The sixth and final season of award-winning costume drama, Downton Abbey, has come and gone. For those of us following the adventures of the Crawley family, Sunday nights have become a bit of a lonely affair. Cast adrift and clutching our teacups, we must now sit back and wait for writer Julian Fellowes to pen… View more
Today I have visions of tea, scones and arsenic dancing in my head. While scouring the stacks at the Cedar Rapids Public Library, I discovered that we have an incredible selection of Agatha Christie novels. For a mystery lover, this is a treasure indeed. Dame Agatha Christie, the doyenne of the proper English murder mystery,… View more
I always wanted to be a rocker chick. I can still see the ones I knew in my youth, the black bottomed tennis shoes, feathered hair, and jean jackets loaded with patches from various shows. Joan Jett seemed like she had the world figured out, and Lita Ford looked like she could tear your head… View more
The question we get asked most often the week before Halloween is, “Do you have any scary movies?” Oh yes, my friend, we most certainly do. We have your standard scary movie fare – the Friday the 13th series, the Halloween movies, the Scream tetralogy. All excellent choices. But we’ve dug a little deeper into… View more
“Hollow City” picks up where “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” left off with Jacob, now a part of the 1940s world of Peculiar Children and discovering his own peculiarity. Their time loop however has been discovered and attacked by the dreaded Hollows and Wights, neither of which should be physically capable of entering the… View more
A richly realized novel set in Victorian times. You follow the prostitute Sugar as she tries to rise above her circumstances through her association with Mr. William Rackham, the rich perfumier who takes an interest in her as his mistress. As you journey through this book, you will meet a cast of other characters like… View more
Are you tired of vampires who are either sparkly, sexy, or wearing leather pants? Yeah, I am too. Here’s the antidote. Hide Me Among the Graves is a gritty gothic horror novel starring the Rossetti family, the famous British painters and poets. The plot is pretty wild and complex, with a colorful cast of characters…. View more
Sherlock is a smart modern retelling of the classic Doyle stories about the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Fans of the original stories won’t be disappointed, this series is like a love letter to the devoted but it is still exciting and accessible to anyone who hasn’t read them. You might miss some jokes… View more
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness joins the crowded paranormal genre with a story of vampires, witches, and demons. But this one has a different feel from many of it’s counterparts, with libraries and yoga pants instead of stakes and leather. The main character is a history professor named Diana, most of the story… View more
Jeeves and Wooster is an award winning television series based on the beloved stories of British author P.G. Wodehouse. His stories are the original source of that stereotypical butler named Jeeves. In this series, a young British aristocrat named Bertie Wooster (played by Hugh Laurie) hires a valet named Jeeves (played by Stephen Fry). Bertie… View more