Sunday, December 11, 2011

Close to Home

  • Inia divided city, friendship isitheir last line of defense. In the nation of Israel, military service is compulsory for all citizens. Now an award-winning drama offers an in-depth look at young women's lives in the service. Dutiful Mirit (Naama Schender) is assigned to a street patrol with the rebellious Smadar (Smadar Sayar). Plunged into the simmering tensions of Jerusalem, they find the

Bizarre, deranged, clever, and outrageously amusing--that's Close to Home. From the guy who keeps a Just Married sign on the back of his car to prevent getting speeding tickets, to the mom who installs a food court in the kitchen to keep the kids from whining about what's being served for dinner, to the students who are shrink-wrapped due to overcrowding at schools, John McPherson's quirky characters combined with his warped sense of humor help make the cartoon and the Close to Home 2012 Day-t! o-Day Calendar one of a kind. As an added bonus, each weekend page will feature an extra Close to Home cartoon on the back.

Bizarre, deranged, clever, and outrageously amusing--that's Close to Home. From the guy who keeps a Just Married sign on the back of his car to prevent getting speeding tickets, to the mom who installs a food court in the kitchen to keep the kids from whining about what's being served for dinner, to the students who are shrink-wrapped due to overcrowding at schools, John McPherson's quirky characters combined with his warped sense of humor help make the cartoon and the Close to Home 2012 Day-to-Day Calendar one of a kind. As an added bonus, each weekend page will feature an extra Close to Home cartoon on the back.

By the New York Times bestselling author of the Do It Yourself home renovation mysteries...

4th book in the Savannah Martin romantic mystery series, following A Cutthroat Business, Hot Prope! rty, and Contract Pending, by New York Times bestselling autho! r Jennie Bentley AKA Jenna Bennett.

SYNOPSIS:

Sometimes, trouble hits too close to home.

Savannah's late. The kind of late that comes with midnight feedings and the pitter-patter of little feet. And while it's a circumstance that should make everyone happy - now she can finally settle down and marry Todd Satterfield, the way everyone's been hoping and praying! - it isn't Todd's baby. And Rafe Collier, whose baby it is, didn't sign on for fatherhood.

Add in the murder of Savannah's sister-in-law Sheila, the trial of Sheila's friend Marley, and the disappearance of Rafe's twelve year old son David - the kid he never knew he had - and things get complicated fast. And there is worse to come: When Rafe comes back to Nashville to help look for David, and learns that Savannah's pregnant, things do not work out the way Savannah hopes. In the end, she's left with nothing she wanted and a whole lot of trouble she didn't, and when she gets in over h! er head, Rafe's not there to save the day.

ALSO IN THIS SERIES:

A Cutthroat Business (May 2011)
Hot Property (June 2011)
Contract Pending (July 2011)
Close to Home (September 2011)
A Done Deal (December 2011)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jenna Bennett is the New York Times bestselling author of the Do It Yourself home renovation mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime - written as Jennie Bentley - as well as the Savannah Martin/Cutthroat Business mysteries written as Jenna Bennett. A former Realtor® and home renovator, she makes her home in Nashville, Tennessee, with a husband, two boys, and a house full of pets.

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR:

Fatal Fixer Upper (November 2008) written as Jennie Bentley
Spackled and Spooked (August 2009) written as Jennie Bentley
Plaster and Poison (March 2010) written as Jennie Bentley
Mortar and Murder (January 2011) written as Jennie Bentley
Flipped Out (Oc! tober 2011) written as Jennie Bentley


By the ! New York Times bestselling author of the Do It Yourself home renovation mysteries...

4th book in the Savannah Martin romantic mystery series, following A Cutthroat Business, Hot Property, and Contract Pending, by New York Times bestselling author Jennie Bentley AKA Jenna Bennett.

SYNOPSIS:

Sometimes, trouble hits too close to home.

Savannah's late. The kind of late that comes with midnight feedings and the pitter-patter of little feet. And while it's a circumstance that should make everyone happy - now she can finally settle down and marry Todd Satterfield, the way everyone's been hoping and praying! - it isn't Todd's baby. And Rafe Collier, whose baby it is, didn't sign on for fatherhood.

Add in the murder of Savannah's sister-in-law Sheila, the trial of Sheila's friend Marley, and the disappearance of Rafe's twelve year old son David - the kid he never knew he had - and things get complicated fast. And there is worse to come: When Rafe comes bac! k to Nashville to help look for David, and learns that Savannah's pregnant, things do not work out the way Savannah hopes. In the end, she's left with nothing she wanted and a whole lot of trouble she didn't, and when she gets in over her head, Rafe's not there to save the day.

ALSO IN THIS SERIES:

A Cutthroat Business (May 2011)
Hot Property (June 2011)
Contract Pending (July 2011)
Close to Home (September 2011)
A Done Deal (December 2011)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jenna Bennett is the New York Times bestselling author of the Do It Yourself home renovation mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime - written as Jennie Bentley - as well as the Savannah Martin/Cutthroat Business mysteries written as Jenna Bennett. A former Realtor® and home renovator, she makes her home in Nashville, Tennessee, with a husband, two boys, and a house full of pets.

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR:

Fatal Fixer Upper (November 2008) written as Jennie Bentley
Spackl! ed and Spooked (August 2009) written as Jennie Bentley
Plas! ter and Poison (March 2010) written as Jennie Bentley
Mortar and Murder (January 2011) written as Jennie Bentley
Flipped Out (October 2011) written as Jennie Bentley


2011 debut full length from the Cincinnati, OH band. Despite a few struggles at the start, lately things have been constantly looking up for Close to Home, thanks to their mantra that is now the album name. Heading into recording, the band hooked up with Tom Denney (formerly of A Day To Remember) to record demos, and the group instantly clicked. Denney signed on to produce. Andrew Wade (A Day To Remember, The Word Alive) was brought in to mix the album, and shortly after Close to Home signed to Artery Recordings. "Having this team together was literally a dream come true for us," said guitarist Josh Wells. It also helped the band create and develop their vision for the album, with Wells adding "It's basically the summary of our lives and who we are in pursuit of our dreams."Ferociously Close to Home delivers McPherson's trademark take on the absurdities of everyday life. To say that his solutions to these perplexing situations is 'out there' is an understatement. Consider Gina, who decides a branding iron will be the ideal memory aid for her birthday date-challenged husband. And poor Lanny, whose treadmill session is interrupted when he inadvertently triggers the health club's offensive odor alarm.

McPherson has long walked the line between grotesque and goofy. But somehow, his figures with big noses and bulging eyes connect with readers with a surefire magnetic precision. Whether it's health care or parenting, dating or car repairs, Close to Home delivers McPherson's warped world without fail.

There are human bones buried in an open field, the remains of a lost teenaged boy whose disappearance devastated a community more than thirty-five years ago ... and scarred a guilt-ridden friend forever.

A long-hidden horror has been unearthed, dragging a t! ormented policeman back into a past he could never truly forge! t no mat ter how desperately he tried. A heinous crime that occurred too close to home still has its grip on Chief Inspector Alan Banks -- and it's leading him into a dark place where evil still dwells. Because the secrets that doomed young Graham Marshall back in 1965 remain alive and lethal -- and disturbing them could cost Banks much more than he ever imagined.

Having already shown, in 1999's In a Dry Season, that he can plumb historical homicide for gripping modern drama, Peter Robinson goes further in Close to Home, telling parallel stories about teenage boys lost in a grownup world, decades apart. The first is Graham Marshall, a childhood pal of Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, who vanished mysteriously in 1965, the supposed victim of a pedophile. Hearing that Graham's bones have finally been unearthed, Banks quits his vacation in Greece and heads to his hometown of Petersborough, England, hoping to assist the investigation--and, perhaps, assuage his guilt! over his friend’s fate. Meanwhile, Banks's colleague and ex-lover, Annie Cabbot, is busy probing the recent disappearance of 15-year-old Luke Armitage, the sensitive, brainy son of a rock star who committed suicide during Luke's infancy. After Cabbot catches hell for interrupting what may or may not have been a legitimate ransom payment for Luke's return, she seeks Banks's advice, drawing these two plot lines neatly together.

As this intense and intricately crafted puzzler develops, blending fiction with a bit of fact (the Kray brothers, who ran a criminal ring in London's East End during the mid-20th century, play off-camera roles here), Robinson explores Banks's troubled relationship with his parents, especially his working-class father, who "had never approved of his choice of career." He also raises doubts about a famed copper who’d originally tackled the Marshall case, involves Banks romantically with a damaged detective whose investigative diligence threa! tens her safety, and shows Cabbot as someone better and strong! er than merely Banks's protégé. Working with themes of lost youth and the dark secrets hidden in small towns, Robinson delivers in this 13th Banks novel a police procedural of remarkable human depth. --J. Kingston Pierce(Drama) Two young, different female soldiers patrol the anxious streets of Jerusalem, questioning Palestinians and looking for suicide bombers. The rebellious one finds the army demeaning; the controlled one is obedient. Under intense pressure, against a backdrop of any-minute-now terrorist attacks, a friendship takes hold and roles reverse.

The Man with No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars / For a Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) [Blu-ray]

  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • AC-3; Box set; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; Full Screen; Restored; Subtitled; Widescree
Sergio Leone “spaghetti westerns” did not simply add a new chapter to the genre…they reinvented it. From his shockingly violent and stylized breakthrough, A Fistful of Dollars, to the film Quentin Tarantino calls “the best-directed movie of all time,” The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone’s vision did for westerns what talkies did for all movies back in the 1920s: it elevated them to an entirely new art form. Fully restored, presented in high definition with their best-ever audio, and including audio commentaries, featurettes and more, these films are much more than the definitive Leone collection...they are the most ambitious and influential westerns ever made.

A Fistfull Of Dollars
Clint Eastwood’s legendary “M! an With No Name” makes his powerful debut in this thrilling, action-packed classic in which he manipulates two rival bands of smugglers and sets in motion a plan to destroy both in a series of brilliantly orchestrated setups, showdowns and deadly confrontations.

For A Few Dollars More
Oscar® Winner Clint Eastwood** continues his trademark role in this second installment of the trilogy, this time squaring off with Indio, the territory’s most treacherous bandit. But his ruthless rival, Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef, High Noon), is determined to bring Indio in first...dead or alive!

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
The invincible “Man With No Name” (Eastwood) aligns himself with two gunslingers (Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach) to pursue a fortune in stolen gold. But teamwork doesn’t come naturally to such strong-willed outlaws, and they soon discover that their greatest challenge may be to stay focused â€" and stay alive â€" in a! country ravaged by war.Review for A Fistful of Do! llars:
A Fistful of Dollars launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, it scored a resounding success (in Italy in 1964 and the U.S. in 1967), as did its sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character--laconic, amoral, dangerous--as the Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the movie's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children. Instead it's every man for himself. Striking, too, was a new emphasis on violence, with stylized, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armored breastplate. The Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western--for example, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch--but their most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himse! lf. --Edward Buscombe

Review for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
If you think of A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More as the tasty appetizers in Sergio Leone's celebrated "Dollars" trilogy of Italian "Spaghetti" Westerns, then The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a lavish full-course feast. Readily identified by the popular themes of its innovative score by Ennio Morricone (one of the bestselling soundtracks of all time), this cinematic milestone eclipsed its influential predecessors with a $1.2 million budget (considered extravagant in the mid-1960s), greater production values to accommodate Leone's epic vision of greed and betrayal, and a three-hour running time for its wide-ranging plot about the titular trio of mercenaries ("Good" Blondie played by rising star Clint Eastwood, "Bad" Angel Eyes played by Lee Van Cleef, and "Ugly" Tuco played by Eli Wallach) in a ruthless Civil War-era! quest for $200,000 worth of buried Confederate gold. Virtuall! y all of Leone's stylistic attributes can be found here in full fruition, from the constant inclusion of Roman Catholic iconography to a climactic circular shoot-out, along with Leone's trademark use of surreal landscapes, brilliant widescreen compositions and extreme close-ups of actors so intimate that they burn into the viewer's memory. And while some Leone fans may favor the more scaled-down action of For a Few Dollars More or the masterful grandiosity of Once Upon a Time in the West, it was The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that cemented Leone's reputation as a world-class director with a singular vision. --Jeff Shannon