Yadda, Yadda, Yadda

Seinfeld was always happy to reference itself as "the show about nothing." But that really couldn't be further from the truth. The hit NBC sit-com -- it ran for nine seasons -- starred Jerry Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself: a stand-up comedian living in Manhattan. The show was co-created by Seinfeld and Larry David, and starred a trio of characters alongside Seinfeld: George Costanza (Jerry's best friend, and a fictionalized version of co-creator David), Elaine Benes (Jerry's ex-girlfriend), and Cosmo Kramer (the oddball next-door neighbor).

Like most cultural phenomena, a summary can't do it justice. The show's running joke was that it was a show about nothing, but the relationship trials, etiquette faux-paus, and farcical build-ups are hardly pointless. As Tim Delaney, author of Seinology: The Sociology of Seinfeld put it: "Seinfeld is much more than an entertaining show about nothing. It is a show about everything."

Seinfeld originally premiered on May 31, 1990. So in honor of its twenty-third anniversary, take a look at our favorite picks from its nine-year run:

Tracy's Picks:

"The Chinese Restaurant" (Season 2)

“Ya know, its not fair people are seated first come, first served. It should be based on who's hungriest.” -- Elaine

Jerry, George, and Elaine are on their way to see Plan 9 From Outer Space and decide to stop and grab a quick dinner before the movie. It turns out to be anything but quick since they don’t have reservations, and they see people getting seated who came in after them. Elaine and Jerry try to pass the time talking; George is desperate to make a call to his girlfriend, but can’t because the pay phone is constantly in use. 

This episode, while appearing to be about nothing, is far from it. Who hasn’t sat frustrated at a restaurant, waiting for a table? What also sets this episode apart is that it is in real time, which was incredibly out of the ordinary for a network situation comedy at the time. 

"The Parking Garage" (Season 3)

"We're like rats in some experiment." -- George

The gang goes on a trip to the mall when Kramer wants to buy an air conditioner, and then no one can remember where the car is parked. They start wandering around the garage but have no luck. Elaine is worried that the goldfish she bought might suffocate in the plastic bag, George has to meet his parents for their anniversary dinner, and Jerry has to go to the bathroom, urgently! Who knew that a simple trip to the mall could result in such hilarity! 

This episode is similar to "The Chinese Restaurant" in that it all takes place in one location. It also shows how childish and self-centered all four of the characters can be.

"The Boyfriend" (Season 3)

"That must've been one magic loogie." -- Jerry

This two-parter finds Jerry meeting his sports idol, New York Mets Keith Hernadez, who also happens to be a fan of Jerry’s. Jerry develops a man crush and is very jealous when Keith starts dating Elaine. Meanwhile, George is trying to find a way to stay on unemployment without actually getting a job, by telling the unemployment office that he’s applied for a job at Vandelay Industries. Needing a contact for his fake company, George gives out Jerry’s phone number.

Kramer and Newman are appalled when they find out about Jerry meeting Keith Hernandez. They accuse Keith of spitting on Kramer after a game a few years earlier. Keith remembers the incident but says it wasn’t him. The whole incident is recounted JFK style, including film clips as flashbacks that are reminiscent of the Zapruder film.

The main story here is about Jerry's new friendship with Keith and how difficult it can be to make new friends the older you get. Friendships evolve like any relationship, whether it is romantic or not. Sometimes friendships can move too fast, which is how Jerry feels about his new friend, Keith. (Plus this episode has the magic loogie theory!)

"The Airport" (Season 4)

"You wanna make this plane, you've gotta run like a man! Get your knees up!" -- Jerry to Elaine

Jerry and Elaine are headed back to New York after a trip to St. Louis for one of Jerry’s gigs, when their flight gets cancelled. They get moved to another flight, but Jerry gets upgraded to first class while Elaine has to stay in coach. Jerry is seated beside a beautiful supermodel, but poor Elaine is stuck in the middle seat and has a terrible flight.

Back in New York, George and Kramer are traveling back and forth between airports because of the flight cancellation. They get involved in their own hijinks (of course!), which end with George on a plane with a convict who took a dislike to George at the airport, and Kramer coming out of the chute at baggage claim.  How does Kramer end up in baggage claim? You have to watch to find out.

This is so much fun to watch now, just to see how flying has changed in 20-plus years. However, the differences between First and Coach has not, which is where most of the relatable humor lies.

"The Opposite" (Season 5)

"Elaine, don't get too down. Everything will even out. See, I have two friends. You were up, he was down. Now he's up, you're down. You see how it all evens out for me?" -- Jerry

George has decided that every decision that he has ever made has been wrong. To rectify that, from now on, he’s going to do the exact opposite of what he would normally do. Suddenly, things start to work out for George – he starts dating a beautiful woman and he gets a job with the New York Yankees. Elaine, though, is having all kinds of problems. Her boyfriend breaks up with her, she loses her job, and she is getting kicked out of her apartment. Jerry’s life, of course, stays the same as always. No matter what happens, things always work out as he had planned.

Who hasn't wondered if some of the decisions they've made in their life were the right ones?  I feel like George is doing what many of us have always wanted to try, but lacked the courage. Elaine, on the other hand, is so totally clueless about why things are not working out for her. And then there's Jerry. Don't we all know someone where everything always seems to work out for them?

Ms. B's Picks:

"The Busboy" (Season 2)

"Shut up and PACK!" -- Elaine

The A-plot of this episode features Jerry, Elaine, and George going out to dinner and inadvertently getting one of the restaurant's busboys fired. As George (with Kramer's "assistance") attempts to make things right, things go from bad to worse -- until an unexpected turn of events results in the busboy being grateful to George after all. (At least ... for awhile.)

It's a fun enough episode right there. But the real comedy gold comes courtesy of the B-plot, involving Elaine ready to get rid of her week-long houseguest. It's been a boring visit and Elaine can't wait to get him loaded back onto his plane and out of her life -- which makes it all the more horrible when Elaine oversleeps the morning of the flight. Increasingly frantic, Elaine takes matters into her own hands to get both her and her visitor out the door and in time for the flight. Not to be missed by anyone who's ever been ready to see their houseguest's visit come to a close.

"The Stranded" (Season 3)

"Maybe the dingo ate your baby." -- Elaine

When Jerry and Elaine tag along with George to a party out on Long Island, it's not long before they find themselves trapped in conversations both offensive and boring. When George ducks out without them, Jerry and Elaine are left trapped and waiting for their ride -- and Jerry, out of sheer, panicked politeness, finds himself inviting the hosting couple to stop by his place any time they're in the city. Not a good long-term plan.

Seinfeld spends a lot of time exploring the conventions of polite interactions -- and what we all try to do to get out of them. I love this episode particularly for Elaine and Jerry's "secret signal" -- if one gets trapped in an intolerably boring conversation, a pat on the head is the signal for the other person to swoop in and "rescue" them from it. Like most things on Seinfeld, of course, things hardly go according to plan.

"The Dog" (Season 3)

"I like dogs. I'm not sure this is a dog." -- Jerry

In one of Seinfeld's earlier, better build-ups, Jerry finds himself the unhappy sitter for an incessantly-barking dog named Farfel. Farfel won't shut up and is tearing Jerry's apartment apart -- leaving Jerry afraid to leave the dog alone. Missed movies, melodramatic romance, and George and Elaine realizing all they have to talk about is Jerry all come together in appropriately hilarious fashion.

There's a particularly noteworthy gimmick that stands out as being done, and being done well. Two of the episode's most important characters -- Farfel the dog, and Kramer's girlfriend Ellen (who he breaks up with, and subsequently begs to be taken back by) -- are never seen. The other characters interact with them, but "Farfel" and "Ellen" both remain off-camera.

"The Engagement" (Season 7)

"You STUPID mutt!"  -- Elaine

Once again, it's the B-plot that shines for me, in this episode primarily about George's engagement to his old girlfriend, Susan Ross. George and Jerry have made a pact to start making serious changes in their lives -- but it's George who takes the most initiative, showing up at Susan's door and asking her, "Will you marry me?"  When she says yes, George is initially thrilled until he finds out that Jerry broke up with his own girlfriend, meaning that, as far as George is concerned, he's the only one who properly honored the pact. And it's not long, of course, before George is hoping to find a way out of his newly-realized commitment.

But as a long-time apartment dweller, my favorite bits of the episode come from Elaine. Living in a new apartment, Elaine's been running on three hours of sleep a night thanks to the incessant barking of a neighbor's dog. When she enlists Kramer and mailman Newman to help her fix the problem (they'll kidnap the dog and relocate it to the country), she ends up, of course, with a bigger problem than she started with. Still, if you've ever had noisy neighbors, it's all fairly relatable.

"The Marine Biologist" (Season 5)

"The sea was angry that day, my friends ... like an old man sending back soup in a deli." -- George

To say too much about this episode would rob those who haven't seen it of the most delightful comedic build-up that I've ever witnessed on TV. Suffice it to say that the apparently-disparate plot threads of Elaine's new electric organizer, Jerry's new girlfriend, George's fictional career as a marine biologist, and Kramer's current hobby all come together to bring two complex plot-threads into full-circle hilarity.

Relationships, pettiness, day-to-day annoyances ... for being a show about nothing, Seinfeld had a lot to say. But at its best, the show always brought its crazy, farcical, and entirely relatable stories back to their starting points. It made for a hilarious viewing experience -- and all-around great television.

VIDEO: "Top 100 Seinfeld Moments"

"They say, 'What's your show about?' I say, 'Nothing.'"

"Exactly."

"... I think you may have something here."

Summertime @ the Movies

With summer vacation -- and Summer Reading -- both quickly approaching, that means we're already firmly entrenched in another annual tradition: the blockbuster movie season.

While there's plenty of money-making movies that come to theaters in the "off-seasons" (Avatar and Titanic are the only movies to ever cross the $2 billion box office mark, and they were both December releases), summer remains the season for big action, big special-effects efforts to crowd into theaters and attempt to win over their audiences.  

With the latest entries in the Iron Man, Star Trek, and Fast and the Furious franchises already in theaters, it's shaping up to be a summer filled with superheroes, sci-fi, and high-action blockbuster fun at its best. So while you're waiting for your personally most-hotly-anticipated theater release (or if you've already seen it at the theater), check out our Top Ten list of summer blockbuster classics. (All free and available on DVD @ your library, of course!)

Tracy's Picks:

-- Star Wars (1977)

As you know from earlier posts, this is one of my favorite films of all time. And, for me, it defined the summer of 1977. This swashbuckler disguised as a space opera had it all -- adventure, comedy, heartbreak, and even a hint of romance. 

-- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Harrison Ford created another iconic character in archeologist Indiana Jones. This adventure takes us all over the world in the 1930s, as Indy tries to stop the Nazis from discovering the Ark of the Covenant. Along the way, Indy meets old friends -- and an old flame.



-- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Who wouldn’t identify with this adorable little alien who only wants to go home? With help from Elliot and his friends, E.T. manages to be reunited with his ship after some (slightly) scary encounters with the government.

-- Blade Runner (1982)

The dystopian future of Blade Runners is a very dark and scary place to live. Androids have been created to work off-planet, but now some of them are rebelling. A former police officer (Harrison Ford again) must find, and kill, these replicants.



-- Ghostbusters (1984)

Who you gonna call? Three parapsychologists hope that you call them when you encounter a ghost, that’s who! They are hired to remove a ghost from a New York penthouse. The ghost takes the physical shape of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and leaves a lasting impression on the citizens of New York City.



Ms. B's Picks:

-- Batman (1989)

Look, let me be honest: I don't really like this movie. (Quite a hard thing for a die-hard Batman fan like myself to admit!) Michael Keaton's Batman suit makes him move like he's wearing a snowsuit, Jack Nicholson forgoes the roll of the Joker in order to simply play Jack Nicholson, and Tim Burton's Gotham City is more Alice in Wonderland than gothic New York. Yet I appreciate this quirky, box-office-smashing flick for putting Batman back squarely in the public's eye. Without Michael Keaton, there would have been no Christian Bale.

-- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Okay, so there's some kid in this movie, alongside some "Governator" or some such. But let's be honest: the real star of the Terminator movies is Sarah Connor, action heroine extraordinaire. Alongside Sigourney Weaver's kick-butt Ellen Ripley (from Ridley Scott's Alien movies), Sarah Connor is the female action hero done right. She was an ordinary young waitress until the events of the first Terminator movie swept her up into a world of killer androids, time travel, and an A.I. intelligence bent on wiping out the future of the human race ... once it's been invented. (Time travel complicates everything.)



-- Independence Day (1996)

There are two types of aliens in sci-fi stories: the good ones and the bad ones. The aliens of Independence Day definitely fall into the latter category. Showing up one July 2nd, an attack force of visiting aliens promptly begin their attack on Earth, bent on wiping out the humans to take the planet's resources for themselves. Serious subject matter, when you put it that way -- but the summary belies the high-action, high-humor fun that is really what the movie is all about. Watch it for the third act, when Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum band together to save the day with a recovered alien ship and Jeff's trusty Macbook. (It's exactly as much goofy fun as it sounds.)

-- Men in Black (1997)

Independence Day may be fun, but I generally prefer my sci-fi movies to have a little more finesse than that. "Finesse" may not be a word that would most obviously apply to a film like Men in Black, but it's important to take a look at what the movie actually does. Poking fun at sci-fi tropes, conspiracy lore, and life in a big city, Men in Black was, at its premiere, that wholly unusual phenomenon: a truly original Hollywood film. The MIB is the government organization in charge of all the aliens currently living out their lives on planet Earth. Just one hitch: none of the Earthings can know they're there. The bizarrely-awesome comedy that plays out in this story is absolutely not to be missed.

-- The Mummy (1999)

If not for this movie, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. This Indiana Jones-style throwback adventure/horror flick became such a favorite of mine that it inspired my interest in two very different areas. This fun, 1920s-set film is technically a rebooted remake of the Boris Karloff classic, but with its tongue set very firmly in cheek. When a group of adventurers inadvertently disturb the tomb of a cursed Egyptian mummy ... well, you know the rest. Aside from piquing my interest in Egyptian mythology, my admiration for the story's main character inspired me in a different way. The true heroine of the story?  Evelyn Carnahan ... a librarian. Who wouldn't want a job like Evy's?

Wanted Dead or Alive

You've read the story of Jesse James

Of how he lived and died

If you're still in need of something to read

Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

 (written by Bonnie Parker)

I'm a big fan of the Golden Age of Piracy, that time from the late 1600s through the early 1700s when pirates like Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and Anne Bonny and Mary Read roamed the seven seas (or at least the Caribbean), pillaging and plundering and engaging in all those romantic piratical adventures. Authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and "Captain Charles Johnson," artwork by such painters as N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle, and actors from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp have all captured the imagination of book-lovers, movie-goers, and people of all ages for centuries. The fact that the reality of historical pirates was often brutal, bloody, and filled with a decidedly unglamorous violence doesn't deter the popular imagination from picturing pirates as lovable figures of swashbuckling derring-do.

So, while I'm hardly an expect on them, I do understand the appeal of Bonnie and Clyde. A staple in our popular culture since their two-year criminal careers during the Great Depression, they are remembered as figures somewhere between Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and Romeo and Juliet. But to get at the real story, we need to take a closer look.

Clyde Barrow

Clyde Barrow was the fifth of eight children, born to a poor Texas tenant farmer and his wife. The family long struggled to support themselves; Clyde dropped out of public school when he was 16 to get a job at a Proctor and Gamble plant. Clyde's older brother, Marvin, first drew Clyde into a life of crime (their first attempted robbery involved trying to smuggle turkeys). It wasn't long before Clyde had quit his job and followed Marvin into a gang of vandals who robbed various small businesses. And it wasn't long before Clyde, intelligent and charismatic, was in charge.

Bonnie Parker

(Parker later said she was not the tough, cigar-smoking, gun-wielding type this photo made her out to be; the pictures were taken in fun.)

Bonnie Parker was the second of three children, born to a brick mason and his wife. Her father died when she was five, and the family relocated to a Dallas suburb. Bonnie grew up in a happy home, was a good student, and had a knack for writing and reciting poetry. She married a schoolmate at the age of 16, though the marriage was a rough one, with her husband disappearing on and off for long periods of time.

At age 19, Bonnie was still technically married when she started doing household chores for an injured neighbor. The neighbor was Clyde's girlfriend, and when Clyde showed up to visit her, he ended up paying more attention to Bonnie. The feeling was mutual, and Bonnie and Clyde were sweethearts when Clyde abruptly found himself arrested for burglary. Nothing daunted, Bonnie wrote letters to Clyde while he was in prison, cajoling him to give up his criminal lifestyle -- until, on a visit to the prison, she discovered that Clyde and his cellmate were coming up with an escape plan. At their request, Bonnie smuggled a gun into the prison for them.

Eventually, Clyde made it out of prison (his initial escape attempt worked, but he was caught quickly and thrown back in for another two years). When he was paroled in 1932, Bonnie was waiting for him.

The next two years saw Bonnie and Clyde join up with various outlaws to form small gangs of four or five. (The gang members rotated as they were caught by law enforcement, but Bonnie and Clyde themselves always managed to evade capture.) The gangs held up gas stations, grocery stores, and the occasional bank. It was Bonnie's job to keep watch, and the gang would escape the scenes of their crimes in stolen cars. Both Bonnie and Clyde enjoyed kidnapping bystanders -- and the occasional police officer -- and taking them on wild joyrides before releasing them unharmed. (Clyde was particularly fond of dropping off police officers hundreds of miles away from where they'd been taken, relishing in the opportunity to embarrass them.)

In late April of 1932, fellow gang member Raymond Hamilton shot and killed the owner of a gas station; later that year, Clyde murdered a grocer who was refusing to cooperate with the gang. While most accounts suggest that Clyde never took any pleasure in killing the grocer (or several police officers he fired upon), the line between robber and murderer had still been crossed.

Bonnie and Clyde both seemed to understand that their life of crime would have one inevitable outcome. In May of 1934, they were in Louisiana with their current gang when one member -- Henry Methvin -- was accidentally left behind. (Methvin had ducked into a cafe to grab lunch for the group; a passing police car alarmed Clyde, waiting with the rest of the gang outside, and the group sped off without Methvin). Methvin promptly made his way to his father's, where he let slip the location the gang was most likely heading towards. Methvin's father passed the information on to the authorities.

Police officers from Louisiana and Texas gathered along a country road outside Sailers, Louisiana. The gang drove in the morning of May 23, 1934, and were instantly surrounded by the waiting officers. Clyde went for his gun, and the police opened fire. Over 150 bullets shot through the Ford sedan, and Bonnie and Clyde both died almost instantly.

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker

Nearly 80 years later, the names Bonnie and Clyde still conjure up images of flashy heists, daring exploits, and the romantic adventures of two glamorous lovers. The public had been fascinated by the couple during their two-year crime spree, but interest hardly seems to have waned as the decades have rolled by. (In 1998, the pants that Clyde Barrow had been wearing at the time of his death were sold by a Texas rarities dealer at $199 per square inch.) From movies and novels to historical reads and documentaries, Bonnie and Clyde have been forever cemented in the public imagination as star-crossed lovers on a romantic run from the law.

Were they simple criminals or the Robin Hoods of the Great Depression?  It's for you to decide.

Read:

-- The Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde by E.R. Milner.

Relies on primary sources (articles, interviews, diaries, and letters) to paint a picture of the couple.

-- Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guinn.

An in-depth biography about Bonnie and Clyde.

-- Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider.

A well-researched but somewhat glamorized account of their lives.

-- Bonnie and Clyde: A Love Story by Bill Brooks.

The story told in fictionalized, novel form.



Watch:

-- Bonnie and Clyde [1967]

The famous movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

-- Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem

This documentary looks at other outlaws of the era (such as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson), along with Bonnie and Clyde. Includes the bonus feature Bonnie and Clyde: The Story of Love & Death.




-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #16 : Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

So, here I am, once again, reviewing a book that is hard to review. It's not as bad as trying to review Gone Girl without giving away anything, but it is still a little complicated. But here goes!

First off, I've been a fan of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series for quite awhile, but had never read any of her other works. Her earlier novels were all written before Case Histories (the first in the Brodie series) was published in 2005. While the Brodie series is a mystery series, they are a little different. What I liked about Case Histories is that it wasn't a typical mystery. Yes, there is a murder to solve, but it's only one of three cases that Brodie is working on.

When I heard that Kate Atkinson was writing another book, I was actually a little disappointed that it wasn't a Jackson Brodie book. But since I already knew I liked her writing style, I assumed that I would get to the new book sooner or later. Well, it turned out to be sooner rather than later.

Life After Life starts off with the birth of Ursula Todd in 1910. Minutes later, she dies. And then she is born again, but this time she lives. That is, until she dies again and the process starts over. Good things and bad things happen to Ursula in her different lives. Some events are exactly the same; other times, they are very different. Often she is aware of her past life, but most times she is not. Maybe it's déjà vu? Maybe it's not?

Ursula's very proper English mother is quite exasperated by Ursula's behavior (it is very un-English like), and eventually takes her to see a psychiatrist, who brings up the subject of reincarnation. But Ursula doesn't always encounter Dr. Kellet, so is she aware of this idea in her other lives?

London during the Blitz -- 1941

Much of the story revolves around English life during World War II, and Ursula's role in it. In one life, she is a warden during the Blitz; in another, she is acquainted with Eva Braun and Hitler. Sometimes she meets the same people, sometimes she doesn't.

As you see, it's a hard book to describe. But I think the author put it best herself:

People always ask you what a book is ‘about,’ and I generally make something up, as I have no idea what a book is about (it’s ‘about’ itself). But if pressed, I think I would say Life After Life is about being English (on reflection, perhaps that’s what all my books are about). Not just the reality of being English, but also what we are in our own imaginations.

Atkinson just uses the premise of living your life over and over again to demonstrate her view on being "English".  (She goes into greater detail here, but don't read it if you don't want spoilers.)

This book turned out not to be exactly what I thought it would be, but sometimes it's good not to have your expectations met. In this case, it was a very good thing.




Click below for books in the Jackson Brodie series:

Case Histories

One Good Turn

When Will There be Good News?

Started Early, Took My Dog

Click below for other books by Kate Atkinson:

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Human Croquet

Emotionally Weird

Not the End of the World





-- Post by Tracy

Staff Recommendation #15: The Plain State of Being Human

How to describe Nick Hornby?  He's the British author of such popular novels as About a Boy and High Fidelity (if you haven't read the books, you may have seen the movies). He's known, primarily, as an author who takes a closer look at the lives and lifestyles of aimless single guys -- but it's something of an unfair pigeon-holing. Nick Hornby knows how to write about everyone. 

His books are noteworthy precisely because they seem like they shouldn't be -- being stories about average people who find themselves in situations that, while not average, become totally relatable. His plots are so uniquely quirky (obsessive fans, spiritual conversions, and temporary time travel, to name but a few), that it's only because of Hornby's incredible way with words that you can still relate to the characters. He has a knack at describing our everyday thoughts, feelings, and impulses in simplistic language -- but it's a language that shows off his uncanny ability to reveal what it truly means to be human.

And, if it's true that I don't always agree with those conclusions, I always enjoy coming along with Hornby to see what his characters discover. Here, then, is a look at my three personal Hornby favorites:

-- About a Boy

"This thing about looking for someone less different... It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place."

Thirtysomething Will Freeman lives a life of somewhat boring leisure, whiling away his time watching reality TV and listening to music albums. He doesn't have to work (and so he doesn't work), thanks to the royalties rolling in to him from his father's one-hit-wonder music career. (His dad wrote a smash-hit Christmas jingle.) Will's life has been lacking in any particular challenges, until he hatches a unique scheme to meet women: he joins a support group for single parents. He's not a single father, himself, but he solves that problem neatly enough by inventing an imaginary two-year-old son named Ned to tell the ladies about.

Then there's Marcus -- a slightly awkward, slightly nerdy twelve-year-old who is having a rough time of it. He and his mum have just moved to London, and adjusting to his new school proves impossible. Nobody likes him -- not even the teachers -- and he can't figure out why. (He'd go to his mum, but she has problems of her own.)

When Will and Marcus's paths intersect, Will finds that he can't just brush Marcus out of his life. Marcus needs an adult in his life, after all -- and even if, on the surface, Will doesn't seem like the best guy for the task, it quickly turns out that he's the only one up for the job.

(The 2002 film adaptation stars Hugh Grant -- and the book is also the basis for a single-camera sit-com due out this fall, courtesy of NBC.)

-- How to Be Good

"The plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone; you don't need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone."

I picked this book up on a whim at a bookshop. I wanted something different from what I normally read, and this quirky, darkly hilarious, quietly heart-rending book definitely fit the bill.

Katie Carr is a family practitioner whose marriage is on the rocks. She's married to a man known in his own newspaper column as "The Angriest Man in Holloway" -- which might explain why they can't stop fighting. Divorce seems inevitable -- that is, until David undergoes a most unusual spiritual conversation and decides to change his life.

Determined not only to treat Katie (and their two kids) much better than before, David's plans for turning over his new leaf go much further than that. Donating their most valuable belongings to shelters. Giving away their holiday dinner to the poor. Organizing a neighborhood-wide project to bring in homeless teens and offering them places to stay in everyone's homes. On paper, it sounds magical -- but it takes a toll in ways Katie couldn't have imagined. 

Darkly funny, sharply observant, and devastatingly real, Hornby uses this book to answer one of the most stark but complicated questions of the human condition: why can't we come together and make it all right?

-- Slam

"There are many differences between a baby and an iPod. And one of the biggest is, no one's going to mug you for your baby."

There's lots of books about teen pregnancy. This nominally-YA novel takes a different approach from the norm and tells the story from the guy's point of view.

Fifteen-year-old Sam is, himself, the son of a teen mum. He certainly knows all about how much a small mistake can change your life -- but he never anticipated becoming a teen dad.

He explains all this to Tony Hawk, his skateboarding hero. Sam's got a poster of TH in his bedroom, and he's taken to explaining all of his problems to his imaginary mentor when he can't quite figure out what to do next. He isn't going to leave Alicia to handle things on her own -- but what does this mean for her?  For them?  For Sam himself?  And how can he find his way through it?

As if that's not bad enough, something ... weird is going on. Sam goes to bed and wakes up a few years in his own future. (It's how he knows he's going to be a dad even before Alicia gets the pregnancy test results.) After a day, he's back in time where he started -- with no idea how he went there, how he got back, or even what it all means. But it must mean something, because Sam is pretty sure that Tony Hawk's behind it ...

As funny and insightful as his other books, Hornby's Slam stands out to me. It's a sci-fi book without the science fiction, a teen book perfect for adults. In the end, the story's sporadic windows into the future are there to show Sam -- and us -- that our present might not be so bad after all.

-- Post by Ms. B

The Land of Oz Redux

Our thanks to MPL librarian Sally Michalski for today's Birthday Biography!

While most people know the Land of Oz from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, there was a time, before radio and television, when the children of the world were caught up in the wonderful Land of Oz in print. Oz was the Harry Potter series of its time.  It was a craze.

Lyman Frank Baum, a man who could not find his place in the real world, loved to tell stories to his children.  Finally, about 1899, he was persuaded to put his stories on paper. He engaged W.W. Denslow as the illustrator of his imaginary Land of Oz that they tried to get published, but no one would take them on. Finally, the Geo. M. Hill Company agreed to publish the book, but Baum and Denslow had to pay for the binding and color illustrations themselves.

The first 1900 edition was a printing of 5,000 books and was quickly sold out.  Two other printings followed, and between April and November of that year, 60,000 copies had been sold.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was such a success that L. Frank Baum, as he preferred to be known, went on to write other children’s books about other children -- but not Dorothy.

He got letters from children begging him to write another story about Dorothy and the Land of Oz, and finally he said that he'd only write another Oz tale when he had received a thousand letters. And he got them.

The second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, was once again a hit, but Dorothy wasn’t in it. The children clamored for more -- but this time with Dorothy, please.  Ever after, every Oz book Baum wrote had Dorothy taking part.

I read these books as a child who frequented my local library. It was a strong emotional pull that took me directly to the bottom shelf of a stack, kneeling on a corrugated rubber runner hoping against hope that there was yet another Oz book I hadn’t yet read. I loved the characters, and I’m not just talking about the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion.  I am talking about such high falutin’ characters as H. M. Wogglebug, T. E. (or Highly Magnified Wogglebug, Thoroughly Educated). Another favorite character was the Patchwork Girl, who was the only person of color in Munchkinland.

There were oodles more, each one more interesting than the last. I couldn’t stop reading them.

As a child, I loved the stories as stories themselves.  I grew up to be a collector of Oz books, because I still can’t get them out of my system. As time went on, I began to see the man behind the stories.  Frank Baum kept popping out in his opinions, his politics, and his thoughts about new-fangled inventions.

In Ozma of Oz, published in 1907, a new character is introduced.  Her name is the Princess Langwidere -- whose name is close to languid, which means unwilling to exert oneself.  Baum portrays the Princess Langwidere in this fashion, as she must lean on her maid for support as she travels from one room to the other or from one closet to the next.

Langwidere is a princess of the Kingdom of Ev.  She does not rule, but spends much of the royal treasury. The princess cannot be recognized by her face, because she is very vain and has thirty heads, one for every day of the month.  This princess has a waiting room that is surrounded with mirrors, even on the ceiling, and the floor is silvered so that every object in the room is reflected. A vain and flighty person is the Princess Langwidere.

Baum pokes fun at the suffragettes in The Marvelous Land of Oz, published in 1904.  A girl named General Jinjur raises an army of four hundred pretty girls.  The army is going to attack the Emerald City because “[the City] has been ruled by men for long enough.”

Jinjur’s army is dressed in silk uniforms with green blouses and multicolored skirts. (The skirts have panels of blue, red, yellow, and purple.  Depending on what Oz country the girl is from, she wears the color of that country in front.) Each girl has a pair of knitting needles in her bun that she uses as a weapon. When they arrive at the gates of the Emerald City, the Guardian of the Gate is surprised to be attacked, and says, “Good gracious, what a nonsensical idea! Go home to your mothers, my good girls, and milk the cows and bake the bread.” The army then attacks him with their knitting needles and he runs off in search of help.

Next, Jinjur sits on the throne in the Emerald City and begins eating caramels. The men of Oz are doing housework and minding children, and are worn out from the work.  The Scarecrow, who was the reigning King of Oz, is asked, “Why don’t you send her back to her mother where she belongs?” Another asks, “Why don’t you shut her up in a closet until she behaves herself, and promises to be good?” A third says, “Or give her a good shaking.”

In Ozma of Oz (1907), Jinjur is seen again.  On another trip to the Emerald City, Dorothy and her gang stop to beg some milk from a pretty maid.  Ozma sees that it is Jinjur who explains, “I’ve married a man who owns nine cows, and now I am happy and contented and willing to lead a quiet life and mind my own business.”

In all, L. Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz books and numerous other titles for children.  When he died in 1919, Ruth Plumley Thompson took up the stories with The Royal Book of Oz (a posthumous honor to Baum) and, in total, wrote 19 more books about Oz. John R. Neal, the second illustrator of the original Baum series, wrote four Oz books.  Jack Snow wrote two and Rachel Cosgrove wrote one, as did Eloise Jarvis McGraw and her daughter.  There are other Oz books beyond these, but they are not considered canon.

The land that Frank Baum created is still very much with us today.  Not only is The Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland a staple for children, but recently Oz, the Great and Powerful was produced as the latest addition to the story of Oz.  I am happy to report that I think this new movie carried through the personality of the Wizard, although I could have done without the sexy witches.

A first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is very valuable today. There are websites that have first editions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from $6,000 to $100,000. For myself, I've found that writing a blog plot can be expensive.  In doing this little exercise, I just had to purchase a copy of John R. Neill’s posthumously published book The Runaway in Oz. One can never have too many Oz books.

Happy Birthday, L. Frank Baum -- 157 years old this May 15. You enriched my childhood with imagination and a sense of wonder.

-- Post by Sally Michalski

For more reading:

- Introducing the Girls of Oz
Sally Michalski's website, with more information about the female characters of Baum's Oz books.

- Rare Oz Books 

All about the rare collectibles of Oz.

References: 

- Baum, L. Frank, The Marvelous Land of Oz: A Sequel to the Wizard of Oz, ill. John R. Neill (New York: William Morrow & Co., c1904).

- Baum, L. Frank, Ozma of Oz, ill. John R. Neill  (Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co., c1907).

- Betty Lee Johnson, “The World of Oz Remains Wonderful To this Day,” Antique Week, 3 February 1992.

- Daniel P. Mannix, “ The Father of the Wizard of Oz,” American Heritage, December. 1964.


(All illustrations by John R. Neill.)