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What's New
Next Book Club at NPL
No meeting in August
Date: September
Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Book: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
For general information about our Book Club, see Ongoing Programs.
Next Dinner and a Movie at NPL
No meeting in August
Date: Tuesday, Sept 21, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm
Movie: Station Agent
Troubled Souls Find One Another
'Station Agent' has unusual story that quietly gets under the skin.
By Ruthe Stein
In the early years of railroads, the station agent was an integral part of a community. He hand-delivered the mail brought in by train, sold groceries at the depot and even cut the locals' hair.
Railroad lore like this is scattered throughout 'The Station Agent,' as touching and original a movie as you're likely to see this year. Its hero is a 4-foot-5-inch dwarf named Fin McBride, who is a repository of arcane information about the rails.
Fin (Peter Dinklage) moves into an old depot willed to him by a fellow train nut. But Fin is the opposite of a 19th century station agent. He's a loner who wants no contact with his neighbors. He takes solitary walks, waiting for trains to whiz by so he can clock them with his pocket watch. Decades of being the brunt of cruel jokes about his height have taught him to insulate himself from more hurt.
'The Station Agent' -- a remarkably assured first film from writer-director Tom McCarthy -- makes a case for Fin taking a giant leap back into life. Not much happens by conventional movie standards. Fin meets Olivia (Patricia Clarkson), an artist grieving over the accidental death of her young son. Joe (Bobby Cannavale), a chatty hot dog vendor, imposes himself upon the two. At first, his noisiness disturbs them. But they sense he's a good guy, for all his bluster. The trio's budding friendship illustrates the importance of being able to tell good people from bad.
What Staff are reading, listening to, viewing...
Currently reading:
- Every Day in Tuscanny by Frances Mayes
- Faithful Place by Tana French
- An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof
- The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
- 100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know by Russ Kick
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
- Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork
- Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
- This Body of Death by Elizabeth George
- 61 Hours by Lee Child
- Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo
- Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon
- Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
- The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook
- The Murderers Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
- The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner
- Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Mattseon
- Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
- The Living Reed by Pearl S. Buck
- Mary Anne by Daphne DuMaurier
- The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa
- A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
- The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
- Death in Holy Orders by P.D. James
- Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Currently listening to (books):
- NPR Road Trips
- One Amazing Thing by Chita Banerjee Divakaruni
- A Question of Belief by Donna Leon
- The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman (A first-person narrative of a 17 year old girl gravely injured in a car accident as she considers the meaning of her life. Young Adult)
- The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (An action-packed adventure, first in the Kane Chronicles, a new series from the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. Juvenile)
- Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
Currently listening to (music):
- Lady Antebellum Need You Now
- To the Sea by Jack Johnson
Currently viewing:
- Elsa and Fred
- A Single Man
- Brothers
- Shrink
- In Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasses
- The Road
- Louisa M. Alcott
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