New items are available at the Hancock County Public Library.
The following items are available at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W. McKenzie Road. For more information on the library’s collection or to reserve a title, visit hcplibrary.org.
Adult Fiction
“White Houses” by Amy Bloom
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Lorena Hickok met Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, “Hick,” as she’s known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens, passion matures into a lasting love and a life that Hick never expected to have. She moves into the White House, where her status as “first friend” is an open secret, as are FDR’s own lovers. After taking a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a rival and a friend.
Adult Nonfiction
“Improv Nation” by Sam Wasson
During the McCarthy era, an experimental theater troupe set up shop in a bar in Chicago. Via word-of-mouth, crowds packed the venue to see its unscripted, interactive style. From this seed grew the Second City, the influential comedy theater troupe, and its offshoots — the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade and “Saturday Night Live.” Author Wasson charts the rise of improvisational comedy in this scene-driven narrative. He shows us the chance meeting at a train station between Mike Nichols and Elaine May. We hang out at the after-hours bar Dan Aykroyd opened so that friends like John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner would always have a home. We go behind the scenes of entertainment from the comedy film “Caddyshack” to pseudo-news program “The Colbert Report.” Along the way, we meet the pioneers of improv: Mike Nichols and Harold Ramis, Dustin Hoffman, Chevy Chase, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Alan Arkin, Tina Fey and Judd Apatow. Wasson shows why improv deserves to be considered the great American art form of the last half-century.
