February is National Bird Feeding Month and O’Neal Library
is offering free DIY bird feeder kits for every birding book or dvd checked out
beginning February 1st! Simply visit the
display on the 2nd floor and redeem the bookmark included to receive your kit. The kit does require you to supply your own
peanut butter. Also, take a birdwatching
walk with Alabama Audubon on Wednesday, February 23rd at 9am, departing from
the library parking lot and utilizing the sidewalk alongside the Birmingham
Country Club golf course. Register here:
https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/5822362
Mark your calendar for the return of the Friends of O’Neal
Library book sale! Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday February 25-27, shop the Book Cellar for great deals or the treasures available
in the Community Meeting Room. Monetary
donations to the library of $25 or more entitle you to an invitation to the
Preview Party on Thursday, February 24th so donate today: https://oneallibrary.org/support-mblf-2210
The next meeting of Books & Beyond is on Tuesday, February
22nd at 6:30pm and the topic up for discussion is ancient civilizations. Join us in the Conference Room or register to
receive a Zoom link: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/5494757
This week, Books & Beyond met to discuss the work
of Stephen King:
“Written in masterly Stephen King’s signature
translucent…this uncharacteristically glimmering fairy tale calls unabashedly
for us to rise above our differences” (Booklist, starred review). Elevation is
an antidote to our divisive culture, an “elegant whisper of a story” (Kirkus
Reviews, starred review), “perfect for any fan of small towns, magic, and the
joys and challenges of doing the right thing” (Publishers Weekly, starred
review).
Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect
chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old
hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and
working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic
location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice
the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny
Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas,
President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it
back? In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has
absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more
imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an
incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.
Each of these five interconnected, sequential narratives,
set in the years from 1960 to 1999, are deeply rooted in the 60s culture and
the haunting images of the Vietnam War.
Four gripping novellas tied together by the changing of
seasons. Includes 4 stories, most of which have been adapted by Hollywood. “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,”
“Apt Pupil,” “The Body,” and “A Winter’s Tale.”
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to
the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to
be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here.
Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just
a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard
in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets.
Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his
nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little
graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly
temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than
death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for
himself sometimes, dead is better…
The number-one national best seller for Stephen King's rabid
fans, Cujo "hits the jugular" (The New York Times) with the
story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a sick bat. Get ready to
meet the most hideous menace ever to savage the flesh and devour the mind.
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of
computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts
that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world
of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99
percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose
sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of
the 108-year-old Mother Abagail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are
embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg,
the dark man.
Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as
hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real. They
were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are
grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and
happiness. But the promise they made 28 years ago calls them reunite in the
same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on
the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again, and their
repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once
again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.
Stephen King, the modern master of horror, offers up two
terrifying tales from his bestselling book "Night Shift," and an
all-new tale written especially for this movie.
Stephen King’s first collection of short stories showcases
the darkest depths of his brilliant imagination and will "chill
the cockles of many a heart" (Chicago Tribune). Featuring
“Jerusalem’s Lot,” the basis for the upcoming tv series Chapelwaite.
An unpopular teenage girl, whose mother is a religious
fanatic, is tormented and teased to the breaking point by her more popular
schoolmates. She uses her hidden telekinetic powers to inflict a terrifying
revenge.
Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the
Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to
walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold
Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of
oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John
Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a
crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place
of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous
truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished
beliefs...and yours.
The Kingdom of Delain is at stake when King Roland is
murdered and his son and rightful heir, Peter, is framed for the crime.
Plotting against him is the evil Flagg and his pawn, young Prince Thomas. Yet
with every plan there are holes - like Thomas's terrible secret. And the
determined Prince Peter, who is planning a daring escape from his imprisonment.
Stephen King has taken the classic fairy tale and transformed it into a
masterpiece of fiction for the ages.
In the near future, when America has become a police state,
100 boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be
awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is 16-year-old
Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules - keep a steady walking pace of four miles
per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out - permanently.
Johnny Smith awakens from a five-year coma after his car
accident and discovers that he can see people's futures and pasts when he
touches them. Many consider his talent a gift; Johnny feels cursed. His fiancée
married another man during his coma, and people clamor for him to solve their
problems. When Johnny has a disturbing vision after he shakes the hand of an
ambitious and amoral politician, he must decide if he should take drastic
action to change the future.
A collection of 14 dark tales, Everything’s
Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four
stories published by The New Yorker, and “Riding the Bullet,” King’s
original ebook, which attracted over half a million online readers and became
the most famous short story of the decade.
Stephen King’s only directorial credit, the film explores
the events after a comet-induced radiation storm on Earth causes machines come
to life and turn against their makers. Holed up in a North Carolina truck stop,
a group of survivors must fend for themselves against a mass of homicidal
trucks. A diner cook, Bill Robinson (Emilio Estevez), emerges as the unlikely
leader of the pack, attempting to find an escape plan for himself and the
survivors, who include his boss, Bubba Hendershot (Pat Hingle), and a newlywed
couple.
Stephen King writes and acts
in this compendium of five short but terrifying tales contained within a
single full-length feature, conjuring scares from traditional bogeymen and
portents of doom. In one story, a monster escapes from its holding cell.
Another focuses on a husband (Leslie Nielsen) with a creative way of getting
back at his cheating wife. Other stories concern a rural man (Stephen King) and
a visitor from outer space, and a homeowner (E.G. Marshall) with huge bug
problems and a boozing corpse.
Stephen King's ultimate evil vehicle of terror, Christine:
the frightening story of a nerdy teenager who falls in love with his vintage
Plymouth Fury. It was love at first sight, but this car is no lady.
The state police of Troop D in rural Pennsylvania have kept
a secret in Shed B out back of the barracks ever since 1979, when Troopers
Ennis Rafferty and Curtis Wilcox answered a call from a gas station just down
the road and came back with an abandoned Buick Roadmaster. Curt Wilcox knew old
cars, and he knew immediately that this one was...wrong, just wrong. A few hours
later, when Rafferty vanished, Wilcox and his fellow troopers knew the car was
worse than dangerous.
GENERAL DISCUSSION – Obviously, King’s 11/22/63 captured
most of the attention and drove a great deal of the conversation!
Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel series
The series is set in the 2050’s and 2060’s and time travel
has been invented. Since it is apparently impossible to bring objects back from
the past, commercial organizations lost interest, and time travel is now the
domain of the history departments of universities. Historians travel back in
time, to engage in research of the periods they are studying.
-Fire Watch (available
from Interlibrary Loan)
-Doomsday
Book
-To
Say Nothing of the Dog
-Blackout
-All
Clear
House
on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend
Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as a guinea pig for a
new drug that Magnus has discovered in his scientific research. When Dick
samples Magnus' potion, he finds himself doing the impossible: traveling
through time while staying in place, thrown all the way back into Medieval
Cornwall. The concoction wears off after several hours, but its effects are
intoxicating and Dick cannot resist his newfound powers. As his journeys
increase, Dick begins to resent the days he must spend in the modern world,
longing ever more fervently to get back into his world of centuries before, and
the home of the beautiful Lady Isolda....
A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
In this classic satiric novel, published in 1889, Hank
Morgan, a supervisor in a Connecticut gun factory, falls unconscious after
being whacked on the head. When he wakes up he finds himself in Britain in 528
— where he is immediately captured, hauled back to Camelot to be exhibited
before the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, and sentenced to death. Things
are not looking good. But Hank is a quick-witted and enterprising fellow, and
in the process of saving his life he turns himself into a celebrity of the
highest magnitude.
Just Visiting (not available in the library system,
but available to rent on several streaming services)
"Just Visiting" is an American retelling of the
1993 French comedy blockbuster "Les Visiteurs" in which stars Jean
Reno and Christian Clavier reprise their popular roles for original director
Jean-Marie Gaubert. In the film, A French nobleman, Count Thibault of Malfete
(Jean Reno) and his servant André (Christian Clavier) find themselves in modern
day Chicago -- transported from the 12th century due to a wizard's flawed
time-travel potion.
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