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Page 6 June 14, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Film Review Check It Out
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan
Howard’s Suspenseful Mystery
By Roz Templin, Library Assistant,
El Segundo Public Library
Adam Dunne has finally hit the big time. He
has been a struggling writer for many years,
depending on his live-in girlfriend Sarah’s income
while he devotes himself to his craft. It’s
paid off. His Hollywood agent has negotiated
a script deal with a studio and his dreams are
about to come true…until Sarah disappears.
Corinne cleans cabins on a cruise ship. She’s
ill. She’s desperately searching for someone
who has been lost to her before it’s too late.
Romain feels misunderstood. His life has
been shaped by events that he feels have
been exaggerated and his actions have been
misinterpreted.
These three lives are connected to a cruise
ship called the Celebrate.
Adam’s girlfriend fails to return from a
Barcelona business trip and his life becomes
a waking nightmare. He and her parents report
her missing to the local authorities only to
find that there is little that can be done. Adam
refuses to believe that Sarah might have left
him to run off with another man. He continues
to investigate on his own until he connects
Sarah to the cruise ship Celebrate. He turns
up stories about other people going missing
aboard cruise ships and finally contacts a man
who claims to have an identical story: his wife
never returned from the Celebrate. Should they
join forces and battle a powerful giant in the
cruise industry?
While cleaning an exceptionally messy
cabin, Corinne feels overcome by hunger and
exhaustion. She looks around for a discarded
snack or candy bar, even checking under the
bed. There’s something there…she nudges it
with her foot. A Polaroid picture of a young
family. She’s holding a photograph of her
younger self.
Romain couldn’t understand it. Even when
he was trying to be good, bad things happened.
It wasn’t his fault, but it was all his fault too.
This literary debut is a psychological suspense
with many twists and turns. The viewpoints
from different characters contain memories from
the past that may or may not have bearing on
what’s going on in the present. What happened
to Sarah? Is it related to the disappearance on
the Celebrate from a year ago? Is there foul
play involved? Does Corinne know who the
perpetrator is? Who is Romain?
You may think you know the identity of
the “person of interest,” but after madly
turning more pages you might question your
conviction. You may also be wary of cruise
ships once you read the research the author
supplies in the support of this novel. Dread
and excitement walk hand-in-hand as you read.
Our library staff invites you to browse our
new additions. Our Adult Summer Reading
program begins this month. Stop by the
reference desk to find out all the details. •
Roz Templin.
Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard.
Aquatics Facility from front page
eventually fell below those of comparable cities
in the market over the past few years. Petit
believes the more competitive wages now on
the docket, step incentives, and revamped job
titles will better define roles and responsibilities
and greatly help the department’s recruitment
efforts going forward. The chief target group
will be college students and young adults who
are more available as well as experienced. The
new positions will require the American Red
Cross Lifeguard Certification, CPR, First Aid
and AED, as well as prior job experience.
The total fiscal impact for the additions will
be roughly $50,000 in 2018/19, though only
about $3,000 in 2017/18. Looking at projections
for all facilities combined (including the new
site, The Plunge and the Hilltop and Acacia
pools), staff estimated 10,950 annual hours for
senior lifeguards, 26,650 hours for lifeguards
and 5,400 hours for swim instructors.
As staffing and maintenance costs rise, the
City will look for ways to offset those expenditures
through revenue generation. Petit
indicated that clubs and training per-lane rentals
are far and away the top expected revenue
source, followed by daily-use drop-in fees.
Isaac also identified a few potential options
not mentioned in the original projections, such
as concessions sold by outside vendors (e.g.
food trucks) at events where the City can get
a cut of the proceeds. Isaac thought a hypothetical
number of $75,000 a year might be
viable given the number of events and average
amount of money a given individual might
spend at a meet. Other possibilities are hotel
room rebates related to stays by teams/clubs;
corporate memberships in which companies
pay the City to provide pool usage rights as
a perk to employees; and future sponsorship,
advertising and naming rights programs that
will come into play once existing fundraising
efforts wrap up. Isaac also saw opportunities
for local aquatics programs to serve those with
special needs as well as individuals requiring
a warm pool for physical therapy.
Meanwhile, one area of pool usage will stay
consistent with the past: El Segundo High
School will have access to the new facility
three hours a day – the same as it does today
at The Plunge. Wiseburn High students will
also get three hours there as part of the jointuse
agreement. •
Choe’s Nancy is a Manic Pixie
Poster Child for Mental Health
By Morgan Rojas for www.cinemacy.com
A24’s Hereditary received a majority of
the “must-see”, “edge-of-your-seat” buzz
last weekend (and rightfully so), but there
is another psychological thriller that may be
less publicized but just as powerful. Director
Christina Choe’s Nancy is an intimate look
at one woman’s desire for human connection
and the lengths she is willing to go in order to
find or fabricate it. Winner of the Waldo Salt
Screenwriting Award and Grand Jury Prize
nominee at this year’s Sundance Film Festival,
Nancy is now playing at the Nuart Theatre.
Andrea Riseborough stars as the titular Nancy,
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a 30-something-year-old woman who works a
temp job as a dental assistant during the day and
takes care of her ailing and stubborn mother at
night. Her appearance reflects her living conditions:
disheveled, unorderly and careless. Her
doe-eyed stare is vacant, as the routine of her
mundane life has clearly taken a toll on her
demeanor. To escape from her reality, Nancy
creates alter egos online and lives vicariously
through each of these personas. All seems like
relatively harmless fun until one night while
watching the news, she sees an interview with
Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn.
See Film Review, continued on page 13