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Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". (Nine Stories is the U.S. title; the book is published in many other countries as For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories.)The stories are:"A Perfect Day for Bananafish""Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut""Just Before the War with the Eskimos""The Laughing Man""Down at the Dinghy""For Esmé – with Love and Squalor""Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes""De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period""Teddy"

I've only read the original, which in some respects is auto-biographical, in that Vonnegut was a prisoner-of-war in Dresden, and survived the Dresden firebombing. My interest in this is that my grandmother also survived the Dresden bombing, in a building that was the only one still standing for blocks in every direction. The bombing was an allied payback for the equally senseless German bombing of Coventry. The latter was allowed to happen so the Germans would not be tipped off that the British had broken the Luftwaffe Enigma code, by efforts that involved Alan Turing and many others at Benchley Park more of less in the center of England.Now Dresden and Coventry are sister cities, and the famous Frauenkirche in Dresden (which was meticulously restored only after the reunification of Germany after the Soviet Union collapsed) is crowned by an Angel blowing a trumpet. This Angel was fashioned by a craftsman from Coventry, whose father had been in one of the British bombers, where it was said that during the raid one could read maps illuminated by the inferno below.This has little to do with Vonnegut's book, but to tell more about it would be a spoiler. At least one film was made of the book, but there is no substitute to reading the original. (I guess now I have to read the book mentioned above...)

"Below the hill grows a field of high Indian grass that changes color with the seasons: go to see it in the fall, late September, when it has gone red as sunset, when scarlet shadows like firelight breeze over it and the autumn winds strum on its dry leaves sighing human music, a harp of voices."As a child, did you ever dream of owning a tree house? I know I sure did. We never had the right kind of tree for it though, so instead us kids would improvise with blankets, hedges, maybe a chair or two, and build what we thought were some pretty complex outdoor forts. We’d drag in pillows and sleeping bags, books, toys, play cooking pots and utensils, and some snacks. Countless hours of pure bliss would be spent in these makeshift homes, until we were called in to wash up for dinner. Now, as an adult, I wish once again for a tree house into which I could escape! Well, it’s a dream once more, and I don’t even have a neat substitute like my childhood forts. This lovely novella, however, took me to a house in the trees for a short time and I loved every minute of it. No longer feeling welcome in her sister Verena’s home, Dolly Talbo strikes out with her long-time companion, Catherine, for the woods. The two spinster ladies bring along Dolly’s sixteen year old orphaned nephew, Collin Fenwick, a boy on the cusp of manhood. All three are essentially misfits (that misfit song by Burl Ives kept running through my head). Together they form a little family and home of sorts up in the branches and leaves of the China tree when joined by local ‘bad boy’, Riley Henderson, and Judge Charlie Cool, a philosophical old man that after years of passing judgment on others, wants the freedom to do the ‘right thing’. I adored all of these characters for different reasons, and Truman Capote breathes life into each of them. There was something about Dolly that seemed almost otherworldly when described through the eyes of Collin. "… she had the subterranean intelligence of a bee that knows where to find the sweetest flower: she could tell you of a storm a day in advance, predict the fruit of the fig tree, lead you to mushrooms and wild honey, a hidden nest of guinea hen eggs. She looked around her, and felt what she saw."I don’t want to spoil this by telling you too much of what happens in that tree house. I will say that there are some wonderful little lessons about belonging, and love, and the choices we make. The prose is luminous, and the dialogue is smart and often humorous. As the story is told by an older Collin looking back many years, the tone is very nostalgic. I nearly believed he was recounting one of my own childhood memories. I could hear the voices of the grass harp telling me their stories. I highly recommend you take your own little adventure to the China tree. You won’t regret it."… ah, the energy we spend hiding from one another, afraid as we are of being identified. But here we are, identified: five fools in a tree. A great piece of luck provided we know how to use it: no longer any need to worry about the picture we present – free to find out who we truly are."

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.

A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.

A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy's father dies.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (French: Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, lit. 'Portrait of the Young Lady on Fire') is a 2019 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma, starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. Set in France in the late 18th century, the film tells the story of a lesbian affair between an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait.Portrait of a Lady on Fire was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The film won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes. The film was theatrically released in France on 18 September 2019.

It chronicles four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

A man attempting to escape occupied France falls in love with the wife of a dead author whose identity he has assumed.

In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.

Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.

2008 British-American comedy-drama film directed by Martin McDonagh

When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.

2004 Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki

A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.

Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.

A woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child.

While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.

As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their 

Mauvais Sang, also known as The Night Is Young, is Leos Carax's second film. Released in 1986, the film played at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival before being nominated for three César Awards and winning the Prix Louis-Delluc. The film sold 504,803 tickets in France. The title refers to Arthur Rimbaud's eponymous poem in A Season in Hell.

In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper.

Distrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.

Dreams is a 1990 magical realist anthology film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Chishū Ryū, Mieko Harada and Mitsuko Baisho. It was inspired by actual recurring dreams that Kurosawa said he had repeatedly. It was his first film in 45 years in which he was the sole author of the screenplay. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, Dreams was made five years after Ran, with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and funded by Warner Bros. The film was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, and has consistently received positive reviews.

In the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces.

2003 Russian drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Famous writer Alexander is very ill and has little time left to live. He meets a little boy on the street, who is an illegal immigrant from Albania, and goes on a journey with him to take the boy home.

1998 film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos

When a young boy disappears, his mother, a police chief and his friends must confront terrifying supernatural forces in order to get him back.

American science fiction horror Netflix series

Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

A family saga with a supernatural twist, set in a German town, where the disappearance of two young children exposes the relationships among four families.

A comedy series adapted from the award-winning play about a young woman trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy.

Follows Marianne and Connell, from different backgrounds but the same small town in Ireland, as they weave in and out of each other's romantic lives.

Ten television drama films, each one based on one of the Ten Commandments.

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