The Sense of an Ending

Movie release: March 10, 2017 Starring Matthew Goode, Michelle Dockery and Jim Broadbent. Directed by Ritesh Batra. A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.

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The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

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This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about until his oldest friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he’d left all of this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider various things, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and his place in the world.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

HBO movie premiere: April 22, 2017 at 8 PM on HBO Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne star in this adaptation of the critically-acclaimed book. Directed by George C. Wolfe.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells– taken without her knowledge– became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine ; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses ; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping ; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Lost City of Z

In theaters April 28, 2017 A true-life drama, centering on British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. Starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland (Spiderman). Directed by James Gray.

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The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

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A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve “the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century”: What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyle’sThe Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization—which he dubbed “Z”—existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Fawcett’s fate—and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”—became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett’s party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett’s quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle’s “green hell.” His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett’s fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Hulu original series premiering April 26, 2017 Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. Starring Alexis Bledel, Joseph Fiennes, and Elizabeth Moss.

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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood presents a chilling dystopic novel set in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, after a radical theocratic revolution. In a time of declining birthrates, fertile women are dispersed to high-ranking white men as baby-making handmaids. If a handmaid cannot reproduce, she is exiled to the Colonies, an uber-polluted wasteland. One of these handmaids, Offred, not only remembers her life before the revolution, but is determined to reclaim it.

Captain Underpants

Movie release: June 2, 2017

Two mischievous kids hypnotize their mean high school principal and turn him into their comic book creation, the kind-hearted and elastic-banded Captain Underpants. Featuring the voices of Jordan Peele, Kevin Hart, Nick Kroll, and Ed Helms. Directed by David Soren.

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Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey

There are many, MANY titles in this series – the first is:

The Adventures of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Novel Print | eBook

When George and Harold hypnotize their principal into thinking that he is the superhero Captain Underpants, he leads them to the lair of the nefarious Dr. Diaper, where they must defeat his evil robot henchmen.

My Cousin Rachel

Movie release: July 14, 2017

A young Englishman plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms. Starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. Directed by Roger Michell.

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My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

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Philip Ashley is orphaned at an early age and raised by his bachelor uncle Ambrose, who falls in love and marries while traveling in Italy and dies there in suspicious circumstances. When Ambrose’s widow turns up in England, Philip is drawn to her, but might she have had a hand in Ambrose’s death.

The Mountain Between Us

Movie release: October 20, 2017

A pair survive a plane crash in the mountains where they are forced to trust each other and find safety while badly injured. Starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad.

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The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

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Stranded in a frigid mountain wilderness after a plane crash, a gifted surgeon and a young magazine writer are forced to rely on each other for survival while confronting painful truths about their personal lives.

Murder on the Orient Express

Movie release: November 22, 2017

Just after midnight, a snowstorm stops the Orient Express dead in its tracks in the middle of Yugoslavia. A “respectable American gentleman” lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside… Luckily, Hercule Poirot is also aboard to solve the case. Starring Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz and Josh Gad. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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While en route from Syria to Paris, in the middle of a freezing winter’s night, the Orient Express is stopped dead in its tracks by a snowdrift. Passengers awake to find the train still stranded and to discover that a wealthy American has been brutally stabbed to death in his private compartment.