Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

Loughlin Sullivan

Delaney Knopp

Auriel W

Blake Molmen

Dani Shahar

Luis Javier Campos nieto

　　那天，六死一傷。　　先是母親和外婆，再來是三名試圖阻止的路人和一名警察，最後則是那名男子。　　他選擇了自己做為胡亂揮刀下的最後一名被害者，在救護車趕到之前，就已宣告死亡。　　而我，只是靜靜看著這一切發生在我眼前。　　一如往常，那樣面無表情地。　　每個人的腦袋裡都有一組構造，大小、形狀跟杏仁差不多，因此被稱為「杏仁核」。　　受到外部刺激時，杏仁核會亮起紅燈，　　根據不同的刺激性質，我們會感覺到喜歡或討厭、不安或害怕。　　但我的杏仁核好像壞掉了，受到刺激也沒有絲毫反應。　　醫生說這是「述情障礙」，所以我不太了解為什麼別人會笑或哭，　　母親和外婆嘗試了各種方法想治好我，　　但對我來說，開心和難過，都只是抽象的概念；　　對我來說，情緒和同感，都只是模糊的印刷字體。　　外婆為了保護我而死，母親成了植物人，我卻連一滴眼淚都無法報答。　　兇手的遺書寫著「今天笑著的人，都將跟我一起離開」，　　是我的異常救了我，　　從那天起，我變成別人眼裡的「怪物」，沒血沒淚，冷酷無情。　　直到我遇見另一個怪物。　　坤，他擁有所有我失去的東西，優渥的家境、健康的家人、張牙舞爪的感情。　　他就像是正相反的我，總是克制不了情緒，對人暴力相向。　　坤把折磨我當成新的樂趣，拳打腳踢，從不手軟，　　但如果坤想要的，是在我的臉上找到一絲表情變化，那他永遠贏不了我。　　我想知道在他殘忍暴力的偽裝下，是不是也有隻躲在暗處啜泣的弱獸；　　我想知道在我無動於衷的表情下，是不是也有能與人同哭同笑的按鈕。　　我想要拯救他。　　還是真正渴望被拯救的，其實是我？　　《杏仁》是兩位少年的成長故事，從初見面的水火不容，到終能在相處的過程中舐拭對方的傷口，互相拯救彼此。這本書帶給冷漠的現代社會沉重的一擊，模糊了「正常」和「異常」的界線，告訴我們，只要有人理解，即使是「怪物」，也能蛻變成為他人的救贖。正如作者所說：「我認為人類之所以會成為人，或是成為怪物，兩者都是源自於愛。我想寫一個這樣的故事。」

Novel School Nurse Ahn Eunyoung, akan segera dibuat menjadi serial di Neflix.Ahn Eunyoung adalah perawat sekolah yang ceria, ramah, dan sangat antusias dengan pekerjaannya. Ia juga suka berlarian ke sana kemari dengan mengenakan sandal bersol tebal sambil menghunuskan pistol BB dan pedang plastik warna-warni. Itu karena Ahn Eunyoung bukan perawat sekolah biasa. Ia adalah pemusnah roh jahat. Dan ia sudah merasakan firasat buruk sejak pertama kali menginjakkan kaki di SMA M.Hong Inpyo, guru Sastra Klasik di SMA M sekaligus cucu kesayangan almarhum pendiri sekolah, tidak pernah mengerti kenapa kakeknya berkeras agar ia tetap bekerja di sekolah itu dan memastikan tidak ada bangunan baru yang didirikan di atas tanahnya selain bangunan-bangunan yang berhubungan dengan sekolah. Ketika hal-hal aneh mulai terjadi, ia dan Eunyoung harus bekerja sama untuk menguak rahasia-rahasia yang tersembunyi di balik dinding-dinding sekolah.

공감 불능 사회, 차가움을 녹이는 아몬드매혹적인 문체, 독특한 캐릭터, 속도감 넘치는 전개! “고통과 공감의 능력을 깨우치게 할 강력한 소설”영화보다 강렬하고 드라마처럼 팽팽한, 완전히 새로운 소설이 나타났다. ‘감정을 느끼지 못하는’ 소년의 특별한 성장 이야기로, 첫 장부터 강렬한 사건으로 시작해 다음 페이지가 궁금해지게 만드는 흡입력 강한 작품이다. 또한 타인의 감정에 무감각해진 ‘공감 불능’인 이 시대에 큰 울림을 주는 소설로, 작품 속 인물들이 타인과 관계 맺고 슬픔에 공감하며 성장해 나가는 과정을 탁월하게 묘사했다. 영화처럼 펼쳐지는 극적인 사건과 매혹적인 문체로 독자를 단숨에 사로잡을 것이다. 『완득이』 『위저드 베이커리』를 잇는 제10회 창비청소년문학상 수상작. 『아몬드』의 주인공 ‘윤재’는 감정을 느끼는 데 어려움을 겪는 독특한 캐릭터다. 다른 사람의 말과 행동의 이면을 읽어 내지 못하고 공포도 분노도 잘 느끼지 못하는 윤재는 ‘평범하게’ 살아가려고 가까스로 버텨 오고 있다. 엄마에게서 남이 웃으면 따라 웃고, 호의를 보이면 고맙다고 말하는 식의 ‘주입식’ 감정 교육을 받기도 한다. 세상을 곧이곧대로만 보는 아이, ‘괴물’이라고 손가락질받던 윤재는 어느 날 비극적인 사건을 맞아 가족을 잃게 되면서 이 세상에 홀로 남는다. 그런데 모든 것을 잃었다고 생각하던 순간에 윤재 곁에 새로운 인연이 다가온다. 어두운 상처를 간직한 아이 ‘곤이’나 그와 반대로 맑은 감성을 지닌 아이 ‘도라’, 윤재를 돕고 싶어 하는 ‘심 박사’ 등이 그러한 인물들이다. 윤재와 이들 사이에서 펼쳐지는 이야기는 우리로 하여금 타인의 감정을 이해한다는 것이 얼마나 어려운지, 그럼에도 얼마나 소중한 일인지 다시 한번 생각해 보게 한다. 상실을 애도할 시간, 감정을 보듬을 여유를 잃어버린 채 살고 있는 독자들은 윤재를 응원하면서 자신의 마음 또한 되돌아볼 기회를 얻을 것이다. 윤재의 덤덤한 어조는 역설적으로 읽는 이의 가슴을 더욱 슬프게 저미며, 독자는 이 작품을 통해 깊고 진실한 감정의 고양을 경험할 수 있을 것이다.

This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster. One of the monsters is me.Yunjae was born with a brain condition called Alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends—the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that—but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you," and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space.Then on Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae. Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people—including a girl at school—something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero. The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

A three-time winner of Goodreads Choice AwardsSixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything. Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone.Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.

Jeong Yoon is a caring wife and mother and a sensitive woman who finds herself plunged into a legal ordeal thousands of miles from home. After years of planning, she and her husband Jong Bae open an auto body repair shop, only to see everything they've worked for stripped away when a loan Jong Bae had guaranteed defaults. Facing financial despondency, the couple gets into a vicious fight about money, sending Jeong Yeon away, leaving only a cryptic note saying she'll be back in a few days. When she turns up looking nervous at Orly Airport in Paris with over 30 kilograms of cocaine in her luggage, it is the beginning of a globe-spanning nightmare that began with an old friend and a tempting proposition.

Steph, an Afrikaner, struggles with his past and heritage in the new South Africa. When his girlfriend befriends a black South African man called Vusisizwe trouble brews.

32-year-old Ichiko (Sakura Ando) lives at home with her parents, passing the days in self-indulgent grunginess. Ichiko's recently divorced younger sister Fumiko has moved back home with her young son. One day, after a particularly heated argument, Ichiko charges out of the house for good. With few employment options to support herself, Ichiko works the night shift at a 100 yen shop (dollar store). On her way home each day she passes a boxing gym where she watches Yuji Kano (Hirofumi Arai) silently practice, developing a crush on him. The pair starts seeing each other and things change for Ichiko... At last, the bell rings and longtime loser Ichiko's rematch with life begins!

Inseparable best friends and cousins Autumn and Skylar precariously navigate the vulnerability of female adolescence in rural Pennsylvania. When Autumn mysteriously falls pregnant, she's confronted by conservative legislation without mercy for blue-collar women seeking abortions. With Skylar's unfailing support and bold resourcefulness, money to fund the procedure is secured and the duo board a bus bound for New York state to find the help Autumn needs.

Mouchette's a young girl living in the country. Her mother's dying and her father doesn't take care of her. Mouchette remains silent in the face of the humiliations she undergoes. One night, she meets Arsene, the village poacher, who thinks he's just killed the local policeman. He tries to use Mouchette to build an alibi.

Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending 6 years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of "Nobody Knows", "Still Walking" and "I Wish", returns to the big screen with another family - a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born... Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not 'their' son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby. Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between 'nature' and 'nurture.' Seeing Midori's devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a 'father' all these years...

Han Gong-Ju is taken to a home in an unfamiliar area. The home belongs to her former high school teacher's mother. The mother wants to know why her son is leaving Han Gong-Ju there, even if he promises she will be there for only a week. An investigation is ongoing back in Han Gong-Ju's hometown. Can Han Gong-Ju escape from her past?

Quite by accident, a film director arrives in town a day early. With time to kill before his lecture the next day, he stops by a restored, old palace and meets a fledgling artist. She's never seen any of his films, but knows he's famous. They talk. And together, they go to her workshop to look at her paintings, have Sushi and Soju. More conversation follows, and drinks, and then an awkward get-together with friends where all sorts of secrets are revealed. All the while, they may or may not be falling for each other. Then, quite unexpectedly, we begin again, but now things appear somewhat different.

2015 South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo

Lonely widower Professor Walter Vale has a boring life in Connecticut. He teaches only one class at the local college and is trying to learn how to play the piano, despite lacking the necessary musical talent. Walter is assigned to attend a conference about Global Policy and Development at New York University and give a lecture about a paper he co-authored. When he arrives at his New York apartment, he finds Tarek Khalil, a Syrian musician, and Zainab, a Senegalese street vendor, living there. He sympathizes with the illegal immigrants' situation and invites the couple to stay with him. Tarek invites him to go to his gig at Jules Live Jazz. Walter is fascinated with his African drum and Tarek offers to teach Walter how to play it. However, after an incident in the subway, Tarek is arrested and sent to a detention center for illegal immigrants. Walter has just hired a lawyer to defend Tarek when, out of the blue, Tarek's mother Mouna arrives at the apartment from Michigan. He invites her to stay in Tarek's room, and while trying to get Tarek released, Walter and Mouna get close to each other and he finds reasons to feel life can be exciting and worth living again.

In Tokyo, the reckless single mother Keiko moves to a small apartment with her twelve years old son Akira Fukushima and his siblings Shigeru and Yuki. Kyoko, another sibling arrives later by train. The children have different fathers and do not have schooling, but they have a happy life with their mother. When Keiko finds a new boyfriend, she leaves the children alone, giving some money to Akira and assigning him to take care of his siblings. When the money runs out, Akira manages to find means to survive with the youngsters without power supply, gas or water at home, and with the landlord asking for the rent.

An official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, The Selfish Giant is a contemporary fable about 13 year old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighborhood, the two boys meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrap dealer. Wandering their town with just a horse and a cart, they begin collecting scrap metal for him. Swifty has a natural gift with horses while Arbor emulates Kitten - keen to impress him and make some money. However, Kitten favors Swifty, leaving Arbor feeling hurt and excluded, driving a wedge between the boys. As Arbor becomes increasingly greedy and exploitative, tensions build, leading to a tragic event that transforms them all.

A sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.

music

movies

books

Active tastebuds