Staff Picks
Check the blog every Wednesday for updates on what our staff is reading and watching and recommendations for our new and all-time favorite books and movies. What is your favorite book or movie? Post your answer in the comments section below. To see all previous Staff Picks posts, simply type "Staff Picks" in the search box at the top left of this blog and click the "search blog" button.

Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin - recommended by Gayle
When a body, long dead, is found on the site of the new Scottish Parliament and is soon followed by another, fresher kill, this time that of a leading candidate for the new governing body, Rebus is convinced of a connection between the two. Det. Siobhan Clarke witnesses a third death, the suicide of a surprisingly wealthy homeless man; the question of where his wealth came from seems related to the other deaths. Clarke, a determined young woman trying to make her way in the male world of police work, is a refreshing, complex addition to this series.- from Publisher Weekly Review

The Beautiful Miscellaneous by Dominic Smith - recommended by Andrew
This books is about a child who survives a car crash and falls into a coma. When he wakes up, he finds that he has synesthesia (his senses have been crossed and he can see smells and hear colors). He also has to live under the pressure of being a genius by his father.

HEATH LEDGER - MOVIE WATCH

Brokeback Mountain - recommended by Cheryl

It's 1963, a time in the United States when life was simple, straightforward and the lines between the sexes and sex roles were crisply drawn and severely delineated. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist find themselves thrown together when they are hired to tend sheep in the remote area of Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming. Because of the job, the two are forced to spend many hours together alone in the wild. Ennis and Jack are inexorably drawn to each other through their proximity, loneliness and through a shared lack of tenderness and emotion in their lives and are emotionally, physically and psychically bonded to each other almost from the start.

Casanova - recommended by Megan
Casanova has to begin searching for a wife. He is a womanizer with many conquests and If he cannot show he is living a more respectable life, the Church will throw him out of Venice. He is quickly engaged to Victoria, a woman with a pure reputation. As soon as that is arranged, he meets Francesca, a feminist who hates all he stands for. He pretends to be someone else to get into her good graces, and soon finds out she is engaged to Papprizzio, a man whom she has never met. Meanwhile, arriving in Venice to find Casanova, is Pucci, one of the Vatican's most known and feared inquisitors. Francesca falls in love with Casanova, who is pretending to be the Lard king himself. Francesca's brother Donato is in love with Victoria and her mother Andrea wants Francesca to marry a man of substance.