All posts by Pamela

About Pamela

Pamela is an Information Assistant at Vaughan Public Libraries. She loves reading all kinds of books including fantasy, historical fiction, mysteries and non-fiction.  |  Meet the team

Pamela’s Picks: Back To The Future

Back To The Future

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year marks thirtieth anniversary of the movie Back To The Future, starring Michael J Fox, which was released in 1985. A time travel story in which teenager Marty McFly, the youngest child in a dysfunctional family, accidentally finds himself stranded (via a really unusual car) in 1955 and needs to help get his parents (who are complete opposites in personality) together romantically in order for him to be born and therefore return to his own time. After many mishaps, Marty finally accomplishes this and is able to go ‘back to the future’ but finds his family changed out of all recognition. But is the change positive or negative? Watch Back To The Future and find out!

Pamela’s Picks: The Sound Of Music

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Sound Of Music

This year marks fifty years since the debut of one of my favorite movies The Sound Of Music in 1965. Based on the book The Story of The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Von Trapp this is an adaptation of her life story of a postulant nun who is sent to be the governess to the seven children of Captain Von Trapp in 1930s Austria. She brings music into their lives and eventually she and the Captain fall in love and get married. After the  Anschluss, because they do not agree with Nazi beliefs, and after winning first prize in a music festival, they flee across the mountains to Switzerland. It is interesting to compare the differences between the events in the book and the movie. For instance the real family was already musical long before Maria joined it and the Captain was not a martinet as he was portrayed in the movie. Maria married the Captain around a decade before they had to leave Austria and they later had two daughters and one son together who do not appear in the film. The family left Austria for Italy not Switzerland, by train not by foot. But learning these things does not take away anything from enjoying the movie. Sadly, the last surviving original von Trapp child, Maria (Louisa in the movie) died just last year. But the family’s legacy lives on in the books and movies that feature them.

Pamela’s Picks: The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory

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King's curseThe King’s Curse, the latest book in the Cousins War series, follows Lady Margaret Poole, a Plantagenet descendant, during the reign of Tudor king Henry VIII. She is in danger solely because of her background as she and her relatives represent a threat to the Tudors since they were the royal family up until the conquest of England by the previous king Henry VII. But when Margaret becomes a lady in waiting to Katharine Of Aragon she and her family become prominent again at court. However after a short rise, they gradually fall afoul of the increasingly tyrannical and illogical Henry VIII. This is one book where I had a feeling of dread throughout my reading because I already knew Lady Margaret’s fate and her story does not end happily. But for those of you who enjoyed the other Cousins War books, as well as those who enjoy historical fiction, this book is an interesting companion to the others in the series.