Call Me By Your Name by
The son of an Italian professor forms a relationship with his father's summer research assistant.
Luca Guadagnino's 2017 Italian romance and drama absolutely oozes with verdant surroundings of gorgeous northern Italy in the 1980s, and delivers us into the summer of Elio, a young precocious man living with his parents in their villa, and Oliver, a graduate student studying under Elio's father for the summer. As the days whirl them through archaeological digs, nightclubs, and wistful plains and piazzas, their relationship develops into new territory. Nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture (and winning for James Ivory's masterful screenplay adaptation), this is my personal favorite film and would recommend it very deeply.
Rated R.
Related media: Adapted from a book of the same title by Andre Aciman.
The Cat's Table by
In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the "cat's table"--as far from the Captain's Table as can be--with a ragtag group of "insignificant" adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator's elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself "with a distant eye" for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat's Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever. As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy's adult years, it tells a spellbinding story--by turns poignant and electrifying--about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.
This under-read gem from Michael Ondaatje (author of The English Patient) tells the story of a young boy alone aboard a 1950s cruise liner as he discovers the strange and mysterious world of adults along with a ragtag cast of characters. Hazy, dreamlike, nostalgic, and curious, this tale is never quite nailed down to brilliant effect as the mysteries of the boat and life itself slowly reveal themselves to our adolescent protagonist.
Audience: Adult/General Content
Click, Clack, Moo by
The quirky, hilarious farmyard tale that started it all from New York Times bestselling duo of Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin! Now the inspiration for a new Christmas special, CLICK, CLACK, MOO: Christmas on the Farm. Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. All day long he hears Click, clack, MOO. Click, clack, MOO. Clickety, clack, MOO. But Farmer Brown's problems REALLY begin when his cows start leaving him notes.... Doreen Cronin's understated text and Betsy Lewin's expressive illustrations make the most of this hilarious situation. Come join the fun as a bunch of literate cows turn Farmer Brown's farm upside down.
Baby's first introduction to class consciousness and collective action! This charming children's book follows an eclectic group of farm animals as they go on strike for better living conditions. Using an old typewriter, they communicate back and forth with their farmer, withholding their capital until their demands are met. A truly delightful farmyard tale that I heard millions of times as a child and think about often even today.
Related media: Adapted into DVD with other stories by author.
Available also as VOX book, and in translation in Spanish.
My Brilliant Friend by
#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling "enduring masterpiece" about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic). Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante's four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women. "An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends."--Entertainment Weekly "Spectacular."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Captivating."--The New Yorker
Recently named the Greatest Book of the 21st century by the New York Times, Elena Ferrante's landmark first novel of her "Neapolitan Novels" tells the story of two young girls growing up in post-war Naples, Italy. They experience family turmoil, rights of passage, stunning realizations about their world and the adults in it, and all of the joys and despairs that the closest of friendships can bring. Stunningly written by Ferrante and translated by Goldstein, this novel so richly delivers a picture of not only the textured neighborhoods of Naples, but also the inner machinations of our protagonists who populate them. This recommendation is a full endorsement of the first novel, but it really stands for the whole 4-book series, which only gets better as it goes on throughout their entire lives.
Related media: Adapted into an ongoing HBO TV series.
Also available as Digital E-book and in Large Print.
Parasite by
Follows the Kim family as they begin providing luxury services to the wealthy Park family but are soon caught in an underhanded struggle to maintain their new lifestyle.
This historic Best Picture winner (first non-English language film to win) is simply one of the best films out there. Telling a genre-bending story of classism in modern South Korea, this has heart-pounding suspense right beside laugh-out-loud moments, woven together by seamless directorial and technical work from director Bong Joon-ho. With an incredible versatile cast, amazing design, and four Oscars to its name, Parasite is an essential for anyone and everyone.
Rated R.
S.P.Q.R.: A History of Ancient Rome by
Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war" that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy? In S.P.Q.R., world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even two thousand years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty. From the foundational myth of Romulus and Remus to 212 ce--nearly a thousand years later--when the emperor Caracalla gave Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire, S.P.Q.R. (the abbreviation of "The Senate and People of Rome") examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries by exploring how the Romans thought of themselves: how they challenged the idea of imperial rule, how they responded to terrorism and revolution, and how they invented a new idea of citizenship and nation. Opening the book in 63 bce with the famous clash between the populist aristocrat Catiline and Cicero, the renowned politician and orator, Beard animates this "terrorist conspiracy," which was aimed at the very heart of the Republic, demonstrating how this singular event would presage the struggle between democracy and autocracy that would come to define much of Rome's subsequent history. Illustrating how a classical democracy yielded to a self-confident and self-critical empire, S.P.Q.R. reintroduces us, though in a wholly different way, to famous and familiar characters--Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Augustus, and Nero, among others--while expanding the historical aperture to include those overlooked in traditional histories: the women, the slaves and ex-slaves, conspirators, and those on the losing side of Rome's glorious conquests. Like the best detectives, Beard sifts fact from fiction, myth and propaganda from historical record, refusing either simple admiration or blanket condemnation. Far from being frozen in marble, Roman history, she shows, is constantly being revised and rewritten as our knowledge expands. Indeed, our perceptions of ancient Rome have changed dramatically over the last fifty years, and S.P.Q.R., with its nuanced attention to class inequality, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, promises to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come.
One of the quintessential Roman histories for the non-academic enthusiast. Mary Beard culminates a lifetime of work into a highly digestible, easily readable, and very engaging history of Rome (the city itself but also the very idea) across the millennia. Filled with insightful images, maps, and figures along the way, "SPQR" is one of the best starting places for the Rome-curious, and also one of the great foundation-blocks for folks with all ranges of Rome expertise. (Take it even from a Roman History major- I learned a lot!)
Audience: Adult/General Content
12 Angry Men by
Courtroom drama revolving around the trial of a boy accused of killing his father, where one man stands between him and capital punishment.
A true masterpiece of mid-century Hollywood. Set almost entirely in one room, the film follows a jury of men on a sweltering afternoon as they deliberate on a case that could send a man to his death. While the jury's first impression is that the case is a clear-cut guilty verdict, there is more than what meets the eye at first glace. An absolute monument to the power of critical thinking, basic compassion, and genuine curiosity in search for truth. Henry Fonda's lead performance is an true force in this remarkable achievement that has stood- and will stand- the test of time.
Related media: 50th anniversary re-release DVD.
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