Hi! This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit.  

Lisa Wingate is a popular Christian fiction author with over 20 titles to her name. The library has many of her books in large print and regular print.  This week's Port Pick is in large print.  Lisa Wingate's latest series is Moses Lake and focuses around the fictional spot in Texas.  She has three books in the series so far.  

The latest offering from this author, titled Wildwood Creek, is set at Moses Lake although not officially part of that series.  Allie Kirkland longs to follow in her father's line of work in the movie industry and jumps at the chance to be a costuming assistant on a movie docudrama set in Wildwood, Texas in 1861, now a ghost town. Back over a century and a half ago the town was a bustling place with a note of danger.  The town's founder, Harland Delevan, held everyone in town in his grasp through a mix of debt, fear, and slavery.  When young school teacher Bonnie Rose comes to town she is caught in his grasp as well.  But when strange connections between Allie and long ago Bonnie surface, Allie knows she has to find the connection between the two of them.  Allie doesn't know who she can trust - certainly not the handsome neighbor, Mr. Fulton.

Although author Lisa Wingate writes Christian fiction, this addition to our collection isn't overly preachy or filled with Bible verses.  Don't let the page count of a large print book fool you; Wildwood Creek is a quick, light read for a weekend with just enough action to keep you hooked to the last page.

You can get the book reviewed here and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit, on the North Campus.  This is director Rachel Malay saying, "Thanks for checking us out!"

Wildwood Creek by Lisa Wingate
ISBN: 9781628990171, 500p.
Large Print, Christian Fiction

Hi! This is Rachel Malay, director of the Port Library in Beloit. This Thursday the 24th from 7-8 pm come to the library for "A Taste of the Library."  We'll have some of our over 200 cookbooks on display, plus a tasting of dishes prepared from the recipes in our cookbooks.  There is a small $3 cost to cover ingredients, and registration ends Tuesday.

Hard labor jobs or jobs where you get dirty are not popular subjects in movies because they're, well, unglamorous. However, most of the workforce in the US still maintains daily life by doing dirty jobs.  After doing work as an opera singer, television commercial actor, and spokesman on the shop-from-home network QVC, Mike Rowe came up with a concept for a show that focuses on the day-to-day efforts of those employed in any job that got you dirty.  From 2005-2012 he tried his hand at such jobs as sewer inspector, hot tar roofer, coal miner, leather tanner, and many, many more.  One episode even featured the salt mines in Hutchinson, Kansas!  Dirty Jobs starring Mike Rowe aired on the Discovery Channel.

The library doesn't own a complete collection of the series, but we now have a DVD special on the toughest jobs Mike Rowe ever faced.  This retrospective covers 5 episodes in all the careers he's tried over 250 episodes of the show.  His snappy comments and go-at-it attitude about every job he tries keeps the viewers coming back.  If you've never seen the television show, this DVD is a good way to introduce yourself.  And if Mike Rowe seems familiar, it's because he's still on television in commercials for paper towels, as well as narrating and producing the show Deadliest Catch.

You can get the DVD reviewed here and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit, on the North Campus.  This is director Rachel Malay saying, "Thanks for checking us out!"

Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe: Toughest Jobs 
ISBN: 9780766258358, 1 disc, 220 minutes
Non-Fiction DVDs

Hi! This is Rachel Malay, director of the Port Library in Beloit. 

Shirley Temple was an actress well-known for her childhood career.  She acted in the 1930s and was active in movies and television until the 1960s.  Unlike many other child stars though, she did not retire quietly, continue acting, or even have any personal drama make the newspapers.  Avid fans of the famous starlet will know that she went on to have a successful career as a US ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She finally retired in the 1990s and only recently passed away.

The library has her movie The Little Princess, and recently added a two-movie DVD collection of two of the movies made about in the middle of her career.  Little Miss Marker tells the story of Martha Jane, the daughter of a gambler, who is left as an IOU with a book-maker after her father looses a bet.  The other bookies dislike little Martha Jane at first, but warm up to her over time. 

The second movie, Now and Forever, also stars Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in a tale of family, love, and redemption.  Cooper and Lombard star as a married couple.  The wife wants to settle down and have a family, while the husband would like to continue his footloose and freewheeling ways.  When a daughter (played by Shirley Temple) is rediscovered from the husband's previous marriage the family is made complete.  Except that Dad doesn't want to settle down quite yet. 

The final feature of this DVD is called The Runt Page, a 10 minute short film and the first ever appearance of Shirley Temple on film.  From 1932, it is a spoof of a play popular at that time.  The film was not a commercial success on its own, but fans can see their favorite actress at age three.

You can get the movie reviewed here and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit.  This is director Rachel Malay saying, "Thanks for checking us out!"

Shirley Temple: Little Darling Pack
ISBN: 1417021985, 1 disc, 163 minutes
DVDs

Hi! This is Rachel Malay, director at the Port Library in Beloit. 

I don't know about any of my listeners, but every year around movie awards season I am introduced to one or two movie titles I had not heard about before. This year, one title in particular caught my attention.  August: Osage County has been nominated for several prestigious awards, but did you know it was based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play?  The library now has a copy if you're into reading the book (or script) before (or after!) seeing the movie.

August: Osage County is a play by Tracy Letts, and was first performed in 2007, making its way to Broadway by December of that year.  It tells the story of a dysfunctional family living outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma during several weeks in August.  Beverly (the husband) and Violet (the wife) are retirement aged patriarch and matriarch of the Weston family.  Violet has cancer and is addicted to painkillers, making the relationship with her husband strained, to say the least.  Meanwhile, Beverly is not handling the stress well and goes missing along with his fishing boat in an apparent suicide.  The remaining members of the Weston family gather: three daughters with husbands and children plus Violet's sister and her family.  Of course the rest of the family is no more functional than the parents and many conflicts ensue, and many long-buried secrets are brought to light.

This play has been compared to many written in the 1940s and 1950s by Eugene O'Neill, which means the story line may not end happily, but the reader (or viewer) is taken on a deep and emotional journey into the vibrant and conflicted lives of the characters. 

You can get the script reviewed here, and more great titles to watch, read, listen to, or play with at the Port Library at 1718 N. Hersey in Beloit, on the North Campus.  This is director Rachel Malay saying, "Thanks for checking us out!"

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
ISBN: 9781559364669, 138 pages
Adult non-fiction, plays, scripts and literature section