Summer Reading Program: Sign Up Deadline Extended

If you haven't signed up for the 5-books-in-5-weeks Read in the Wildest Places Adult & Teen Summer Reading Program, there's still time! The program runs now through July 21st. Sign up now and choose tickets to one of the great concerts happening at Ravinia this summer*. Participants who meet the goal will be eligible for a prize raffle to be conducted at the Summer Reading Program Finale Reception on Tuesday, July 25th at 7:00 pm.

Whether you take your books with you on your summer travels or let your books take you into an imaginary world, be sure to sign up for the program.


*A limited number of tickets are available to select shows. Limit 2 tickets per person.

Movie Review--A Prairie Home Companion

Robert Altman and Garrison Keillor combine reality and fantasy in this smooth, ebullient take on the long-running Prairie Home Companion radio show. Set during the show's fictitious last broadcast--the host station has been bought--the film has plenty of elements from the real PHC radiocasts, including a live audience and the sensational Shoe band. The onstage program is mostly music numbers, a beguiling mix of standards and old-style country. However, the show's usual comedy sketches are never presented, save for the commercial parodies--this may be a PHC show, but Lake Wobegone is never mentioned. Instead, the sketches are played out as backstage banter that feautres the Johnson Sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), a harried stage hand (Maya Rudolph), a former listener turned angel (Virginia Madsen), and Keillor himself (a crusty alter-ego named simply G.K.). A few characters from the real PHC are given life: the singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty and gumshoe Guy Noir are embodied by Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, and Kevin Kline, respectively. Old flames are fanned, stories are spun, new talents are found (Lindsay Lohan has a chance to shine as Streep's daughter) and everyone wonders if G.K. will do something to ebb the tide of cancellation (personified by Tommy Lee Jones as the corporate Axeman). All of the actors do right as singers, and seem to be having the time of their life. Keillor's screenplay is perfect fodder for Altman's usual brand of storytelling, as characters babble on with the camera picking them up often in mid-thought. The film appeared a few months after Altman received an honorary Oscar, and the director is still at the top of his game, creating this smile-inducing, song-filled time, ending with an ethereal last musical number.

Local authors featured on TCM Website

Local authors Ted Okuda and David Maska are currently featured in the "New Books" section of the Turner Classic Movies website. http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=137676. The authors presented a program on Charlie Chaplin at the library in March to promote their book Charlie Chaplin at Keystone and Essanay: Dawn of the Tramp. The book can be found in the library in the Adult New Non Fiction section (call # 791.4375 OKU).

New Subscription:

Thanks to a kind gift subscription, we now have Canoe & Kayak magazine in our collection. Come check out the June 2006 issue and a special Beginner's Guide supplement. Explore a new outdoor hobby just in time for summer!

Don't forget to Meet the Creek on Father's Day (Sunday, June 18th). The Village of Brookfield Conservation Commission is sponsoring a day of nature activities for the whole family. The festivities run from 10 am to 2 pm at Kiwanis Park and include a canoeing adventure on Salt Creek. For more information, please see the Village of Brookfield website .

The Catalog is Back!

We have resolved our technical difficulties and are happy to announce that the online catalog is up and running again. You should also be able to access our online reference databases (Newsbank, EBSCO, etc.) from home using a valid Brookfield library barcode.

Please call us at (708) 485-6917 if you have problems accessing these resources.

Thank you for your patience.

Check it out!!- The Reduced Shakespeare Company

Life is short. The complete works of William Shakespeare are long, hard to understand, and somtimes boring. To the rescue: The Reduced Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare- Abridged!. In this DVD, the Reduced Shakespeare Company (RSC), a three-man comedy troupe, performs the entirety of the Bard's works in 90 roller-coaster, rib tickling minutes. The RSC's provides the audience with hilarious interpretations of Shakespeare's works that are easy for everyone to understand (like Cliffs Notes only funnier). After warming up with a nothing-is-sacred send-up of Romeo and Juliet, they’re off, dispensing with the comedies in one fell swoop (because the tragedies are funnier). You see Othello as a rap song, Titus Andronicus as a cooking show, the histories as a football game, and the show’s unforgettable finale - Hamlet - told with the help of audience members and lascivious sock puppets. Thanks to the RSC, not only can you catch all of Shakespeare's plays at once, but you can have a riotous good time doing so. (Reviews courtesy of Amazon.com)

Warning from the RSC: "This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare's plays, and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders and/or people inclined to motion sickness. The RSC cannot be held responsible for expectant mothers."

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare- Abridged! can be found in the new Adult DVDs section (call # 822.331 Com). Also coming soon to the library, Reduced Shakespeare: The Attention Impaired Reader's Guide to the World's Best Playwright, and the DVD of The Complete History of America- Abridged!. For more information on the Reduced Shakespeare Company, check out their website at www.reducedshakespeare.com

Catalog Outage

The Dynix server that powers our online and in-house catalog has crashed. Unfortunately, until repairs can be made, patrons will be unable to access our catalog and electronic databases. We are working to get our catalog up and running as soon as possible. In the meantime, please call the library at 708-485-6917 or stop by and we will happily help you find the resources and materials that you need.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.