In Memoriam

 

George Jones

September 12, 1931 - April 26, 2013


16 Biggest Hits
George Jones & Tammy Wynette
 

50 Years of Hits
 

All-Time Greatest Hits: Volume 1
 

Burn your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets  


The Essential George Jones
 


The Great Lost Hits

 

Margaret Thatcher

October 13, 1925 - April 8, 2013

The Iron Lady (DVD)
A surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world.
The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher by Hugo Young
Young's probing political biography reveals how Thatcher changed the face of the Conservative Party in a series of ``mighty battles'' with the old guard, tamed the trade unions, controlled inflation and unemployment and, by her conduct of the Falkland War and her dealings with Reagan and Gorbachev, emerged as a global leader.
Margaret Thatcher by Bernard Garfinkel
A biography of Great Britain's first woman Prime Minister. Part of an illustrated series entitled "World Leaders Past and Present" which sets out to introduce the men and women whose ideas and actions have determined the course of history.
Margaret Thatcher: An Unauthorized Biography by Sean Connolly
Profiles the former British prime minister, with information on her childhood, family life, career, and the legacy of her administration.
Margaret Thatcher: Wife, Mother, Politician by Penny Junor
Traces the personal life and political career of Margaret Thatcher and discusses her actions as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
The Path to Power by Margaret Thatcher
In The Downing Street Wars, Margaret Thatcher gave her own account of her prime ministership from 1979 to 1990. That book justly became a bestseller all over the world. Now, in The Path to Power, she writes for the first time about her personal life, about the formation of her character and values, and about the training and experiences which led to the 1979 election victory.
The Rise and Fall of Margaret Thatcher(DVD)
Bringing together three outstanding BBC productions, provides a unique insight into the fascinating life of one of the most significant political figures in British history. The Long Walk to Finchley begins on the night Thatcher met her husband-to-be Denis. The Falkland's Play portrays the backroom story of Thatcher's war. Finally, Margaret examines Thatcher's last days in power. The film paints a detailed and compelling portrait of one of the most formidable characters in British politics.
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage by Nicholas Wapshott
Examines the relationship between political allies Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, profiling a complex, deeply personal, and influential friendship and its transformative impact on the history of the twentieth century.

Annette Funicello

October 22, 1942 - April 8, 2013

A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes by Annette Funicello and Patricia Romanowski
The autobiography of America's favorite Mouseketeer holds few surprises but is a charming read. Funicello describes herself as an atypical celebrity: shy, unassuming and more interested in marrying and raising a family than in mixing with the Hollywood ``glitterati.'' The book, written with freelancer Romanowski, is sprinkled with affectionate tributes to such friends and colleagues as Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Fabian Forte and Walt Disney himself.
Beach Party (DVD)
An anthropologist, Professor Robert Orville Sutwell (Robert Cummings) is secretly studying the "wild mating habits" of Southern California teenagers who hang out at the beach and use strange surfing jargon.
Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette. 1957-58 (DVD)
Chosen by Walt Disney himself as an original cast member, Annette soon became the most popular Mousketeer. Showcased here is her entire series about a young country girl who moves to the suburbs to live with her well-to-do aunt and uncle.
The Shaggy Dog (DVD)
Young Wilby Daniels (Tommy Kirk) finds a magic ring that used to belong to the Borgia family. When he pronounces an inscription on the ring, he is suddenly able to transform himself into a shaggy dog -- though he has no control over when this is going to happen. To his dismay, the girl he likes gets involved without knowing who the dog really is. At the same time, the only way Wilby can break the spell is to perform some virtuous deed. Fortunately for him, a few Soviet spies are just hanging around, waiting to be uncovered by a canine.

Roger Ebert

June 18, 1942 - April 4, 2013

Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert: Forty Years of Reviews, Essays, and Interviews
The influential, Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic offers four decades of his personal insights, encounters, and experiences in the world of motion pictures.
 The Future of the Movies: Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas
This is not a "thumbs-up" guide to Hollywood's hit makers, but a serious and well-thought-out series of interviews with arguably the three most influential filmmakers in America today. Ebert and Siskel lead Martin Scorsese (GoodFellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver), Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.), and George Lucas (Star Wars, American Grafitti) in discussions about the role of video in cinema, the impact of high-density television, the protection of film archives, and the significant developments in each of their own careers.
The Great Movies
For the past five years Roger Ebert, the famed film writer and critic, has been writing biweekly essays for a feature called "The Great Movies," in which he offers a fresh and fervent appreciation of a great film. The Great Movies collects one hundred of these essays, each one of them a gem of critical appreciation and an amalgam of love, analysis, and history that will send readers back to that film with a fresh set of eyes and renewed enthusiasm - or perhaps to an avid first-time viewing.
 The Great Movies II
From America's most trusted and highly visible film critic, 100 more brilliant essays on the films that define cinematic greatness. Neither a snob nor a shill, Ebert manages in these essays to combine a truly populist appreciation for today's most important form of popular art with a scholar's erudition and depth of knowledge and a sure aesthetic sense.
The Great Movies III
A new compilation of one hundred essays by the film critic presents his analyses of the films that epitomize the finest examples of cinematic art. Each essay draws on Ebert’s vast knowledge of the cinema, its fascinating history, and its breadth of techniques, introducing newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well.
The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker
In The Pot and How to Use It, Roger Ebert--Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, admitted 'competent cook,' and longtime electric rice cooker enthusiast--gives readers a charming, practical guide to this handy and often overlooked kitchen appliance.
Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews, 1967-2007
Presents a collection of the critic's most positive film reviews of the last four decades, arranged alphabetically from "About Last Night" to "Zodiac."
Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook, 2005
The Movie Yearbook also contains the year's interviews and essays-perceptive profiles of actors such as Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe-and the biweekly "Questions for the Movie Answer Man," which never fails to unearth fascinating tidbits about filming particulars, per-screening revenues, and similar details, all based on reader-generated queries.
Scorsese by Ebert
In the course of eleven interviews done over almost forty years, the book also includes Scorsese’s own insights on both his accomplishments and disappointments. Ebert has also written and included six new reconsiderations of the director’s less commented upon films, as well as a substantial introduction that provides a framework for understanding both Scorsese and his profound impact on American cinema.
 

Chinua Achebe

November 16, 1930 - March 21, 2013

NOVELS

 
Things Fall Apart
Tells two intertwining stories, both centering on Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first, a powerful fable of the immemorial conflict between the individual and society, traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world. The second, as modern as the first is ancient, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo's world with the arrival of aggressive European missionaries.
No Longer at Ease
The story of a man whose foreign education has separated him from his African roots and made him parts of a ruling elite whose corruption he finds repugnant. More than thirty years after it was first written, this novel remains a brilliant statement on the challenges still facing African society.
Arrow of God
The novel centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of several Igbo villages in Colonial Nigeria, who confronts colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s.
A Man of the People
The novel tells the story of the young and educated Odili, the narrator, and his conflict with Chief Nanga, his former teacher who enters a career in politics in an unnamed modern African country. Odili represents the changing younger generation; Nanga represents the traditional customs of Nigeria.
Anthills of the Savannah
The leader of an African Third World country who was brought into power by a revolution finds himself the victim of political backlash when an election fails to confirm him as president for life. The main characters are the people who knew this man as a student and who helped him early on to consolidate his control before he pushed the nation onto the road to dictatorship. The lives of these former friends and colleagues are now endangered as the president begins to suspect that enemies in his administration are attempting to thwart his future dynastic ambitions and to expose his past.
 

SHORT STORIES

 
Girls at War and Other Stories
Girls at War and Other Stories reveals the essence of life in Nigeria and traces twenty years in the literary career of one of the twentieth century's most acclaimed writers. In this collection of stories, which display an astonishing range of experience, Chinua Achebe takes us inside the heart and soul of a people whose pride and ideals must compete with the simple struggle to survive. Hailed by critics everywhere, Achebe's fiction re-creates with energy and authenticity the major issues of daily life in Africa.
African Short Stories
Chinua Achebe has joined with C.L. Innes, co-editor of "Okike," to select stories of excellence from the writings of the last twenty-five years. While many of the established names such as Sembene Ousmane, Ngugi, and Bessie Head are to be found, the collection is refreshing for the inclusion of work by the wide range of writers who have made the emerging field of African fiction something to follow.

ESSAYS  

 
Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays 
Achebe essays on aethetics, the problems of writing in a second language and the fatal impact of colonialism. 
Home and Exile
In three elegant essays, Achebe seeks to rescue African culture from narratives written about it by Europeans. Looking through the prism of his experiences as a student in English schools in Nigeria, he provides devastating examples of European cultural imperialism. He examines the impact that his novel Things Fall Apart had on efforts to reclaim Africa's story. And he argues for the importance of writing and living the African experience because, he believes, Africa needs stories told by Africans.
The Education of a British Protected Child
From a vivid portrait of growing up in colonial Nigeria to considerations on the African-American Diaspora, from a glimpse into his extraordinary family life and his thoughts on the potent symbolism of President Obama’s elections—this charmingly personal, intellectually disciplined, and steadfastly wise collection is an indispensable addition to the remarkable Achebe oeuvre.
There was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra
A world-renowned novelist describes what it was like living through the Biafran War in Nigeria from 1967-1970, detailing the horror of those terrible years and discussing what that time has come to mean for him as a writer.

CHILDRENS STORIES

 
Chike and the River
When an eleven-year-old Nigerian boy leaves his small village to live with his uncle in the city, he is exposed to a range of new experiences and becomes fascinated with crossing the Niger River on a ferry boat.
 

Hugo Chávez

July 28, 1954 - March 5, 2013

Hugo Chávez by Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka; translated by Kristina Cordero
Hugo Chávez was one of the most controversial and important world leaders currently in power. This is a riveting account of the Venezuelan president who continues to influence, fascinate, and antagonize America.
Hugo!: The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution by Bart Jones
While opinions of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez vary tremendously on a global scale, there are few defenses of him available in the United States. Without taking a political stance, Jones provides a nuanced account of the Venezuelan leader's life, creating a portrait that is, if not sympathetic, certainly more balanced than previous ones.

 

Huell Howser

October 18, 1945 - January 7, 2013

2011 Winnie the Pooh (DVD) - voice of Backson

2006 Califonia's Gold Solano Train Ferry (DVD)

2006 California's Water. Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (DVD)

2005 Road Trip. California's Corners (DVD)

1997 California Missions: San Antonio de Pala (VHS)

1997 California Missions: San Diego de Alcala, San Luis Rey de Francia, San Juan Capistrano (VHS)

1997 California Missions: San Gabriel de Arcangel, San Fernando Rey de Espana, San Buenaventura (VHS)

1997 California Missions: San Francisco de Asis, San Rafael Arcangel, San Francisco Solano (VHS)

1997 California Missions: San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Miguel Arcangel, San Antonio de Padua (VHS)

1997 California Missions: Santa Barbara, Santa Ines, La Purisima Concepcion (VHS)

1997 California's Missions: Santa Cruz, Santa Clara de Asis, San Jose (VHS)

1997 California Missions: Soledad, San Carlos Borremo de Carmelo, San Juan Bautista (VHS)

1992 California's Gold. A Tale of Two Cities (DVD)