The James E. Nichols Memorial Library

R&B singers Bonnie Raitt (71) and Rickie Lee Jones (68) share an 11/8 birthday.

Prairie songbird and poet Joni Mitchell turns 77 today. You can listen to all her flavors: the aspiring folkie, the quintessential hippie, the daring folk-jazz innovator, and the enduring craftsman:

In this neo-western, Kevin Costner plays a rancher trying to preserve his holdings from outside developers. He is, however, getting on and none of his grown children are ready to take over. Think of Yellowstone as a dysfunctional Ponderosa, or as Walt Longmire on the wrong side of the law. Gripping drama, archetypal characters and fabulous scenery. Seasons one and two are here. Season three is coming in December.

Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death robbed the movie world of a talented actor. His credits include the biopics 42, which tells how Jackie Robinson broke the color line in baseball and Get on Up, which shows how James Brown brought the drama and emotion of sanctified singing to pop music. In Black Panther, superhero T’Challa struggles to protect his kingdom from the world, while in 21 Bridges, an NYPD cop takes on a deadly conspiracy. Whatever the role, Boseman dove deep into the part. One feels like they are at an emoting, thinking person, not someone ‘acting’.

Connery, the actor who first portrayed James Bond, passed away at the end of October. While best known for the Bond films, some of his best work came later in his career, with classics like The Man who Would b King, an epic re-telling of a Kipling story, The Wind and the Lion, where he Berber kidnapper who sparks an international incident, and The Great Train Robbery, where he plots an audacious heist.

Shipping from our book suppliers have been delayed of late, but yesterday we received and added a dozen new titles! Among them are the latest from Lee Child, John Grisham, Alice Hoffman, Jodi Picoult and Dean Koontz, as well stories by respected authors Emma Straub, Paulette Jiles and Susanna Clarke, and the surprise bestseller, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Send us your requests for Monday curbside pickup!

The latest eBooks and audios from NH Downloadable Books (NHDB).

Remembering roots-rocker Tom Petty (October 20, 1950). He shared the day with two giants, jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton (October 20, 1890) and American composer Charles Ives (October 20, 1874). For a tastes of Ives, try Three Places in England; for Morton, sample Tom Cat Blues.

Bone-chilling stories about two modern autocrats. Blood and Oil by Hope Bradely covers Saudi strongman Mohammed bin Salman’s ruthless rise while Shadow State by Luke Harding reports on Putin’s undercover opps in the West.

Yesterday was the birthdate of Chuck Berry, poet laureate of Rock and Roll. He shares the date with Laura Nyro (October 18, 1947 –April 08, 1997), who wrote “Wedding Bell Blues“, “Stoned Soul Picnic“, “Sweet Blindness“, “Eli’s Comin’“; and “Stoney End“.