Books to Movies
For your reading and viewing pleasure, below is a list of books made into movies that the USF community can view. You can choose a book title or scroll down to browse the books and their movie counterparts below.
Choose a specific book title
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- A Raisin In The Sun
- A Single Man
- Affinity
- Affluenza
- And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic
- Before Night Falls
- Beloved
- Carmilla
- Carrie
- Crazy Rich Asians
- Eichmann In Jerusalem
- Fried Green Tomatoes
- Goodbye To Berlin
- In The Time Of The Butterflies
- Maurice
- Orientalism
- Persepolis
- Roots
- Stories Of Your Life And Others
- The Big Short
- The Children Of Men
- The Color Purple
- The Constant Gardener
- The Destruction Of Memory
- The Joy Luck Club
- The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven
- The Makioka Sisters
- The Motorcycle Diaries
- The Namesake
- The Old Man And The Sea
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Price of Salt
- The Remains Of The Day
- The Witness For The Prosecution
- The Women Of Brewster Place
- Tulip Fever
- Walking With The Wind
- We Need To Talk About Kevin
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Collected shorter works of the great science fiction author. There are many wonderful stories here, including "The Sentinel" and "Encounter in the Dawn" which became part of the basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Call Number: HN 60 .D396 2014ISBN: 0312878214Publication Date: 2001
2001: A Space Odyssey (Movie)
Movie date: 1968
Science fiction classic in which humanity sets off on a quest to find the origin of a mysterious artifact buried on the moon, with the help of the sentient computer HAL 9000. Directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screenplay by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, who published the novel with the same title after the movie's release. DVD is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
A Raisin in the Sun by
"Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."
Call Number: PS3515.A515ISBN: 0679755330Publication Date: 2004
A Raisin in the Sun (Movie)
Movie date: 1961
Walter Lee Younger is a young man struggling with his station in life. Sharing a tiny apartment with his wife, son, sister and mother, he seems like an imprisoned man. Until, that is, the family gets an unexpected financial windfall. Features Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, directed by Daniel Petrie. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The DVD is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: R35 DVD
A Single Man by
When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans twenty-four hours in an ordinary day. An Englishman and a professor living in suburban Southern California, he is an outsider in every way, and his internal reflections and interactions with others reveal a man who loves being alive despite everyday injustices and loneliness. Wry, suddenly manic, constantly funny, surprisingly sad, this novel catches the texture of life itself.
Call Number: PR6017.S5 S52 2001ISBN: 0816638624Publication Date: 2001-03-20
A Single Man (Movie)
Movie date: 2009 "After losing his longtime partner, a depressed 1960’s Los Angeles college professor spends an eventful day reconsidering his life."
Affinity by
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.
Call Number: PR6073.A828 A69 2000ISBN: 1573221562Publication Date: 2000
Affinity (Movie)
Movie date: 2008 A socialite trying to gain purpose to her life by mentoring at a woman's prison during the late 19th century, becomes enamored with one inmate, and discovers a world of secrets, passion, and the supernatural.
ISBN: 9781415742143
Affluenza by
Affluenza is a painful, contagious condition of debt, anxiety, and waste resulting in rising debt, environmental pollution, and rampant commercialism. Book's third edition discusses new measures of social health and success, and policies to make our society more simplicity-friendly.
Call Number: HN 60 .D396 2014ISBN: 9781609949273Publication Date: 2014-02-03
Affluenza (Movie)
Movie date: 2012
With the help of historians and archival film, National Public Radio's Scott Simon explores both the comical and sobering aspects of overconsumption, materialism, and consumerism, and their enormous impacts on families, communities and the environment. Streaming is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
And the Band Played On by
Shilts tells the heroic stories of individuals in science and politics, public health and the gay community, who struggled to alert the nation to the enormity of the danger it faced. And the Band Played On is both a tribute to these heroic people and a stinging indictment of the institutions that failed the nation so badly.
Call Number: RA644.A25 S48 1987ISBN: 0312009941Publication Date: 1987-09-01
And the Band Played On (Movie)
Movie date: 1993 Matthew Modine stars in HBO Pictures' AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, the dramatization of Randy Shilts' best seller chronicling the early years of the AIDS epidemic, when a handful of individuals fought indifference, prejudice, ignorance and politics to battle a deadly epidemic that would soon change the face of the world.
ISBN: 9780783118536
Before Night Falls by
Autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, an outspoken critic of Castro's regime and one of the leading gay voices of the twentieth century. Though as a teen he joined Castro's guerrillas against Batista's right-wing regime, he suffered under Castro and spent twenty years trying to survive his "re-education," to safeguard his manuscripts, and to maintain his sanity when he was imprisoned. "But despite everything that happened to him, including betrayal by his aunt and some of his closest "friends," Arenas triumphed, finally leaving Cuba during the Mariel exodus in 1980. ... A compelling and moving account of the hell that Arenas experienced in Cuba and the purgatory he endured in the United States."-- book jacket.
Call Number: PQ 7390.A72 Z46313 1993ISBN: 0670840785Publication Date: 1993
Before Night Falls (Movie)
Movie date: 2000
"Victimized by a government that banned his books and jailed him for a crime he didn't commit, poet Reinaldo Arenas endured unspeakable persecution in a courageous stand against censorship and oppression. Without a country, but not without integrity, he fled to America where he continued to fight for personal expression and produced a stirring body of work." -- DVD case. Starring Javier Bardem, directed by Julian Schnabel. Streaming available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Beloved by
Sethe, who has escaped enslavement and lives in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is haunted persistently by the ghost of the baby girl whom she sacrificed.
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B4 1998ISBN: 037540273XPublication Date: 1998
Beloved (Movie) by
Movie date: 1998
Directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, and Thandiwe Newton. Set after the American Civil War, it tells the story of a family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. Available on DVD from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: B42.95 DVD
Carmilla by
Carmilla tells the story of a young woman lured by the charms of a female vampire.
Call Number: PR4879.L7ISBN: 9780815652045Publication Date: 2013
Terror in the Crypt (Movie)
Movie date: 1964 The ill daughter of a Count is under suspicion for untimely deaths after her nurse and a visitor start to believe an evil ancestor has possessed her.
Carrie by
Carrie is a tortured high-school misfit with a psychotic mother but no confidence, no friends...and no idea about the extent of her secret powers of telekinesis.
Call Number: PS3561.I483 C26 2000ISBN: 0671039733Publication Date: 2000
Carrie (Movie) by
Movie date: 2001
Directed by Brian De Palma, starring Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie. Chilling adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel, in which sensitive teen Carrie White suspects that she has supernatural powers as she faces taunting from classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. USF viewers can stream the film via Gleeson Library.
Crazy Rich Asians by
When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has left out a few key details. His childhood home looks like a palace; he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and he just happens to be the country's most eligible bachelor. Rachel's relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.
Call Number: PS3611.W36 C73 2014ISBN: 9780345803788Publication Date: 2014
Crazy Rich Asians (Movie)
Movie date: 2018
Award-winning romantic comedy directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, and Lisa Lu. It follows a Chinese-American professor who accompanies her boyfriend Nick to his best friend's wedding in Singapore, and is surprised to discover that Nick's family is extremely wealthy and he's considered one of the country's most eligible bachelors. Streaming is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Eichmann in Jerusalem by
Hannah Arendt's authoritative and controversial report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in the New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition of Eichmann in Jerusalem contains further factual material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript commenting on the controversy that arose over her book.
Call Number: DD247.E5 A7 2006ISBN: 9780143039884Publication Date: 2006
Hanna Arendt (Movie)
Movie date: 2012
In 1961, writer and philosopher Hannah Arendt traveled to Israel for the New Yorker magazine to cover Nazi Adolf Eichmann's trial for war crimes. German director Margarethe von Trotta's film drama centers on Arendt's writing on the trial, which became controversial for its depiction of both Eichmann and the Jewish councils, and for its introduction of Arendt's now-famous concept of "the banality of evil." Streaming is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by
A folksy, funny and endearing story of life in a small town in Alabama in the Depression and in the 1980s. However, the novel's laughter and tears are interrupted by a strange murder and a still stranger trial.
Call Number: PS3556.L26 F7 1987ISBN: 039456152XPublication Date: 1987-08-12
Fried Green Tomatoes (Movie)
Movie date: 1991. "A chance encounter in a nursing home leads to an unexpected friendship between a dowdy housewife and a spry octogenarian who tells her the story of a fiercely independent woman half a century ago, inspiring the housewife to change her life, often with hilarious results"
Goodbye to Berlin by
Semi-autobiographical novel, popularized on stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am a Camera and Liza Minelli in Cabaret. Isherwood captures 1931 Berlin: charming, with its avenues and cafés; marvelously grotesque, with its nightlife and dreamers; dangerous, with its vice and intrigue; powerful and seedy, with its mobs and millionaires. This was the period when Hitler was beginning his move to power. The book is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable and "divinely decadent" Sally Bowles; plump Fraulein Schroeder, who considers reducing her Bust to relieve her heart palpitations; Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling to come to terms with their relationship; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers.
Call Number: PR 6017.S5 B51 1954ISBN: 9781590174548Publication Date: 1934
Cabaret (Movie)
Movie date: 1972
The celebrated film directed by Bob Fosse starred Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey. Set in 1931 Berlin, the film depicts a love triangle between an American cabaret singer, a British academic, and a wealthy and decadent German man, played out against the backdrop of the rise of the Nazi party and the fall of the Weimar Republic. USF viewers can stream the film from Gleeson Library.
In the Time of the Butterflies by
It is November 25, 1960, and three sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies.
Call Number: PS3551.L845 I5 1994ISBN: 1565120388Publication Date: 1994
In the Time of the Butterflies (Movie)
Movie date: 2001
Minerva and her three sisters are the daughters of a plantation owner in the Dominican Republic, currently under sway of ruthless dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. When several family members are brutally murdered by Trujillo's henchmen, Minerva vows revenge. The movie streams free on tubi.tv.
Maurice by
Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and into his father's firm. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way--except that his is homosexual.Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote.... In Maurice I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him."
Call Number: PR6011.O58 M3ISBN: 9780393310320Publication Date: 1971
Maurice (Movie)
Movie date: 1987
Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, E.M. Forster's Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one's sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding.
ISBN: 0780026764
Orientalism by
Edward Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power and defined "the Orient" simply as "other than" the occident. According to Said, this entrenched view dominates western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.
Call Number: DS12 .S24 1994ISBN: 9780394740676Publication Date: 1979
Edward Said on Orientalism (Movie)
Movie date: 2014
Engaging and lavishly illustrated documentary from Media Education Foundation. Edward Said discusses his influential book, its context and themes, and contemporary understanding of "the Orient" as represented in the mass media. "That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the world, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." USF viewers may stream the film from Gleeson Library.
Persepolis by
In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran.
Call Number: PN6747.S245 P4713 2003ISBN: 0375422307Publication Date: 2003
Persepolis (Movie)
Movie date: 2008
Based on Satrapi's graphic novel about her life in pre and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe. The film traces Satrapi's growth from child to rebellious, punk-loving teenager in Iran. In the background are the growing tensions of the political climate in Iran in the 70s and 80s, with members of her liberal-leaning family detained, and the background of the disastrous Iran/Iraq war. DVD is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: P47.75 DVD c.2
Roots by
Alex Haley recounted his family's history in this drama of eighteenth-century slave Kunta Kinte and his descendants. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List and stimulated interest in African American genealogy and an appreciation for African-American history.
Call Number: E185.97.H24 A33 c.2ISBN: 0385037872Publication Date: 1976
Roots (Movie)
Movie date: 2018
An adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots", chronicling the history of a young man in Africa who is captured and enslaved in America. He and his descendants' lives are recounted through the Civil War and, ultimately, the birth of Alex Haley. USF viewers can stream the film from Gleeson Library.
Stories of Your Life and Others by
Collection of science fiction stories including the novella "Story of Your Life" on which the movie Arrival was based, wherein a renowned linguist recounts her story to her daughter who is not yet born. When aliens touch down in spaceships all over the world, the linguist is recruited to communicate with them.
Call Number: PS 3603.H53 A6 2016ISBN: 9780765304186Publication Date: 2002
Arrival (Movie)
Movie date: 2016
A linguistics professor with a haunted past leads a team of investigators to attempt communication with extraterrestrial visitors who have touched in gigantic spaceships around the world. Stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. Streaming is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
The Big Short by
When the crash of the U.S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash took place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine, and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, and the arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages?
Call Number: HC106.83 .L5 2010ISBN: 9780393072235Publication Date: 2010
The Big Short (Movie)
Movie date: 2015
Comedy-drama directed by Adam McKay and starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. In 2008, Wall Street guru Michael Burry realizes that a number of subprime home loans are in danger of defaulting. Burry bets against the housing market by throwing more than $1 billion of his investors' money into credit default swaps. His actions attract the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Gosling), hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Carell) and other greedy opportunists. Together, these men make a fortune by taking full advantage of the impending economic collapse in America. Streaming to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
The Children of Men by
A story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Then Oxford historian Theodore Faro is approached by a woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for humanity.
Call Number: PR 6060 A467 C48 1993ISBN: 0679418733Publication Date: 1993
Children of Men (Movie)
Movie date: 2007
When infertility threatens mankind with extinction and the last child born has perished, a disillusioned bureaucrat (Clive Owen) becomes the unlikely champion in the fight for the survival of Earth's population; He must face down his own demons and protect the planet's last remaining hope from danger. DVD is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: C54.624 DVD
The Color Purple by
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that tells the story of two sisters through their correspondence. "A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia." -- amazon.com
Call Number: PS3573.A425 C6 1992ISBN: 0151191549Publication Date: 1992
The Color Purple (Movie)
Movie date: 2007
An African American woman perseveres through decades of abuse by holding onto the dream of being reunited with her sister in Africa. Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Desreta Jackson, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, and Rae Dawn Chong. DVD available to Gleeson Library users.
Call Number: C63.25 DVD
The Constant Gardener by
Novel of intrigue and espionage opens with the gruesome murder of the young activist Tessa Quayle in a remote area of northern Kenya. Tessa's much older husband, a career diplomat at the British High Commission in Nairobi, sets out on a pursuit of the killers and their motive.
Call Number: PR6062.E33 C66 2001ISBN: 0743215052Publication Date: 2000
The Constant Gardener (Movie)
Movie date: 2005
Assigned to a new post, reserved British diplomat Justin Quayle relocates to Kenya with his lovely young wife, Tessa, an activist for social justice. When Tessa is found murdered out in the wilderness, her grief-husband sets out to uncover the truth behind her murder -- and in the process, he unearths some disturbing revelations. Streaming is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
The Destruction of Memory by
Crumbled shells of mosques in Iraq, the bombing of British cathedrals in World War II, the fall of the World Trade Center towers on September 11: when architectural totems such as these are destroyed by conflicts and the ravages of war, more than mere buildings are at stake. Robert Bevan argues that such destruction not only shatters a nation's culture and morale but is also a deliberate act of eradicating a culture's memory and, ultimately, its existence; Bevan combs through world history to highlight a range of wars and conflicts in which the destruction of architecture was pivotal, exposing the cultural war that rages behind architectural annihilation and its complex aim of exterminating a people.
Call Number: HM554ISBN: 1861892055Publication Date: 2006
The Destruction of Memory (Movie)
Movie date: 2016
Directed by Tim Slade and narrated by Sophie Okonedo, this documentary proposes hope: As crimes of cultural destruction are increasingly reported, perpetrators can be brought to justice and awareness can grow. Modern technology can be harnessed to document, protect, and to play a role in the rebuilding process. The film uses meticulous research and compelling interviews to examine how and why cultural destruction has happened, and how the work to protect, salvage and rebuild can respond. USF viewers can stream the film from Gleeson Library.
The Joy Luck Club by
In 1949 four Chinese women-drawn together by the shadow of their past-begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks, eat dim sum, and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Nearly forty years later, one of the members has died, and her daughter has come to take her place, only to learn of her mother's lifelong wish--and the tragic way in which it has come true. The revelation of this secret unleashes an urgent need among the women to reach back and remember...
Call Number: PS3570.A48 J6 1989 c.2ISBN: 0399134204Publication Date: 1989
The Joy Luck Club (Movie)
Movie date: 2002
In San Francisco, a group of aging Chinese women (Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lisa Lu) meet regularly to trade familial stories while playing Mahjong. In a series of sixteen vignettes that spans generations and continents, this adaptation of Amy Tan's bestselling novel explores cultural conflict and the often-turbulent relationships between four first-generation Chinese-American women (Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, Rosalind Chao) and their mothers. The DVD is available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: J69.45 DVD
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by
The book's central characters, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, are two young Native American men living on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and the stories describe their relationships, desires, and histories with family members and others who live on the reservation. Composed of twenty-two interconnected stories with recurring characters, the book fuses surreal imagery, flashbacks, dream sequences, diary entries, and extended poetic passages with Alexie's storytelling. The book's title is derived from one of the stories, which details the experience of a Native American who leaves the reservation to live in Seattle with his white girlfriend and then moves back.
Call Number: PS3551.L35774 L66 1993ISBN: 0871135485Publication Date: 1993
Smoke Signals (Movie)
Movie date: 2000
Based on the story "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," in the book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Two young Native American men, Victor and Thomas, travel to collect Victor's father's remains. They are forced to come to terms with the past after revelations about Victor's father. Directed and co-produced by Chris Eyre and with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, the film was selected in 2018 for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." USF viewers can stream the film from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: S61.45 DVD
The Makioka Sisters by
Tsuruko, the eldest sister of the once-wealthy Makioka family, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The shy, unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family's exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances and dreaming of studying fashion design in France. Filled with vignettes of a vanishing way of life, The Makioka Sisters is a poignant yet unsparing portrait of a family--and an entire society--sliding into the abyss of modernity.
Call Number: PL839.A7 S23ISBN: 0679424520Publication Date: 1943-1957
The Makioka Sisters (Movie)
Movie date: 1983
The once-prominent Makioka family undergoes a decline over the years, partially as a result of the Allied Occupation during the '40s. But no matter what fortune has in store, the four sisters always gather in Kyoto, Japan, to view the cherry blossoms, the ritual marking the changes in their lives from year to year. Right now the major crisis for them is finding a husband for Yukiko (Sayuri Yoshinaga), the third eldest, so that the youngest sibling, Taeko (Yûko Kotegawa), can get married herself. USF viewers can stream the film from Gleeson Library.
The Motorcycle Diaries by
Memoir of Ernesto "Che" Guevara traces his early travels, as a 23-year-old medical student, with his friend Alberto Granado, a 29-year-old biochemist. Leaving Buenos Aires, Argentina, in January 1952 they desired to explore the South America they only knew from books. During the formative odyssey Guevara is transformed by witnessing the social injustices of exploited mine workers, persecuted communists, ostracized lepers, and the tattered descendants of a once-great Inca civilization." - Wikipedia
Call Number: F2224 .G7813 1995ISBN: 1859849423Publication Date: 1995
The Motorcycle Diaries (Movie)
Movie date: 2004
On a break before his last semester of medical school, Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Gael García Bernal) travels with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) from Brazil to Peru by motorcycle. The two men soon witness the great disparities in South America, encountering poor peasants and observing the exploitation of labor by wealthy industrialists. When they reach a leper colony in Peru, Ernesto's values have changed so much that he sides with the sufferers, forgetting his own comfort. The DVD is available for USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
Call Number: M74 DVD c.2
The Namesake by
The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.
Call Number: PS3562.A316 N36 2003ISBN: 0395927218Publication Date: 2003-09-16
The Namesake (Movie)
Movie date: 2007 An American-born son of Indian immigrants wants to fit in with fellow New Yorkers, but his family is unwilling to let go of their traditional ways.
The Old Man and the Sea by
The story of a down-on-his-luck Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Hemingway took the timeless themes of courage in the face of adversity and personal triumph won from loss and transformed them into a twentieth-century classic.
Call Number: PS3515.E37 O4 2003ISBN: 9780684801223Publication Date: 1952
The Old Man and the Sea (Movie)
Movie date: 1990
Award-winning mini-series based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago goes out on his usual fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life. Then a shark attacks and tries to steal his catch. Santiago battles with the shark for days. Streaming free from tubi.tv.
The Price of Salt by
An unlikely encounter between Therese, a young sales clerk, and Carol, a lonely homemaker, leads to an amorous romance in this classic work of lesbian fiction. Struggling against the oppressive routines of their daily lives and the strict social norms governing mid-century femininity, the new lovers take to the open road where their new relationship can thrive. But their dreamy, blissful adventure is sharply interrupted when Carol must make a difficult choice between her child and her lover.Patricia Highsmith is famous for penning thrillers like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, but her keen ability to create compelling characters and narratives truly shines in this oft-overlooked classic. Published under a pseudonym in 1952, Highsmith's lyrical prose and sensitive, well-rounded treatment of lesbian characters marked a significant departure from the stereotyped lesbian pulp fiction that had historically dominated the marketplace. A work that demands our respect and attention, The Price of Salt is an honest and profound meditation on love and the importance of following one's heart.
Call Number: PS3558.I366 P7 1999ISBN: 1626543100Publication Date: 1999
Carol (Movie)
Movie date: 2015 Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) spots the beautiful, elegant Carol (Cate Blanchett) perusing the doll displays in a 1950s Manhattan department store. The two women develop a fast bond that becomes a love with complicated consequences.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by
A beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, sits for a portrait. In the garden of the artist's house he falls into conversation with Lord Wotton, who convinces him that only beauty is worth pursuing. Gray wishes that his portrait, and not himself, might age and show the effects of time. His wish comes true, and wild, hedonistic pursuits horribly disfigure the portrait. This Faustian story caused much controversy when it was first published, as it discusses decadent art and culture, and homosexuality. It is now considered one of the great pieces of modern Western literature.
Call Number: PR5819ISBN: 9781877527432Publication Date: 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Movie)
Movie date: 1973 Oscar Wilde’s supernatural tale depicts a handsome aristocrat, whose portrait ages and takes on his ugly, sinful traits, while he looks forever young.
ISBN: 9780788604355
The Remains of the Day by
In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.
Call Number: PR6059.S5 R46 1989ISBN: 0394573439Publication Date: 1989
Remains of the Day (Movie)
Movie date: 2001
During the 1930s, James Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) serves as a proper English butler to the doltish Lord Darlington (James Fox). Stevens is so dedicated that he forgoes visiting his father on his deathbed in order to serve, and overlooks Darlington's Nazi sympathies and growing anti-Semitism. Twenty years after his employer's death, Stevens tries to reconnect with Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), Darlington's head housekeeper, and begins to regret his loyalty to his former master. Streaming free on pluto.tv and available from Gleeson Library on DVD.
Call Number: R40.65 DVD
The Witness for the Prosecution by
A murder trial takes a diabolical turn when the wife of the accused takes a stand. From the stunning title story (which inspired the classic film thriller) to the rarest gems in detective fiction, these 11 tales of baffling rime and brilliant deduction showcase Agatha Christie at her dazzling best.
Call Number: PR6005.H66 W43 2001ISBN: 0312979738Publication Date: 2001-09-17
Witness for the Prosecution (Movie)
Movie date: 1957
Award-winning courtroom drama directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester. A wife takes the stand in her husband's murder trial and a shocking twist is revealed at the end. Streaming free on tubi.tv.com.
The Women of Brewster Place by
A story about Brewster Place, a tenement on a dead-end street, once the home of poor Irish and Italian immigrants, and now sheltering Black families. The novel portrays the courage, fear, and anguish of some of the women there who hold their families together.
Call Number: PS3564.A895 W6 1982ISBN: 0670778559Publication Date: 1982
The Women of Brewster Place (Movie)
Movie date: 1989
TV mini-series based on the novel starred Cicely Tyson, Oprah Winfrey, Jackée Harry, Robin Givens, Lynn Whitfield, Paula Kelly, Lonette McKee, and Paul Winfield. Collects intertwining narratives of love, pain, confusion, resilience and, ultimately, catharsis, all within the tenement neighborhood of Brewster Place. The homes are modest and often run down. There's a large brick wall that blocks off the area from the rest of the city. Free to stream on tubi.tv.
Tulip Fever by
In 1630s Amsterdam, tulip fever has seized the populace. In a bid for immortality, Cornelis Sandvoort commissions a portrait of them both by the talented young painter Jan van Loos. But as Van Loos begins to capture Sophia's likeness on canvas, a slow passion begins to burn between the beautiful young wife and the talented artist. As the portrait unfolds, so a slow dance is begun among the household's inhabitants.
Call Number: PR6063.O44 T85 1999ISBN: 0385334893Publication Date: 2000
Tulip Fever (Movie)
Movie date: 2017
In seventeenth century Amsterdam, an orphaned girl Sophia is forcibly married to a rich and powerful merchant Cornelis Sandvoort - an unhappy "arrangement" that saves her from poverty. After her husband commissions a portrait, she begins a passionate affair with the painter Jan Van Loos, a struggling young artist. Streaming free on tubi.tv.
Walking with the Wind by
From a sharecropper's farm to Nashville in the late 1950s, Lewis was swept up by the rising winds of the civil rights movement where he risked his life over and over, and went to jail many times. As a United States Congressman, Lewis continued the nonviolent struggle that defined his life.
Call Number: E840.8 L43 A3 1998ISBN: 0684810654Publication Date: 1998
John Lewis: Walking with the Wind (Movie)
Movie date: 1998
An interview with Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) as he remembers his experiences and struggles for racial justice during the civil rights movement and throughout his life. Streaming available to USF viewers from Gleeson Library.
We Need to Talk about Kevin by
Resonant story of a mother's unsettling quest to understand her teenage son's deadly violence, her own ambivalence toward motherhood, and the explosive link between them. Examines how tragedy affects a town, a marriage, and a family.
Call Number: PS3569.H742 W4 2003ISBN: 1582432678Publication Date: 2003
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Movie)
Movie date: 2011
"Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined." -- imdb.com. Streaming free on tubi.tv.
