Written by Jon Williams
The calendar may have just flipped over to August, but as
far as we’re concerned, it’s never too early to start thinking about Halloween.
You can look forward to plenty of Halloween media ideas from us between now and
October, and what better way to kick it off than with a master of the creepy
tale, a man whose work has been the basis for countless pleasant shivers in the
dead of night? After an early career writing humour aimed at kids, R.L. Stine
eventually came to the conclusion that he’d rather frighten them. His first
kids’ horror novel, Blind Date, was
published in 1986, and the rest is history. According to his website, he’s
written well over 300 books in the intervening 32 years, including a number of
wildly popular series.
By far his most well-known series is Goosebumps. Begun in
1992 with Welcome
to Dead House, the classic series ran through 1997 and comprised a
total of 62 books. Goosebumps has taken on a life of its own with a number of
spinoff and companion series, some of which continue to this day. One of those
is called SlappyWorld,
featuring Slappy, a ventriloquist’s dummy come to life with scary stories of
his own to tell. Slappy made his first appearance very early on, in 1993’s Night
of the Living Dummy, and became a primary antagonist in the 1995
follow-up. From there he took on a life of his own, so to speak, appearing
in several
HorrorLand books (yet another Goosebumps-adjacent series) before spawning
his own series in 2017’s Slappy
Birthday to You. There are currently five books in the series, with Escape
from Shudder Mansion just releasing late in July, and more to come.
Of course, popular as it was and still is, Goosebumps was
not Stine’s first book series. That honour goes to Fear Street, which started in
1989 with The New Girl. Recent titles
in this series include Party
Games and Don’t
Stay Up Late. Also released in late July, You
May Now Kill the Bride is the first book in a new Return to Fear Street
series. And Fear Street fans can look forward to renewed interest in the
series, with Fox recently announcing plans for three theatrical films to be
based on stories from the books.
And although Stine has made his name in the world of
publishing, he is certainly no stranger to the screen. As his writing career
was gaining traction in the early 1990s, he helped create and wrote for the
children’s TV series Eureeka’s Castle.
Shortly thereafter, Goosebumps
was turned into an anthology TV series that ran for four seasons. In 2007, the
movie The
Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It was made, loosely adapted from a
book of Stine’s short stories, and that too was spun off into a
successful anthology series, winning a number of Daytime Emmys among other
awards. And in 2015, Goosebumps
became a feature film starring Jack Black as R.L. Stine himself. A sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, is due
in theatres in October.
R.L. Stine has been giving young readers the creeps for more
than thirty years now, and in so doing, has inspired generations of kids to
develop a love of reading that has carried them into adulthood (and adults who
grew up reading him as kids should check out Red
Rain, his grown-up horror novel written in tribute to longtime fans).
As his popularity expands with each new book and movie, continue to share his
work with eager young readers and listeners. You can search his name on our
website for all his works we carry in audiobook
and Playaway,
and point your patrons to hoopla, where they can find a wide selection of his
books in both audio
and eBook.
Written by Jon Williams
Comic-Con International kicked off yesterday in San Diego. Beginning
in 1970 and initially focused primarily on comic books, SDCC has evolved into a
preeminent pop-culture showcase extravaganza that goes far beyond just comics (although
they are still a large part of the show) and into the realms of movies and TV.
Here is a quick look at some of the television titles, both beloved favourites
and soon-to-be breakthroughs, that will be holding panels and releasing news as
the convention progresses through Sunday.
A natural outgrowth of comics is into animation, a format
that is often associated with children’s entertainment. A number of animated
children’s television shows will be at Comic-Con. One of those is Adventure
Time, the beloved cartoon whose tenth and final season is all set to
wrap up, with just the series finale remaining. Lego’s animation has become
quite a force in entertainment, and Lego
Ninjago will be represented at Comic-Con as well. Fans will also be
able to hear about the upcoming seventh season of Voltron:
Legendary Defender, a reboot of the classic Voltron
series from the ‘80s. Another reboot comes in the form of DuckTales,
the new adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
And in a bit of surprise news, it was announced yesterday that Star
Wars: The Clone Wars will return for one final 12-episode arc to
complete the series.
Of course, cartoons aren’t just for kids anymore, and
animated entertainment for grown-ups is very much on Comic-Con’s agenda. The
Simpsons is the longest-running sitcom in American history, animated or
otherwise, and at Comic-Con will be looking ahead to its 30 th
season. In addition, creator Matt Groening (who also created Futurama)
will be presenting his new series, Disenchantment.
Similarly long-running Seth MacFarlane staples Family
Guy (going into its 17 th season) and American
Dad (13 th season) will be represented, as will Bob’s
Burgers (9 th season) and Archer
(10 th season).
Horror television is a genre that has seen quite a bit of
growth lately, and that will be reflected in big panels for both The
Walking Dead, which will undergo some big changes in its upcoming ninth
season, and Fear
the Walking Dead, which returns for the second half of its fourth
season on August 12. Carrying on the zombie theme is Z
Nation, soon to return for its fifth season. From the mind of Stephen
King comes the second season of Mr.
Mercedes, based on his book
trilogy, as well as Castle Rock, a
new series not directly from King’s writings but set in and around a town that
features prominently in many of his works. Also making the leap from the page
to the screen are The Passage, from
Justin Cronin’s vampire
trilogy, and Nightflyers, based
on a novella from Game of Thrones
author George
R.R. Martin.
Then there’s sci-fi and fantasy TV, which has perhaps the
largest presence at this year’s convention. The granddaddy of them all is Doctor
Who, which will have a huge panel in preparation for its eleventh
season and first female Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker. Fans can also look
forward to panels on Star Trek: Discovery,
the latest series in that massive
universe, as well as the Trek-inspired
homage from Seth MacFarlane, The Orville.
Legion
and The Gifted both tie into the X-Men
universe, while Preacher
is adapted from the Vertigo comics series. A Charmed
reboot is coming this fall, and fans of witches can also look forward to A Discovery of Witches, adapted from
Deborah Harkness’s novels. Finally, The
Magicians, a series based on Lev
Grossman’s novels, recently wrapped its third season and will return next
year for a fourth.
And there are also plenty of shows that don’t easily fit
into any of these categories. Riverdale
makes perfect sense for Comic-Con, as it is based on classic Archie Comics
characters. Breaking
Bad’s panel will celebrate ten
years since the show premiered, and the spinoff/prequel, Better
Call Saul, will be there as well to focus on the upcoming fourth
season. The surreal life-after-death comedy The
Good Place will look ahead to its third season, while the historical
drama Vikings
prepares for its midseason premiere. And the trend of reboot continues with a
new iteration of Magnum
P.I. coming in September.
That’s a lot of TV—and that’s just a small portion of all
the movie, comic, and other pop-culture media properties that will be
exhibiting at Comic-Con International in San Diego this year. What are you and
your patrons looking forward to hearing about? Let us know, and stay in touch
with CVS Midwest Tape for all the latest news as these shows and more make their
way onto DVD and Blu-ray.
Written by Jon Williams
AudioFile, a magazine dedicated to
reviewing audiobooks, calls the annual Audie Awards “the Oscars of the
audiobook industry.” Since 1996, the Audio Publishers Association has handed
out these prestigious awards to the best audiobooks of the year. This year’s
gala was held at the New York Historical Society on May 31, hosted by Simon
Vance, himself an Audie-winning narrator several times over.
The novel Lincoln in the Bardo (written by
George Saunders and narrated by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, and a
star-studded full cast) took home the night’s biggest prize, the coveted
Audiobook of the Year award. Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give (narrated by Bahni
Turpin) scored wins in two categories: Young Adult and Best Female Narrator. Born a Crime by Daily Show host Trevor Noah (self-narrated) won for Best Male
Narrator, while Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology won in the Narration
by the Author category.
Finally, we
offer hearty congratulations to our friends at Dreamscape Media, who produced
the winner in History/Biography. Written by Patricia Hruby Powell and narrated
by Adenrele Ojo and MacLeod Andrews, Loving vs. Virginia is the tale of a
landmark civil rights case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Well done
to everyone involved!
Click
here for our collection of all the Audie Award-winning audiobooks, or see
the list below for individual titles.
Audio Drama:
Brother Francis by Paul McCusker (various
narrators)
Autobiography/Memoir:
Born
to Run by Bruce Springsteen (narrated by the author)
Best Female
Narrator: The
Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (narrated by Bahni Turpin)
Best Male
Narrator: Born
a Crime by Trevor Noah (narrated by the author)
Business/Personal
Development: Peak
Performance by Brad Stullberg and Steve Magness (narrated by Christopher
Lane)
History/Biography:
Loving
vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell (narrated by Adenrele Ojo and
MacLeod Andrews)
Humor: Carpet
Diem by Justin Lee Anderson (narrated by Matthew Lloyd Davies)
Inspirational
Fiction: Catching
the Wind by Melanie Dobson (narrated by Nancy Peterson)
Inspirational
Non-Fiction: Fire
Road by Kim Phuc Phan Thi (narrated by Emily Woo Zeller)
Literary
Fiction: House
of Names by Colm Toibin (narrated by Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson,
and Pippa Nixon)
Multi-Voiced:
Restart by Gordon Korman (various
narrators)
Non-Fiction:
American
Wolf by Nate Blakeslee (narrated by Mark Bramhall)
Original
Work: Romeo and Juliet: A Novel by
David Hewson (narrated by Richard Armitage)
Paranormal: Curse on the Land by Faith Hunter
(narrated by Khristine Hvam)
Science
Fiction: Provenance by Ann Leckie
(narrated by Adjoa Andoh)
Short
Stories: The Language of Thorns by
Leigh Bardugo (narrated by Lauren Fortgang)
Thriller/Suspense:
The Fourth Monkey by J.D. Barker
(narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and Graham Winton)
Young
Listeners: Trombone
Shorty by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews (narrated by Dion Graham)
Written by Jon Williams
On Monday of this week, the popular reality singing show
American Idol capped off its sixteenth season by crowning Maddie Poppe as its
new champion. This season was the show’s first on ABC following fifteen on Fox
followed by a two-year hiatus. Ryan Seacrest returned as the show’s host, where
he was joined by new judges Lionel
Richie, Katy
Perry, and Luke Bryan. Along with Poppe, some other names to watch for from
this season as their musical careers unfold include Caleb Lee Hutchinson, Gabby
Barrett, Cade Foeher, Michael J. Woodard, Catie Turner, and Ada Vox.
Once one of the most popular shows on television, if not the
most popular, ratings had declined for Idol’s
last few seasons on Fox. Nevertheless, it still managed to produce some
phenomenal musical talent. The most recent winner, Trent Harmon, released his
debut album You Got ‘Em All last week, while
that season’s runner-up, La’Porsha Renae, released hers
last year. Other winners from this stretch include Nick
Fradiani, Caleb Johnson (whose debut album is currently out of print), and Candice
Glover.
Prior to that, Seasons 1 through 11 were the show’s heyday,
shining a spotlight on a number of young singers that would emerge as musical
superstars. The audience was hooked from the start, when Kelly
Clarkson took the first season crown over runner-up Justin Guarini. She is
now one of the biggest names in music. The same can be said for Carrie
Underwood, the winner of Season 4, who served as a mentor this season and
whose new album Cry Pretty is coming in September.
She’s carved out an enormous career in country music, as has Season 10 winner Scotty
McCreery, who dropped his most recent album, Seasons Change, in March. Other
winners from these seasons are Ruben
Studdard, Fantasia
Barrino, Taylor Hicks, Jordin
Sparks, David
Cook, Kris
Allen, Lee
DeWyze, and Phillip
Phillips.
Of course, sometimes contestants that don’t win end up doing
pretty well for themselves in the music world as well. One of the biggest names
to come out of American Idol has been
Jennifer
Hudson, who actually placed seventh in the show’s third season, and who has
won an Academy Award for her acting skills in addition to two Grammy Awards for
her music. The Season 8 runner-up was Adam
Lambert, who has had an impressive solo career, toured as the frontman for Queen,
and starred as Eddie in the 2016 version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Other
notables include Katharine
McPhee, Chris
Daughtry, Kellie
Pickler, Danny
Gokey, Crystal
Bowersox, and Colton
Dixon, while a number of alumni, including Season 10’s Haley
Reinhart and Casey
Abrams, have performed as part of musical sensation Scott
Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.
So make sure you have music from all these winners and
contestants on your shelves and be on the lookout for upcoming albums from this
season’s performers as well, because Idol
is back. The show has already been renewed for a second season on ABC and
seventeenth overall, with Ryan Seacrest and all of this season’s judges
returning. With the show back in the spotlight, your patrons will be looking
for music from all these incredible performers.
Written by Jon Williams
We’re now
just a week away from the release of Solo:
A Star Wars Story into theatres. This will be the second non-trilogy,
standalone film in the Star Wars
saga, following the huge success of Rogue One in 2016. Like that film, Solo will also dive into the period of
time leading up to the events that take place in the original 1977 Star Wars. It will detail the early
life of Han Solo, the smuggler turned rebel originally played with such swagger
by Harrison Ford, as he meets Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian and embarks on his
life on the fringes of society. An impressive lineup fills the cast, and
bringing it all together from the director’s chair is Hollywood veteran Ron
Howard.
Although
he’s just 64 years old, Howard’s career spans nearly six decades itself. It
began in front of the camera, of course, including two very high-profile
television roles. He began playing Opie Taylor, son of the title character on The Andy Griffith Show, in 1960,
when he was just six years old. That ran for eight seasons, and he also played
the character in single episodes of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Mayberry R.F.D., as well as a 1986 reunion
movie that was his last significant acting role. In 1974, he began playing
Richie Cunningham on Happy Days and served as the main
character of that series for most of its run. As with Opie Taylor, he also
crossed the role of Richie Cunningham over to Laverne & Shirley.
Those are
his long-running and best-known roles, but as a young actor he also made
appearances in a number of other popular shows, including The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Dennis the Menace, The Fugitive, M*A*S*H, and The Waltons, among many others. And
those are just his television roles. He also appeared in a number of films,
such as The Music Man, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and
The Shootist, John Wayne’s final
film. In 1973, a starring role in the teenage comedy-drama American Graffiti was Howard’s first
encounter with George Lucas’s then-burgeoning Lucasfilm company. He also
starred in the 1979 follow-up More American Graffiti, but by then
his acting career was winding down.
In 1977,
Howard got his first chance to direct a feature film with Grand Theft Auto, a rollicking car
chase adventure that he also wrote (with his father Rance) and starred in. His
big break in directing was 1982’s Night Shift, a buddy comedy starring
Michael Keaton in his first major role and Howard’s Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler. He then went on to bring Tom
Hanks to the big screen for the first time in the 1984 romcom Splash, and later directed Steve
Martin in Parenthood. While his first few
films were comedic in nature, in 1988 he returned to the Lucasfilm fold by
directing George Lucas’s fantastical Willow
(currently unavailable).
Many fans
still recognize Ron Howard from his earliest roles as Opie Taylor and Richie
Cunningham; more currently he may be known as the narrator for the comedy
series Arrested Development, which he also
produces. But whether it’s in front of or behind the camera, his vast Hollywood
experience made Howard the perfect choice to take over the reins of Solo when the film’s original directors
departed, bringing his practiced eye to bear on the latest movie from a galaxy
far, far away. His most high-profile project to date will have patrons excited
to check out more from his filmography, which is well worth exploring in its
own right. Click any of the links above to add these movies to your collection,
or SmartBrowse his name on our website for a more complete collection of his
acting and directing roles.
Written by Jon Williams
Last week, Marvel Studios’ Avengers:
Infinity War thundered into theatres across North America to the tune of
a nearly $258 million opening. That total pushed it past 2015’s Star
Wars: The Force Awakens for the highest grossing opening weekend of all
time. Going into its second weekend, it looks likely to dominate the box office
once again, and in fact may continue to do so until the next Marvel movie, the
much-anticipated Deadpool
sequel, opens on May 18.
We last checked in
on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) nearly two years ago, with the release
of Captain
America: Civil War. That movie kicked off Phase 3 of Marvel’s ongoing interconnected
movie universe, and the post detailed the films that made up the first two
phases. Phase 3 continued in 2016 with Doctor
Strange, which brought Benedict
Cumberbatch’s reality-bending sorcerer into the mix. The following year saw
three MCU blockbusters, starting with Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in May. The action returned to Earth with Spider-Man:
Homecoming in July, the webslinger’s first solo outing since Civil War introduced him to the Avengers
team. Then, in November, Thor:
Ragnarok showed the exploits of the two Avengers (Hulk being the
second) who weren’t around for the events of Civil War. And 2018 has really brought the power: before Infinity War’s incredible opening
weekend, Black
Panther, which opened in February, became the third highest-grossing
film of all time in North America. That movie, which is still showing in many
theatres nearly three months later, comes to video on May 15.
So where do the Avengers go from here? For those that have
seen the movie (no spoilers!), that is a very pressing questions. The immediate
answer is Ant-Man and the Wasp, which
comes to theatres on July 6. It’s a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man
(Phase 2), which saw Paul
Rudd’s character Scott Lang get the suit that allows him to shrink or grow
at will. However, the film is set in the time period between Civil War and Infinity War, so don’t expect too many answers as to what happens
next. From there, fans will have to wait until next March, when Captain Marvel is set to be released,
with Brie
Larson in the title role. Likewise, though, there isn’t likely to be any
closure here, either, as it’s set in the 1990s. No, for that, everyone is just
going to have to wait for the as-yet-untitled fourth Avengers movie, currently slated for release on May 3, 2019. That
will bring the curtain down on Phase 3 and lead into Phase 4, about which
little is known at this point.
A year is a long time to wait for the next Avengers, but on the bright side, it’s
also plenty of time for patrons to relive or get caught up on all the
incredible movies that have brought us to this point—starting, of course, with Iron
Man, which kicked off the MCU when it was released almost exactly ten
years ago, on May 2, 2008. And for those who want to dig a little deeper, we
have curated a collection of Infinity War-related comics on hoopla, as well as a
wealth of other Marvel titles.
Written by Jon Williams
The past several weeks have seen a number of notable figures
pass away. As April draws to a close, we want to pause to remember their lives
and careers.
Most prominent, of course, was former First Lady Barbara
Bush, who passed on April 17 at age 92. She served as Second Lady in the United States from 1981
through 1989 as her husband George
Bush was vice president to Ronald Reagan, and then became first lady from
1989 through 1993 as Mr. Bush served one term as president. Their son George
W. Bush also served as president from 2001 through 2009, while another son,
Jeb Bush, served as governor of the state of Florida. As part of this lengthy political
career, she was a fierce advocate for the ability to read, starting the Barbara
Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and stressing the importance of reading to
children as an essential part of their development. Her foundation has raised
millions of dollars toward this goal since its inception in 1989, and libraries
were particularly near and dear to her heart.
Also last weekend, on April 20, we lost Avicii,
the stage name of Tim Bergling, a Swedish DJ and producer of electronic dance
music. He was just 28 years old. Getting into the music scene as a teenager,
Avicii released his breakout single “Levels”
in 2011, leading up to his debut album True
in 2013. He followed that up with Stories
in 2015. His single “Sunshine” with David
Guetta was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012, and over the course of his
career he also collaborated with such artists as Coldplay,
Lenny
Kravitz, and Madonna,
among many others.
Harry
Anderson was immediately recognizable from his iconic portrayal of Judge
Harry Stone on the sitcom Night
Court, which ran for nine seasons from 1984 through 1992. He followed
that up with four seasons of Dave’s
World, based on the writings of Dave
Barry. Prior to both of those shows, he had a recurring role on Cheers,
one of the most popular sitcoms of all time, which helped propel him to fame.
He also starred as part of the ensemble cast of the 1990 miniseries It,
based on the novel
by Stephen King, which has seen a resurgence of popularity lately due to
the highly successful new big-screen
adaptation. He passed away on April 16 at the age of 65.
The day before, on April 15, beloved actor R.
Lee Ermey passed away at 74. His voice and bearing led to him being cast
often in roles of authority, which followed from his first career as a drill
instructor and staff sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. It’s
appropriate, then, that his most famous role was as a drill instructor in
Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietman War film Full
Metal Jacket. He played the ghost of a drill instructor in The
Frighteners, and voiced the leader of the army men in Disney-Pixar’s Toy
Story trilogy. Over the course of a career that spanned four decades, he
also appeared in such films as Seven,
Dead
Man Walking, Mississippi
Burning, and two Texas
Chainsaw Massacre movies of the 2000s.
Despite the fact that filmmaker Milos
Forman worked primarily in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, he made a
number of acclaimed American films. Starting out by acting and then writing and
directing Czech films in the 1950s and 1960s, he made a splash not long after
beginning to work in the U.S. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for
1975’s One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which also won Best Picture. He won the
award again in 1985 for Amadeus,
and was nominated in 1997 for The
People vs. Larry Flint. He passed away on April 13 at age 86.
Finally, and most recently, musician Bob
Dorough passed away earlier this week, on April 23, at 94. His name may not
ring a bell, but chances are decent that you’ve heard some of his work. His
most famous creation is the music of Schoolhouse
Rock!, a, educational Saturday morning cartoon series that helped a
generation of children learn about a wide variety of topics. The show and its
music are still beloved by those who grew up with it.
These influential people have created and advocated for a
wealth of incredible work that will be enjoyed for years to come, and their
losses are keenly felt. Click the links above order titles to share with
patrons, or SmartBrowse their names on our website for more.
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