Monthly Archives: March 2016

Here is a the list of 2016 Oscar winners and also-rans available on DVD at the Nichols Library, so far:  best picture nominees The Big Short (just in!), Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Room (just in);  acting ward … Continue reading →

New films on DVD include three stories based on real life events.  “Black Mass” (Johnny Depp) tells about the FBI’s collaboration with a mob killer. “Steve Jobs” (Michael Fassbender) covers a critical 14 years in the life of Apple’s founder.  … Continue reading →

Dark Money by Jane Mayer (The Dark Side) offers an inside look the role of money in politics, from Whitewater to Citizens United. Emerging from Turbulence by Leon Grunberg takes a look at the conflict between employees, with their  interest … Continue reading →

Do not be daunted by the title  of  Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli.  No hard core science here, just seven brief essays on the joy of discovery.  Rovelli cautions that the scientist’s quest is not for unchanging laws … Continue reading →

The Tides of Mind by David Hillel Gelernter argues that human consciousness is not a fixed entity, but a field of attention, in which we range from computer-like efficiency to free-ranging creativity.  These “down-spectrum” realms of dreams and emotion allow … Continue reading →

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan places trading routes of Central Asia at the  epi-center of human history.   Through these routes came goods and with them, “the spread of ideas, cultures and religions.”  Later, they became pathways for conquest.  The … Continue reading →

Here is an interesting article about portable libraries which were distributed families living in near-isolation on lighthouse watch.

Galaxy Quest, a recent addition to our DVD collection, is a 1999  science fiction comedy film  that spoofed Star Trek and its fans. It is about a cast of a defunct television series called Galaxy Quest, in which the crew … Continue reading →