Edgar Colt

Vitor Miguel

Prisma Soulstorm

Serena

Jordan

Bruna Guedes

Husain Kothari

FRNK

Uendi Prifti

Abdul Hasib

Loughlin Sullivan

Delaney Knopp

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.

An intimate portrait of two men who cherish the slim bond between them and the dream they share in a world marred by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own—a couple of acres and a few pigs, chickens, and rabbits back in Hill Country where land is cheap. But after they come to work on a ranch in the fertile Salinas Valley of California, their hopes, like "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men," begin to go awry.Of Mice and Men also represents an experiment in form, as Steinbeck described his work, "a kind of playable novel, written in novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands." A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. Steinbeck's tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels.--front flap

“It manages to delight, and frequently to entrance, old and new readers [and] continues to engage our hearts and minds today with an indescribably brand of affectionate sympathy.”—F. Gonzalez-Crussi, from the Introduction An international bestseller, translated into eighteen languages, Paul de Kruif’s classic account of the first scientists to see and learn about the microscopic world continues to fascinate new readers. This is a timeless dramatization of the scientists, bacteriologists, doctors, and medical technicians who discovered the microbes and invented the vaccines to counter them. De Kruif writes about how seemingly simple but really fundamental discovers of science—for instance, how a microbe was first viewed in a clear drop of rain water, and when, for the first time, Louis Pasteur discovered that a simple vaccine could save a man from the ravages of rabies by attacking the microbes that cause it.  

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0307269752 (ISBN13: 9780307269751)

Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel.  Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.From the Trade Paperback edition.

In response to The End of Faith, Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to A Christian Nation is his reply. Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity. In the course of his argument, he addresses current topics ranging from intelligent design and stem-cell research to the connections between religion and violence. In Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris boldly challenges the influence that faith has on public life in our nation.

Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend's family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed "homicidal adventurer," Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with "intensity." Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit. Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive--until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess's next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl...as moment by moment, the terrifying threat of Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.

A Gathering of Old Men: The Way It Used to BeI selected A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines as the Moderator's Choice for September, 2017, for On the Southern Literary Trail. This is the fourth book by Professor Gaines to be read by "The Trail."Come join us.All but one of Ernest J. Gaines' works are set in and around Bayonne, Louisiana. Perhaps a bit strange for a man who has spent more than half his life in California. But it is something that comes as no surprise considering Gaines' childhood. He was born January 15, 1933, on a plantation in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana. He was one of twelve children. They were among the fifth generation of the family to live on that plantation. His Grandparents were slaves. His ancestors lie buried in a cemetery at the rear of that plantation. Many of the graves bear no marker, no names, nothing to identify his ancestors.By the time Gaines was nine he was picking cotton on the plantation. He lived in a small cabin among many others that at one time had been slave quarters. His first education was in the plantation school, held in the plantation church. No black child attended a school where white children were allowed to go. It was the way it used to be. Neither Gaines or any of the other children on the plantation had access to a library. Those were for whites only. It was the way it used to be.Gaines and his siblings were raised by an aunt. She was crippled, unable to walk. She was raising Gaines, his brothers, and sisters, when she could only crawl. Ernest Gaines lived in poverty for the first fifteen years of his life. But his mother and stepfather took Ernest with them when they moved to Vallejo, California. Imagine waking in a new world. Imagine entering a library for the first time at the age of sixteen. The library was two stories tall. Non-fiction was on the first floor. Fiction on the second. Gaines went to the second story. He began to devour novels. He looked for books with people like him in them. He couldn't find them. Even a California library had no books by black authors. That was the way it used to be. He discovered he didn't care for other Southern novelists. He searched for novels set in farm country, the closest he could come to the life of his young years. He read John Steinbeck and Willa Cather. "See, I came from a society -- the South -- in which I wasn't supposed to do things, wasn't supposed to investigate things. I was supposed to stay in my place."Gaines only returned to Louisiana for short visits. However, as he entered college he was well aware of the Civil Rights Movement. It was the admission of James Meredith to Ole Miss that sparked in Gaines the need to return to Louisiana. After the publication of his first novel, Catherine Carmier in 1964, Gaines returned to Louisiana. He split his year six months in California, six months in Louisiana.From 1981 until 2004 when he retired, Ernest J. Gaines became Professor Gaines, the writer in residence at The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He and his wife have a home on land once part of the plantation on which he lived as a child. He moved the plantation church on to his property. When he walks through the old cemetery he cannot find the grave of the aunt who raised him.What is it that drives Ernest J. Gaines to continue to set his work in Southwest Louisiana? In This Louisiana Thing That Drives Me: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines Gaines wrote:\
  "I wanted to smell that Louisiana earth, feel that Louisiana sun, sit under the shade of one of those Louisiana oaks, search for pecans in that Louisiana grass in one of those Louisiana yards next to one of those Louisiana bayous, not far from a Louisiana river. I wanted to see on paper those Louisiana black children walking to school on cold days while yellow Louisiana busses passed them by. I wanted to see on paper those place parents going to work before the sun came up and coming back home to look after their children after the sun went down. I wanted to see on paper the true reason why those black fathers left home--not because they were trifling or shiftless--but because they were tired of putting up with certain conditions. I wanted to see on paper the small country churches (schools during the week), and I wanted to hear those simple religious songs, those simple prayers--that true devotion....And I wanted to hear that Louisiana Dialect--that combination of English, Creole, Cajun, Black. For me there's no more beautiful sound anywhere--unless, of course, you take exceptional pride in "proper" French or "proper" English. I wanted to read about the true relationship between whites and blacks--about people I had known."\
I love the novels of Ernest J. Gaines. He is among my favorite authors. Being a native born Southerner, growing up in Alabama, and white, Gaines opened a world to me to which I return again and again. I finally met Professor Gaines late in October, 2014. I consider him the most significant writer I have ever met. I also consider him to lack the recognition he deserves as an American writer. I am not alone in my belief.Madison Smart Bell reviewed A Gathering of Old Men upon its publication in 1983. He wrote, "I think he's oddly underrated, because he's one of those black writers who has been on the program for a long time." Bell went further to say this book was "the best-written novel on Southern race relations in over a decade." Returning to the thought that Gaines was underrated, Bell wrote, "At certain times he has been greatly celebrated, and his subsequent work has not gotten the attention it should have. But people like Ernest Gaines are a lot more important than anyone has fully recognized."This is my second reading of A Gathering of Old Men. I've also listened to the wonderful Audible edition of the novel. It fully captures the flavor of Gaines' use of multiple narrators. I have previously said I could not decide whether this novel or The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was my favorite. After multiple reads, this novel takes the lead for me. I do chalk it up to the powerful multiple narratives of those old men who gathered on one day to throw off the oppression which they had endured thirty years or more.Gaines captures the decades of racism endured by the old men who share crop the Marshall plantation. Each tells the story behind the reason they are there this particular day. Listening to each of them is reminiscent of the chorus of a Greek tragedy.What drives each of the old men is a recognition they will no longer bow to the shame they and their ancestors have accepted until the unbelievable has happened. A black man has killed a white man. The dead man is Beau Boutan a Cajun farmer who has leased land worked by them as sharecroppers for generations. The mule and plow has been replaced by the tractor. The Boutans and their Cajun neighbors have inflicted rape, murder, and humiliation on the old men. Once word gets out that Beau is dead, all anticipate that the father, "Fix Boutan" will night ride into their quarters to dispense their own version of justice.All the men who gather are there to claim they each killed Boutan. The suspect in the killing is Matthu, the only black man to ever stand up to Fix Boutan and beat him in a fair fight. Candy Marshall the heiress to the Marshall plantation considers Matthu and all the men who arrive at his house to be "her people." Orphaned when her parents died in an automobile accident, Candy considers Matthu to be her Parrain or Grandfather. She engineers the scheme to gather the old men, all carrying shotguns with the same shot shells as Matthu's gun, to protect the man.What ensues is a taut novel as local Sheriff Mapes attempts to deal with all these old men and Candy Marshall, each who claim to have killed Beau Boutan. Nothing will break their story. As Mapes bullies each of the old men, each reveals the tragedies of their lives they will no longer endure.Gaines draws the story to a conclusion in a surprising denoument. Set in the 1970s, Gaines paints a vivid portrait of a South beginning to change, but not having changed enough. This is a novel of hope, found strength, and courage. Any reader will never forget A Gathering of Old Men.

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McMurphy has a criminal past and has once again gotten himself into trouble and is sentenced by the court. To escape labor duties in prison, McMurphy pleads insanity and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable. Once here, McMurphy both endures and stands witness to the abuse and degradation of the oppressive Nurse Ratched, who gains superiority and power through the flaws of the other inmates. McMurphy and the other inmates band together to make a rebellious stance against the atrocious Nurse.

Jacob Singer is trying to make sense of his fractured life and memories. Plagued by hallucinations, flashbacks, and conspiracies, he struggles down a path to enlightenment from these manic strains. With nothing but support from friends and loved ones will he be able to push through the haze of his PTSD.

A band straying into a secluded part of the Pacific Northwest stumbles onto a horrific act of violence. Because they are the only witnesses, they become the targets of a terrifying gang of skinheads who want to make sure all the evidence is eliminated.

New England, 1630: William and Katherine try to lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. 'The Witch' is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own sins, leaving them prey for an inconceivable evil.

A mysterious place, an indescribable prison, a deep hole. An unknown number of levels. Two inmates living on each level. A descending platform containing food for all of them. An inhuman fight for survival, but also an opportunity for solidarity.

2019 film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all of the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him -- as well as everyone around him -- as the walls between his compartments shatter.

A love story set in a dystopian near future where single people are arrested and transferred to a creepy hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal and released into the woods.

After the untimely death of 16-year-old Martin's father on the operating table, little by little, a deep and empathetic bond begins to form between him and the respected cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Steven Murphy. At first, expensive gifts and then an invitation for dinner will soon earn the orphaned teenager the approval of Dr Steven's perfect family, even though right from the start, a vague, yet unnerving feeling overshadows Martin's honest intent. And then, unexpectedly, the idyllic family is smote by a fierce and pitiless punishment, while at the same time, everything will start falling apart as the innocents have to suffer. In the end, as the sins of one burden the entire family, only an unimaginable and unendurable decision that demands a pure sacrifice can purge the soul. But to find catharsis, one must first admit the sin.

For 19-year-old Jay, Autumn should be about school, boys, and weekends out at the lake. But after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her friends must find a way to escape the horrors that seem to be only a few steps behind.

2014 horror film by David Robert Mitchell

A "story inside a story," in which the first part follows a woman named Susan who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband, a man she left 20 years earlier, asking for her opinion. The second element follows the actual manuscript, called "Nocturnal Animals," which revolves around a man whose family vacation turns violent and deadly. It also continues to follow the story of Susan, who finds herself recalling her first marriage and confronting some dark truths about herself.

Six astronauts aboard the space station study a sample collected from Mars that could provide evidence for extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet. The crew determines that the sample contains a large, single-celled organism - the first example of life beyond Earth. But..things aren't always what they seem. As the crew begins to conduct research, and their methods end up having unintended consequences, the life form proves more intelligent than anyone ever expected.

Rocky, a young woman wanting to start a better life for her and her sister, agrees to take part in the robbery of a house owned by a wealthy blind man with her boyfriend Money and their friend Alex. But when the blind man turns out to be a more ruthless adversary than he seems, the group must find a way to escape his home before they become his latest victims.

A deaf and mute writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears at her window.

While investigating the murder of a family, Sheriff Sheldon and his team are puzzled with the discovery of the body of a stranger buried in the basement that does not fit to the crime scene. He brings the corpse of the beautiful Jane Doe late night to the coroner Tommy Tilden and requests to have the cause of death until the next morning to have an answer to the press. Tommy's son and assistant Austin Tilden is ready to go to the movie theater with his girlfriend Emma, but he decides to stay to help his father in the autopsy. Along the stormy and tragic night, they disclose weird and creepy secrets about Jane Doe.

When her mentally ill mother passes away, Annie (Toni Collette), her husband (Gabriel Byrne), son (Alex Wolff), and daughter (Milly Shapiro) all mourn her loss. The family turn to different means to handle their grief, including Annie and her daughter both flirting with the supernatural. They each begin to have disturbing, otherworldly experiences linked to the sinister secrets and emotional trauma that have been passed through the generations of their family.

The film is about Marlo, a mother of three, including a newborn. Marlo's brother gives her a night nanny as a gift. Hesitant with the extravagance at first, Marlo comes to form a unique bond with the thoughtful, surprising, and sometimes challenging young nanny named Tully.

A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and a linguist.

In the wake of an unknown global terror, a mother must find the strength to flee with her children down a treacherous river in search of safety. Due to unseen deadly forces, the perilous journey must be made blindly. Directed by Emmy winner Susanne Bier, Bird Box is a thriller starring Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, and Trevante Rhodes.

Featuring shades of Edgar Allen Poe's ["A Tell-tale Heart" and] "The Black Cat", 1922, with a Bonny and Clyde sub-plot, based on the Stephen King novella of the same name, centers on simple but proud farmer, Wilfred James, who, with the reluctant help of his teenage son, murders his wife to gain ownership of her inherited land. Shortly after, however, strange and supernatural occurrences begin to plague both James and his farm. Is it just simple bad luck, or is it the work of something much more sinister?

A modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes, with the detective now living in New York City.

Set 400 years in the future, the show follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth's interstellar Fleet. Facing cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before.

No-holds-barred Aussie comedian Jim Jefferies hosts his satirical weekly U.S. talk show, covering the news, U.S. politics, pop culture, global issues and whatever else happens to be bothering him at the moment.

Holistic detective Gently relies on the universe to unravel mysteries based on the 'interconnectedness of all things'.

An actress raises her three daughters while juggling the pressures of working in Hollywood and being a single parent.

Stephen Colbert took over as host, executive producer and writer of THE LATE SHOW on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. The comedy-variety-talk show is broadcast five nights a week from the Ed Sullivan theater in New York.

The show follows the personal and professional lives of Dev, a 30-year-old actor who has trouble deciding what he wants to eat, much less the pathway for the rest of his life. Dev's story takes him through subjects as diverse as the plight of the elderly, the immigrant experience, and how to find the most delicious pasta for dinner.

Piper Chapman is a public relations executive with a career and a fiance when her past suddenly catches up to her. In her mid-30s she is sentenced to spend time in a minimum-security women's prison in New York for her association with a drug runner 10 years earlier. This Netflix original series is based on the book of the same title. Forced to trade power suits for prison orange, Chapman makes her way through the corrections system and adjusts to life behind bars, making friends with the many eccentric, unusual and unexpected people she meets.

Amy Schumer switches from sketches to doing stand-up to interviewing people on the street and people of interest, usually following a certain theme.

After being rescued from an underground bunker in which she lived the past fifteen years, Kimmy Schmidt decides to move to New York City to have a normal life. She makes friends with her new roommate Titus, and works as a babysitter for Jacqueline Voorhees, the wife of a billionaire with many issues. Even though many obstacles are thrown her way, Kimmy makes the best of her new life while having to adapt to the new world around her.

A Craftsman's Legacy is a PBS series that follows host Eric Gorges, a renowned metal shaper and motorcycle builder, on his quest to work with America's finest craftsmen and document what it means to be a modern day maker.

Follows two couples living under the same roof who struggle to keep their relationships alive while pursuing their individual dreams.

Broad City follows two women throughout their daily lives in New York City, making the smallest and mundane events hysterical and disturbing to watch all at the same time.

In this modernized version of the Conan Doyle characters, using his detective plots, Sherlock Holmes lives in early 21st century London and acts more cocky towards Scotland Yard's detective inspector Lestrade because he's actually less confident. Doctor Watson is now a fairly young veteran of the Afghan war, less adoring and more active.

British crime drama television series, first broadcast in 2010

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show

A sketch-comedy series that parodies life in Portland, Oregon.

In the mythical continent of Westeros, several powerful families fight for control of the Seven Kingdoms. As conflict erupts in the kingdoms of men, an ancient enemy rises once again to threaten them all. Meanwhile, the last heirs of a recently usurped dynasty plot to take back their homeland from across the Narrow Sea.

With his insightful wit and fearless candor, comedian John Oliver, formerly of the

American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver

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