Five Came Back

Author: Mark Harris
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698151577
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 528

Book Description
Now a Netflix original documentary series, also written by Mark Harris: the extraordinary wartime experience of five of Hollywood's most important directors, all of whom put their stamp on World War II and were changed by it forever Here is the remarkable, untold story of how five major Hollywood directors—John Ford, George Stevens, John Huston, William Wyler, and Frank Capra—changed World War II, and how, in turn, the war changed them. In a move unheard of at the time, the U.S. government farmed out its war propaganda effort to Hollywood, allowing these directors the freedom to film in combat zones as never before. They were on the scene at almost every major moment of America’s war, shaping the public’s collective consciousness of what we’ve now come to call the good fight. The product of five years of scrupulous archival research, Five Came Back provides a revelatory new understanding of Hollywood’s role in the war through the life and work of these five men who chose to go, and who came back. “Five Came Back . . . is one of the great works of film history of the decade.” --Slate “A tough-minded, information-packed and irresistibly readable work of movie-minded cultural criticism. Like the best World War II films, it highlights marquee names in a familiar plot to explore some serious issues: the human cost of military service, the hypnotic power of cinema and the tension between artistic integrity and the exigencies of war.” --The New York Times

Pictures at a Revolution

Author: Mark Harris
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594201523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 522

Book Description
Documents the cultural revolution behind the making of 1967's five Best Picture-nominated films, including Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, Doctor Doolittle, In the Heat of the Night, and Bonnie and Clyde, in an account that discusses how the movies reflected period beliefs about race, violence, and identity. 40,000 first printing.

Mama's Boy

Author: Dustin Lance Black
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1524733288
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a celebrated filmmaker and activist and his conservative Mormon mother built bridges across today’s great divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal. • Adapted as an HBO documentary now streaming on HBO Max. “A beautifully written, utterly compelling account of growing up poor and gay with a thrice married, physically disabled, deeply religious Mormon mother, and the imprint this irrepressible woman made on the character of Dustin Lance Black.” —Jon Krakauer, bestselling author of Missoula and Under the Banner of Heaven Dustin Lance Black wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Milk and helped overturn California’s anti–gay marriage Proposition 8, but as an LGBTQ activist he has unlikely origins—a conservative Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas. There he was raised by a single mother who, as a survivor of childhood polio, endured brutal surgeries as well as braces and crutches for life. Despite the abuse and violence of two questionably devised Mormon marriages, she imbued Lance with her inner strength and irrepressible optimism. When Lance came out to his mother at age twenty-one, she initially derided his sexuality as a sinful choice. It may seem like theirs was a house destined to be divided—and at times it was. But in the end, they did not let their differences define them or the relationship that had inspired two remarkable lives. This heartfelt, deeply personal memoir explores how a mother and son built bridges across great cultural divides—and how our stories hold the power to heal.

They Never Came Back

Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0375895965
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
In a busy school cafeteria, a teenage girl is confronted by a classmate who questions her identity. He explains to the students who have crowded around that the girl bears an uncanny resemblance to his cousin, who was taken away by social services five years ago. Her parents abandoned her, fleeing the country after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars. The students are intrigued, but the girl shrugs off the attention as a case of mistaken identity. As the days pass, however, the boy refuses to relent and even brings his parents in to back him up. But they are not the only adults involved. An FBI agent who has been working the case these past five years believes that whoever this girl is, she can serve as bait to help the FBI capture the fugitives. In this powerful novel that explores the possibility of mistaken identity, the evils of money and greed, and the heartfelt obligations of family and loyalty, Caroline B. Cooney has once again crafted a page-turner that will resonate with readers.

The Leaving

Author: Tara Altebrando
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1619638045
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Book Description
Six were taken. Eleven years later, five come back--with no idea of where they've been. A riveting mystery for fans of We Were Liars. Eleven years ago, six kindergartners went missing without a trace. After all that time, the people left behind moved on, or tried to. Until today. Today five of those kids return. They're sixteen, and they are . . . fine. Scarlett comes home and finds a mom she barely recognizes, and doesn't really recognize the person she's supposed to be, either. But she thinks she remembers Lucas. Lucas remembers Scarlett, too, except they're entirely unable to recall where they've been or what happened to them. Neither of them remember the sixth victim, Max--the only one who hasn't come back. Which leaves Max's sister, Avery, wanting answers. She wants to find her brother--dead or alive--and isn't buying this whole memory-loss story. But as details of the disappearance begin to unfold, no one is prepared for the truth. This unforgettable novel--with its rich characters, high stakes, and plot twists--will leave readers breathless.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
ISBN: 0385333846
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.” An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.” More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.

My Aunt Came Back

Author:
Publisher: GIA Publications
ISBN: 9781579996802
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Front Cover -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Copyright -- Chapter

Scenes from a Revolution

Author: Mark Harris
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1847671217
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Book Description
With behind-the-scenes gossip creating as much drama as the movies themselves, Hollywood in 1967 showcased the future of film in more ways than one. From the anti-heroes of "Bonnie and Clyde" and the illicit sex of "The Graduate" to the race relations of "In The Heat of the Night", suddenly no subject was taboo. This was a time of turbulence as hip young filmmakers embodying the restlessness and rebellion of a changing America wrought radical changes to the traditions of cinema. "Scenes from a Revolution" is an exceptional analysis of the films shortlisted for the Best Picture Academy Award of 1967 as well as an illuminating window into the popular culture of the time.

My Aunt Came Back

Author: Pat Cummings
Publisher: HarperFestival
ISBN: 9780694010592
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 14

Book Description
A young girl's aunt brings her back special gifts from each exotic place she visits around the world.

These Came Back

Author: Richard Webb
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
"A Tibetan monk came back as a minister but had to return to Tibet to locate a manuscript he had hidden centuries ago. A prehistoric cannibal from the Great Indian Desert came back as the manager of an elegant apartment complex. A woman, in love with her cousin but prevented from marrying him, came back to meet her lover again--but this time she was a man. A slave with a talent for painting came back as a white woman, also a painter--but she can only paint black faces. These came back! And they remembered. We have all come back, but we don't all recall how and when we lived before. How often have you thought, upon meeting someone for the first ime, 'I know you,' even though circumstances seemed to indicate you could never have met? You fall into conversation as if you were old friends; you seem to know so much about each other. Perhaps you are continuing a friendship that was interrupted a hundred--or even a thousand--years ago. We all have lived many lifetimes. As children we seem to be able to remember them. In adolescence, as we are more and more influenced by society, we lose touch with our past lives in confronting the problems of the present. But sometimes, in some people, the memories and recollections return in later years, and they are as real as the memories and recollections of the present lifetime. They may come simply in a dream or in meditation or in meeting a stranger who is not really a stranger, or they may come in more exotic forms--told by a medium or an astrologer or in an out-of-body experience. Richard Webb has sought out people who have such memories. He has interviewed them and, where possible, has attempted to confirm or deny their stories by public record. In These Came Back he tells sixteen of the countless stories he has collected. Reincarnation cannot yet be proved scientifically, but neither can it be disproved. But for these who came back, there can be no other explanation."--front and back flaps.