Jaspreet Singh

Hector Jaime Oropesa

aasta Haukland

Jayden

Alokym ya Bassa

Joseph Greer

Catalina Olmos

George Balaskas

Ojasw Upadhyay

Taylor Robinson

Carly Hylton

Daniel Mariani

Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous, sensible, incapable of jealousy or any other major sin. That makes her sound like an insufferable goody-goody, but the truth is she's a completely hip character who ,if provoked, is not above skewering her antagonist with a piece of her exceptionally sharp, yet always polite, 18th-century wit. The real point of the book though, the critical question which will keep you fixated throughout, is: will Elizabeth and Mr Darcy hook up? Read this genuine all-time classic and discover the answer while enjoying a story that has charmed generation after generation.

In this compelling book, the authors present an innovative therapeutic model for understanding and treating adults from emotionally abusive or neglectful families? families the authors call narcissistic. Narcissistic families have a parental system that is, for whatever reason (job stress, alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, physical disability, lack of parenting skills, self-centered immaturity), primarily involved in getting its own needs met. The children in such narcissistic family systems try to earn love, attention and approval by satisfying their parents' needs, thus never developing the ability to recognize their own needs or create strategies for getting them met. By outlining the theoretical framework of their model and using dozens of illustrative clinical examples, the authors clearly illuminate specific practice guidelines for treating these individuals.  Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman is a therapist, consultant, and trainer. She is known for her work with dysfunctional families, particularly with survivors of incest. Robert M. Pressman is the editor-in-chief and president of the Joint Commission for the Development of the Treatment and Statistical Manual for Behavioral and Mental Disorders.

I have Complex PTSD [Cptsd] and wrote this book from the perspective of someone who has experienced a great reduction of symptoms over the years. I also wrote it from the viewpoint of someone who has discovered many silver linings in the long, windy, bumpy road of recovering from Cptsd. I felt encouraged to write this book because of thousands of e-mail responses to the articles on my website that repeatedly expressed gratitude for the helpfulness of my work. An often echoed comment sounded like this: At last someone gets it. I can see now that I am not bad, defective or crazy...or alone! The causes of Cptsd range from severe neglect to monstrous abuse. Many survivors grow up in houses that are not homes - in families that are as loveless as orphanages and sometimes as dangerous. If you felt unwanted, unliked, rejected, hated and/or despised for a lengthy portion of your childhood, trauma may be deeply engrained in your mind, soul and body. This book is a practical, user-friendly self-help guide to recovering from the lingering effects of childhood trauma, and to achieving a rich and fulfilling life. It is copiously illustrated with examples of my own and my clients' journeys of recovering. This book is also for those who do not have Cptsd but want to understand and help a loved one who does. This book also contains an overview of the tasks of recovering and a great many practical tools and techniques for recovering from childhood trauma. It extensively elaborates on all the recovery concepts explained on my website, and many more. However, unlike the articles on my website, it is oriented toward the layperson. As such, much of the psychological jargon and dense concentration of concepts in the website articles has been replaced with expanded and easier to follow explanations. Moreover, many principles that were only sketched out in the articles are explained in much greater detail. A great deal of new material is also explored. Key concepts of the book include managing emotional flashbacks, understanding the four different types of trauma survivors, differentiating the outer critic from the inner critic, healing the abandonment depression that come from emotional abandonment and self-abandonment, self-reparenting and reparenting by committee, and deconstructing the hierarchy of self-injuring responses that childhood trauma forces survivors to adopt. The book also functions as a map to help you understand the somewhat linear progression of recovery, to help you identify what you have already accomplished, and to help you figure out what is best to work on and prioritize now. This in turn also serves to help you identify the signs of your recovery and to develop reasonable expectations about the rate of your recovery. I hope this map will guide you to heal in a way that helps you to become an unflinching source of kindness and self-compassion for yourself, and that out of that journey you will find at least one other human being who will reciprocally love you well enough in that way.

We rely on science to tell us everything from what to eat to when and how long to exercise, but what about relationships? Is there a scientific explanation for why some people seem to navigate relationships effortlessly, while others struggle? According to psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller, the answer is a resounding "yes."In Attached, Levine and Heller reveal how an understanding of adult attachment-the most advanced relationship science in existence today-can help us find and sustain love. Pioneered by psychologist John Bowlby in the 1950s, the field of attachment posits that each of us behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways: Anxious people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back Avoidant people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness. Secure people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving.In this book Levine and Heller guide readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (or potential mate) follow, offering a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections with the people they love.

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The story is based on Jane Austen's novel about five sisters - Jane (Rosamund Pike), Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), Mary (Talulah Riley), Kitty (Carey Mulligan), and Lydia Bennet (Jena Malone) - in Georgian England. Their lives are turned upside down when wealthy young Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) and his best friend, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), arrive in their neighborhood.

In Jasper National Park, the wolves, Kate and Humphrey, have known each other since puppyhood, but they are on the oppose ends of the Western Pack's social structure with Kate as the energetic Alpha daughter of the pack leader and Humphrey being the good humoured Omega. That social structure forces Kate to accept an arranged marriage with Garth of the Eastern Pack to unite the packs for peace, regardless of Humphrey's hopeless attraction for her. Before that union can occur, Kate and Humphrey are captured by the park's rangers and sent to an Idaho park as part of a wolf repopulation project. Mindful of her duties, Kate is determined to return to Jasper and Humphrey offers to help with the assistance of two odd geese. However, as this disparate pair struggle through the dangers to get home, a growing mutual appreciation of their talents and then a deeper love threatens to disastrously complicate everything if they make it back.

2010 American computer animated comedy drama film

The little swift Manou grows up believing he's a seagull. Learning to fly he finds out he never will be. Shocked, he runs away from home. He meets birds of his own species and finds out who he really is. When both seagulls and swifts face a dangerous threat, Manou becomes the hero of the day.

Set in a bustling bird city on the edge of the majestic Victoria Falls, "Zambezia" is the story of Kai, a naïve, but high-spirited young falcon who travels to the bird city of "Zambezia", where he discovers the truth about his origins and, in defending the city, learns how to be part of a community.

2012 South African 3D computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film

When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs, and imaginations of children all over the world.

A Persian sailor named Sinbad is on a quest to find the magical legendary Book of Peace, a mysterious artifact that Eris, the wicked Greek goddess of chaos, has ultimately framed him for stealing. If he fails on this quest, his childhood friend Prince Proteus of Syracuse will take Sinbad's death penalty while Eris gains a desired foothold of power in the world of mortals.

2003 film by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore

On Christmas Eve, Niko the young reindeer must find his little brother who has gone missing. But in order to save Christmas, it's going to take a lot of help from Niko's friends in order to save the day. While on his epic journey to save his brother, Niko learns the importance of friendship and family, in this heartwarming Holiday tale that all ages will enjoy.

2012 film directed by Kari Juusonen and Jørgen Lerdam

Magic dogs and an elf team up with two children to rescue Santa who has lost his memory.

Charlie and Itchy have return to Earth to find Gabriel's Horn, but along the way they meet up with a sweet young boy named David, who ran away from home. And a beautiful Irish setter named Sasha LaFleur set them straight. But time is running out, and if Charlie is going to secure the valuable horn, he will have to prove himself worthy of his wings by taking on two incredible villains in a hair-raising, breathtaking race to the finish. Gordon Freeman dies at the end.

In the age-old battle between cats and dogs, one crazed feline has taken things a paw too far. Kitty Galore, formerly an agent for cat spy organization M.E.O.W.S., has gone rogue and hatched a diabolical plan to not only bring her canine enemies to heel, but also take down her former kitty comrades and make the world her scratching post. Faced with this unprecedented threat, cats and dogs will be forced to join forces for the first time in history in an unlikely alliance to save themselves, and their humans.

Ever since his adventure in the center of the Earth, Sean Anderson has been looking for other places mentioned by Verne and other Vernians. He is notified about a coded message, and breaks into a satellite facility to fully receive it. With the help from his stepfather Hank (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) he decodes the message leading him to find the map that leads him to Verne's mysterious island. Along with Gabato and Kailani, Sean embarks on a mission to find his grandfather, the legendary Vernian Alexander. But unexpected problems arise as Alexander made a mistake that could change everything.

A secret war between cats and dogs quickly peaks as Professor Brody a scientist tries to create a serum to cure dog allergies in humans. As the unsuspecting humans go through their busy lives, the cats make several attempts to possess the formula, as their canine foes try tirelessly to stop them. Caught in the crossfire, a young beagle named Lou, adopted by the Brody family, tries hard to succeed as a secret agent, and in being a friend to the young Scotty Brody. A evil snow white cat named Mr. Tinkles is planning to sabotage the efforts of Professor Brody to discover a cure for human allergies to dogs. And he'll even make every person on Earth allergic to dogs so that he can take over the world with his army of evil cats!

A bomb-sniffing beagle is fired from the mayor's office for a faux pas. That night a mad scientist dognaps him and injects him with an elixir. The dog escapes, but now has superpowers. He's adopted by a security guard - an ex-cop, who's a widower with a moody teen son, Jack. The boy discovers that the dog, named Shoeshine by dad, has super powers, but it's their little secret. While Underdog saves people in distress, the mad scientist and his underling continue their plot to catch him and take over the city. There's also a girl Jack likes who has a dog that Shoeshine takes a shine to. Will every dog have his day?

The son of a sailor, 5-year-old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.

2008 Japanese animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki

The plot of the film has a grandfather telling his grand kids the story of Maki, a young boy who escapes from slave traders, befriends a giraffe (the title character), cross the desert, meet a pirate, and a few other things on a trip that takes him from Africa to Paris.

2012 animated film directed by Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie

Edinburgh, late 19th century. Little Jack is born on a day so cold that his heart remains frozen. Madeleine the midwife replaces his heart with a cuckoo-clock. It will work, as long as Jack follows the rules, mainly not falling in love. But his encounter with a fiery-eyed girl singing on a street corner and his decision to chase after her will test the resistance of his makeshift heart to the breaking point - Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a magnificent love story set in an exciting period full of fabulous inventions, eccentric characters and fantastic adventures. Adapted by

2013 film by Mathias Malzieu and Stéphane Berla

In a little village somewhere in Africa, a boy named Kirikou is born. But he's not a normal boy, because he knows what he wants very well. Also he already can speak and walk. His mother tells him how an evil sorceress has dried up their spring and devoured all males of the village except of one. Hence little Kirikou decides, he will accompany the last warrior to the sorceress. Due to his intrepidity he may be the last hope of the village.

It's a catastrophe! A flood has hit our planet and an unusual group of people are all that remains. Led by Ferdinand, a modern day Noah, this little group have managed to defy the furiously raging elements. People and animals alike are dragged through this incredible whirlpool of an adventure.

2003 Long feature animated film by Jacques-Rémy Girerd

The strange little guy in the blue hood is well known to Krosmoz. His name is Joris and he's proposing to take you on a fantastic adventure. Our hero is leading a happy life in his magic shop in the city of Bonta. But one day, when he seeks out his idol, a Gobbowl superstar, everything changes for the worst as Julith, the vengeful witch, is back in town!

2016 French animated film directed by Jean-Jacques Denis and Anthony Roux

From Mark Osborne comes the first-ever animated feature film adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's iconic masterpiece, The Little Prince. At the heart of it all is The Little Girl, who's being prepared by her mother for the very grown-up world in which they live - only to be interrupted by her eccentric, kind-hearted neighbor, The Aviator. The Aviator introduces his new friend to an extraordinary world where anything is possible. A world that he himself was initiated into long ago by The Little Prince. It's here that The Little Girl's magical and emotional journey into her own imagination - and into the universe of The Little Prince - begins. And it's where The Little Girl rediscovers her childhood and learns that ultimately, it's human connections that matter most, and that what's truly essential can only be seen with the heart.

The little prince, who lives on a tiny asteroid with his beloved rose, travels with his only friend, a talking fox, through the galaxy. He lands at planets where the serpent and its black thoughts are suspected to have arrived earlier, each time inspiring or exacerbating a bitter, needless conflict among its human and/or population(s).

Scott McCall was just another kid in high school. Until, one night his best friend Stiles brings him to the woods, to look for a dead body, and Scott is bitten by a werewolf. Being a werewolf came with its perks- stronger, faster, new star in the lacrosse team, popularity- but also made it hard to control his anger. Scott has also fallen for the new girl in town, Allison, whose dad is trying to hunt and kill Scott. Scott now has to try and balance his out of control life, figure out how to control his new powers, try not to be killed by the alpha that bit him, and protect Allison- and keep her from finding out his big secret.

From Shondaland and Creator Chris Van Dusen, the first season of Bridgerton follows Daphne Bridgerton (Pheobe Dynevor), the eldest daughter of the powerful Bridgerton family as she makes her debut onto Regency London's competitive marriage market. Hoping to follow in her parent's footsteps and find a match sparked by true love, Daphne's prospects initially seem to be unrivaled. But as her older brother (Jonathan Bailey) begins to rule out her potential suitors, the high society scandal sheet written by the mysterious Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews) casts aspersions on Daphne. Enter the highly desirable and rebellious Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), committed bachelor and the catch of the season for the debutantes' mamas. Despite proclaiming that they want nothing the other has to offer, their attraction is undeniable and sparks fly as they find themselves engaged in an increasing battle of wits while navigating society's expectations for their future.

Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes gets shot and falls into a coma. When awoken he finds himself in a Zombie Apocalypse. Not knowing what to do he sets out to find his family, after he's done that, he gets connected to a group to become the leader. He takes charge and tries to help this group of people survive, find a place to live and get them food. This show is all about survival, the risks and the things you'll have to do to survive.

American post-apocalyptic drama television series

The main character, Endou Mamoru, is a very talented goalkeeper and the grandson of one of the strongest goalkeepers in Japan, who died before he was born. Even though his skills are incredible, his school lacks a real football club as the 6 other members don't appear interested in training at all. But as soon as a mysterious forward called Gouenji moves to Endou's town, the young goalkeeper sets out to find and recruit members for his football team. From there, Endou and his team play all over the world. His love for football leads him to win the Football Frontier Internationals, the biggest football championship.

Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tenya Yabuno

Japan keeps loosing the World Cup, over and over. After Isagi Yoichi, a forward for a high school team, gets eliminated in the last game in the qualifier for nationals, gets invited to a program called "Blue Lock" Their coach will be Ego Jinpachi, who intends to "destroy Japanese loser football" by introducing a radical new training regimen: isolate 300 young forwards in a prison-like institution called "Blue Lock" and put them through rigorous training aimed at creating "the world's greatest egotist striker."

A spin-off from The Vampire Diaries and set in New Orleans, The Originals centers on the Mikaelson siblings, otherwise known as the world's original vampires: Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies), and Rebekah (Claire Holt). Now Klaus must take down his protégé, Marcel (Charles Michael Davis), who is now in charge of New Orleans, in order to re-take his city, as he originally built New Orleans. Klaus departed from the city after being chased down by his father Mikael, while it was being constructed and Marcel took charge. As Klaus has returned after many years, his ego has provoked him to become the king of the city. "Every King needs an heir" says Klaus, accepting the unborn child. The child is a first to be born to a hybrid (part vampire, part werewolf) and a werewolf (Hayley).

2013 American supernatural drama television series

After centuries of quarreling, Stefan and Damon Salvatore return to their original town of Mystic Fall, Virginia. Stefan, the selfless, brave, guilt-ridden brother, meets a high school girl named Elena Gilbert whom he instantly falls in love with, while Damon, the gorgeous, dangerous and selfish vampire, is after his brother's girl to pay him back for making him turn into a vampire in 1864.

2009 American supernatural teen drama television series

For Emma Swan, life has been anything but a happy ending. But when she's reunited with Henry - the son she gave up for adoption ten years ago - on the night of her 28th birthday, everything changes. The now 10-year-old Henry is in desperate need of Emma's help because he believes from reading a book of fairy-tales that she's the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming - who sent her away from the Enchanted Forest to be protected from a curse that was enacted by the Evil Queen. Emma initially refuses to believe a word of Henry's story but soon finds that his hometown of Storybrooke, Maine is more than it seems. Because it's in Storybrooke that all of the classic characters we know are frozen in time with no memories of their former selves - except for the Evil Queen, who is Storybrooke's mayor and Henry's adoptive mother Regina Mills. Now, as the epic "Final Battle" for the future of both worlds approaches, Emma will have to accept her destiny and uncover the mystery behind a place where fairy-tales are to be believed.

Young Merlin (Colin Morgan) is a teenager, discovering and then learning to master his magical gift. Magister Gaius (Richard Wilson), King Uther Pendragon's (Anthony Head's) learned court physician to whom he's assigned as humble page, teaches him medicine, coaches his magical self-study, and warns him of Uther's strong aversion to magic. Merlin becomes squire to the noble but imprudent crown Prince, Arthur (Bradley James), whose fate is linked with Merlin.

2008 British fantasy-adventure television programme

Based on motives by the global best-seller of the same name by Patrick Suskind, the Perfume series shifts the action to the modern day and uses the book's idea of manipulating people through scent as a springing-off point. A young profiler investigating a series of brutal murders traces events back to a small cadre of boys at a boarding school who experimented with manipulating people using human scents.

In a small town where everyone knows everyone, a peculiar incident starts a chain of events that leads to the disappearance of a child, which begins to tear at the fabric of an otherwise peaceful community. Dark government agencies and seemingly malevolent supernatural forces converge on the town, while a few of the locals begin to understand that there's more going on than meets the eye.

American science fiction horror Netflix series

The first German production from the world's leading Internet TV Network is set in a present-day German town where the disappearance of two young children exposes the double lives and fractured relationships among four families. In 10 hour-long episodes, the story takes on a surprising twist that ties back to the same town in 1986.

When you go from the top of the pecking order in the looks department in high school and then fall to the bottom in adulthood, is it possible to get back on top? Kang Joo Eun (Shin Min Ah) was envied by every girl and desired by every boy in high school as the Daejeon Venus because of her pretty face and killer figure. Despite coming from a poor family, she was determined to go to law school and become an attorney. At age 33, she has achieved her professional goals and has been in a stable relationship with her high-school boyfriend Im Woo Sik (Jung Gyu Woon) for 15 years. But she has let herself go over the years and is now overweight and often disregarded and overlooked by her co-workers and society. On the plane ride back from a quick business trip to the United States, Joo Eun has an embarrassing run-in with Kim Yeong Ho (So Ji Sub) and his two sidekicks, Jang Joon Seong (Sung Hoon) and Kim Ji Woong (Henry). Yeong Ho is a celebrity personal trainer who is involved in a scandal in the United States and forced to flee to Korea until things cool down. But his wealthy family has other plans for him. As soon as they discover that he is back in Korea, his grandmother appoints him as the new president of the family medical-services company and prevents him from returning to the States. A lost purse causes Yeong Ho to reconnect with Joo Eun and witness another personal embarrassment for her in the aftermath of being dumped by Woo Sik and finding out that he has been dating her new boss, Oh Soo Jin (Yoo In Young). As it seems to become a habit for Yeong Ho to bail Joo Eun out of trouble, can he also help her to reclaim her former looks?

Kim Sa Bu once gained fame as a top surgeon at a huge hospital. One day, he left the industry, and now he is a chief surgeon at Doldam Hospital in the countryside. After he conducted a successful operation on Chairman Shin, he gets to improve the hospital under reliable support. But then Chairman Shin passes away. New people appear and his students had to leave the hospital. Furthermore, his wrist, which was injured three years ago, starts to act weird. After all, he goes to a huge hospital himself to solve the manpower shortage at Doldam Hospital, where he finds two people who resemble his former students but who seem much more lacking. Seo Woo Jin would do anything for money, and Cha Eun Jae runs out every time she goes into a surgery room. Will Kim Sa Bu be able to run Doldam Hospital with these two?

The series revolves around the narcissistic Lee Young Joon, the Vice Chairman of a company run by his family. He is very self-absorbed and thinks highly of himself, so much that he barely acknowledges the people around him. Lee Young Joon has a capable and patient secretary in Kim Mi So who has remained by his side and worked diligently for 9 years without any romantic involvement. However, Mi So now want to set her life and focus on herself so when she decides to resign from her job, hilarious misunderstandings ensue. After 9 years of their strictly-workplace relationship, can it now develop in something more?

As a child, Park Hoon (Lee Jong-suk) and his father were kidnapped by North Korea. In North Korea, Park Hoon was trained to become a doctor by his father who was already a famous doctor. Park Hoon became a genius thoracic surgeon. He deeply fell in love with Jae Hee (Jin Se-yeon) in his high school. Park Hoon's father then died and he tried to flee to South Korea with Jae Hee, but lost in contact with her and at the end, he fled to South Korea alone, while looking for Jae Hee. In South Korea, Park Hoon begins to work as doctor in a top hospital Myungwoo University Hospital. Meanwhile, he found a girl that looks exactly like Jae Hee, Doctor Han Seung Hee, who claimed to not know Park Hoon. Then it appears that she's involved in a secret mission with a man who hates Park Hoon back in North Korea.

Detective Tae Ho lost his younger sister to a barcode-murder case and lost his ability to taste, smell, and feel pain. He then meets Oh Cho Rim, the only witness to the murder case who possesses a special sense: she can see smells.

The legal drama centers around Jang Hye Sung, a brazen, sharp-tongued female attorney who says everything that comes to her mind with no filter. When she gets to the point in her career where it's hard to muster up any enthusiasm for her work, she teams up with the serious Cha Kwan Woo, a passionate public defender, and Park Soo Ha, a 19-year-old high-school student with a special ability to hear people's inner thoughts. Seldom she knew that she has a past conncetion with Park Soo Ha. Together, they also must face a killer with a personal vendetta that entwines all of their lives. Can they bring the dangerous man to justice?

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I don’t know what to do with these stars anymore. I give stars to books and then I think, ‘god, you give five stars to everything, people will think you are terribly undiscriminating’ – so then I give four stars or even three stars to some books. Then I look back and it turns out that that I’ve given four stars to Of Human Bondage and honestly, how could I possibly have thought it was a good idea to give that book less than five stars? It is the absurdity of human conventions that has us doing such things.Now, that is what is called a segue, from the Italian ‘seguire’ – to follow. For the last thirty years I have studiously avoided reading this book. I have done that because for the last thirty years I have known exactly what this book is about and there just didn’t seem any point in reading it. In high school friends (one of them even became my ex-wife) told me it was a great book about a man condemned to die because he was an outsider. Later I was told that this book was a story about something much like the Azaria Chamberlain case. A case where someone does not react in a way that is considered to be ‘socially appropriate’ and is therefore condemned.But after 30 years of avoiding reading this book I have finally relented and read it. At first I didn’t think I was going to enjoy it. It didn’t really get off to the raciest of starts and the character's voice – it is told in first person – was a bit dull. He is a man who lives entirely in the present, how terribly Buddhist of him – although, really there doesn’t seem to be all that much to him.My opinion of the book began to change at his mother’s funeral. I particularly liked the man who kept falling behind in the march to the cemetery and would take short cuts. Okay, so it is black humour, but Camus was more or less French – so black humour is more or less obligatory.I really hadn’t expected this book to be nearly so funny as it turned out. I’d always been told it was a ponderous philosophical text – and so, to be honest, I was expecting to be bored out of my skull. I wasn’t in the least bit bored.A constant theme in my life at present is that I read ‘classics’ expecting them to be about something and they end up being about something completely different. And given I’ve called this a ‘constant’ theme then you might think I would be less than surprised when a read a new ‘classic’ and it turns out to be completely different to my expectations. I’m a little more upset about this one than some of the others, as I’ve been told about this one before, repeatedly, and by people I’d have taken as ‘reputable sources’ – although, frankly, how well one should trust one’s ex-wife in such matters is moot.I had gotten the distinct impression from all of my previous discussions about this book that the guy ends up dead. In fact, this is not the case – he ends up at the point in his life where he has no idea if he will be freed or not. The Priest who comes to him at the end is actually quite certain that he will be freed. Let’s face it, he is only guilty of having murdered an Arab, and as we have daily evidence, Westerners can murder Arabs with complete impunity. The main point of the book to me is when he realises he is no longer ‘free’. He needs this explained to him – because life up until then had been about ‘getting used to things’ and one can 'get used to just about anything'. But the prison guard helpfully informs him that he is being ‘punished’ and the manifestation of that punishment is the removal of his ‘freedom’. Interestingly, he didn’t notice the difference between his past ‘free’ life and his current ‘unfree’ one. The most interesting part of the book to me was the very end, the conversation with the priest. The religious often make the mistake of thinking that Atheists are one thing – I’ve no idea how they ever came to make this mistake, but make it they do. Given that there are thousands upon thousands of different shades of Christians – from Jesuit Catholics to Anti-Disney Episcopalians – it should be fairly obvious that something like Atheism (without any ‘organised’ church or even system of beliefs) could not be in anyway ‘homogeneous’.I am definitely not the same kind of Atheist as Camus. To Camus there is no truth, the world is essentially absurd and all that exists is the relative truth an individual places on events and ideas. This makes the conversation with the priest fascinatingly interesting. To the priest the prisoner who is facing death is – by necessity – someone who is interested in God. You can play around with ideas like the non-existence of God when it doesn’t seem to matter (life is long and blasphemy can seem fun) – but surely when confronted with the stark truth of the human condition any man would turn away from their disbelief and see the shining light.Not this little black duck. Now, if I was in that cell I would have argued with the priest too – but I would not have argued in the same way that Meursault argues. No, I do not believe in God, but I do believe in truth, and so Camus’ arguments are barred to me.Meursault essentially says, “Look, I’m bored, I’m totally uninterested in the rubbish you are talking – now go away”. Now, this is a reasonable response. What is very interesting is that the priest cannot accept this as an answer. The world is not allowed to have such a person in it – if such a person really did exist then it would be a fundamental challenge to the core beliefs of the priest. So, he has to assume Meursault is either lying to him or is trying to taunt him. But it is much worse – he is absolutely sincere, he is not interested in this ‘truth’.I don’t know that the world is completely meaningless, it is conventional rather than meaningless. That those conventions are arbitrary (decided by the culture we grew up in) doesn’t make them meaningless, it makes them conventional. I don’t think I would like to live in a world where people go up and kill Arabs pretty much at random and with impunity, but then again, we have already established this is precisely the world I do live in. My point is that it would be better if we did adhere to some sort of moral principles and that these should be better principles than ‘he should be killed because he didn’t cry at his mum’s funeral’. Camus is seeking to say that all of our ‘moral principles’ in the end come to be as meaningless as that – we judge on the basis of what we see from the framework of our own limited experience. And look, yes, there is much to this – but this ends up being too easy.The thing I like most about Existentialism, though it isn’t really as evident in this book as it is in the actual philosophy – although this is something that Meursault is supposed to have grown to understand (sorry, just one more sub-clause) even though this wasn’t something I noticed at all while reading the book, was the notion of responsibility. I didn’t think in the end Meursault was all that much more ‘responsible’ for his actions than he had been at the start. But I do think that ‘responsibility’ is a key concept in morality and one that seems increasingly to be ignored.Better by far that we feel responsible for too much in our lives than too little – better by far that we take responsibility for the actions of our governments (say) than to call these governments ‘them’. I’m not advocating believing in The Secret - but that if one must err, better to err on the side of believing you have too much responsibility for how your life has turned out, rather than too little.So, what can I say? I enjoyed this much more than I expected – but I’m still glad I waited before reading it, I really don’t think I would have gotten nearly as much out of it at 15 as I did now.

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In 15th-century Paris, Clopin the puppeteer tells the story of Quasimodo, the misshapen but gentle-souled bell ringer of Notre Dame, who was nearly killed as a baby by Claude Frollo, the Minister of Justice. But Frollo was forced by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame to raise Quasimodo as his own. Now a young man, Quasimodo is hidden from the world by Frollo in the belltower of the cathedral. But during the Festival of Fools, Quasimodo, cheered on by his gargoyle friends Victor, Hugo, and Laverne, decides to take part in the festivities, where he meets the lovely gypsy girl Esmeralda and the handsome soldier Phoebus. The three of them find themselves ranged against Frollo's cruelty and his attempts to destroy the home of the gypsies, the Court of Miracles. And Quasimodo must desperately defend both Esmeralda and the very cathedral of Notre Dame.

1996 American animated musical drama film

The sea underworld is shaken up when the son of shark mob boss Don Lino (Robert De Niro) is found dead, and a young fish named Oscar (Will Smith) is found at the scene. Being a bottom feeder, Oscar takes advantage of the situation and makes himself look like he killed the finned mobster. Oscar soon comes to realize that his claim may have serious consequences.

2004 animated film by Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, and Rob Letterman

Tigger goes looking through the hundred-acre-wood to find his family.

2000 animated Disney film directed by Jun Falkenstein

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An elderly man reads the book "The Princess Bride" to his sick and thus currently bedridden adolescent grandson, the reading of the book which has been passed down within the family for generations. The grandson is sure he won't like the story, with a romance at its core, he prefers something with lots of action and "no kissing", but he lets grandfather continue, because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. The story centers on Buttercup, a former farm girl who has been chosen as the princess bride to Prince Humperdinck of Florian. Buttercup does not love him, she who still laments the death of her one true love, Westley, five years ago. Westley was a hired hand on the farm, his stock answer of "as you wish" to any request she made of him which she came to understand was his way of saying that he loved her. But Westley went away to sea, only to be killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. On a horse ride to clear her mind of her upcoming predicament of marriage, Buttercup is kidnapped by a band of bandits: Vizzini who works on his wits, and his two associates, a giant named Fezzik who works on his brawn, and a Spaniard named Inigo Montoya, who has trained himself his entire life to be an expert swordsman. They in turn are chased by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. But chasing them all is the Prince, and his men led by Count Tyrone Rugen. What happens to these collectives is dependent partly on Buttercup, who does not want to marry the Prince, and may see other options as lesser evils, and partly on the other motives of individuals within the groups. But a larger question is what the grandson will think of the story as it proceeds and at its end, especially as he sees justice as high a priority as action.

It was no ordinary life for a young girl: living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College and tearing unsupervised through Oxford's motley streets on mad quests for adventure. But Lyra's greatest adventure would begin closer to home, the day she heard hushed talk of an extraordinary particle. Microscopic in size, the magical dust--discovered in the vast Arctic expanse of the North--was rumored to possess profound properties that could unite whole universes. But there were those who feared the particle and would stop at nothing to destroy it. Catapulted into the heart of a terrible struggle, Lyra was forced to seek aid from clans, 'gyptians, and formidable armored bears. And as she journeyed into unbelievable danger, she had not the faintest clue that she alone was destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle...

Once upon a time, upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother Helen (Mary-Louise Parker), twin brothers Jared (Freddie Highmore) and Simon Grace (Freddie Highmore), along with their sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger), find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of fairies and other creatures. Unable to explain the strange disappearances and accidents that seem to be happening on a daily basis, the family blames it all on Jared. When he, Simon, and Mallory investigate what's really going on, they uncover the fantastic truth of the Spiderwick estate and of the creatures that inhabit it.

Growing up in the Redneck country isn't easy for shy Jess Aarons, with a father struggling to make ends meet, three arrogant bigger sisters and a 'baby' he has to take to school and watches generally. In class he bonds with cheeky newcomer Leslie Burke, whose scientist parents moved into the neighboring villa, despite her taking his only local prestige by beating him in the race. Wandered off after school in the woods, they invent a fantasy land Terabithia, where they can be the superheroes of imaginary feral races. Together they also stand up against school bullies, but then tragedy strikes and Jess must adjust again.

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