The Best of Friends by Joanna Trollope
A bestselling author in England, Joanna Trollope weaves a delightful, upbeat story of two very modern British couples and their teen-age children. The plot engages, the characters are real, and the action moves forward at a good clip. For Americans, the uniqueness of English usage adds to the charm of this story -- especially when listening to the recorded version, skillfully read by Virginia Leishman. 10/1/01

The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, born into an aristocratic Russian family and tired of a life of gambling and carousing not unusual to his peer group, abandoned everything and went to the Caucasus in his early youth to fight mountain tribes as a volunteer attached to the regular army. His short novel, The Cossacks, is one of several works based on this experience. In vivid language he portrays the beauty of the landscape and the life of the colorful, native Cossacks, while integrating age-old questions of religion and morality. An easy read, but not shallow, with an ending that stuns. 10/1/01

The Iceworker Sings and Other Poems by Andres Montoya
The late Andres Montoya won the 1997 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, University of California, Irvine, and a 2000 American Book Award for this collection of poems. In these stories, prayers and letters about his people in the barrio of Fresno, California, he speaks against injustice to so many who continue to labor in hope, but are repeatedly reduced to despair in an unresponsive and uncaring world:
"...it wounds me, this silence. Even
the tears have been abandoned,
and though I collect the salt
from all the eyes, tasting them,
filing each according to its purity
of sadness, this too is forgotten." 2/2/01

Woman of the Year starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
This is a wonderfully funny and entertaining movie, with many episodes of the sort that in today's sophisticated milieu might seem a a bit silly and naive, but nevertheless evoke involuntary belly-laughs. Hepburn is cast as a somewhat strident feminist, devoted to her career. Though Tracy attempts to mold her into the "little stay-at-home woman" more in keeping with the era, he gives in and acknowledges that he loves her the way she is. 2/2/01

Elmer Gantry starring Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, and Shirley Jones and The Apostle starring Robert Duvall and Farrah Fawcett
These two movies, made almost 40 years apart, offer some interesting comparisons and contrasts. Burt Lancaster and Robert Duvall are thoroughly engaging in lead roles as preachers. Duvall is a grassroots believer. On the other hand, Lancaster, a dapper traveling salesman, comes to religion by default after meeting a lady evangelist, played by Jean Simmons. Lancaster won the Best Actor Oscar for Elmer Gantry, which is based on the book by Sinclair Lewis. 2/2/01

The Belle of Amherst starring Julie Harris
This video of Julie Harris' Tony Award winning theatrical portrayal of Emily Dickinson holds the viewer spellbound. Weaving snatches of Dickinson's poetry with narrative about her life, family, friends and writing career, the actress paints a memorable and insightful portrait of the reclusive poet. 2/2/01

Ninotchka directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Year of release 1939, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas, based on a story by Melchior Lengyel
Greta Garbo received four Oscar nominations for this motion picture, her first romantic comedy. As Ninotchka, a dour and severe pre-World War II Soviet official in Paris on business involving the sale of czarist jewels, she quickly succumbs to the delights of the city and the charms of Leon, a persuasive and suave Frenchman. As Ninotchka agonizes over her choice between romance and duty, the viewer is treated to a series of episodes that "poke delicious fun at the stuffy Soviet regime." Lots of laughs! 8/25/00

Fifty Poems of Emily Dickinson, sound recording by Stephanie Beacham, Glenda Jackson, Sharon Stone, and Meryl Streep
Emily Dickinson's wonderful poems are rendered even more sublime when read by these talented performers. "A Bird Came Down the Walk," is irresistible; anticipation rises in hearing, "I Dwell in Possibility." On a lazy summer afternoon or twilit evening--enjoy fifty of her best! 8/25/00

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty, sound recording by Sally Darling
Eudora Welty's devotion to the deep South defines this narrative of a family living in the Delta near Jackson, Mississippi, in the early Twenties. This book is not really a story, but rather a rendering of episodes in the life of a southern family just before the wedding of one of the daughters. The author gently probes the inner lives of its characters, engagingly presenting them to the reader as deeply human people living and struggling with their individual destinies. Welty also manages to interject humor into this sometimes surreal, yet exquisitely beautiful, tale. The narration by Sally Darling in a Southern accent adds authenticity to the audio version. 8/25/00

Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child by Elva Trevino Hart
Elva is the youngest of an immigrant Mexican family of eight living in South Texas. To supplement the father's meager income, the entire family travels to Minnesota and Wisconsin each summer to work on the farms. Beautifully told, this story evokes sights and sounds of life among Mexican people. Each chapter begins with a Mexican "dicho," for example: "The sun is the blanket of the poor; Once mounted on a horse, one must hang on when he bucks; How beautiful it is to do nothing, and after doing nothing, to rest." An upbeat and interesting book. This is a summer read to savor. 8/25/00