Elena Rainn

KRKY Y

Kyrsten Iris

Coen Van loo

_ eshago@uw.edu

Watashi Wa Jigabudesu

Roman Bryzhatiy

Karl Halmos-Westram

Timothy Galvin

Jackie

Ljsly Bernard

Ruby Brown

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

Ten tales, from the computer-enhanced hustlers of Johnny Mnemonic to the technofetishist blues of Burning Chrome. Johnny Mnemonic (1981)The Gernsback Continuum (1981)Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)The Belonging Kind (1981) with John ShirleyHinterlands (1981)Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce SterlingNew Rose Hotel (1984)The Winter Market (1985)Dogfight (1985) with Michael SwanwickBurning Chrome (1982)

William Gibson, author of the extraordinary multiaward-winning novel Neuromancer, has written his most brilliant and thrilling work to date... The Mona Lisa Overdrive. Enter Gibson's unique world - lyric and mechanical, erotic and violent, sobering and exciting - where multinational corporations and high tech outlaws vie for power, traveling into the computer-generated universe known as cyberspace. Into this world comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled... or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yakuza, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes... or so they think.

A corporate mercenary wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him, for a mission more dangerous than the one he’s recovering from: to get a defecting chief of R&amp;D—and the biochip he’s perfected—out intact. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties—some of whom aren’t remotely human...

An alternate cover edition can be found here.An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. Until something goes wrong. . . .--back cover

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

So, how do you rate a war memoir? Literary merit? Hardly. Consider: there are numerous scenes in here that would have been considered over-the-top or unrealistic had you come across them in a fictional setting. Problem is: this really happened (or at least there is no reason to doubt the book's claim to authenticity). No dramatic flourishes here either; it's a fact-by-fact, straight as a razor, recounting of events. It is imperative that you read the introduction by Martin Blumenson since it sheds some light on one or two inconsistencies (if you're the nit-picking type), taking into account that the author, as a frontline soldier, wasn't always aware of the bigger picture and is recounting events as he himself remembers them. This is his truth, and what a truth it is!What this book sets out to do, it does exceptionally well. It's a snapshot, from a paratrooper's point of view, of those first chaotic hours of the invasion of France. If ever you've harboured some doubt that war is indeed hell, then this book should set you straight fairly quickly. It's often a harrowing read, especially since the events are (for the most part) depicted rather dispassionately.As an intimate, first hand, account of men at war, I doubt if you could go wrong with this novel. There are some pretty bizarre situations in here, and the mind-set of the airborne soldier in 1944 takes some getting used to, but it was quite literally a case of desperate situations calling for desperate measures. These were people (boys) who were trained with one purpose in mind: killing! And kill they did (they were referred to by the Germans as the Butchers mit big pockets). Many of them died too. Read this and weep. 

A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, 'Storm of Steel' illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict, but more importantly as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure.Published shortly after the war's end, 'Storm of Steel' was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmann's brilliant new translation.

One by one the boys begin to fall…In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick AwardsCase was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.Alternate cover for ISBN: 9780441569595

Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.

Renowned social psychologist and creator of the "Stanford Prison Experiment," Philip Zimbardo explores the mechanisms that make good people do bad things, how moral people can be seduced into acting immorally, and what this says about the line separating good from evil.The Lucifer Effect explains how—and the myriad reasons why—we are all susceptible to the lure of “the dark side.” Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women. Here, for the first time and in detail, Zimbardo tells the full story of the Stanford Prison Experiment, the landmark study in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards” and “inmates” and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week, the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. He replaces the long-held notion of the “bad apple” with that of the “bad barrel”—the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around.

Conquer with character in Apex Legends, a free-to-play Battle Royale shooter where legendary characters with powerful abilities team up to battle for fame and f...

The classic first person shooter from Crytek is back with the action-packed gameplay, sandbox world, and thrilling epic battles you loved the first time around....

Black Ops Cold War will drop fans into the depths of the Cold War's volatile geopolitical battle of the early 1980s. Nothing is ever as it seems in a gripping s...

WWII - a breathtaking experience that redefines World War II for a new gaming generation. Land in Normandy...

Prepare to go dark, Modern Warfare® is back! The stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal Tier One operators in a heart-racing saga...

Modern Warfare 2, with a campaign storyline continuing the s...

As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3,...

The world needs saving and only the best of the best can do it! Rogue Company is the third-person tactical action shooter that puts the fate of the world in yo...

Welcome to the beautiful fantasy world of Teyvat. Step into a huge open-world of adventure and mystery, where heroic quests await. As a traveller from another w...

With 2 brand-new destinations to explore, and new weapons, armour and Supers to acquire, Forsaken takes players on an epic journey into the wild frontiers of ou...

the people are being oppressed by an all-seeing surveillance state, a corrupt private military corporation co...

In Destiny 2, the last safe city on Earth has fallen and lays in ruins, occupied by a powerful new enemy and his elite army, the Red Legion. Every player create...

Enter mankind's greatest conflict with Battlefield 5 as the series goes back to its roots with a never-before-seen portrayal of World War 2. Lead your squad to...

New nightmares have emerged from the shadows of our Moon. Called forth by haunting visions, Eris Morn has returned. Join her to slay these nightmares before the...

A third-person action-adventure Star Wars title from Respawn Entertainment. The Empire seeks to eradicate all Jedi after the execution of Order 66. You, a Jedi...

Set in Washington D.C., the game takes place 7 months after a deadly virus was released in New York City and the nation has become a shell of its former self. W...

Fallout 76 is the online prequel where every surviving human is a real person. Work together – or not – to survive. Under the threat of nuclear annihilation...

The frontier of Europa holds many lost secrets from the past, including the dark power of Stasis. Work with the mysterious Exo Stranger to harness this new powe...

Dive headfirst into a dystopian world devoid of society, law, and order. RAGE 2 brings together two studio powerhouses Avalanche Studios, masters of open world...

NieR Producer Yosuke Saito, director Taro Yoko and composer Keiichi Okabe return, teaming up with character designer Akihiko Yoshida and PlatinumGames to presen...

A radio host interprets the possible outbreak of a deadly virus which infects the small Ontario town he is stationed in.

Before leaving on his second tour in Afghanistan, Marine Captain Sam Cahill, a leader, an athlete, a good husband and father, welcomes his screw-up brother Tommy home from prison. He'd robbed a bank. In country, Sam's helicopter is shot down and all are presumed dead. Back home, while Sam wastes away as a prisoner in a remote encampment, Tommy tries to take care of the widow and her two children. While imprisoned, Sam experiences horrors unbearable, so when he's rescued and returns home, he's silent, detached, without affect, and he's convinced his wife and brother have slept together. Demons of war possess him; what will silence them?

The story of USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine, which suffered a malfunction in its nuclear reactor on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in 1961. The submarine's crew, led by the unyielding Captain Alexi Vostrikov, races against time to prevent a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster which threatens not only the lives of his crew, but has the potential to ignite a world war between the super powers.

After being involuntarily discharged from the U.S. Special Forces, James Harper (Pine) decides to support his family by joining a private contracting organization alongside his best friend (Foster) and under the command of a fellow veteran (Sutherland). Overseas on a covert mission, Harper must evade those trying to kill him while making his way back home.

Angela Bennett is a computer expert. This young and beautiful analyst is never far from a computer and modem. The only activity she has outside of computers is visiting her mother. A friend, whom she's only spoken to over the net and phone, Dale Hessman, sent her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. That night, he left to meet her and was killed in a plane crash. Angela discovers secret information on the disk she has received only hours before she leaves for vacation. Her life then turns into a nightmare, her records are erased from existence and she is given a new identity, one with a police record. She struggles to find out why this has happened and who has it in for her.

During World War II when the Americans needed to find a secure method of communicating they devised a code using the Navajo language. So Navajos were recruited to become what they call code talkers. They would be assigned to a unit and would communicate with other units using the code so that even though the enemy could listen they couldn't understand what they were saying. And to insure that the code is protected men are assigned to protect it at all costs. One of these men is Joe Enders, a man who sustained an injury that can make him unfit for duty but he manages to avoid it and is told of his duty and that the man he is suppose to protect is Ben Yahzee. Initially there is tension but the two men learn to get along.

2003 American war film on Navajo radio operators in WW II by John Woo

In The International, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman's investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan to New York and to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as the bank will stop at nothing - even murder - to continue financing terror and war.

When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Mason Skiles had a great life as a diplomat in Beirut. He and his wife, Nadia, live in a beautiful house and have been mentoring a thirteen year-old Palestinian boy named Karim. The opening scene is a party that the Stiles are hosting for other dignitaries. Karim is helping out serving the guests. When a CIA friend of Mason, Cal, comes to the party he is interested only in taking Karim in for questioning about an older brother Mason doesn't know about. What happens that night changes Mason's life forever, along several others at the party...

Inspired by remarkable true life rescue missions, this is the incredible story of a group of Mossad agents and brave Ethiopians who in the early 80s used a deserted holiday retreat in Sudan as a front to smuggle thousands of refugees to Israel. The undercover team carrying out this mission is led by the charismatic Ari Kidron and courageous local Kabede Bimro.

The pilot of a rescue copter, Captain Karen Walden, died shortly before her helicopter crew was rescued after it crashed in Desert Storm. It first appears that she made a spectacular rescue of a downed helicopter crew, then held her own crew together to fight off the Iraqis after her copter crashed. Lt. Colonel Serling, who is struggling with his own demons from Desert Storm, is assigned to investigate her worthiness for the Medal of Honor. But some conflicting accounts, from her crew and soldiers in the area, cause him to question whether she deserves it.

In 1961, the UN sends an Irish peacekeeper troop commanded by Commandant Pat Quinlan to Katanga, in Congo, to protect the inhabitants of the mining town of Jadotville in the beginning of a civil war. Meanwhile the UN advisor Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien launches a military attack named Operation Morthor against the French and Belgian mercenaries. Soon there is a reprisal from the mercenaries and Quinlan and his men are left under siege by a huge number of Katangese and mercenary troops. Will the Irish soldiers resist the attack?

Quiet family man and hard-working snowplow driver Nels is the lifeblood of a glitzy resort town in the Rocky Mountains because he is the one who keeps the winter roads clear. He and his wife live in a comfortable cabin away from the tourists. The town has just awarded him "Citizen of the Year." But Nels has to leave his quiet mountain life when his son is murdered by a powerful drug lord. As a man who has nothing to lose he is stoked by a drive for vengeance. This unlikely hero uses his hunting skills and transforms from an ordinary man into a skilled killer as he sets out to dismantle the cartel. Nels' actions ignite a turf war between a manically unpredictable gangster known as Viking and a rival gang boss. Justice is served in one final spectacular confrontation that will leave (almost) no one unscathed.

Fighter navigator Chris Burnett wants out: he was looking for something more than the boring recon missions he's been flying. He finds himself flying the lone Christmas day mission over war-torn Bosnia. But when he talks pilot Stackhouse into flying slightly off-course to check out an interesting target, the two get shot down. Burnett is soon alone, trying to outrun a pursuing army, while commanding officer Reigert finds his rescue operation hamstrung by politics, forcing Burnett to run far out of his way.

Hayes Hodges finds his career aspirations dashed when he's wounded in Vietnam. He returns to America and becomes a disillusioned lawyer who goes up against the Service to defend Colonel Terry Childers, who is accused of inciting an incident that leaves many demonstrators dead. Hodges is in no position to decline: Childers saved his life in Vietnam.

Live-action adaptation of J.M. Barrie's classic tale of a boy who wouldn't grow up and recruits three young siblings in London to join him on a magical adventure to the enchanted Neverland island.

Plot unknown. Third installment of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' franchise.

American rapper, record producer and actor (born 1972)

The character-driven cartoon chronicles the nautical and often nonsensical adventures of SpongeBob, an incurably optimistic and earnest sea sponge, and his underwater friends. Dwelling a few fathoms beneath the tropical isle of Bikini Atoll in the sub-surface city of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob lives in a two-story pineapple. Instead of taking the logical approach to everyday challenges, SpongeBob approaches life in a wayward and unconventional way. Whether searching for the ultimate spatula to perfect his burger flipping technique at the Krusty Krab or just hanging out with his best friend Patrick (an amiable starfish), SpongeBob's good intentions and overzealous approach to life usually create chaos in his underwater world.

"In every generation there is a chosen one... she alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer." Buffy Summers knows this tale by heart, and no matter how hard she tries to be just a "normal girl", she can not escape from her destiny... Thankfully, she is not alone in her quest to save the world, as she has the help of her friends, the hilarious (and surprisingly quite effective) evil-fighting team called "The Scooby Gang". Together, Buffy & co. will slay their demons, survive one apocalypse after another, attend high school and college... and above all, understand that growing up can truly be Hell sometimes... literally.

1997 American supernatural drama TV series

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen appears as Ali G, a rapper-wannabe from Staines. Ali G has his own TV show, where he interviews people on serious subjects. They're not aware that Ali G is just a character and they're being set up as part of a comedy act. Cohen also appears in two other guises: as Borat, a Kazakhstani reporter, and Bruno, a gay Austrian fashionista. Hilarity ensues.

The offbeat adventures of Courage, a cowardly dog who must overcome his own fears to heroically defend his unknowing farmer owners from all kinds of dangers, paranormal events and menaces that appear around their land.

American horror animated television series

A former lawyer attends a community college when it is discovered he faked his Bachelor's degree. In an attempt to get with a student in his Spanish class, he forms a Spanish study group. To his surprise, more people attend the study group and the group of misfits form an unlikely community.

American comedy television series created by Dan Harmon

Nathan, Kelly, Simon, Alisha and Curtis were expecting their community service to be boring. However after a freak thunderstorm they discover that it is anything but dull. Bestowed with strange powers, the five very different teens realize they have a lot more to worry about than just picking up litter, especially as they discover that they are not the only ones who have been given strange powers. Secrets will be revealed, feelings brought to the surface and relationships formed and broken. But hey, its only 12 weeks of community service; what's the worst that could happen?

Follows three people living comfortable lives who each conceal dark secrets that even the closest to them would never suspect; Megan, a working mother of three; Ray, the once promising documentary photographer, now stuck in a dead-end job pandering to celebrity obsessed rich kids, and Broome, a detective who's unable to let go of a missing person's cold case. Lorraine, an old friend from Megan's past, delivers some shocking news which will impact on all three characters. As the past comes back to haunt them, threatening to ruin their lives and the lives of those around them, what will be their next move?

It was a normal school day for the students of a Korean high school-until a student returns from the school's science lab, infected by an unknown virus. As the infection spreads out of school and throughout the peninsula, the Military desperately interrogates the psychotic science teacher who started it all, while his students struggle to survive until help arrives.

The adventures of a daydreaming, jazz-loving, football-headed 9-year-old, who lives in a boarding house with his grandparents and some eccentric boarders; encounters life in the city with his best friend Gerald, a loofah-haired kid who is the keeper of the urban tales and coolest kid in class; and is tormented by Helga, who loves him secretly.

American animated children's television series

An intense, hyperactive chihuahua (Is there any other kind?) and a happy-go-lucky, empty-brained cat share bizarre and often repulsive adventures. Their experiences usually involve hairballs, filthy litterboxes, "magic nose goblins", sentient farts, jars of spit, outhouses, eating dirt, monkey vermin and any other imaginable disgusting substance.

Ned possesses the unique talent of being able to bring the dead to life merely by touching them. However, the person may remain alive only for one minute, or else someone else dies for them. A second touch will render the person dead again, unable to be revived. Through his connections with PI Emerson Cod, Ned revives his childhood sweetheart, Chuck. The trio, aided occasionally by Olive Snook, helps solve the mysteries of various murders, whose murderer is often surprising.

American fantasy comedy-drama television series

A single-camera comedy featuring three friends who work together as telemarketers from 9 to 5, and live together from 5 to 9.

Ever since her short-lived stint as a superhero ended in tragedy, Jessica Jones has been rebuilding her personal life and career as a hot-tempered, sardonic private detective in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. Plagued by self-loathing and a wicked case of PTSD, Jessica battles demons from within and without, using her extraordinary abilities as an unlikely champion for those in need. Especially if they're willing to cut her a check.

Sense8 tells the story of eight strangers: Will (Smith), Riley (Middleton), Capheus (Ameen), Sun (Bae), Lito (Silvestre), Kala (Desai), Wolfgang (Riemelt), and Nomi (Clayton). Each individual is from a different culture and part of the world. In the aftermath of a tragic death they all experience through what they perceive as dreams or visions, they suddenly find themselves growing mentally and emotionally connected. While trying to figure how and why this connection happened and what it means, a mysterious man named Jonas tries to help the eight. Meanwhile, another stranger called Whispers attempts to hunt them down, using the same sensate power to gain full access to a sensate's mind (thoughts/sight) after looking into their eyes. Each episode reflects the views of the characters interacting with each other while delving deeper into their backgrounds and what sets them apart and brings them together with the others.

American science fiction television series

After the Battle of New York, the world has changed. It now knows not only about the Avengers, but also the powerful menaces that require those superheroes and more to face them. In response, Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division assembles an elite covert team to find and deal with these threats wherever they are found. With a world rapidly becoming more bizarre and dangerous than ever before as the supervillains arise, these agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are ready to take them on.

People all over the U.S and the world start to realize they have special abilities, like telekinesis, healing abilities, flying powers, time travel, invisibility, and the ability to absorb other's abilities. One man, known as Sylar, wants to gain all the power of these "heroes" so he can be the most powerful and evolved human of all, and stops at nothing to gruesomely kill these people. In order to protect themselves from him, these people must help one another before Sylar can destroy them all, while they each deal with problems of their own.

American science fiction television drama series

Barry Allen was struck by lightning and got in a coma for 9 months. After he awoke from his coma 9 months later, Barry met Cisco Ramon, Harrison Wells and Caitlin Snow. He later on realized that he has powers and how it had been caused by the explosion of the particle accelerator.

After many years in a sheltered, rich boy life, Oliver Queen is stranded on an island after his father's yacht crashes. He must learn to survive on his own, five years later he is found alive and well after he was presumed to be dead. After he returns to his home city of Starling City, he begins his crusade to rid his home city of nasty villains, drug dealers, mob bosses, and criminals by becoming an arrow shooting vigilante.

American action-adventure 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

lorem ipsum

Carl Sim

Lorna

mandy Smith

Tim Bond

audie.o

kopf_kin0

Kieran O'Dowd

1994 action comedy film directed by James Cameron

Wayne is still living at home. He has a world class collection of name tags from jobs he's tried, but he does have his own public access TV show. A lo

Henry Hill might be a small time gangster, who may have taken part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who might hav

A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he ma

90's

movie

A list of personal favourites revolving around World War 2.

Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother...

During WW II, allied POWs in a Japanese internment camp are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge, but under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson they're persuaded the bridge should be built to help morale, spirit. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of Japanese Commandant Colonel Saito, but soon they realise it's a monument to Nicholson, himself, as well as a form of collaboration with the enemy.

This is the story of "E" Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from their initial training starting in 1942 to the end of World War II. They parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach, participated in the liberation of Carentan and again parachuted into action during Operation Market Garden. They also liberated a concentration camp and were the first to enter Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. A fascinating tale of comradeship that is, in the end, a tale of ordinary men who did extraordinary things.

The Pacific follows the lives of a U.S Marine Corps squad during the campaign within the Pacific against the Japanese Empire during WW2. Made by the creators of Band of Brothers, it follows a similar line of thought to outline the hardships of the common man during war. The Pacific is in parts a fast paced war series that can be enjoyed by action lovers whilst containing a more sensitive side when projecting the relationships (brotherhood) of Marines on the battlefield. Where The Pacific takes a new direction from its "older brother" is in its depiction of the lives of soldiers who were picked to return home to increase the sales of war bonds. In doing this it also depicts the life cycle of returned soldiers from initial joy to the eventual feeling of regret and to a certain extent shame felt by soldiers wanting to return to the war in service of either their comrades or nation.

My World War 2 picks

tv show

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for brutally killing two black men who tried to break into/steal his truck. Through his brother's, Danny Vineyard, narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

Hunters and their prey--Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big 'retirement' score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor--'Never have anything in your life that you can't walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner'--as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending....

Composed and meticulous, the soft-spoken and ingenious bank robber, Dalton Russell, has orchestrated the perfect heist--shortly, the Manhattan bank at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway along with dozens of hostages will be his to command. Try as he might, the rough hostage negotiator, Keith Frazier, is always one step behind the criminal mastermind--and what is more disheartening--the institution's silver-haired founder, Arthur Case, recruits the intelligent problem-fixer, Madeline White, to retrieve something of paramount importance. However, the thieves seem to procrastinate intentionally, when they should be rushing into action. Will Arthur and Madeline get what they want this time?

A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith's book, the movie's focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people.

music

movies

shows

books

games

podcasts

Active tastebuds