This will be the first of a few Michael Cunningham recommendations.  The Hours is, by far, his best.  I read this book hours before I saw the movie (no pun intended).  This story is beautifully crafted with heartbreaking characters.  There’s a reason it won the Pulitzer Prize.  And I could not have asked for a better adaptation into a movie.  Nicole Kidman absolutely deserved her Oscar for portraying Virginia Woolf, but it could have gone to either of the other two ladies as well.  I wish that Stephen Daldry would keep cranking them out (he also did “The Reader”) because he’s a beautiful filmmaker.  So first, I highly recommend the book.  Second, I highly recommend the movie.  Both are equally fantastic.