Title Recommendations based on Frank Ginsberg
A group of friends travels to Sweden to visit the rural hometown of one of them and attend its mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly descends into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions. Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
Spotlight is the true story of how The Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese—shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
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 firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.
Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy through the horrific rule of the Taliban, The Kite Runner is the heartbreaking story of the unlikely and inseparable friendship between a wealthy Afghan boy and the son of his father's servant, both of whom are caught in the tragic sweep of history. Published in the aftermath of America's invasion of Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini's haunting writing brought a part of the world to vivid life that was previously unknown.
As members of the Peaky Blinders, a local criminal gang, Tommy Shelby and his relatives navigate the treacherous social landscape to solidify their power within the city in post-WWI Birmingham, England. With the arrival of inspector Major Campbell and the tireless scrutiny of Sir Winston Churchill, organized crime is facing some tough opposition. Tommy and his Peaky Blinders plan on circumventing the crackdown, but it's not going to be easy.
Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together) and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
This time around Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world.
In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit. When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining a Czechoslovak underground leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick's surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick's one time love. Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris. But when he learns she had good reason to leave, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit. Well, that was their original plan.
Jeff Winger thinks he's too cool for school, which is a problem because he just enrolled in community college. Recently disbarred as an attorney and running out of money, Jeff enrolled at Greendale to set himself on a path to redemption, one easy credit at a time. Everyone at Greendale is there because they messed up one way or another, and they've got no choice but to fix their problems together.
Sucessful attorney Rebecca Bunch realizes that she's made herself miserable pushing herself to be the best and live up to expectations. When she runs into her ex-boyfriend from sleep-away camp, Josh, Rebecca realizes that being with him was the last time she was truly happy. So, in an effort to track down that happiness, Rebecca follows him out to the sunny suburbs of West Covina, California.
The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione walk away from their last year at Hogwarts to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, putting an end to Voldemort's bid for immortality. But with Harry's beloved Dumbledore dead and Voldemort's unscrupulous Death Eaters on the loose, the world is more dangerous than ever.
Pleasantly plump teenager, Tracy Turnblad and her best friend, Penny Pingleton audition to be on The Corny Collins Show. Tracy wins, but scheming Amber Von Tussle and her mother plot to destroy her. Chaos ensues.
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
In 1926, Newt Scamander arrives at the Magical Congress of the United States of America with a magically expanded briefcase, which houses a number of dangerous creatures and their habitats. When the creatures escape from the briefcase, it sends the American wizarding authorities after Newt, and threatens to strain even further the state of magical and non-magical relations.
