Connie Madson
Jack Nicholson |
“You make me want to be a better man.” – Melvin Udall, from the film (plot summary from from IMDb.com) The trials and tribulations of a compulsive writer, Melvin Udall. After his homosexual neighbor is brutally beaten, he is entrusted to the care of the neighbor's dog, with a difficult relationship with a waitress to add on top of that. What develops is a weekend trip/triangle between these three individuals, and together they learn the true meaning of "the sunny side of life". plot summary written by Jon Reeves |
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“The first book to belong permanently to literature. It created a man.” - From the Introduction (book description from 2020ok.com) Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the Written initially to guide his son, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin at Amazon.com Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
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“…Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?” - Plato’s “Republic” (from the introduction of The Book of Virtues) (book description from Amazon.com) Responsibility. Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence. Faith. Everyone recognizes these traits as essentials of good character. In order for our children to develop such traits, we have to offer them examples of good and bad, right and wrong. And the best places to find them are in great works of literature and exemplary stories from history. William J. Bennett has collected hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues, an instructive and inspiring anthology that will help children understand and develop character -- and help adults teach them. From the Bible to American history, from Greek mythology to English poetry, from fairy tales to modern fiction, these stories are a rich mine of moral literacy, a reliable moral reference point that will help anchor our children and ourselves in our culture, our history, and our traditions -- the sources of the ideals by which we wish to live our lives. Complete with instructive introductions and notes, The Book of Virtues is a book the whole family can read and enjoy -- and learn from -- together. |
Russell Crowe |
“I have to believe that when things are bad I can change them.” – Jim Braddock, from the film (plot summary from from IMDb.com) During the Great Depression, a common-man hero, James J. Braddock--a.k.a. the Cinderella Man--was to become one of the most surprising sports legends in history. By the early 1930s, the impoverished ex-prizefighter was seemingly as broken-down, beaten-up and out-of-luck as much of the rest of the American populace who had hit rock bottom. His career appeared to be finished, he was unable to pay the bills, the only thing that mattered to him--his family--was in danger, and he was even forced to go on Public Relief. But deep inside, Jim Braddock never relinquished his determination. Driven by love, honor and an incredible dose of grit, he willed an impossible dream to come true. In a last-chance bid to help his family, Braddock returned to the ring. No one thought he had a shot. However Braddock, fueled by something beyond mere competition, kept winning. Suddenly, the ordinary working man became the mythic athlete. Carrying the hopes and dreams of the disenfranchised on his shoulders, Braddock rocketed through the ranks, until this underdog chose to do the unthinkable: take on the heavyweight champ of the world, the unstoppable Max Baer, renowned for having killed two men in the ring. plot summary written by Sujit R. Varma |
John Malkovich |
“This proves what I’ve suspected all along, that vanity and happiness are incompatible.” – Marquise de Merteuil, from the film (plot summary from from IMDb.com) Set in plot summary written by {bennettc@kwanza.com} |
Brian Dennehy |
“Right now, – General Eisenhower, from the film (plot summary from from IMDb.com) Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard leaves Europe, eventually arriving in the United States. With the help of Einstein, he persuades the government to build an atomic bomb. The project is given to no-nonsense Gen. Leslie Groves who selects physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to head the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the bomb is built. As World War II draws to a close, Szilard has second thoughts about atomic weapons, and policy makers debate how and when to use the bomb. |
Haley Joel Osment |
“Are we blessed? Or are we just the edges?” – Romek
“We are all scraps, Romek, and we are all blessed the same.” (plot summary from Amazon.com Customer Reviews) Edges of the Lord is a film that, once seen, creates in the viewer the need to call every friend and recommend their seeing it. As conceived and directed by Yurek Bogayevicz and by using primarily a Polish cast shot on location in various areas of Poland, this film appears to be a simple tale of courage of a young Jewish boy Romek (Haley Joel Osment) whose parents wisely see the encroaching genocide by the Nazis and out of love, teach their son the basics of Catholicism so that Romek can pass as a Catholic and be placed with a Catholic family in order to save him from the Nazi exterminations. plot summary written by Grady Harp |
John Malkovich |
“These are my children. Not yours, not the party’s, not the Republic’s, or anyone else’s. Mine. No mother would give up her children. I see no volunteers here.” - Katina, from the film
(plot summary from Wikipedia) Eleni is the 1985 film adaptation of the memoir Eleni by Greek-American journalist Nicholas Gage. Directed by Peter Yates, the film stars John Malkovich, Kate Nelligan, Linda Hunt and Glenne Headly. As with the book, the film is told in a flashback format with Gage, now living in the |
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“…it is a book about the people in – Thomas Friedman, Chapter 1, p. 10 “From Beirut To Jerusalem is the most intelligent and comprehensive account one is likely to read.” Winner of the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction, this extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the book review by Seymour Hersh, American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist From Beirut to Jerusalem at Amazon.com Personal Note from Connie: A vividly eloquent book. This is not fiction. Nothing in fiction can rival Friedman's accounts during the years he covered the |
Ralph Fiennes |
“When we first met, through chance, I saw tenderness like a shooting star, but did not dare to put my faith in it…then I tore my heart away from everything I loved, rootless, estranged from all, I thought that liberty and peace would serve instead of happiness. My God, how wrong I was. How I have been punished.” – Eugene Onegin, from the film
(plot summary from IMDb.com) In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat - a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him. plot summary written by Dawn M. Barclift |
Tom Hanks |
“You know it's funny what a young man recollects? ’Cause I don’t remember bein’ born. I don’t recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don’t know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the wide world.” – Forrest Gump, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events - in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. Yet, despite all the things he has attained, his one true love eludes him. "Forrest Gump" is the story of a man who rose above his challenges, and who proved that determination, courage, and love are more important than ability. plot summary written by J. Lake |
Ben Kingsley |
“Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.” – Gandhi, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) This film describes the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political leader who managed to free his country from the British rule using peaceful means and thus giving hope and inspiration for generations to come. plot summary written by Dragan Antulov |
Liam Neeson |
Bishop: “Now, don’t forget. Don’t ever forget, you’ve promised to become a new man.” Jean Valjean: “P…Promise…? What…why are you doing this?” Bishop: “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I have bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.” – scene from the film (plot summary from Amazon.com) Frenchman Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing bread, is paroled after nearly two decades of hard labor. A gift of silver candlesticks from a kindly priest helps him begin anew. Forging a decent and profitable existence, he finds success as a businessman and as the mayor of a small town. He even takes in a pregnant young woman and raises her daughter as his own. When a former prison guard recognizes Valjean, his past catches up to him. plot summary written by Rochelle O'Gorman Les Misérables (the film by Bille August) at Amazon.com |
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“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – The Fox, from the book
(plot summary from Amazon.com) The Little Prince describes his journey from planet to planet, each tiny world populated by a single adult. It's a wonderfully inventive sequence, which evokes not only the great fairy tales but also such monuments of postmodern whimsy as Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. And despite his tone of gentle bemusement, Saint-Exupéry pulls off some fine satiric touches, too. There's the king, for example, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-man (or one-boy) judiciary: “I have good reason to believe that there is an old rat living somewhere on my planet. I hear him at night. You could judge that old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. That way his life will depend on your justice. But you'll pardon him each time for economy's sake. There's only one rat.” The author pokes similar fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, all of whom signify some futile aspect of adult existence. Yet his tale is ultimately a tender one—a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, which never turns into Peter Pan-style treacle. plot summary written by James Marcus |
Nick Nolte |
“Michaela, the doctors are in the dark. They're groping in the dark. The've got Lorenzo on a turvy-topsy diet. And that bloody immunosuppression is brutal and useless. Michaela, we should not have consigned him blindly into their hands. He should not suffer by our ignorance. We take responsibility. So…we read a little. And we go out and inform ourselves.” – Augusto Odone to his wife, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) Until about the age of 7, Lorenzo Odone was a normal child. After then, strange things began to happen to him: he would have blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phemonenons. He is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD: an extremely rare incurable degenerative brain disorder. Frustrated at the failings of doctors and medicine in this area, the Odones begin to educate themselves in the hope of discovering something which can halt the progress of the disease. plot summary written by Murray Chapman |
Robert De Niro |
[Sunday regards a picture of Carl's late father] Billy Sunday: “What the hell did he ever say to make you try so hard?” Carl Brashear: “Be the best.” Billy Sunday: “Well, you are.” (plot summary from IMDb.com) The story ultimately revolves around two "men of honor"; their relationship, their individual and joint failures and triumphs. Carl Brashear is determined to be the first African American Navy Diver in a time where racism is strife. Leslie Sunday is his embittered trainer, determined to see him fail. Fate, challenges and circumstances eventually draw these two men together in a tale of turbulence and ultimately triumph. plot summary written by Filmtwob |
Michael Keaton |
“It's not enough to marry goodness, you have to find it in yourself.” – Mr. Ho, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) Bob and Gail Jones are expecting their first child, but Bob has been diagnosed with kidney cancer which will possibly take his life before his child is born. Heartbroken at the prospect of not ever getting to know his child, he decides to make a video about himself and his life so that his child will know him. plot summary written by Murray Chapman |
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“The Danes had destroyed their own naval fleet, blowing up the vessels one by one, as the Germans approached to take over the ships for their own use. ‘How sad the king must be,’ Annemarie had heard Mama say to Papa when they read the news. ‘How proud,’ Papa had replied.” - Lois Lowry, Number the Stars, Chapter 4, p. 32 (book description from Amazon.com) The evacuation of Jews from Nazi-held |
Meryl Streep |
“It’s so much easier to be happy. It’s so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you’re missing, or what it is that you’re imagining you’re missing. It is so much more peaceful.” – Kate Gulden, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) When a tough New Yorker’s mother is stricken with a serious illness, she is forced to quit her job and her relationship with her boyfriend to take care of her, finding out a lot of things she didn’t know about her mother and father and her life along the way. plot summary written by L. Lim |
Will Smith |
“There was a man who was drowning, and a boat came, and the man on the boat said ‘Do you need help?’ and the man said ‘God will save me.’ Then another boat came and he tried to help him, but he said ‘God will save me,’ then he drowned and went to Heaven. Then the man told God, ‘God, why didn't you save me?’ and God said ‘I sent you two boats, you dummy!’” – Chris Gardner’s son, from the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) In 1981, Chris Gardner was a struggling salesman in little needed medical bone density scanners while his wife toiled in double shifts to support the family including their young son, Christopher. In the face of this difficult life, Chris has the desperate inspiration to try for a stockbroker internship where one in twenty has a chance of a lucrative full time career. Even when his wife leaves him because of this choice, Chris clings to this dream with his son even when the odds become more daunting by the day. Together, father and son struggle through homelessness, jail time, tax seizure and the overall punishing despair in a quest that would make Gardner a respected millionaire. plot summary written by Kenneth Chisholm |
Everlyn Sampi, |
“A daring escape. An epic journey. The true story of 3 girls who walked 1500 miles to find their way home.” – tagline for the film (plot summary from IMDb.com) Three little girls, snatched from their mothers’ arms, spirited 1,500 miles away. Denied their very identity, forced to adapt to a strange new world. They will attempt the impossible, a daring escape, a run from the authorities, an epic journey across an unforgiving landscape that will test their very will to survive. Their only resources, tenacity, determination, ingenuity and each other. Their one hope, find the rabbit-proof fence that might just guide them home. A true story. |
Eric Bana |
“Every boy needs a mother.” – (plot summary from IMDb.com) It is the tale of a boy - Raimond, trying to balance a universe described by his deeply moral father, against the experience of heartbreaking absence and neglect from a depressive mother. It is, ultimately, a story of impossible love that celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son. It involves issues dealing with mental illness during a time when there was little knowledge of treatments, when the treatments that did exist were archaic, struggle as immigrants in a new country, family and extended family and love for a father, all seen from the point of view of a young boy - Raimond. (A note from Connie Madson: I think every man should watch this film.) |
Robin Wright Penn |
“Luck is the excuse of a lazy man for not wanting to do the work.” – Howard Davis, from the film (plot summary taken from IMDb.com) This is the story of ER nurse Frannie who, besides the stress of being an emergency room nurse, is going through a difficult time in her marriage and in trying to quit smoking is now hooked on nicotine gum and nicotine patches. In her shift at work she encounters a psych patient,who because of her frequent visits to the ER without any apparent medical problems is left unattended and forgotten. Frannie also encounters Howard Davis, who is in a bedside vigil for his wife of 45 years as she lies comatose. from a user comment at IMDb.com by johno-21 |
Emma Thompson |
“I am by no means assured of his regard and even were he to feel such a preference I think we should both be very foolish to assume that there would not be many obstacles to his marrying a woman of no rank who cannot afford to buy sugar.” – Elinor Dashwood, from the film (plot summary taken from IMDb.com) When Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave the bulk of his estate to the son by his first marriage, which leaves his second wife and three daughters (Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret) in straitened circumstances. They are taken in by a kindly cousin, but their lack of fortune affects the marriageability of both practical Elinor and romantic Marianne. When Elinor forms an attachment for the wealthy Edward Ferrars, his family disapproves and separates them. And though Mrs. Jennings tries to match the worthy (and rich) Colonel Brandon to her, Marianne finds the dashing and fiery Willoughby more to her taste. Both relationships are sorely tried. But this is a romance, and through the hardships and heartbreak, true love and a happy ending will find their way for both the sister who is all sense and the one who is all sensibility. plot summary written by Kathy Li |
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“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 11, spoken by the character Atticus (book description taken from Amazon.com) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a call to 1960s American society to take action in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the story of a young, white girl in a small 1930s Southern town. She grows up learning from her father, the town lawyer, appointed to defend an innocent black man accused of the rape of a white girl. The author depicts the reality of injustice and prejudice in everyday life at the time. This timeless classic portrays racism, segregation, and the need for the Civil Rights Movement in a deeply moving novel, which is a must-read for all. Lee takes a stand for Civil Rights in To Kill A Mockingbird, portraying the hate and injustice of segregation. She tells how an innocent man is absurdly accused of rape, solely because he is black. Atticus Finch, the accused's lawyer, clearly proves that his client is innocent, but the all white jury still rules Tom Robinson (the accused) guilty as charged. This page-turning novel calls attention to the need for acceptance, tolerance, and desegregation. Atticus Finch was looked down upon for defending an African American, but he taught his children, as Lee teaches her readers, to stand up for what is right. Harper When asked why he was defending Tom Robinson, Finch replied, "if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head". Written in the 1960s, this book is a call to conscience as powerful as the marchers in the street, the sitters in the restaurants, the pioneers in the courtrooms, and the oppressed all over the country. plot summary written by Zoselealirra |
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“A crisis does not always appear to a policymaker as a series of dramatic events. Usually it imposes itself as an exhausting agenda of petty chores demanding both concentration and endurance.” – Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (book description taken from Amazon.com) In this continuing memoir, Henry Kissinger writes of his experiences of his transition from National Security Advisor to Secretary of State during a point in the Nixon Administration that represented the greatest constitutional crisis in written by an anonymous Amazon.com customer |
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