"The first book I fell in love with at the Elizabeth (NJ) public library. I found it on my own, memorized it (I must have been around four and couldn’t read yet). I loved it so much I hid it so my mother would not be able to return it to the library. I thought it was the only copy in the world. To this day I feel guilty. It was the first book I bought for my daughter’s library when she was born."

"A lush formal return to the 1970’s Mexico City of Cuaron’s youth and life with his maids. I can’t get First-time actor Yalitza Aparicio’s wide open face out of my mind – she is the film for me. The father, and then the mother parking the Ford Galaxy is beautiful, frustrated and funny. But it is the scene on the beach with the near drowning that brings us to where Cuaron was headed all along. The family protecting itself. A wonderful world of women."

"The Kid saved my sanity while I waited for my kid. I’m 32, I’ve had a home visit, I’ve filled out the paperwork, and now I’m waiting and waiting to be picked by a birth mother to adopt her baby. Through it all, I keep on my person a tattered copy of this Dan Savage book. How the story of a white gay couple adopting a baby boy feels like exactly the same journey as a single black woman adopting a baby girl is its magic."

"A classic ghost story, from a novel by Dorothy Macardle, directed by Lewis Allen. Brother and sister Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey buy a cliff-top home in Cornwall that turns out to be haunted by at least two spirits and one still-living person . . . the waif Gail Russell, who is drawn to the room where her mother supposedly died. It’s one of those Hollywood films that was too sophisticated for the censors, with several transgressive elements (lesbianism, illegitimacy) couched tactfully and woven deeply into the mystery."

"Terms of Endearment. I absolutely love that movie, with Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, and Jack Nicholson. One of my first tearjerker films. It was so good to see that mother-daughter dynamic, the love story kind of playing out, and just to see their love, and dealing with men. Shirley MacLaine — the acting between her and Jack Nicholson was just awesome. It was just really one of my first tearjerker movies. I remember going, “Oh my God! I love that!” That was a good movie.”"

"Another coming-of-age story, this one is about a young boy sent to live with relatives in the countryside when his mother is unable to take care of him anymore after falling ill with TB. The boy, Ingemar, barks like a dog to avoid difficult situations. He is too young to face his predicament and very sweetly navigates his way through an eccentric cast of characters in a small Swedish town. A really loving and heartwarming tale with an amazing performance by a young Anton Glanzelius."