Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 2, 2016

11

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mountain Views-News Saturday, April 2, 2016 


Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

After the Light: What I Discovered on 
the Other Side of Life That Can Change 
Your World by Kimberly Clark Sharp
Death is nothing to fear-and life without fear can 
be lived to the fullest. This is Sharp’s message 
from her extraordinary experience during the 
time after her heart suddenly stopped beating 
and she lay on the sidewalk, not breathing, and 
without a pulse. Swept into a peaceful loving place 
of brilliant golden light 
and warm comfort, she 
saw, for the first time, the 
meaning of life-and death. 
Thereafter, Kimberly, with 
hamster Toto at her side, 
left Kansas for Seattle-
known as “the Emerald 
City”-to fulfill a destiny 
devoted to the service of 
others as foreseen at the 
end of her near-death 
experience. Guided by 
a new sensitivity to the 
presence of angels, demons 
and other invisibilities, 
Kimberly attained a 
Masters degree in Social 
Work at the University of 
Washington and began a 
career in medical social 
work that put her in 
direct contact with dying 
people-and people who 
almost died and came 
back. It is the inspirational 
stories of these near-
death experiences, as well 
as Kimberly’s own life 
challenges in love, family 
life and the diagnosis 
of breast cancer, that 
form the core of this 
surprisingly funny 
page-turner of a book.


All the Single Ladies: 
Unmarried Women 
and the Rise of an 
Independent Nation 
by Rebecca Traister 
A nuanced investigation 
into the sexual, economic, 
and emotional lives of 
women in America.In 
2009, the award-winning 
journalist Rebecca 
Traister started All the 
Single Ladies, a book she 
thought would be a work 
of contemporary journalism about the twenty-
first century phenomenon of the American 
single woman. It was the year the proportion of 
American women who were married dropped 
below fifty percent; and the median age of first 
marriages, which had remained between twenty 
and twenty-two years old for nearly a century 
(1890–1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-
seven.But over the course of her vast research 
and more than a hundred interviews with 
academics and social scientists and prominent 
single women, Traister discovered a startling 
truth: the phenomenon of the single woman 
in America is not a new one. And historically, 
when women were given options beyond 
early heterosexual marriage, the results were 
massive social change, 
temperance, abolition, 
secondary education, and 
more.Today, only twenty 
percent of Americans 
are wed by age twenty-
nine, compared to nearly 
sixty percent in 1960. The 
Population Reference 
Bureau calls it a “dramatic 
reversal.” All the Single 
Ladies is a remarkable 
portrait of contemporary 
American life and how we 
got here, through the lens 
of the single American 
woman. Covering class, 
race, sexual orientation, 
and filled with vivid 
anecdotes from fascinating 
contemporary and 
historical figures, the book 
is destined to be a classic 
work of social history and 
journalism. Exhaustively 
researched, brilliantly 
balanced, and told with 
Traister’s signature wit and 
insight, this book should 
be shelved alongside 
Gail Collins’s When 
Everything Changed.
A Wanted Man (Jack 
Reacher) by Lee Child 
Four people in a car, 
hoping to make Chicago 
by morning. One man 
driving, another telling 
stories that don’t add up. 
A woman in the back, 
silent and worried. And a 
hitchhiker with a broken 
nose. An hour behind 
them, the FBI descends 
on an old pumping station 
where a man was stabbed 
to death—the knife work 
professional, the killers 
nowhere to be seen.All Jack 
Reacher wanted was a ride 
to Virginia. All he did was stick out his thumb. 
But he soon discovers he has hitched more than a 
ride. He has tied himself to a massive conspiracy, 
in which nothing is what it seems, and nobody 
is telling the truth.“The indomitable Reacher 
burns up the pages.”—USA Today.There are 20 
books in the wonderful Reacher series.


Jeff’s History Corner By Jeff Brown

WILL ROGERS QUOTES ON POLITICS: 1920’S-1930’S

1.”This country has gotten where it is in spite of 
politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried 
as much political bunk as we have and still survived 
shows we are a super nation.”

2.”Now these fellows in Washington wouldn’t be so 
serious and particular if they only had to vote on 
what they thought was good for the majority of the 
people in the U.S. That would be a cinch. But what 
makes it hard for them is every time a bill comes 
up they have things to decide that have nothing to 
do with the merit of the bill. The principal thing is 
of course: What will this do for me personally back 
home?”

3.”If you ever injected truth into politics you have 
no politics” 

4.”Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of 
money to even get beat with nowadays.

5.”Congress is so strange; a man gets up to speak and 
says nothing, nobody listens, and then everybody 
disagrees.”

6.”Congress meets tomorrow morning. Let us all 
pray: Oh Lord, give us strength to bear that which 
is about to be inflicted upon us. Be merciful with 
them, oh Lord, for they know not what they’re 
doing. Amen.”

7.”The Senate just sits and waits till they find out 
what the president wants, so they know how to vote 
against him.”

8.”Senators are a never-ending source of 
amusement, amazement, and discouragement.”

9.”The Democrats and the Republicans are equally 
corrupt where money is concerned. It’s only in the 
amount where the Republicans excel.”

10.”We all joke about Congress but we can’t improve 
on them. Have you noticed that no matter who we 
elect, he is just as bad as the one he replaces?”

11.”There is only one redeeming thing about this 
whole election. It will be over at sundown, and let 
everybody pray that it’s not a tie, for we couldn’t go 
through with this thing again.


On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse


SMP ANNOUNCES SUMMER MUSICAL


Sierra Madre Playhouse has announced its summer 
musical. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling 
Bee with a book by Rachel Sheinkin, music and 
lyrics by William Finn, and conceived by Rebecca 
Feldman will open on July 8 and run through August 
21. The creative team who brought Always…Patsy 
Cline to the Playhouse last year, director Robert 
Marra and music director Sean Paxton, will return 
to mount Spelling Bee.

 “I’m so excited to announce this wonderfully 
funny musical as our summer offering. And even 
more excited that Robert and Sean will work on it 
for us. I think audiences – and this show is family 
friendly – will love this production.”

 Set at a regional spelling bee, the show follows 
the trials of the six competitors (and three audience 
participants) until a single speller remains as the 
winner of the bee. 

 Spelling Bee had a long run on Broadway where it 
won several Tony Awards.

 

 Tickets go on sale soon and will be available at 
www.sierramadreplayhouse.org or by calling the 
box office at 626.355.4318.

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com