Tom Hanks
Author
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
"The story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film ... and the humble comic book that inspired it. Part one of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for 23 years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and,...
Author
Pub. Date
2017.
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture...
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older...
4) Larry Crowne
Pub. Date
2011.
Language
English
Description
When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher. Now this simple guy will discover that when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might find your reason to live.
Pub. Date
[2021]
Language
English
Description
Five years after the Civil War, Captain Kidd moves from town to town as a storyteller. In Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna, a ten-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier. She is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search...
Pub. Date
[2020]
Language
English
Description
Tom Hanks portrays Mister Rogers in a timely story of kindness triumphing over cynicism, based on the true story of a real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. After a jaded magazine writer is assigned a profile of Fred Rogers, he overcomes his skepticism, learning about kindness, love, and forgiveness from America's most beloved neighbor.
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
When P.L. Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Walt Disney's desire to bring her beloved character, Mary Poppins to the motion picture screen (a quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario's concept for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay in California, Travers' reflects back on her...
9) The Post
Pub. Date
[2018]
Language
English
Description
Determined to uphold the nation's civil liberties, Katharine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, and hard-nosed editor Ben Bradlee join forces to expose a decades-long cover-up. However, the two must risk their careers and their freedom to bring truth to light.
Pub. Date
[2023]
Language
English
Description
Based on the comical and moving New York Times bestseller, it tells the story of Otto Anderson, a grumpy widower whose only joy comes from criticizing and judging his exasperated neighbors. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and very pregnant Marisol, leading to an unexpected friendship that will turn his world upside-down.
11) Forrest Gump
Pub. Date
2013
Language
English
Description
Tells the story of a good-natured man with a low IQ who personally experiences important events in American history and continues to love, albeit unreciprocated, his childhood sweetheart Jenny.
12) Philadelphia
Pub. Date
[2000]
Language
English
Description
Story of two competing lawyers who join together to sue a prestigious Philadelphia law firm when the firm fires one of them because he has AIDS.
13) Cloud atlas
Pub. Date
[2013]
Language
English
Description
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. The story is a time-shifting weave of six interlinking narratives, with diverse settings from the savagery of a Pacific Island in the 1850s to a dystopian Korea of the near future.
Pub. Date
[2006]
Language
English
Description
When respected American religious symbology expert Dr. Robert Langdon is summoned to the Louvre by French Captain Bezu Fache, he soon discovered that he is the number 1 suspect for the murder of a historian Langdon had been scheduled to meet with. Assisted by a French cryptographer and government agent named Sophie, Langdon is challenged to decipher a chain of cryptic codes and puzzles, all the while trying to stay ahead of Fache's lawmen in a chase...
15) Apollo 13
Pub. Date
1999.
Language
English
Description
A true story. Stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly, flight director Gene Kranz and a heroic ground crew race against time, and the odds, to bring them home.
16) The money pit
Pub. Date
[2003]
Language
English
Description
Evicted from their Manhattan apartment, Walter and Anna buy what looks like the home of their dreams, only to find themselves saddled with a bank-account-draining nightmare. Struggling to keep their relationship together as their rambling mansion falls to pieces around them, the two hapless homeowners watch in horror as everything, including the bathtub, disappears into the appropriately named "money pit."
Pub. Date
1997.
Language
English
Description
In 1943, a washed-up ballplayer is hired to coach in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League while the male pros are at war. Reluctant at first, he finds himself drawn back into the game by the heart and heroics of his team. Based on a true story.
Pub. Date
[2014]
Language
English
Description
What starts out as an exciting road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse following a detour to a roadside motel. After Mr. Potato Head suddenly disappears, his friends find themselves caught up in a hilarious mystery that must be solved before they suffer the same fate in this thrilling story of TERROR!
Pub. Date
[2002]
Language
English
Description
Toula is a quiet, devoted daughter in a big, crazy Greek family. Working in her father's restaurant, she hides behind her family and keeps the world at a distance. One day at the restaurant she finds herself pouring coffee for a man who inspires her to change her life, and the way she sees the world ... forever.
20) Bridge of spies
Pub. Date
[2016]
Language
English
Description
James Donovan is a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.