KC Public Library Blog
Library Interview: Brooks Blevins on "Ghost of the Ozarks"
“I’m a country guy and always will be,” explains author Brooks Blevins. “Being an Ozarker means being able to get away from everything and be out in the country.” It also meant a career studying the region of his birth and its inhabitants.
New on DVD: The Whistleblower (2010)
Based on the real experiences of Kathryn Bolkovac, The Whistleblower carries a big dose of moral outrage. The film isn’t easy watching, but Rachel Weisz’s performance gives the film a human and humane center.
A Heart for Freedom by Chai Ling
What happens when one person stands up to a repressive regime? What if it becomes a movement that ends in failure while the world watches? A Heart for Freedom by Chai Ling tells the story of a woman’s involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests and escape to the West.
Program Notes: Lust for Life (1956)
Asked to pick his favorite of his movies, Vincente Minnelli always named Lust for Life. You can see why he was drawn to the story of Vincent van Gogh. The painter was all about color. And Minnelli may have had the finest grasp of color of any director of the Technicolor era.
A Man of Many Parts
March 15, 1858: Lafayette Tillman, who will go on to become a veteran of the Spanish-American War and one of Kansas City's first African American police officers, is born in Evansville, Indiana.
Program Notes: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is bitterly funny, astonishingly musical, and weirdly emotional. It’s a campy romp that you can hum all the way home. It may be the greatest midnight movie since The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Know Your Librarians: Sue Sanders Has Room for Compassion
Kansas City atheists may not believe in God, but they definitely believe in Sue Sanders. Find out how our meeting room scheduler is making connections all over the city.
Program Notes: The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
She was artistic, ambitious, smart, creative, independent, and Tiffany lamps might never have been created if not for her. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland is the fictionalized account of the real life Clara Driscoll, the woman credited with creating the first Tiffany lamps.
New on DVD: Warrior (2011)
Fight movies tend to follow the same well-worn paths. Happily Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior tosses in a few welcome changeups. And it’s been so well acted that even the familiar somehow seems fresh.
How to Read Back Issues of the New York Times for Free Online
If you’re an online news junkie, chances are the Gray Lady’s paywall is your bête noire. For the past year, The New York Times has been allowing readers limited access. But now, the Library is providing digitized microfilm of the Times and the Wall Street Journal for free, and from home, too.
Program Notes: The Band Wagon (1953)
The Band Wagon isn’t just a hugely enjoyable musical starring Fred Astaire. It’s also a musical about Fred Astaire and the disconcerting circumstances in which he found himself in the early 1950s.
Hail to the Chief
May 8, 1974: H. Roe Bartle, a charismatic Boy Scout executive, public speaker, lawyer, and two-term mayor of Kansas City, dies in Kansas City.
Stormy Weather: Meteorologist and Author Mike Smith Talks Tornadoes (Video)
It takes some serious moxie to claim @USWeatherExpert as your Twitter handle, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Mike Smith. As the founder and CEO of WeatherData, Smith makes it his business to warn people about extreme weather, and, in doing so, saving lives.
Ghost Lights by Lydia Millet
A three-legged dog, a missing boss and an IRS bureaucrat battling a mid-life crisis all converge for an offbeat mystery and personal odyssey in Lydia Millet’s quirky new novel, Ghost Lights.