Queens Library
-
(by saralonde)
-
“Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen
-
-
My response in rebloggable (that can’t be a word) format:
So, in order for librarians to really exercise their...
-
When you visit the NYC Transit Museum store, t-shirts are available for every subway line. Almost all of them boringly describe the train’s...
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with us: We’re hosting two great, free events in Flushing, this weekend and next!
We’re grateful to be honored by Queens Tribune by being named an institution of the year for 2011. We hope 2012 will be as kind to all of you as 2011 was to us. Happy New Year!
Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? Join us for a day of music, movies, storytelling and more! Or stop by Queens Library and browse our hundreds of books about Kwanzaa to learn about the history, traditions, recipes and more.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, available for check out at Queens Library, gives the history of the famous parade: In 1924, a group of employees of the R. H. Macy and Company store in Herald Square, many of whom were new Americans, decided to celebrate the day in the manner of the festive parades held in their native countries. When Macy’s saw and heard the excited crowds, they proclaimed the parade would become an annual tradition.
What are your Thanksgiving traditions? Will you be watching the 85th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow? Or the balloon inflation today from 3 to 10 p.m.? (Here’s where you can see your favorite characters come to life.)
-by Bob S., Queens Library Staff
When it comes to major holidays and pop culture, Thanksgiving got a rock (Wikipedia can explain the reference to It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, a classic Halloween film). There are no CDs of cranberry carols nor any Wii or Xbox games featuring Sonic or Mario struggling to keep the gravy from getting lumpy. Thanksgiving isn’t even a day of rest before Black Friday anymore as the holiday shopping season now effectively starts one minute after Halloween is over. However, there are a few movies that capture how special the day can be for families who gather together in the spirit of the day. As in real life, they are filled with anxiety and joy, fear and longing, drama and mirth.
Home for the Holidays (1995) should have been a bigger hit than it was. Directed by Jodie Foster and starring Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, Robert Downey Jr. and about half a dozen other actors you’d recognize, it is the simple, moving and hilarious story of the Larson family coming together to share the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Often cited as one of the most honest films of family relations ever made, the Larsons talk, fight, laugh, cry and reach out to each other for support. Just as in real life, not every storyline ends happily but the turkey looks delicious. Fans of the movie and TV show Parenthood should appreciate this one.
For more of a New York City experience you could also try Pieces of April (2003). April, played by Katie Holmes invites her family from Pennsylvania to have Thanksgiving dinner in her tiny New York City apartment, just to prove that she can do something successfully. But when April discovers that her oven doesn’t work, she is forced to ask her neighbors for help—and begins to question if she can do anything successfully. Like Home for the Holidays, this movie straddles the line between drama and comedy but Pieces of April is perhaps a bit darker in tone. April’s mother is dying of cancer and her father (played by Oliver Platt in a role strangely similar to his current Showtime series, The Big C) is trying to mend years of broken fences before it’s too late. Can the holiday meal be saved? Can the family survive? Borrow the DVD from Queens Library and find out.
This year, try to get beyond the annual viewing of Planes, Trains and Automobiles and start some new traditions. They are waiting for you at Queens Library.
Reblog this post and let us know your favorite Thanksgiving movies and books.
—Bob S. works for Queens Library at Central and has a very small TV for someone who watches so many movies.
