Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World


Louis de Bernières - 2001
    Taking his inspiration from Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Louis de Bernières chose to celebrate his ten years of life in the south London suburb, living above a small shop that had been by turns an outlet for oversized naughty clothes for transvestites, a West Indian hairdressers and a junk shop, by writing of the people that he had known and come to love in his time there.Brilliantly capturing the myriad voices of modern Britain, with their different rhythms of speech and accents, their humour and their tragedy, jokes and gossip, de Bernières' tour de force takes us to the heart of a community and its spirit - the lives and loves, the tears and the laughter of its people.

The Untouchables


Eliot Ness - 1957
    Enormously successful as a long-running TV series, The Untouchables should leap onto the bestseller lists when released as a major motion picture in June, starring Robert DeNiro and Sean Connery.

The All Bengali Crime Detectives


Suparna Chatterjee - 2011
    Will the unlikely 'detectives' be able to catch the criminal? Or will they unravel something even more sinister? The protagonists grab this exciting opportunity to rise above their mundane existence. They defy the ordinary, Stretch their boundaries, and in the process discover something precious.

The Donnie Darko Book


Richard Kelly - 2003
    . . Film of the year.' Sleazenation'Magnificently bizarre . . . Wonderful.' Empire'Unlike anything you'll have seen before . . . Honestly mind-blowing.' BBC Radio 1'Stunning . . . Totally original.' Time Out'Dazzling . . . Demands a second viewing.' Total FilmThe critical and audience response made Donnie Darko the cult film of the year - one whose dark ambiguities caused audiences to go back to the film again and again trying to fathom its mysteries.This book brings its readers further into the world of Donnie Darko and its creator Richard Kelly. Contained within these pages are an in-depth interview with Richard Kelly who recounts the gestation of the film; the screenplay; photos and drawings from the film and artwork inspired by it.Donnie Darko will never surrender up all its mysteries, but this book will be an indispensable guide into its intriguing world.

Everything in the Garden


Edward Albee - 1968
    Albee there is a theme beneath the surface, in this case the corruption of money and the rottenness of this bigoted exurbia where conformity to its illiberal standards and its hypocritical show of respectability is all that counts. The scene is the suburban home of Jenny and Richard, beautifully played by Barbara Bel Geddes and Barry Nelson. The only thing that seems to stand in the way of their happiness is a lack of money. The action starts in an entertaining comedy of manners style. Then abruptly there enters a Mrs. Toothe in the menacing and fascinating person of Beatrice Straight who offers Jenny the opportunity to make more money than they have ever had, to buy a greenhouse and all the other luxuries that they require for their garden and their lives. Richard's realization that their newfound money is being earned by his wife's whoring comes almost simultaneously with the return of their fourteen-year-old son from school and a champagne cocktail party which they are giving to impress their country club friends. As a result, his horror, disgust and rage has to be kept under wraps in order to keep up essential appearances until tragedy strikes, and Richard realizes that the assembled wives are all involved and their husbands are aware and condoning." More than that, they are prepared not merely to justify but defend the ends through which their means are attained and the devastated Richard, left in agonized despair by the ironic events that charge the final moments of the play, must face the fact of his own share in their communal guilt.

Good Grief


Ngozi Anyanwu - 2020
    GOOD GRIEF follows Nkechi, or N- a med-school dropout, a first generation Nigerian, a would-be goddess- as she navigates first loves and losses, and tries to find answers in her parents, the boy next door, and the stars.

The Women


Clare Boothe Luce - 1937
    The author carries us through a number of varied scenes and shows us not only a somewhat unflattering picture of womanhood, but digging under the surface, reveals a human understanding for and sympathy with some of its outstanding figures. The plot involves the efforts of a group of women to play their respective roles in an artificial society that consists of vain show, comedy, tragedy, hope and disappointment.

Gang War: The Inside Story of the Manchester Gangs


Peter Walsh - 2005
    

Good Will Hunting


Matt Damon - 1997
    Van Sant says we can see how badly Damon drives by watching the film's last scene, in which he is actually driving the car with the camera mounted on it. But Damon and company write better than he drives; this script contains some of the boldest, best monologues since Pulp Fiction.Van Sant and cast member Robin Williams helped the young actors tame the tigers in their cranial tanks, trimming the script into a precision instrument. Though the stills from the film are not perfectly matched to their places in the script, this story remains as much a joy to read as it is towatch on the big screen.

Hobson's Choice


Harold Brighouse - 1916
    Maggie defies Hobson by marrying his most talented worker - the timid and downtrodden Will. She helps Will to develop his potential and together they turn the tables on Hobson.

Man of La Mancha


Dale Wasserman - 1966
    That current is best identified by its catch-labels--Theater of the Absurd, Black Comedy, the Theater of Cruelty--which is to say the theater of alienation, of moral anarchy and despair. To the practitioners of those philosophies Man of La Mancha must seem hopelessly naive in its espousal of illusion as man's strongest spiritual need, the most meaningful function of his imagination. But I've no unhappiness about that. "Facts are the enemy of truth," says Cervantes-Don Quixote. And that is precisely what I felt and meant."--Dale Wasserman, from the Preface.

Auntie Mame


Jerome Lawrence - 1960
    Besides being the source for one of America's most popular musicals, AUNTIE MAME set a standard for Broadway comedy that's been sought after ever since. "Auntie Mame was a handsome, sparkling, scatterbrained and warm-hearted lady who brightened the American landscape from 1928 to the immediate past by her whimsical gaiety, her slightly madcap adventures and her devotion to her young nephew, who grew up to be Patrick Dennis. Through fortunes that rose and fell and a pleasant but brief marriage to a likable Southerner, who had the bad luck to tumble down from the Matterhorn, Auntie Mame's chief concern was that nephew, whom she raised [the play's] central figure is a woman of spirit, innate kindness and undefeatable courage " NY Post.

The Silence of the Lambs


Yvonne Tasker - 2002
    In this study, Yvonne Tasker explores the way the film weaves together gothic, horror and thriller conventions to generate both a distinctive variation on the cinematic portrayal of insanity and crime, and a fascinating intervention in the sexual politics of genre.

Bell, Book and Candle


John Van Druten - 1951
    Witch Gillian Holroyd casts a spell on publisher Shepherd Henderson who falls madly in love with her. Because witches can not fall in love, Gillian must choose between the life of a witch or the life of a normal.

Come Back, Little Sheba


William Inge - 1950
    Doc and Lola had an indiscreet affair and she became pregnant. Compelled to marry her, he gave up his medical studies, forfeited his future, and settled down to a life of quiet desperation with this simple, homey woman, who lost the child but has remained Doc's steadfast if slatternly wife. Now a chiropractor and recovering alcoholic, Doc's sobriety is tested when Marie, a young college student, becomes their boarder and brings new life and long-dormant hostilities to the surface of Doc and Lola's troubled marriage. Shirley Booth won the Tony, NY Drama Critics Award and later the Oscar as Best Actress of The Year for her compelling performance as Lola.