Happy Birthday Mitch Albom, best-selling author of inspirational books. Born May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, Albom’s career has included stints as a sports journalist, piano player, newspaper columnist, playwright, philanthropist and radio host.
Albom’s interest in sports proved a good foundation for a career in journalism, and by 1983 he was a feature writer for the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel. In 1985 he became a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and later added a second weekly column
After authoring a couple of books about sports figures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Albom struck gold with “Tuesdays With Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson”(1997). The book is based on Albom’s weekly visits to one of his old college professors of sociology named Morrie Schwartz, whom Albom learned was dying from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The book has touched the hearts of millions of readers, and its popularity grew after appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It finally hit Number One on the New York Times bestseller list, and remained on the list for 205 weeks.
A made-for-television movie was made in 1999 from the book, produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring Jack Lemmon as Morrie Schwartz and Hank Azaria as Albom.
Albom’s next book was “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” (2003). The novel tells the story of Eddie, a wounded war veteran who fixes rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, he dies as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It’s a place where your life is explained to you by five people. The book was another hit for Albom, spending 95 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. A made-for-television movie was made in 2004 with Jon Voigt portraying Eddie, and a script by Albom.
Happy Birthday Cher, one of the great musician-actor-celebrities of American pop culture. Born May 20, 1946 as Cherilyn Sarkisian, Cher sang her way into millions of hearts with hits like “I Got You Babe” as one half of Sonny & Cher. Later, her solo career yielded hits like ‘Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” and “If I Could Turn Back Time.” She’s had a Number-One single each decade from the 1960s to the 2010s and has sold more than 100 million records, earning a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award along the way. Rolling Stone magazine called her “the one-woman embodiment of the whole gaudy story of pop music.”
But in the early 1960s she was just an ambitious high school dropout living with a friend in Los Angeles when she met Sonny Bono, a songwriter and record producer. Cher sang backup on a few Phil Spector recordings, and by 1964 her friendship with Bono flowered into love and they performed their own unofficial wedding ceremony.
They began performing as Sonny & Cher in 1965, with hits including “The Beat Goes On” and “Baby Don’t Go.” These and many others are collected onThe Best of Sonny & Cher: The Beat Goes On.In addition to releasing top hits, the couple set fashion trends including bell-bottoms, vests and other Mod elements. They appeared in their first film, singing together in Wild on the Beach (1965).
In 1966 Cher sang the theme song for the movie Alfie, starring Michael Caine. Sonny & Cher starred in a zany movie, Good Times (1967) when their pop fame was at its hottest. But fame is fickle, and by the late 1960s the couple was slipping. Cher recorded a solo album in 1969, 3614 Jackson Highway, but it wasn’t a hit.
In 1970 the couple tried television withThe Sonny & Cher Nitty Gritty Hour, and it was so successful that they were offered their own weekly series. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hourran from 1971 to 1974 and brought the couple new stardom. The humor, the songs and the guest stars clicked, and more than 30 million viewers watched the weekly antics. Cher’s revealing costumes, designed by Bob Mackie, probably drew as many viewers as any other element of the show. But the grueling demands of the show, plus continuing to make records and touring, took their toll on the couple, and they divorced in 1974, the same year the show was cancelled.
Every year in May, National Bike Safety Month is recognized. Started in 1956, this celebration highlights the benefits of bicycling for exercise, the environment, and fun. It is also a perfect time to discuss the precautions that should be taken when riding a bicycle to ensure safety. Within this post, you will find helpful bike safety books, websites, and videos for both caregivers and children.
“In this Franklin TV Storybook, our hero has a flashy new bicycle helmet and can’t wait to show if off. But when he overhears his friends making fun of that particular style, Franklin decides to hide it instead. When Rabbit stumbles on the concealed helmet, Franklin is embarrassed — until he realizes that he must trust his own opinions.” (Suggested ages: 3-9)
“Small Bear has a new bike, but before he can ride it, his dad insists on a teaching him about bike safety. From learning how to stop and turn to going down a hill and traveling roads you know; Small Bear has a lot to learn. And Father Bear has an unforgettable way of showing his son all the tricks of biking.” (Suggested ages: 3-7)
“One day down on the farm, Duck got a wild idea. “I bet I could ride a bike,” he thought. He waddled over to where the boy parked his bike, climbed on and began to ride. At first he rode slowly and he wobbled a lot, but it was fun! Duck rode past Cow and waved to her. “Hello, Cow!” said Duck. “Moo,” said Cow. But what she thought was, “A duck on a bike? That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen!” And so Duck rides past sheep, horse, and all the other barnyard animals. Suddenly, a group of kids ride by on their bikes and run into the farmhouse, leaving the bikes outside. Now ALL the animals can ride bikes, just like Duck!” (Suggested ages: 2-5)
“Froggy just got his very first bike, and it’s exactly what he wanted. Almost. Finishing touches like a bell and a horn have to be added before Froggy is ready to ride. Then, surrounded by cheering friends, Froggy starts to pedal. Oops! He falls off. He tries again. Oops! Riding a bike is hard! After a long day, and a few bumps and bruises, Froggy finally learns to ride, and once he does, he can’t wait to go again. Froggy Rides a Bike is a reassuring reminder that practice makes perfect and it’s sure to make kids eager to learn to ride on their own.” (Suggested ages: 3-5)
Fishing is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it. – Harry Middleton
The fog shimmers in the early morning light across the pond. Drops of rain from the night before drip from the leaves creating rings in the shallows. The willow tree sways its heavy head in the breeze as we cross the bank to our favorite fishing spot. Lines cast, coffee steaming, and the birds singing, we watch our fishing bobbers float in the gentle waves anticipating the first bites.
Fishing is a great way to enjoy the outdoors whether on land or by boat and is a fun activity for all ages. You can go to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to learn how and where to apply for a fishing license by clicking on the link above. I included a list of guide books to help you make the most of your next fishing trip and also compiled a list of cookbooks to help you prepare your catch of the day! If you are interested in joining a group, you can find the North Ridgeville Fishing Club on Facebook and also learn about when they host their Fishing Derbies at the South Central Park Lake. In the meantime, gather up your gear and head for your favorite fishing spots. I hope that the fish will be biting and that you will end up with an epic fishing tale to tell!
The Complete Fishing Manual is your definitive guide to all things fishing, covering everything from strategies and techniques to bait, tackle, and kit. This manual will assist you every step of the way.
The fully updated Fishing for Dummies, 3rd Edition, experienced angler and fishing writer Greg Schwipps shows that while none of us is born to angling, we can all achieve it – and become great at it. Whether you love fishing for fun or sport, this hands-on friendly guide has everything you need to make sure that there need never be such a thing as “the one that got away!”
With practical advice for fly-fishing, baitcasting, spinning and even noodling, this handy guide offers over 100 hints on gear, knots, boating, and finding where even the stealthiest fish are hiding. Fishermen from the dedicated weekend angler to summer dabblers rely on Field & Stream for the best insider information, and this book delivers.
The only guide with fishing information for every public lake and stream in the state, home to more than 800,000 anglers. Brand-new, this book covers the state – region by region – from the steelhead springs in the northeast to the walleye spawning in the western river basins, with a special section on the Ohio River. Each entry describes the water and its game fish population, angling tips, and local regulations as well as advice on boat ramps, parking lots, marinas, lodging, and local attractions for every fishing venue.
It’s May the 4th everyone and that means Star Wars Day! In order to celebrate one of the most galactic days of the year, we are bringing you a selection of Star Wars books and comics that showcase some of the many adventures taking place in a galaxy far, far away.
Kenobi
Hello there. With the release of the new Disney+ Kenobi show coming on May 27th, here are a few books featuring this iconic character.
Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray: An unexpected offer threatens the bond between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi as the two Jedi navigate a dangerous new planet and an uncertain future.
Brotherhood by Mike Chen: The Clone Wars have begun and Obi-Wan Kenobi is dispatched to Cato Neimoidia after a bombing. His former padawan now Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker follows against orders.
Obi-Wan & Anakin by Charles Soule: Stranded on a strange world, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin must diffuse a war when they end up on opposite sides.
The High Republic
Taking place two centuries prior to the Skywalker Saga, the High Republic Era showcases the Jedi, guardians of peace and justice, facing a threat to themselves, the galaxy, and the Force itself through an ongoing multimedia storytelling structure.
Happy Birthday Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, one of the great actors of our generation, and the only man to win three Academy Awards for Best Actor. Born April 29, 1957, Day-Lewis has worked with directors as diverse as James Ivory, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg. A famously private person who sometimes took years between film projects, Day-Lewis earned a knighthood in 2014 for his artistic achievements and retired from acting in 2017.
Greatness may have been destined for Day-Lewis, since he was born into a famous family. His father, Cecil Day-Lewis, was a poet and mystery novelist, who was poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 to 1972. His mother was Jill Balcon, a noted stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s, and Balcon’s father was Sir Michael Balcon, a film producer and studio head who was an early mentor to a young Alfred Hitchcock.
Daniel Day-Lewis is probably best-known in America for his portrayal of our 16th president in Lincoln (2012), directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals,” the film focuses on Lincoln’s tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursued a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country, and abolish slavery. With a cast including Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Hal Holbrook and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the film was a critical and commercial success, earning Day-Lewis his third Academy Award.
Day-Lewis made his film debut as an unnamed teen hoodlum in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He told the Washington Post the experience was “heaven” because he was paid to vandalize expensive cars.
After high school Day-Lewis trained for the stage and appeared in several British productions for theater and television. He had a small role in Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough and featuring Ben Kingsley in the title role, and a role in The Bounty (1984), which starred Anthony Hopkins as Capt. William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian.
Day-Lewis’s first critical recognition came for My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), for his role as a gay Englishman in an interracial relationship with a Pakistani man. The ground-breaking love story was a comedy that addressed racism and homophobia in Margaret Thatcher’s England, earning a place on the British Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest British Films of the 20th Century.
A Room With a View (1985) earned more attention for Day-Lewis, in the Merchant-Ivory production based on E.M. Forster’s novel about unrequited love. The movie features Helena Bonham-Carter in her film debut, forced to choose between the passionate George, played by Julian Sands, and the upper-class Cecil, played by Day-Lewis.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman from the novel by Milan Kundera, offered Day-Lewis his first outing as a leading man, playing a Czech doctor in an erotic exploration of love, philosophy and sex.
My Left Foot (1989), directed by Jim Sheridan, starred Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, who was born in 1932 with cerebral palsy and treated like a vegetable. Able to control only his left foot, Brown nevertheless became a painter and poet. Day-Lewis remained in character throughout the production, having to be spoon-fed and moved around in a wheelchair. The role earned him his first Academy Award for Best Actor.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992), directed by Michael Mann, from the novel by James Fenimore Cooper, features Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, a Caucasian adopted by the Mohicans, drawn into the conflict of the French and Indian War. Day-Lewis’s preparations for the role included bulking up by weightlifting and learning to live off the land in upper New York State, including hunting and fishing.
Day-Lewis lost the weight he gained for his role in In the Name of the Father (1993), a crime drama shot in Ireland and England about a man wrongly imprisoned for a pub bombing in 1974. Day-Lewis ate prison rations until he lost more than 30 pounds and submitted to an actual police interrogation to prepare for the film.
Martin Scorsese directed him in The Age of Innocence (1993), based on the Edith Wharton novel. Day-Lewis plays Newland Archer, a respectable lawyer engaged to marry a young woman, played by Winona Ryder, in the upper-class splendor of 1870s New York City. But the young fiancée’s cousin, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, proves a powerful distraction, and Archer falls in love with her.
In 1996 Day-Lewis starred in The Crucible, based on the play by Arthur Miller. Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, the movie explores the witchcraft hysteria and trials, with Winona Ryder as one of the teenagers accused of witchcraft.
Day-Lewis starred in Gangs of New York (2002), directed by Martin Scorsese, about New York City in the 1860s. He plays Bill the Butcher, a gang leader who revels in violent confrontations. Opposite him is Leonardo DiCaprio, with Cameron Diaz and Jim Broadbent rounding out the cast.
There Will be Blood (2006), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and based on Upton Sinclair’s book “Oil!”, features Day-Lewis as a man who’ll do anything for money in California’s oil boom of the early 1900s. His performance earned him his second Academy Award for Best Actor.
After Lincoln, Day-Lewis was absent from the screen for five years. Finally, he starred in Phantom Thread (2017), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, about an obsessive dress designer in 1950s London. When the film was finished, Day-Lewis announced his retirement.
Did you miss me? With a new season afoot, old and new faces are returning to London to find the most desirable matches and maybe, if they’re lucky, true love. Let it be known, if there is a whiff of scandal or even the smallest hint of a proposal, I shall uncover it and share every last detail. If you are like this author, you have devoured the second season of Netflix’s original series, Bridgerton, which follows the love life of every darling Bridgerton sibling. While the Viscount of Bridgerton is one of the most eligible matches of the season and Miss Edwina Sharma the season’s diamond, there are many other suitable titles worthy of your attention. These Regency romances feature plenty of glittering ballrooms, brooding dukes, and scandalous nuptials.
The handsome, philandering Earl of Fareham, Hugh Standish, hires a fake fiancée, the struggling woodcut engraver and illustrator Minerva Merriwell, to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate the scheme.
After their marriage has soured, Lady Violet and Lord James Audley fake accidents and illnesses in an escalating game of manipulation and screwball comedy, including sanitariums, fake affairs, and possibly rekindled love.
Miss Cleopatra Lewis is about to be launched into London society but since she has no intention of marrying, she visits Quimby’s Emporium to order unflattering dresses guaranteed to put off any prospective suitors. While at the shop, Cleo is offended by an overbearing American and impulsively decides to purchase the business out from under him. The wealthy American, Jake Astor Addison, tries to get Quimby’s back with a wager: Each of them must design and order clothes for the other to wear during the Season.
When she meets the notorious, wealthy Frances Campbell at a party, bookish and sheltered Georgina is introduced to the upper levels of Regency aristocracy where she begins to wonder if she’ll ever fit in, or if the price of entry into this glittering world is higher than she’s willing to pay.
Lady Emily Turner has been a debutante for six seasons, but her only suitor is the persistent and odious owner of her father’s favorite gambling house. Fortunately, Lord Julian wants to marry her to elevate himself in society, leading to more respectable people coming to his theater. But when a fleeing actress, murderous kitten, and meddlesome friends enter the fray, Emily and Julian will have to confront the fact that their marriage of convenience comes with rather inconvenient feelings.
Check out what the Lorain Public Library System staff are currently doing in their free time. Whether it’s books, movies, TV shows, music, and more, we want to share what has caught our attention.
Currently Reading
Sarah, North Ridgeville Branch Public Services Professional: Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger
Maya, Avon Branch Public Services Professional:Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Maggie, Columbia Branch Public Services Professional: The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett & Malice by Heather Walter
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