Mercer County Library Blog

After an exciting year of critical and commercial box office hits in 2023, the film industry is gearing up for a new year of prequels, sequels, reboots and original movies. In anticipation of the new year in film, the following list contains 10 major movies releasing in 2024: Cinema Theater, Urbana Illinois  by Randy von Liski 1. Dune: Part Two (March 1 st , 2024) directed by Denis Villeneuve After a delay in release from late 2023 to early 2024, Dune: Part Two (2024) will adapt the latter half of Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel,  Dune (1965) . Timothée Chalamet (Paul Atreides), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Stellan Skarsgård (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen), Dave Bautista (Glossu Rabban), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Thufir Hawat), Zendaya (Chani), Charlotte Rampling (Gaius Helen Mohiam), and Javier Bardum (Stilgar) return from the first film, Dune (2021). New cast members Florence Pugh (Princess Irulan), Austin Butler (Feyd-Rautha),...

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature went to Norwegian author Jon Fosse. I haven’t read him yet, but I’ve been reflecting on the fact that I’ll be able to read him in English translation thanks to two small presses: Dalkey Archive and Transit Books. Founded in Illinois in 1984, Dalkey Archive is a nonprofit publisher of modernist and postmodernist literature, named for the novel by the Irish writer Flann O’Brien. I’m grateful to Dalkey Archive (the press) for keeping avant-garde classics in print and publishing English translations of works originally written in many languages including Korean, Russian, Spanish, and more. Search “Dalkey Archive” in our catalog to see which of their books we have in our collection. Transit Books, Fosse’s other American publisher, is also a nonprofit press, and was founded in 2015 in Oakland, CA. They publish a small and carefully curated list of literary fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Their list has many award-winners, including The ...

For the past three years, my co-worker Anna and I have been doing a podcast for the Mercer County Library System.  The concept of the Behind the Books podcast is that we do two interviews during each episode, one with a MCLS staff member and another with an author. We also do a short rundown of some of the programs going on throughout the system. And while it has been great fun getting to talk with the authors, it’s been even more fun getting to know a little bit about the staff members at the library and what they do. I got a late start in life working at the library and have a whole new level of appreciation for what everyone on the staff does. Over the last few years my eyes have been opened to just how much the library has to offer and the great people who make everything work. Being able to talk to so many staff members who work in all facets of the library system, here are a few things I’ve come to learn about the Mercer County Library System and the people who work here. ...

Welcome to the second post written by members of the MCLS Teen Advisory Board. Throughout the year, we periodically share essays about library life by members of our Teen Advisory Board (TAB) . TAB members help with programming, suggest books for purchase, and write the quarterly TAB magazine. Today’s post is special because we are featuring essays from brothers Rishabh and Dhruv. Rishabh shares how he came to love reading during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Dhruv writes about the value of reliable and authoritative news sources for teens. We hope you enjoy hearing from some of the teens serving their library community. How Reading for Pleasure Helped Reduce My Screen Time By Rishabh Ramaswamy Hi! My name is Rishabh, and I am a sophomore attending the Pennington School. Some of my hobbies include playing tennis, performing on the piano and double bass, and reading. While I can proudly say that reading is a hobby of mine today, this was not always the case as I have had my fair share o...

For many of us, the winter holidays can be both a time of joy and of stress. While we enjoy special times with our friends and loved ones, we may also feel that we have a long list of meals and decorations to prepare, gifts to purchase, or other things to do. For families with school-aged children, the break from school can be both relaxing and stressful, depending on how the family copes with changes from the “normal” routine. I think many of us also want the holidays to be “perfect” and that just increases our stress levels. Also, those who have lost friends or loved ones may find themselves experiencing extra grief during the holidays. The Mercer County Library System has many resources to help us reduce our stress levels overall, including audiobooks, DVDs, print books and eBooks. Here are just a few: Mirror Meditation [book on cd]: The Power of Neuroscience and Self-Reflection to Overcome Self-Criticism, Gain Confidence, and See Yourself wi...

The holiday season is fast approaching! Here at the library, we aim to celebrate all holidays! Our County is chock full of a multitude of cultures with vibrant and meaningful holidays. Across our library system, you can find inclusive programming, our ever-growing world language collection, and resources about festivities going on throughout the season across all of Mercer County. And don’t forget about the books! Share the joy of reading this season with your little ones by checking out some of our seasonal recommended reads based on our Youth Services collection. Hanukkah (Evening of December 7th through December 15th) Dino-Hanukkah (2015) by Lisa Wheeler and illustrated by Barry Gott Hanukkah is coming, and the dinos are all busy getting ready! They make brisket and latkes, and the dino-kids play with a dreidel, act out the Hanukkah story, open gifts, and eagerly await their turn to light the menorah. Hanukkah Upside Down ...

My interest in Noir started when I was about 16 or 17 years old and first walked into the adult mystery section of my local library. I believe I walked out with at least 10 books that day, with Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain numbering among the authors on my check-out slip. I went home that night and found an “Introduction to Film Noir” list, watched the “staples” of the genre, and thus my niche interest was born. Noir film is a genre that emerged in the early 1940s, peaked in the post-World War II era, and has left a lasting mark on the world of cinema. With its dark, moody atmospheres, morally ambiguous characters, and intricate plots, noir films continue to captivate audiences to this day. To truly understand noir film, it is recommended to first start with the genre’s literary roots. The term “noir” itself, derived from the French word for “black”, was coined by French film critics Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier in 1946. However, its origins can be tra...

Hayao Miyazaki is almost as famous for retiring as he is for being the world’s greatest animator. Miyazaki or Miya-san as he is known to friends – and after watching all his films one cannot help but consider him a friend – has come out of his fourth retirement to create The Boy & The Heron (2023) which will be released in the United States on December 8. While some are calling it the final triumph of an extraordinary career, at 82 it is said that the great creator is already working on his next film. His most famous works in the United States are, likely, Princess Mononoke (1998) as well as the Academy Award-Winning Spirited Away (2001). However, a deep dive into Miyazaki’s feature films will leave one in awe of his creative vision and story-telling. In 1985, Miyazaki and creative partner Isao Takahata started Studio Ghibli (pronounced Jib-Lee) to realize their unique artistic visions. Since the founding of the studio, the many films it has produced have become legendary in t...