Heaven is for Real
by Todd, Sonja and Colton Burpo with Lynn Vincent
Heaven is for Real is based on the #1 New York Times best-seller and tells the true story of a small-town father (played by Greg Kinnear) whose son claims to have visited Heaven during a near death experience. I’m not too sure about this one to be quite honest.
Here’s the book synopsis:
When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren’t expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed–a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy’s trip to heaven and back.
Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery–and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read.
With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how “really, really big” God is, and how much God loves us. Retold by his father, but using Colton’s uniquely simple words, Heaven Is for Real offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as Colton says, “Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses.”
Heaven Is for Real will forever change the way you think of eternity, offering the chance to see, and believe, like a child.
Here Be Monsters!
by Alan Snow
Retitled The BoxTrolls, the adaptation of Alan Snow’s “Here Be Monsters!” is the latest film from Laika (Coraline, ParaNorman).
Here’s the book synopsis:
Welcome to Ratbridge. But beware — for there is skulduggery afoot. Young Arthur has fallen foul of the appalling outlaw, Snatcher, and is trapped alone in the town with every way home sealed. Meanwhile Snatcher and his men are working tirelessly in secret on a fiendish and dastardly plan to take over — and destroy — the entire town. With the help of Willbury Nibble, QC; some friendly boxtrolls and cabbageheads; Marjorie the frustrated inventor; and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart Snatcher’s evil plans — and find his way home?
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
If you haven’t read the book yet why not sit down for a few hours and breeze right through. While it may take Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson two-and-a-half years and nine hours to tell the story of Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit”, it may only take you an afternoon to read it yourself. Otherwise, you can wait until December for The Hobbit: There and Back Again, what I presume will be our final, theatrical visit to Middle Earth.
Here’s the book synopsis:
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
Horns: A Novel
by Joe Hill
Joseph Hillstrom King (aka Joe Hill) is Stephen King’s son and his 2010 supernatural thriller “Horns” has been adapted for the screen with Daniel Radcliffe starring in the lead role as Ignatius Perrish. Horns premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival and was then picked up by RADiUS-TWC, now word yet on when we may eventually see it.
Here’s the book synopsis:
Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend Ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin’s murder, Ig spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover… and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look–a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it’s time for revenge…
The Hundred-Foot Journey
by Richard C. Morais
Based on the international best-selling book by Richard C. Morais, The Hundred-Foot Journey tells of the Haji family who moves to France and opens a restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant and Hassan Haji who eventually becomes the culinary apprentice to his father’s rival. Helen Mirren, Om Puri and Manish Dayal star in the adaptation for director Lasse Hallström (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen).
Here’s the book synopsis:
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Helen Mirren and Om Puri, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and produced by Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Juliet Blake, DreamWorks Studios, and Participant Media.
“That skinny Indian teenager has that mysterious something that comes along once a generation. He is one of those rare chefs who is simply born. He is an artist.”
And so begins the rise of Hassan Haji, the unlikely gourmand who recounts his life’s journey in Richard Morais’s charming novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey. Lively and brimming with the colors, flavors, and scents of the kitchen, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a succulent treat about family, nationality, and the mysteries of good taste.
Born above his grandfather’s modest restaurant in Mumbai, Hassan first experienced life through intoxicating whiffs of spicy fish curry, trips to the local markets, and gourmet outings with his mother. But when tragedy pushes the family out of India, they console themselves by eating their way around the world, eventually settling in Lumière, a small village in the French Alps.
The boisterous Haji family takes Lumière by storm. They open an inexpensive Indian restaurant opposite an esteemed French relais–that of the famous chef Madame Mallory–and infuse the sleepy town with the spices of India, transforming the lives of its eccentric villagers and infuriating their celebrated neighbor. Only after Madame Mallory wages culinary war with the immigrant family, does she finally agree to mentor young Hassan, leading him to Paris, the launch of his own restaurant, and a slew of new adventures.
The Hundred-Foot Journey is about how the hundred-foot distance between a new Indian kitchen and a traditional French one can represent the gulf between different cultures and desires. A testament to the inevitability of destiny, this is a fable for the ages–charming, endearing, and compulsively readable.
