Movies Worth Watching

Annie

Young Annie is an orphanage. A wealthy man's assistant picks her to live in the man's palatial home for the Christmas Holidays. The film is a musical and it talks about Annie's time with the rich guy and how they are initially uncomfortable with each other, but soon come to love each other.

Catch Me If You Can

Is a 2002 comedy-drama crime film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr, who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor and Louisiana attorney and parish prosecutor. His primary crime was check forgery, becoming so skillful that the FBI eventually turned to him for help.

Chariots Of Fire

The movie is based on the true story of two British athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Englishman Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), who is Jewish, overcomes anti-semitism and class prejudice in order to compete against the "Flying Scotsman", Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), in the 100 metre race.

Gladiator

Is a 2000 American epic film. Russel Crowe portrays General Maximus Decimus Meridius, favorite of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who is betrayed and murdered by his unhinged son, Commodus (Phoenix). Captured and enslaved along the outer fringes of the Roman empire, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family and his Emperor.

Life Is Beautiful

Is a 1997 Italian language film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice, who must employ his fertile imagination to help his son survive their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

Spirit Of The Marathon

Is a 2007 documentary film directed by Jon Dunham. The film chronicles the journey six marathon runners experience while training, and eventually competing in the 2005 Chicago Marathon.

Touching The Void

Is a 2003 documentary film based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson about Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near fatal attempt to climb the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The film combines documentary footage of interviews conducted with Simpson, Yates and Richard Hawking with a reenactment

Twelve Angry Men

A 1957 American drama film adapted from a play by Reginald Rose. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of twelve jurors (all male, mostly middle-aged, white, and generally of middle-class status) who are uncomfortably brought together to deliberate after hearing the 'facts' in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial case. They retire to a jury room to do their civic duty and serve up a just verdict for the indigent minority defendant (with a criminal record) whose life is in the balance. The film is a powerful indictment, denouncement and expose of the trial by jury system. The frightened, teenaged defendant is on trial, as well as the jury and the American judicial system with its purported sense of infallibility, fairness and lack of bias.

Site for good movie ratings:
http://www.imdb.com/

Books Worth Reading

Into The Wild

Written by Jon Krakauer is a bestselling non-fiction book about the adventures of Christopher McCandless. It is an expansion of Krakauer's 9,000-word article, "Death of an Innocent", which appeared in the January 1993 issue of Outside. Krakauer intersperses McCandless's story with a discussion of the wilderness experiences of people such as Everett Rues, John Muir, and John Menlove Edwards, as well as some of his own adventures. Krakauer first went to Alaska in 1974 and has returned there 20 times since. He spent three years carrying out the background research work for this biography. Christopher stopped communicating with his family shortly after graduating from college and left on a wild adventure. He travelled through different lands and did odd and end jobs in order to survive. His main aim was to live in the wild in Alaska for a prolonged duration. It is here that he finally meets his end. The book is based on accounts of people he met along the way and his diary that was found in the bus he made home before his death at the age of 24.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild


Harry Potter (Series)

A series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter, together with Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The central story arc concerns Harry's struggle against the evil wizard Lord Voldermort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people (Muggles) to his rule. Although this book is a fairy tale and hence would be considered to be for children, it has atracted an audience of all ages. It is magical and well written. A book that leaves you wanting more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_potter

Kite Runner

A novel by the Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel. The book is about a boy named Amir who betrays his best friend Hassan. Years later when he is grown up and living in the US of A, he is called back to Pakistan to rescue Sohrab, the son of Hassan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_Runner

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

I a novel written by Ken Kesey. It is set in an Oregan asylum, and serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind. The novel was written in 1959 and published in 1962. Narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Indian "Chief" Bromden, who has pretended to be a deaf-mute for several years, the story focuses on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, a happy-go-lucky transferee from a prison work farm to a mental hospital. Having been found guilty on a battery charge, McMurphy fakes insanity to serve out his sentence in the hospital. The all-male asylum is based upon the old Pendleton, Oregon asylum (now the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution). With little medical oversight, the hospital ward is run by the buttoned-up, tyrannical Nurse Ratched (or as Bromden calls her, "the Big Nurse") and her three black day-shift orderlies, whom the Chief portrays as resentful "black boys".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo's_Nest_(novel)

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It

By Neal Bascomb is a non-fiction book about three runners and their attempts to become the first man to run a mile under four minutes. The runners are Englishman Roger Bannister, American Wes Santee, and Australian John Landy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfect_Mile

Three Cups of Tea

This New York Times bestselling book is written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin published by Penguin in 2006. The book describes Mortenson's transition from a mountain-climber to a humanitarian committed to reducing poverty and educating girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He did this by co-founding the Central Asia Insitute, which has built over 78 schools in the most remote areas of the countries.
The book's title comes from a Balti proverb: "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_cups_of_tea

Touching The Void

Is a book by Joe Simpson recounting the true story of Simpson's and Simon Yates' disastrous and near-fatal climb of the 6,344 metre (20,813 foot) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The book won the 1989 NCR Book Award.
This is an inspirational book about a man's struggle to survive breaking his leg, falling into a crevice and hunger and make his way back to camp before his fellow climber packs up and leaves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touching_The_Void

Life's Lessons

An important lesson about bad feelings: Never let them be strong. And since they cannot disappear, make them as mild as possible so that they seep into the background.

I miss you a little, I guess you could say, a little too much, a little too often, and a little more each day.

You can close your eyes to things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to things you don’t want to feel.

Of all pains, the greatest pain, Is to love, and to love in vain. - George Granville

Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is the faithless who know love's tragedies. - Oscar Wilde

Don't stop, never give up, hold your high and reach the top.

Do not underestimate the capability of the human body. Push till you drop!