beatles covers without mentioning Joe Cocker’s rendition of “With a Little Help From My Friends” at Woodstock in ’69 or Neil Young’s version of “Imagine” at the 9/11 TV tribute concert. More recently, Mumford and Sons have been known to cover “Hey Jude” during their concerts, and one of my favorite obscure cover finds (if you can get past the crowd noise on the recording) on YouTube is Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler, and Weird Al Yankovic singing “Come Together” at a New Year’s Eve party in 2012.

When it comes to entire albums of Beatles cover songs, my absolute favorite would be the Across the Universe Soundtrack. The film came out in 2007 and was another instance where the story was structured around the music. It received mediocre reviews, but the soundtrack is still one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.

For some, the first cover soundtrack to come to mind will be the one that went with the first Beatles-oriented film, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The film, starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, was loosely based on the Beatles album of the same name, but with a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes, I think I can safely say the film was a total bomb. It is worth mentioning, though, that in later years, after memories of the film had faded, affection for ‘70s nostalgia and kitsch brought the soundtrack back into the light.

The fact is that there are too many different covers of the Fab Four to mention in just one column, and they span all different styles: from Beatallica (who plays Beatles tunes in the style of Metallica), Roberta Flack (who puts her R&B spin on the songs), to even Sesame Street and the Chipmunks. Check out our collection of Beatles cover albums Midwest Tape offers, and don’t forget to remind your younger patrons about the original band too!

Horror TV Brings Plenty of Scares to October

Written by Jon Williams

With Halloween approaching, patrons will be looking for creepy tales to watch in the dark. While it’s hard to top a scary movie, more and more viewers are turning to television for their horror needs. A series of weekly episodes allows writers to draw out the suspense and inject even more scares than they could in a two-hour movie. Here are a few great recent and upcoming horror series that will put a little thrill into your patrons’ October nights.

Two series aired earlier this year that explore the origins of two classic horror icons. In their July “All-Time Greatest” issue, Entertainment Weekly named Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs as the #1 and #5 best horror movies. The series Bates Motel looks at the teenage years of Psycho’s twisted killer, Norman Bates, while Hannibal follows the career of Hannibal Lecter before the events of The Silence of the Lambs, which begins with Dr. Lecter in prison for his crimes. Both series wrapped up their first seasons this spring, and both have been renewed for 2014.

Another series which just had its season finale on September 16 was Under the Dome. Based on a book by Stephen King, the series portrays the events that take place when the town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, is inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an impenetrable force field known as “the Dome.” This show will also be back for a second season next year, with the premiere episode being written by none other than Mr. King himself.

The same night that Under the Dome’s first season ended, Sleepy Hollow premiered. This series, with a creative team led by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (who have written for both the Transformers and rebooted Star Trek franchises), sees Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman transported from the Revolutionary War era to present-day Sleepy Hollow, New York. While the series is airing on Fox and won’t be available on DVD for a while, interested patrons can always check out the original short story by Washington Irving on audiobook, or another adaptation, such as the 1999 movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.

Premiering October 9 on FX will be the third season of American Horror Story. Titled Coven, this season will deal with a group of witches sharing a bloodline going back to the Salem Witch Trials. Each season is basically a standalone miniseries, and each of the first two seasons was very highly regarded. The first season (Murder House) was nominated for a slew of Emmys, with Jessica Lange winning Best Supporting Actress. The second season (Asylum) saw James Cromwell take home an Emmy this past Sunday for Best Supporting Actor.

The current heavyweight of horror TV is AMC’s The Walking Dead, which comes back for its fourth season on October 16. The season three finale of the zombie show adapted from Robert Kirkman’s comic series set ratings records while leaving plenty of questions to be answered, ensuring that the new season will start with a bang. If you have horror-loving patrons who have somehow missed this show, be sure to recommend it—they’ll thank you for it.

Hot This Week: September 23

While last night's Emmy Awards made TV the talk of the weekend, there was still plenty of excitement left over for other media. The second installment in the Star Trek reboot franchise enters on top of the movie list. It was another big week for debuts on the CD chart, with six new titles, including the top three. Four new fiction titles make that list, headed by Sue Grafton's latest alphabet mystery. Even non-fiction got into the act with four debut titles; beloved comedian Billy Crystal's new book leads the newcomers at #2.

DVD

1. Star Trek Into Darkness
2. Now You See Me
3. Oblivion
4. Pain & Gain
5. Olympus Has Fallen
6. Empire State
7. The Place Beyond the Pines
8. Tyler Perry's Peeples
9. 42
10. G.I. Joe: Retaliation

 CD

1. Keith Urban, Fuse
2. The Weeknd, Kiss Land
3. 2 Chainz, B.O.A.T.S. II #METIME
4. Luke Bryan, Crash My Party
5. Janelle Monae, The Electric Lady
6. Arctic Monkeys, AM
7. Sheryl Crow, Feels Like Home
8. Tamar Braxton, Love and War
9. Ariana Grande, Yours Truly
10. John Legend, Love in the Future
    

Fiction

1. W Is for Wasted, Sue Grafton
2. Never Go Back, Lee Child
3. The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith
4. The Mayan Secrets, Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry
5. Inferno, Dan Brown
6. Robert B. Parker's Damned if You Do, Michael Brandman
7. Second Watch, J.A. Jance
8. And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
9. Someone, Alice McDermott
10. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

Non-Fiction

1. Si-Cology 1, Si Robertson and Mark Schlabach
2. Still Foolin' 'Em, Billy Crystal
3. The Liberty Amendments, Mark R. Levin
4. Zealot, Reza Aslan
5. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg and Nell Scovell
6. Happy, Happy, Happy, Phil Robertson and Mark Schlabach
7. Wilson, A. Scott Berg
8. Lawrence in Arabia, Scott Anderson
9. Five Days at Memorial, Sheri Fink
10. A House in the Sky, Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett

Banned Books Week Begins September 22

Written by Kyle Slagley

Next week marks the 31st Annual Banned Books Week, a cause near and dear to my heart, as I’m sure it is to most of you. The cause is meant to encourage both readers and librarians to re-examine challenged and banned works, but perhaps more importantly, to promote the freedom to read in libraries, schools, and bookstores.

Having closely looked over the list of books most frequently challenged in the past decade I decided to highlight a few that I have read, and give my reaction to them. If your library chooses to censor these or any other books, that is your choice and you may take my reactions with as much salt as you like.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: This series has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since it hit shelves for the first time in 1997. It was attacked primarily for promoting witchcraft among children and young adults. Despite the conflict, the franchise has made over $15 billion dollars. I own every book and every movie. Do I walk around wearing t-shirts with the Gryffindor crest or the word ‘Muggle’ on them? No. But I think these books are largely harmless because the content is so fantastical that I believe the concerns about witchcraft to be largely unfounded. What kid wouldn’t want to go to a school where he or she can learn how to fly on a broomstick, levitate objects with the flick of a wrist, and live in an awesome castle?

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy: This series, consisting of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, is highly controversial because of its notions concerning both witchcraft and the oppression of the book’s version of the Catholic Church. I found the books incredibly well written – not for the religious controversy, but because of the depth Pullman writes into his characters. The struggles that protagonists Lyra and Will encounter while attempting to come of age in this dangerous world is absolutely fascinating. In this, as well as other series, it’s important to stress to readers that these works are labeled fiction for a reason and are not to be taken too seriously.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Hosseini’s first book was met with a large amount of controversy from both American readers as well as Afghan-Americans. Americans challenged the book because it blatantly exposed things like homosexuality, pedophilia, drug abuse, and oppression amongst the various sects within Afghanistan. Afghan-Americans reportedly never denied the allegations, but rather protested against Hosseini for publicizing things about their culture that they claimed were better left unsaid. For me, the book was an absolute fantastic read. Hosseini has a way of telling his stories which is quite unlike the majority of other modern writers and it really resonates with me. I felt the same about his novels A Thousand Splendid Sons and And the Mountains Echoed.

Are there more books that I could write about that have been frequently banned and/or challenged? Certainly! There are dozens! For a full list of books that fall on this list, check out the ALA’s Banned Books webpage. For audiobooks and movie versions of some of the books on that list, visit the Midwest Tape website and click the Banned Books Week panel on the left side of the homepage.