Book picks similar to
August Rush by Frederic P. Miller
movies
romance-drama
saw-as-a-movies
watched
Yes Man
Danny Wallace - 2005
When a stranger on a bus advises, "Say yes more," Wallace vows to say yes to every offer, invitation, challenge, and chance.In Yes Man, Wallace recounts his months-long commitment to complete openness with profound insight and humbling honesty. Saying yes takes Wallace into a new plane of existence: a place where money comes as easily as it goes, nodding a lot can lead to a long weekend overseas with new friends, and romance isn't as complicated as it seems. Yes eventually leads to the biggest question of all: "Do you, Danny Wallace, take this woman . . ."Yes Man is inspiring proof that a little willingness can take anyone to the most wonderful of places.
Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk - 1996
Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden - 1997
It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Irene Trimble - 2006
In this second fantastic Pirates of the Caribbean adventure, Jack, Will and Elizabeth must possess what lies within Davy's secret chest if they are to save Jack's soul. Featuring horrific sea beasts, cannibal islands and amazing full-colour pictures, this book is every bit as exciting and frightening as the movie itself!
The Body
Robin Waterfield - 1982
As they travel, they discover how cruel the world can be, but also how wondrous.
Kramer vs. Kramer
Avery Corman - 1977
Joanna and Ted Kramer, and four-year-old Billy—his big brown eyes bright with curiosity and wonder. A perfect family. Then on day the mother abandons them. Divorce. And now they are two. Father and son. Caring and cared for, learning what loving and belonging are all about, until there is a bond between them that nothing can break. Nothing and nobody—except maybe a mother who, almost two years later, changes her mind and wants her little boy back...
Anywhere But Here
Mona Simpson - 1986
It tells the story of a mother and daughter who make their way west from Wisconsin, living off an ex-husband's credit card.
The Sound of Music
Julia Antopol Hirsch - 1965
For millions of people, the film is that rare combination of a powerful and moving story, first-rate music, and breathtaking scenery. "The Sound of Music: The Making of America's Favorite Movie" is a tribute to this beloved movie musical and a fascinating, behind-the-scene account of the creation of a Hollywood classic.Through exclusive in-depth interviews with cast and crew, stills from the movie's most memorable scenes, snapshots from personal scrapbooks, and papers from the Fox Studios archives, Julia Hirsch re-crates the magic that is "The Sound of Music." Julie Andrews recounts some of her more humorous memories of the filming, from her "first kiss" with Christopher Plummer, when neither of them could stop laughing, to rushing up the mountain for the famous opening scene only to be continually knocked down by the downdraft from the cameraman's helicopter. The book reveals details both fans and film buffs will enjoy, such as the fact that Yul Brynner, Walter Matthau, and Sean Connery were all considered fro the role of the Captain (while teenagers Mia Farrow, Sharon Tate, and Richard Dreyfuss auditioned for juvenile roles) and that director/producer Robert Wise, already fielding calls from Fox's Dick Zanuck for being over budget, almost didn't finish the location shoot in Austria because it simply wouldn't stop raining.But most of all, Hirsch captures the extraordinary camaraderie shared by everyone involved, a group whose friendships would last a lifetime. This engaging narrative is both an insider's guide to, and a delightful celebration of, a film that truly is "the happiest sound in all the world."
Legends of the Fall
Jim Harrison - 1979
This magnificent trilogy also contains two other superb short novels. In Revenge, love causes the course of a man's life to be savagely and irrevocably altered. Nordstrom, in The Man Who Gave up his Name, is unable to relinquish his consuming obsessions with women, dancing and food.'
Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Helen Fielding - 1996
On the other hand, she loses 72! There is also the unspoken New Year's resolution--the quest for the right man. Alas, here Bridget goes severely off course when she has an affair with her charming cad of a boss. But who would be without their e-mail flirtation focused on a short black skirt? The boss even contends that it is so short as to be nonexistent. At the beginning of Helen Fielding's exceptionally funny second novel, the thirtyish publishing puffette is suffering from postholiday stress syndrome but determined to find Inner Peace and poise. Bridget will, for instance, "get up straight away when wake up in mornings." Now if only she can survive the party her mother has tricked her into--a suburban fest full of "Smug Marrieds" professing concern for her and her fellow "Singletons"--she'll have made a good start. As far as she's concerned, "We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, 'How's your marriage going? Still having sex?'" This is only the first of many disgraces Bridget will suffer in her year of performance anxiety (at work and at play, though less often in bed) and living through other people's "emotional fuckwittage." Her twin-set-wearing suburban mother, for instance, suddenly becomes a chat-show hostess and unrepentant adulteress, while our heroine herself spends half the time overdosing on Chardonnay and feeling like "a tragic freak." Bridget Jones's Diary began as a column in the London Independent and struck a chord with readers of all sexes and sizes. In strokes simultaneously broad and subtle, Helen Fielding reveals the lighter side of despair, self-doubt, and obsession, and also satirizes everything from self-help books (they don't sound half as sensible to Bridget when she's sober) to feng shui, Cosmopolitan-style. She is the Nancy Mitford of the 1990s, and it's impossible not to root for her endearing heroine. On the other hand, one can only hope that Bridget will continue to screw up and tell us all about it for years and books to come. --Kerry Fried
The Butterfly Effect
James Swallow - 2003
As he attempts to mend the broken lives of those closest to him, he finds that every trip into the past brings chaotic results into the present, leading him to travel back again and again and causing irreparable damage.
The Hours
Michael Cunningham - 1998
A young wife and mother, broiling in a suburb of 1940s Los Angeles, yearns to escape and read her precious copy of Mrs Dalloway. And Clarissa Vaughan steps out of her smart Greenwich village apartment in 1990s New York to buy flowers for a party she is hosting for a dying friend.The Hours recasts the classic story of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway in a startling new light. Moving effortlessly across the decades and between England and America, this exquisite novel intertwines the worlds of three unforgettable women.
The Complete Independence Day Omnibus
Stephen Molstad - 2016
All satellite communications are interrupted, as fear grips the cities of the world. When the skies return to normal, it becomes clear that a force of incredible magnitude has arrived on Earth. Its mission: to eliminate all human life on the planet.SILENT ZONECREATED BY DEAN DEVLIN & ROLAND EMMERICH NOVEL BY STEPHEN MOLSTADIn the official prequel to Independence Day, Dr Brackish Okun, head scientist of Area 51, begins to suspect that a massive government cover-up has successfully buried all evidence of alien visitation throughout the years—a cover-up in which Okun is now an unwilling participant.WAR IN THE DESERTCREATED BY DEAN DEVLIN & ROLAND EMMERICHNOVEL BY STEPHEN MOLSTADIt is the fourth of July. Reeling from the enemy onslaught, a few surviving military pilots gather in the Saudi Arabian desert. Two of the best fliers discover that their recent “victory” was an illusion—part of a secret ambush that will open the planet to unimaginable horror, unless several Middle Eastern nations can overcome long-standing hatreds and unite against the aliens in the fiercest hand-to-hand combat of the war.
The Princess Bride
William Goldman - 1973
Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.In short, it's about everything.