Lonely Hearts

Meet Addie and Louis, two lonely widowed neighbors, who decide to do something about it. Addie approaches Louis with an idea about spending some time together, so neither of them will have to deal with the long empty evenings alone. They are around the same age, have grown children, and have a lot of things in common. Will this plan work? Read Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf and find out. (This book has just been made into a movie starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.) DB  

A Life Well-Lived

A Simple Life is a spare and gorgeously filmed movie that explores the end of life and who we consider to be our "family" when it really comes down to it. Maid Ah Tao has served a single household for four generations, culminating with the last bachelor son, Roger.  After suffering a stroke, Ah Tao decides to retire to an assisted-living facility where she comes to terms with her own mortality and where she and Roger begin to realize that their bond goes much deeper than as merely servant and employer.  HM

Sleepless in...Maine

One of Stephen King's hidden gems. Shortly after losing his wife to cancer, Ralph Roberts begins suffering from insomnia, waking earlier and earlier each night. At first, he attributes it to getting older (he is, after all, in his 70s), but soon Ralph is lucky to get in two hours before he finds himself lying wide-awake in his darkened bedroom. It's not until Ralph begins seeing strange things--colored envelopes surrounding friends and neighbors that reveal things like health, hidden emotions, and secret agendas--that he realizes something is very wrong. Meanwhile, a storm is brewing in Ralph's small Maine town: An internationally-known women's rights activist has been invited to speak, and certain people will do anything to keep her out. People who have dangerous plans that, if carried out, will throw the universe out of balance and put an end to known life. And Ralph is the only one with the power to thward these plans. With the help of an unlikely ally and some very odd otherworldly beings, Ralph embarks on a race against time to save the universe. Insomnia may be one of King's odder offerings, but it's one of the author's best.