Talking Pictures by Ann Hornaday

TALKING PICTURES by Ann Hornaday, the film critic for The Washington Post, is a new book that I am excited to share with our Lit and Film teachers and their students. Subtitled “How to Watch Movies” and based on her earlier series of articles, Hornaday says she structured this non-fiction work roughly according to a film’s production, with chapters on The Screenplay, Acting, Editing, Directing and more.  Hornaday offers multiple examples throughout and she argues that “all films have an essential grammar in common: a lexicon of visual, aural, and performance conventions that link them to each other, or, when those conventions are cleverly subverted, constitute an invigorating break.” I particularly appreciated her efforts to reach out to the reader, increasingly perhaps an informal reviewer on social media, and to include some leading questions that “viewers can ask themselves after they’ve seen a movie to ascertain whether it succeeded in particular craft areas.”  For example, she suggests reflecting on: Were the people in the movie complex, unpredictable, believable? Did I care about them? Did they change or stay the same? TALKING PICTURES will be an extremely valuable resource for our students and a copy is available in the library now.

The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim

THE KINSHIP OF SECRETS by Eugenia Kim is a unique look at immigration and assimilation in American society.  Kim tells the story of two sisters.  Miran, adopted after being abandoned by her mother, was a sickly baby and is brought to the United States by her immigrant parents, Najin and Calvin Cho.  Intending to return after a few years, they have left their year-old biological daughter, Inja, in Seoul with her maternal grandparents and uncle. Instead the Korean War occurs and the family is separated for well over a decade. Kim explains in an author’s note that she based the novel partly on her own family’s experiences, especially that of an older sister, and she uses alternating chapters to allow readers to experience the emotions of both daughters, eventually reuniting them. The differences in attitudes towards family members, dress, food, and language are all explored. Plus, Kim addresses “how emptiness could feel so heavy” and the range of feelings (bewilderment, resentment, loyalty, guilt, sacrifice and love) of children, parents and grandparents: “The comfort of being home, her Korean home, came from fulfilling the drive to belong. But the drive also heightened the pain of division when a single small thing marked one as different, such as Inja having a mother, but not having a mother; for Uncle, having her as a daughter who was not his daughter; for Miran, being Korean, yet not being Korean; and for her parents, having the eldest who was not the firstborn blood child.”

THE KINSHIP OF SECRETS, a LibraryReads selection, received a starred review from Booklist and will be a popular addition to our Junior Theme selections like Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club.  

Books by Elizabeth Berg and Jean Thompson

Looking for a book by a local Illinois author? Try one of these:

NIGHT OF MIRACLES by Elizabeth Berg is a LibraryReads selection for November and a sequel to The Story of Arthur Truluv.  Typical of Berg’s writing, this is another gentle read with appealing characters.  This story focuses on Lucille (Arthur’s elderly neighbor and baker extraordinaire) and Iris (a new arrival in town, dealing with her own losses), plus a budding romance between the diner’s waitress and the taxi driver, and also a young family coping with a terrible diagnosis.  The small town inhabitants band together and Berg exudes optimism: “Never think winter will last when spring is equally inevitable.” I particularly like the Library Journal review: “Warm and satisfying as Lucille's cookies.”    

A CLOUD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL by Jean Thompson is a recently published novel set in the Midwest that deals with three generations of women and their regrets.  As such, it is a less happy novel, with Evelyn, Laura and Grace often hiding secrets as they cope with life experiences and obligations. Grace is the youngest, a college student striving for independence. Her mother, Laura deals with addiction – due to a hard-drinking husband and drug-infused musician son.  Evelyn is dying, discontent and bitter over unrealized career aspirations.  Together they offer a complex rendition of what Library Journal calls “thwarted dreams and dashed hopes.” A National Book Award finalist for The Year We Left Home, Thompson’s writing is masterful: “A parent’s death was a milestone.  It put you in a strange territory of fear, dread, ache, bewilderment.  It made you greedy to get back to your own life, and then you felt guilty because of your selfishness.”