Fayetteville Free Library Reading Room

A Good Year
starring Russell Crowe

Drama

Max Skinner is a highly successful investment broker with no time for life outside of his job. When his estranged uncle dies, Max inherits the chateau and vineyard in France where he grew up. His first intention is to sell the vineyard as quickly as possible, but after spending unexpected time at the vineyard, he discovers a part of himself that he thought he had lost and experiences romance and a blossoming new love affir with a beautiful French woman that changes his life forever.

Releases February 27, 2007

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Stranger Than Fiction
starring Will Ferrell

Comedy

Kay Effiel is an author writing her latest novel. Her story revovles about an isolated man named Harold Crick. What she doesn’t know is that her fictionalized character is real. Harold is an IRS agent who has lived a dull existence. One day begins to hear Karen’s voice as she narrates what she is putting down on paper. Harold enlists the help of a literary professor to find out what is happening and ends up changing things about his life. Harold, however, finds trouble when he hears that Karen plans to kill him.

Releases February 27, 2007

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Shopaholic & Baby
Sophie Kinsella

Fiction

Becky Brandon is pregnant! She couldn’t be more overjoyed–especially since discovering that shopping cures morning sickness. Everything has got to be perfect for her baby: from the designer nursery . . . to the latest, coolest pram . . . to the celebrity, must-have obstetrician. But when the celebrity obstetrician turns out to be her husband Luke’s glamorous, intellectual ex-girlfriend, Becky’s perfect world starts to crumble. She’s shopping for two . . . but are there three in her marriage?

Releases February 27, 2007

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Puss ‘n Cahoots
Rita Mae Brown

Fiction/Mystery

Instead of a proper second honeymoon, the newly remarried Harry and Fair Haristeen leave cozy Crozet, Virginia, for Shelbyville, Kentucky, site of the famous saddlebred horse show. There they’ll visit dear friends Joan Hamilton and Larry Hodge and enjoy a week among some of the finest horses, trainers, and riders in the country. But soon after they arrive, events veer mysteriously–and murderously–off course. As Harry searches for clues, rediscovers life as a married woman, and deals with her upcoming fortieth birthday, her four-legged detective friends are already on the case. But is animal instinct any match for human depravity? Especially with two humans to protect and a killer on the prowl?

Releases February 27, 2007

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Children of Men
P. D. James

I usually like to read a book before I watch the movie adaptation, but after seeing Children of Men recently I was so intrigued that I decided to go back to the source material. In both the movie and the book, humanity faces extinction due to the sudden and complete inability of people to reproduce. Almost everything else in the plot is different, but both are very interesting for the ways they explore how humanity would react to such an extreme and horrible state of affairs.

The protagonist of Children of Men, Theo, is a history professor who also happens to be the cousin of the Warden of England, who rules Britain with the authority of a dictator. When Theo is approached by a small group of radicals who want to change the way the Warden treats those who have become a burden on society (such as the elderly, immigrants and prisoners), he has to decide where his loyalties lie and whether or not it is worth trying to change anything in a world that will quickly come to an end. The book is by turns creepy, exciting and uplifting, and I think it provides some great insight into our collective psychology.

Ilka Noel Datig
Circulation Clerk

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Babel
starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett

Drama

A wealthy American is touring Morocco with his wife. The two become the focus of an international incident also involving a poor Moroccan farmer who is struggling to keep his two young sons in line and his family together. A San Diego nanny, with her employers absent, makes the disastrous decision to take her charges with her to a wedding in Mexico. A deaf-mute Japanese teen tries to deal with a relationship with her father and the world in general that has been upended by the death of her mother. The three tales interweave in surprising ways, and illustrate how quickly situations can spiral out of control in the wake of miscommunication and poor decisions.

Releases February 20, 2007

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Flushed Away
starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet

Family/Comedy

Roddy is a decidedly upper-crust “society mouse” who lives the life of a pampered pet in a posh Kensington flat. When a sewer rat named Sid comes out of the sink, he desides he has hit the jackpot. Roddy schemes to rid himself of Sid by luring him into the “whirlpool.” Sid may be an ignorant slob, but he’s no fool, and it’s Roddy who winds up being flushed away into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis. There Roddy meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in the Jammy Dodger, her faithful boat. Roddy immediately wants out, or rather, up. Trouble comes in the form of the villainous Toad - who royally despises all rodents. The Toad dispatches his two hapless hench-rats, Spike and Whitey, to get the job done. When they fail, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin, Le Frog, the dreaded mercenary.

Releases February 20, 2007

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The Prestige
starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale

Drama

Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London, two magicians share an intense rivalry with each other, leading them on a life-long battle for supremacy. From the time that Robert Angier and Alfred Bordon first met, the two were competitors. However, their once friendly competition evolves into battle for each others trade secrets with both dangerous and deadly consequences.

Releases February 20, 2007

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Innocent in Death
J. D. Robb

Fiction/Mystery

The death of history teacher Craig Foster devastated his young wife, who’d sent him off to work that morning with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the Upper West Side private school. And as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom, they may have been traumatized for life. Lieutenant Eve Dallas, of course, is more hardened to murder cases. And this is clearly a murder case. That lovingly packed lunch was tainted with deadly ricin. And Mr. Foster’s colleagues, shocked as they may be, have some shocking secrets of their own. It’s Eve’s job to get a feel for all the potential suspects, and find out why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant, so innocent.

Releases February 20, 2007

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The Teahouse Fire
Ellis Avery

Late nineteenth century Japan was a time of cultural confusion as traditional Eastern customs were being challenged by innovations from the Western world. This fascinating period of time is brought to life in The Teahouse Fire, the story Aurelia Bernard, a nine year old American girl who accompanies her cruel Jesuit uncle to his mission in Japan following the death of her mother. When a fire sweeps through their compound and takes the life of her uncle, Aurelia is alone in the world. She flees the fire and inadvertently ends up at the Bashian Teahouse, one of the most powerful teahouses in Japan, where she will remain for the next 25 years. Aurelia, renamed Urako by the mistress of the house, struggles to find her place as an unacknowledged “foreigner” in the small village, protected by her place in the Shin household yet ultimately without rights or a say in her future.

The Teahouse Fire is an epic novel that beautifully describes the culture clash happening within Japan and within Urako herself. The descriptions of the sacred tea ceremony are beautifully rendered, as is Urako’s search for love and acceptance. This novel will appeal to lovers of historical fiction, those interested in Japanese culture, and anyone who appreciates a story of personal growth written with tenderness and subtly.

Karen Rutkowski
Story Program Coordinator

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Half Nelson
starring Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps

Drama

A high school teacher with a drug habit finds a friendship in an unlikely source - one of his troubled students. Will their relationship help them or harm them?

Releases February 13, 2007

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The Departed
starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon

Drama/Action

In South Boston, the state police force are waging a war on Irish-American organized crime. Undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate, which is run by gangland chief Frank Costello. Billy quickly gains Costello’s confidence. Colin Sullivan is a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate. Colin is rising to a position of power within the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there’s a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly thrust into danger. Afraid of being caught and exposed to the enemy, they each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.

Releases February 13, 2007

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