Vastralaya

Evan Shively (Perseus271)

Edgar Colt

Vitor Miguel

Prisma Soulstorm

Serena

Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

The Robinsons leave their home in Switzerland planning to settle half a world away. But things do not turn out as they had expected. The sole survivors of a terrible shipwreck, they wash ashore to learn that the danger has only begun. Their new world will test their courage, cleverness, endurance, and faith as they struggle to survive and create a civilization of their own in the wilderness.  Note: This Townsend Library classic has been carefully edited to be more accessible to today's students. It includes a brief author's biography and an afterword that provides important context about the work.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

There's an alternate cover edition hereSeabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon. Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.From the Hardcover edition.

A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that, until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida—and the most unexpected comic hero. This cherished hardcover is perfect for those who love Ferdinand, and those who have yet to meet him.

Black Beauty spends his youth in a loving home, surrounded by friends and cared for by his owners. But when circumstances change, he learns that not all humans are so kind. Passed from hand to hand, Black Beauty witnesses love and cruelty, wealth and poverty, friendship and hardship . . . Will the handsome horse ever find a happy and lasting home? Carefully retold in clear contemporary language, and presented with delightful illustrations, these favorite classic stories capture the heart and imagination of young readers. By retelling the story in a shorter, simpler form, these books become highly engaging for children, and the color illustrations help with both comprehension and interest level. Black Beauty is part of a collectible series that has strong gift appeal.

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here.Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

This handsome edition brings all of Beatrix Potter's 23 tales and verses together in one book. Each story is complete and unabridged, and all the original illustrations, both color and black-and-white, are included. Potter's tales were often connected with real people, places and animals, so each story has a brief introductory note about its history. As an added bonus, The Complete Tales also includes four other works by Potter, which remained unpublished in her lifetime.  As part of Peter Rabbit's centennial celebration, the first printing of The Complete Tales will be published with a limited edition lithograph inside.

Doomed to - or blessed with - eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

This is a monster of a book--XXVIII chapters, 897 pages. It was just at the beginning of the attempt to address psychology scientifically, rather than philosophically, though it has a foot in each camp. Published in 1891, it precedes Freud, who however is mentioned in a few places. I am going though it slowly, one chapter at a time, and recording impressions along the way.Ch. V: The Automaton-Theory. This stands up remarkably well. Perhaps that means we've really learned very little new about the mind-problem. James discusses the theory, now common and then already advanced by many of his contemporaries, that conscious, ideas, will, and so forth are mere epiphenomena that have no effect on behavior. These theorists started with the discovery that electricity can make frog legs contract, and the difficulty of seeing any way a mental event could affect a molecule or a cell, and concluded that mental states are epiphenomena of physiologic events. James acknowledges the difficulty of seeing how the mental can affect the physical, but rejects the mechanistic conclusion as not yet proved. He also notes that goal-oriented mental processes would have a clear advantage in natural selection--no mechanism cares where it is going, he says, and a locomotive would not care a wit if it pulled its car over an open drawbridge.Ch VI: The Mind-Stuff Theory. James grapples with the Hard Problem of consciousness: how a biological mechanism, however complicated, can produce consciousness. He spends a great deal of time dealing with the theory, apparently current at the time, that elementary particles have little minds as elementary properties, and these combine to produce a human mind. It sounds ridiculous, but we have to remember that people were desperate for some solution to the Hard Problem (and indeed still are). James does not care for any of the solutions, but somewhat amazingly he comes around to admitting that the traditional religious soul-theory (that a non-material soul inhabits the body and provides the mind in the brain) is the best one available to him.Ch VII: James turns to the methods of psychology. He identifies three: (1) Introspection, the age-old method of philosophers of the mind. Comte had objected that the mind cannot both think and observe itself thinking at the same time, so introspection much be illusionary; James disposes of this by saying we first think, then remember thinking. For myself, I don't see why the mind can't do two things at once--we certainly process sensations and think at the same time. (2) Experimentation, followed by statistical evaluation of the results, which James describes as new and growing and likely to take over the field. How right he was! (3) Comparison with the behavior of animals.Ch VIII: James discusses first the phenomenon of "unconscious thoughts" (the mentally ill--James calls them "hysterics"--sometimes demonstrate some kind of awareness of things they supposedly cannot sense because they are blind or numb; the same is true of some under hypnosis), and then the means by which the mind connects to the brain, and thence to the rest of the body and to the world. On the latter, he confesses that he just doesn't know.Ch IX: The Stream of Thought. James is at pains to refute the idea of Hume and others that thought is a sequence of individual ideas. He says it is a continuous stream, with overlapping ideas constantly coming to be and fading away. Sounds reasonable to me. The method here is totally that of philosophy, i.e. reason and introspection. It makes me want to read a modern text on psychology and see how much of that is done now.Ch X: The Consciousness of Self. This is a long and quite varied chapter. The first part is about what one feels in oneself or belongs to oneself, including the body, material things, and spiritual feelings. This part seems almost like pop psychology. Then James goes into various theories of actual seat or nature of these feelings, the pure self or Ego. These take him deep into discussions with Kant, Hume, and other luminaries, where I can scarcely follow. The three theories he discusses are: (1) Spiritualist, the theory that there is an immaterial substance or soul that is the seat of the Ego--this James says he cannot disprove, but he finds it unilluminating and says that it is scientifically useless because it is untestable; (2) Associationist, which takes the Ego to be just the stream of thoughts sharing common memories and each remembering those past--this is what James favors; and (3) Transcendentalist, Kant's theory, which I will not attempt to summarize because I do not really understand it. The final part of the chapter takes up "The Mutations of the Self," and treats us to various case histories of perplexing multiple personalities, apparent spiritualist possessions, and the like. James marvels at the similarity of the various mediumistic possessions he has witnessed--half of them claim to be departed American Indians, and almost all of them speak of love and harmony, of their current happy afterlife in a sort of summer-land, and describe the ailments of those present. This is true even for people who have not been exposed to spiritualism. These sorts of things were evidently very common in James' era. He says he has no theory to account for them, but "a serious study of these trance-phenomena is one of the greatest needs in psychology." As far as I know, these phenomena have died away without getting that serious study--or else they got that study an evaporated under it.Ch. XI: Attention. A comparatively straightforward chapter. He peremptorily discards the idea of Locke, Hume, and others that our minds are like inert clay on which the senses make impressions. Clearly, he says, when we direct our attention at particular sensations those make a much deeper impression. Then he takes a very scientific turn, relaying the results of various experiments on how attention affects reaction time, complete with average error. Then back to philosophy for the question of whether voluntary attention is the resultant of brain processes, or a force of its own. He says that there is no way science can resolve this questions, and so those who believe either alternative should be left to their opinion in peace.Ch XII: Conception. "The function by which we identify a numerically distinct and permanent subject of discourse." James regards conceptions as unchangeable; our thought takes place by rearranging and relating them. It is the common conception linked to them that makes things seem to be the "same." James has no difficulty with abstract conceptions, or conceptions of universals, unlike some other philosophers. Indeed, he devotes much of the chapter to ridiculing Berkeley, Mills, and other such thinkers. It is remarkable that such towering intellects, all presumably observing the same phenomena, come to such different descriptions of them, and in fact cannot understand how the others could make such mistakes. For these things all we have is introspection, and that is famously unreliable.Ch. XIII: Discrimination and Comparison. A long chapter about how we judge things to be the same or different, about equally divided between arguments from introspection and actual experiments. There is a lot of consideration and impatient dismissal of the ideas of earlier writers.Ch XIV: Association. Only sometimes do we make associations by reason. More often it is by habit, based on experience. In fact neural habit is the one elementary cause of association, but it is made more likely by recency, intensity, and congruence of mood, as well as by simple repetition. Still, there is a lot that is not explained by these and seems to be a matter of chance (in other words, "cerebral causes" that are "too subtle for analysis"). There is also association by similarity, when two ideas have some overlap. But why does the mind follow one overlapping idea and not another? We cannot tell--maybe the cause is in consciousness. (James is refreshingly ready to identify phenomena that he just cannot explain.) In addition to reverie or free association, there is also voluntary thought (to remember something, or to solve a problem), but this works just like free association, with the consciousness rejecting ideas that don't advance the purpose. Citing Hobbes, Hume, and Mill, James traces all mental faculties ultimately to types of association (he also draws examples from Jane Austen's books--he is quite well-read!). Almost all of this chapter is drawn from introspection, but he still talks in the language of an unknown physiology--brain processes that "vibrate" and "discharge."Ch XV: The Perception of Time. What we perceive as "now" must actually be short interval, perhaps a few second, constantly added to at the front and fading away at the back. An actual instantaneous "now" would provide no feeling of before and after. This is our only direct intuition of time. Longer times are conceived of by multiplying this variable short interval. Various experiments give evidence of the shortest perceptible durations, which varies with sense (sight, sound, etc.). We do not sense time itself, only things that happen in time. Thus the passage of time seems sometimes faster than others. Kant's notion of a direct "intuition" of and infinitely extended time is baseless--extended time is derived from intuited short time.Ch XVI: Memory. Memory is not just reoccurrence of an idea--that would be mere repetition--but recall with the additional idea of having had the thought in the past. Memory is attributed to pathways in the brain. Good memory is measured by both the readiness with which those pathways are made and how long they last. More can be remembered by paying closer attention or other self-discipline, but brute capacity for memory is innate and cannot be improved (on inquiry James found that experienced actors had no less labor remembering their lines than when they were younger). The method James uses here is mainly introspection and reason, along with quoting eminent Germans. Towards the end of the chapter he does report a few structured experiments others have made, together with various facts and anecdotes about how forgetting occurs. At the end he returns to philosophy: the impossibility of explaining conscious memory is just a part of that of explaining consciousness in general.Ch. XVIII: Imagination. Largely quotations from other scholars. James is surprised to find that different people form mental images very differently--some visual, some auditory, some in other ways (this is based on interviews and surveys). He seems to be discussing what we call "photographic memory," though he doesn't use the term. James favors the view that mental images are the same thing, using the same mental circuitry, as physical perception, only much weaker. It seems unlikely to me that this can be all that they are. A vivid mental picture can seem much stronger than a weak perception, without any possibility of confusing it with reality.Ch. XIX: The Perception of "Things". The eye can sense only patches of color, but we perceive a solid chair. Clearly the brain does a lot of work to unconsciously turn sensations into perceptions, a skill probably learned in early childhood. Misperceptions lead to illusions, of which many amusing examples are given. Misperception can be triggered by a preconceived idea. Hallucinations.Ch. XX: The Perception of Space. This very long chapter (196 pages) perhaps spends too much time finding philosophical difficulties in how we so easily derive the idea of three-dimensional space from the sparse inputs of sight and touch.Ch. XXI: Belief. Belief is an emotion or psychic attitude, an irreducible aspect of perception of certain ideas held to be real. Everything perceived is believed, unless some other perception contradicts it, in which case a judgment must be made which to admit and which to deny. Modes of reality: (1) The physical as sensed; (2) The ideal physical world of a scientist; (3) Logical, mathematical, ethical, aesthetical reality; (4) Common ideas, e.g. the sun rises and sets; (5) Myth. "Whatever excites and stimulates our interest is real." "The fons et origo of all reality . . . is thus subjective, is ourselves." Nothing is more real than one's sense of one's own existence. Sense objects are either reality or the test of reality. Appearance needs reality in order to exist, but reality needs appearance in order to be known. Touch conveys a more solid and incontrovertible reality than the other senses. We believe in ideas because of the "bodily commotion" they produce. Only the most highly developed man can suspend belief in the presence of an emotionally exciting idea. Philosophic agnosticism is impossible--man needs a belief in purpose for himself, and will invent one if none is given him. Will and belief are two names for the same psychological phenomenon (directed at things we can affect, and at things we cannot).Ch. XXII: Reasoning. This chapter proceeds mostly by philosophical introspection. It is hard to say exactly what reasoning is. It seems to have something to do with one idea succeeding another. Better reasoners have more apt and more essential succeeding ideas. Reasoning requires that only a part of the characteristics of each idea be considered. The inferior reasoning powers of women and of savages are explained.Ch. XXIII: The Production of Movement. This very short chapter serves mainly as an introduction to the next three, on motion by instinct, by emotion, and by volition. The main method here is observation and experimentation. James claims that every feeling produces a movement of the entire organism in all its parts, though the motion in a particular part may be undetectable. This is shown by how people jump when startled, and by some experiments that I was unaware of that show that one's hand strength increased when illuminated by certain colors of light, and by other similar curious observations.*** I have run out of the space that Goodreads allows for reviews. I can hardly blame them, but I am committed to this project I have spent more than five years on. Why, it's hard to say. I will continue the chapter summaries for my own edification.

"I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities."  When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by--or takes place in--the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance--indeed, respect--the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.

Harriet the Spy has a secret notebook that she fills with utterly honest jottings about her parents, her classmates, and her neighbors. Every day on her spy route she "observes" and notes down anything of interest to her:I BET THAT LADY WITH THE CROSS-EYE LOOKS IN THE MIRROR AND JUST FEELS TERRIBLE.PINKY WHITEHEAD WILL NEVER CHANGE. DOES HIS MOTHER HATE HIM? IF I HAD HIM I'D HATE HIM.IF MARION HAWTHORNE DOESN'T WATCH OUT SHE'S GOING TO GROW UP INTO A LADY HITLER.But when Harriet's notebook is found by her schoolmates, their anger and retaliation and Harriet's unexpected responses explode in a hilarious way.

At sixteen, Anne is grown up...almost. Her gray eyes shine like evening stars, but her red hair is still as peppery as her temper. In the years since she arrived at Green Gables as a freckle-faced orphan, she has earned the love of the people of Avonlea and a reputation for getting into scrapes. But when Anne begins her job as the new schoolteacher, the real test of her character begins. Along with teaching the three Rs, she is learning how complicated life can be when she meddles in someone else's romance, finds two new orphans at Green Gables, and wonders about the strange behaviour of the very handsome Gilbert Blythe. As Anne enters womanhood, her adventures touch the heart and the funny bone.

An alternate cover edition can be found hereIn the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind.This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.

Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful girl's fortunes change again is at the center of A Little Princess, one of the best-loved stories in all of children's literature. This unique and fully annotated edition appends excerpts from Frances Hodgson Burnett's original 1888 novella Sara Crewe and the stage play that preceded the novel, as well as an early story, "Behind the White Brick," allowing readers to see how A Little Princess evolved. In his delightful introduction, U. C. Knoepflmacher considers the fairy-tale allusions and literary touchstones that place the book among the major works of Victorian literature, and shows it to be an exceptionally rich and resonant novel.

Anne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart -- and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620-560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving anthropomorphic animals. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.

When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. When James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit and crawls inside, he meets wonderful new friends--the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the dainty Ladybug, and the Centipede of the multiple boots. After years of feeling like an outsider in his aunts' house, James finally found a place where he belongs. With a snip of the stem, the peach household starts rolling away--and the adventure begins!Roald Dahl's first and most widely celebrated book for young people continues to thrill readers around the world."This is a stunning book to be cherished for its story, a superb fantasy."--Chicago Tribune"A beautifully written, fantastic book."--Christian Science Monitor

Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland, with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia.

After receiving the healing powers from a magical flower, the baby Princess Rapunzel is kidnapped from the palace in the middle of the night by Mother Gothel. Mother Gothel knows that the flower's magical powers are now growing within the golden hair of Rapunzel, and to stay young, she must lock Rapunzel in her hidden tower. Rapunzel is now a teenager and her hair has grown to a length of 70-feet. The beautiful Rapunzel has been in the tower her entire life, and she is curious of the outside world. One day, the bandit Flynn Ryder scales the tower and is taken captive by Rapunzel. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the charming thief to act as her guide to travel to the place where the floating lights come from that she has seen every year on her birthday. Rapunzel is about to have the most exciting and magnificent journey of her life.

After one of her frequent visits to Tiffany's--New York City's dazzling jewellery store--and the maximum security Sing-Sing prison for mobster Sally Tomato's weekly "weather report", Holly Golightly, Manhattan's elegant socialite, finds herself infatuated with her charming new neighbour, Paul Varjak. Stuck in a persistent creative rut, Paul, too, lets himself drawn into Holly's superficial world, of course, not because he likes the idea that he reminds her of her brother, but because, little by little, he succumbs to Holly's beguiling allure. Even though they don't openly admit it, the two reluctant lovers have a past that they struggle to keep at bay; nevertheless, are their well-hidden secrets powerful enough to keep them apart? After all, Paul and Holly are meant for each other. Will an early-morning breakfast at Tiffany's be the prelude to a breezy young love?

The year is 1899, and Christian, a young English writer, has come to Paris to follow the Bohemian revolution taking hold of the city's drug and prostitute infested underworld. And nowhere is the thrill of the underworld more alive than at the Moulin Rouge, a night club where the rich and poor men alike come to be entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. But her affections are also coveted by the club's patron: the Duke. A dangerous love triangle ensues as Satine and Christian attempt to fight all odds to stay together but a force that not even love can conquer is taking its toll on Satine...

The world is astounded when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of the factory, shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but as his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat, buying enough bars to find one of the five golden tickets is unlikely in the extreme. But in movieland, magic can happen. Charlie, along with four somewhat odious other children, get the chance of a lifetime and a tour of the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the odious children, but can Charlie beat the odds and grab the brass ring?

More than a dozen Angelenos navigate Valentine's Day from early morning until midnight. Three couples awake together, but each relationship will sputter; are any worth saving? A grade-school boy wants flowers for his first true love; two high school seniors plan first-time sex at noon; a TV sports reporter gets the assignment to find romance in LA; a star quarterback contemplates his future; two strangers meet on a plane; grandparents, together for years, face a crisis; and, an "I Hate Valentine's Day" dinner beckons the lonely and the lied to. Can Cupid finish his work by midnight?

West Side Story is the award-winning adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy "Romeo and Juliet". The feuding families become two warring New York City gangs--the white Jets led by Riff and the Latino Sharks, led by Bernardo. Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony and Bernardo's younger sister Maria meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway--whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence. It goes terribly wrong, and before the lovers know what's happened, tragedy strikes and doesn't stop until the climactic and heartbreaking ending.

Rock star Pink Floyd is a tortured soul. Because of his childhood, he has always tried to make meaningful emotional connections to other living creatures. That childhood includes not having a male role model with his father having been killed in the war, his overprotective mother smothering him, and an oppressive school system quashing his natural creativity. Being a rock star, he is often wanted more because of what he is than who he is. The most recent failure in that true connection to someone or something else is his marriage, when on tour, he discovers that his wife back home is cheating on him. His response is to go in the opposite direction, by building a figurative wall around him to isolate himself from the rest of the world, but not before showing graphically his feelings on different gut levels. The question becomes if he or anyone else can do anything to tear down the wall in a meaningful way.

1982 British live-action/animated musical drama film

When the music-hating Blue Meanies take over Pepperland and freeze everyone within it, including the protectors, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Captain Fred (Lance Percival) and his Yellow Submarine recruit The Beatles to help save Pepperland. Along the way, they fall through the Sea of Time, Sea of Nothing, Sea of Holes, and more. They meet Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. (Dick Emery) and take him with them for the adventure. At Pepperland, The Beatles "rally the land to rebellion" and take down the Blue Meanies, the four-headed Meanie dog, and the Dreadful Flying Glove (with the songs "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "With A Little Help From My Friends", "Hey Bulldog", "All You Need is Love"). In the end, all four live-action Beatles sing "All Together Now".

A musical about teens in love in the 1950s. It's California 1958 and greaser Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Australian Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) are in love. They spend time at the beach, and when they go back to school, what neither of them knows is that they both now attend Rydell High. Danny's the leader of the T-Birds, a group of black leather jacket-wearing greasers while Sandy hangs with the Pink Ladies, a group of pink-wearing girls led by Rizzo (Stockard Channing). When they clash at Rydell's first pep rally, Danny isn't the same Danny from the beach. They try to be like each other so they can be together.

1978 romantic musical film directed by Randal Kleiser

When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her.

Set in Scotland in a rugged and mythical time, this movie features Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald), an aspiring archer and impetuous daughter of Queen Elinor (Dame Emma Thompson). Merida makes a reckless choice that unleashes unintended peril and forces her to spring into action to set things right.

2012 American computer-animated fantasy film

Annie (Kristen Wiig), is a maid of honor whose life unravels as she leads her best friend, Lillian (Maya Rudolph), and a group of colorful bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to matrimony. Annie's life is a mess. But when she finds out her lifetime best friend is engaged, she simply must serve as Lillian's maid of honor. Though lovelorn and broke, Annie bluffs her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals. With one chance to get it perfect, she'll show Lillian and her bridesmaids just how far you'll go for someone you love.

After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne's in "The Scarlet Letter," which she is currently studying in school - until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

The Barden Bellas are a collegiate, all-girls a cappella singing group thriving on female pop songs and their perfect looks. After a disastrous failing at last year's finals, they are forced to regroup. Among the new recruits is freshman Beca, an independent, aspiring DJ with no interest in the college life. But after she meets Jesse, from the rival all-male a cappella group, Beca has a new outlook and takes it upon herself to help the Bellas find their new look and sound and get back into the competition.

Begins when an opera ghost terrorizes the cast and crew of the French Opera House while tutoring a chorus girl. He finally drives the lead soprano crazy so she and her friend leave. The girl is able to sing lead one night but the soprano doesn't want her show stolen so she comes back. The ghost demands they keep giving his protégé lead roles. Meanwhile, His pupil falls in love with the Vicomte de Chagny, but the Phantom is in love with Christine, his student. The Phantom is outraged by their love and kidnaps Christine to be his eternal bride. Will Raoul, the Vicomte, be able to stop this dastardly plan?

2004 musical film directed by Joel Schumacher

Orphaned, penniless, but ambitious and with a mind crammed with imagination and fresh ideas, the American entertainer, Phineas Taylor Barnum, will always be remembered as the man with the gift to blur the line between reality and fiction. Thirsty for innovation and hungry for success, the son of a tailor manages to open a wax museum; however, he soon shifts focus to the unique and the peculiar, introducing extraordinary, never-seen-before live acts on the circus stage. Now, some people call Barnum's rich collection of oddities, an outright freak show; but, when Phineas, obsessed for cheers and respectability, gambles everything on the opera singer, Jenny Lind, to appeal to a high-brow audience, he will lose sight of the most crucial aspect of his life: his family. Will Barnum, the greatest showman, risk it all to be accepted?

In Disney's beguiling animated romp, rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life on land. On one of her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she falls for a human prince. Determined to be with her new love, Ariel makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch Ursula to become human for three days. But when plans go awry for the star-crossed lovers, the king must make the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter.

1989 American animated musical fantasy film

Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez are two totally different teenagers who meet at a party while singing karaoke on New Year's Eve. The next week, Troy returns to East High, his high school in New Mexico, to find that Gabriella is a new student there. They quickly become close friends and accidentally audition for the school musical. They both get callbacks, infuriating drama queen Sharpay Evans and her sidekick brother Ryan. Then Chad, Troy's best friend and basketball teammate, and Taylor, Gabriella's new friend on the decathlon team, must make Gabriella hate Troy.

On a wild and rain-swept late-November evening, somewhere at an empty stretch of road outside Ohio's merry Denton, blissfully-affianced, prudish, boringly-innocent young pair Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) find themselves stranded on their way to visit an ex-tutor. Instead, the couple will inadvertently unearth the cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter's (Tim Curry's) spooky lair of inexhaustible oddities, just in time to partake in the out-of-this-world mad scientist's proud unveiling of his latest, delightfully extravagant, most daring creation: the ultimate male and the perfect sex symbol: the flaxen-haired Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood). But, little by little, as the effervescent transgressive force gobbles up whole the unsuspecting visitors of the night, Brad and Janet slowly begin to embrace the potent fascinations of seduction, while an idolized Rocky roams free in the mansion. Who can interrupt man's union with the absolute pleasure?

Eric Forman is a typical high school student growing up in Wisconsin in 1976 with his family and his friends. Together, they have the same kind of joys and sorrows that just about every teenager has while growing up. This show parodied many of the attitudes, events and fads of the 70s, along with those who grew up at the time.

In this popular African-American sitcom, Will Smith (played by

On the heels of the syndicated success of "

When you think no one is watching... what would you do? Using hidden cameras, What Would You Do? establishes everyday scenarios and then captures people's reactions. Whether people are compelled to act or mind their own business, John Quiñones reports on their split-second and often surprising decision-making process.

In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

American police procedural crime drama television series

Mythbusters takes myths, tall tales and urban legends and gives them the scientific treatment to determine their validity. Myths are proved true, probable, possible, improbable or busted. Often after the real-world practical tests have proved or debunked a Myth, the team will take the experiment to the extreme, many times using more modern technology than the myth could have used or upping the black powder for impressive explosions.

A weekly talent competition where an array of performers -- from singers and dancers, to comedians and novelty acts -- vie for a $1 million cash prize.

televised American talent show competition

Varieties of celebrities pair up to do battle each week using lip sync as their weapon to out do each other. The audience is the judge, deciding which candidate does the best lip sync performance.

Over the spring of 2000, sixteen average Americans (divided into two tribes which eventually merge into one) were sequestered on the deserted island of Pulau Tiga for 39 days. For their stay, they must learn to live as a tribe, although eventually, it is everyone for themselves. They compete in challenges for "luxuries" (a barbecue, a phone call home, etc.) and immunity. Every three days, the losers of the latter challenges must face tribal council, where they will account for their actions by voting one person off of the island. At the end of day 39, there will be only one survivor left who will leave the island with one million dollars. Based on the Swedish game show, "Operation Robinson."

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the leader of a team of special agents belonging to the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) Major Case Response Team. Gibbs, a former Marine, is a tough investigator and a highly skilled interrogator who relies on his gut instinct as much as evidence. Gibbs' second in command is Senior Field Agent Tony DiNozzo, a womanizing, movie-quoting former Baltimore Homicide Detective, who despite being the class clown always gets the job done. The team also consists of probationary field agent Eleanor Bishop, a former NSA agent, as well as Junior Field Agent Timothy McGee, a computer-savvy agent often mocked by DiNozzo. Assisting them are Abby Sciuto, the energetic-but-Goth lab tech who is like a daughter to Gibbs, and Dr. Donald Mallard, nicknamed Ducky, the eccentric medical examiner full of unusual stories. This team of elite agents, based in Washington, D.C., solve criminal cases involving Marine and Navy personnel and their families, sometimes traveling the United States - or the world - to do it.

American military drama/police procedural fictional television series

A family that has faced hardship has their dilapidated house completely rebuilt while they are away on vacation for a week. While early episodes renovated houses, the usual approach is to tear down the house on the first day and build a brand new, usually much larger, one, fully furnished. The houses are customized to the families, with rooms reflecting the interests of, especially, the children, and special technology for any unusual medical conditions. Host Ty Pennington usually has a "secret" project which is only revealed when the family sees it. The construction is accomplished with the help of a large army of blue-shirted volunteers and a wide array of sponsor-donated products and services.

There are four coaches, who are all famous in the music industry. During the blind auditions these coaches will turn around in their chairs when they hear a performer they want in their team. If there are more coaches who want a performer, he or she gets to choose who they want as their coach. During the battles there will be two contestants from the same team up against eachother. The coach then has to choose one of them to get through to the live shows.

American singing competition television series

Chicago-based daytime talk-show host Oprah Winfrey invites a guest panel to discuss a topic, in front of a studio audience. The topics are often controversial or sensational.

The best of the reality series crop is back, with 12 teams of 2 players each racing around the world, trying not to be eliminated at a series of checkpoints in which the last team to arrive is booted from the show. CBS chooses teams with relationships containing at least some tension, especially when the situation involves intense pressure. This season includes such duos as two circus clowns, a gay married couple, a father and son, a recently engaged couple, married couples, and best friends.

"The Sing-Off" will feature a cappella groups performing popular songs from various genres, arranged and sung like you've never heard before. There is no lip-synching, back-up band or safety net. Ultimately America will decide the winning group.

Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues.

Michael Carbonaro, an experienced magician, performs illusions and magic tricks on unsuspecting people in everyday situations.

Abby O'Brien Winters returns to Chesapeake Shores when she receives a panicked phone call from her younger sister Jess, who has renovated the charming Inn at Eagle Point. The Maryland town her father built has many sad memories and Abby, thanks to her demanding career, divorce and young daughters of nine and seven years of age, has not had time to spare. Saving the inn from foreclosure means dealing not only with her fractured family but also with Trace Riley, the man she left ten years ago. Trace initially poses an obstacle but becomes an unexpected ally and a second chance at finding love.

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