Entertainment to Look Out for Over Summer Break

Summer break is here, and we are ready to relax with these recommendations from various SERC staff. From books to films to TV shows, you won't be short of entertainment.  

Books 

Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult 

Ruth Jefferson is a labour and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine check-up on a new-born, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders, or does she intervene? With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candour, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game. 

Labels and Other Stories - Louis De Berniéres 

Full of wit, warmth and charm, Louis de Bernieres' Labels and Other Stories features tales from throughout his career as a masterful storyteller and transports us around the globe, from the London Underground to Turkish ruins to the banks of the Amazon. De Bernieres' unlikely and unforgettable heroes are found collecting luxury tinned cat-food labels, posting fish to the President, falling in love with dolphin deities and dining with Brazilian street thieves. And in 'Gunter Weber's Confession', we return once more to the Greek island of Captain Corelli's Mandolin and its much-loved characters. 

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles 

A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. 

Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonnegut  

A science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut, it follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years to his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant during World War II, to the post-war years, with Billy occasionally traveling through time itself. The text centres on Billy's capture by the German Army and his survival of the Allied firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war, an experience which Vonnegut himself lived through as an American serviceman.  

Multitudes – Lucy Caldwell 

From Belfast to London and back again the eleven stories that comprise Caldwell's first collection explore the many facets of growing up - the pain and the heartache, the tenderness and the joy, the fleeting and the formative - or 'the drunkenness of things being various'. Stories of longing and belonging, they culminate with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell 

The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a totalitarian superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of government over-reach, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviours within society. More broadly, it examines the role of truth and facts within politics and their manipulation. 

Films/ TV Shows

The Mandalorian  

The Mandalorian is an American space western web television series that premiered on Disney+. Set in the Star Wars universe, the series takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi and follows a Mandalorian bounty hunter beyond the reaches of the New Republic. 

Stand by Me 

It's the summer of 1959 in Castlerock, Maine and four 12-year-old boys - Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern - are fast friends. After learning of the general location of the body of a local boy who has been missing for several days, they set off into woods to see it. Along the way, they learn about themselves, the meaning of friendship and the need to stand up for what is right. 

Blade Runner 2049 

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. 

Mad Max: Fury Road 

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical warlord in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper, and a drifter named Max. Enraged, the warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows. 

The Blind Side 

The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family. 

The Damned United  

Set in 1960s and 1970s England, "The Damned United" tells the confrontational and darkly humorous story of Brian Clough's doomed 44-day tenure as manager of the reigning champions of English football--Leeds United.   

We hope you enjoy your summer break, and if you are interested in studying film or English literature at a professional level, have a look at our film related courses and A Level course that covers English literature. 

Apply now for courses commencing September 2020. For more information visit www.serc.ac.uk to find out how you could be #BetterOffAtSERC

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